Environment Re-Design

The feedback after our pitch presentation was to explore a simpler environment. The characters in our story are highly stylized and are metaphors for Religion and Science so it didn't make sense to place them in a real world setting. As a result the script will be altered to allow for the change in story and we're looking at creating a white space environment. In our first plan the set was only to be revealed after the characters had interacted with it to so their creation of the world/history so the suggestion at the pitch was to return to a similar style. The following images are of some influences I found to inspire the redesign. Mostly one colour or a cut out flat style.

 


Here are my concepts...

The White Forest.
How the forest is when it's undisturbed. A blank canvas.

Carl's Painting Forest.
These are digitally painted but would be hand painting for the final animation.

Simon's Sketch book Forest.
Again the shading of the trees will be hand sketched. This style
includes a sample of da Vinci's handwriting across everything...

...As this close-up shows.

To give an idea of how these settings might interact I've made a short animatic to show the changing. There are two styles in the same video to see which would work better. The first 10 second shows the idea of the trail... only the specific area they've touched changes. The next 10 second shows the whole forest transform after them.



I also looked at a coloured forest... completely green, to give another style for the studio to choose.

Environmental Concept Art

Finished Concept Art for the Forest Interior and the Riverside. They show the moods we want to create in each scene as well as the use of block colours as the scheme for the setting.

Storyboard mark 2.

A nice tidy Storyboard with the additional shots that have been added since in conversations.

Character Influences

During our tutorial with Alan, we discussed looking into existing characters that will inspire our own. We could use how they're animated as another tool for showing the vast differences in their beliefs.

Simon
Simon is a great thinker. He's analytical and always thinking. We discussed characters that seem to be in two places at once. They're involved in the real life happening action but at the same time, thinking about something else. These characters move suddenly as idea after idea pops into their head. Our major character influence is the 9th Doctor (played by David Tennant) as he always seems to be in another place just thinking.

Carl

Carl is a lot harder to place in existing character world... but he's essentially the opposite. He's calm and secure  He already has the answers he needs as he has his religion. His movement is graceful and flows from one movement to the next. The best character I could think of the compare him with is Dr. Watson from BBC's Sherlock. He is the opposite of Sherlock, who is one of Simon's influences, he's calm and kind and doesn't move around as erratically as Sherlock. When there's action he's involved but otherwise he's happy to sit and enjoy the surroundings. Zevran (a character in Dragon Age: Origins) is here as purely movement influence. He moves in a light, delicate way which would contrast the sudden movements of Simon. Same for Quasimodo, he's graceful and gentle. 

A Change of Scenery

Our story is very action based but the only major threat to our characters is the environment on which their stranded. To increase the tension of the film and the visual splendor I've began exploring the environment a lot more. Before we were looking at a generic desert island with palm trees and sunshine but this just didn't feel right. Palm trees aren't a threat, they mean holiday and coconuts. So I've begun to change the environment space. Here's the existing concept.

It's too safe and cosy for the style we want so we discussed moving the setting to, still an island, but one in a much damper, less pleasant corner of the world. The forest itself will be more of a rainforest type. Completely untamed by human presence, damp, mossy and uneven terrain. This'll be much more exciting to see the boys run through. This influence map show some existing environments that look ominous and dangerous.

Simon and Carl Finished Concepts

The character designs all finished and ready to come to life. Introducing Simon and Carl.

Constructing the Props

During our story Simon builds two inventions, a Hang-glider and a Boat. Conveniently, Leonardo da Vinci designed a flying device that greatly resembles a hang-glider. I took this invention and adapted it so it became possible for Simon to have built it using the resources of a tropical island. The hardest part was replacing the fabric with a viable source. Upon my research of palm trees I found that 2 main leaf types existed, a typical leaf shape but very large and a long twig with smaller leaves branching out.

Over-sized Leaves

Small, long leaves on stem

I explored both possibilities in the design but feel the that the normal leaf would be too delicate and the weaving of the other leave provides a stronger cloth. 

This image demonstrates how this method of palm leaf weaving is used in the modern world

Palm Tree Weaving

Next challenge was the boat. I read through H. Anna Suh's collected works of da Vinci's notebooks (Leonard's Notebook, Suh : 2009) to find inspiration but he never explored anything floatation wise. So I was challenged to create a device that would function but also had the finesse of a da Vinci invention. The boat in the story need only carry them across a lake and isn't needed for long time/ repeated use so logically only a raft would be needed but as a studio we felt it needed to be more elaborate without being a full on boat with bowed wood and flooring. Here are my sketches exploring the boat:

I tried different shapes but found a way the the two characters could build a conventional shape boat that would float. By interlocking the palm tree stems and cutting them to form a comb joint. This would be hard to make water tight so the addition of two buoyancy aids on either side keep it afloat. The sail will be made of the same weaved fabric from the hang-glider. I'll be making up a very simple model in maya to demonstrate the construction for my studio.

Comb Joint

Colour Palette

Using the influence maps created for each character and an image of a tropical beach I created a colour palette for each character and the environment. I then overlaid these three palettes to give the studio an idea of the colour tone that will be created by combining the three together. The resulting palette flows well and has a feel of the renaissance. We feel that the colours that represent the renaissance are neutral colours (browns to creams) so the overlaid palette is a good sign that this is the feel we'll create. 

Character and Environment Concepts

Having finalised the script and storyboard as much as we can at this stage (before a pre-viz) we began to look at refining our two characters and the setting.

Character

As concept artist I was challenged to create two boys that had the same features and shape but differ in personality. The reason we decided to have the boys look identical is an extension of the Prince and the Pauper, the story that inspired our narrative. It works best for our story as the idea is that the boys are exactly the same except that one embodies religion and the other science. They are parallels of the same person. This helps us show metaphorically through our narrative that the two opposites, Religion and Science, leave massive imprints behind them (in history) and combined together they form a functioning world.

Getting a Face

We knew that we wanted a cartoonish style. In a studio discussion we decided which level of cartoon we wanted. This is a scale ranging from ‘Phineas and Ferb’ to ‘Polar Express’. We settled on somewhere in the middle.

I drew up some faces and tried variations to give the studio a variety of options. We agreed that number 1 with eye shape b would work best for our characters as it is sweet and would make them both instantly appealing.

Getting the Shape

Using the basic face shape I experimented with different body shapes. We wanted out boys to be young teenagers so their beliefs aren't attributed to naivety. I began with a long body with exaggerated features then tried different variant on this. To make sure there was a variety of a choice for the studio to pick from I created a shorter character option too. We decided that shape 1 worked the best with the action genre of our story. It would show the movement of the boys clearly with exaggeration on the feet that will leave an imprint behind.

Getting the Costumes

After a trip to the library to find costumer books on renaissance fashion we walked away with a lot to sift through. We looked at religious figures like the pope to see the style of dress they wore and at the ‘current’ fashion of the era. We wanted to represent the differences of the boys visually through their clothing. The trick was to make it so the audience, assuming they don’t have a prior understanding of renaissance fashion, could read the beliefs of the characters through appearance. We found that clocks and loose, draped fabric with simple patterns was often worn by the religious figures. Tight, shapely and elaborate clothing was worn by young fashionably men. Fashion works in representing science as fashion is all about the new, the re-design and what’s next.

Here are the most influential images from our book research.

I quickly sketched out some rough ideas for each characters costume.

Then combined the whole lot together; face, body and costume. The next stage is to colour the two in to match their art style (da Vinci – Simon, Michelangelo – Carl) and create the image planes so we can begin to model the characters.

Environment Concept

The style of our environment will be a cartoonistic style that works best with our characters. Not overly detailed but not abstract. The textures will be fairly basic but still reflect the real life object it represents. The following concept art looks at the colour palette and the hot and hazy effect we want in the first scene when they characters find themselves stranded. 

Michelangelo and da Vinci

Now that the concept of the contrasting styles is set we began to look at the two artists we are using more closely. Both are very fascinating men and were high influential in the era and to future generations.

Michelangelo:

Born: 1475           Died: 1564

Michelangelo was an Italian artist who massively influenced the future of western art. He was a forerunner in the high renaissance movement and highly regarded in his own lifetime. One of his biographies, written by Giorgio Vasari, described him as the pinnacle of all artistic achievement since the beginning of the Renaissance. He learnt to paint under the apprenticeship of Dominico Ghirlandaio. He had many disciplines but is mostly known for his paintings and sculptures. Two of his most influential paintings are his fresco works in the Sistine Chapel, Rome.

Leonardo da Vinci:

Born: 1452           Died: 1519

Da Vinci was an Italian polymath, in that he had many creative disciplines, most of his studies were in the arts and sciences. In his own time he was something of a celebrity. His most known works as a painter include the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. He’s also renowned for his note books that hold his inventions (including a tank, helicopter and solar power) and his anatomical studies. He never published his scientific findings so they never contributed to the furthering of science.  

Testing Concepts

Latest at the studio is working on our design concept for the characters. Here we have been testing to see how effective our idea for the contrasting styles will work. This isn't our final character design, just a quick character outline to test the designs on.

The scientist character will look like a da Vinci drawing while the religious character will look like the painted masterpieces of Michelangelo.

We discussed these designs earlier today and decided the best way to achieve the desired effects would be to hand paint and sketch the texture maps physically then scan them in to be wrapped around the models. This means we the textures will look more natural and effective as opposed to trying to recreate the effects using Photoshop, which will always look synthetic.