Aesthetics

I have some animation concept art by Koji Morimoto that I feel has a very interesting aesthetic to it. This image in Koji Morimoto's '0range' scrapbook was particularly inspiring.

The flowing line art, with its large curved strokes give the scene a really powerful atmosphere. The intensity of the line art is as important as the colour. The bold black lines give the scene a dark, brooding atmosphere and also capture movement which is why the image is so lively. It’s clear that it’s windy in the scene and the line art here gives that wind real power. The man in the bottom right almost looks like he is sailing on the grassy hills. I really admire the setting of this piece- it’s pretty much exactly what I wanted for parts of my story.

The enormous airship-like structure is more detailed when it comes to lines. The shorter layered strokes really add to the complexity of the structure but I’m not sure I would use the crosshatching method as much as it’s used here to shade objects. However, when I think of my monster character under this aesthetic I can see that the intricacy of the line art would suit the monster well as well as add to its darker nature as the antagonist. There aren’t many colours used here and the colours that are present are contrasting but obscured by the heavy line art- I think a similar approach to my film would be beneficial because it creates the right atmosphere but it may be hard to achieve in such a short space of time.

I’ve added a couple more images by Koji Morimoto that have a similar aesthetic to the one above, the liveliness in these images comes more from shape and form as there is no colour. I wasn’t really interested in creating an animation without colour or in monotone before but after seeing these images I feel much more confident about it as a possible art direction for my film.

The shape and form of the image below is well suited to the God character in my story, i had imagined that he would be formed out of large intricate, ever-changing flowing lines just like the ones here.