Introduction to Making of Winter Holiday Project (Phase I): Research

Jan 4, 2017 The first phase of my winter project, I have dedicated to research. As I wanted this project to be something I could really get passionate about, I decided that I would draw influence from the things I have been drawing in my idea diarrhoea book. As you can see below, I've really been subconsciously attracted to sketching out many quirky character designs, that have a quirky and mythical theme to them. (insert pictures from idea here) I have thus decided to take my project in the direction of a fantasy cartoon. I realised this inspiration had been founded from the cartoons I had been watching online recently, such as the following: Starbarians by Adobe Flash Webtoon Animator: Harry Partridge

Prosnorkulus by Adobe Flash Webtoon Animator: Ryan Maddox

Korgoth of Barbaria produced by Adult Animation Channel: Adult Swim (Created by: Aaron Springer)

When doing further research I found that many of these works parodied the films of Ralph Bakshi and Gerald Potterton. Both men are known for being revolutionary animators during the 70's in terms of crudely artistic adult animation. Although many of there frame by frame animation involved rotoscoping, there stylistic heavy-metal and psychedelic art direction was something audiences had never seen before. Trailer for Heavy Metal (Gerald Potterton):

Trailer for Wizards (Ralph Bakshi):

This was all something influenced and employed heavily by Iron Maiden's album cover artist: Derek Riggs. One could argue that it was in fact himself and the band that commenced the whole neofantasy culture that is today unmistakably heavy metal:

Many would consider these works dated and cheesy by today's standards, but it is exactly that style that has influenced what many of the initial animations I have listed above parody. All of the animations shown above have required a lot of frame by frame animation, given the nature of the amount of time I have for this project and the amount of concept work I'll have to do to create anything remotely similar, I have opted to not go for a short 1-2 minute episode because at my current level of animation skill and amount of man power I have, it would almost certainly take me a month or longer to create any sort of quality episode I would be happy with. As a solution to my time constraints, I have instead decided to create a conceptual intro or theme tune to my fantasy cartoon, of what exactly it will focus on, I'm as yet unsure. What the show shall focus on, shall be something I have to decide in my development stages of my work. PRIMARY RESEARCH In the mean time I have decided to go out and document the world around, me that is even remotely similar to the landscapes that are present in the cartoons I have been researching. Luckily I live in an areas that borders on very rural lands, I went out several times, to document these areas in various weather conditions: Samples from Shoot 1: Cold Rain and Overcast shoot

Samples from shoot 2: Sunny/Sleety Shoot

I have also embarked upon creating mood boards of the following, to help me direct the art style of my work:

As well as mood boarding landscapes, I have my own personal videos and photographs that I have observed and recorded from a few years ago of varying landscapes from the Lake District in England, the Old City of Dubrovnik in Croatia, the volcanic islands of Santorini, in Greece, and the mountains of Granada and Asturias in Spain.

These shall all be used to inspire me in the second phase of my project with my development work.