"People who get into animation tend to be kids. We don't have to grow up. But also, animators are great observers, and there's this childlike wonder and interest in the world, the observation of little things that happen in life."
- John Lasseter
People who get into animation tend to be kids. We don't have to grow up. But also, animators are great observers, and there's this childlike wonder and interest in the world, the observation of little things that happen in life.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_lasseter_597764People who get into animation tend to be kids. We don't have to grow up. But also, animators are great observers, and there's this childlike wonder and interest in the world, the observation of little things that happen in life.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_lasseter_597764
People who get into animation tend to be kids. We don't have to grow up. But also, animators are great observers, and there's this childlike wonder and interest in the world, the observation of little things that happen in life.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_lasseter_597764People who get into animation tend to be kids. We don't have to grow up. But also, animators are great observers, and there's this childlike wonder and interest in the world, the observation of little things that happen in life.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_lasseter_597764People who get into animation tend to be kids. We don't have to grow up. But also, animators are great observers, and there's this childlike wonder and interest in the world, the observation of little things that happen in life.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_lasseter_597764
Before I even started to research anything, I decided to put down the ideas that spontaneously came to my mind and things I would have fun trying to animate. Since I wrote these ideas on a piece of paper, I will write down whatever came to my mind on here once again and maybe scan the paper and add it later on as well. Although some ideas are not specifically for the animation, since I am planning to make a game at the same time (Gaming Art course) and the idea was to take the same story and stylistic approach for both courses. Just like on paper, I marked the ideas I considered worth to pursue further in yellow.
First ideas:
- ancient civilization (environment)
- dragons/dinosaurs (hybrids á la Jurassic World: Alive)
- exploration
- combination of ancient civilization and fururistic/sci-fi civilization (elements)
- post apocalyptic world
- either more modern or more tribal people
- cutesy appearance with terrifying or deep lore/backgroundstory
- scatchy/hand-drawn style for the dark part
- gets progressively darker (tone + art style)
- no dialogue = story conveyed through images/pictures only (character reactions)
- find an animal/a monster companion along the way (through an "ancient puzzle trial")
- travelling via portals (hub?)
- starts out as exiting but evolves into something more eerie
- start á la "Alice in Wonderland" = long fall into a different world/dimension (accident during e.g. exploration); OR like the Anime Made in Abyss (cute artstyle with actually serious/horrifying/eerie setting)
- different outfits depending on the region
- general feel of/descriptive words for the environment:
- ancient
- sci-fi
- post-apocalyptic
- cyberpunk
- fantasy
- alien planets
- magic
Following prompts stood out to me after reading through all of them again:
- "What if the only reason we can't walk through mirrors is because our reflection blocks us? What if they're protecting us though? What if they know that the other side is horrifying and painful and they are trying to keep us from ever crossing over?"
- colors VS black and white
- "'Mother Earth' is actually a living organism that consumes humans' life force to survive" (space themed)
- "After hitting your head you've seen most people as there horrifying ugly beings as if they had suddenly lost their masks. [...]"
- "Year 2098. You live in a closed city that nobody is allowed to leave. Every crime is punishable by death, including questioning the heavily guarded border. One day, a brief 'glitch' in the sky appears, showing ruins spanning to the horizon. You're the only one that notices." (change from black and white (normal world) to color (glitch world))
- "A TV show which start out as a typical sitcom but loses the laugh track mid-season and progresses into a dark dystopian nightmare." (colorful 'dystopia/ruins' VS black and white 'utopia' (grizzled))
- "You live in a world where everybody is blind and gets futuristic contacts installed when they are born to let them see the world. But one day your contact breaks and you realize, you can see. But the world you see is much different than what your contacts showed you."
- "A videogame made entirely out of glitches would be more terrifying than any horror game."
- "At age 29 you were convicted of a heinous crime, and sentenced to a 'life' in prison. But flash-forward many decades later, something very strange is happening: You won't die, and haven't even shown signs of aging. You've now spent 192 years locked up, and no one is quite sure what to do..."
- "A young man defeats several martial arts masters by inventing a martial art that depends solely on his infallible luck. He names it bullshitsu."
- "A ghost becomes increasingly desperate to haunt a family but they have cats and so the poor dear goes completely ignored."
- "Instead of tombstones we plant trees: Cemeteries are sprawling forests. You are the grounds keeper of the oldest known cemetery. One day your start to notice somethings strange at the center of the cemetery: Something's not right with the most ancient trees."
- "Space mythology:
- saints of star ships and angels that take their true form as nebulae, great and fiery amorphous beings that speak the will of the universe
- nymphs of asteroid fields and planetary rings, sylphs that fly in the tails of the galactic core
- demons that dwell in black holes and eat the hearts of dying stars, spirits of galactic battles that cause engines and shields to fail when you get too close to their graves
- ghost ships, long MIA, drifting in dark space, an inaccessible monument to those lost
- demigods, herculean beings forget in solar fire, surviving alone and unshielded in the vacuum, on an icy rock so far from a star as to never see its light
- heroes and saints ascending to their gods by dissolving into starlight and void"
Sources:
Simultaneously, I wrote down other ideas that came to my mind while browsing through these writing prompts, which resulted in the following ideas:
- ancient civilization of the stars (design)
- normal modernized/industrialized bland world
- colorful, glowing forest; starts out in the dark before flowers start lighting up; night might turn into daybreak (sunrise)
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild opening scene
- character: One eye hidden behind hair; a long braid; scarred
- character stays grey, even in the world of colors, until they see the sunrise = true relief/freedom
- art style: No shadows, focus on colors (or their absence) and fluid movement
Sources:
While a more concrete idea of the story was beginning to build up in my mind, I decided to focus my next research onto possible character traits of my character. By then I had pretty safely decided that I will keep my focus on just one character and build the story around them. In order to get inspired, I went through some of my saved prompts once again, this time specifically for characters. And here is a list of the most interesting and relevant ideas I found during my search:
- "I guess I'm more afraid of not being able to change than change itself."
- POC character
- character with mental illness or disability?
- "They moved in the shadows freely. It was the only place they truly felt safe."
- "They stared into the forest, standing at the edge of the trees. They fiddled with the hem of their sleeve, depating whether or not it was a good idea to actually go inside, but they had to find their friend."
- "She realized that she was prone to giving up when it got too hard. She was determined to change that, but she didn't know here to start."
- "He sat back on his hands, eyes on the starry night sky. It was easy to fall into it, get lost among the twinkling stars."
- "She settled the mask over her face every time she left the house, even if it was to do something as simple as checking the mail."
- "She closed her eyes and imagined she was anywhere else. Somewhere far from here, where she would be living the dream."
- "He scaled buildings, ran across [the street] doing flips, and he got hurt quite often, but he was happy for the first time in a long while."
- "They had spent so long wandering, that when they found a sanctuary they could hardly believe it. They were so tired of fighting."
- "He held up a hand and slowly slid it into the sunlight, yelping as it stung the back of it. He cradled his hand to his chest, all the while chanting 'this can't be real' to himself."
- "They were ashamed to admit that they often ran from their problems, but it always seemed so much easier to do than face them."
- "They pressed their fingers against the tombstone, marvelling over the strange symbols. When they seemingly flashed in the light, they jolted back and watched in fear as the ground shook."
- "They danced under the moon and in the rain, their robes soaked uncomfortably."
- "Their hair was long enough to reach their ankles and was colored like the galaxy."
- "The braids of her hair swept down her back and slapped against the back of her shins as she walked."
- "He ran as fast as his feet could take him, as if he would somehow leave this place for somewhere better. Despite the ache in his lungs and the burning in his legs, he didn't stop."
- "Star shaped beads connected by thin strands of chain were woven into their thick black hair."
- "When they walked, the flowers bloomed around them, as if they were attempting to reach out."
- "Their dreads were tied up in a large bun on top of their head and their eyes sparkled in the afternoon sun."
Source:
Lastly, I tried to summarize the main ideas I decided upon throughout the course of my research, which resulted in the following ideas:
- story starts out in black and white; a glitch/crack starts appearing in the sky or ground; the main character cautiously goes to investigated it; they touch one of the glitches/cracks and are thrown into a more colorful world
- possible conflict:
- other world seems better/more interesting than their original world?
- main character is shy albeit curious
- short story summary: Character discovers a whole other world hidden inside/behind the world they knew; they journey to the source of the glitches/cracks, in order to literally flee from their stressful everyday life
- ideas for the general mood of both worlds:
- black and white:
- panic/anxiety
- dreary/miserable
- suffocating
- industrialization
- repeating sequence of a monotone life (wake-up, eat, walk, school/work, sleep)
- prison
- motifs of imprisonment (e.g. clouded over sky (smog), high buildings, people = a mass of black (no individuality))
- color:
- peaceful/tranquil (birds, waves/river)
- freeing
- nature, ancient, highly technological civilization
- design reference: Digimon's File Island
- motifs of freedom (birds, sky, etc.); special flower meanings
- change of clothes? Something more casual/comfortable
Source:
Youtube: Digimon Adventure Episode 1
And that is it for my initial research for a theme, story, and character. Now all that remains is gathering all my thoughts and ideas together and form a coherent logline and treatment before jumping into drawing the storyboard and researching visual details for the final animation.
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