@Alan Third Year Project: Story ideas and Art direction

So my Premise for this story essentially is a lemur leaving it's troop of lemurs, with lemurs being highly social animals I felt like this was an interesting story to follow. 

I have two main ideas for the story but I'd like an extra opinion, I'm also not sure about whether my lemurs should talk in my animation and how many I should have. Troops often have 7-10 lemurs but I think 5-7 simple but characterful models are a more reasonable target.

Idea 1 - Baby lemur accidentally leaves group

Rosalyn brought a book called Once Upon a cloud to my attention. In the book the girl wants to find the perfect gift for her mother. This story idea follows a similar plot.

A version of the story can be found in the youtube video below.

A baby lemur, just leaving it's mother and able to look out for itself wants to show it's troop that it's a capable lemur. It decides that it will catch some food for it's mother which is the troop leader. While on the ground with it's troop it discovers a cicada/butterfly and chases after it so it can give it to it's mother. The baby lemur has a fun time chasing the insect but then realises it's lost and must find it's troop. 

Idea 2 - Young lemur leaves group feeling left out

A young lemur appears to be born without any rings on it's tail. This makes the lemur feel unwanted in it's troop and therefore it leaves. Later on his rings come in, this is how the troop find it and they feel bad for making fun of it.

I prefer idea 1, but I'm happy to work with either idea.

Lemurs come from Madagascar so I looked into the culture and art to help find an art direction for this project.

This influence map shows some work by malagasy artists. They tend to use bright colours in their work. 

Malagasy people often make their own textiles. They wear them as Lamba. These often feature bright, colourful patterns. 

I also put the influence map through a colour palette picker to determine which colours were the strongest in these pieces. Orange and Blue seem to be key colours in the work.

Fantastic Voyage: Idea development and influence maps

After speaking with Phil I've developed the idea I had. The influenza would still be kept in a jar but instead of being in a sweetshop it would be a specimen jar on a shelf as if someone was collecting bits of science. The animation itself could work as an appification and show someone using an app and selecting the Jam Jar with Influenza in. By choosing this Jar they'd learn about the life cycle and that a flu shot is available to be taken. By presenting the virus this way it makes science seem fun like a 'pick and mix sweet shop'. I still plan on basing my art direction on sweets and generally giving it a soft and sweet look. 

Here are some of the influence maps I've put together. 

FSTS: Production design influence map

FSTS: Influences

After my OGR I collected some of the influences Phil suggested to me. I'm really loving the idea of retro sci-fi influencing my production design, and I think it would really help me build a successful environment. I might start thumbnailing out my character and environment ideas though I don't want to finalize anything until I have my step outline re sorted out. Hopefully watching some old cartoons might get my comedic brain going! 

From Script to Screen: Initial thoughts and research

Character-Fisherman

 I began my search looking at the different types of fishermen, it's important to consider whether my fisherman is commercial or recreational. I think a commercial fisherman may create a more interesting story as opposed to a recreational one. I also thought thought my character would be a older mature character instead of a younger one, however this may be a little stereotypical. 

Environment- Space Station

I found my environment pretty interesting however I found it difficult in terms of it's relation to my character. The first question I asked myself was how fish may be in this environment. Maybe this environment is in another galaxy and therefore fish are able to live in space's atmosphere? This would then enable the fisherman to fish from the space station. As for the space station itself I'd imagine a more technical futuristic place where he and others would live. With the research I've done I've also noticed they're pretty geometrically pleasing as well as being practical. 

Prop - Stick of Dynamite

Having this prop became a bit of a roadblock for me. I wondered how a stick of dynamite would come into the possession of a fisherman. My first thought was he fished with it and that it was the best way to catch space fish. I started thinking however that his fishing equipment might become more important than the actual prop I was given, though dynamite has been used in fishing before. My second idea was that as he was fishing a stick dynamite got caught in his net and then proves a problem for him. This idea reminded me of a scene from the 60's Batman show in which poor Batman just can't get rid of a bomb.

For the actual stick of dynamite itself I'd quite like it to be unique yet still recognizable as a stick of dynamite, keeping the conventional colour will probably help with this. 

Other ideas

I think the key thing to consider what kind of role the dynamite will take in my story, once that part is figured out then the story should come a little easier. I did have other ideas about maybe an alien fish trying to destroy the world with the stick of dynamite and then the fisherman is sent to the space station in order to be the hero and save the planet but I was wondering if this idea was a stretch too far.

WIM: Definitive Influence Map

What If Metropolis: Definitive Influence Map and Key Asset Page

Definitive Influence Map for What If Metropolis. I picked out the Ernst paintings that inspired my ideas the most and the kind of natural textures I looked at in my ideas. 

I also have my final key asset sheet, with my decided colours, these may change in my final piece but these were the original design choices I made.

WIM: Initial Influence Maps

What If? Metropolis: Research pages/Influence Maps

Here is a page I put together of Max Ernst's work I wanted to see similarities in his work so I colour picked the colours and picked out key elements.  

I first gathered images of trees and thought that the rainbow eucalyptus tree (bottom far right) would be a good tree to base off in my city if I include them. 

Here's a page of interesting pictures of leaves I collected to possibly sit on my trees.

I also saw wooden type objects in his paintings so I collected pictures of wooden buildings. 

Influence maps for Invisible cities

Here are the influence maps I put together in relation to the invisible cities brief. I've tried to create general maps that can be used to influence all the cities. I'm hoping as I progress and find cities I like that I'll make more maps for those cities in particular.  

This is the first map I made I tried to think about the city that I wanted to create. The 3x3 image in the middle is to represent that I'd like to aim for creating a romantic, pastel type city. The two 2x2 images represent Venice and Italian architecture. Venice is one of my favourite cities and I noted that it also has canals which a few of the cities mention. Venice made me think of Italian architecture and it could be nice to include it in my city. I also have canals, pillars and bridges on my map because they're mentioned in a few of the cities. All the 1x1 spaces are taken up by fictional cities I'm fond of and inspired by. Radiant Garden (Kingdom Hearts) was added for its interesting structure and pastel colours, Kings Landing (Game of Thrones) was added for it's grandness, Candy Kingdom (Adventure Time) was added for it's colours, Tokyo-3 (Evangelion) was added because I like the adaptive nature of the city, it's futuristic and the buildings can be brought underground out of the way, Gotham (Batman) was added because I found it interesting how it had been portrayed throughout the comics, games and films each artist has had a different take on the city some choosing a Art Deco style and some going for a more gritty approach, Ba Sing Se (Avatar: The Last Airbender) was included because I really loved the environments in Avatar, lastly I've also included Rapture (Bioshock) for it's interesting Art Deco type city. 

I also wanted some real cities to be inspired by so I tried to find some amazing real places. Of course Venice is also on this map as well as Amsterdam, Prague, Paris, Rome, Cape town, Bruges and a small place called Tanah Lot in Bali.