Character Design
Our Storyboards and progress up to this point as a group can be found in the Presentation linked below:
Now that Aaron had completed out storyboards, it was time to explore how we could flesh out these characters and environments through concept art.
Above is the first piece of concept art I did for this project. All of these characters underwent changes to help make the film more concise and easy to read. The poster above almost comes across as an action packed adventure, whereas we wanted to make something more psychological and frightening. Therefore we decided to make the man and boy feeble, so that the came across as vulnerable, and made the dog monster more like a wolf, so that it feels more tangible and real.
Monster Dog
We wanted our final character designs to reflect the roles the characters play in the film. For the dog monster, we wanted to emphasise the idea that it isn’t real, that it’s a dream. Therefore, we decided on making the character 2D. This allowed for us to make a more dynamic character, and we decided to push is as far as we could, with the monster’s fur and smoking body caught in a perpetual wind, and having fire dance in its eyes and mouth nonstop. The fact the character is 2D and made of smoke, we used this to our advantage, making it swell and fill as much of the frame as possible, to reinforce the theme of Big and Small.
Below is the final concept of the monster.
Boy
For the Boy, we wanted him to appear innocent and timid, so we decided soft features, such as a round face and curly or fluffy hair would help bring these characteristics out. The boy would also wear a white shirt, as this has connotations with innocence as well. We also wanted a sense of foreshadowing that this is a PTSD war induced nightmare, so we had the Boy wear Cameo pyjamas.
Below is the final concept of the boy.
Man
The Boy reflects the Old Mans mental state when he has the nightmare, so we wanted the characters to feel similar, yet show the damage PTSD has done to the man in the current day. The man wears the same clothes as the boy, however his white sweater is replaced with a black, symbolising innocence lost. He now wears a dog-tag necklace as well as his cameo trousers, further connecting him to his past in the war.
Below is the final concept of the man.
Dog
We wanted the dog to be the complete antithesis if the monster, which is whys design resembles more of a corgi or husky, rather than a tradition Labrador. Where the monster, is tall and wolf like, with sharp features ad narrow, blank eyes, the service dog is, short chubby and round, with bright fur and bright, colourful eyes. The red vest the dog wears being the one call back to the red fire of the dog monster was engulfed in in the nightmare.
Below is the final concept of the dog.
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