Story
It's 2145.
Jude just woke up the third time of the year. She didn’t know how long she had been sleeping.
Everything has changed since people started cloning 100 years ago. The original Jude died in the last century, but her memory was transferred into a cloned body. Everything is great. She gets to live an immortal life. But things become boring after losing the limits of time. Nothing matters anymore.
The only thing Jude likes to do is to watch the live stream from her Xiao Xin, the teddy bear in blue in a time capsule sent out to space before the original Jude passed away. The capsule is on a voyage to nowhere, and it has flown so far away from the mothership. After 100 years, it took at least a year to receive a few seconds of the live feed from the capsule.
Today is the day that the capsule should send back something. Jude is so excited and pulls up the screen and waits anxiously. No one understands why Jude is so excited about it. It’s just an old teddy bear that doesn’t move and speak like other ancient but smart teddy bears. What’s the point of watching a live stream of something doesn’t change?
But that’s the point for Jude. That teddy bear has been with the original Jude for a whole life. It carries more soul of Jude than the cloned body. It reminds Jude of the old days vividly, not just a line of transformed code. How ironic is it? After all these years of scientific development, it seems like all the fancy AI cannot compare the meaning of an old toy.
“You have got a new message.”A notification pops up on the screen.
Here it comes!
Jude quickly opens the file. It’s a 5-sec video. All black. She couldn’t see anything.
“What happened?????? Something wrong????”Jude clicks on the file again and again, but it’s still the same. Nothing is there.
Jude cannot wait anymore. She puts on her spacesuit and drives a smaller spaceship to the last coordinate sent out by the capsule.
“It’s so far away. Once we leave the mothership, we are going to run out of everything. You are gonna die, forever.”The AI system reminds Jude.
“I don’t care. I need to find my teddy bear.”Jude insists and accelerates the spaceship. Of course, Jude knows this is a dead end. But after such a long time, it’s the first time that Jude feels alive.
10 years later.
Jude has just eaten the last canned food. She is so tired but she is still chasing after Xiao Xin. During the past decade, the capsule sent back three videos. All black. Maybe the capsule has been hit by meteoritic dust or maybe the camera was broken? Jude still has hope.
The navigation system says they are almost there. Suddenly, Jude saw a flash. It’s the reflection from the time capsule!!!
The outside glass was broken, but Jude can still see Xiao Xin in the ball!!!
Finally, after 10 years, or maybe the journey has started 100 years ago, Jude found her soulmate. She also found her soul.
Storyboard
Production
I used Zepeto, a freemium social media app that lets users create 3D characters of themselves, to create the character Jude. The app was so powerful that I can record all the gestures and facial expressions I need for visualizing this story.
Customizing Jude’s look
Facial recognition of Jude’s acting of “waking up“ with a green screen
Visual novel
It's 2145.
Jude just woke up the third time of the year. She didn’t know how long she had been sleeping.
Everything has changed…
since people started cloning 100 years ago. The original Jude died in the last century, but her memory was transferred into a cloned body. Everything is great. She gets to live an immortal life. But things become boring after losing the limits of time. Nothing matters anymore.
Watching the live stream from Xiao Xin…
is the only thing Jude likes to do. The teddy bear in blue was sent out to the space in a time capsule before the original Jude passed away. The capsule is on a voyage to nowhere, and it has flown so far away from the mothership. After 100 years, it took at least a year to receive a few seconds of the live feed from the capsule.
Suddenly, the live stream stops…
The screen goes black. Jude couldn’t see anything.
“What happened??????”Jude refreshes again and again, but still, nothing is there.
Jude has to find Xiao Xin!
Jude cannot wait anymore. She puts on her spacesuit and drives a smaller spaceship to the last coordinate sent out by the capsule.
“It’s so far away. Once we leave the mothership, we are going to run out of everything. You are gonna die, forever.”The AI system reminds Jude.
“I don’t care. I need to find my teddy bear.”Jude insists and accelerates the spaceship. Of course, Jude knows this is a dead end. But after such a long time, it’s the first time that Jude feels alive.
She found it!
10 years later.
The navigation system says they are almost there. Suddenly, Jude saw a flash. It’s the reflection from the time capsule!!!
She finally found Xiao Xin!
Xiao Xin is still there!
The outside glass was broken, but Jude can still see Xiao Xin in the ball!!!
Finally, after 10 years, or maybe the journey has started 100 years ago, Jude found her soulmate. She also found her soul.
Behind the SCENES
I used photoshop and final cut to make all the renderings.
Screenshot of Final Cut
Screenshot of Photoshop