Wolf Designs - Good and Evil

 I tried to keep the design of the good wolf in contrast to the evil one. So it is much more elegant and proud, with long limbs but strong paws and back. I will have it stand straighter with a long flowing tail and strong nose. I am going to attempt to keep the abstract design quality of my sketches and incorporate it into my 3D model.

Some more concept sketches developing the evil wolf character. I looked into combining characteristics from things that already have fear-like connotations, such as voodoo and spiders, to try and trigger a frighting or creepy response in the audience.

Immemorial Research - Editing and Camera Exploration

Two more videos I found during my research stage. The first is a music video for "She Wolf," by David Guella. I love how the story is told through this music video and the abstract interpretation within the movie is something I am very interested in doing in my own film. The editing style in the film "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" completely amazed me during the scene where they are running through the forest. I am very interested in how they used their camera movements as well as the incorporation of speed variation and shot juxtaposition. I would really like to try a more abstract camera quality in my film.

Immemorial Research - Black Water Gospel

While doing research for possible editing and style for the whole film, my friend suggested looking at this film "Black Water Gospel."
I am very interested in combining 2D and 3D animation as well as getting my 3D animation to have a more painterly approach. I have had little success with this in the past but would really like my senior film to have stylized characters that fit into my very painterly drawn backgrounds.
I love the more experimental side of 3D and am hoping to find an interesting way to use 2D and 3D animation together but still have it seem like they fit well together.

Early Concept Art for Immemorial

So it is now my Fall 2013 semester and all my energy and focus for the next year will be geared towards my Senior short film thesis, currently titled, "Immemorial."

The term immemorial roughly means something of great age that goes beyond the limits of memory. Since my idea for the film focuses on the age old depute between man and wolf, I felt that the term Immemorial would work for now.

I have already started some research and concept work towards the project, but as I am currently in the story/ concept refinement stage, all my designs can still change.

 

I have chosen to work with a forest setting for my film environment. I am worried that I should go with something more original, but I really like a landscape that will allow me to use many painted layers and something that will work well with a more painterly, brush-textured approach.

My inspiration for my color palette came from this autumn mountain picture. I love the contrast of orange and blues.

With a complicated background story, I was able to create a more original environment. The mountain forest for my film is in close proximity to where huge machines of war are being constructed. The production of these machines are giving off huge amounts of smoke from the forges  and as a result, the entire landscape is continuously being covered by falling ash. My inspiration for this idea was the aftermath of volcanoes where the landscape is so dense with ash that no color is visible. So my final color palette for my film will be orange, blue and grey.

Some early concept ideas that deal with the wolf as a twisted, distorted monster according to the eyes of man.

My aim with these studies was exploring the elements of the unnatural. Limbs twisting the wrong way, exposed bone, empty sockets, this all implies how humanity's own view of the wolf is just as unnatural.

I experimented with using human hands instead of paws. These hands take the wolf more into the human world. By giving it human hands, I am suggesting that we see the wolf as something more than an animal. Often, the way a wolf's behavior is viewed and portrayed is more like that of a person. We have elevated this animal to a level of intelligence on par with people, forgetting that it is still just an animal.

Some early silhouette exploration of the "good" wolf, after its transformation. I really like the idea of delicate limbs in contrast with the heavy mass of the "evil" wolf.