21/07/15 - Permafrost Proposal

Big is a family movie that follows the adventure of a boy named Josh, who wishes he was an adult and gets placed in the body of a 30 year old man.  The key scene in this movie is when Josh finds an enormous keyboard in the floor and proceeds to walk all over it, awed and amused as it lights up beneath his feet and plays charming piano notes.  He grows excited and taps out a tune with his feet.  It is a very lighthearted scene, full of childlike wonder and amusement, and features bright bursts of color against a relatively white and colorless background, highlighting the important elements (the keyboard) and characters (Josh).

My proposal is to take this scene and change the genre to Romance/Tragedy.  Permafrost (working title) follows the adventure of two lovers, separated by jealousy and circumstance.  It takes place in a modern universe with touches of fantasy elements, following the journey of a young man named Embry as he travels through an arctic wasteland searching for Vasili, his lost love.  The scene I intend to create is something of a climactic moment as Embry enters the icy citadel where his beloved is being kept, walking up a long and frigid corridor to find a vast, icy mirror at its end with his Vasili suspended inside in peaceful slumber.  He approaches the mirror in wonder and grief, reaching out to touch the faceted surface, fingertips trailing over the faces of the icy diamond as they light up like an aurora beneath his hand.  It would seem that there is no way past the glassy surface, and as the realization strikes him, he rests his hands against the image of his lover's heart with tears welling in his eyes.

---

Both the characters and the idea were inspired by a piece I commissioned from baruyon/barukurii:

source: http://baruyon.tumblr.com/post/103768120810

The image itself inspires feelings of being very warm and comforting, and the two characters seem to complement and complete one another in the way that they are portrayed as opposites with light/dark tones.  I would like to base the characters for this assignment on these two, incorporating the similar theme of light/dark and the idea of completeness through opposites.  The color palette would be nothing like the one featured in this image, however, focusing more on overall much colder colors and presenting a more sorrowful and melancholy atmosphere.

For the character models themselves, I have been considering something similar to the mii characters from Nintendo.  The models are simple and charming with customizeable faces, heights and colors, but the most interesting and intriguing part about them to me is how their facial features (eyes, nose, mouth) have flat, 2D elements or textures that seem to sit just a little way out from the actual surface of their faces.

Here is a screenshot I took a while back from my Tomodachi Life game.  The distance between the features and face is somewhat noticeable with the mii on the left in blue - particularly on the glasses and lips, but I've noticed the outline of the nose does it too.  I'm thinking about perhaps incorporating something similar into my own figures, so that I don't have to worry so much about sculpting eyes and lips on my character model.