Image Par Image 2018
The teaser of Image Par Image Animation Festival 2019. It tells the story of a cat that goes out every night to fulfill a secret duty.
My main idea was to mix a 90s video games aesthetic with the anime animation effects from the TV series that I watched when I was a kid. I wanted the teaser to be adventurous and fun to follow. I also limited my color palette to keep a simplicity in shapes and compositions.
I intentionally didn't look at any anime references. I drew from my own memory in order to capture the style of movement the characters would make as I remembered it. The gif below (googled after the fact) was included in a presentation explaining my process. It illustrates the mood I wanted to convey in my teaser.
Gif from an anime
Gif from my teaser
My other big inspiration was video games, especially Super Mario Bros. Again, I purposefully didn't consult any references, I just reflected on my memories of how it felt to play it at my friend's house (my parents had gotten my brother and me a Sega Genesis, not a Nintendo, so I could only play Mario at my friend's).
I made a very simple storyboard that looked more like key scenes with visual ideas I wanted to use. I came to the final story flow while doing the animatic. The music helped a lot to build the timing of the whole story and I was lucky it went so smooth.
Spreads from my sketchbook with the key frames for the storyboard
