Four*9

As I hunt through my test files, exporting for upload to here as I go and begin scanning countless number of concept art I thought I would do a post that gives final details on the style of this piece so that there will be no confusion later on.

Over the past 6 months my style and approach the project has changed and altered through varying thought processes, inspiration stumbled upon and finally - things learned.

As it stands today, I feel as though my processes are coming to a head (finally). Months of concept sketches and doodles whenever I had the time have allowed me to explore my varying and broad illustration styles. This has largely assisted in the development of those that will appear in the final piece as well as allowing me to explore my various inspirations for not only this body of work, but my inspiration(s) for pursuing animation and design as a career.

I thought I would run through these inspirations and reasons in detail (where necessary) so that hopefully by the time you finish reading you will see and know what 'Me Again, Again' is all about and what it will represent.

Firstly, as stated multiple times 'Me Again, Again' is a very personal project for me. It is an exploration of self and of the world and human nature. As a whole we are predisposed to think, act and appear a certain way. All of these are a determined by different factors; our environment, the people around us, the way we were raised, what other people think of us, what we think other people think of us, who we are and who we want to be. Isn't it interesting that the majority of people (myself included) will ask "Where do you come from?" and "What do you do?" upon first meeting someone new. For the most part it is an unconscious reaction to the unknown and awkward, but there is also the fact that there is the initial judgment of the person. The whole notion of 'first impressions are everything' is almost purely based off someone's initial reaction to how you appear, how you talk, where you're from and what you do.

I make these same assumptions (I will gladly admit that) but for the most part I will reserve judgment until I have spoken to the person. But yes, first impressions matter but they are not necessarily lasting impression. You can apply a similar method to judging films; you may be so extremely disappointed upon first viewing that you ignore what good qualities may be hiding in there.

This body of work represents this initial snap judgments, combined with what I imagine the person may or could be. These imaginations are represented by the INNER's in the film. There will be literal representations, appearing as caricature's - focusing on the obvious physical features of the individual in question. There will also be more metaphorical interpretations - the kind of creature I feel they are, or partial transformations based off observations. That is one side of what the will be experiencing upon viewing the film.

The second is my thoughts and my emotional state of being; overwhelmed by thoughts of the future, career expectations vs reality, reality vs dream, experience vs opportunity and an increasing sense of dying optimism and being total overwhelmed. As it stands I am at an interestingly awkward stage of life - fresh out of an undergraduate degree, hungry and actively hunting for experience and yet finding it difficult to find much of anything. This combined with the new experiences that come with living in a city, the frustrations of an inability to travel anywhere in what I deem to be a reasonable amount of time. When you look at the animatic and script I feel as though I have achieved a good sense of these issues. Ultimately the resolution comes down to acceptance of these as facts of life, something that I just have to deal with and struggle through.

Now for the visual side of things...

Looking at the project and how personal it was it makes sense the visual's provide this sense of self, as well as the story. It has taken me till now to make sense of what exactly it was I am wanting to achieve and that has admittedly changed a few times - as my thought processes and approach has.

It's hard to find a happy middle between my two main influences because they are at opposite ends of the scale. I am largely influenced by the modern trends, but also by the retro. I have always found it increasingly difficult to strike a happy middle, and will probably continue to have this difficulty. One side of me attempts something retro but the other screams that it isn't up to date enough and looks rubbish. It's a constant battle.

I'll focus on inspirational films first.

As an avid film nut I'm always downloading trailers to the newest, biggest, shiniest blockbusters. That's just what I do. I see as many of these as I can squeeze in and for the most part I enjoy them all. But I couldn't and wouldn't say that many film's from the past 6 or so years number in my top 10 films. I love them? Yes. But all-time favourites? No. The film's that I cherish the most and maintain that are of the highest quality are those that I grew up on. These are the films of the 70s, 80s and to an extent the 90s and they are timeless, unlike so many of the current films. I believe the quality of these films overshadows their modern counterparts. Even their vfx seem timeless, where as so many films from 2007/8 look dated now! Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Back to the Future, Flight of the Navigator, Blade Runner, The Mummy, Men in Black, Independance and to an extent the James Bond films. More recent favourites include Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Pirates of the Caribbean and the films of Christopher Nolan, Edgar Wright and Zack Snyder.

My initial interest in animation, vfx and design began when my mother bought a mysterious golden box containing 2 VHS in 1997 and sat my younger brother and I down and told us 'watch these, you'll like them'. That was my introduction to the rich universe of Star Wars. Watching the rich characters, creatures, vehicles and worlds of this universe come alive was something I had never experienced. As I grew up I found out more and more about how the films were made and the painstaking methods used to achieve something which in modern times can be done so simply.

To this date my work represents far more modern trends, mostly because this is what will get me work - it is what clients and studios are looking for. So it is my intention that this body of work represent both my influences equally. A mix of both modern and retro techniques and design. It is all about representing myself visually, as mentioned earlier.

 

Other than film's there are other influences that include old slide and polaroid photos of my parents - there is something about the grittiness of a slide or film that I have always appreciated. I have had several conversations with a mate about bluray discs. I am not a fan and neither is he. I think there needs to be imperfections (like a minor amount of film grain) or otherwise it feels like something is missing. Take the work of Neil Krug as an example, influence and inspiration here. His work is created using old cameras (video and still). There are many plugins that may achieve these looks and I have been looking into them as well as many tutes detailing the process. I have been contemplating filming with film, but that is still something that may be too time-consuming and make several approaches to the vfx awkward. There are films such as 500 Days of Summer that have achieved an older feeling film very simply through costuming etc, which is something I will think about but obviously am restricted in. Other influences include classic pixel-based video games such as Apogee Software classics such as Pharaohs Tomb, Monster Bash and the like. Pixel-based artwork has always been with me, so expect an appearance by something along those lines there.

So there you have it - inspirations, ideas and intent.