Week 4: Research

Trolls are normally come across as very aggressive creatures within the media due to the fact of there large build and unappealing appearance, for example in the trilogy Lord of the Rings, a group of trolls they plan to eat the main protagonist. This act itself shows a very mean lifestyle for the creatures. I feel this is an element I will show in my concepts however I also plan to contrast this element by doing a friendly troll which I want to be inspired the BFG (The Big Friendly Giant). Though the BFG not being a troll I want to take elements from him to create a more friendly looking troll such as the crooked smile and the large eyes, elements that can be easily added to the creature.

I then went and thought about trolls within a culture and what as species would they be identified as. Maybe some unban cultures consider them a creature they can use as a form of transportation due to there large build whereas rural cultures may see them as a form of  godly creatures that should be celebrated. I also want to take into consideration the time era these trolls are from, for example if they were in the prehistoric era they might have a more natural appearance whereas if they were in modern day they may have modern enhancements such as metal arms or protective gear. This I feel is of importance for this will give a clear background to the identify of the trolls lifestyle.

   

Week 4: Mood Board

Here I have a selection of underwater/swamp trolls representations throughout media, as you can see they are normally suggested to be of the male origin and have elements of there environment growing on them. I aim to break the gender assignment with my characters as I feel they could just as easily be represented as female just as much as male. Whereas with the environment growing on the trolls I feel is a really effective element to create context for the creature or there origin, this is something I would like to implement into my work. I feel it is a really good way to represent the character, for example I could have the character covered/surrounded by happy looking fish giving the troll as very positive atmosphere to his appearance or I could the troll could be covered in moss suggesting he came from a swap.   

Week 4: Rules for Underwater Trolls!

Rules

The rules in which I have chosen for this week are listed below:

1. Unique Shape of Eyes: I want my trolls to have unique set of eyes when compared to the others, this I feel will give them an identity to where underwater they came from, for example if the troll was from a swamp I feel his eyes would be very murky or very black due to the water.
2. Troll-valuation!: Trolls normally do not originate from underwater so I feel there body would have been forced to adapt, such as having to growing gills or webbing there feet! This an element I feel is important to my concepts to show context as to how they became used to there environment.
3. Trolls can love too!: Through there appearance I want me trolls to represent there love for something, whether it be fish, toys or even seaweed! I think that emotions are something that are forgotten about trolls.

Primary Reasearch

 

I asked a group of ten people who've experienced Alice in Wonderland in various formats of media. I then asked them whether they consider a nightmare or a dream, six answered with dream and 4 answered with nightmare. As you can see the majority saw it as a dream however I believe that this is down to there personal experience of Wonderland. I believe this because of there replies as to why they thought it was a nightmare or dream.

When I asked why they thought it was a dream rather than a night mare they said that because it is presented as weird and wacky it makes it very appealing. This suggests that I should make my character aesthetically pleasing as have a unique quirk to reflect the dream element to my character.

In contrast the people who said that it was more a nightmare thought that this made the world very dangerous and threatening. They also said there was no control or consistency throughout the world which also scared them. Through this I learnt that there personal opinion on the world was dependant on there view of it for example, those you thought the world have no control or consistency feared it however those you thought it was a dream liked this whacky element. This I feel shows to me that when it comes to dream like environments it become very personal to the person. This is why I feel I should make the character very personal to me and my dream experiences to get the most effective representation.

  

Research into Dreams & Nightmares - Alice In Wonderland

Research

Dreams:
A series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep.


Within my dream sequence I want to create a surreal style like Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, by this I mean the way in which Lewis Carroll (the author) has taken elements of our life style such as animals and adapted them in an artist way. The reason as to why I feel this links into the dreams and nightmares style is the fact that Alice experience this world in which is considered very fiction, such as a talking rabbit with a waistcoat. This style also fits the description of a dream over than the fact she is not asleep however, the novel begins with her falling into a rabbit hole. When she falls she transitions into this world which suggests this is a metaphorical sensations of falling asleep or experiencing a dream like phase. Overall the style of this book is what I want to produce from my lip sync, the idea of another reality that has elements of are reality in it but are presented very differently.

I also want my face to have Elven elements to him as I feel this will clearly show a dream like style due to the fact Elves are fiction and often are a key element to fantasy. I also personally like the settings of the Elven race, often very peaceful creatures and like in wildlife reserve style places. I think this fits well with dreams as often good dreams are very peaceful and happy and you awaken feeling good, this is often the atmosphere and emotions presented around the Eleven race due to the fact they are quite peaceful. The colour scheme too is something that is quite relaxing due to the gentle colours used such as greens and calm yellows. This is the atmosphere I would like to produce from my lips sync. I feel I can achieve this by having my character take inspiration of the eleven style and have the talk in a very calming tone to relax the audience. 

 

Animation

 

 

 

I decided to look into animations of dream/nightmare sequences to see how the style and setting have been represented before. From this animation I discovered the movement often used within dream sequences. As you can see from the video the man is floating effortlessly and freely, idea of floating I feel definitely represents the feeling of dream in a visual manor. To distil this into my work I am going to animate my character with slow and relaxed movement to clear represent this style. To enhance the nightmarish effect the animator has used a dark red colour scheme, this suggests a form of danger or fear. From this I learn I should stay clear of these colours as I am trying to create a dream style lip sync therefore it should be the opposite if am I going to represent dreams instead of nightmares.   

 

 



Week 3: Final Concepts

Week 3: Moodboard

With my moodboard I wanted to show to the diversity of how witchcraft has been represented in media, I also looked into some elements of Steampunk like the witchdoctor style artwork. This backs up my research due to the fact of the similar colour scheme being used in the Steampunk images thus strengthening my idea to use the brown and grey style colour scheme.