OUAN404 - Environmental Animations:
Now, although I may have mentioned anime before what lengths some go to in order to get that sense of "epic" in their environments to compensate for the unrealistic style of the characters, I feel that not only in film animation does this work and make a successful animation, but in video games this works too. More so as you are able to interact most of the time with the environment and feel that you are there. You are able to almost become one with the scenery opposed to simply sitting on your couch watching some poor soul explore a dark cave which has hardly enough impact on your emotions in comparison to video games.
Tales of Symphonia, (yes, by far one of my favourite games if you haven't gathered already!) has a wonderful use of setting and style. In this trailer for the very first ToS game ever to be released (which was released in Japan in 2003, Europe 2004), you'll see that not only were the graphics pretty impressive for an early 2000's RPG, but the environments are beautifully done with the hand-painted style I mentioned in earlier blog posts.
Showing posts with label Spaces and Places. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spaces and Places. Show all posts
Tuesday, 18 March 2014
OUAN404 - Visual Language, Spaces and Places: Environmental Animations 2
OUAN404 - Environmental Animations:
Although very popular and probably an obvious choice, Studio Ghibli is a brilliant example of how environments are drawn in animation successfully. I looked at Spirited Away as a more specific example and I find that the scenery is really attractive and well thought out in terms of angles, space and point of view. You find that with some animation, the angles are very linear and flat as not a lot of experimentation has been made as more focus goes on the characters and storyline. I prefer an equal amount of attention to be given to environment as if it is well set and beautifully drawn, it can set the emotion and feel of the scene instantly without having to show a single character's face to give away the atmosphere.
Environment is the first thing you should see in an animation and should pay close attention to it as it primarily sets the scene and allows you understand a little about time period, place and feel. Spirited Away has influences from traditional Japanese architecture (seems appropriate as Miyazaki is of course Japanese and would pay homage to his country), as well as some European. In general, Ghibli films such as Kiki's Delivery Service and Howl's Moving Castle is very European in terms of setting as influences from French and English culture is heavily thrown in. The music usually also helps define this, but the scenery solidifies those suspicions.
The environments in Ghibli films are very traditional looking, hand-painted-anime-style and realistic. I like this look and feel it is successful as the characters often look so unrealistic that placing them in a very real and detailed scene with every window on every building delicately drawn and highlighted to perfection makes up for the loss in reality in the characters. It brings back what often some anime lacks - epic environments! Lush, green, rolling hills and sweeping clouds and winds help to give some emotion to the piece through realism, where the characters do that through unrealistic exaggeration.
Although very popular and probably an obvious choice, Studio Ghibli is a brilliant example of how environments are drawn in animation successfully. I looked at Spirited Away as a more specific example and I find that the scenery is really attractive and well thought out in terms of angles, space and point of view. You find that with some animation, the angles are very linear and flat as not a lot of experimentation has been made as more focus goes on the characters and storyline. I prefer an equal amount of attention to be given to environment as if it is well set and beautifully drawn, it can set the emotion and feel of the scene instantly without having to show a single character's face to give away the atmosphere.
Environment is the first thing you should see in an animation and should pay close attention to it as it primarily sets the scene and allows you understand a little about time period, place and feel. Spirited Away has influences from traditional Japanese architecture (seems appropriate as Miyazaki is of course Japanese and would pay homage to his country), as well as some European. In general, Ghibli films such as Kiki's Delivery Service and Howl's Moving Castle is very European in terms of setting as influences from French and English culture is heavily thrown in. The music usually also helps define this, but the scenery solidifies those suspicions.
The environments in Ghibli films are very traditional looking, hand-painted-anime-style and realistic. I like this look and feel it is successful as the characters often look so unrealistic that placing them in a very real and detailed scene with every window on every building delicately drawn and highlighted to perfection makes up for the loss in reality in the characters. It brings back what often some anime lacks - epic environments! Lush, green, rolling hills and sweeping clouds and winds help to give some emotion to the piece through realism, where the characters do that through unrealistic exaggeration.
Thursday, 13 March 2014
OUAN404 - Visual Language, Spaces and Places: Environmental Animations 1
OUAN404 - Environmental Animations:
The Lloyds TSB adverts are a wonderful example of how environment is used to tell a story through animation. These animations focus heavily on scenery and is often very realistic and appealing in the sense that very warm colours are used, soft textures and lots of lighting and shadows give it a very authentic look and feel.
I personally think the Lloyds TSB adverts are amazing! They're very precise and detailed and the scenery is astounding as every leaf and every brick is full of life and imagination. There was obviously an incredible amount of thought and love put into the creation of these adverts. The animations themselves are very spacious as the composition of the scenery along with where the characters are placed in the environment are very precise and well thought out. When watching the adverts, you don't get a sense of being "cramped" or uncomfortable as the format is obviously widescreen 16:9, but the composition in that space works and is not too overcrowded.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8LLL9E4dyQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rnrgajoxYc
The Lloyds TSB adverts are a wonderful example of how environment is used to tell a story through animation. These animations focus heavily on scenery and is often very realistic and appealing in the sense that very warm colours are used, soft textures and lots of lighting and shadows give it a very authentic look and feel.
I personally think the Lloyds TSB adverts are amazing! They're very precise and detailed and the scenery is astounding as every leaf and every brick is full of life and imagination. There was obviously an incredible amount of thought and love put into the creation of these adverts. The animations themselves are very spacious as the composition of the scenery along with where the characters are placed in the environment are very precise and well thought out. When watching the adverts, you don't get a sense of being "cramped" or uncomfortable as the format is obviously widescreen 16:9, but the composition in that space works and is not too overcrowded.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8LLL9E4dyQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rnrgajoxYc
OUAN404 - Visual Language: Spaces and Places
OUAN404 - Spaces and Places:
The first two places I chose were outdoor as I mentioned earlier. I technically chose three outdoor as I did a couple of extra drawings of my aunt's garden in Skelmersdale (a small town just off Liverpool which isn't really much to look at but gives that raw, gritty feel of a run-down town). My main outdoor places were Knaresborough river and Liverpool city centre. I did various drawings of my aunt's plants in the garden, her Buddhism mural and sculptures, water fountain and stone tiling. All of which had magnificent colours that even stood out in winter as they were just so beautiful. My aunt is very precise and logical about colour scheme and loves lots of oranges, browns and creamy colours.
Liverpool city centre was a lot less colourful but was a lot more interesting as I had the opportunity to draw the big wheel (ferris wheel), radio tower and some other various bits of scenery. Knaresborough river is very close to my hometown, Harrogate. It was only a bus rise away and has always been one of my favourite places as it it just so beautiful and peaceful. You could sit there a whole day and draw without an ounce of bother from anyone. The river itself looked great in watercolours, but it was very time consuming to paint every detail, so pencil sketches had to make do for some examples. The third place I drew was actually the inside of current flat. Now, it may not be the best choice but actually I wanted to draw my flat as it has sharp corners and very harsh lines in comparison to my other choices which were very curvy and soft.
The first two places I chose were outdoor as I mentioned earlier. I technically chose three outdoor as I did a couple of extra drawings of my aunt's garden in Skelmersdale (a small town just off Liverpool which isn't really much to look at but gives that raw, gritty feel of a run-down town). My main outdoor places were Knaresborough river and Liverpool city centre. I did various drawings of my aunt's plants in the garden, her Buddhism mural and sculptures, water fountain and stone tiling. All of which had magnificent colours that even stood out in winter as they were just so beautiful. My aunt is very precise and logical about colour scheme and loves lots of oranges, browns and creamy colours.
Liverpool city centre was a lot less colourful but was a lot more interesting as I had the opportunity to draw the big wheel (ferris wheel), radio tower and some other various bits of scenery. Knaresborough river is very close to my hometown, Harrogate. It was only a bus rise away and has always been one of my favourite places as it it just so beautiful and peaceful. You could sit there a whole day and draw without an ounce of bother from anyone. The river itself looked great in watercolours, but it was very time consuming to paint every detail, so pencil sketches had to make do for some examples. The third place I drew was actually the inside of current flat. Now, it may not be the best choice but actually I wanted to draw my flat as it has sharp corners and very harsh lines in comparison to my other choices which were very curvy and soft.
OUAN404 - Visual Language: Spaces and Places
OUAN404 - Spaces and Places:
Over the Christmas holidays when I had a fair bit of time to explore some interesting places, I decided to visit my family in Liverpool as they would often take me to the city centre and museums and plenty of interesting places in hope that I would take photographs and draw from them and use them as inspiration for future work.
The brief we were set, "Spaces and Places" meant that we had to visit at least three different places and draw 5 observational drawings from them. We had to take into account perspective (I like drawing from unusual or challenging perspectives and angles as you can never have enough practice and it gives the work a little more oomph in comparison to simple straight on or side views), colour, texture, media and line. We were also persuaded not to go any smaller than A4. I found that working on A3 was quite nice as although it was more time consuming, I prefer to work larger and it gave me that freedom to use my elbow, wrist, hand and shoulder when drawing which gives a completely different feel to sketch rather than working on A4 and just being restricted to using your hand.
I chose 2 outdoor spaces and one indoor. I don't do much outdoor work so I felt that this would help me with environmental composition and drawing as opposed my usual character design work. I want to explore and learn as much about every aspect of design as possible. I do not want to restricted to characters as I feel that in order to specialise in one area of animation, you need to have vast knowledge and experience in all areas beforehand.
Over the Christmas holidays when I had a fair bit of time to explore some interesting places, I decided to visit my family in Liverpool as they would often take me to the city centre and museums and plenty of interesting places in hope that I would take photographs and draw from them and use them as inspiration for future work.
The brief we were set, "Spaces and Places" meant that we had to visit at least three different places and draw 5 observational drawings from them. We had to take into account perspective (I like drawing from unusual or challenging perspectives and angles as you can never have enough practice and it gives the work a little more oomph in comparison to simple straight on or side views), colour, texture, media and line. We were also persuaded not to go any smaller than A4. I found that working on A3 was quite nice as although it was more time consuming, I prefer to work larger and it gave me that freedom to use my elbow, wrist, hand and shoulder when drawing which gives a completely different feel to sketch rather than working on A4 and just being restricted to using your hand.
I chose 2 outdoor spaces and one indoor. I don't do much outdoor work so I felt that this would help me with environmental composition and drawing as opposed my usual character design work. I want to explore and learn as much about every aspect of design as possible. I do not want to restricted to characters as I feel that in order to specialise in one area of animation, you need to have vast knowledge and experience in all areas beforehand.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)