WEEK 4
[POST 3/3]
Artstyle
I have a couple ideas for the art style. Obviously, with the time crunch and my minimal experience, I must resort to a simpler style. My first idea is what I intended to go with: simple line art and very minimal shading. Most of this will just be solid colors.
My other idea follows a far simpler art style compared to my initial idea. It is inspired by the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F64yFFnZfkI
This animation demonstrates the lack of color in the character. I believe that using a style like this with a red string could place emphasis and focus on the red string since the characters lack color. To make up for the lack of color, I would have to be very focused and detailed on the facial expressions, posture, movement, and shape of the character to portray their personalities. This example also uses images from the real world while editing the image with animation to imitate the movement of a handheld camera. This is what I had planned to do-- use images from real life and draw/animate over them. I believe this is quite a useful reference for my project.
I also like the touch of chromatic aberration to the lines to make them pop more, to make it look a little more interesting. I want to include this aspect as well as it strikes me as interesting, which I believe the audience will too. Though too much of it might be overwhelming so I may just only apply the chromatic aberration for movement.
Character Design
There are two main characters in the film. The first character will be the main protagonist, who will be in majority of the opening, as they are the focus. The other character is introduced later on, in the second half of the opening. I changed the main character to Toya-- initially was supposed to be Alyx-- but I realized that Toya reaching out to Alyx would be breaking his comfort zone of keeping to himself.
The main protagonist is named Toya.
This character is a very closed-off and introverted person but is not the type to be particularly shy. Toya mostly just prefers to mind his own business and dislikes meddling with other people's business. He constantly wears noise-canceling headphones to avoid unnecessary conversations with people. He's a very direct person. Toya relies on thinking logically over feelings. If I were to use a shape to describe him, it would be a pentagon. Sharp.
The second protagonist is named Alyx.
Alyx is what I would like to consider a shy extrovert, one who enjoys the presence of people but cannot express himself well with unfamiliar people. Alyx dislikes avoiding conversation but it does make them quite nervous... and they have never been able to handle the anxious feeling. Of course, as Toya's polar opposite, Alyx will be portrayed to prioritize feelings over logic. This will most likely not be included in the opening, but Alyx carries around what I would like to call an "emotional support" plushie, about the size of my hand-- so quite small. Alyx would be considered a semi-circle. Soft, but just enough...
Additionally, I want to consider Alyx as genderfluid. Not only do I want to include representation for this project, but I want to just demonstrate a constant struggle for self-identity among some teenagers. I honestly believe this trait is quite underrepresented in current media, as the majority of the LGBTQ+ representation is just being attracted to the same gender or being transgender (which are already quite underrepresented, especially in Western media), but not much has been shown for the people who struggle with a particular self-identity. I have not yet decided how I would portray this aspect of them, but there may be an additional scene near the end of the opening to represent it.
I shall post my designs next post. Until then...
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