The Studies
I chose this scene from Spirited Away specifically because the desolate street is emphasized by the perspective. The entire stretch up until the horizon is completely empty, and Chihiro’s loneliness is magnified by the environment around her. I also wanted to try a scene that’s vanishing point wasn’t exactly centre. I think it worked quite well.
I am a massive fan of Studio Trigger’s animation. Promare in particular loves to break perspective rules for a good shot, which is one reason I love the film. Among many scenes, one of my favourites is the prison break sequence, so I took a screenshot from that point in the film. It was a bit of a challenge because I couldn’t actually see the vanishing point, so I had to measure from where the floor met the wall and estimate from there.
Princess and the Frog is a very vibrant film, and this shot in particular is very subtle in using perspective to build New Orleans. The city feels crowded and busy, which adds character to the setting. This perspective was tricky, so I will definitely have to go back and do some more exercises.
This task may have sounded simple, but it was very deceptive. I realized through this process that I need to further my understanding of perspective through more practice.
The Thumbnails
The 12 thumbnails I created as the beginning of concepting our ‘Design A World’ assignment. We took inspiration from a game that can be described as Animal Crossing but magic. It’s called Enchanted Folk & The School Of Wizardry and its a video game for the DS. I used to play it as a kid, and it stylistically influences the animation we want to make. We’ve decided that a creepy take on the concept would be super interesting to do.
To begin concepting, I did 12 thumbnails.
I actually used a few references for some of the thumbnails, but I mostly just did what I thought would look good. If I were to do this again I would collect more references to work from to make my concepts more grounded in reality, and therefore more believable.
