Mya Roy-Royer on her hopeful thesis film, Fleurs De Printemps

In Mya Roy-Royer’s thesis film Fleurs De Printemps (translated “Flowers Of Spring”), the embodiment of springtime, Azilys, wakes up at the end of winter and begins to spread new growth throughout a forest. She encounters the dawn ⁠— a new beginning for the forest and for the world.

Fleurs De Printemps employs up to nine layers of multiplane to bring the forest to life and add dimension to Roy-Royer’s depiction of nature. The film was made using Photoshop and Harmony Premium, among other programs. Its hopeful message and mix of animation techniques won Fleurs De Printemps the top award at Animation Vieux Montréal’s student gala. The program is among the most accessible courses available for those seeking to enter the animation industry.

We sat down with Mya Roy-Royer to discuss Fleurs De Printemps, student filmmaking, and future projects.

What did the planning stage of this project look like?

The planning of this project started even before the first year started. I was brainstorming ideas and going over possible scenarios, exploring themes that I enjoyed and thinking of protagonists. I have a tendency to over-prepare, and I wanted to be certain that I would have a solid pitch when the time would come to present our project to the teachers. 

After almost 2 years, I thought about gladiator fights, futuristic slices of life, robot apocalypses, but I was still going over those ideas. After a while, I realised that I would always go back to my very first concept: A story about the seasons, and the message of a perpetual rebirth. I wanted to make a short film that said more than it would seem.

What techniques and programs did you use to make this film?

I didn’t use any special technique in particular. And like all my friends in the program, we learned to use Storyboard Pro, Harmony, Premiere and After Effects. We also learned to use Photoshop to draw our backgrounds.

How did you go about designing the backgrounds for your scenes with the multiplane camera in mind?

I knew from the very start that I would put a lot of multiplane camera shots in my film. It’s one of the tricks that makes a scene look so much more real and I wanted my film to be as immersive as possible. 

I painted all my backgrounds with the multiplane camera in mind. I would start from the back and slowly add levels on top. The trickiest scene to work on was the fifth one, where my character runs past a doe and over a fallen tree trunk. This scene had at least nine levels of multiplane.

How did you approach designing the main character?

When I had the concept of the movie down, the first thing I wanted to sketch was the character. Since the character personifies spring, I thought about what that season inspires for me. Spring symbolises new beginnings, naivety, and limitless possibilities. So I chose to make my character look like a young child.

I chose to give her green skin to symbolize her relation to nature — and also because I did not want the viewers to mistake her for an average human character. And I gave her blank white clothes to represent her innocence. In the end, her design reminded me of a white lily, so I named her Azilys after that flower.

The highlights and shadows on the main character really stand out! What techniques did you use?

After I painted my backgrounds, I found that the amount of shadows and details made a character with simple flat colours stick out too much. Like I said, I wanted immersion and my character needed to look like she belonged in those environments. So, I animated by hand the shadows and the highlights on Azilys. 

I used a lot of overlays and blending tools. I was spending so much time thinking about how the light of the sun would react differently on her hair and skin and clothes. In the end, I’m proud of the results. 

What challenges did you face producing Fleurs De Printemps?

My main challenge while producing Fleurs De Printemps was to manage between the project, college classes, my job, while also keeping somewhat of a social life. Around the end of the production, I could stay at my desk for 10 hours a day and the only time I would allow myself to go outside was for school and buying groceries. But in the end, I managed to find a balance for everything. 

How would you describe the reaction to your film so far?

I truly did not expect such a good reaction. I did not get the experience of seeing my movie as a normal viewer: Perhaps it lost a bit of its magic on me because I saw the same hundreds of frames over and over again over the course of 2 years. Regardless, I was proud of myself for producing an entire short film and I’m happy that so many people enjoyed it.

Do you have any advice for students planning their thesis films?

For animation students, I would have two pieces of advice: The first is to choose what calls to you. You probably won’t get the chance to work on such a huge personal project in the near future, so enjoy it! Think about the things that you like and the things that inspire you. It is your movie from start to finish, so use it to express yourself.

My second tip would be to ask the opinions of your peers regularly. It might not sound appealing to everyone, but getting the feedback of my friends and colleagues helped me a lot. My movie would definitely not look the same if I had not. 

Sometimes, I would spend so long staring at my screen wondering if I should change my overlays transparencies, if I should redo some of my rough animations, if I should move my camera differently… People working around you will look at your project with a fresher view, and they will be able to give you their own thoughts. Maybe they will even tell you something that you never thought about before!

What do you hope to work on in future projects?

I would love to work on big and ambitious projects. Obviously, I cannot predict what will be available to me in the future, but I would like to be part of projects that positively marks the general public. I would love to work on video games, movies, series, shorts, etc.

• Did you enjoy Fleurs De Printemps? Be sure to watch all of Cégep du Vieux Montréal’s 2022 thesis films through the school’s official gallery.
• Planning your thesis film? Toon Boom Animation offers discounted licenses for Harmony and Storyboard Pro to students.

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