KNB136 - Ceri and the Sea Monster Annie Liang | n11028041

A2 Reflection

For this second half, I enjoyed designing and rendering the backgrounds. I'm most proud of the outcome of these as I think it best demonstrates the final idea of the story. I was luckily able to iterate on pre-existing research done in part 1, allowing for more attention to detail within these sections.

I wish I had more time to develop my beat boards and colour scripts. They aren't as finalised as I would like and does not best demonstrate the idea I wanted to convey. Adding more detail in the images such as expressions and more decodable actions would have been ideal.

Beat Boards + Colour Scripts

Ceri encounters the Sea Monster

The second beat board introduces the sea monster. The sun is setting and there is still no sight of it. Ceri then sees a mass of bubbles starting to arise on the surface of the water. She is at first confused. Then, a massive sea monster emerges from the ocean, having the sun reflect off its scales.

Old Man telling story

The first beat board details the dynamic between Ceri and the Old Man. Spending most of his days sitting at the pier, fishing. Ceri curiously joins him, taking an interest in his activity. He mumbles when he talks, making her not understand what he said. The old man then gloats about his fresh catch.

Characters

Poses

Ceri's poses demonstrate her personality again. She's loud and extroverted. I wanted her to appear easily excitable, waving at familiar faces and bragging about small childish things. Her legs changed from next to each other to a step to be more dynamic.

The old man's poses are also quite neutral. I imagine he spends his days sticking to the same routine for many years. The pose on the right is inserted into one of the backgrounds above.

Size Comparison Sheet

The sea monster's size is triple the height of the main characters. However, in the water, the sea monster may appear larger due to the use of perspective and/or using it's core strength to propel itself above the surface.

Character Rules

The sea monster...

• Must have the corners of their mouth upturned. Always looks like they're smiling.
• Two front teeth stick out of its mouth.
• Must always have three humps (head, body and tail) sticking out of the water.

Ceri must...

• Always have three braids cascading on her shoulders.
• Have her bangs swoop to her left.
• Ears not covered by her hair when in braids.
• Three freckles on each cheek: in the shape of a triangle. Her right freckles are lower than her left.
• She may remove her hat when indoors.

The old man must...

• Always have his eyebrows covering his eyes.
• His eyebrows must maintain the rectangular shape.
• Have his moustache covering his mouth. His mouth is represented by the moustache: when the old man smiles, his moustache is upturned.
• When speaking, his moustache must move up and down very slightly. His words are muffled.
• His shoulders must be hunched slightly forward.
• Have two forehead wrinkles. When expressing negative emotions: the wrinkles are downturned. When expressing positive emotions, the wrinkles are upturned.
• Underneath his cap, he is balding.

Character Expressions

The Old Man isn't very expressive. Therefore, his character expressions are quite limited. He uses his boxy eyebrows and moustache instead of the eyes and mouth. The angle of the eyebrows and wrinkles determine positive and negative emotions. The upwardly turned wrinkles mean positive, while downward is negative. I wanted the moustache to also angle, however, it does seem quite indifferent between the below iterations.

Ceri

As mentioned before, Ceri is quite expressive with her emotions to show her boisterous personality. To further push the animated nature of her emotions; symbols such as "..." and "!" will be in use. The eye outline and fill also demonstrate different aspects of the emotions. Opaque eyes usually indicate positive or aggressive emotions. Outlined eyes are more neutral (such as cluelessness) or negative emotions. If it is unnerving, the lines will be wavy.

Turn-arounds

Sea Monster (Final Render)

I wanted the sea monster to be varying shades of blue because I wanted it to blend into the ocean. The idea was that the sea monster would hard to catch because it blends so well in the water. The blue also compliments the pre-existing colour palette.

Ceri (Final Render) - Fishing Costume

Ceri (Final Render) - Regular Costume

The Old Man (Final Render)

The old man turn-around emulates the monotone nature of the character. Slightly hunched over, short stature and pudgy stomach. The final colours for his clothing stem from the Wales flag colour scheme and traditional mens garments. The checkered pattern on his cap resembles the plaid commonly used in the area. I wanted the colours to stay the same between him and Ceri to have consistency and show a connection within the small town.

Props

Fishing Rod and Tooth

The tooth design combined elements from all iterations. The final one resembles more of a shark tooth, however, that could associate it to the extreme aspect of the creature. The fishing rod now has indents in the wood. I thought to add this to show that the man has used this for many years.

Backgrounds

The Pier

If I were to continue iteration on the background, I would like to add the town shown previously in the background as well. It would make for a cool connection between the two images. As it stands, the bare mountain background can continue to simulate the lonely town isolation.

The colour of the sand is very muted compared to the medium chroma blue ocean. I wanted the sand to not be very saturated to still maintain the appearance of pristine Wales. If the sand were more saturated, the beach will appear too warm and take away from the mild atmosphere. The blue gradient on the ocean makes for a cool depth effect. It allows the ocean to be bigger than the outline illustration can perceive. The mountains appear again in the background. This is used to show the world still being expansive.

The pier background is used for the Old Man's scenes. I wanted the sea side to appear dramatic and to stretch out a fair distance. Third-point perspective was the best way to recreate this. The outlines similarly matches the character aesthetic; using mono-line brushes to highlight the main features and the smaller pen to add smaller details.

The Town

The top image is to correct the mountains in the background as they are supposed to be darker in the front as they appear closer.

The vast emptiness after that is quite isolating. The empty street, long one-point perspective and cloudy mountains make for a lonely day-to-day lifestyle. Even though the houses make it unique, the rectangular architecture is very bland and boring. Stock-standard. It shows repetitiveness in routine, which the fishing village sticks to. The industrial looking pathway next to the ocean is additionally a display of the town's growing identity.

The lack of anything amongst the sea is to simulate the lonely sea town. The four houses though, adding a pop of colour, also portrays community. This is enhanced by the differentiating colours. The coloured houses have a tetradic colour pattern to look more appealing but to also portray unity.

The colours of the homes were derived from the researched houses in Wales. The houses are made colourful due to the buildings becoming grey overtime. The colour is to add an element of excitement and beauty amongst the drab grey. Though the houses may be different colours, they still shared similar elements such as the roofs, doors and windows. There needed to be consistency amongst the shading, design and structure of the homes to make it appear to belong together.

Using the perspective drawings done in the first assignment: the drawings were cleaned up using the same style as the characters. Using two different thicknesses for mono-line brushes created a very simple and consistent style.

Part 2 - Finalise

A1 Reflection

I am quite proud with the development of my story as it currently stands. I'm excited to further expand on the story beats and adventures of Ceri. My current favourite concept art is that of the townhouses and the old man as I find they utilise the research effectively.

With further iteration, I would want to further explore more perspective images of the boat and signature scenes of the interactions between the characters.

Environment 2 - Fishing Boat

The sea monster below demonstrates the scale of how I want its presence to feel. I want the creature's entrance to be grandiose and mesmerising. Therefore, I wanted its scale to be huge.

The boat is a simple fishing boat used on frequent mass fishing trips. I didn't want the boat to feel too simple as her father is supposed to be an established fisherman but not technologically advanced enough to not fit the story's era. The boat is quaint, housing a small shelter and lights.

Environment 1 - Town

The Town

The scene below shows the architecture of the homes next to the vast ocean and hill side. The houses are in close proximity with each other, the pathway of the town aligning the rocky shore. The boats are seen in the distance as they depart for another day. The mountains in the back simulate lush greenery and a larger world to explore.

The Docks

The fishing docks is where the old man spends the majority of his time. I wanted to keep it simple as it is typically a quiet location. The mountains in the back of the bottom image communicate how remote the town is, adding to the small town feeling. The old man fishing shows a character in action.

The environments depicted in the images below highlight the town, the fishing scene and the general atmosphere. The majority of the images are about the small town in Wales. Surrounded by close-knit houses, hills and the sea, it makes for a very homey for the residents. I wanted to capture the various homes, roads and especially the dock where the old man will spend his days telling stories and fishing. The second environment is at sea. The boat is predominately where the action and tension is taken place, meaning it is important that it is fleshed out.

The images below are examples of the sea-side towns in Wales. The reoccurring traits are the side-by-side houses, lush greenery, water loaded with boats and the very grey pathways. The colourful houses in the two images make for an exciting element that I would like to incorporate.