This was effectively my first attempt at a finished piece of work and initially I was pleased with it, I liked the orientation of each panel and how some of them jumped the boundaries and sort of invaded the space of the other. Additionally I liked some of the more obscure panels I used, such as the syrup dripping off of the hand which I did because I thought the alternative ideas of just a syrup bottle or something similar would've just been boring and basic. Paired with this is the visual pun of putting your heart into everything your bake which I illustrated by simply placing a severed heart in the panel. Finally I liked the idea of leaving areas of black negative space around the edges of the design, personally I preferred this over trying to fill the entire page and I feel that it nicely frames the piece and highlights the chaotic style of its layout. However there were certain elements which I wasn't as pleased with. For example when I scanned in the image it came out very over exposed so all of the colours were distorted and blown out, also the sizing of some panels I feel could be adjusted such as the heart shot which would be more noticeable if it was larger. So I decided based upon this that I should re draw certain elements as well as adjust the colours digitally for my second attempt.
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This is my final design for this project and overall I am glad that I decided to redraw it in retrospect, after certain panels were re sized as well as some panels being overplayed on top of each other the overall composition has benefitted in my eye. Personally I really like how the hand goes beyond its own boundaries and bleeds into the space of the panels surrounding it, to me I think this just adds to its chaotic look whilst not disrupting the piece as a whole. In addition to all this I'm glad that I adjusted the colours in photoshop as a pose to just leaving them all naturally lit, by evenly lighting the whole piece it makes it look like a single fluid piece as a pose to multiple pieces all joined together. Of course there are still some things I would like to fix, such as adding in some more transitional shots perhaps just to help the whole thing flow a little easier, but overall I am very pleased with how its turned out.
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Additionally I played around with the actual look of death as I didn't want to just stick to the traditional grim reaper style figure, then mainly due to personal preference as well as both films sharing a desert setting I used mad max as a source of reference. Calling back to how some posters don't have anything to do with the actual film and how in some instances creative liberties were taken to improve the style of the film, essentially moving away from just using imagery or themes within the actual movie itself. Additionally mad max as a franchise is essentially my main source of reference for a desert set film and its one which I'm much more comfortable with referencing within my work.
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When it came to incorporating the title into the design I settled for a simple wooden sign hanging outside the saloon, again with the colour I tried to emulate wood so layered the tones laterally and purposefully left the areas where breaks formed empty to make it slightly more realistic, I split it into two so it wouldn't look too compact in the final design.
When looking at how the model has turned out I like that it retains a general western look due to the dominant earth tones used throughout and a lack of anything too vibrant and saturated. In addition to this I'm thankful that the layered wood on the building turned out as intended as it would have obstructed the final outcome if there were glue seams scattered throughout the piece. I would've liked to have experimented with the floor perhaps but overall I wasn't planning on having it be used in the final photograph so there wasn't much point wasting resources when it wouldn't be appreciated. |
This was my first attempt at some rough concept art for some potential shots for my sequence, this would essentially be the last point in its relevant section as in there would be some movement before this point as the panels all move and shift into place, then there would be some general movement of the silhouette itself as the actors name would appear above them. Generally the shot would be fairly static with the movement mainly occurring with the shifting panels and text drifting across the shot. With regards to what would be in each panel that would depend on the particular character design I settle on.
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I began sketching up artwork for a second character and initially I followed the same pattern of just muting the colour scheme slightly, however after some consideration I decided to play around with some more vibrant tones to lean into the sci-fy aspect of the brief more. I coloured the pieces as I normally would then over layer a vibrant but transparent layer on top of it at the end. Personally I preferred this over the original concept of just toning down the colours so I decided to run with this through out my animation.
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For the ending I decided it would be nice to end on a simple closing shot of a futuristic looing city an just pan upwards, nothing too ambitious but it would allow me to play around with colour a bit more just to hammer home the sci fy elements of it all. Overall I used mostly Asian cities as reference for this shot but that's mainly just personal preference as I just like the look of them more but I suppose it also helps convey that slight anime aesthetic to it I suppose.
Finally in terms of what soundtrack to add to my animation I was mainly thinking something very 80's and synthesized as again I feel this would help convey the tone a lot better. After looking around a bit between artists such as 'Rush' and 'Hawkwind' I eventually settled on a song which as it turns out had already been used for a trailer that being the original synth wave track used in the trailer for 'Thor Ragnarock'.
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