Research
In order to make sure our film wasn’t disrespecting any suffers of PTSD, I did some research for our group into the topic. According to a study conducted by K9 for Warriors, an American charity and veterans service organisation, veterans who had been signed up and paired with a service dog had alleviated experiences of PTSD symptoms than veterans who were on the waiting list, whose symptoms showed no alleviation whatsoever.
With this in mind we now know that service dogs can help assist people with symptoms of PSTD and that we aren't exaggerating the facts.
For the dream sequence in our film we felt that its ok for us to fabricate the events, and dreams and all forms of nightmares can take any form. We were focused on showing that the aftermath and how the dog assist the man was accurate.
Influences
The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (1920)
Taking a motif from German Expressionist films, as we felt that for a nightmare sequence a more abstract approach would be interesting, we looked to how horror films from that era of film making utilised colour, lighting and props.
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari is one of the staples of the genre and was our primary influence for our film. The fact that this film deals with delusions and a distortion of reality, and the environment. The use of abstract visuals and sickeningly saturated monochromatic scenes lends itself to this otherworldly atmosphere that we wanted to convey we our film. Below are some examples of our main inspirations.
We noted the architecture and use of shadows as key features we wanted to take inspiration from for our film.
Princess Mononoke (1997)
I also looked towards Studio Ghibli's Princess Mononoke for the monster dogs design. I felt that Ghibli movies fluid and expressive style would lend itself to our film, as many of their stories deal with fantastical beasts and monsters with other-worldly features. Moro from Princess Mononoke is a good frame of reference fore animating a wolf in 2D animation, as she is expressive and threatening whilst not looking unlike a real wolf.
Beneath are some examples of the features I find appealing, I wish to explore.
Animation Styles
When animating the 2D, I mentioned before that I was most inspired by Studio Ghibilis animation style. This has served as my primary influence. My reason for choosing there style is that there characters remain expressive and lively, with out appearing overly cartoonish, meaning they stay on model, rarely stretching and squashing, or appearing bouncy.
I felt that having a character that follows this same idea could be taken more seriously, as well as be more challenging and interesting to animate. I found that is also made the character feel more weighted, and therefore more tangible.
Considering this, I looked at many real life wolves, and my own dog to practice their anatomy, and make sure that my animations looked consistent and believable.
References
K9 for Warriors
Do Psychiatric Service Dogs Really Help Veterans with PTSD?
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Wolves
Kommentare