3rd Year Major Project

I'm hopeing to take an idea that came about this year for the 'Storyboard' project (which is on the previous blog entry) and take it to the next stage of develoment for my final year major project. The panarama artwork above, of fish and a manta ray, is a snap shot of the imagery that I would like to achieve.

It is the story of a woman who falls asleep and starts to dream. The dream is common to her as is it a memory from childhood which caused her stress. It is the time that she learnt to swim, when first taking her feet off the ground and trying to float. Unfortuantely she goes under water and a sense of panic grips her, as it probably did with all of us at some point or other when learning to swim. Of course she is only under water for a few moments but these moments last much longer for her whilst in her state of panic. Her mother, who has just let go of her hand, reaches down and grabs her arm to pull her up out of the water. She splutters and gasps for air, there is no harm done and it is the usual learning curve for being under water, but the memory of the fear and the feeling of not being able to breathe never leaves her.

This memory becomes a recurring dream, it starts out as an under water adventure with colourful fish and flashes of colour in turquoise water but the light turns to the blackness of the abyss and she sinks so far down that she cannot get back to the surface and the darkness brings scary creatures from the deep. Sharp teeth, dark slimey scales and bulging eyes appear from out of the darkness and swim at her while she trys to pull herself up to the surface. Eventually the hand of her mother reaches down and pulls her out. At this point of fear it is normally time for the woman to wake from the nightmare and she sits up in bed to calm herself before falling back to sleep.

I want the artwork to become abstract when the dream begins, with flashes of colors dancing around and the fish becoming these flashes of colours. At one point I would like the girl to become abstract in shape also, so that she becomes at one with the water before turning back into the girl as the fear sets in with the darkness and the scary creatures.

It will be 2d and I hope to do the artwork for the pre-production: character designs, backgrounds, script and animatic. I would like to work with someone on sound, which would take alot of pressure off and achieve a better result.