Research and Development
R&D otherwise known as R: rectal D: destruction
A fair deal of research went into preparring for my FMP, likewise that followed up with a fair deal of the development of that research. The classic R&D if your familiar with the term. So look forward to me talking about what I found mainly on the internet and how that information went onto inform my practice as it got developed, and likewise what the info got developed into.
Alot, alot of research
So the research for this kinda began when I first came up with the idea while watching Star Wars The Phantom Menace and watching later that day netflix's original Love Death And Robots. The research mainly consisted of learning some of the basics of fluid dynamics, since before this I had never actually animated liquid. So that has certainly been one of the main learning challenges I have faced but as with all things there is a learning curve that I am still even now facing and I like to think I’m getting better at it. Stuff such as how fluid will fill up as much of the available space as it can within a given area. How at least in the ocean and rivers there are currents and the water will ebb and flow. Waves being made with the additional help of the moon gravity. Also learning how fluid reacts when interacting with solid matter be it organic or non. In my case at least I have a shot where my fisherman splashes into the ocean. I had to watch several tutorials on how to animate that as well as watch many references and learn the mechanics of how water responds. That being it has relative energy dispersion relative to the force and mass interacting with it. On the other end of the spectrum you have how matter within water is affected by it. how things move slower in water than in air due to its density. Additionally how buoyancy works for each individual within the water. This all would go onto to inform my practice. While not wholly linked I do believe that the fabric mechanics animation test I did in term one has helped me here as for that I had to animate a wave being made by wind whereas now it’s wave mechanics within water.
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Other things I had to learn is the mechanics of fish and other marine creatures, and how they swim so gracefully and effectively, and how the many different creatures I have animated swim in different manners. Examples being how my shrimp leviathan swims primarily with its legs for propulsion in a undulating wave fashion I then went on to add some linear movement of the body's individual segments on a up and down basis just for extra propulsion force and artistic license. On a more realistic note, for the Stingrays I had to learn how they propel themselves with their wings. Using an up and down wave like motion along them. Seemingly having their tail/sting acting as somewhat of a rudder. Not that they undulate that while swimming but it can be related to a rudder. Then of course you have the standard fish look with their side to side motion of their tail fin with the occasional movement of their front fins for steering.
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That research was all visual though I additionally had to do some minor story research and plot/narrative research as well as character research for my two notable characters. Those being the Fisherman and the Ocean God. For those characters I found it difficult at first when making a storyboard as I had no real clue how these character would act in the scenario I had thrown them into. So to help with that I set out to make a comprehensive character detail sheet. I borrowed Hirihiko Araki’s method for doing the same thing as it has always given us realistic characters albeit sometimes extreme characters. In a book he authored he revealed his process of making characters as he uses the same process for them all. I looked at his template for a character sheet and used that as mine. That greatly helped when making the storyboards as I knew then how the characters would react and thusly act and look in each shot. Also how they would reveal the character based narrative that was being used in tandem with the experimental nature of the ambient visually based piece.
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Additionally for research I spent roughly about a month on it. Give or take 5 days. That was all part of the pre production which started in mid to late december. The research all fed into what I made during the pre production stage. Anyway point is for research you’re mainly gonna be seeing images and videos I used as both reference and to learn things from. So prepare for an awful lot of visuals. One last note I won’t have you read something for every reference I used as that would take all day. Rather I'll just show you them and talk about how they affected my work and I'll make note of any really important ones.
Fisherman refrence images
The Hair and Beard: the hair and beard I had two different trains of thought. Thick heavy messy dreads that look very unkempt. Or on the flip side thick heavy messy braids. The similarity between the two are both the hair and beard will be messy and unkempt and thick and long but messy. This shows the fisherman doesn't care too much about his appearance. He doesn't take care of it much, if at all. It just all goes towards the fact he doesn't care about his looks and would rather spend that time doing what he loves. being at sea. In the end I went with the dreads.
The clothing: so similar to before I also had two trains of thought about this. One being the fact that since he is from a long lost culture, which is no longer known to man from an unknown part of the world. I thought something like Atlantis? Maybe, like a roman toga and or greek toga that is unkept? That was the first idea, the second is a much more modern and basic clothing choice of a again unkempt shirt/vest and shorts. If you look directly at the images above you can see what I mean. I choose the later option here.
The species: early on in research and development I didn't originally know if I wanted to make the Fisherman even a human. I was thinking maybe he could be some kind of merman scenario? Some half fish, half man? I didn't go with that idea in the end but you can see to the left here what I was talking about could have happened. In the end I decided to make him human, as to really show how out of his element he is in the ocean.
The weapon/fishing tool: so I looked up fishing weapons/tools and one that came up very often was a fishing spear. Many different versions of fishing spears have been used throughout so many cultures throughout history. The ones that really intrigued me where the moari/caribbean and west indies ones. The ones that are made out of bone or some similar material sometimes. The others were the metallic ones with large hooks rather than being serrated. I choose to go with a combination of the two. but due to time constraints and such I didn't actually animate it in the end because it would just take extra time that I didn't have.
Ocean God refrence images
Tattoos: so this here is my references for tattoos of the ocean god. My main inspiration for giving the ocean god tattoos was the disney film Atlantis. Most if not all of the Atlanteans in the movie have the same style of blue tattoos all having a kinda geometric patterns. Mainly that movie and Muari tattoos like from the film Moana. I just really like the full body/sleeve tattoos they have developed as a culture. You can also see some examples of actual full body tattoos in the similar Muari style/ aesthetic. I decided to go with more of the Atlantis route. In terms of colour and also style since the Muari ones while really nice they would just be too much to animate and have too much detail that would look nice all together but rather needlessly detailed at the end of the day.
Fish head: so this one will need some explaining. So when I first started coming up with ideas about the Ocean God one of the first images I had in my head is of a human body with a realistic fish head. Almost like a reverse mermaid? I guess? So obviously for the human part I don't need much references if any at all since I'm fully aware of what a human looks like the fish head however. While they all have a similar build it’s in the details that each fish head differs. so you can see several different ones here. They all have the circle eye with a gaping mouth and gills. Most have this weird bit of scale/skin that covers the seam in the mouth where the top meets the bottom. Any way I did end up going with that design so you can see the heads for that here.
Breasts: so as I said I went with a reverse mermaid. The maid part was in there so I had to get some good references for drawing breasts. Since I don't have a pair of my own, unfortunately, and they are surprisingly deceptive to draw. Point is where you can see the references.
Eldritch abomination/body horror: so one of the ideas I had when designing the ocean god was H.P. lovecraftian horror. Proper Cthulhu type stuff merged with body horror akin to John Carpenters the thing. You can see several different takes on the idea of body horror and lovecraft horror from these references. Most feature tentacles and extra appendages. They have body parts where body parts shouldn't be, that kinda stuff. The point is this was one of the ideas I pursued when designing my Ocean God. I didn’t go with it in the end as while I really liked it it would also have just had way too much detail to animate and just wouldn't be time efficient. Additionally I wanted the Ocean God not to be seen as an antagonist rather a neutral force so making it scary would not narratively help that.
Full fish: so another idea I had when designing the God was just to make it a full fish. Just scale it up really and add some extra things to seperate it from just being a very large fish. The major ideas I went with were marine predators such as Shark, Eels, and such. On an off thought I also went with the idea of what if the God were sealed away within a shell of some sort. So I even came up with the idea of it being in a clam and or oyster being immobile but still having a large influence in the ocean.
Ancient marine reptile or beast: one of the last ideas I had was what if the Ocean God was something prehistoric. Some ancient extinct marine reptile or animal. Maybe a marine bug like something akin to a sea scorpion. Or something more predatory like a Mosasaur or plesiosaur? While I didn't choose this idea it was one that alot of external people seemed to really like. Not sure why but it got most of the compliments when I was asking for thoughts and opinions on my designs.
Leviathan refrence images
Sea serpent: so for the leviathan designs I collected the reference images and then sent them of to Matt who was collaborating with me to come up with the concepts for my levathians. The first branch of ideas I had when looking for references where Sea Serpents a very common depiction of large sea beasts. Throughout most if not all cultures that have access to the ocean or large bodys of water. As you can see for the reference images there where a range of predatory to less predatory designs. With varying degrees of detail and appendages. Some are more like a serpent, some have arms or other things. Matt came up with one sea serpent design that was very simple but really cool looking to me. You will be able to see that in my page on collaboration.
Crustacean/Insect: so another thing I considered when collecting references for Matt was maybe one of the elevations could be Crustacean and or sea Insect based. Nothing with scales or even a Marine Mammal, have it look almost alien. My main inspiration was I saw a while back some really cool concept art of a giant crab for a video game and I loved it. So yea. These are a mix of real life images and concept art. Matt ended up coming up with one concept design of a crustacean leviathan that I really loved. So I used that one to go towards my final designs for the leviathans.
Deep sea hybrid: So the last things I considered when collabing with Matt was deep sea creatures such as Anglerfish and such. Think of that deep sea scene from Finding Nemo when Marlin and Dory and being chased by an Anglerfish. They look really cool for one and also they are quite menacing. I also said it would be cool if he could make a hybrid version of some deep sea creatures. So he did and one of the concepts he made I loved and used for my final design. It was a mix of what looked like an Anglerfish and what looked like a dolphin or something similar hence why you see the dolphin reference. So I went with that. You can also see a large sky bass which I sent to Matt as something along the lines of a giant fish.
Ocean/background refrence images
Lastly we have these reference images of oceans and water itself in accompaniment with some videos that I sent to a first year named Arkin who graciously helped me with my backgrounds for my animation as it would help me focus more on the character/creature based animation rather than doing the backgrounds. As you can see the ocean images are at night and in the open ocean with no land in sight. That is important to the visual aesthetic of the piece. So it was important that arkin new that and saw some examples. Realistically the backgrounds themselves are very basic and mainly just shades of blue and black. Simple yet effective for what I want and it just makes the glowing fish really pop so to speak.
fisherman refrence video
This is a reference video I used to simply see how to animate humans swimming underwater and how the water acts on them and in turn how they act on the water. Nothing more to say then that really. sorry if you were expecting more but nah.
leviathan refrence videos
These are video references for the movement of two of my leviathans one being the Shrimp Leviathan. see how they use their legs primarily to move. Already mentioned that earlier though, apologies for the terrible quality of the reference it’s just I couldn't find any better than that. The second being a pod of Dolphins. Now I realise the camera is moving a whole lot on this reference but it was the best quality reference I could get of Dolphins swimming. Notice the way the tail fin goes up and down. Which is something I believe I certainly captured with good timing and force in my FMP animatic and in my test animation. Now of course for my Leviathans since they aren't real I have taken some artistic liberty such as the Shrimp one. It moves each segment of its body. The Anglerfish Dolphin hybrid or "Anglerphin" swims like a dolphin but much more exaggerated. And the lamprey/sea serpent one swims in a similar method to Sea Snakes and or Eel I guess? Using it’s many fins in tandem to propel it through the water. The references I used for animating the leviathans are more like rough guide lines then strict references I need to copy down to the tee.
fish refrence videos
Now with all the varieties of fish I have in the background they each have a very different method of swimming out in the ocean. So I'll keep this quick and go through the references and how they swim and what that taught me in terms of how I animated them. First up, sorry for the poor quality, is the Jellyfish which swims quite slowly using its body. The tentacles don't help it swim at all; they are just used as weapons. it undilates its body almost like it was trying to go inside out so to speak. This creates propulsion which it uses to help drift itself through the water. Next you have the Mantaray, again sorry for poor quality, which I have touched on already but just to remind you it uses its wings to move up and down in a wave motion. For the more round Stingrays and the ones with pointed wings have a more pronounced up and down arc motion. The Eel next. The Eel similarly to a snake uses its body as a floppy rudder moving it side to side in a waveform down the length of its body creating movement. You'll see concave and convex curves in descending order one to the other to swim. Next is the Sun Fish which has a really bizzare method of swimming having its tiny front fins give it little thrust and then having its massive hind fins control its angle. it swims very slowly but has a certain grace I find? Then we have a Goldfish, sorry for bad quality, which I used as a rough guide to the generic fish I would be animating. Notice how it uses its front fins for direction control and a side to side movement. Its tail fin is for thrust. Lastly we have the shark which uses its front fins as rudders and its tail fin as thrust. while not a real example of it swimming the animation was done so well I thought it would make a good reference. Keep in mind this is a very simplified version of these creatures anatomy. Since I don't know any marine biologist terms I'm just saying how I interpret what is happening. It could actually be done differently.
water refrence video
Lastly we have this tutorial I watched for how to animate a splash into water as that is the focus of one shot, and may I say it helped tremendously. It teaches you not just how to animate but some of the basic mechanics of water when force is applied to it and how that force dissipates. To start the water is given a ton of energy and is quite sharp and angular in its visuals as it is thrown upwards due to the force. Once the water reaches its peak of force and height you will see the water spread out more and create a sort of thin film of water. At this point it starts losing energy and falling back down holes will start to appear in a film seemingly as if it were tearing. It will break up into smaller blobs of water and move back down as its energy is being lost. It will then start to gain energy again as its moving down causing it to go from a spherical shape more do a raindrop shape or a oblong then it hits the surface of the water causing a much smaller similar thing to happen until all the energy is lost and you are left with the water rippling.
ocean refrence videos
We now have the videos I sent to Arkin for the ocean background references. one is of how the water should look on the surface and the rest of how the water should look underneath. I mentioned the light rays piercing the water's surface how it glistens and sheens. It's subtle but noticeable.
narrative aid refrence
Lastly I want to show the narrative and character aid that I used from Hirihiko Araki for my two characters. I'm not gonna talk about it much. I just want to show the reference I used not for visuals but for narrative. So this just really helped me with getting a better understanding of my character helping me develop them. following on from that from having strong developed character, it was a great foundation, it made it much easier to make the narrative as I knew what each character would be doing in the scenarios I placed them in.
Develpoment
Now you are finally ready to see how a majority of these references developed into my pre production. The animation itself in terms of development will be on a independant page so you can see that later. Since I've already described the references and how they inspired me and fed into my final designs there is not much to discuss so lets get on with it shall we?
fisherman development
Pelagios the fisherman, the design I went with was the first one upon having Dan say the later looked a little lacking in the personality and character department which I agreed with. He specifically gave me the example of santa in the film Cluas which I used as a reference for body shape/type. I certainly think it made him much more appealing to look at. His body shape is more welcoming, soft and enjoyable like a grandpa almost? Or and old relative/friend. You can see I had two designs the toga and the vest and shorts. I went with the vest and shorts. Colour wise I kept it simple. you can also notice I played around with different hair and beard styles. In these designs you'll notice a lot of small details that I didn't actually add onto the final animation as it only would have taken up more time animating. Additionally if you look at the smaller images you can see another colour palette for the fisherman for when he is underwater. This was done at the advice of Dan, my tutor for having his colors change in correlation with the ocean in the scene. to make it look more cohesive and real. Lastly I just want to mention that when first designing the character I made some different body shapes and types concepts, so that is what that last image is.
ocean god deveopment
So here are my designs for the Ocean God as you can see I made many. The first one of the images is the one I went with in the end just cause it was the most clear image in my head when making it, also take note that I came up with an underwater colour pallete by making a dark blue square and put it into the soft light blending mode. Mixing the shade with the already established colour palette. I came up with eleven other designs based on what I talked about earlier in various shapes and forms. I took two of the most popular of those designs, number 6 and the one I liked for its simplicity, number 11. I made the final designs based on those two. The most popular design of the 11 was number 10. whilst I also really like it I was aware it had too many details to animate efficiently. So for now it's been shelved. I may do something with the design later on for something else though?
leviathan development
So these are the finalised three levithan designs I made based on Matt’s concepts. The concepts themselves I will show and explain on a different page so go there if your curious about the concept art I had done by Matt. The first levithan design is the "Anglerphin" on that design specifically I was also coming up with the neon colours that all my leviathans could have so that why you see and entire section of the page dedicated just to a colour palette. Also I didn't have a final colour in mind so I just came up with three. Uou may also notice that the first design has the worst quality that is because it was done in december and early january when I was first using Clip studio paint and still familiarising myself with it, so? I now am familiar so I’d say you can notice a difference from then to now. the second design is Bubbas Shrimp Leviathan. Also based on concepts by Matt. You can see the references I used and the colour scheme, which was also made by Matt. Lastly we have the Lamprey leviathan. This one I didn't really have any reference bar Matt’s concept as it is based on pure fiction, no animal combination or scaled up versions, so that's why there aren't any references. so yea those where my final leviathan designs based on Matt’s concept art.
Relevance, reflection, application and future
So I'll try to keep these as short as possible, so I'll just get right into it shall I? Relevance, so the research and development considering it took me roughly a month I’d say is very relevant to say the least. It informed most, if not all, of the decisions I made in the actual pipeline of my FMP. Learning new animation techniques, informing the narrative, Creature anatomy, which I have only ever done one time before and not this in depth. Making fully developed ideas is always good practice. The weeks of research certainly paid off. All of this and some minor other things are the relevance that I took from this. All these skills will further my professional career and they are informing my work ethic, practice and method. Further again the reasons why R&D are relevant.
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Reflection, now that being said while it was a learning experience I feel a good portion of that learning came from making mistakes over the course of it and learning from those very mistakes. If knowing what I know now, the things that I would do differently would have to be. Mainly in the planning and timing. Examples being I would plan my R&D process better with more specific dates and such. I would also try pushing myself at a reasonable rate to try be able to complete smaller tasks quicker to make more time for the tasks that realistically are gonna take longer than i originally thought. Another thing I would've done differently is to find better quality references. I mean not the videos didn’t have what I was looking for, just the actual image quality of the videos and some images could have been better to allow me to get a more comprehensive look.
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Application, well like I said I'd put more of a cohesive plan. As well as make more dates for specific tasks. On top of that I would also be more realistic about my capabilities within a given portion of time. To allow for more realistic planning. Be more thorough and precise in looking for references and take note of the quality of each reference. Lastly to do some more experimental work when in the character creation and development phase.
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Future. Well for how this will impact my future. It has certainly opened up my eyes for more skills I can work and get better on and even go as far as to pursue them even more than I already have. I do actually really enjoy character creation and development so that's a side avenue I'd like to develop for more business. Additionally it's all practice and has allowed me to hone my craft more and advance skills I am currently developing. It's made me faster and more efficient at my craft and additionally it gives me the confidence to be more bold and try more things while at the same time being realistic.