Thus, with this project I intend to create an animated short with the aim to focus more specifically on environments. As I have focused pre-predominately on the character production pipeline with the recent narrative project of the Chainsaw Wielding Baby, as well as character designs with the previous character design project, it would be refreshing to turn my attention more towards environments and further refine my skills in these areas of my development.
The subject I'm intending to transcribe is an extract from Persian philosopher Omar Khayyám, where he questions the unknown of life after death.
'Strange is it not? that of the myriads who
Before us pass'd the Door of darkness through,
Not one returns to tell us of the Road,
Which to discover, we must travel too.'
(Lloyd, 2008:5-6)
With this, the main idea of my animated piece would begin with a calm, serene garden type environment, establishing an atmosphere of peace and harmony. From a first person perspective, the camera would travel through the garden environment to arrive at a small Church, where we are lead inside to find a open casket with a body inside. From here, the camera pulls away to reveal that the individual we have been following is actually the person inside the coffin, but in a spirit form visiting his body one last time before disappearing once more.
Effectively, the animation becomes my interpretation of Khayyám's words into a visual form. I do not intend to present a sombre or fearful portrayal of death, but rather a peaceful and perhaps comforting tone of the journey that not one can return to tell us, but a journey we too will travel and discover. Here the animation provides the opportunity to create two diverse environments of the calm, serene garden to the exterior and interior of the reverent man-made structure of a church. Along with the challenge to capture the right tonality and atmosphere of the piece with lighting and pacing. While the narrative contains a character, it will most likely be a model and not one that is fully animated as we move in a first person perspective.
With this idea in mind, hopefully it will be manageable to fit within the limited 10 week time frame, allowing for further development and refinement. Any thoughts and feedback on this idea will be most appreciated.
Lloyd, John. (2008). QI:Advanced Banter - The QI Book of Quotations. London. Faber and Faber.
4 comments:
Hey Leo - I'm going to be super honest with you. Personally, I don't think this idea has enough grit - and there's something else it cannot accomplish: if you remember, both Alan and I felt that, in terms of your 2d style, you were running out of rocket-fuel a little. You'd reached something of a plateau. I strongly encourage you to use the transcription project to demonstrate greater adaptability/flexibility in terms of your ability to take on strong, idiosyncratic styles. I'd like to see much greater abstraction/art direction from you. I'd like you to pick something that absolutely CANNOT be approached in your usual style - that absolutely demands to be treated differently. After all, one of the elements of the submission is a technical document that charts your trial and error exploration of some new or innovative or interdisciplinary approach to cg stuff. If you want my advice you'll identify a subject that comes with a stong, robust and inherent aesthetic, that you must absorb into your own DNA - and allow some transformation and revolution into your creative life...
Also - there no's tension in your current idea; it feels very beige and without conflict or drama or emotional resonance. It's a bit new agey really. I want some strong flavours from you, Leo - something spicy and surprising. In this sense, I want your research and development to be exactly that - research into something you don't know yet, and a development of a style and technique that doesn't exist yet...
'there no's'?
*there is no*
sorry!
Spoke to Alan after you left, and we're both happy to see you slim down the 'world' in favour of some concentrated 'performance-centric' character animation. I got the feeling you were worried about content/context, but as I hoped I proved (even though I talked your ears off!) all context is 'for' in a design sense is giving you answers to design/style-based questions. It doesn't have to be weighty or 'intellectual' in that sense - context needs to be USEFUL to the designer!
Encountered this illustrator - some nice character work here:
http://rictercio.daportfolio.com/
Yep, thanks Phil. I may have not sounded it after our talk (as I had much to digest), but I feel a lot more reassured in how to approach this project. I'll make a new post once I've ironed out my idea.
Also, that illustrator has some very lovely work indeed. Thanks for sharing :)
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