Before starting the project, Lizzie and I had a lot of different ideas for what we wanted to do.
Some of the things we were thinking about at the start was the kind of colour palette we were going for, and the feeling we wanted our project to produce. We both knew early on we wanted to make something really out there, and use this project as a challenge.
It’s clear to see from our initial ideas how our colour palette changed from being quite light and soft, to harsh and aggressive.
Animation
Studio Ghibli
We considered doing Studio Ghibli films because the Animation is so beautiful. All of their films are wonderful stories, my favourite being Spirited away. There are also some dark themes within the films too, which they still manage to show beautifully in their films.
We decided against it as we felt we would be restricted as it has a very specific 2D style which might be hard to replicate in 3D.
Fantasia
Fantasia was another consideration as we both remembered it as being very beautiful and would give us a chance to do something fantasy related. It was very hard to find any material from the making of the film, as obviously it’s a very old Disney classic. Again, same as Studio Ghibli, we decided against because of the 2D style.
Coco
Coco was an idea because we watched the film the night before we got the brief. I kept putting off watching Coco, because I thought I wouldn’t like it. I find with every new Disney film that gets released I assume I will hate it and find it a bit childish, but everytime I watch them I find the visuals so amazing. The visuals in Coco were very imaginative. They built a whole new world in the afterlife and represented it as something so beautiful.
From this point we both decided we really liked this colour palette, having really vibrant colours and light contrasted with a saturated background.
Another reason I considered this film is because I have recently been getting interested in Animation, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to try to learn more of how it all works. This is something I’ll cover later in my Blog.
Games
Ori and the Will of the Whisps
We considered picking a game as we would have the advantage of being able to step inside and actually explore.
The Ori games are my absolute favourites, I recently completed both games and have started playing through again. I haven’t found another game since with visuals as amazing as this one. Everything in the game is designed to look pretty, even any monsters or scary places you come across, they still look beautiful.
As much as we both loved the game, there are barely any structures. The game is pretty much all set in forests, deserts and marshes, so there would be a huge limit with what could be designed. I also felt that if I did design a structure for this game, then it would look very out of place if it wasn’t done properly. It’s also a 2D game, which would create the same problems as Fantasia and Studio Ghibli.
The Witcher
The Witcher was very nearly our final choice for this project.
This game is based in a medieval fantasy world, filled with lots of creatures and monsters, with amazing Architecture.
We did do a fair bit of research into the game as it was very nearly our final choice. Lizzie was interested in sculpting a Leshen, which is the monster below that looks slightly like a tree with antlers. In the end we decided against the Witcher as Lizzie wasn’t sure whether she would be able to sculpt the Leshen as it is quite intricate and has very detailed features.
From this point on we were leaning heavily towards a fantasy genre.
Dark Souls
Dark Souls lead on from The Witcher as they are both quite similar in their Architecture and scenery. Both have quite dark colour palettes, and have a slight creepy look to them. I think at this point we both wanted to find a middle ground between something light and pretty, but also something that could be slightly creepy.
The Legend of Zelda
Us considering The Legend of Zelda was a slight revert back to the Pastel colour palette we were looking at from the start. We also felt like it looked similar to the style of Studio Ghibli, but 3D. The Architecture is quite similar to Dark Souls and The Witcher, but it was cute rather than scary.
Looking back, it would’ve been nice to pick Zelda as it has some very beautiful buildings, and the overall art style is very nice. We decided in the end the colour palette was too light.
Films
Guardians of the Galaxy
We thought of Gaurdians of the Galaxy when we were thinking of the style we were going for. We wanted to pick something that looked like it was from another world, so it seemed to make sense to go into the Sci-fi Genre.
We looked at Guardians of the Galaxy first because of Egos planet in vol.2. His planet is full of colour and has a heavenly feel to it, but as the story progresses the planet becomes dark and sinister as Ego is revealed to be a Villan. We both liked the idea of this, and thought the concept of something really pretty being ruined would be fun to explore.
Star Wars
Our final decision was Star Wars. It seemed to achieve everything we’d been looking for as it has both light and dark colour palettes, it has beautiful scenery and there’s such a bigvariety of Architecture to chose from.
There was a lot of choice for Star Wars, and a lot of freedom too. However, Lizzie and I knew pretty much straight away that we wanted to explore the Planet Crait in The Last Jedi. The colour palette of the planet itself is a contrast between light and dark, and being an empty planet with noting but some little Crystal Fox creatures, there was a lot of space to be creative with a backstory fore the planet.
As there was a lot of research into Star Wars, I’ve got all of the information on a separate Page.