Applied Animation: Documentary - Initial Concept Art

Applied Animation

Documentary Initial Concepts

• This week:
• I developed concept art for the Midgard Serpent, exploring possible visual ideas and relating to the texts in the script.
• What went well:
• I produced a variety of professional concepts, exploring face-shape, scale and referred back to the Prose Edda and Carolynes' work multiple times, to make sure it is correct.
• Before creating initial concepts, I made a research poster on the possible ways each of the children would look, based on Dr Carolynes' research and the Prose Edda descriptions.

• I wanted to explore the serpent in multiple ways, looking at how it could have adapted to swimming in the ocean, after being thrown in and left to grow there. Some depictions of the serpent are dragon-like and some are more like a snake, so I decided to explore this in my concepts.
• One colour we noted to be used frequently in Norse is the colour green, as it's natrual but can also represent evil and envy. This colour is something I explored in the serpents' design.

• What could be improved:
• The overall visual style needs to be considered, so from my initial concepts of the serpent, I produced some thumbnails and created a mock-up illustrative painting of the serpent in the water. I made sure it was fully lined, with simple colours.
• I found that the complexity, sophistication and detail of the image was mainly due to lighting and colour. Using a rim light and high contrast, made the image seem less "simple" than it was before.
• The serpents' design needs to be considered for animation purposes, so it needs further refining to make it better for animation.
• In addition to this, we need to explore was in which to incorporate the Nordic runes and finalise a style for our documentary, which suits and fits the research we've conducted.

• Next week:
• I will be finalising these concepts and exploring the other characters, to fit this particular style.