As I gear up for testing live footage in my animation software, I wanted to prepare myself some basic artwork sheets for the mood and the feel of the scenes. I call this little cheat my Scene Sheets.
Since I'm the only person who has to work in this pipeline at the moment, my scene sheets are a way to consolidate designs for which characters appear in the scene and how they should look on screen. Also for funsies I throw in a couple of storyboard panels that have a rough color key on them.
Normally that's the job of like three guys in a studio setting, but I don't have time for that. I'd rather get something close enough for me to get rolling with storyboard and animation tests.
So this is some rough artwork for the opening sequence. We get hit with some wild imagery such as Vanessa's run in a party dress, her confrontation with Asa, a rough idea of what the Scum Lords will look like (surfer radical animal rights fighters).
Vanessa is the lead character of the story. She's going to start this scene in a moment of distress. I gave her a short party dress because stuff gets real i this sequence and she has to be able to move. I kind of imagine her outfit would flow like a figure skater. Except this would be a figure skater/high diver/surfer. So uhh, yeah the dress has to allow for free movement.
If you're a long time fan of my work, you might recognize some faces here. Asa is inspired by Biscuit from Misfortune High, except what if he was actually capable? Effectively a rich kid with too many weapons, power and privilege. And Marshall? If anyone remembers my very first webcomic (God I hope you don't) Marshall was the lead character. The whole point of that character was that he always gets underestimated by the people around him for being too young and seemingly inexperienced. With our new guy, I've doubled down on that by making him even younger and skinnier. Certainly not intimidating as a hand to hand combat fighter, but his physique makes him deadly on the waves.
So yeah then I throw some test panels off to the side of the characters. I guess this is my comic sensibilities coming out.
For a later sequence, I created this scene sheet. This is to follow an event that takes place earlier in the story where we briefly have a flashback. Vanessa comes from a fancy private school where she's an underclassman and a diversity admission. She desperately wants to be cool and respected by her elders, but it's not going so great. I wanted to capture her bright, plucky, tries-too-hard attitude with a bubbly cerulean blue outfit. My official reason for giving her a different formal outfit than her elders is that she's an underclassman, but the truth is, I just like how fun it looks. I wanted Vanessa to look like a comedian and a butler at the same time. But like cute like a teenage gir.
Her so-called friend, Lyra, provides a unique challenge to Vanessa in this scene, so I wanted to give her a dark, severe outfit. Lyra is a ruthless upperclassman who loves leveraging her status to dominate others. She's a big, oppressive figure in the scene, so I went with a Victorian style dress. Nothing says oppression like the Victorian era. I feel like this makes you go "Oh she's the one in charge." And she does nothing good with that power.
Philippe is the guy who seems to have Vanessa thinking he's her boyfriend, but has his own agenda. Philippe is a young man sowing his oats, floating from girl to girl at Silver Needle Academy. Vanessa may be his latest victim, but she won't be the last.
Both Lyra and Philippe have an odd green tone to their skin and there's a big reason for that. There's a class of people in the story called the Silver Skins. And they're resource hoarders who have silverized skin no thanks to a genetic experiment gone wrong generations earlier. They tell the world they're suffering and persevering, but they're sailing rich and free as they always have. Lyra and Philippe belong to a class of rich elites that have blighted themselves in the name of improving themselves through science.
This is not based on a true story.
Anyway, throwing those extra color key/storyboard panels off to the side help me visualize the scene in terms of animation art.
We'll see how everything ties together when I have to start painting the background art.
I swear I know what I’m doing.