Character & Narrative- Week 2- Mood Boards and References

Week 2- 

Mood Boards and References

When starting out a new project, I always want to get a visual in my head, this is why I do a few different mood boards along the way for different aspects of the projects Im doing. They also let me see colour pallets, references and what is out there already.

This was a mood board of key elements i want in my project. For it to be set in a graveyard, For the main character to be a zombie and for it to be a stop motion. This let me see that the colour pallets are mostly browns, greens and blues.

This second one was when I was thinking about the set itself. As it was in a graveyard, The question was, how i was going to create a background that looked to be going into the distance, but still having a small set. This really makes you think about placement and how to trick the audience into thinking the graveyard the characters are in, is a whole lot bigger than it is. This also let me see what mediums could be used to create a good scene and a good looking set.

Looking at what is out there, zombies have been very popular in tv shows and in the industry at the moment so there are many different looks, styles, shapes and colours that can be seen. This really makes it difficult to choose one that has its own overall look and personality. I dont want an aggressive character as it is more of a romantic animation. This means many of these designs can tell me what to stay away from and what i should be going for, for him to be more innocent and not a threat.

This was when I came up with the idea of creating a love story, the skeleton in my animation was originally going to be a prop. Since the start it has progressed into a zombie loving a skeleton. This mood board was when i originally was going to have the two being zombies, but i thought since my chosen brief is opposites attract, them being different stages of undead, it seemed more poetic and endearing. It still helped me in the progression of my story and let me see what the female could still end up looking like.

As I am more comfortable doing female characters, many ideas were coming together for what the overall look of the character should look like. Wether she should be cute and all bone, or bone showing but like a sugar skull woman, or if i should do more of a comic look. This can all be seen in my other post about where i was taking my designs and what i have been practicing for the aesthetic.

When testing the designs, I drew one in Victorian dress. This really made me want to use this as the era in which my animation is held. As I am also doing a stop motion, I will be building her outfit, so I have to make sure I research the era and what the dresses should look like. I have always wanted to do a character from the Victorian times, so this was a great opportunity to do so, this is why I am very exited about this project and what i am doing.