More inspirations!

Lux is a graduation piece done by E.M.C.A student Juliette Oberndorfer.  I am in LOVE with the colors and environments in this film- definitely makes me feel like I'm in a dream. They are so incredibly rich and vibrant, but still true to the enchanting, mystical mood of the film. It also reflects how I want to go about creating my thesis film, with digitally drawn backgrounds and simple 3-D characters.

Her blog is amazing as well, and reflects more of her amazing use of color. Some below are my favorites :)

Revisit to Švankmajer

Ever since I was introduced to Jan Švankmajer freshmen year fall semester, I fell in love with his work instantly, and he is definitely one of my favorite stop- motion filmmakers, not only for his amazing skill but for the political and social messages he conveys through the mediums he uses. I love his stop motion surrealist work because it is not only interesting and sometimes creepy, but serious and funny at the same time, which I think not a lot of filmmakers can incorporate all at once nowadays. My favorite films by him are Dimensions of Dialogue and Darkness/ Light/ Darkness.  His clay stop motion in these films is impeccable, and in the latter the distinct personalities he gives to each body part is so clever.  The film in my opinion is pretty humorous up until the last scene where the man, complete in his form, is cramped into the room, and unable to move. The irony of that is brilliant. In Dimensions of Dialogue, I love the scene with the man and the woman and how he portrays the sexual tension and outcome between them.  Using clay as a medium works really well because it is so malleable and versatile in the shapes it can take on. I like how he uses the traits of clay to progress the story of the film, making characters melt and morph into each other, attack each other, etc. yet still keeping the integrity of each object even when interacting with other things, which I think is amazing.  Most of all, I like how Švankmajer creates humor with the sound effects he has, whether it be walking hands, smooshing clay, a snorting nose, or flapping ears. In Dimensions of Dialogue in the beginning scenes with those different heads attacking each other, the munching and chopping sounds definitely adds to the humor but also underlines how heads of the same likeness (perhaps just like people) reduce each other to nothingness, blank sheets of paper.  I think he is great at creating cinematic tension as well, because in many of his films, they are so surreal that you do not know what is going to happen next. Who is going to come in through the door next in Darkness/ Light/ Darkness? A monster? Another body part? Keeps you on your feet! 

Solidarity

I'm finding more and more that I like being alone. Not only does it give me time to think, but I also notice things around me that I would have never noticed before, especially subtleties in nature, buildings,  and sometimes people.   But mostly nature. I kind of just go crazy taking pictures of everything around me. Here are some pictures that I took throughout the school year that I particularly like :) Enjoy!

From the boat on the way to Catalina Island- I love the simplicity that speaks volumes about the grandness of the sea.  Also the vibrancy of the colors- it's like a dream.

Zion Utah: Rainbow shooting star?

At the top of Catalina Island looking out at the sea :)

Love how one hill is cloaked in shadow and the other is emerging in light- the town was indeed just waking up :)

Formidable cliffs cloaked in mist...

I originally didn't mean for it to be a silhouette, but I like the way it turned out.  Kind  of looks like a T-rex actually is on the loose!  

Love the lighting! @ Eaton Canyon.

I loved how there were specks of gold amidst the shadows.  

 I feel like I could walk on the water, like it was made of glass.

Secret Garden.

Love the shadows on the ground!

I can never get over how those rays of sunlight just shines so perfectly over those cliffs.  Never. Ever.

I love the simplicity of this photo and the disappearing mountain the back.

Peponi, peponi, peponi!

There are many songs that make you feel good when you listen to them, but rarely are there ones that literally awaken your soul when you hear it. Sounds cheesy but it's true, it can happen! And it's happened to me with the ThePianoGuys' African inspired rendition of Coldplay's Paradise. The first time my brother showed it to me, I freaked out. Being a pianist myself, I love to hear piano covers of songs, and it doesn't get better with the duo's talented and dynamic performance with almost every remake they do. This song they aced, in my opinion. You don't have to agree, but if you have time, please listen!! It will be worth your while:)

How does this relate to my thesis? The setting this music video takes place makes me feel like I have wings. I like how it glorifies nature and emphasizes its sublimity and power, which is something I want to touch in one of my ideas for my film. 

Inspiration of the day: Corey Godbey

 I found Corey Godbey, a freelance illustrator, while reading Lines and Colors, and again, I fell in love instantly with his art style.  I love the way he combines nature and monsters seamlessly with the flow and ebb of lines that connect the whole composition. Line work is amazing and his color palette in his illustrations are soothing, if that even made sense. Many of his pieces are about mythical lands and creatures, an idea I want to play with in my thesis. Creating your own world with the craziness you never knew existed in your mind. Nature coming alive.  Something like that.

I love how the trees grow out of this monster! The idea of having nature come alive and manifest itself in mythical creatures is something I have been thinking about. 

I like the way he draws elfin people, or whatever people they are.

Love the color palette! You really get the sense that those monsters are HUGE. And probably clumsy. 

The sky is great :) I like how you can see the water color textures. 

One of my favorite illustrations by him, because to me a story is so evident. The composition leads your eye from the top,  to the two lovers, then to bottom, where to your surprise you find a monster under the tree!

Simplicities of Pen and Ink

If I had a choice to work digitally or traditionally, I'd probably choose traditionally because it just feels more natural. And just being able to scribble your heart out with a simple black pen and paper is so relaxing. The other day when I was perusing through Lines and Colors, and awesome blog that gives me inspiration every day with it's daily artist of the day posts, I came across Nicolas Delort, a freelance illstrator from Paris, France. I feel IN LOVE with the linework in his illstrations immediately, and it also gave me some ideas in terms of art direction for my thesis, since the way I portray environments and settings will be really important. His work is so graphic and dynamic all at once that it hurts your eyes to look at it, in a good way of course. Sometimes pen work like this can be distracting to me, because all I see are the lines, but for his work, it makes me focus on the composition and brings cohesiveness to all his drawings.



The ominous, mysterious mood evoked in this piece is so real it gives me chills.



Sea coming alive and engulfing you? Possible scene in my thesis.

Love the composition and sky in this one.

Beginning mockups

Last semester for our 3-D animation class, we had the choice of doing whatever we wanted for our final project. So of course, I choice to build a beach landscape on Maya, totally underestimating how hard it would be to animate water.  I envisioned my scene to look very simple and stylized, simple flat waves, grungy looking mountains in the background that looked like they had been painted on paper, dripping sky, inked clouds.  I drew all my textures on Photoshop and projected them onto my scene. In the end, I didn't have enough time to make it look as polished as I wanted too, but I learned a lot through the process of building my scene. 

Since I want my thesis to take place by the sea, it was nice to mock up some very basic designs for how it might look. Below or some rough sketches and style frames. I apologize for the bad picture quality :(

Had fun with the brush pen!

Composition thumbnail sketches for the scene. 

Mockups for how I wanted the cliffs to look like with pen and water. I like the mingling of bolder lines and washed out color. 

Style frames for mapping out how my scene would look during different times of the day! I originally wanted to have a time lapse of my scene but didn't have time for that either :(

Itty Bitty Seeds (of Inspiration)

Imagination and creativity is always an animator's and artist's best friend, but sometimes it can be overwhelming. Well, of course always in a good kind of way :) As a junior studying animation about to embark on the tumultuous journey of producing my own senior thesis film, I have been racking my brain on what I should make it about.  I started thinking about possible story ideas since last fall semester, and studying abroad in Italy definitely gave me little inspirations here and there, most of them being cute little love stories. Italy is truly the land of romance :)

Then one day, this idea randomly popped into my head of creating a story about a blind boy. Whether he was blind from birth or became blind at a young age still has yet to be decided, but I was intrigued by that idea immediately.  Imagine not being able to see anything. Sounds fuel empty creations in your mind and you don't know where they came from. As an artist, color is such a huge part of how I draw and see things. Sometimes I even think in color. But imagine not being able to see anything... not even black and white perhaps... that thought was mind boggling to me. 

Being a lover of the beach and ocean, I automatically wanted it to take place by the sea.  What if he lived in a fisherman village...with his grandfather? What if his mental barrier was his fear of the sea and his desire to overcome it? That was a basic start, and I knew I had to elaborate on that... and that elaboration process is very slowly coming along. Most of the time, I'm stumped, but I have been coming up with a few random ideas here and there.

For my thesis, I know three things for sure. I don't want any dialogue, and I want one of my main focuses to be on landscapes.  That being said, I want the art style of my thesis to be AWESOME.  I'm going for something very stylistic, with paint strokes evident in the background, water color splatters or inked lines evident, rather impressionistic.  The challenge, if I end up doing a thesis about a blind boy, is how to portray what he "sees" in his mind.  And I believe I can have great fun with that :)

I started looking at some of my favorite artists to gain inspirations, from classic to more contemporary.  I love all different types of art style, and I want to find a way to be able to merge a variety of those into my film.

First off, I LOVE MONET.  I love impressionist paintings in general, because they capture the movement and spirit of a place or person, rather than just detail. Gestural and free. I love that. Monet's wispy strokes are great, and the glints of bright color and highlights is a beautiful contrast with the darker palette.

Love this color palette of soft pastel! 

The sky is is alive and breathing. 

I love this picture because it gives the essence of a village being shrouded by mist in the background. Soo,  if my thesis ends up taking place there, here's a good reference!

Some visual development artists that gave me inspiration...

Lindsey Olivares! I loved her thesis film and here is some concept art for her thesis.  I love her use of bold lines in the ocean- they give the water  a strong sense of movement.

The watercolor drippy background is a style that I would like to have in my thesis.   It looks so organic and fresh, like someone just painted right on the screen.

The ocean has depth, and I can feel the layers of blues, greens, and pale yellows.

Mike Yamada! I like how you can still see the brush strokes,  and it's not cleaned up completely.

Ryan Woodward figure drawings- the sense of movement is great! Love the lines of action. 

His figures seem to be melting into the background.  It has a great sense of depth even though they are all separate pieces on one paper. 

This is an example of something thats more clean cut but still works because it has a sense of depth and reveals open space.  Most of all I love the textures in the cliff,  very grungy looking and rough.

I love the stylized hills and trees. The mood conveyed is great.  

Some more Lindsey Olivares art work- I love the sepia toned theme in this piece. 

And more... I love the bold colors and how they don't completely melt into each other! Lots of great definition. 

Huge fan if Nico Marlet's character designs!!!  Since I have his sketchbook I can drool over the way he draws people and gives them their personality instantly.  He exaggerates everything, but never too much.