Week 2 - Day 4
I've got some concept designs for the animals that may or may not be used in the animation as background filler. They're mostly of birds but I started off with a soft basic shape with curves and round bodies to show a calm side and then added sharp edges and jagged lines to show a change in personality. Their eyes will allow go from white and narrow to slits filled with either black or red to show their transition as well. I'm limiting my animal concepts to just three because I want to try a more "out of this world" creature creation next. Here is a picture of how far I got on that front.
You can see from my crude drawing how their eyes will shift colors. I'm aiming for a more sudden change rather than a smooth, ease-in-ease-out transition so we're definitely going to be using the whole anticipation, ACTION and then settle. Maybe not even the anticipation, JUST GO FOR IT. Hur-hur...
Anyway, moving on to creature creations.
The idea behind these designs were to invoke a sense of fear once they've shifted and...well, they personally creep me out if I stare at them for too long, especially that one with the gaping maw of a mouth. I started off with the idea of curves; something soft and assuming, and took it from there, thinking mostly of basic shapes and what they might mean. Their overall shape won't change too much but the change in their patterns going from rounded to sharp ought to give off that feeling of "something isn't right here". That, coupled with their eyes opening to reveal a darkness within, should only increase that thought. Their change in awareness should also provoke the character to realize their loss of control over their inner thoughts and inner demons.
I used a jellyfish as a starting idea but the thought of animating that many legs and tentacles was a bit of a down-point, so I just took the top and added the body of a worm or snake and worked from there. I mostly stuck with another three concepts but I might add some more later on once we've pinned down our script idea. Hopefully, we'll be able to get it all sorted out by Friday so we can have the weekend free to think further on possible concept designs. As long as we right on schedule, then we're all good. I WILL MAKE IT SO.
As much as I like birds, I'm not too sure how we'll be coping with trying to animate a simple cycle for them, especially with their claws, feathers, beaks. I think only the owl is actually possible because of the simple roundness of its body shape. The wings and ear tufts are an extra that can be removed if need be. The toucan might also work but dang those tail feathers!
--
I've also got some basic (SO BASIC) concept sketches on some environment designs for the spirit world. There's one of floating islands which reminds me a lot of Laputa, and the jump quests from Guild Wars 2 in the Caledon Forests. The second one is a cave system overrun with tree roots along the walls, ceilings and the ground. The cave entrance should be bathed in light to signify an exit to who knows where, maybe enlightenment. The third is about SPACE. Enough said. The fourth idea is mostly of flat lands, very misty and so foggy you can hardly see what's in front of you. I like this idea much better because we could show just the shadow of the creatures in the distance, their silhouettes faded or sharper depending on the distance of the character within the scene. When everything starts to gain awareness of the intrusion within the spirit world THEN you'll see all of their eyes aimed towards the character, penetrating through the fog to invoke a sense of SHOCK. However, if the landscape of the spirit world reflects the mind, then maybe this won't be as good of an environment to use, but who's to say that the spirit world is all bright colors of a perfect sky and luscious grass? It COULD just be as plain and just as mysterious. I shall bring this up later in our next group meeting!
Ideas 2, 3 and 4 are my favorites but 3 and 4 are definitely my top picks. Although, if I had to choose just a single one to talk about then I'm gonna go with number 4!
I should probably do a better drawing of that because now that I look at it again, they just look like random scribbles. Wow, such awesome...
--
Okay, so here is a quick video of the rough background mixed in with some monsters and animation of their eyes...
We can use the fog and put them on separate layers within the 3D space when we're in the video editing stage so they all move at different speeds depending on how close or how far the character will be. Because fog is all encompassing and they all move differently depending on what's interacting within it. I'm not sure if we'll actually go that far but this is just a basic idea of where I'm going with my designs.
--
No comments:
Post a Comment