More storyboard sketches, some of them more readable than others. I suppose I should work on that, although the storyboard is mostly for timing purposes than aesthetic confirmation.
Since Hala no gadang is the constellation, I've worked that into it's preliminary design. Initially, this was just for fun and experimentation, but I think I might play with this some more as it has a nice mystical/surreal vibe which could help the feel of the animation. It's nice to get little surprises like that.
I will work some more tonight, but I'm not entirely sure whether I'll be animating these, or drawing more.
Snake eyes.
Grabbing a rock.
A snake, a man, and crushed eggs.
Running to the edge of the world and beyond
Boy do I have a lot of custom brushes for foliage and rock...I suppose that says something about what I like to draw ;)
Let me show you some of the things I like, and show you a bit of how I'd work as an art director.
I watch a lot of movies. And when I'm not watching movies, I like to watch shows about movies.
I'm not a movie buff by any means, but I'm trying very hard to become one!
And it has a use too, which I hope will become clear throughout this post.
So I have this animation project, which is a Sumatran myth about the new moon.
I already know why I'm making this, and what I'm going to tell. But how will it look?
One of the most difficult things about starting a new project which isn't a commission is that everything is possible. But doing everything is impossible. So let's not do everything.
Let's start somewhere simple. Color.
If I simplify things, there would be two directions to go. Muted and desaturated colors, and bright and vibrant colors. Both can be good choices, and I can easily name examples of where each of them works great. Schindler's List looked phenomenal with next to no color, as did Saving Private Ryan with its limited color palette.
On the other side you have the Life of Pi, and superhero movies like the Avengers which make great use of color to add life to their worlds.
The point is to choose the visual direction that suits your project the best.
Sometimes you have to make hard choices and exclude some of your favorite inspiration. Some would call this 'killing your darlings', but I think that's a misnomer. Because when I have a good idea, but it would be totally inappropriate for what I'm working on right now, I write it down into my sketchbook. And whenever I am out of inspiration, I can take my sketchbook and use anything I've written down before. So I don't kill my darlings, but I will keep them for a moment where they would grow into something great. As a bonus, I will never have to say that I have no inspiration! :)
Back to my animation. It is set in a jungle (and in space), and has the potential for some surreal but wonderful imagery.
Here's what I came up with for inspiration:
The Fall, by Tarsem Singh
Bright, colorful, and a fairytale to boot!
I also like the stylized camerawork. This will be my main visual inspiration.
Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Maybe not colorful the way I want to use colors, but it has beautiful cinematography by Bruno Delbonnel.
HERO, directed by Zhang Yimou
Yet another fairytale, this one makes creative use of colors to tell it's tales.
I might not use the colors like this, but I will take a good look at what I can learn from it.
House of the Flying Daggers, also directed by Zhang Yimou
I might as well add all Zhang Yimou films...
James Cameron's Jame's Cameron's Avatar by James Cameron, directed by James Cameron
I'm not the biggest fan of the movie as a whole, but boy does it do fantastical and colorful jungles well. I probably also like it for Dylan Cole's matte paintings.
Spirited Away, written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Again, I could add all Miyazaki movies for having not only wonderful visuals, but also a strong fantastical element worked into the visual design.
Fantasia/Fantasia 2000
I think that this is one of Disney studio's greatest projects, maybe with the exception of...
Destino, Disney animation studios and Salvador Dali
The above movie is the whole animation.
I could go on by naming artists, illustrators in all kinds of different media. Okay, very quickly I'll name at least Tin Tin, Daniel Dociu's art, Pascal Blanché any movie by Spike Jonze and the videogame Bioshock Infinite. Urgh, too many, so let's just stick to the examples I've shown above. Keeping focused is also very important.
But there's one more thing I'd like to share. Because this animation is going to be a lot of work, I'd like my composition in each shot to be as effective as possible, thereby reducing the amount of work I'd need to do. Lots of shots mean lots of backgrounds, and I know I'm going to be spending a day or two on each background already (I do pride myself on landscapes, you know).
So I'll add some reference for composition in motion pictures as well, to see how far a shot can be pushed.
BBC Sherlock, cinematography by Fabian Wagner
I love Fabian Wagner's work on Sherlock, but I am saddened that I can't find more of his work.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, cinematography by Roger Deakins
This movie should be watched by any cinematographer, preferably more than once.
Roger Deakins is one of the living legends, so as with the Hayao Miyazaki films, I could as well include all of Deakins' work here.
And there you have it. Well, not all of it.
I will have to look into specific references for the character and background designs. That'll mean looking at Indonesia and the visual language of a country, its landscapes and its mythology. But I will do so separately for each background and character. I've given you enough for today, I think.
See you next time, when I'll show some storyboards! :)
Trajan's Column in Rome (Public Domain image from Wikimedia Commons)
I think the best work is made when you are challenged. Maybe you get challenged by something you want to explore, or maybe by limiting yourself.
The latter happens the basis for the movie 'The Five Obstructions', a film where Lars von Trier challenges his creative mentor Jørgen Leth to recreate his most famous movie five times. And for every remake von Trier gives him a very difficult challenge, like limiting him to only 24 frames.
Now I want to challenge myself. But where can I look for challenges? Let's look at art in general for a moment.
With the current method I'm using at my internship, I teach my pupils an artwork consists of three elements they need to know (aside from the artist and the time in which a work has been made).
I will very loosely translate these into english for you.
First there's the contents, or 'what does it depict?'
A portrait depicts a person, an illustration tells a story ( it 'illustrates'). A good example would be Trajan's Coulmn which depicts Trajan's two victories over the Dacians. In an animation, it would be the story.
Next is the visual design, 'how does it look?'
Is it stylized like a comic book or manga, very abstract or very realistic? Which colors are used? There are a lot of questions you can ask here. I like to look at the composition of images and the colors that are being used, so I tend to look at the design of things first.
The last element is the function of the work, 'why is it made?'
Trajan's Column is made to commemorate Trajan's victories. Superhero movies are usually made to entertain. Art can also be made to say something about societies, sometimes because the artist agrees with the society, sometimes to show that something is horribly wrong with it.
Function is also where I want to challenge myself. Because I love hand drawn animation, but I think it's not getting all the love it could get.
You see, I keep up with a lot of the technical developments that happen within animation both hand drawn and computer animated.
And I read about Motion Capture, and HFR, and hair and cloth and water simulations. About sub-surface scattering, self-shadowing, real-time editing in games and the latest shader techniques.
But I rarely read about new techniques in animation, and that saddens me.
So there's my challenge. Why can't some of the breakthroughs in other animation forms be used for hand drawn animation? And I will not accept 'because it's too much work'. Lazy bums ;)
I will make this animation to show to push hand drawn animation a little bit further than it is now.
Which breakthroughs will I try to use and how? I'll tell you in the next part...
