Old Wounds - Prelude to FNaF6 (Five Nights at Freddy's Animation)

This animation is an attempt to flesh out one of the most bare‑bones areas of the FNaF lore: the events leading up to FNaF6. In that game, Lefty just shows up, already with the puppet trapped inside, with nothing but an Easter Egg blueprint to explain how it was supposedly specifically designed to retrieve the Puppet. It’s left incredibly vague, and I imagine the real reason for that whole subplot (if you can even call it that) is merely to keep the return of the Puppet a secret from the audience a little longer. I tried to convey some amount of disdain for the return of Freddy’s in the Puppet despite her having no dialogue, namely the deliberate covering up of the looming billboard. This was to bolster the idea that the Puppet needed to be dragged back by force, being perfectly happy to just rot away in an alley rather than come investigate. All the other creatures in FNaF6, by contrast, show up willingly. The green security bracelet, intended to be the same one Charlie was wearing, is hinted at in FNaF6’s blueprint Easter Egg as Lefty’s means of luring her in. It’s a connection to Charlie’s short life that would surely grab her attention to see again. The unseen figure who builds Lefty at the beginning is intended to be Henry, Charlie’s father. It might at first seem like he’s kept mysterious for the sake of drama, but really it’s because I can’t model convincing human characters yet. Several unrelated phrases from his in-game dialogue were cut up and rearranged to create the recorded message at the end. This is my first animation to span multiple locations, and as a result I spent three times longer modeling environments than I otherwise would have. The near‑monochrome yellow/orange colour‑palette of the exteriors is a deliberate stylistic choice: I’ve wanted for a long time to have something take place under that particularly oppressive kind of street lighting that I find strangely stressful and yet also atmospheric. It’s a relentless sort of light that seems to crush any other colour out of existence, and I found it perfect for a scene like this.