Lay out

So the story is taking place in a normal Dutch middle class neighbourhood. It's about a little boy, playing and imagining he can fly with his pluche friend. Pluche gets kidnapped by a strange creature and is thrown in a dark pit. The boy tries to save him. The dark pit turns out less imaginative: it's the washing machine and it starts to move. A threathening shadow looms over the boy and he starts to make a run for it. The nearest closet looks like the perfect hideaway, but the evil shadow follows and is getting very close to the little boy. Screeching and scratching noises are shaking him with fear which gives him away to the dark figure. CLICK!! On switches the light! As the hands before his eyes lower to see what this is all about, he is happily surprised to find out that the dark figure is the sweet old babysitter from across the street, holding a jar of candy.

Google Sketchup helps me make the background lay-outs. In photoshop I use a mix of Paths, colours and brushes to create the right mood or picture actually, provided by my storyboard. I'm doing it this way so the shapes and forms stay sharp. Painting sharp like that is not something i'm capable of and I think it has a nice aesthetic. The inspiration for this style comes from everything really, but more notably from the golden gems. I'm trying to create something of my own based on what is done before. I think that you have to respect what is done before and learn from that. First learn, then play with it.

I have already shown the intro-panning-shot. Here are the rest of the backgrounds/layouts i've produced so far.







Now I'm not really happy with the last one.. I'm trying to show more than the storyboard panel suggests and I thought that was for better clarity. I'm not sure anymore. Maybe I'll just crop it like the storyboard. Suggestions?