explorer week 2

These are screenshots of the game Machinarium. For an independently developed videogame it has great atmosphere with a painted feel to them.

Some concept art from the game Cave Story by the artist Pixel. Cave story is a game with a polished feel and depth that rivals commercial releases. He created it by himself over years of work and it pioneered independent gaming back when there was largely no interest in anything that wasn’t developed by a studio.

Explorer (In Class)

For my project I’m thinking about creating a video game with hand animated sprites. I’ve only made games with pixel art, so I want to try a new style, new gameplay, and new stories. I think this is an excellent project to try using the time I’ve been given. It allows me to combine the disciplines of animation, interactivity, illustration, sound engineering, and storytelling into one concentrated project.

In line with what we were told about combining things people have seen before, I want to take existing game structures and combine them into something new and refreshing. For example, the recent flash game Tuper Tario Tros combines the classics Super Mario Brothers and Tetris into a single game, which has a feel much different than the two separate games themselves. The game has received a number of positive reviews just by combining two old as dirt gameplay mechanics and slapping it up on the internet.

Currently I’ve also been heavily inspired by the drawings of the illustration company, ghostshrimp. Their style is a strong motivator for me in terms of trying to imagine some bizarre world for this game to take place in.

(I own none of these images; for educational purposes only)

Very recently I’ve come across the illustrations of “Ghostshrimp” an artist’s collective. They’ve done writing and storyboarding for the marvelous misadventures of flapjack and they do background design for the upcoming cartoon network cartoon Adventure time.

Flapjack character Design

Adventure time background Design

I love their muted color chemes, graphical designs, and expressive linework. I’m particularly interested in their constant use of the same iconography throughout their images. As an animator they are very relevant to me because of their place in the industry on one of the best cartoons and what will probably be the best cartoon on cartoon network. Elements of their style have influenced me greatly. The absurdity of what they draw is a big inspiration. I Would say that I’m influenced even more by their sheer creative power than one piece of their artwork can attest too. When I first learned about these guys I pretty much did nothing but draw all weekend out of admiration that such a group of artists existed.

Final video

The final video is intended to invoke feelings of suspense similar to movie soundtracks. It’s just over a minute and loops indefinitely.

Music: Pruit Igoe by Phillip Glass

Watch it here.

Sketches

Rough Composition Sketches

The sketch on the left represents suspense and the one on the right represents ambiance. I’ve decided to explore those two elements of movie soundtracks together to contrast them against one another. In the end both feelings should be emphasized by one another.

Research

Trying to visually summarize music soundtracks as a genre is a tall order. Even trying to describe movie soundtracks in terms of a genre seems nonsensical in the first place. The scores of movies vary wildly in rythm, timing, feel, meaning, and genre. It’s like trying to describe an entire wardrobe as if it were a t-shirt. But this extreme variation, itself,  defines what this alleged genre means to myself and others. Other than that the main thing holding these songs together is their intended purpose. Horror, suspense, drama, comedy, and ambiance are all feelings that can be evoked by a quality score in a movie.  I believe that my compositions should try to evoke similar feelings. Just like movie soundtracks, I want to make my compositions have radically different feels to them while maintaining a similar visual style. I think combining the elements of raw emotional provocation and radically different feels to the pieces I can best capture the meaning of movie soundtracks to me.

I found images on the net to reflect the previously stated feelings that I want to try and represent visually.

suspense, horror, drama, comedy, ambiance

Also money is a factor that ties these songs together. Big movies pay big bucks for their music. Something I can make a subtle recognition of in my compositions.

Sequence Project (Final)

Panel One: Natural color

Panel Two: Flourescent Colors

Panel Three: Transparency

Panel Four: Metallics

Panel Five: Expressive Line

sequence project

panel 1

panel 2

panel 3

panel 4

panel 5 (work in progress)

extension 1 : B&W/Natural/Expressive

extension 2 : Flourescent Colors

extension 3 : Transparency

Here is the plan for the order and idea of how I want to utilize each extension

 

natural/bw/expressive—————————————– thurman as paper weight on creator’s desk, with creator’s hands in shot

flourescent pigments (op/pop art)————————– Thurman laying in garbage truck

transparency (cubism)—————————————- Thurman repairs himself/ use transparency to show time

Metallics (art nouveau)————————————– metallic soda can contrasted to organic art nouveau type forest setting

Expressive line (expressionism)————————— thurman at river or thurman at home, or maybe falls asleep by river