Epic FAN ANIMATION Breakdown - Would You Fall in Love with Me Again

[00:00:00]Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be. This is Gwennie from NS2 Studios, and today I will be breaking down the animation of would you fall in love with me again, which is one of the fan projects that I and my team did together. Now, normally I would actually be doing these animation breakdowns over during a live stream, and this is going to be a first for me because I will be using an app called Sync Sketch. And from here I will be pausing the video from time to time and providing sketches, providing insights on how we did things over at NS2 Studios for the ultimate and the final song of Epic the Musical. Without further ado, let's get started.

[00:00:48]So, it all starts with Argos, Odysseus meeting Argos for the first time in 20 years. He's still alive, he's an old dog.

[00:00:57]I didn't really have a lot of inspiration for what the Argos should look like, but I just look at hound and or just a regular mixed breed, so that's what I came up with. Another thing that we can see in this frame is that I chose for it to be night time. I added some vignette here.

[00:01:18]So, that way we can our eyes will focus on Odysseus and a little bit on Argos, not really his whole body, but just a little bit on Argos.

[00:01:31]When Argos lay down here, I actually was thinking of maybe implying that he had actually passed away. In the original myth, Odysseus did see Argos, and Argos instantly recognized him, but he was too old, too frail, and he couldn't even stand up to approach Odysseus. And Odysseus, not wanting to reveal that he is Odysseus had to walk past Argos. It is it was it was pretty sad. So, >> [laughter] >> Argos here just a heads up spoiler alert, he's alive and well. He's just sleeping. He's a tired old old dog.

[00:02:14]So, um I I animated the sigh. Uh another thing that you may notice is the framing as well. So, everything is dark. It was directly after the events of Odysseus and it didn't reach until morning. It was still pretty dark. Uh that's why there's no like light or anywhere except the light coming in from Penelope's door. And I wanted to focus on Odysseus's eye. Not not just his eye, but also this very conspicuous scar that he has. Um people have been wondering why why did you give him a scar? Uh you can actually see this scar uh for the first time in Thunder Wizdler.

[00:02:54]>> [laughter] >> And we also see it in my 600 strike animation. What you don't see for now is that he actually gets this scar during mutiny in his fight with Eurylochus.

[00:03:08]Um yeah, so that's when he gets wounded.

[00:03:10]I wanted to differentiate uh the previous Odysseus versus the monster Odysseus and that is why we have uh the light from coming from the door focused on just his eye over there and the scar.

[00:03:33]So, we see Odysseus reaching out with his hand. He He does this a lot >> [laughter] >> in um my animations and animatics. Uh we saw him do it in Underworld where he's reaching out. We are probably going to see him do it a lot more in Would You Fall in Love With Me Again? And maybe some other animatics that I have yet to do.

[00:04:00]So, if this is familiar particular frame is lifted directly off of Underworld where Odysseus reached out for his mom.

[00:04:09]So, I just took the hand and then I basically just inked and colored and composited it over here. Also, the same hand I used for the challenge where he was reaching out for Penelope. At least one of the initial frames of the hand.

[00:04:24]So, right now he's also reaching out for Penelope with this this same right hand and as he reached out to open the door.

[00:04:34]That would lead him to, of course, his wife who he's been pining for for the last 20 years out at sea. Immediately, we see here the olive tree bed.

[00:04:45]Right there. I imagine that the tree is not exactly alive. So, that's why you don't see foliage.

[00:04:52]It's hard to find a description of what exactly the olive tree bed looked like. So, I just you know what? You know, I'll just take some creative liberties. So, we see that there is these gnarled tree trunk that Odysseus has carved way back in the day. There's a couple of additions here. Now, this entire background scene you can actually see this in the challenge. And I reused those background assets specifically for this scene. I actually thought ahead of time and put the background elements in separate layers. That way I could just move them around. Or rather, I had Draw Me Sue who is our resident visual development artist and background artist move things around. Penelope has a couple of torches there.

[00:05:38]>> [laughter] >> Why two? They represents her and Odysseus.

[00:05:42]The If the six torches in Circe represents the six men, then these two torches represents her and Odysseus cuz this is of course their room.

[00:05:53]Also, another thing you may notice here on the sides, you can actually uh see the uh the light continuing to flicker over here and over here. It's not really obvious on on this side, but it's very more It's pretty much obvious on this side. Uh it's because I want to add lighting. How I achieved that was I turned the flame animation into a bigger size, and then I blurred it and I added a glow so that way you even though like the flame is pretty far out of frame, you can still see the glowing effect.

[00:06:30]And it affects the characters that are um at the center of those two glowing flames that are off frame.

[00:06:43]See, you can actually see the lighting affecting uh Penelope's um hair over there.

[00:06:59]Now, one thing that I applied for the first time in this animation is this parallax effect that uh some of you may have seen for the very first time in Bambi. Uh if you notice, the olive tree bed actually goes here. The background goes here, whereas Penelope and Odysseus, they stay put.

[00:07:22]Uh actually, technically not. Like um What I mean by stay put is that it's their layer because these are like essentially three different layers or actually several, but categorized into three different layers. There's the background, there's the olive tree bed, and then there's the characters. So, the characters actually are um more uh more or less in a steady layer, whereas the background moves in one direction where and the olive tree bed moves another direction, thereby making a sort of 3D effect into the scene.

[00:08:03]Just like so.

[00:08:08]We can still see the Penelope's um We can actually still see Penelope's shroud over there.

[00:08:17]In the challenge, we see that one. She only like picked out one strand, but we'll see more of this later on and I'll explain my thought process on that.

[00:08:32]Okay, so now we see Penelope reaching out to Odysseus. If you recall, Odysseus' hand was actually on the other side, like he's using his right hand.

[00:08:41]Penelope uses her left because I wanted them to mirror each other. So much so that's going to be a recurring theme all throughout this animation. They are true mirrors of each other. And in this case, in the challenge, if some of you recall, I showcase a lot of Penelope's hands touching Odysseus' stuff because in my head, she is uh very much starved for affection, starved for Odysseus' touch, starved she really wants to be with her husband again. And so at this point, she's reaching out to still in disbelief, wanting to touch Odysseus, but she is quite unsure.

[00:09:29]Hence why her hand goes down because she is unsure if this is truly Odysseus. I believe there are some interpretations of the myth where she suspected at one point that this might be a trick from the gods or it might you know, might be Zeus. We never know.

[00:09:45]>> Your smile warm.

[00:09:47]>> [singing] >> Is it really you, my love?

[00:09:53]I am not the [music] man you fell in love with.

[00:09:58]>> So, I don't know if you know you guys noticed that this is also the first time that I'm applying um for at least for my fan animation project that I'm applying a more complex lip sync. Not only do the lips articulate the vowels and the consonants, but the jaw moves up and down as well. So, as we can obviously as we obviously saw with Odysseus's beard moving up and down.

[00:10:27]>> I am not the man you [music] once adored.

[00:10:31]>> So, Odysseus is trembling here because he is um scared that Penelope uh would reject him. And how I achieved this trembling effect was I actually had to uh at least during the cleanup stage during the ink stage, I moved a little bit of his uh head here and there and moved the the cape here and there, the shoulders here and there um and then afterwards, so that's for every frame it's it's a looping animation, but for every frame it's a different uh sort of thing uh arranging the timing that way he looks like he is truly trembling and scared.

[00:11:10]>> I am not your [music] kind and gentle heart.

[00:11:13]>> So, I applied the parallax effect again here.

[00:11:15]>> And I am >> The olive tree bed goes here, Penelope goes here, and Odysseus is steady.

[00:11:22]>> Would you fall in [music and singing] love with >> Also, the same I also had parallax effect here.

[00:11:34]Uh uh The frame where Odyssea or rather the layers where Odysseus and Penelope is is steady. The background layer containing the bed moves a different direction. So, the background I believe moves here, the bed moves here, and trout or the weavers thing moves here as well.

[00:11:58]>> [music] >> Odysseus with trembling hands.

[00:12:07]So, this particular shot was very familiar to some of you because he actually did this in Underworld. This uh this particular worm's eye view angle and then him him reaching out.

[00:12:24]So, him again reaching out with his right hand to uh for Penelope. To reach out to Penelope.

[00:12:32]But alas, his worst fears come true as Penelope turns around in an apparent rejection.

[00:12:43]His fears have come to light.

[00:12:45]If you uh also we notice here in the foreground Penelope is uh blurry at this point. And Odysseus is sharp cuz our our eyes are supposed to be focused on Odysseus. But then later we shift focus to Penelope. So, now it's Odysseus that's blurry whereas Penelope is the one that's uh sharper.

[00:13:07]Another thing that you may notice is that we don't see Penelope's eyes. It's because uh the eyes are the windows to the soul. At this point in time when she turned around, she didn't want Odysseus to see what she was thinking.

[00:13:21]Uh Penelope in the myths has been known as to be as witty if not a lot wittier >> [laughter] >> maybe than Odysseus. I'm pretty sure if she had been the one out at sea, she wouldn't have given Polyphemus where she lived and her social SECURITY NUMBER.

[00:13:39]>> ODYSSEUS!

[00:13:40]>> ALSO, ANOTHER THING is that I didn't really want to give away, not just to Odysseus, but to the audience her her thoughts on the matter. So, that's why we keep her eyes off frame. Also, to keep not just her thoughts, but also to keep her emotions pretty much hidden from the audience, even though, of course, we have an idea about what she's actually thinking.

[00:14:14]>> [singing] >> So, this is the first time that we actually see all of my character designs, at least in terms of the gods and the creatures and deities that Odysseus encounters. So, we see here Polyphemus.

[00:14:33]There's Aeolus.

[00:14:37]I cannot spell.

[00:14:39]>> [laughter] >> There's a twerking onion.

[00:14:45]There's another twerking onion.

[00:14:48]There's actually three. We can't see the other one. There's Eurylochus over here.

[00:14:53]There's Polites over here. And there's Poseidon, my new and improved design. There's Hermes.

[00:15:03]There's Circe.

[00:15:05]There's Tiresias.

[00:15:08]There's the siren, which you will see in my upcoming different beast animation, and which you may have seen in the teasers of the different beasts, as well as the full animatic of different beasts, which is currently available in my YouTube channel. And then finally, we have Calypso.

[00:15:23]And then I wanted to also add the trail of blood over here. So that's why you throughout this montage we see this trail of blood just going and going and going because you know, the lyrics says left the trail of red on every island and the red we know that that means blood.

[00:15:42]Then he's covered in blood as well. So the red continues [music] to go here.

[00:15:48]So for this one you may have some some of you may have seen this in suffering.

[00:15:52]I really like the idea of Odysseus and Scylla being one in the same. We are the same you and I. So I wanted to add that symbolism here again. We see Scylla at the background.

[00:16:07]We actually don't see this unfortunately because Odysseus is covered but this skull over here is um it's inspired from the canon design in Epic the way Jorge imagined it. So there's a huge skull inside the huge skull we see the form of a woman inside the mouth of the huge skull it's the form of a woman Scylla and then we have these hydra-like heads almost like snakes um for my uh Scylla design. Of course Odysseus is already covered in blood and gore as per what happened during the song Scylla.

[00:16:47]Now these flames there's like there's six of them. 1 2 3 4 5 6. This is a later addition. It was suggested by uh my husband Darth Pika the Chew as we were reviewing the current progress of the animation. He said, "You know what?

[00:17:05]You maybe you should add like some falling torches there." And it was a great idea so I decided to implement it.

[00:17:15]And then this one was inspired as well from Odysseus the official animation for Odysseus as imagined by Jorge Rivera Herranz and as what was commissioned to me by Jorge. So we have like just the silhouette of Odysseus with his red eyes. Whatever it is that you listen in the lyrics, I wanted to depict it on screen. So we see the hands.

[00:17:41]Hurt more lives than I could count on my hands. So that's why we see Odysseus' hands and it's bloody and then we see the baby Astyanax falling.

[00:17:52]Another late it is another late addition.

[00:17:57]Yet another late addition because as I was reviewing it I said, "You know what?

[00:18:01]When was the first time that Odysseus truly became a monster? It was during when he threw baby Astyanax off the walls of Troy." And that's when innocent blood like a truly innocent blood was spilled in his hands. So I wanted to depict that. So yeah.

[00:18:22]>> [music] >> And all of that was because he just wanted to go back home to Penelope.

[00:18:33]So we see Penelope just, you know, listening and her head turned a little bit. So she's she's side eyeing Odysseus as he told her the tale of the tragedies that happened in Troy that he of course is a part of.

[00:18:56]So she's still side eyeing Odysseus.

[00:18:59]>> [music] >> So I wanted to depict here in this you just just this small gesture that she's looking at Odysseus. She's turning back because she doesn't want him to see the wheels of her head turning like she's really thinking about this.

[00:19:24]So, this is pretty important. Odysseus is leaning to against the post of the olive tree bed. Watch.

[00:19:34]Penelope turns.

[00:19:38]She's looking at this.

[00:19:40]She's looking at Odysseus's hand against the olive tree bed.

[00:19:48]So, she's actually still looking at his hand.

[00:19:51]Looking at here and thinking.

[00:19:54]Wheels of her head are turning, and thinking, and thinking.

[00:20:00]>> [music] >> By the time she turns around, she already has the idea in her head on how to prove that not just to herself, but to Odysseus that this is her husband.

[00:20:17]So, that look of concern on his face is like him thinking like I'll do anything she asks. Like the look of utter desperation.

[00:20:27]Uh some of the one of the things that I do as an animator when it comes showing expression of the character are the eyebrows.

[00:20:34]Uh you have no idea how much you can do with the movement of the eyebrows. So, it's not just the eyes, but the eyebrows really sell the expression of a character.

[00:20:55]>> [singing] >> But I'm using a different uh parallax effect here uh for Penelope's hands, I actually like zoomed it out.

[00:21:09]Because as the camera moves in closer, whatever is closest to the camera becomes bigger, right?

[00:21:14]So, that's what happened here.

[00:21:19]If you notice, the quality is pretty still pretty good even with this close-up, but then quality is also still good. You know why? Cuz this This is an 8K resolution canvas.

[00:21:38]>> [laughter] >> This is a really huge canvas, one of the biggest files that we had to work on.

[00:21:47]Thankfully, what I do with Clip Studio Paint is that I actually separate each shot into its own separate file. So, that way the master document or the master Clip Studio Paint file will not suffer from a lot of lags.

[00:22:01]But, this one did suffer. It's an 8K resolution canvas, so that way when you do close-up of Penelope, and then we move forward, >> [music] >> the quality is retained. So, we actually see a zoom in first and then a sudden zoom out.

[00:22:18]Like, she's like pushing the camera away. I thought that was pretty good to do, so that's why I did it.

[00:22:27]>> [music] [singing] >> This is hot Odysseus. I'm sorry. This is actually how a lot of people have been saying, "Oh, this is with his hair down covering one of his eyes." It's pretty hot, and a lot of people first saw this in Different Beast, and I wanted to do it again.

[00:22:50]I wanted to find an excuse to do it again, and this was just the perfect excuse to do so of him being angry that Penelope would actually suggest such a thing as to uproot the bed that he made for her.

[00:23:10]>> [music] >> So, now we see a montage of Odysseus as a young adult carving out the olive tree bed.

[00:23:20]He already like essentially built the palace, right? So, we actually see that there's a balcony there like it's coming in this morning and we see the olive tree bed.

[00:23:30]Right there, he's carving it out. He's carving out the posters. It's not really fully carved out yet. That's why we also see these sawdust or >> [laughter] >> another thing that I actually did is I actually spelled out a name. I spelled out my nephew's name because he is a recent fan of Epic: The Musical.

[00:23:54]He's been doing every time we meet up, we talk about the motives and theories even though of course it was over, but I wanted to pay tribute to his support as well. Not only that he supported me in one of the art markets that I joined promoting this N. Studio Studio. So, that's what you see here.

[00:24:17]Migs Hello, Migs.

[00:24:24]Blood and sweat. I wanted to show these bandages that Odysseus had because he got himself wounded while carving out the bed.

[00:24:36]>> [music] >> So, this is the olive tree the original olive tree that I imagined that Odysseus like cut out a part of or rather carved a part of and then he cut out some parts to make the bed frame and also the other post, but it's still pretty much rooted to um what I imagine is like the hill where he and Penelope uh met. And also I put another name there.

[00:25:05]It's not very obvious here.

[00:25:09]But that's for Julia, my cousin, the one who started it all. Cuz if not for Julia, I would never have gotten into the Epic fandom. She was the very first one to introduce me to Epic. She was um one of my earliest supporters. Um she hounded me until I gave in to listening to Epic uh since the Troy Saga. And it was during the Troy Saga when the Troy Saga dropped that she and I like listened together and and it was after that that I said, "You know what? I feel like I should make an animatic." And she said, "You should."

[00:25:43]And then when I did, she said, "You know what, ate there or big sister." That's, you know, an honorific we use in the Philippines. "You know what, ate there?

[00:25:51]One day Jorge is going to commission you." And >> [laughter] >> lo and behold that did happen. So, big thanks to Julia. Salamat, Julia.

[00:26:00]And anyway, uh another thing to notice here is that Odysseus and Penelope swapped colors. I really wanted to go and continue with the overall theme of them um being mirror images of each other. So, now Penelope is wearing blue. Odysseus is generally wearing yellow here, which are their colors swapped in the future.

[00:26:23]Um so, this like where they first met.

[00:26:27]Another thing that I did here is uh this whole olive tree leaves. I actually had to make my own brushes to depict uh an olive tree um the leaves of an olive tree. And um that brush is available for free to download for Clip Studio Paint EX users.

[00:26:49]Just go go and look it up in the Clip Studio Paint's uh asset store and you should be able to find it there.

[00:27:06]>> [music] >> Yeah, that transition point I I really love doing that transition point. So, we actually do see partially an angry teenage Odysseus here. Cuz I really wanted to show that even though that he looks different from how he is as he became older, that is definitely Odysseus right there.

[00:27:38]Okay.

[00:27:39]It It went by very fast, but there.

[00:27:42]Smear frames and an impact site.

[00:27:46]>> [laughter] >> I love using smear frames because it actually adds so much emphasis to an action. And of course it it going by so fast, you you don't notice it as much until you go frame by frame, but you you can actually feel it. So, that's why I use uh smear frames.

[00:28:10]The reason why I use the shaky cam is because I wanted to depict the intensity of the action as if there's like a seismic shift in their emotions. Their emotions are running really high.

[00:28:22]Let's go back.

[00:28:25]Also, smear frames for Penelope and another impact site.

[00:28:31]Also, another like shaky cam to make it more intense.

[00:28:39]Almost like an earthquake earthquake seismic shift in their emotions.

[00:28:49]So, the reason why I had to I actually The reason why I played that back is I wanted you guys to see the amount of animation that I did for this one particular scene cuz Penelope is moving her head around and the camera is moving about Of course, the camera shake is added in post-production, but you can see her like shaking her head.

[00:29:18]And then after all that there's calmness now.

[00:29:23]Camera is no longer shaking.

[00:29:26]Everything stops.

[00:29:28]Like time stops essentially for both of them.

[00:29:35]And Odysseus falls to his knees in his because the emotions are far too heavy. There's anger, there's regret, there's shame, there's happiness that after all that Penelope still thinks of him as her husband, that she does believe that he is her husband. And the weight of it all was just too much to bear that he falls to his knees with his head down in front of Penelope kneeling down to his queen as he should be.

[00:30:09]Although we don't see Penelope's eyes we see her tears right here.

[00:30:15]So, we don't need to see her eyes to know that she is feeling the exact same emotions as Odysseus.

[00:30:26]Hence, she also falls down to her knees and reaches for Odysseus's face.

[00:30:34]>> [music] >> This is like has one of my absolute favorite frames to animate. Um so, we see Odysseus crying and with all that raw emotion on his face, um, that's tears right here were actually animated on a different layer so I could I could add the extra glow effect here and I added some shadows as well inside the tear to make the glowing outline of the tears more prominent.

[00:31:08]>> [singing] >> So Penelope is also crying again mirroring Odysseus's emotions.

[00:31:15]>> [music] >> You see that?

[00:31:21]Her finger is moving this way and that her caressing Odysseus's face is something she did in her imagination in uh, my animation for the challenge and I wanted to do a call a call back to that.

[00:31:38]And then she falls into Odysseus's arms.

[00:31:40]Yes, you are my husband. Yes, I believe you are still my husband.

[00:31:46]And I will fall in love with you over and over again.

[00:31:53]And like her clinging onto Odysseus's uh, cloak. Uh, one thing that um, I haven't I I don't think I have discussed at length yet. This cloak is actually um, wo- was actually woven by Penelope.

[00:32:10]We first see this cloak in my animatic for No Longer You. We saw it as well in 600 Strike. We will see it again in Different Beasts, uh, but of course through the years this is supposed to be yellow. It's supposed to be yellow. But through the years of course the color has faded. Odysseus has kept it all these years um, as a reminder of Penelope even though it's already um, faded and torn. So yeah, it's actually supposed to be the same color as her dress.

[00:32:42]Okay, so Penelope gets her own montage.

[00:32:45]I mean, Odysseus got his montage, so she gets her own montage.

[00:32:49]Uh we see her she has shorter hair at this point. We see her a little baby headed with the this baby Telemachus she's carrying baby Telemachus. And this is her saying goodbye to Odysseus.

[00:33:02]If we zoom in, there's Odysseus with a raised hand saying goodbye to Penelope at the back of the ship at sunset. I chose sunset for when they set sail cuz uh this is when um the sun set essentially on Penelope's life and everything fell into darkness uh the moment Odysseus left her life.

[00:33:36]Now, for this scene, I wanted to show the passage of the time not just through the length of Penelope's hair, but also through the difference in her clothing.

[00:33:44]So, in the first one we still her in white. Now, we saw her we see her in pink. Uh I'm not even sure if I I'm not like doing um historical accuracy in terms of the costuming, so do forgive me. I'm just taking a lot of creative liberties. Um I did do some research on the toys and the cradles and whatnot, so I applied it here. Uh DrawMeSue helped me with the background.

[00:34:05]Just look at that. Looks like Santorini.

[00:34:08]That is I would have when when DrawMeSue gave me this background, I was like, I'll make it summer as I'll make it summer in Greece. And it was uh Santorini-inspired, and I really liked it. Um And I wanted Penelope to stand out with the uh from the cooler colors, which are blues and greens of Telemachus, so I made her wear pink.

[00:34:30]And then also we see the olive tree bed there. We have baby Telemachus with toys. Look at that. Look, there's the Trojan horse.

[00:34:38]>> [laughter] >> Foreshadowing. Not exactly the Trojan horse, but I I I researched on ancient Greek toys and then I gave Draw Me So Like, "You know what? Can you these toys in the background?"

[00:34:51]Also, Draw Me So was the one who improved my drawing of Athena owl because yes, that is the Athena owl, the little owl of Athena. That is Athena, actually.

[00:35:04]Okay, so now we're in autumn.

[00:35:08]I'm not exactly sure what the seasons are in Ithaca, but I like I mentioned earlier, I wanted to show the passage of time through Penelope's clothing and through the length of her hair, which is now longer.

[00:35:19]I also tried to depict fall colors. So in the summertime, we had the cooler colors and I wanted Penelope to stand out, so I made her wear pink, which is a warmer color. Whereas in this case, autumn has a lot of warm colors all around, so I wanted to make her stand out by making her wear a cool color. So this is like an indigo color and so somewhere somewhere between warm and cool, but closer to to a cooler color, so she really stands out. Also, the tree is not an olive tree, but you can see that I actually reused the assets for the olive tree trunk. I want I do like to be economical with my assets and animation, so I reuse um drawings and whatnot where I can.

[00:36:05]Also, another thing to note is that we have geese.

[00:36:09]These are supposed to be geese, an ancient type breed of geese.

[00:36:15]The name eludes me, but the scientific name has the name Penelope in it because it is named after Penelope Penelope herself.

[00:36:26]Another thing to note here is that we do see the statue of Athena.

[00:36:31]Okay, let me just make this a lot clearer.

[00:36:34]There's the statue of Athena over here with her shield.

[00:36:39]And this is, of course, designed after uh my own uh Athena design. And then we have Athena owl watching over Penelope.

[00:36:49]So, Athena has been watching over Penelope and Telemachus even with Odysseus' absence. Uh notice as well how the statue is pretty much uh moss covered and cracked. There's some cracks here and there. I really enjoyed uh rendering and making this background and making the statue of Athena um look like uh it's been uh not been well kept cuz I imagine at this point in time suitors have already been coming in and uh abusing the rules of xenia and um basically uh like draining the uh coffers of Odys- of Od- the the royal family of Ithaca.

[00:37:33]So, um Penelope or the remaining royal family aren't able to keep grounds people uh to clean up and everything because they're too focused on serving the suitors who have been basically eating them out of house and home. So, those little things those little things I I like to depict them in the animations, but um So, I know that it goes over people's heads, but uh it's in what's my what's in my head, and I hope that you guys are able to appreciate the extra effort in storytelling.

[00:38:11]So, now we see Penelope how she's actually uh tearing the shroud out.

[00:38:19]So, uh we see like she's really tearing it. I really wanted her to be angry, um, to show that she is she does get us angry as Odysseus.

[00:38:29]Um, now, because like I said earlier, she's she and Odysseus are mirror images of each other. Another thing is, uh, this is actually very much inspired again from the return. Watch the movie, I have opinions, but there are certain scenes like Penelope just tearing away at the shroud that I feel really adds some emotional depth uh, into the story that I also made sure to depict it in my animation for would you fall in love with me again? And, uh, also there's this other thing in this particular frame, uh, that not many people notice until I point it out.

[00:39:10]That's the, uh, a little bit. That's actually, um, Odysseus versus Poseidon.

[00:39:17]>> [laughter] [gasps] >> Very tiny, very tiny. I I lifted, um, the silhouette from my 600 strike animatic or animation and put it there.

[00:39:29]So, that's Poseidon right there.

[00:39:31]And Odysseus right here. I know I know you can't really see it, but hopefully makes it clearer why I actually put it there. Cuz this is the night before the challenge. And after that is, uh, what happens in the challenge. Also earlier I mentioned that that was afternoon in fall, passing of time. This one is night time, winter in Ithaca. So, I imagine like there's a lot of rain, it's cold, and, um, yeah, that's pretty much how I depicted it.

[00:40:07]And, like I said, passage of time, um, now it's morning. Uh, it's a new dawn, essentially. It's a new morning, um, and Penelope in my animation for the challenge, that's when she realized, you know what? Um, it's going to be a different day. But yeah, this is a depiction of what happened earlier that morning uh during the challenge.

[00:40:34]>> [music] >> Crying anime girl meme.

[00:40:41]Yes, that crying girl meme is actually inspiration and it is deliberate that I put that in the cover art because I wanted to catch people's attention.

[00:40:51]>> [laughter] >> And so far it has worked.

[00:40:55]Crying anime girl meme.

[00:41:00]>> [singing] >> Another thing and like it's very very subtle, but Odysseus is actually in the dark darkness.

[00:41:11]And Penelope is in the light.

[00:41:14]And yet she meets she meets him.

[00:41:19]She meets him into the darkness.

[00:41:22]Fully embracing him, fully accepting him.

[00:41:29]And now her face is also partially shrouded in the darkness as she fully accepts Odysseus back into her life.

[00:41:36]Odysseus is very much shocked as we can see in his eyes.

[00:41:42]Before he leans over into the kiss.

[00:41:47]Sad, happy, bittersweet emotions flowing through him as the music rises to a crescendo.

[00:41:58]And then we see Telemachus uh the first time that we see a depiction of Telemachus uh in my animations and animatics as a grown man in his warrior of the mind uh outfit, which is of course inspired from uh the warrior of the outfit of Athena in my character design.

[00:42:19]Um So, a lot of people are rightfully correct in the comments in that Telemachus did hear his parents arguing or rather when they were shouting about the bed, and he rushed up because even though like he had accepted his father, I imagined like Odysseus is essentially a stranger, and he loves his mom, and he'd be scared, especially after what Odysseus did to the suitors. It's natural that he'd be scared for his mom.

[00:42:45]So, he went in to check on them, and we you know that's a hard shape there.

[00:42:51]And he bears witness to their beautiful reunion with Argos right there next to him awake now.

[00:43:01]Cuz yes, in this depiction Argos is alive because the world is too sad, and I we need some happiness in our fiction, okay?

[00:43:18]So, Telemachus sees his mother genuinely happy for the very first time, genuinely smiling for the very first time.

[00:43:26]And so, he gives them their privacy.

[00:43:32]Uh also, I added this one.

[00:43:35]Um in my earlier depictions of Odysseus, he does have this badge. So, I imagine after he threw it away like if I if ever I'm going to make those animatics, he throws this away uh or Odysseus rather throws it away uh during the song um my goodbye, uh but Athena actually kept it and gave it to Telemachus.

[00:43:59]One kiss, two kiss, three kiss, several kisses. So, this uh kiss scene is uh another thing that actually made me realize, you know what? I need to do "Would You Fall in Love with Me Again?"

[00:44:11]Because this is actually a reused asset. A long, long time ago when I was in the Star Wars fandom, I made 360° kiss in Blender and I wrote a script it with my 2D characters of Rey and Kylo Ren. And I thought, you know what? That needs to be revised now with my new skills. So, I reused it for Odysseus and Penelope. And that's why we have this uh 360° shot of them kissing. So, how was this shot achieved? The background is actually in Blender. So, the bed, those are all in Blender. They're They're in 3D, but Drama Sue and I applied 2D textures to it to make it look seamless with the characters.

[00:45:09]And then we have Odysseus opening his eyes. Again, to those of you who have watched my animation for the challenge, this is a reused animation from the challenge of Penelope opening her eyes when in the morning of the challenge. Except for this one, this is a mirror image again.

[00:45:29]There's this thing over the with me Odysseus and Penelope mirroring each other. So, if you go back to the challenge animation, you'll see that her eyes is actually over here.

[00:45:39]And Odysseus is like over here. Just a mirror.

[00:45:47]And of course, it's obvious that they had a wonderful reunion.

[00:45:51]I also like depicted like hair strands here and there. It's not very obvious, but there's some hair strands here and there cuz you know, they've been busy.

[00:45:59]>> How How has it been?

[00:46:05]>> Same with Odysseus, here and there. Like strands.

[00:46:09]Um there's actually supposed to be It's not very obvious. Actually, it's not obvious at all.

[00:46:14]There's supposed to be a scar on Odysseus's abdomen where uh I forgot who stabbed him. Was it Perimedes? Uh I forgot who stabbed him. But that one guy stabbed him immediately. There's a scar there.

[00:46:28]>> 20 years.

[00:46:36]>> So, for this scene, I wanted to show hands because hands are very, very intimate. Um if you guys watched Pride and Prejudice, and I watched that a lot, uh there's a lot of like [snorts] depictions of hands showing emotions and showing sensuality and showing feeling, and I wanted to achieve that as well here with Odysseus and Penelope in bed together. So, yeah, that's why the hand scene is there. And also, uh again, it's a throwback to Odysseus and Penelope reaching out for each other, and Penelope touching all of Odysseus's things or everything that reminds her of Odysseus, and this is them finally reuniting.

[00:47:19]Them reaching out for each other in the past, and then finally their their hands are clasped together.

[00:47:25]Interlocked.

[00:47:37]And now, even though it's like it's a bit of sunrise over here, we have Athena, the owl, again.

[00:47:43]And we can obviously see that her eyes are glowing. Uh this Athena owl was drawn by Draw Me Sue because um he does a wonderful like creature design and animal design. Uh I didn't even know about it until we started making this project.

[00:47:59]Um also uh it in the myth, it was also Athena who asked Eos, the god of uh the goddess of the dawn, to hold back uh the rising of the sun. So, I wanted to depict that by having the Athena owl blocking out the sun essentially. So, yeah, that's why the final shot ends with Athena owl or Athene owl uh blocking out the sun to prolong the night between Odysseus and Penelope, hence this the you can still see the stars.

[00:48:31]Um so big big big thanks to DarthPikaTheChu who helped produce this uh animation.

[00:48:43]Jorge Rivera Herrans, of course, deserves all the accolades, all the success in life for making such an impactful um musical. And I I'm so happy that he's seeing so much success with this one. Uh thank you as well to Dramasu Visdev visual development artist, background artist, uh and assistant animator. Thank you as well to Novi who specializes a lot in the colors. Uh thank you to Kamal Lemzy who helped a lot with the clean up and the colors as well. Thank you to Dayafi who helped so much with the colors and some of the clean up. Thank you to Abby for helping as well with clean up and colors. Thank you again to Jenny for helping with clean up and color and uh Shiyou for the clean up as well. And of course, our project manager Leon Lopez uh for helping us manage all of the behind-the-scenes in the production. It used to be that I was the one who managed that by myself, but with Leon's help, we were able to finish this animation in record time. So, we started this around uh September and we released it in December of 2025.

[00:49:50]So, yeah, pretty good record if I may do say if I do say so myself and as well as we would like to give thanks to our Patreon supporters or the ones who have who wish to be publicly disclosed as Patreon supporters. We have Amy Ray, Casper Fox, of course, you know Casper Fox, Mary Ann Mystery and Megan Ray. And that concludes this animation breakdown of would you fall in love with me again as animated by NS2D Studios.

[00:50:20]Thank you so much guys for your support.

[00:50:22]It means a lot to us that you're here watching our videos, liking our videos and commenting and do subscribe if you haven't yet and if you are so inclined, we do have a Patreon. It's also at NS2D Studios and you can check out [music] our behind the scenes stuff and also some other extra perks that you may want to be privy to. So, head on over to patreon.com/NS2D Studios and also follow us on our socials at NS2D Studios and of course, follow our amazing assistant our assistant animators over in their own socials as well.

[00:50:56]>> [music] >> And that is it for now. Thank you so much again for watching this animation breakdown. This has been Gwendy of NS2D Studios. I will see you when I see you.

[00:51:07]Bye for now, you guys. Bye-bye.

[00:51:12]>> [music]