Visual Influences?

I’m almost ready to start concept art for my animation and I’ve found  a few artists and works that I feel connect well with my story.

I began with a distinct interest in the work of Chris Sanders, I love the way he enlarges different parts of the body to emphasise the child like qualities of younger characters and the rounded style that he uses which adds to this effect.  Here’s a link to his web comic Kiskaloo which contains good examples of where he exaggerates the parts of the physique that we associate with toddlers/babies in order to provoke an adoring reaction to his work.

http://kiskaloo.com/2008/07/april-7-2008/ 

Here’s another link to a sketch of his I found on Deviantart where the same style is used to a greater effect.

http://alohalilo.deviantart.com/art/Sketch-of-a-friend-107877826

I intend to draw attention to the innocence of the children and appearance of the doll in my film in contrast to the gruesome occurrences and lurking evil that resides with in the doll.   As such I want to develop a style which emphasises both aspects. I consider the work of Chris Sanders to be a good starting point in achieving the cute side of my aesthetic.

I’ve also been looking at the work of Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini, an illustrator who uses mixed media, collage, computer software and a mostly sombre palette with strong accent colours to achieve eerie but enchanting images. Here are some examples of her work that I particularly like and a link to her webpage.

http://www.theartworksinc.com/folio/terrazzini/terrazzini.htm

These pieces have a strong sense of innocence and nature in contrast with darkness and corruption which I think ties in well with my story. I’m interested in the way she uses only one or two vibrant colours in a piece to draw the eye as I think this technique would work well in highlighting important aspects of my film such as the lipstick marks.

Additionally I’ve looked at Coraline, another film which uses a doll in a dark way, however in this film the doll never seems innocent. Here are some screen shots from the trailer.  

 

 

 

 

I like the way dark colours are used to set the scene and the use of litter and the single metal frame bed in the second image which connote isolation and neglect.

I have also been looking at the work of Jeffrey Thomas http://jeftoonportfolio.blogspot.com/ and I’m drawn to his “Twisted Princess” images. Here are a couple of examples.

The way he has used darker colours, filters and generally “twisted” Disney’s perfectly pure Princesses relates to the way I want to transform the orphans and doll in my film.

I also like the style he uses for “Red” (can be found on the website I’ve linked"), especially the way the the main character and blood stand out due to them being the only things with vibrant colours. Additionally I like the idea of using writing in the blood, it could be a good way to add to the communication of my story to the audience, although the message would have to be kept short and simple in order for the viewer to catch it.

2nd Animatic and some new ideas

I’ve been having trouble uploading my 2nd animatic so until I manage to make it work or update it and re-render, here’s what the boards looked like before I took them  in to Photoshop; resized (drawn wrong aspect ratio), coloured and separated  parts of them on different layers for after effects.

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I was still unhappy with a few of the shots because they didn’t read to well or didn’t look right so I drew out some more and have started re-jiggling things in after effects. Here are the updated shots.

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The updates are of when Shelley enters her mother’s room to find the doll and a pool of blood, when the orphan girls go to look for the doll and look under the bed (which in my opinion now reads a whole lot better) and finally when Shelley kisses the doll at the end. The last one I still may change slightly as I think it may look better if Shelley’s eyes go a little crossed.

I’m also going to take the sequences of the orphan girls turning in to dolls and make them happen at the same time. As long as it works fine it will save me some time to do more with the ending. I’d like to experiment with the doll’s transformation in to Shelley’s mother, using the same sort of effect that’s used in “13 Ghosts”, “Grudge” and “The Ring” where the footage speeds up,slows down, rewinds, fast-forwards, cuts to the character in different positions and overlaps several images at one time, often with a filter effect over the top to further confuse the the audience and draw them in.. This gives an eerie, haunting effect which could give my film a new edge and will also give me a chance to experiment with different media; possibly using photographs of my own china doll mixed in with the drawn version. So many possibilities, so little time. That said here are a few examples I found on youtube of the sort of effect I’m talking about. I’m off to do more work.