BSA 225/226 3D Animation Character and story development.

16/02/2017
Here are my ideas, as well as any research that I did into in order to come up with my 3D animation.

Initial Ideas. 

It took me a few days to come up with a concept that I was happy with for my 3D. I had problems with thinking of stories that feature only one character but remain interesting for the viewer. In order to gain inspiration I watched (mainly animated) music videos. This helped me come up with a character, a setting and a plot.

Initial Character design.
While watching the band Shoe's music video for EGG (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq57RZ9OgIc) I came up with an idea for a character I could design.

(screengrab of the character that inspired my character)

From this I drew up a very quick sketch of a potential character's face. After this I drew up a quick sketch of the character's entire body. Both of these were fast drawings which I intend to tweak but they gave me a good base to form a story and setting around. 

(Quick sketch of body)

(Quick sketch of face)

In the future I am probably going to be changing the character design slightly. I might draw some influence from a character that is the Modest Mouses music video "Satellite Skin". 

I like the look of the character. He looks both deformed and scary but also vulnerable, making the audience feel sorry for him. This is the aesthetic that I will be hoping to achieve for my character. 

I'm hoping to make him move quite slowly and a bit "jauntingly". As if he isnt fit and limber, and movement is a bit of a struggle. However, I still want there to be a sort of "rhythm" to his movement. I don't want him to come across as if he is old or incapable of movement, I just want it to seem like he moves differently to the normal human. I want his gait to me as if he is a bit twisted and as if he has a bit limp or carries himself a bit lopsided. 

I will later look into videos showing choreographed dance moves to gain more inspiration as to how he will move and how that will result in how I will weight him in the 3D animation. An example of these kind of videos would be "Acid Rain" by Lorn (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxg4C365LbQ). Although I don't see his movement being near as fluid as a dancer, the way they contort and distort their bodies will probably help me in how I design his movement later on down the line. 

Initial setting ideas and inspiration. 

While watching Lorn-Anvil (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqaAs_3azSs) I was suddenly inspired by the opening city shot that introduces the setting and I decided that I wanted my story to also be situated in a city. 

"Anvil" opening setting

"Anvil" opening setting

I don't want the perfect geometric lines as much, however I do like the monochrome style. I will use this as the foundation idea of my setting but I will be expanding on it a lot more as I further my research. 

Another Lorn song which I drew a lot of inspiration on for setting was "555-5555". This is a much different setting, much less geometrical and far "grungier" looking. 

 I enjoyed the messy, disarray of the setting in this video much more than the pristine, perfect look of the other city scape.
This also inspired me to come up with the plot concept that I will later develop on because I wanted a plot that would suit both the character and the setting.

This shot is interesting to me because the intricacy of all the shapes, plus the colours, seems to make it seem cramped, claustrophobic and dirty. I might try to replicate this atmosphere in my story - especially seeing as I will want my story to give the impression of worn-down inner city that is tired and cold, almost hauntingly so.

This shot also has the same claustrophobic quality of the one above.

I like the silhouette look of this shot and may later draw inspiration from it.

First draft/ideas of plotline.

Now that I have a preliminary character and an idea for a setting, I decided that I should probably come up with a plot within that universe. I like stories where things aren't always as they seem. I decided that although the character will probably present as a villain, purely from his appearance, I didn't want him to be a villain.

I watched a video where birds fly out of a character's eyes and I thought that maybe my character could do something cool like that. 

I came up with the idea that the character will be introduced to the audience in a rundown alley of a rundown city. The colours will be mostly monochrome. The character will appear upset and troubled. He will walk along, initially presenting as slightly sinister because of the sinister environment that he is in.

He will stumble upon a dead flower/junk/other things symbolising decay that have get to be determined. Everything he touches will become suddenly colourful, tidy and alive (in the case of the dead flower). As he continues down the alley touching things the city alley begins to transform from sinister, colourlessness into a city alive with colour and looking pristine and new and tidy. I think that I will make vines grow up old pillars and stuff as if the city is becoming bad to life and becoming beautiful again. 

However, as the man walks along healing things, he will slowly get more scars and more deranged looking himself. In the end he might die and turn into dust. Not quite sure yet. 

The plot still needs a lot of work before it is fully decided upon, however the concept will stay, I will just tweak it a bit as I continue with my research.

22/02/2017
Other stylistic influences.
While coming up with my story and Character design, I realised that I was defiantly thinking in a Tim Burton-esk style. This was sub-conscious at first but it is probably because I have always enjoyed Tim Burton's style so it can be a strong influence in some of my work.
In my mind, the Character, Vox, is slender and unconventional-looking like many Tim Burtons characters. I want the character to come across as tired and weak to the viewer, as if there is not much left of him. However, because of the scars on his face, on appearance and design he might come across as scary and dangerous, which is the response that I want upon the viewer's introduction to him. However, from the first expression, I want people to begin to feel something more like sympathy for him. By the time he heals the first flower I want all appearance-based fear of the character, gone. Tim Burton is able to do this very well with his own characters. He introduces them as they appear to be, however, almost immediately after he makes the audience sympathize with them. This can be seen in "The Corpse Bride" with how we are introduced to Emily, who later turns out to be the hero of the film. 

Screen capture from the introduction of Emily in The Corpse Bride.

For the alleyway I am influenced by alleyways that were around my school and parts of Dublin while growing up, specifically the alleyway right outside my school where people went to smoke or hide from teachers.

This is the alleyway that I think of as a foundation for the alleyway that I will design. I want to try to capture the atmosphere that was felt in this alleyway. It felt both neglected as well as slightly edgy as it was where students went to do things that they weren't supposed to be doing. There was a feeling of anxiety as you wondered would you be getting caught or not. I want this same feeling to come through in my animation, as if Vox has this feeling when he first enters the alleyway in my story. 

However, I also want a more claustrophobic, city-like feel to the setting. To get this I will make the buildings taller so they seem more imposing. Similar to some of the alleyway found in Dublin.  

I like the looming look of the tall buildings either side. I like how it makes the ground floor appear darker and more sinister. I think that in my story the alleyway will have a dead end rather than the "light at the end of the tunnel" look in this photo, however, I think one of my closing shots will be a view of the whole alleyway, similar to this one, with the blooming flower at the end casting out light and essentially being "the light at the end of the tunnel".

I searched Google images for an abandoned cityscape for inspiration for my opening shot. I found an Image that I liked because it helped me to visualise what I wanted to draw, particularly for perspective.

I also needed a reference for the perspective for looking down, so I googled a perspective reference. I think that if I manage the camera movement right, it will look like a good shot.