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I mentioned in my brief I wanted to research ‘Into the spider-verse because I think it's a great film that represents the importance of character design and how an artstyle creates a unique identity.
Animation

Incredibly, the animator's used modern technology to create something new, the aim for this film was always to separate it from the standard 3D animated style of recent. The art style is heavily inspired by the iconic style in comic books; bright colours, shapes, Ben-Day dots, Kirby dots and big text to represent characters' feelings. To pay homage to the comic books Spider-Man comes from. One of the key differences in the animation compared to the majority of animated films recently is the use of animating on twos. Realistic 3D animated films primarily animate on ones, each movement a character makes changes with each frame, making the movement fluid. ‘Into the Spider-Verse’ uses a mix of both techniques, animating on ones can emphasize speed and twos slow a character down by holding a pose for 2 or 3 frames. It feels like a blend of 3D and 2D at the same time.

One of my favourite things about this film is the choice for every frame to look like a still illustration. Instead of using motion blurs to suggest quick motion, they use the old-school smear technique to make each frame crisp and clear.

Individual characters

The main 6 spider-men characters in this film have inherently different designs, connected to their respective comic book worlds in the multiverse. Not only is this comical but it strengthens the idea of the multiverse where each world is entirely different and/or similar (as seen with Peter Parker and Peter B. Parker). Along with their designs, the way they move has been given clear attention. Spider-Ham is one of my favourite alternate versions of Spider-Man, he comes from a Looney-Tunes type world and is still able to do outlandish things seen in those types of cartoons in Miles’ more realistic setting.

Colours

Along with the art style, they push the comic book style idea even further with lots of bright, vibrant colours contrasted with black. My favourite scene, the ending fight scene in the collider is beautiful, the collider creates splatters of colour, and a sea of buildings and trains to float around it, creating a stunning abstract background that compliments the characters. Another little detail with the colour is the slight spill of red and blue around the outlines to represent misprints that would often happen when printing comic books.

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Grounded is a survival, multiplayer game developed by Obsidian Entertainment. I remember watching some gameplay of Grounded when it came out because I was really intrigued by the concept. I stumbled across it again and thought it had a similarity to my game concept, mainly with the visuals. The game follows a group of kids who have been shrunk to the size of an ant. Since my game is about small fairies the size of bugs, there could be some inspiration to get from this game.
I really like how bugs are an important part of surviving and exploring in Grounded. Different bugs have different uses, for example, spiders are the primary predators who you must fight or avoid and ladybugs can be the key to finding food if you follow them.
The poster is great at telling you the basic premise of the game, using perspective and showing the scale of the players using the surroundings. I will need to create a similar vibe in my posters, representing the size of my fairies using familiar objects or creatures.

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One of the first things to come to mind when I thought of fairies in media was Tinkerbell. The films are very nostalgic for me, and I've rewatched them all recently with my little sister. The worldbuilding in the film series is great at showing off the fairy world, how their magic works, how they live etc. And Tinkerbell is the perfect character to see all the fairy technology. Their clothes and houses are especially inspiring to me, the fairies in the Tinkerbell use leaves and petals for the majority of their clothes. We also see Tinkerbell use leaves for shoes, bags and even as a construction. This makes sense as it is their most readily available material. I wanted to keep in mind this idea of using found material to create clothes. My characters use various nuts and berries as hats, and scrap pieces of fabric thrown away by humans to create fitted clothes.
I especially like the design of Tinkerbells house, it is simply a teapot with leaves as a roof and a door made of sticks. When it comes to my fairy world, I would imagine my fairies would also make a house from found items as well as natural things. Some ideas I thought of were carved out mushrooms, tree stumps, soda cans, delivery boxes, vases as a greenhouse, shoes, a birdhouse etc

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I really like idea of a 'lost civilization' story. I wanted to research the Studio Ghibli film 'Castle In the Sky' because it explores this idea really well. I thought of this film while creating my creepy, 'robot' looking creature because it reminds me of the Laputian robots from the film. Their design looks menacing but the remaining robot in the castle is seen tending to the plants and animals,. It is kind and friendly, though being intended for military purposes.

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Researching Films/Games that inspired my project.

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Researching Films/Games that inspired my project.

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I also suggested researching 'Midsommar' in my brief, mainly because I've researched it before and I thought it would be a great starting point to look at 'breaking the rules' with genres. There is an overwhelming amount of white, intensely sunny scenes and imagery of nature in this film, contrasting the very dark themes. You would think the imagery would make you feel comfortable, but I think it can be more effective at scaring you, than the overwhelming darkness in most horror films. It creates a false sense of hope and comfort because the story is going down a very dark path. I think there is so much potential for this type of storytelling to avoid cliches. You're able to create unique atmospheres that can mislead the viewer at first, bringing bigger surprises to the progression of the story.

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Limbo is a puzzle-platform video game developed by  'Playdead'. During the week 2 peer crits, I had mentioned I'm interested in making a platform game and got a suggestion to research Limbo. Limbo is similar to some of the other games I have researched, being driven by the artistic look and the immersive soundtrack. The game is entirely black and white, and along with the eerie soundtrack creates a creepy, horror-like atmosphere.

The game follows a boy through a dark world, with dangers hidden in the shadows, as he searches for his sister. It's especially clever how they hide the traps and enemies in Limbo. The dark foreground allows anything to blend into the environment, giving you a deadly surprise. This is paired with what the developers call 'trial and death' as you play, meaning you are meant to fall for the traps before you work out the puzzle.

Limbo is a great example of how artistic choices can affect the game-play, and offer unique ways of playing.

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‘Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion’ is a simple, cutesy game with funny dialogue, boss battles and a progressive story. As the story progresses, you discover it has some slightly darker themes like corrupt governments and the apocalypse. You play as a cute little turnip in an apocalyptic world without humans and only living vegetables remain. It sounds like a weird concept but it was really enjoyable to watch playthroughs of this game.

As my own story has progressed, the world I'm creating has changed a lot. My original goal in my brief was to combine contrasting themes and I think I'm beginning to achieve that idea effectively. I was discussing with a friend my idea to have my fairies in an apocalyptic world, unafraid to hide anymore as humans have vanished. She showed me ‘Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion’ as it reminded her a lot of my idea and I was immediately hooked in researching it. The game perfectly fits the contrasting themes with its cutesy look and somewhat darker narrative.

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I will research how creators have shown the importance of lighting, colour and shape in their work. For example, why are the majority of horror films dark and lack vibrant colours? Can this rule be broken?

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I was watching the GOBELINS animations from 2020 and came across 'LA MÉMOIRE DU MÉDAILLON D'OR' directed by Clara DANJOUX. I was immediately intrigued by the animation style, the brushes used are very soft, and there are distinct shades of colours separating the foreground and background. There are many wonderful open shots of the scenery, this was exactly the inspiration I needed for making the backgrounds for my game. I felt the first background I made had too much going on and didn't have a distinctive style. The art in this animated short definitely has a style, a soft brush is used for most things in the scenery except for certain things that are made to stand out. For example, in the image below, the linework on the flowers, tree and waterfall are much sharper. This adds a slight bit of detail, clearly displaying what is in this environment. The colours are also brilliantly used. The main character is shrouded in a shadow, and she is looking at what appears to be a tree which is also casting a shadow. Our eyes are drawn to this darker part and it's clear that's her destination. The soft fog surrounding the rest of the space makes her destination clearer, but also creates an atmosphere and requires the environment to have fewer details in those areas.
Many more of the shots in this animated short use this idea of the area closest to the 'camera' being the darkest and it gets lighter the further back. I've seen this technique in many illustrations and animations because it's a really effective technique at making the foreground or the part we should pay attention to be clearer or more eye-catching.