We firstly went back to our "pluggy" idea (see script on Nats blog) which entailed a very simple spherical being which was half organic, half robotic and could utilise objects from the environment into its own body mass. We loved the organic/robotic feel to a character and instantly began concepting it out along side creating the story element.
Below is concept for this character:
Yet we werent happy with this on its own and soon began to develop into having two of these beings interacting in a world. As soon as we thought of two of these beings we began hypothesising a relationship between them . These two characters and the strange world they were in began to become synonymous, i.e. their emotions they felt, inspired by their state of mind regarding the two characters relationship were directly linked with the environment.
It was Sean who pointed us in the direction of developing the "strange" environment into a "reveal" - that is, setting the stage for these two characters on a micro scale.
We liked this direction and pursued it. It was instantly at this suggestion that things began to slot into place for us.
This relationship and connection which we wanted to have between the two characters and the environment became embodied in the idea of the physical connections in the brain. It was at this point that the idea of two neurons effort to "connect" both physically and emotionally was born.
Here is a plot pointed and scripted version of this script (it contains the final edits we made):
Because this environment was set on such a micro level and not on our plane of existence we had set ourselves a mammoth task, not just in creating the environment physically but creating the look and believable function of this environment. We knew it would be quite cellular so therefore began collecting such imagery from scientific websites, just to try and get visual cues and ideas to get the ball rolling.
Below are an idea of the imagery we used to try and gain inspiration:
We loved the soft feel of these images yet were constantly aware of the electricity of the brain which suggested to both of us something mechanical. This would later become developed further in our concept work but here in lay the problem. The intricacy of these environments would lead to slow preproduction turn over and therefore limit our scope in terms of the possible environments we could create.
Therefore we had to learn a technique which involved creating our own brushes in Photoshop and "speed" painting them to create fast, appealing concepts. Whatever environment we wanted to create, e.g. cellular, wiry, electrical, etc., we would make the individual stamps which would become the basic building blocks to these environments, in this image. For example, a cellular landscape would best be created with the basic building block (the stamp) in the image of a cell, just as a mountainous environment could be created using a rock like stamp.
Examples of the stamps we used to the individual brushes can be seen below:
Keeping the braininess of this environment constantly in mind (forgive the pun), we made the stamps for the brushes we would use quite cellular and wiry. (The idea that on this micro scale the electrical connections reflect how humans see electrical connections - in terms of wires - has always appealed to us)We were now ready to start concepting possible landscapes in an efficient and effective way that was at speed in order to generate a rapid turn over of ideas.
Below are a selection of environments created using this basic brush method:
These were just preliminary environments but they were useful in seeing what kind of feasible landscapes we could create and the sort of terrain the characters were to be moving around in.
The Characters
Ok, so we were pretty much set on this environment being brainy and we now had an idea that we could achieve a look.
We wanted to keep the idea of "connections" running through the whole piece. Amidst the ideas of the two characters working together to connect the environment, making it come alive or fixing it somehow, it was the idea that their motivation was not arbitrary but was inspired by a "love" which was most appealing.
Every good story has an obstacle for the characters to overcome. Keeping in mind this connection, invariably we landed on some kind of disconnection as the obstacle. From this we decided that a disconnection in the brain would have negative connotations on the macro level. Therefore, it was a nice idea that these micro-characters' actions - anthropomorphic neurons as they were now known - had an affect on the macro scale. We decided on the idea of someone in a coma and that their reawakening was determined by the success of the two neurons, which in turn was inspired by their love for each other. The coma idea would be left until the reveal at the end, leaving the audience with a level of intrigue as to the characters and environments throughout.
It was time now to start concepting the characters. Below are but a few of the many many concept ideas for them, ranging from cartoony to Burton-esque quirkiness:
An actual neuron
Pivotal drawing
The neurons we thought would be have a certian Ying and Yang aspect about them -soul mates almost - which we thought should be portrayed in their design, hence some of the Jigsaw type designs. For the actual characters though, more subtle design elements were to be chosen.
November had been a good month and a comforting rebound from the dejection of the October.
