Considering the brief it is clear that this animation needs to be visually engaging but also informative, it is also a heavier subject that is more serious, therefore to me, having it light and playful is important to make the topic less scary. If the animation was serious and intense with this deeper message it would be too off-putting for a viewer and not welcome them into the warm welcoming community that Ivor’s wants to provide. Confronting the viewer with hard hitting facts and phrases does not seem like the way forward with this piece, since online if there is a lot of information packed into something people will not read it if they are quickly scrolling through their timeline. However if something is visually engaging with characters and a storyline there is the potential to get drawn into the piece. Therefore there needs to be a balance struck between portraying the information Ivor’s wants to communicate and also creating something with a visual story.
I was thinking about telling a story in a fairy-tale manner, with a cautionary element. Since this works with my style of animation and how I like to work in a more whimsical representational manner. Bringing beauty and a surreal nature to the work is what I want to do since it is welcoming and wholesome like a childhood fairytale. It is a daunting subject which requires dedication and confidence to deal with so I really want to communicate this warm community aspect.
Therefore to develop a style and imagery to work with Ivor’s brief all the creators I am considering have a bright style and character designs that told a story.
Andrey Kasay
Looking through Andrey Kasay’s work has left a deep interest in me and I intend to take inspiration from his illustrated and animated work. The surreal stories he tells in each piece are so visually rich and captivating. The way he incorporates the human figure in a patchwork way with pieces being different things, such as in the piece above with the birds house and fire. In his work he uses things you would not expect to be in the places it is, this provides a collage element to his work. I have worked a bit with collage in the past and enjoy working in this manner since it helps putting together a story in a piece from random bits and pieces. It allows you to play with objects in a quick manner to create bizarre pieces. This is what feeds into my desire to tell a fairytale, by making otherworldly characters who do not follow the rules of our own world. This also provides the ability to use imagery in a symbolic manner where something will have a implication and contribute meaning to the story being told.
Cristian Daura
Cristian Daura’s has developed a visual style which is uniquely hers. Her work also tells a clear visual story with her use of panel, again reflecting my interest in collage and piecing things together in my work. Each panel separates out the piece in a comic like manner, all her work brings in some form of comic book look where with its bright colours and bold outlines. Brining in lots of simple imagery together in one piece means that they come together to form a more visually intriguing piece. The way that she fits each piece together in a cohesive way that makes sense is inspiring, since when you are adding parts that don’t necessarily fit together there is the danger of losing visual clarity. Reading about her work, she bases most her pieces on people and experiences she has, she chooses this subject and then creates her visual representation of it. This is something I have been struggling with in my own work, I try to just pluck ideas out of thin air and often become stumped on what to do when trying to work. However if I focus this story I want to tell on a certain feeling, person or experience I am able to respond creatively in an easier manner.
Lili des Bellons
In Lili des Bellons’ work her character design is something I am drawn to, as well as the gorgeous style. She creates characters in the same mismatched manner as the previously mentioned artists, by piecing together pieces with a human form or distorting the human form creates the illusion of an alternate universe where her work exists. Scrolling through her website this world she has created is extremely clear and you get a strong sense of strength in this creation since it is executed so cohesively. It is this confidence in her story that is interesting in her work too, this is something which I also need to focus on since I am jumping around styles, atmospheres and imagery within my work, when I find something I can settle on as a basis for my work I can start to build up this world.
I have created a Pinterest board in order to gather this imagery together along with other pieces. I also brought in stills from one of my favourite animator Jamie Wolfe’s work, the playful characters and bright colours fit into the concept I have of creating a world for my characters to live in for this piece. By having this visual imagery together I am able to see what works well and stands out to me and how I am able to bring together all these different pieces into something in my own style, picking out pieces which stand out to me visually. Such as the colour gradients in Jamie Wolfe’s work to the bizarre imagery in Bellon’s, Daura’s and Kasay’s work. Drawing and having these images around my work on the page was useful since it allowed ideas to flow.
Therefore, to represent the musician I have chosen a figure made of fire. The fire is strong and liberating and follows in line with the empowerment that Ivor’s wants to communicate in the campaign. It also represents this creative capability glowing and burning inside of us, by adding a glow to the fire it adds warmth and delicacy to the fire as if the character was a candle glowing. By keeping the figure human adds a level of sincerity to a piece that is otherwise playful. From the character’s fingers we added flowers growing from the fire in their bodies, these represent the beautiful creations of the musician.
The green character is the musician who is going through the decision of a buyout, putting this character in a suit shows this corporate hold on a musician. The fire is restricted by this suit in the way that a musician feels restricted, alone and pressured into a buyout. The removal of this suit can represent the their liberation and empowerment that Ivor’s can provide the musician that needs support, letting their practice and creativity burn stronger and brighter. The characters without the suits represent the community which a musician can become part of, free from the restrains of a buyout contract. They are burning brighter with the benefits of royalties and the support of their community.
To represent the buyout in a character I thought of a villain like figure to go along with this fair-tale theme. I did not want to be too specific with the characterisation of this figure since I wanted it to remain an ominous looming presence in the background since this animation is about the musician’s journey. In the character design I have kept the hands separate and a main part of the figure since it is part of telling this impersonal and uncaring nature of a client for the musician’s, the hands are there to take.
This (below) is also how I have split the characters up into pieces in order for my team member on this project to use them in his animated work he is doing for the stings. This is how we decided to separate the work out, I have the main 30 second animation and he has three stings. With the stings we decided to portray either side of going through or not going through with a buyout contract. We want to represent the benefits of getting royalties off your work, how it is a more positive space to be in since it is a more sustainable source of income. Whereas with the buyout piece, we wanted to communicate the unstable source of supporting your career with buyouts.
These characters we have decided on provide a whimsical fairytale atmosphere to the story and tell the glowing empowerment that Ivor’s wants to bring about in the music industry. The flowers growing from the character’s fingers are able to be taken or harvested in a way by the buyout, but in this animation we can bring these creations back to the musician and help them burn brighter. Therefore from the story that the characters had started to make I have done an illustration based on the ideas that this was opening up for the animation.
I took inspiration from the artists I had looked at, especially Daura. The comic book layout is like a storyboard for an animation, however the creativity of her piece added more of an overall atmosphere and story due to the way it is laid out and what piece she chose to incorporate. Therefore I began to envision how the piece would come together as one, having the looming eye of the buyout character, a glow coming from a portal to the future and the gorgeous creative flower glistening. The blue background is something I have chosen to use for this since it depicts a sunny day with blue skies but it is not part of our world and has a surreal dystopian feel with the gridded landscape