Adaptation B - Metal Influence Map & Thumbnails

I started working on some metal thumbnails to take a break from the pop character, below is both the influence map which is mainly made up of black metal bands as they have a strong look.

Adaptation B - Pop Influence Map

I've compiled some of the influences I've been looking at, the plan is to exaggerate the pop princess giving her a crazy outfit with lots of unnecessary accessories. I've been looking at current pop stars such as GaGa, Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj, I've also started looking at Harajuku in Japan as the outfits are particularly over the top.

Adaptation B - Influences

I've been looking for different influences for the characters I want to design and animate for my Adaptation B project, the plan is to create one character that would be part of a fighting game like super smash bros. The end aim for the project is to create a variety of different animation cycles that could be used in a showreel, I found a few examples of showreels with animation that I found interesting and to see what caught my attention.

The characters are going to be based on different music genres so the project offers me the potential to have them all look slightly different like the characters in super smash bros. However I quite like how disney infinity brings a variety of different worlds and characters together in a way that makes them all feel as if they belong. I like the simplified designs and how the characters feel toy like, this is something that I think could work and would be reflective of my style.

Adaptation A - Design & ABC's (so far)

After my tutorial with Alan he suggested looking for influence at Asda, so I went and took some photos of branding and shelves that had a nice layout.

Here's an couple of ideas I had for the infographic one involves using a products to display the abcs on and the other was more influence by adverts, the first idea would have the camera pan across the shelf and the labels would represent the letter, while the product gave information. The second idea would have the banner rotate in, this has the information and letter on it. An icon that relates to the information would then animate into the frame.

The ABC's so far, I think they will need adjusting but this is the first attempt, it was meant to start off nice and then by the end it was meant to be more bitter, kinda like a normal day in retail.

Adaptation A - Infographic Research

I've started looking for examples of infographics to get an idea behind existing designs and what I think will look good for my infographic.

Here are some image based ones that I thought could work, I prefer the examples that use less text and focus more on imagery to give information.

Below are some example infographics i have been looking at.

Character - Sidekick Info and Influence Map

Today i started to think in more depth about the sidekick for the hero, I decided a little while ago that the sidekick would be the guardian or watcher of the worlds. He is there to add comic relief as he rages at the worlds being muddled up, he would also give useful information regarding what needs fixing in each level, etc. 

Sidekick (Guardian of the worlds)

Name: (Working on the name)

Age: 15

Sex: Male

Wants (Goals): To repair the worlds and bring order back to the film reel in the sky, as he is the guardian of the worlds and he let them fall into chaos while on duty.

Needs: To be taken seriously and to accept he needs help to complete his goal.

Internal Traits: Height issues (Small man syndrome), Comical, OCD (Everything has to be in order),

External Traits: Small, Stressed by things out of place, Appears stronger than he actually is,

Flaws: Physically weak, Easily annoyed or angered, Thinks he can fix everything by himself

Personal History: He is the newest guardian of the worlds, he resides in the film reel in the sky watching and maintaining an order in all of the worlds. Although he is young he has been doing a successful job since the age of 10, that all changes when the villain and hero ruin his reputation. What he lacks in size he makes up for in personality and plans on being recognised as the best guardian of all time.

Here is an influence map for him, he needs to be short with lots of attitude, however I kind of see him being quite cutesy, as that will probably make the scenario even funnier.

Character - Villain Silhouettes & Influence Map

I started to work on the villain, I decided to use silhouettes again as they are quick and make it easier to see what shapes work well.

Here is my influence map for the villain as well, I see him being the opposite to the hero, so he needs to be tall and quite thin. This works quite well with him being an intelligent villain as apposed to a beefy brawler.

Character - Story Idea Refined & Initial Character Ideas

Here is my idea for the character project so far:

The universe is made up of different genres; they are linked by a giant film reel in space that has doors (frames) to all the different worlds. These worlds are locked and the keys are disturbed to the different heroes in each world. Each world goes through a cycle (plot/full film), the game begins at the start of a new cycle, which means the hero and villain are fresh in their roles.

Our hero is from an adventure/comedy genre and notices that there is a character that is stuck and tries to help them. Once the hero saves the character he gets immobilized by a trap and sees the character he saved morph into the villain of the world. The villain steals the world key from the hero and rushes off to escape the genre. He enters the film reel that is linked to all the different worlds and he tampers with the device responsible for keeping the worlds in order. The reel begins to spin at ridiculous speeds, the hero finally catches up to the villain and stops the device. This causes the worlds to get messed up as the sudden stop jolts all the doors; it also breaks the locks making all of the genres accessible. The villain escapes into a random world and morphs himself to fit in, the hero follows. When in world the hero notices that everything has been muddled up, elements and characters from other worlds are now mixed in. The hero takes it upon himself to fix the worlds as he is partly responsible for them being messed up.

I sketched down some of the elements for the "world map", the idea is to have a film reel that the player is inside of, the different frames would be different worlds and the central device is what the villain uses to mess everything up.

Gameplay:

The objective of the game is to fix the worlds by removing the elements that aren’t meant to be there and escorting the incorrect main character back to their world. The villain sets traps to try to stop you from fixing the worlds; he also convinces the characters in each world that you are the reason for all of the destruction, so they become obstacles and enemies that you have to deal with.

Hero

Name: (Working on the name)

Age: 16

Sex: Male

Wants (Goals): To fix the worlds and bring the villain back to the correct world (beat the villain)

Needs: To fix his own mess caused by his lack of experience

Internal Traits: Simple minded, Determined, Optimistic

External Traits:  Friendly, Clumsy, Panics when unexpected things happen

Flaws: Naive, Trusts people too easily, Inexperienced, Got lazy due to the comfort of repetitive cycles

Personal History:  Our hero is the son of a successful hero that always defeated the villain and kept the world safe, the father passed on the key and title of hero to the son a little while before our story begins. The hero gets too comfortable in the world as the villain has always been defeated in each cycle, so he decides not to practice using his abilities.

Villain

Name: (Working on the name)

Age: 17

Sex: Male

Wants (Goals): To escape from the never ending cycle of his world and to break the cycle for all of the worlds.

Needs: To be free from the circumstances he is trapped in, to rebel against the system

Internal Traits: Intelligent, Rebellious,

External Traits: Proud, Know-it-all teen,

Flaws: Selfish, Doesn’t think about consequences, Reckless, Stubborn

Personal History: Son of a villain that always failed, our villain doesn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps. Instead the villain wants to rebel against the cycle and stop them permanently. He studies and plans how he can achieve this task, so he can please his rebellious nature. He selfishly decides that all of the worlds need the cycles to stop and plans to escape his predetermined destiny. 

I had a look at some games for ideas about how the game play might look and I also had a look at some characters for some inspiration.

Character - Brainstorming Ideas

I made an influence map to help get my brain rolling with ideas, because I have found these three words to be quite challenging. However that being said once I started to look at games and thought more in depth I found a bunch of examples.

From this I thought of a quick concept for a possible game. It could be a side scroller game, in which you play as a character that can morph/stretch his limbs. The objective of the game would be to clear a path for a character in need, you can achieve this by using your body as tools to fix the mess in the way, or stretch across a surface to form a bridge, etc. The different characters could be popular culture inspired, so it could be Dracula needs to get back to his coffin before sunrise, or the princess needs to be taken to her knight in shining armor.

I am slightly unsure if i am using the 'Movies' card effectively, so any suggestions on how it could be used would be very appreciated and any thoughts on the other cards will also be welcomed.

Fantastic Voyage - More Influence Maps

My idea has changed quite drastically from the last influence map, so I have adjusted it accordingly. The new idea involves showing the malaria virus as a computer virus, that will be infecting different social media sites that are linked to the different phases of the cycle. For example red blood cells would have their own social media site that is then invaded and destroyed by the merozoites.

Fantastic Voyage - Influence Map

I've started to get an idea together for how I want to show the malaria life cycle, I like the idea of making it like an RPG game, using a pokemon/final fantasy turn based style battle system to display the information of the virus and how it's life cycle progresses. This will allow me to communicate the names of the different cells and explain what they are doing.

I looked at some of the different games to get an idea of how it could look, I also looked at microscopic images of the malaria virus, these images gave me a good sense of the shapes I would need and also a bright colour scheme to work with.

From Script To Screen - More Influences

Just another influence map, Ella suggested Fosters home for imaginary friends earlier today which completely slipped my mind.

From Script To Screen - Influence Map

Starting to get some designs down for the world and characters, Phil gave me some really cool suggestions to what the design could look like. A kind of retro feel to the salesman, could make for some fun and interesting designs. Here's my first Influence map, looking at various character designs and environments.

What If Metropolis - Definitive Influence Map and Digital Set Break-down

Here's my definitive influence map for my final concept, I looked at a lot of Gaultiers work and illustrations. 

I've also made a plan for how I'm going to model my city. The bulk of it will be modelled with the matte painting in the distance making it feel more vast.

 

Invisible Cities - Isaura Interior Thumbnail Development

Started creating some more developed thumbnails for the interior of a windmill, I wanted to incorporate the cogs/gears and the windmill seemed like the perfect building for that.

I did a couple of different colouring styles, I prefer number 2 for its texture but I think I prefer the colour from number 1.

I looked at windmill interiors and some of Heath Robinson's work for some inspiration. I also had a look at hillside towns/cities to re think my exterior establishing shot.

Influence Maps So Far

 For my influence maps I tried to look at cities that have inspired me before, for a variety of reasons. Calvino's extracts are all in some shape based on Venice, so Venice is one of the cities I looked at. I looked at some sci fi cities and kings landing from GoT as well. These have some interesting structures that caught my eye.

 For my next batch of influences I looked at cities with tall buildings and signs. I also looked at buildings under construction and a few more fairytale fantasy based cities.

Lastly I looked at Concept art from Blizzard Entertainment. I love the style of their work and some of the structures are truly inspiring. These are from Diablo III and World of Warcraft, If only the games looked as good as the concept art.