Minor/Major Project: Influence Map

Although this influence map doesn't show much of a range of influences, it shows what my current idea is, which is to create a silent horror comedy over the year. I have been researching silent comedy and horror comedy quite a bit over the past couple of days trying to think of how the final animation would play out. As I said in the project proposal post, for the minor project, that will mainly consist of designing and modelling the monster character. Frankenstein is an obvious influence for this idea -  Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell is a film that has the known story in place, but has a completely different design to the original monster design from the 1931 film. This will allow me to make the design unique, but will still be familiar to audiences due to it's origin.

Young Frankenstein is one of many examples that demonstrate the potential in this idea, I think. The challenge will therefore spawn from the decision to make a silent film, and so I will need to use visual/slapstick humour in order to get the laughs. When trying to think of the style of the animation, I remembered that there are these figures called Vinyl Idolz, that have a fun cartoon design to them, similar to the style that I was going for in the From Script to screen project in year 1.

Adaptation B: Influence Map - Seaside Towns

 

I have done another influence map to show where I'll get inspiration/ideas from, for when I'll be designing the buildings. As the buildings need to look similar enough to make them believable in the fact they live in the same street, they need a consistent design. As I mentioned in my initial design post, I will use bright colours to demonstrate a seaside location. I have looked at several British seaside locations, such as Brighton, Margate, Herne Bay, Broadstairs and Blackpool. As these cities/towns have been in place for many years, they all have buildings that were designed in many eras, and in addition to this, as Seaside towns appear to be on the decline some of the buildings demonstrate the lack of custom/care.

Adaptation B: Influence Map - New Idea

Following on from my previous post, I have created this influence map which shows images as to how I imagine the animation looking. Obviously, these are all illustrations, but I think there is potential for me to incorporate my own style into the design.

Adaptation A: Influences

Influence Map

During the feedback, it was recommended that I look at the work of David Shrigley, which is what I have done. I can see a clear similarity between his style and my own, through the line art style and bold black lines. It is also quite minimal and so can make for an interesting infographic. As well as illustrations, David Shrigley has produced many different animations using his style. They are quite simple, but have quite grotesque humor. As the guide is about failure, I could make it quite fun and have it share a similar sense of humor - which I believe I could do.

Phil also recommended that I look at Modern Toss. Modern Toss is a comic by both Jon Link and Mike Bunnage. They show specific situations, which are mocked by it's characters. Like Shrigley's work, they are quite simple and have a line art style.

Both of these influences can lead to a fun Beginner's guide to failure and should be very funny, and somewhat controversial due to it's messages and style of humor. I will try to create some characters of my own, using a similar style, but is obviously still my own.

An example of one of David Shrigley's animations is below. It takes a very awkward situation, and through the way it has been created, the animation makes it weird, but fun, to watch.

       

Narrative: Influence Map - Father Character

For my group's narrative project, we need to design a Father. As the Father is very pushy and persuasive, I have looked at Dads from films, in particular - Frank Fitts from American Beauty being one example. Characters like him are similar to the one in our story. He's aggressive and wants his son to do what he says, and doesn't like it when he disobeys him. Like the pushy parents you see at a Sunday league football game, our Father figure needs to demonstrate how much he wants his son to do as he says. His appearance must reflect these characteristics and that is what I hope, and intend, to do.

Character: Influence Map - New game idea

Following on from my last post, this is a game idea that I have thought of. It is a post apocalyptic computer game, where the world has been destroyed by global warming. It is set in one of the World's major cities (Undecided which one), and city is split into several territories, which are all run by different leaders. Each territory has their own style of living, clothing and working. You play as a character, who can belong to any one of the territories depending on your choice. Your job is to go out into the World and help your territory survive the harsh conditions i.e. Storms - which can damage your territories' camps. In the World, you will face many creatures, like Wolves and Yetis, as well as facing the other territories.

The influence map above shows some pictures that I found that look similar to how I imagine the World will look, and the Fallout Shelter image is there because it gave me the most inspiration.

Character: Influence Maps - Foxes and Raccoons

As I want to continue working with the idea of having teams of the Foxes and the Raccoons, I have made these two influence maps. I have included real photos as well as some cartoons... and Rocket (obviously). These photos/images will help me to get ideas about how I can create my own design. I will first draw a real version of each animal first, as that is a good way for me to get used to drawing each animal.

What If? Metropolis #2 : Influence Map - City concept

Looking at Hans Hofmann's work it is very compact and colourful due to a series of shapes. These shapes are all squeezed into the picture and so resembles that of a shanty town. Looking at these cities, especially the Favela in Brazil, the buildings are all very close to each other and are also, in some cases, quite colourful. Some of the images in the influence map show this as there is a wide selection of colours involved, especially in the second image down from the top right corner. That is something that can be seen in Hofmann's work and so would create an equally compact setting.

What If? Metropolis #2: Influence Map - Hans Hoffman + Initial thoughts + Fantastic Voyage UPDATE

This is an influence map showing some of Hans Hofmann's work. As you can see it is very abstract and so creates some interesting shapes. With regards to designing the city, my initial thoughts are that it should be very colourful and quite obscure. In some of these pictures, I can see layouts of a city, replacing blocks with buildings of the same colour and using  colours for the sky/sea/background etc. In comparison to both Bridget Riley's work and the city I designed,  I imagine this one to be more vivid and more "crazy" - if that's the right word. I think my biggest challenge will be managing to convert the rather basic shapes and colours of his work into a city.

Fantastic Voyage UPDATE:

I have been working in flash for a couple of weeks or so now, and have been doing so while having a wealth of internet problems. I intended to have it finished by the end of this week, but it will probably be next week.

Fantastic Voyage: Influence Map - Animation Style

Before creating the textures for the forest, I wanted to create another influence map to demonstrate the intended style, again. After searching for resources and designs that would work with the animation, I found an episode from "The Pink Panther Show" called "Pink is a many splintered thing" (1968). In the influence map below, you can see how the style of the cartoon works with the style that I am going for. With a clean, colourful character, and a sketchy/water colour background, it gives a rough idea of how the animation should look.

Fantastic Voyage: Influence Map - Character Style

Like I said in the previous post, Phil mentioned how the idea of the animation is very nostalgic and so he gave me some links to several different, classic character styles. From those images, I continued to look at 1950s character designs. I found quite a few character design sheets that can prove to be very useful. I will take these images and will also look at the "Cartoon Animation" book, by Preston Blair, as it gives me several ways as to how I could create a classic style character, which I will then alter to match the style of the life cycle and forest.

Fantastic Voyage: Influence Map - Life Cycle style

In my OGR feedback, Phil pointed out that if I were to have a simplified art style for the 2D aspects in the 3D space, the style of the life cycle should match. He also noted that the use of a boy scout is quite a nostalgic idea and so a 1950s style would be suitable. I have looked at some of the recommended styles and have found some more pictures that share the styles. As you can see, they are very clean and neat, with line drawings with a some blocks of colour. I think the style is similar to that of my life drawing style of smooth lines and there not being a lot of detail. The cycle should, therefore, transition smoothly and the cells should move accordingly.

Fantastic Voyage: Influence Map - Forest

This is my influence map for the Forest. As you can see, the pictures are very bright and colours, this is because the forest needs to look friendly and safe, otherwise the idea of a young boy going into it alone wouldn't make sense. I think it would make sense for the forest to look like a place where all sorts of things can be discovered, like bugs and plants, similar to that in the bottom right corner. The forest should match the boy scout's character in being friendly due to the target audience of Key Stage 2 children.

Fantastic Voyage: Influence Map - Boy Scout

This is the influence map showing my sources of inspiration for the boy scout. As the animation is intended for 8-11 year olds, a boy scout of that age is the right choice. He should be cute and innocent looking, and so would make it easier to relate to the character. I have looked at some existing boy scout cartoons, and so can develop the boy scout into the style of the animation.

From Script to Screen: Influence Map + Thoughts about each components

I have decided to stick with my latest idea and have created this influence map to demonstrate how I imagine the characters, setting and props to be like.

Character Ideas: The story's main character, Simon Frost, is a middle aged man, but due to his life of farming, he hasn't aged too well and so has a slightly older appearance. He is a very high class individual and is well dressed. However, he has a very scruffy face and dirty hands. He isn't the most careful individual, although is a very intellectual.
 Our secondary character is a small elderly woman, who tends to be very nosy and likes to see what others are up to on the allotment. Despite her curiosity, she is a well spoken, friendly person and has previous in vegetable growing competitions. She is well dressed and very neat in her appearance.

Character Influences: For our main character, I have looked at Boycie from "The Green Green Grass", which is for those who don't know a spin-off of "Only Fools and Horses". He is very high class, and has a strange voice. With his smart clothes and personality, he can be a good source of inspiration for Simon Frost.
For the elderly woman an obvious, but suitable, influence is Mrs Marple. I think Geraldine McEwan's portrayal is a brilliant casting choice. She's small, innocent looking, but she is also very intelligent, and even somewhat witty. That type of the character would be very suitable for the story as it's almost a spoof of Murder mystery programs, and the reference/design choice would be very clear.

The Allotment: As this is the place where Simon has worked and lived for most of his life, it should demonstrate that. I have looked at images of old/deteriorating allotments and I think that would tell the appearance that something is wrong with our main character, as why would someone want to live there? I do think I good idea would be to have the allotment very busy and full of people work at the earliest opportunity in the story, and then at the latest point possible, have it deserted. This will demonstrate the strange goings on at the allotment.

Weird Shaped Vegetables: As the story will consist of vegetables shaped like the people that they were grown from, I looked at some existing vegetables that have human like attributes. Some are very obvious, but some are very strange, some of which look very "erotic, if that's the best way to describe them. These vegetables have showed me how I can create these "Vegetable Caricatures".

Photo-booth: For the story, the photo-booth will now be a major component and will be alluded to by the number of photo strips that Simon has of himself and his winning vegetables. The photo-booth is a place he goes to celebrate his victories, and that demonstrates his strange personality.

Wheelbarrow: Simon uses the same wheelbarrow everyday and has done for many years, this is demonstrates by the squeak of the wheel and rust around the handles. As I want to demonstrate the mystery further, Green could be the main colour with red handles. Green and red will subtly show that there is something wrong with the allotment and Simon, but that needs more thought.

I believe 2D is my strongest suit, so I need to develop an interesting style that combines both the mystery and comedy that the story possesses.

What If? Metropolis - Influence Map 2

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I’m not too sure about what the overall look of my city, I do think that it would look best black and white. Quite a lot of her work is Black and White, and it would work better with the tone of the city that I’m talking about in my travelogue. I also think that the black and white thumbnails that I have created look more relevant to her work than the ones in colour.

What If? Metropolis: Bridget Riley - Influence Map

So the artist that I got was Bridget Riley. I have actually researched Bridget Riley before for my GCSE work and college work, so I already have an advantage. I really like Op-Art and she is one of the leading Op-Art artists. More research is to follow in the upcoming days, but as an introduction post to this new project, I'm glad I got an artist I have already looked in and like. This influence map shows some of her most well known work. It borders on being considered as illusions and her work can create an incredible mind bending city.

Who's Who? - Jan Urschel Influence Map

As I said in my last post, I did an influence map showing some of the work of Jan Urschel. He is a free lance art director, who has done concept art for both feature films and video games. During his career he has worked for the likes of Warner Bros. and Marvel. His work is very detailed and he uses a range of colours in his work to show create tone and depth. Some of his work has a slightly abstract feel. Most of his work has a consistent foggy look to them as some areas are shrouded in smoke, and so this makes his work more realistic. His "Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag" work will be a good source of inspiration for my Invisible cities project as he has drawn ships and boats travelling on the sea in different weathers, and this can help me design the city of Despina as that is accessable by sea as well as by land.

Bibliography:
Urschel, Jan (2014) Hendrix Design - http://janurschel.tumblr.com/ (Accessed 19/10/2014)

Influence Map - Cities with water

As quite a few of the Invisible Cities that I've done thumbnails for, so far, include water or Seas and Oceans etc. I thought I'd look at existing cities where water is either running through them or beside them. Some cities, like Venice, has the Grand Canal running right through it, so it plays a major role in the city layout and how people get to places. But other cities, like London, have  big rivers, in this case River Thames that doesn't play that big of a part in the City layout. As I mentioned in the last Influence Map post, I really like Italy, so because of this I will look into Venice and similar Italian cities in more detail.

Influence map - Influences from Games

I am a big fan of the Assassins Creed series, not only it's stories (Except Assassins Creed 3), but for it's art style. I especially like the Italian settings as Italy is my favourite country for many reasons. I, therefore, wanted to take my love for gaming and Assassins Creed into this project as the series has been to and been in different periods of time and well known cities, that consist of different styles of architecture and layout. I find all the Assassins Creed concept art incredible as they have a high level of detail, but style contain the style of the artist. One such concept artist is Jan Urschel, who worked on the latest part of the series "Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag". I hope to look into Urschel and his work further.