Emily – Your OGR has a good body of work which has begun to answer each aspect of your production. I like the choice to use an isometric design and to opt for a flat/toon shaded aesthetic. In particular, the way in which you are using isometric paper to create more refined digital drawings. This is beginning to produce good results so keep going with that process (advice below). In terms of your narrative (script) I think this is still a couple of drafts away from being the final product. Not necessarily because anything is wrong on paper, but mainly because you need a voice over and animatic now to see if it actually works. On paper the metaphors seem fine, but from my experience you often discover something ‘emotional’ in voiceover that may lead you to a different conclusion or it can make the idea you have seem less relevant or correct. For example, the spider web metaphor (Santa) could work but once you put it alongside a reading it could seem too abstract or unrelated. Simply put, you’re going to need a voiceover next to start solving problems.
Regarding your isometric process: There are a couple of things you should keep in mind whilst drawing/planning your narrative using an isometric /toon (cell) shaded technique. These are…
1) Firstly, you need to use colour to help define shape and to give you readability (contrast between objects). That’s true of most compositions but very important in isometric/toon because of the distance of the camera and the graphical nature of the work. If you take a look at your examples page (other people’s work) and your Maya experiment, you can see that there is a colour per surface to define shape and shading. Your house has one colour on one wall, a different colour for another based upon Maya’s lights (shadows and shading). However, in your drawings everything is flat and one colour. Simply put, colour invokes light and therefore shape. If you have a round (organic surface) you may need to use ‘two tone’ shading to give that shape too – A strip of brighter colour down an outer edge for example to mimic a light source. Finally, you will lose the outlines once in 3D so your colour designs should be built out of blocks of colour without the line. Does that make sense? That changes how you should think about designing them, graphically speaking.
2) Isometric can have the problem of feeling a bit emotionally disconnected due to the distance of the camera and being a perspective that is unnatural in the real world. In some ways that dynamic could help you with a theme – shyness for example – but it can also lead to things feeling a bit remote. Whist your planning your film try to make sure that you work ‘emotionally’ per scene. If you are talking about shyness the camera could be further away. If you are talking about being more overt / animated (your brother) then perhaps the camera needs to be closer in. That’s how it may feel to be around him/you or how you both see the world differently. That way you could bring the camera to same distance when things ‘even out’ between you. You can also use animation (visual motion/interest) and things like colour to combat the ‘unnatural perspective’ and make your world more engaging to the audience.
Overall, I am encouraged by where this project is heading Emily, keep going.
Emily – Your OGR has a good body of work which has begun to answer each aspect of your production. I like the choice to use an isometric design and to opt for a flat/toon shaded aesthetic. In particular, the way in which you are using isometric paper to create more refined digital drawings. This is beginning to produce good results so keep going with that process (advice below). In terms of your narrative (script) I think this is still a couple of drafts away from being the final product. Not necessarily because anything is wrong on paper, but mainly because you need a voice over and animatic now to see if it actually works. On paper the metaphors seem fine, but from my experience you often discover something ‘emotional’ in voiceover that may lead you to a different conclusion or it can make the idea you have seem less relevant or correct. For example, the spider web metaphor (Santa) could work but once you put it alongside a reading it could seem too abstract or unrelated. Simply put, you’re going to need a voiceover next to start solving problems.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your isometric process: There are a couple of things you should keep in mind whilst drawing/planning your narrative using an isometric /toon (cell) shaded technique. These are…
1) Firstly, you need to use colour to help define shape and to give you readability (contrast between objects). That’s true of most compositions but very important in isometric/toon because of the distance of the camera and the graphical nature of the work. If you take a look at your examples page (other people’s work) and your Maya experiment, you can see that there is a colour per surface to define shape and shading. Your house has one colour on one wall, a different colour for another based upon Maya’s lights (shadows and shading). However, in your drawings everything is flat and one colour. Simply put, colour invokes light and therefore shape. If you have a round (organic surface) you may need to use ‘two tone’ shading to give that shape too – A strip of brighter colour down an outer edge for example to mimic a light source. Finally, you will lose the outlines once in 3D so your colour designs should be built out of blocks of colour without the line. Does that make sense? That changes how you should think about designing them, graphically speaking.
2) Isometric can have the problem of feeling a bit emotionally disconnected due to the distance of the camera and being a perspective that is unnatural in the real world. In some ways that dynamic could help you with a theme – shyness for example – but it can also lead to things feeling a bit remote. Whist your planning your film try to make sure that you work ‘emotionally’ per scene. If you are talking about shyness the camera could be further away. If you are talking about being more overt / animated (your brother) then perhaps the camera needs to be closer in. That’s how it may feel to be around him/you or how you both see the world differently. That way you could bring the camera to same distance when things ‘even out’ between you. You can also use animation (visual motion/interest) and things like colour to combat the ‘unnatural perspective’ and make your world more engaging to the audience.
Overall, I am encouraged by where this project is heading Emily, keep going.