Progress

Since I last blogged progress has been slow and I had a week where my interest in the project was waning. But after much soul searching, watching of films and reading of animation literature; the enthusiasm is coming back.

Last week I looked at screen ratio sizes and worked on developing a base layer size for the background underlay. The overlay has not yet been sized given that I think that it will be a fluid part of the background development that will emerge once the underlay has been locked. Given that I am now looking to make this a  background only project that displays the backgrounds in context and then also in isolation for analysis I've decided that I will work in widescreen format as I think that this will best suit the sweeping pans and detail I want to include; especially in the external shots.

Methodology, I'm old fashioned, so I walked my way through the animatic and worked out the size of background safe areas for each shot.

In addition to working out background sizes and screen ratio, I've also been continuing to research to add more depth to the exegesis. Found a great book about layout by Fraser Maclean 'Setting the Scene: The Art and Evolution of Animation Layout.' Rare to find a book about layout and it worked well in terms of my study into the storytelling properties of backgrounds. Worth a look- some fantastic background and layout art as well. 

Recently had a birthday and got The Art of Brave book which has some fantastic concept art, colour scripts and storyboards. But for me the inclusion of on sight/ location referencing and the importance of the weather and texture in backgrounds as a means of adding meaning to narrative. I love it when my research requires me to analyse the 'Art of' books- so inspiring.