Your concept art has been catching my eye for a while now; you're creating imagery that has a real 'viscous' quality - i.e. that it feels as if the air is thick with particles and fluid - and that slightly murky/translucent/jellied quality is one of their strengths. The use of forced perspective is also exciting - makes your cell structures seem of the utmost importance - like temples or cathedrals, and what I like about this approach is the way it kind of re-installs what is miraculous about cells - i.e. that they are the givers of life. In support of your production design and visual concept it might be worth dialing up this slight 'religiosity' of image (i.e. structures as 'divine').
I'm encouraging students to really use and explore the online colour scheme designer found here:
It's simple to use, but it will give you the confidence to combine colours excitingly - anyway, if you haven't done so already, give it a try.
Now - about this 'beginning with a book' preface to your film; I think it could work, but it only becomes truly necessary if you're using this preface to challenge audience expectations; for example, why not consider starting in a very drab, desaturated or black and white world, in which we're looking at a typical line-art drawing of a cell in a boring exercise book - and then rather like this famous scene in The Wizard of Oz, you take us into what is actually amazing, vivid and exciting about the world of the cell?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6D8PAGelN8
At the end of the film, we could return back out of the cell world into the book world, only to find that the cell illustration on the page is now brightly-coloured and engaging - the idea being that our perception of the subject has now been radically transformed? For me, the book needs to serve some kind of purpose in your film - otherwise, just get straight into the cell world and be done with it.
I'm challenging all students to have a 'thumbnail animatic' up on their blogs by the early part of next week, so you can commit quickly to issues of structure, sequence and shot composition, and we can have useful discussions before you commit to the presentation animatic for the pitch. See what you can do.
OGR 09/03/2013
ReplyDeleteHey Vikki,
Your concept art has been catching my eye for a while now; you're creating imagery that has a real 'viscous' quality - i.e. that it feels as if the air is thick with particles and fluid - and that slightly murky/translucent/jellied quality is one of their strengths. The use of forced perspective is also exciting - makes your cell structures seem of the utmost importance - like temples or cathedrals, and what I like about this approach is the way it kind of re-installs what is miraculous about cells - i.e. that they are the givers of life. In support of your production design and visual concept it might be worth dialing up this slight 'religiosity' of image (i.e. structures as 'divine').
I'm encouraging students to really use and explore the online colour scheme designer found here:
http://ucarochester-cgartsandanimation.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/online-colour-scheme-designer-and-its.html
It's simple to use, but it will give you the confidence to combine colours excitingly - anyway, if you haven't done so already, give it a try.
Now - about this 'beginning with a book' preface to your film; I think it could work, but it only becomes truly necessary if you're using this preface to challenge audience expectations; for example, why not consider starting in a very drab, desaturated or black and white world, in which we're looking at a typical line-art drawing of a cell in a boring exercise book - and then rather like this famous scene in The Wizard of Oz, you take us into what is actually amazing, vivid and exciting about the world of the cell?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6D8PAGelN8
At the end of the film, we could return back out of the cell world into the book world, only to find that the cell illustration on the page is now brightly-coloured and engaging - the idea being that our perception of the subject has now been radically transformed? For me, the book needs to serve some kind of purpose in your film - otherwise, just get straight into the cell world and be done with it.
I'm challenging all students to have a 'thumbnail animatic' up on their blogs by the early part of next week, so you can commit quickly to issues of structure, sequence and shot composition, and we can have useful discussions before you commit to the presentation animatic for the pitch. See what you can do.
Thanks for the feedback Phil :)
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