Applied Animation: Environment Mood Board

After creating my initial storyboard it came to my attention that there would be four different settings that take place within my title sequence. This made me think about how I should focus on creating each setting, which then made me decide to create a mood board for each of the separate settings in order to give me more of a reference for each one. So I did.

I started off with the first environment, naturally, which I felt was going to be one of the hardest, as the colours within this environment would play one of the biggest roles within the title sequence, as it would set the tone and mood of the animation. I really want the environment to help get across the notion that the first character we meet is ominous and quite solitary and peculiar. So I decided to look at environments that were quite dark and that seemed endless and as if they were huge and maze-like, as I feel that this will help to create a sense of mystery within the animation too. 

I then moved onto the second setting, which was a world apart from the first, as for a start it was outside. However, this environment still holds that dark atmosphere because of the jagged mountain ranges and the constant thunder storms and I really want to portray this through my work so I attempted to pick out images that I felt would help me to do this. In particular I wanted to look at how the clouds form during a thunder storm and how the atmosphere around that storm appears. 

The next environment is quite different to last and it made it a little difficult for me to move away from the strong atmosphere and focus upon the general scenery. However, after a while I managed to find some images of Iceland that I feel will be a great help in designing the 'Grassy Country' described in the book. In particular I really like the colours within the images I have chosen and I want to try and achieve the same vibrancy within my own environments. 

Finally I came to the last environment, which is a small cobbled street town square. Again, I really wanted to look at getting the atmosphere right and the whole aesthetic of the environment right in order to compliment the tone of the book. This setting is also the only environment that is set at night, so I also wanted to research environments that were a little darker than the previous ones in order to get it right. 

Overall, I feel that I have some really good starting points to begin working from and I will continue to add to these as I go through the process of drawing up some environment concepts.