The Beggining - Scene 1

For my Specialist Study 2 Project i wanted to combine animation and motion graphic techniques in order to help convey the story. One of the most influential style of work to me for this project is Motion Comics, i like the idea that through still images you can create movement and meaning, and it is incredibly effective.

Other motion comics and animations that caught my eye are:

SKisM - Experts: http://vimeo.com/52492716

Kung Fu Panda: http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/kung-fu-panda/ 

Modestep - Show Me A Sign: http://vimeo.com/38155784

Salesman Pete: http://vimeo.com/15126262

Nian:

Information on the monster Nian.

http://chineseculture.about.com/library/weekly/aa010900a.htm

http://english.cctv.com/program/newshour/20100214/102277.shtml

This is a colour StoryBoard that I reated to go alongside the story.

For the first scene I wanted to enter through the forest and overlook the village,

This is my initial plan of the village, peering past the trees into the village. It took me a loooooong, time to create this image as my digital drawing skills are not as advanced as i would hope, as well as this i generally find it hard to put ideas from my mind onto paper.

My next step i preceded to recreate this image neat. I began by outlining my my environment and colouring however i was not pleased with the result the was being created.

I decided to try and colour over the outlined image in order to help create a better look and make the scenery seem more realistic.

Although still at a very early stage, with the addition of a texture, and by creating the image with no "cartoonish" styled outlines, the village is beginning to look half decent!

I am very pleased with the look of the village, i feel that the style is just what i was looking for, however i wanted the scene to be shot at night time, and as you can see the village sees to be very brightly lit.

My next step was to try and colour correct the image in order to create that night time feel i am looking for.

Ive been having alot of problems finding out how to turn an image from day time to night time....i began resolving this issue by looking at how other artists have manage to achieve the effect that i am trying to create.

I tried to find night time images that had elements of light included, just to see how the light reacts to the scene, as i am infact having a torch lighting the bridge.

I notice that in most of the night time images i viewed, they creator had used various shades of blue. I decided to use this theory and began applying photo filters, and adjusting the colours.

I was much more pleased with this result than what i had previously created. At this point i also decided to go for a wider viewing format, "Anamorphic" which basically means extra widescreen, i thought that this would be a good idea, as it would help me to showcase my images when you can see more of it.

Unfortunately die to all of my colour correction, i had to redo the image again, i also had to recreate it in order to prepare it ready for after effects to animate it in 3d space.

This was the final result, it may look very bright however, it is missing the foreground that consists of trees and grass hills.