Transcription: Final Art Direction

The audience of my transcription project is directed towards a documentary audience.

Because of this audience, my aim for the art direction is to push towards realism rather then a stylisation. The focus will be on the environment's intricacies, especially its arabic ornamentation.
I've taken out a lot of books detailing Islamic architecture and pattern so I'll be dedicating a post to that soon before fully committing to production.


Inspirational videos for the final animation:

Uncanny Environment and Initial Influence Map

Coupled with tableau vivant. An "Uncanny" environment is a difficult concept to get my head planted on.

It's become apparent that the 'uncanny' constantly has me straying away from looking at environment and going into looking at people. It's probably because the distortion of ourselves is much easier to show then the distortion of the environment we're placed in.

The Freudian concept of uncanny is an instance where something can be familiar, yet unsettling at the same time. 'the fundamental propensity of the familiar
to turn on its owners'

However, the uncanny environment can be generally defined by the changing of familiar places. It distorts rules that originally creates a sense of security (like a home) into something uncomfortable (a home built over a Native Indian burial ground).

The way in which this unit is perceived to me is that the concept must be familiar and yet unsettling. The frustrating part is the atmosphere in which to create this idea is limited to our visual perception. (films use sound and sight; video games use sound, sight and can use touch; real life uses sound, sight, touch, smell and taste)

Influence Map

Oh, Hi there.

This is my neat pattern of sequential numbers, they've got images behind them to make the numbers look nicer. Also, the images help to illustrate my project's root influence.

Some would even call it an Influence Map.

1. Team Fortress 2 - Art Style.
2. The City of Lost Children - Props, Architecture
3. A Scanner Darkly (2006) - Art Style
4. 9 (2009) - Environmental Art
5. Fallout 3 - Environmental Art
6. Art Deco - General Art Style
7. Metropolis (1927) - Architecture, Atmosphere
8. The Ottoman - Architecture
9. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) - Environment
10. The Time Machine (1960) - Because it's the film based on the book
11. Sherlock Holmes (2009) - Golden, pattern Architecture
12. Hellboy (2004) - "Steampunk" Architecture, Environment, Props
13. Borderlands - Art Style

It's a mixture of old films, new films, and contemporary video games. I was tempted to put some books in, but passages are hard to cram into those little teeny weeny squares, and they're not as fun as visual aids.

You can probably tell by now the sort of colours and art style I might be aiming to use.- Strong use of browns, with a heavy influence on 'steampunk' culture. I don't want that, I can already imagine it will be boring and it will be Cliché.

I picked Team Fortress 2 as a main influence because of this. Besides other reasons for choosing it, it's use of strong bold colours is one reason it appeals to its audience. I aim to transfer that reasoning onto my work

On another note, I love detail. This project and the influences I have brought into it seems to encourage detail. So it should be fun to throw in a lot of it into my three final concept paintings that I can possibly fit in.