Concept ideas

I had multiple ideas of how my narrative would progress.

- The character would simply integrate itself into the natural creatures' environment.

-After integrating into their environment it would begin to kill them off.

-After integrating into their environment it would become like them, slowly changing to become natural.

-After integrating into their environment it would influence them to begin to move like itself and become their leader.

-It would find another mechanical creature like itself.

Concept

Three inanimate objects:

Material: An umbrella- both metal parts and a flexible cloth material.

Movement: Belaying rope- Harsh pull of parts and then a more fluid readjustment of parts.

Meaning: A mirror- reflects what it sees.

My concept focuses on one character- which takes two different forms. 

The first is a mechanical creature which will be placed within the environment of a natural creature and how they interact together.

These first colours will be inspiration for how I want my mechanical creature to be seen. I will try to convey a harshness which will contrast the natural creature, but also an underlying softness which represents the soft side which may be hidden.

These colourings all represent the hues which I intend to use on my natural creature as they seem floaty and quite fluid. I want the creature to appear non-threatening and quite placid to begin with, with the ability to change if needed.

Concept workings

These are some of my first story board ideas which I will develop more to decide the path which I'll follow with the animation.

This shows some of the key differences I explored between the idea of a natural and mechanical creature.

Here I explored the base of the natural movement of 'mechanics' when used in nature. It looks a lot simpler than a man-made machine.

My notes and sketches for the original concept look into each aspect of the design in depth with possibilities on different directions to take, dependent on what my end animation's style is. 

Inspiration for floating creatures

SKETCHES

Final Animation

A3 Poster

Matte vs Shiny

For the soft pustules coming together as a whole I wanted to experiment with the shininess of the material. If it was like the first image it seemed to bright and distracting from the material but the dull middle image makes it seem like it has a matte finish. 

The end image shows how there is a compromise between the two. 

Lighting

These show the progression of the lighting that I experimented with. I used an area light to allow the form to be the main focus with little focus on the background, which I wanted to just blend.

This images, both above and below, show the subtle changes of shadow that I looked into to make sure that the form had a realism to it.