Some Costume Ideas - Oakley and Lea

Character Notes - Marco Walker

Marco Walker

Role: Love Interest

Family: (tbc) I think a really nuclear family set up, "mom, dad, two kids" thing

Age: 25ish

Sort of part of the "Beat Generation", started reading really racy stuff of the time and hanging out with "those kinds of people" secretly but when he parents found out he hiked it out of there. He always wanted to explore more of the world and he loves doing that but his past still lingers in his head.

Mainly referred to as "Marc/Mark".

Personality: Quiet and Scatterbrained. 

Travelled to a lot of places, picks up facts from everywhere and loves to show off by telling them, this is when he's most confident.

But he does have a small attention span so he skips from topic to topic with little regard for making sense.

Empathises with Oakley being an outsider and not fitting in.

Relates to Lea for wanting to explore and rebel.

Likes Oakley straight away but doesn't try to push for anything more until later on.

Hates musicals.

Hates structure, especially in the small town, so when he pretends to be a stage hand he's quite good, but doesn't follow the time or cues as well as he should.

Looks: Same height or only slightly shorter than Oakley, but a bigger build "power centre" = face/eyes/eyebrows

Slumps a little/bad posture, used to manual labour from picking up odd jobs here and there.

A fair few freckles.

Scruffy hair, somewhat like rough-er version of James Dean, or even just complete head of messy curls.

For some reason I keep thinking of him as a ginger or red-head and I'm not sure why right now...

Character Notes - Lea Toncol

Lea Toncol

Role: Side Kick

Family: Oakley's Understudy/Sister

Age: 23ish

Personality: Rebellious and dorky.

Even though they hardly look alike, her role is Oakley's understudy, so she takes over in situations when he doesn't feel up to it. However Oakley treats her more as an equal and as a sibling. Even though she's younger, she acts like a protective and stubborn older sibling.

She's more laidback, and is liked slightly more by the town than Oakley is.

Hates being a support act and wants to step out of his shadow and wants to explore.

 Is the one who convinces Oakley to venture out past the curtain.

Looks: Shorter than Oakley, bit more round "power centre" = shoulders/arms

Possibly also brown hair and eyes, I'm not sure how similar I want her and Oakley to look.

Always wearing colour-cordinating outfits with Oakley.

Since I have two guys with short hair I think I'd mix up the length with Lea, but I think it'd have to be put up cause of all her dancing, so something inspired by Teddy Girls or something similar I think would suit her rebellious nature

Character Notes - Oakley Colton

Oakley Colton

Role: Main Character

Family: Son of leading character (mother/father?), Understudy (acts like sibling) Lea

Age: 24ish

Personality: Awkward as hell but very optimistic. 

Bit of a doormat. 

Focused on becoming a leading man. 

Most confident when singing and dancing.

Looks: Tall, long limbs, "power centre" = legs

Stands a bit clumsy-ly when not dancing, just normally talking

Combed Side Part Captain America hair

           

    

     

          

Everyone is going to America, and it's the 50's but I don't want everyone to be white, not sure what I want Oakley to be yet, i'll experiment, but i know I'd like brown skin, light brown hair, and big brown doe eyes to make him look a bit younger and naive.

The Story

(what I have at the moment, still want to finish/resolve some things and rename people...and create people but for now...)

TITLE
Off The Track

SUMMARY
After failing to be a great leading man that he was expected to be in his living musical, Oakley Colton ventures out of his small town to find a different beat to sing and dance to.


Or
There's a small town in the middle of the woods (in 1950's America) that's set up as a musical (it's discovered later that there are a few more around) with a large curtain at its entrance. There are also stages, lighting rigs and backgrounds are set up all around. Silent stage hands get props ready for the next musical number, and chorus members have no lives outside reacting to the dramas around them. Those dramas belonging to the leading characters.

As the son of one of these leading characters, it's expected that Oakley would effortlessly become one too. However he's always been full of nerves and awkwardness so he's regularly teased and bullied by the rest of the town.

When he and his understudy/sibling Lea discover Marco wandering outside of the curtains of the town they click instantly. Wanting to rebel for once Oakley invited Marco into their town where they disguise him as a stage hand.

As Macro is unused to the way the town is set up, along with all the singing, he gets frustrated and breaks the town metronome in anger. He's instantly kicked out of the town, while Oakley and Lea offer to make sure he stays away and find a new metronome.

This is mostly true, as the two are now able to discover the outside world with their own tour guide.

[...they do explore new towns, some musical, until they find Marco's old town...and stuff happens until i figure out a back story, basically he run away from his problems there and they confront them, and they find a life size replacement metronome...from somewhere]

They come back to their town with the metronome to replace it, and the town sees that Oakley and Lea are much more confident now and expect them to return. Instead, Oakley stands up against his old town and rejects this idea to venture off to find somewhere that suits the needs of all three of them.

Inspirations - Stage Design

(I am so awful at story telling. I'm figuring out names at the moment, but everything else is still so under developed, I never like any storyline I come up with...)

Anyway, the Tony Awards people have posted some of this years concept art for the shows nominated and some of them are pretty amazing:

(GOLDEN BOY) 

Really nice shading and use of space, gives the piece a really sombre, still tone 

 (KINKY BOOTS) 

Really interesting, grungy props, I'm pretty sure this is actually a 3D model to obviously it has a great sense of depth

(THE NANCE)

Fantastic upper corner thing going on, with all the billboards and signs, also really digging the use of colour, and the character poses

(MATILDA)

This is so amazing! I can't stop looking at it, it just really so dynamic and fun and whimsical, it just makes you wanna stand right inside it and just enjoy it 

Locations - Inspirations

I'm starting to realise that I have no idea where to start with locations...

I know it'd probably be a good idea to use ref. images at the moment to get an idea, but nothing i can find seems right, and i need to learn more about perspective and landscape before I could start drawing it up myself...

but for now these are the closest I've found are these, some snow-y ones and forest-y ones

SNOW
I like the snow because it makes it feel like the town is completely isolated, and a big red curtain would stand out really nicely there

FOREST
I thin the colours would be really nice here with red curtains and wooden stages, and would probably make the story a bit more plausible? (then again...the rest of it isnt plausible at all)

Pondering - Locations

I keep thinking about locations now, I'd love to do some designs for the musical town, something like a weird outside stage set up, I think there was something similar in DOGVILLE but I need to watch that to see how it plays out in the story, visually however it's pretty amazing

Also I had a idea for a massive red curtain to appear somewhere and I'm fairly certain that THE FALL must've been in the back of my mind when I thought that...

Story - Research - Links

Musical theme links

http://www.life123.com/arts-culture/theatre/musicals/broadway-musicals-history.shtml
(quick rundown on history of broadway stage and film musicals, but basic stuff, nothing new)

http://www.musicals101.com/write.htm
(how to write a musical: pretty interesting, and a reminder that I need to think about storytelling basics)

http://www.stagewhispers.com.au/
(australian broadway news site)

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1622288,00.html
(TIME article about what "audiences want"  in a modern movie musical)

http://www.slideshare.net/chefkeem/how-to-write-a-musical-drama
(tips on story drama elements)

http://larryavisbrown.homestead.com/files/theater_topics/musical_theater.htm
(types of songs in musicals)

http://www.murderati.com/blog/2012/2/16/key-story-elements-lessons-from-musical-theater.html
(more of that but also with examples from musicals)

http://www.musicals101.com/book.htm
(essential elements of the musical "book" ((the plot basically)) )


http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-0418102-173116/unrestricted/Whittaker_III_dis.pdf
(good god this is long...not sure what this is totally about yet apart from American themes in muscials, but there's also a section focusing on gay characters too so thats helpful)

Story Ideas - Erg

It's week 4, and I still can't choose which story to go with...

!!!

arrrrrrrrrrgh. I like both main characters of both stories : / and I know that whichever one I choose to go with, I'll work on the other one in my free time, it just depends which one I wanna get marked on I guess?

I think i'm leaning towards the musical if anything...it'd add guys to my portfolio, and really help me with my anatomy and use of colour

but I have all these little ideas for both that I like, arrgh

The Ring - Experiment - Style - Ombre

Experimenting with portraying "ombre" hair colouring (half dyed)

I think I'd like the make the mc a counter point to Samara...like a

monochrome palette

long black straight hair, ombre into white tips

black plain shift dress

I'm not totally sure why yet I just think it'd be interesting

I also keep forgetting to sign my stuff :/

Story Ideas - The Musical - Pondering (messy again)

Main - Musical guy, MG
LI - Non musical guy, NMG?

-MG outcasted from small town, seen as a bit off and awkward

-meets NMG outside of small town

-NMG, quiet, also outcasted? belongs no where?

-weirded out by MG but eventually warms up to

-MG warmed up straight away


-allowed (?) back to old town

-both go back

-MG more confident and ready to move back

-town doesnt allow NMG cause he's non musical, ew

-MG eventually gives up town (which kinda treated him like crap) to go elsewhere

-MG and NMG go off to find a town of their own

(Understudy, US,  should be there too, wherever MG is, loves him like a brother but wants more in life than being a shadow basically)


-- set in musical town, out of musical town, back in musical town, then lovely new non bias town --

Musical - Experimenting - Poses

Just some practice dance poses drawn from reference

Links - Character Design

http://pinterest.com/characterdesigh/

omg

Story Idea - The Musical - Pondering (messy)

The Musical is the worst title in the world, but I have nothing else right now.

Just random notes, this still hasn't been fleshed out, erg.

Experimenting - Styles - Crosshatching

An attempt in a complete opposite of speed painting (I think?) using only lines and that is cross hatching.

I kind of just made this one up, so I didn't use a tutorial so it's a little messy but I guess it's meant to be. I think it's a really interesting look though, might try it out a bit more, and I think it I used it right it could probably look really creepy/scary too?

Story Idea - The Ring - Pondering

Jotting down before I go to bed so I don't forget this as a possibility...

- Thinking of combining the vintage design dealer with the ring idea

-main character vintage searching finds (?) videos
-knows vaguely of legend behind it but doesn't truly believe it, slightly believes it (?)
-finds other videos, and uploads them up to computer, ends up seeing "ring" video through that
-has a movie screening with (large number) of friends
-"ring" video accidently is played on projector
(meaning she's safe then cause she's technically passed the video on, should figure this out later?)

-people would be called...on phones?

-mc freaks out a little, friends promise to come back with mc in 7 days


- in 7 days, same spot, samara stuff starts to happen (water dripping, flashing on and off)
-mc and a couple of others (?) escapes with laptop (and wifi stick i guess??)
-figures out to pass along
-comes up with plan to overload samara with people
-uploads as torrent film under a popular film title

-starts being downloaded and watched

annnnnnd something something something, goes viral etc.

i'm not sure, to be continued possibly.



(what would be lovely is if the films had actual guidelines how this damn video works...)

Experimenting - ProkoTV

We mentioned ProkoTV's youtube channel in class this week, and I had watched the videos already but today I watched again and tried a couple of practice goes.

I find personally, that his way of drawing the head doesnt work for me on the whole, I usually end up getting the proportions wrong...but it takes practice I guess.

He does talk a lot about shading/lighting too and I need a lot of help with that, so that's nice too.

Experimenting - Painterly Styles

I'm staying away from the flat, 2d look I'm used to for a while to try some new stuff in between trying to flesh out stories for the "proposal".

This is trying a paint-type of look:

or with black outlines, which gives it more contrast, but the image is softer with the brown outlines, so not really sure there

 This is still in my "cartoon-y" style, which is heavily influenced by Disney artists, in fact for the centaur lady I used concept art for Bambi as reference.

I like the soft look of it with the blotchy grass and ocean and the colour scheme, still feels a bit strange to do outlines/line art. It does make for more dynamic posing I think though...


And a more realistic look:

I used a picture "speed painting" tutorial, which had 8 progress pictures. It's not completely polished but I don't think it'd a disaster either.
This is a really really really weird technique though, with no outlines at all and distributing colours where you think you'll need them...but I'm very bad at planning ahead.
Still, it was a nice change to only use a couple of layers for once but if you make a mistake it's hell to fix up...

Quick Sketch - Pondering

Not really liking this at the moment but I wanted to jot the idea down before I forgot

Namely: 

keyboard - bring in technology

hair - Samara, evil

letters - title of film

Links - Thrilller

Links that describe the THRILLER genre, which I'd need to pay attention to if I was to the "The Ring" idea, which is classified as a Thriller, as well as Mystery and Horror

LINKS

http://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/thriller

http://www.filmsite.org/thrillerfilms.html

http://hannahbuttersasmedia.blogspot.com.au/p/thriller-genre-conventions.html

http://www.slideshare.net/lewisharland/conventions-of-the-thriller-genre-11373344

Story Idea (maybe...)

Not sure what I'd do with this but I was doodling and thought i'd pop it here, see if it comes in handy or something

So yeah, centaur and mermaids.

Story Ideas (More)

These are a couple one line story ideas that aren't really developed but they're still floating around I guess.

- Antique design dealers -

basically those who find antique bits and bobs and furniture to use for (crazy rich) clients who want home decors, or window dressings etc.

Possibly in one of their scouting trips finds something really important or strange from the paaaaast and something something.

What I like about this idea is the potential "location" and "costume" concept art I think could look pretty amazing, and the whole "look" of the film could be a style that mixed vintage and contemporary together.

- Muscial society -

bascially that all the characters are in a musical, and they know it. Possibly it'd just be a town, not ...the whole world, but it's part of their everyday lives and couldn't think of any other way to express themselves then belting through songs.

I think they'd be a newcomer who couldn't/doesn't want to sing and throws things into a tizzy, and using this divide as story about differences and intolerance...maybe  

Inspirations - Others

Here's some more inspirations that aren't related to Disney (mainly), I haven't sourced them all yet as I've stupidly saved a few of them to my computer without details but I will get onto that...

MOTORCITY (concept art) - Titmouse 

I really liked the look of this cartoon, it used a mixture of flash and 3D, and it was really futurisic, grungy and great use of bright colours. I think even though there's a focus on mechanical and cars, it avoided the boring generic look of similar series/films like Tranformers.

GRAVITY FALLS (con art) 

The concept work for this tv series I think is lovely, it's soft and it's use of shadows give its desired eery look. I also love it's use of colours, when one would usually use mainly browns and greens for a show set in a forest, this show more likely goes with purples and greys which gives the setting a permanent "afternoon/dusk" setting.

PARANORMAN (poster design)

If I were to go with my horror film idea, i would really like to do something like this style. It's old school but also not overly gore-y but still has a sinister feel to it.

WITHOUT SOURCES (ONLINE ARTISTS)

I really really really love the use of colours and textures with these.

The first one I especially love the feel of depth but it doesn't feel cluttered.

The second one's texture is rough and soft at the same time? I'm not even sure how to explain but I love it.

The third one uses small lines to really bring the whole picture up to a new level I think, it'd look slightly flat without it

This is just really sleek, confident and modern I think. I love the flow between the character and the background.

These are amazing. It seems to be a mixture of mediums and it works so well. 

The colours are so abundant but they don't clash, the texture makes it feel homely but the compositions feel so smartly thought out. 

I'd love to achieve something like this one day.

This one just gives me a really calm feeling...

I think that's the best thing I can say about it, that it instantly makes me feel something?

But also the contrast of the grey and sturdy light house with the soft kind of magical look of the stars and the light

Experimenting - Style - Costume

This is actually for my other class this term Motion Graphics, where I'm doing a title sequence for "Singin' In The Rain". However it was a bit of experimenting and planning of a style that I'll most likely use in my planning stages, like the last post with the style of hair.

The next image is more of the same, but just general style practice.

I like doing costumes and fashion this way as it's quick and efficiently and it really just focuses on the clothes with only a hint of a pose of the body.

Experimenting - Style - Hair

Just a quick revising of a style I picked up last year during my Character Design class.

I like this look because I think it's pretty dynamic, quick to do and describes how the hair sits really well. Not sure if it looks  like a "finished" product kind of look but it should be good to use at least for the designing stages.

Story Idea

I still havent thought of much for story ideas yet but I know I like the idea of playing around with an existing story. Whether it be putting a new spin on a old fairytale or making a sequel to an existing series and playing around with the rules of it's universe...

I was thinking I could possibly do this with "The Ring" series. I never really liked horror films but this one always felt more like a thriller to me and I thought the concept was really interesting. What I think I would do is to update aspects of it  the video tape, characters etc. and see how far this concept can be stretched

If someone was to upload the ring video and make it a file that could easily be passed around and torrented then it could reach millions of people very quickly.



Of course I'd need to research more of the backstory to see whether it would be possibly for that many people to be targeted by Samara (the ring girl) and I know she comes out of the tv, but if possible could she come out of any screen? computers, mobiles etc.?

I've had a bit of a look around, and there's rumours of a second sequel but there's little talk of the story (and none of it talks about torrents or anything similar to mine, which is good...) apart from wanting to aim at a younger audience/teenagers, which would work easily with the focus on new technology possibly?

Problems with this idea, possibly, that my art style doesnt really fit with horror? and that i don't really like horror films? hm...
Also from what I heard in class, some people are thinking of doing futuristic sci-fi settings, and while mine wouldnt be futuristic it would still be present-day modern with a focus on technology which may look too similar to theirs??

So in summary:

first idea, The Ring 3, updated for present day, torrented files, new characters would be made too

Inspirations - Disney - Others

(CONT. kinda)

these are more Disney concept arts that I really admire

BOLT
I really really love the painted look for these, there's a real feel of movement and softness to everything and the paint somehow still looks wet



which is similar to why I like the next one too, although it's a bit more stylised

TANGLED



PRINCESS AND THE FROG
I don't think I could ever pull this off, sadly, as it's one of my favorites - there's amazing use of colours to create the suspicious mood, and perspective of the hallway makes it seem very "looming"



and another for locations would be
101 DALMATIANS
if only for Roger's study, because it's so detailed and over cluttered and it works perfectly for his character