Rather than having a narration I felt that speech would work better. It does mean I would need a facial rig for my characters and during animating I would need to spend time on lip syncs. I think this suits me better as I like the idea of bringing a character to life!
I also started some really basic Cat thumbnails with ink to understand what shapes would work best for the Rainbow Cat.
My favourite thumbnails are 1, 4 and 7. I think a mix of both circles and triangles will show that the Rainbow cat is both good and cunning.
I'm going to continue with some Cat thumbnails now that I have a better idea of what I'd like but I'm always open to ideas and suggestions!
I'd like to do an animated short based on the short story "The Tale of the Rainbow Cat". This a Japanese story in which a mischievous rainbow cat visits a wedding in the clouds and tricks a Thunder God.
With the nature of the story being Japanese I'd like to base my art direction on traditional Japanese art methods such as wood block printing. I've missed a more hands on approach to animation and I would like to create my environments using printmaking with the aid of Photoshop.
The artist that first came to mind was Katsushika Hokusai who is famous for his woodblock prints. I really love the use of line and the bright colours within his work.
I also took a look at how Gods and Cats had been depicted in traditional work. Gods often look somewhat evil and demonlike whereas cats look fun and charming.
What I'm hoping to achieve is a good art direction, based on the culture this story is from. Thinking of something that has done this well I would think of the game Okami. It's visually pleasing to look at while maintaining the charm of the artwork it's based on.
I'd love to know peoples thoughts about this idea! Especially if there's anything that will need work, I'd rather have an idea in the bag before we start week 1!
Although I liked the idea of working with Lemurs as
characters I felt that's all that was pushing my idea and a story wasn't coming
naturally to me.
I didn't feel like I was a strong storywriter so instead I
looked into some unfamilar short stories. I tried to pick stories with
interesting characters as this is something that appeals to me.
Here are some of the stories I have found appealing:
"The Little Green Monster"
(Haruki Murakami)
Synopsis: A monster burrows up into a woman's garden, breaks
into her house, and proposes love. The creature can read her mind and she uses
this fact to fight against it.
I found this story interesting because it reminded me of
receiving unwanted attention. The ending involves the creature being tortured
(by the womans mind) and the woman firmly stating that his proposal was
unwanted. If I choose this idea I'd like to change this ending slightly to make
it more appropriate for children.
"The Tale of the Rainbow Cat"
(Miyahara Kōichirō)
Synopsis: A mischievous rainbow cat visits a wedding in the
clouds and tricks a Thunder God.
I felt that the character design for this story would be
particularly interesting. Also I feel like the rainbow cat would be an
appealing character for children. Not much about this story would have to be
changed.
"The Tidy Drawer"
(Mo McAuley)
Synopsis: Abby is told to tidy up by her mother but when
she's cleaned up and about to collect her reward they find fun things in the tidy drawer.
This story has an interesting premise and shows children
that it can be fun to do things such as tidy up.
I personally think that both the Tale of the Rainbow Cat and The Tidy Drawer would both be fun to adapt, the Rainbow Cat has more interesting characters however I think the Tidy Drawer is better in terms of story. I'd like to know peoples thoughts on which story they'd like to see.
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.
After seeing Suicide Squad on Saturday I was inspired to draw Harley Quinn! I'm pleased with how far my drawing has come since I started the course but as always there's things to be improved! Onwards and Upwards!
I've been thinking of ideas to update my blog over the summer but I feel like this is the closest I've gotten in terms of something I like. I quite like number 3 and I'm planning on colouring and using that but I put this up incase anyone had any ideas on improvements? Feedback is appreciated as always!
