The Carbon Cycle

Decomposition and Decay

· Art Of ·

Juanjo Estany
Fantastic Voyage · The Project

✴ Development and design of an animation based on a specific scientific scenario.

✴ Description of a biological process in a dynamic and accurate way to engage

different audiences.

✴ Demonstrate creative methodology, including abilities regarding pre-production,

production and post-production learnt during Year 1.
Shot 1 - Still
Chosen Bio-Scientific Scenario
The Carbon Cycle · Decomposition and Decay

✴ Answer the question about what happens when living things die.

✴ Describe the process of decay and how carbon is released and returns to the
atmosphere.

✴ Mention fossilization.
Chosen Audience

✴ Anyone who has ever wondered what happens to living things when they die.

✴ 12 years old children studying the carbon cycle.

✴ People studying prokaryotes, saprophytes, biodegradation, etc.

Chosen Audience

✴ Anyone who has ever wondered what happens to living things when they die.

✴ 12 years old children studying the carbon cycle.

✴ People studying prokaryotes, saprophytes, biodegradation, etc.

Audience Study

✴ At the age of 9 children start the process of understanding the irreversibility,

permanence and inevitability of death. By 12 most children know that death is
a permanent, irreversible state and that when this happens the body stops
functioning. They do not see it as an exceptional fact but they understand that it
will happen to all of us at some point.

✴ The animation short will help them to see this event from a biological pointof view
and will make them understand how the ‘trapped’ carbon returnsto the beginning
of the cycle.
Influence Maps
Visual Reference

✴ Silhouette animation by Lotte Reiniger.

✴ Puppet show/pop-up book/paper cut out animation.

✴ Using 3D animation to imitate 2D animation.

✴ Watercolour paintings.

✴ Inspiration from video games:

✴ Monument Valley, Kentucky Route Zero, Child of Light.

Thumbnails
Script
 2.

NARRATOR
INT. FOREST - NIGHT Carbon is the extraordinary
chemical element that constitutes
Main titles. all living things.

The camera pans down until we see a withering old tree The atom shines.
blowing in the wind.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
NARRATOR There is no other element capable
All living organisms on Earth will of forming molecules as large,
eventually die, there's no complex and stable as the carbon
fighting it. based ones.
The screen is splits in three showing a carbon chain, a DNA
THE CAMERA PANS DOWN TO THE GROUND molecule and a carbon bond (labelled with examples).

GROUND:
CAMERA ZOOMS OUT.
In the dark.
Full shot of the Earth from the space.
NARRATOR
Although each of us will pass away NARRATOR
at some point, nothing goes to As Carbon is present in all living
waste in nature. organisms... and there is a fixed
amount of it in the Earth crust,
FADE: it needs to be recycled.
TURNING PAGE:
ESTABLISHING SHOT.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
Sky full of stars. The carbon-cycle describes the
circulation of carbon atoms in the
biosphere, being passed on as
THE CAMERA PANS DOWN AND ZOOMS IN ON A FALLEN LEAF INSIDE A molecules react and being passed
FOREST. on from one living thing to
another, as a consequence of
processes like photosynthesis and
BIRD EYE'S VIEW. respiration.
NARRATOR We observe a diagram formed by a plant and an animal.
So, what happens after life ends?

CAMERA ZOOMS OUT.

CAMERA ZOOMS IN ON THE LEAF AND STOPS.
NARRATOR The full diagram appears.
To explain this, we need to
understand the carbon cycle.
CAMERA ZOOMS IN ON DIFFERENT PARTS AS THE NARRATOR SPEAKS.

CAMERA ZOOMS IN AGAIN UNTIL WE SEE A CARBON ATOM. NARRATOR

The Earth's atmosphere contains
0.04% of Carbon Dioxide.
FULL SHOT OF A CARBON ATOM. (MORE)
 3.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
This gas enters the atmosphere
thanks to respiration and
combustion and is then taken up by
plants and is passed from one
organism to the the next in
complex molecules. At last, it
returns to the atmosphere as
carbon dioxide again mainly by
respiration.
CAMERA ZOOMS OUT.
The GRIM REAPER closes the book, with all the diagrams in
it.
NARRATOR
What happens to an organism when
it dies is a fascinating natural
process.
When the narrator says 'natural', the GRIM RIPPER
disappears.
FADE:
We observe a dead fish inside a coffin.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
Decomposition and decay are often
viewed as something negative and
associated with bad smell and rot.
The coffin closes.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
Nevertheless, they are vital
processes in nature as they help
in the breakdown of organic matter
and in making it available again
for other organism to use.
We observe the recycling symbol engraved in wood.
THE CAMERA ZOOMS OUT.
FADE:
CAMERA PANS FROM LEFT TO RIGHT.
ESTABLISHING SHOT OF A DESERT FULL OF BONES.
4.
NARRATOR
If these two processes didn’t
exist, we would live in a place
full of remains and we would
experience a shortage of
nutrients, locked up and
unavailable inside them.
FADE:
CAMERA ZOOMS IN ON A BOOK.
NARRATOR
In the first stage of the
recycling process dead tissues
break down into simpler organic
forms, those ‘waste’ products are
eaten by detritivores, a
decomposer species at the base of
ecosystems.
Detritivores appear on the page.
CAMERA PANS TO THE RIGHT.
NARRATOR
Beetles, flies, maggots, larvae,
fungi, bacteria and earthworms are
only a small part of the
detritivore community. They eat
the dead organisms returning the
carbon to the atmosphere as carbon
dioxide.
CAMERA PANS DOWN TO AN ANIMATED ILLUSTRATION.
NARRATOR
Due to their small size their
action is very gradual and happens
over of months or years.
THE SCREEN SPLITS IN TWO PARTS SHOWING TWO PLACES.
NARRATOR
The process is faster in warm,
humid conditions with plenty of
oxygen while cold, dry conditions
with a shortage of oxygen can slow
it down.
 5.
CAMERA PANS TO THE RIGHT.
FULL SHOT OF A FOREST FROM BETWEEN THE TREES.
NARRATOR
In a forest, dead leaves fall from
deciduous trees in autumn and form
a thin carpet on the forest floor.
These leaves will be broken down
by detritivores and reduced into a
compost and then into nutrients
which return to the soil and allow
a new plant to grow.
TRUNK:
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
In animals, decomposition is
caused by two factors. Autolysis;
the breaking down of tissues by
internal chemicals, and
putrefaction; the breakdown of
tissues by bacteria.
We observe an animal's body being disassembled as a machine
(autolysis).
6.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
Dead organisms, therefore, are
eaten by decomposers and the
carbon in their bodies returns to
the atmosphere as carbon dioxide
though respiration.
CAMERA FOLLOWS CARBON DIOXIDE ON THEIR WAY TO THE
ATMOSPHERE.
CAMERA ZOOMS OUT.
The book is closed, this time by a student.
NARRATOR
Although decomposition and decay
seem to be unpleasant from a human
perspective, we have to keep in
mind that they are a key aspect of
the cyclical processes that
maintain life on Earth.

CAMERA ZOOMS IN ON ONE OF THE PARTS.

We observe bacteria feeding (putrefaction).

CAMERA ZOOMS OUT FROM THE ANIMAL'S BODY.

The remains are now surrounded by soil.
NARRATOR
On some occasions fossilised
remains, formed by the hard parts
of organisms like bones and
shells, will still contain carbon
‘trapped’ inside their molecules.
Heat and pressure will compress
those materials over millions of
years resulting in coal or oil
formation.
FADE:
We observe a diagram again.
Animatic
Voiceover Artist · David Johnston

✴ ‘Clear, experienced Voice Actor, wide variety of UK styles.’

✴ Worked as a professional voiceover and voice actor for over fifteen years.

✴ Voiced many national and international advertising campaigns for radio

television and online as well as instructional and corporate work for clients
around the globe like Rolls Royce, Paypal, Chanel, Sony, Reuters, ASDA, BMW
and Hyundai.
Orthographs
Texturing

✴ In this project the most used material was Lambert, as I wanted to achieve a look
neither too stylized nor too realist.

✴ I achieved this thanks to the ‘matte’ aspect of the material combined with
textures formed mainly by one colour and a picture.

✴ The only exception can be found in the first shot, in which I used surface shaders
to create contrast.
Texture Samples
Digital Sets
Shot 1 · Dry Tree
Shot 2 · Forest
Shot 3 · Atoms & Molecules
Shot 4 · World
Shot 5· Dead Bird
Book
Rock
Leaf 01
Plant
Shot 12 · Forest
Shot 16/17
Shot 18
Sound Design

Adobe Audition
Compositing

Adobe After Effects Final Cut Pro X

 The End

Juanjo Estany
juanjoestany@outlook.com