Your 'font of crystal water' really stands out - that's a nicely filmic composition you've got going on there. A general rule I want you to apply to any man-made objects in your scenes is to ensure you're using real world reference in support of their design, to avoid creating generic 'polysterene' objects. Real world reference is also key in terms of identifying a colour palette - and remember this is concept art for animation, so colour can be bold and expressionistic for cinematic effect. In She, the city of Kor and (therefore the font etc) pre-dates the Egyptians, so you need to be researching the culture, arts and architecture of the Sumerians and Babylonians, and extracting shapes and structures and carvings etc. to lend authenticity to your world.
In regard to your cave scene, you need to find ways I think of making that feel less like 'potholing in Wales' and more like 'Exploring in Africa!' - so I'd suggest some artistic licence - perhaps, as the tunnels get closer to the temple, the columns are decorated with Sumerian cuniform, or there are carvings? Really, you need to work hard to ensure you're not just painting 'a cave' - but rather painting 'the caves of She' - there's a difference.
Back to colour: I shared these links with Scott a while back in an attempt to prove that colour in animation tends to be very extreme, very dramatic - and no one thinks 'hold on a minute, where's all that colour coming from?'. Take a look at these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08-uyfp2iPM
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiWocwb8bIQ
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMmfaaiWMEs
Notice monochromatic colour schemes (one dominant colour range), accent colours as rim-lighting, and a general arty disregard for 'real world' lighting. I think you should really push the lighting/colour in your three scenes, because there is magic and fantasy in your source material, which allows for a 'larger than life' approach. Oh - and one more thing on real world reference: if you're going to include a tree, do make sure it's an indigenous tree - i.e. something that would actually be growing in the setting of the book; you might think one bush looks a lot like another, but when it comes to evoking worlds, the more actual image research you do, the better - it just lends credibility and texture to your otherwise imagined worlds.
10/10/2013
ReplyDeleteHi Will,
Your 'font of crystal water' really stands out - that's a nicely filmic composition you've got going on there. A general rule I want you to apply to any man-made objects in your scenes is to ensure you're using real world reference in support of their design, to avoid creating generic 'polysterene' objects. Real world reference is also key in terms of identifying a colour palette - and remember this is concept art for animation, so colour can be bold and expressionistic for cinematic effect. In She, the city of Kor and (therefore the font etc) pre-dates the Egyptians, so you need to be researching the culture, arts and architecture of the Sumerians and Babylonians, and extracting shapes and structures and carvings etc. to lend authenticity to your world.
http://period8dolzall.tripod.com/babylon.jpg
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2210/2074168976_96a5213922.jpg
http://aboutfacts.net/Ancient/Ancient31/an31.13.2.l(1).jpg
http://www.kingsacademy.com/mhodges/05_World-Cultures/02_Ancient-Eastern-Civilizations/pictures/Babylonian-boundary-stone.jpg
In regard to your cave scene, you need to find ways I think of making that feel less like 'potholing in Wales' and more like 'Exploring in Africa!' - so I'd suggest some artistic licence - perhaps, as the tunnels get closer to the temple, the columns are decorated with Sumerian cuniform, or there are carvings? Really, you need to work hard to ensure you're not just painting 'a cave' - but rather painting 'the caves of She' - there's a difference.
Back to colour: I shared these links with Scott a while back in an attempt to prove that colour in animation tends to be very extreme, very dramatic - and no one thinks 'hold on a minute, where's all that colour coming from?'. Take a look at these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08-uyfp2iPM
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiWocwb8bIQ
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMmfaaiWMEs
Notice monochromatic colour schemes (one dominant colour range), accent colours as rim-lighting, and a general arty disregard for 'real world' lighting. I think you should really push the lighting/colour in your three scenes, because there is magic and fantasy in your source material, which allows for a 'larger than life' approach. Oh - and one more thing on real world reference: if you're going to include a tree, do make sure it's an indigenous tree - i.e. something that would actually be growing in the setting of the book; you might think one bush looks a lot like another, but when it comes to evoking worlds, the more actual image research you do, the better - it just lends credibility and texture to your otherwise imagined worlds.