The Creation of 2D Animated Short Film: Sakai

Abstract

Sakai is the last remaining indigenous tribes in the south of Thailand, who lives together in small groups scattered in Bala-Hala forest that is a large rainforest with many rare plants and wildlife, occupies a large area at the boundary of Thailand to Malaysia. In Southern Thailand, the Sakai lives in the forest mountains of the Bantad mountain range in the provinces of Phatthalung, Trang and Satun. The area in the region is a tropical rain forest, which is fertile environment with lush vegetation, large trees, vines, herbal plants and abundant wildlife such as monkeys, langurs, flying lemurs, gibbons and wild boars. The biodiversity of the region is currently in danger from illegal logging and land encroachment from humans. Sakai is not wild, they have their own culture from their ancestors. But the difference is their social status and obtaining social welfare have not been attained yet. But they do not claim any rights but also satisfied of their status: a simple way of life in the forest, food from the wild forest and hunting. But what Sakai want more than anything else is the consciousness of the people and life in the city and stop the destruction of forests, to enable Sakai remain with the wild forest. At present, there is a few of the Sakai who lives at this village, the rest of the group has moved to other areas. The main reason that they have to evacuate, lack of food supply, death of someone in the tribe, the biodiversity of the region is currently in danger from illegal logging and land encroachment from humans. These developments are decreasing the amount of forest coverage and reducing food resources disrupting the natural food chain of the region and unrest in the area while the government sector lacks of continues support for them.

The essence of this creative artwork is also to understand why after a series of attempts by the Thai government to educate, develop and civilize the Sakai, they still are very much adamant to change and prefer maintaining their long standing culture and primitive way of life. The Sakai have a way of life unique to them only and are strongly attached to their culture that even the advancement of science, technology and innovation cannot deter their ways. This creative art work therefore seeks to provide a better understanding on the tradition and cultural adherence of the Sakai which has brought about social stratification and disintegration in the Southern parts of Thailand.

So, the purpose of this creative artwork is to promote the conservation and cultural identities of Sakai that will be presented through 2D animation (short film), to the audience understand their survival and to support them without disturbing their lives. This creative work is followed the production pipeline of a typical animated short that can be divided into three stages;
1. In Preproduction, the phase of further developing ideas and planning prior to the process of production including Visual Design: Character Design, BG Design, Storyboard and Animatic.
2. In Production, the actual work can start, based on the guidelines established during Preproduction. Some major parts are layout, modeling, texturing, lighting, rigging and animation with the techniques of creating 2D animation including Separating elements and line work.
3. Postproduction is the third and final step in animation film creation, it refers to the tasks that must be completed or executed after the filming or shooting ends. Some major parts are production are compositing with the multi-level techniques, sound editing and video editing.

Keywords: creative artwork, the creation process, 2D animation, animation pipeline