STYLES & ART DIRECTION
This post will be about the styles I have experimented on, how I created my frames and my decision to change style because of my overall idea. Link to style 2.
The overall idea when I created these frames were to show the contrast in YIN & YANG and how they compliment each other. The flow of each frame should also tell the story of the lovers, Weaver Girl and the Herder. This sentence really helped me in directing how the elements should flow:
“Yin and yang transform each other: like an undertow in the ocean, every advance is complemented by a retreat, and every rise transforms into a fall.”
STYLE 1
The first style is following my first mood-board and reference. Gradients, mountains and Chinese elements. I added the lotus plant because it is a great symbol in Buddhism, representing the three worlds, heaven, earth and the underworld. It shows the balance of Yin and Yang and how everythign co-exist with each other.
However, after awhile it was quite hard to get my story going. The gradients didn’t really show YIN & YANG, it didn’t bring out two very different elements coming together. Instead, it does bring out the love story but it just looks feminine and slightly unrefined.
ARTIST REFERENCE/ Moodboard
Designs
This frame show a burst in creation. Life and death, this shows life at it’s peak.
This is the waves/mountain and how the elements are floating around not interacting with each other. This also shows the milky way in the “Weaver Girl and the Herder” love story.
First burst of creation
Sun vs Moon, Life and death, hot and cold, men and woman, strong and weak, push and pull etc.
Two contrasting seas
The elements chasing each other, but they are not allowed to touch.
Ginko leaves, one element in buddhism
ANIMATION
So planning the movement of my graphics I brought back this concept of YIN & YANG. “Yin and yang transform each other: like an undertow in the ocean, every advance is complemented by a retreat, and every rise transforms into a fall.”
I’ll be using a mixture of after-effects and premiere pro to animate my designs. I’m not that familiar with AE but this project gave me a chance to learn cool effects and how to apply filters. However, I didn’t really like the very systematic movement of some of the effects, hence I animated most of them by moving each of their points and movement manually. It was tedious and some were not as natural as I want them to be, but it worked and I will continue to work on them.
Here are some examples.. And failed examples.
Really wanted to create the effect of the blue sea avoiding the sun. However there was a lot of masking and manually creating that balance of blue, black and orange.
Links to FINAL, research and inspirations
Research: Link
Final Style & Animations: Link
FINAL: LINK