Set Design

Here are a few set designs I have done for my Mayfly idea, I most like the 3rd one with the willow hanging over the stream.  This is because it looks most natural and fitting to a Mayfly.


I'll use these set designs to show examples of the style I'm thinking of and help you to understand more how I want the animation to look like.

More Inspiration

Here are a handful of animations that have influenced and inspired me as I have been plumbing the depths for inspiration.  I hope you can see where I have taken my inspiration and applied it to my own ideas, through storylines, styles and character designs

I like the mix of style and the storyline with this animation show reel from Cristian Cardenas. the style is similar to what I had in mind for my Mayfly idea, with some over exposure and an overlay of sepia tones.

This is also an animation I studied when thinking of my Mayfly idea, I like the roughness and focus on the one main character.

I like this animation because it is a really original idea, if a little strange. I also think it has been very well animated and characterised, giving the guy a desperate and almost pathetic feel to him. With the style adding to the effect.

And this animation is just plain freaky! It is so unpredictable and you are constantly unaware of what is going on, I still feel at the end that you have to decide your own storyline for it.

Mayfly Development

Here are some developmental sketches of my Mayflies, I like the top centre design as it has the main features of a Mayfly whilst being simplified. I'll sketch up some more poses using this design and post them soon.

The Mayfly

After watching Ryan Woodward's 'Thought of You' it sparked inspiration for an idea, in short, the life of a mayfly. This idea is solely in 2D and hand drawn so I think this might be more down Mat's street :p and it's something that I have always wanted to do but never felt confident enough doing.  However because my idea is quite simple I feel we could definitely achieve this to a high standard! I'll email Mat with the full rough storyline and some sketches.

Using either photoshop or just pencil, I want the whole thing to be hand drawn with the backgrounds and characters being on different layers to give the animation depth.

I did a little research and found they begin life in a larval form known as a nymph.  Whilst in their nymph form they like to live under stones in fast flowing water or among plants in slow streams.  They usually stay in this state for around 1 year before all hatching out together and only living for between a few minutes and a day, this is because their mouths seal up as soon as they hatch from their nymph shells...weird! During this time they over run some towns and become a huge pest for people for a very short amount of time. I thought it would be interesting to see if I could show their life from a Mayfly's point of view, instead of seeing them as pests. They have to hatch, find a mate and lay thousands of eggs in just hours.

I have a more detailed storyline but don't want to blog it now...just in case.



I'll post some initial drawings I have made later on...