Character Development

So with a little word during a tutorial we realized we've got our priorities in the wrong order. Top of the agenda should be the character design. So with Meg's rather helpful influence map and inspiration from our art style between us we have produced the sketches below.

Her are some of Meg's thumbnail sketches including the deliberation as to how tall our character should be. We feel drawn to the design thats four and a half heads high. The girl looks old enough to understand some of the situation around her. The fear behind the Atomic age, but young enough to still have an air of naivety in the way she plays with her toys.

While Meg went about the thumbnails the traditional way I hopped to it with a graphics tablet drawing on the cartoons of the era. Beginning with faces and head shapes and slight variations in hairstyles before I moved on to bodies.

Heads

Bodies

Chosen Art Style

Meant to blog this a while ago but it dropped in the list of priorities. Here is the fifties cartoon style we have in mind for our world which will hopefully appear in the thumbnails as they are completed. Alll the images are scans taken from a book called the 'Cartoon Modern- Style and Design in fifties Animation'- written by Amid Amidi.

Its a wonderful style, simple, angular and fun. Evoking the slapstick humour of Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies, also the Flintstones. The look combining block shapes and colour with a smattering of texture.

The image below is our hero image. The second we spotted it we knew this was the style we wanted for the world of 'dolls in the dark'. There is a mass of potential to twist the reality visually so that the fantasy world of the little girl looks quite skewed. But also we can use colour palettes to differentiate between reality and fantasy. The below feels like the more subdued tones of our main characters reality.

Influence Maps-The Lounge, the Kitchen and the Dolls

In the grand scheme of things the interior decorating of the fantasy world invented by our main character, the little girl will be completely stereotypical fifties. The colour schemes and the decor not too dissimilar from the items featured in our influence maps.

However the Dolls have proved more difficult. In conversation with Alan we voiced our confusion on how these dolls should move in the first two acts of our narrative. Should we make obvious joints on them, if so how many, should they be realistic to dolls of the time? his suggestion is that we take something simple such as Playmobil dolls (second row, first image) and give them more human anatomy. I feel this is a good place to start, but I am also attracted to the simplistic nature of the Flagg Dolls (Third row, far right). These are dolls that were available during 1950's, they have some limited movement...

Dolls in the Dark Initial Bunker Resources

I've taken on the duty of designing the bunker interior for the animation; I'm planning to render it in a more realistic, 'gritty' style than that of the little girl's reverie to drive home the seriousness of the situation. So, obviously, I'm going to need some references, particularly as the closest I've ever been to 'subterranean' is the CGAA base room.

I've put together a major 'cheat sheet' for my own reference, but the file is huge - open at your own risk.

So, for your viewing pleasure, here's a slightly more geriatric-laptop-friendly version.

Bunkers are fun. I have fond  memories of playing in old block houses out in the marshes near my house, back when I actually went outside and ran about. World War and Cold War architecture has always been close by for me.

Basements and the like, not so much. The soil in my village has a hard enough time tolerating the foundations of above-ground buildings, so underground architecture is more-or-less out of the question. What I love about cellars is the sheer variety, from wine cellars to root cellars to data centres to places-where-people-put-their-stuff-to-forget-about-it. I'm not sure whether we want to go down the private shelter route or whether we want the shelter to be huge, as though it was a public building, so I'm keeping my options open.

Last but not least, there's this very informative bunker study by Michael Janzen. The accompanying article is excellent as well. It discusses the basic principles of nuclear-survival architecture, such as the importance of 90-degree turns in ventilation systems to keep irradiated particles from entering the bunker, and various building materials and the amount of them needed to block radiation.

Round we go again- New influences for new ideas!

So another conversation with Phil and ideas have bee rejigged once again. The car idea just had no Story content, no feeling to it what so ever. So Phil took me back to basics. Start off with a three Act Structure and two inspiring video's that incorporate this are these two. 'Kiwi!' and StoryCorps 'She Was the One'

Both video's story structure resonate well with the theme of duality. A theme which is also present during the atomic age The fifties was a time of optimism and fear. Man was getting back on its feet following the world wars, but finding new ways to destroy itself simultaneously with Atomic weapons. So while the Kiwi makes its first flight, we suddenly realise how it ends tragically as the Kiwi falls to its doom. As for the Storycorp episode, the voice over provides a similar three act structure, the interview sets the scene of life before 9/11 to the events as they unfolded and finally the conclusion.

This three act structure- where the audience simply absorb the happenings of the first two acts before getting clonked over the head with a twist- is a sequence that just works. It was a structure Meg and I had tried before with the early storyboarded idea of the airliner turning out to be a bomber carrying the H-Bomb. But now with the concept of three acts revitalised I went about coming up with some new ideas...

The Fifties Failed Car- the Ford Edsel

Here is the initial script for our crazy Fifties car idea, detailing a crash test dummy's endurance of 'progress'

'Don't Be A Dummy'- script

Having completed our first scripted effort and with a little more direction from both Phil and Alan, we were instructed to look at different types of cars. Maybe some of the worst models, to pick up on their failures and add them to the disastrous mix for our escalation animation idea. The failure car was the Ford Edsel.

Due to the strange complications between car manufacturers it would appear many of this model car reached the end of the production line unfinished and were even sent to dealerships missing parts. When it came down to popularity, a hype had been built up through various advertising methods, culminating in general disappointment and indifference towards the car when it was finally revealed to the public. As for physical faults or goofs there were not very many. Apparently the hood ornament had a tendency to fly off when the car reached 70mph and buttons on the steering wheel to change gears was a cumbersome edition to the car. In any case people tend to remember this car as an absolute failure and as a creative studio, Meg and I thought we could use that...

However throughout or scheming we were losing sight of the Atomic age and Phil quite rightly pointed out we should be incorporating the atom into our car. Make it nuclear powered. The fifties was a time when nuclear energy was considered a great thing, the future and progress. Plus there was potentially more material to work with. For example the car would glow in the dark due to the radiation...

There is plenty to be getting on with and time to flesh out a new script....

So what else went on in the fifties...?- other idea's

Having done a fairly narrow search field into the atomic age I set about looking at what else happened during the fifties aside from the bomb tests and conflicts. There was a fair amount that went on, from the completely mundane to some fairly groundbreaking...
For example the discovery of DNA, NASA was formed, Disneyland opened, Peanuts comic strips were first published, Colour television was invented. Russia launched the first spacecraft Sputnik and later launched the first living creature (a dog named Laika) into space.

 This lists just a  few of many things to take pace during the fifties. I feel that this rather generic search may help us find an idea. Or possibly provide some features to give a little wow factor to our eventual idea.

For example, lego building bricks invented during that period could provide an interesting style when creating an animation.
Television is a clear indicator of era and so perhaps using a colour television, or creating an advertisement would be apt for the period.
Creature features and the like were popular during the fifties, so creating a sic-fi horror of our own , or something based on the 1950's novel 'Day of the Triffids' could be viable...

Duck and Cover!- Idea 2

In the early fifties, Soviet Russia began to test nuclear weapons. In response, the US governments Civil Defence branch created awareness videos to try to prepare the American public for the event of a Nuclear bombing.
In the example below there is a harmless innocence due to the cartoon nature of 'Bert the Turtle'. And despite having live-action elements, describing what to do in the event, the actions taken are carried out unbelievably calmly and seem all but useless against a bomb blast! The terrifying fact was that America could quite literally have been levelled at any second by a nuclear attack and keeping morale up with a can-do attitude was necessary. However the whole thing has an element of sticking a plaster over a gaping wound.

Meg and I wondered if we could play on the ridiculous nature of some of these duck and cover techniques. Create perhaps a dark comedy. Or possibly use a little of the Loony Tunes and Merrie Melodies style to lighten things to a Wile.E.Coyote and Roadrunner level. The cartoons were well and truly established by the fifties.

However, again, this idea lacks any real story and so the idea was also scrapped.

Thoughts Behind the Initial Idea

We began everything with a brainstorming session culminating in a filling of a couple of notebook pages. The first page being the various ideas that came from the tops of our heads, the second page is where we tried to narrow things down and make sure contact was no issue.The third was the point in which we began to ponder our studio identity! Here is the seedling that grew into our beloved Grumpy Moose!

As can be seen from the notes, our general idea was that the 'atomic era' was chock full of conflict and were generally dark times. We went onto do a little research into the subjects we plucked from the backs of our minds, disregarding anything out of our time frame and noting any interesting stories we discovered along the way.

We also investigated a couple of the art styles around at the time particularly poster artworks and propaganda.

It was this research and the poster artwork that led to the first idea we'd had. The aircraft over some tropical islands eventually flying over Bikini Atoll to drop the nuclear weapon. However as Meg quite rightly said the idea was scrapped for the lack of storytelling.