Pick 'N' MIx

In Pre Production we were each given 4 random cards: a style, character, setting and genre card which we had to combine to create an idea for an animation. I got Falmouth illustration student, angel, palace kitchens and documentary. I researched past illustration students' blogs to find a style I liked and found Patrick Atkins. I replicated some of his work to get a feel for his style:

His shapes are very simple and his marks are violent and scratchy. There is a prominent use of black and this is strongly contrasted by whites and off whites, creating strong lighting in his images which heightens the drama within them. The illustrations are quite dark in mood but the basic shapes used to create the characters prevent the images from being too sinister as it gives them a quirky edge. I felt this dark but quirky style would compliment the plot I came up with well....

So. The plot. The opening scene would show a lion killing a zebra, with the audience's sympathies lying with the zebra. But the lion would then die somehow and his spirit would find its way to this kind of no man's land, purgatory type place, where loads of spirits of different animals and humans are. There are entrances to lots of different heavens, as every species has a different heaven. But there is a mix up and the lion ends up in the wrong heaven: the zebra heaven. The zebras hate the lion because his kind kill zebras, so they ostracize him and force him to work in the Palace Kitchens, an underground dungeon beneath the palace where the leaders of zebra heaven live. The lion finds that many other predators have ended up in zebra heaven too and they, like him, have been banished to the palace kitchens.

The lion spearheads a revolt against the zebras, rallying up his fellow predators. But things get more complicated for him when a young zebra finds its way into the palace kitchens and befriends him. She shows him that not all the zebras are bad and wish to condemn him and the other lost animals to an eternity of slavitude. The lion tries to stop the uprising of the animals but it is already in too full a swing and they no longer listen to him. A great battle between the animals and zebras ensues and the young zebra gets caught up in it. The lion manages to rescue her and since everyone is distracted by the war the two friends manage to sneak out into the no man's land between all the heavens. The zebra helps the lion find the lion heaven and then there is a bittersweet parting as the lion and zebra cannot be together as they both must go to their respective heavens.

Here are some character designs I started on: