LAUAN603 : Big project: Chloe

Continuing on my illustration-focused path, I team up with Chloe and her group for their animation about the "Shadow man" with a role of background artist. As a result, it was a small period of waiting for them to gradually sort out the story, character design and most relevant to me, the storyboard as it would determine what and how much do I draw. When the storyboard was completed, we had a group meeting where it was determined that I would have a total amount 13 different shots to draw, within 2 different environment, the bedroom (which is 90% of the play time) and the classroom. Although with my role being the support artist and not the director, I did add in some of my own opinion onto both the storyboards and character designs to help brings everything together a bit better, especially in the realm of colour, lighting and shot compositing (all the while being mindful that it is not MY project to take charge of course) .

 I think that was the main highlighted challenge of this project - negotiating with my peers and adjusting my art to their needs in order to deliver the best product as possible. If anything it is a very realistic simulation of a professional working relationship and serves as fantastic practical experience. And in the end, I finished my role very efficiently and with all the other member happy with the stuff I provided so that's a very encouraging thing to hear. But not to jump the gun just yet, going back to doing the background themselves.



We started of with this moodboard for the type of furniture and decoration :

After that me and Chloe worked out a 3D mapping of the room, which later on she used as a platform to construct the shot for me to do the background from, which later on proved extremely helpful in getting the background done quicker.

After all the set up were in place, it was just the case of doing it : 

examples of background and 3D model 

For the style of background, I use a combination the character design as base (which is very animated ) mix with a touch of realism ( in the forms of the realistic perspective, lighting and details). I found this style works really well as it can accommodate a more diverse range of characters style while still retaining that level of realism that helps the horror aspect to feel more substantial. ( this style has proven its effectiveness with my Loop di Loop brief as well). Colour choice is also another thing I was mindful about. Taking inspiration from Insidious and the Conjuring series

Desaturated and limited colours

I specifically chose a less saturated colour scheme for each of the environments to help envoke the dreariness that the characters experience throughout the entire movie. In the case of the night scenes in the bedroom, it was further pushed with the use of low lighting and less contrasting colours, which would help to highlight the dark mass of the shadow when he comes on. (Also working from the idea that what we don't see scares us even more).

All in all very happy with what I have accomplished. I think the next step now for me would to provide support for them later on in compositing the animation into the backgrounds as well as some post production effects and colour adjustment which I always look forward to be of service.