Sunday, 4 March 2012

Uses Resources: Concept Art and Characters - Secondary Research

Concept Art and Characters:

2D Animation:
Bleach:

When looking into concept art and characters, since the premise is about a boy and his bird, I didn't feel that researching into the bird aspect would be needed to be done heavily so instead it becomes move of a focus on the boy and when I thinking about the concept or design of the boy, it became very clear that Bleach was a good example.

I really enjoy the design of the characters as whilst they can seem quite wacky and hold a very traditional japanese-anime style, it is the main character, Ichigo that stands out for me, mostly his hair. It's very basic and whilst I would like my character to stand out, I don't want to make his hair ginger/orange but instead just black, something to reflect the mood of the story, characters and such, plus the fact that his hair is rather spiky  and such really helps give off the edginess of the animation.

In that regard, I felt it was useful to Research in the 2D Animation of Bleach as not only does it give a eastern viewpoint but the design of the characters aren't too over the top and it made me think about how the design of characters can be used to reflect and illustrate the mood of the animation and how they can make it stand out a lot by changing things such as having Ichigo have ginger hair, something you don't typically see and that being unusual can have great benefits and makes you remember that character.

http://i.neoseeker.com/ca/bleach_shattered_blade_conceptart_jVdgk.jpg (Accessed 17/01/2012) - RELIABLE






http://www.concept-art.org/images/concept_art-bleach-005-small.jpg (Accessed 17/01/2012) - RELIABLE


http://www.concept-art.org/images/concept_art-bleach-006-small.jpg (Accessed 17/01/2012) - RELIABLE


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Pokémon:

The Pokémon Anime in terms of it's concept and characters isn't something I expected to take much inspiration from for the characters but instead the bird. The world of Pokémon features some very unique and interested creatures and when thinking about the bird once it has transformed downwards the last few moments of the animation, Pigeot was a bird Pokémon that came into mind right away.

It's long hair on it's head and the way in which the colour strips merge look pretty impressive and make it stand out and I like I said when researching Bleach the anime, having unusual features and design choices for your characters can not only help them be remembered but also reflect on the mood of the animation and since the animation seems to brightened up in the middle and later portions of the animation, I felt having a colourful yet vibrant bird design would be a suitable choice and considering the Pokémon Pigeot came to mind right away, it seemed right to focus and research into that.

So when I think about how it was useful to look into Pokémon, it's useful for the same reasons researching into Bleach was, it helped me think about how unusual design choices can make a character or in this case an animal stand out and reflect the mood of the animation quite a lot since they are taking the main stage and taking up most of the scenes in the animation, that's not to say backgrounds aren't as important, as discussed earlier, backgrounds can be incredibly important but an animation to me is stronger with just the characters than the backgrounds as they are the pushing force for an animation as that's where a major bulk of the story is told from, the characters.









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Comic Books:
Teen Titans:

When it comes to concept and characters, it isn't the design in particular that I like from Teen Titans and find it a fine choice for research in this field but instead the personalities the characters have and the comic book style layout.

The comic book style layout is something I want to incorporate into my own animation since I find it very interesting and unique and it a lot simplier in motion and can provide an easy outlet to get my emotional storya cross without putting hundreds of hours in a project that usually would be done by many people over the course of a few days like most 2D Animations.

It simplifies things and I really like that and as for characters, the designs are interesting and something I personally like but not something I want to incorporate but Teen Titans is one of those comics and cartoon series that have quite strong and what I find ti be, rather interesting character development. When looking into characters and concepts it is wise to look not just at them at face value with their designs but also the elements that brings these characters and concepts to life such as tone and personality.

This is one of the reasons why researching Teen Titans was important along with providing me a unique and interesting way to convey my 2D Animation. As you'll see later in my research, it comes clear that I want to take very heavy inspiration from not only this in terms of it's comic book style layout but also a cut scene from the video game Sonic and The Secret Rings for the Nintendo Wii that has cut scenes that I want my 2D animation to be very similar too.






















http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs11/i/2006/253/5/1/Teen_Titans_comic__page_1_by_JessKat83.jpg (Accessed 05/02/2012) - RELIABLE
















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3D Animation:
Disney Pixar's Up:

The characters and environments in the film Up can be dark in places and might seem like they fit the mood of my animation but typically Disney Pixar's Up is full featured 3D animation movie that is very lively, colourful and bubbly with rather bold characters that don't fit the style of my animation but can prove to be useful assets in my research.

As I mentioned earlier with the researching on the Teen Titans comic, I feel it is wise to not just look at things at face value and with Up, it seems apparent that looking into character development and progressing could be very important as it might help make a 2D Animation with an emotional story a lot easier.

Disney's Up features many scenes that can be heart warming or heart breaking, especially the introduction and outro. I think this is important to look at something like this as it not only brings a wide spectrum of pieces of media to research but because it helps build on the underlining tones of my animation with Up featuring great story and character progressing in my opinion.

That sense of loss seems to be a very common theme in these animations when they want to convey emotion and should be something I definitely consider for mine. Up is no exception and really pulls it out of the bag very well making it a good choice to research and a good reason to research it regardless.


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Photography:

Photography was not a form of media I expected to research or even consider looking into when researching into characters and concepts but with a simple google search I managed to find this boy with black hair, a dark hoodie and a background that seems to fit not only the colour tones highlighted in the image but portray a mood and sense of emotion.

I feel this is important to research as not only does this image have a boy that looks very similar to the design of the boy I want in my 2D animation, even though it is a photography from real life but it makes me think about how important tone can be and how it can be useful to portray a mood of a sense of emotion.

The background doesn't really give much insight on what it could be apart from some blury dying trees you would find in the winter season and an empty field but perhaps that is something I might want to consider. Making the environments blurred in order to give a cinematic view but not forgetting I want this in a rather urban setting but if that proves too difficult, a rural setting is fine just so long as I meet my goal by completing this so photography, to my surprise, was a rather important type of media to research into and with this image, it really gives off what I want my character to look like and that's very important when he taking the main role and will most likely be in every single scene.

http://data.whicdn.com/images/12302648/beautiful-black-hair-boy-eyes-hoodie-Favim.com-112126_large.jpg (Accessed 12/02/2012) - RELIABLE
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