Maraline Animation's (School) Blog

A blog for school and maybe more? Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/maralineanimation

[animationmaraline]

Uni Blogpost #Practice 3: 2 (27/05/2026)

Hello! This is the second blogpost of my final animation project, and it's been a while from the first. Over the few weeks, i've mostly been focusing on getting out my final project proposal, A document that my university uses as the basis for my final project ealuation and production. As it was mostly going through old work and re-itterating old points, I didn't see much reason to create a blogpost about the process.

However, since monday, I have been able to start my rough animation process, going over my earlier animatic and begining to add some movement to the work.

The process has been difficult, so far, as i've been dealing with outside forces which have limited my ability to focus on uni work, though I have managed to stay on task. Through this post, I will discuss my animation process so far.

Rough Animation:

As I stated before, this week i've mostly been doing rough animation work, creating some basic background and sketchy animation to which I can then clean up for my final animation.

The process has been somewhat simple so far, based of my earlier animatic which I then added inbetweens and greater movement to.

It's somewhat difficult to come up with much to say for the process so far, as it's been very simple. To make the animation, I used a pencil tool, while to make the backgrounds, I used various multiply layers of silohets to create a sense of depth.

Through this process, again as i've been somewhat tiedup with outside factors, I wasn't able to create as interesting animation as I hoped for, as I think alot of the movement so far feels pretty stiff, energyless and lifeless, so I belive, once i've finished up the first pass of the rough animation, I'll then need to go back and do a second run, improving shots that feel to boring or simple, like the shots of the lady running, though to do so, I will likely need to start outpeforming my intial planning, to make up time for the second pass. Though, hopefully i'll be more free in the near future and be able to get some more work done.

I've also noticed some areas that could do with a change in timing, through this process, as I feel alot of shots go by to fast or cut at the wrong time to make them easily readable, such as when Lady looks up to see the forest, with us not getting enough time to see her face and reaction to what she sees, or when she trips up on the root, with the cut happening just as she does and making the flow of events feel a little confusing, though that second issue may be fixable once I add some sound effects.

Ultimatley, as of now i'm a little disapointed on where I'm standing, having hopped I would be either more ahead in terms of time, or have some more hich quality roughs to work from, though hopefully, as it's still early into the project, I'll be able to make up this time in the comming weeks. It's esepcially important that I lively up the animation on my second pass, as creating some more energetic and dynamic animation, with lots of movement and interesting posing, was a big part of this project, for me, and if I fail to do so, not only may it worsen the overal marks and quality of the work, but would also make it a failure in terms of what I set out to do, so I'll need to make sure, no matter what, that my final roughs have an approriate quality to them.

[animationmaraline]

Uni Blogpost #Practice 3: 1 (14/05/2026)

Hello! This is the first week of my final semester on my masters animation course, during which I will be creating a final animation project, based on my pre-production work last semester.

The first thing I have to do, for this term, is create a final pitch document to get signed of-on by my university, and am waiting on my feedback from my previous project to do so.

As I still want to be productive while I wait for my feedback, this week I have been working on getting various assets and visual plans ready for the final project.

In this blogpost, I will talk about my project's logo, and some animation test's I have done.

1: Logo

I don't have much to say, in terms of my logo design and influence, as I already discussed it's greater development process in a previous blogpost, found here:

Post by @animationmaraline · 14 images

💬 0  🔁 0  ❤️ 0 · Uni Blogpost #Practice 2: 30 - Pre-Production 20 (25/04/2026) · Yo! Within this blogpost, I will discuss the final art styl

Post by @animationmaraline · 12 images

💬 0  🔁 0  ❤️ 0 · Uni Blogpost #Practice 2: 26 - Pre-Production 16 (16/04/2026) · Yo! Within this blogpost, I'll show of the logo development

As I stated previously, I wanted to turn my earlier logo design, which was a 2d image, into a 3d render, as I thought it would look good and make the logo stand out form it's contemporaries, which were normally very simple, text-based logos.

As such, with the free time offered, I decided to experiment with making the logo 3d.

I made the logo in blender, using a relatively standard method of taking a cube and then slicing and remodeling each cube into the require shape for what I wanted, and then using subdivisions and smooth shading to give the logo a more smooth and professional look.

To help identify the project as aimed towards adults, and as slightly dark/gritty, I wanted to add some wear-and-tear to the logo, by adding some texture to the wood and metal. To do this, I first made my own textures, on clip studio paint, in color, and then turned them black and white to create some bumbmaps.]

(My wood texture and Bump Map)

(My metal texture and Bump map. Distress taken from PNG Play, NA)

To create these textures, I used layers of add and multiply layers of different patterns, all using the same, base color, until I got an interesting and fittingly usable texture.

I then set my objects to use these textures and bump maps, which added a sense of depth to the model, as well as distress in the case of the metal.

To further add a sense of grunge and distress, I also moved around the logs slightly, tilting them and having them sit toward or back, to make them look uneven.

After I created the logo model, I then added some lighting to the scene, at 3 different angles to get some interesting highlights and colors and then then Rendered it out, as a transparent png.

I then took the 3d model into clip studio paint and added on my text, setting it as a saturation layer to help show the underlying shading and texture while still making the text readable, as well as editing the final model slightly to make it look better, most notably in duplicating the eyes of the ogre head as to make both shine bright, using the same color as the logo text.

Ultimately, I'm mostly happy with how my logo turned out. While it could definitely use some improvements, I don't think the text stands out much and could likely do with some tweaking to draw the eye more, and I think the distressing on the metal looks a little blocky and unnatural, and could do with some further smoothing and enhancing, as well as making the texture of the wood more pronounced, I think it turned out pretty well, all in all.

I think the logo stands out, looks pretty good and gives of the vibe I wanted. I also think it has a slightly retro, early-3d looking vibe because of it's blocky nature, shininess and general shape language, which I am a big fan of.

If I am to further develop this logo, I will focus mostly on making the text stand out more, and tweaking the textures to make them look better, as I'm mostly happy with the more general shape and design.

2: Rain Tests

Alongside creating a final look for my logo, I also did some experiments into the artstyle and animation of my project. More specifically, I did some experiments into the look of rain in my project, given how the opening scenes are set in the rain.

(Test 1, No blur)

(Test 2, Blur)

The process of creating the rain effects was very simple, as I simply made a few, repeating frames of various, white lines, at various sizes and widths, which I then cycled through to create the illusion of rain. I also experimented with having the rain start and end, by creating frames of increasingly more raindrops, going form a light to heavy rain, which I think looked good and created a very smooth transition.

As a lot of the project, especially the raining sections, will be set in the dark, I decided to make the rain white, as it would read better as rain without risking making the screen look to dark.

I did two tests, first creating the rain using a thin, brush pen, at 2px width, and then a second test, after creating the animation for the first, wherein I added a vertical motion blur. I think I prefer the second look, using the motion blur, as it gives the rain a somewhat transparent and fast-moving look which better sells the effect of rain, while the non-blured lines looked to thick and solid, appearing more like randomly appearing and disappearing lines than actual raindrops, so I will likely use the blruing effect in my actual project.

Right now, the rain is made up of 12 frames, playing at 24 frames per second, every other frame (on 2's), though I may try experimenting playing the rain on ones, since, as of now, I feel like it looks somewhat choppy due to the slower frame rate.

3: Conclusion

As I said before, going forward my hope is to create a final project document to submit to my university, which should then be agreed to and allow me to start the roughing and animation for my Ogrelord project, so, once I get back my feedback, I will begin work on said project document.

I'm looking forward to developing my final project, as I've gotten rather attached to the project, and hope it will turn out good in the end.

References

PNG Play (NA) Scratches Vector, Scratch Marks, Grunge Texture PNG. Available at: https://www.pngplay.com/image/352492 (Accessed: 13/05/2026).

[animationmaraline]

Uni Blogpost #Practice 2: 32 - Pre-Production 21 (26/04/2026)

Yo! Within this blogpost, I will discuss my completed, final project, what I think I did well and what could have done with improving.

Reflection:

When I first began this per-production project, I imagined creating a pitch document for an animated series, with a focus on world building and abstract, strange and unnerving environments.

However, through the development process, this evolved into me creating an animated short film, staring an ogre who fights of some poachers to protect a lady, having a twist wherein, though the ogre is originally presented as villainous, they end up being far more friendly.

As such, I would argue that, on the most basic note, I failed to meet my original expectations for this project, in so far as it went in a completely different direction, as the needs for portfolio work were taken into greater consideration.

After moving on to creating an animated short, based on my market researched, I decided it would be best to try and create an adult (20-25 year olds), action short, as their seemed to be a growing movement of animation fans who find appeal in such works. To meet the expectations of this group, I decided it would be best to make sure my work focused heavily on interesting, fluid and bloody action, trying to create impressive and interesting movements, animation and shots.

As such, I tried to make sure my work would appeal to this audience, by creating designs that would be easy to read in action scenes, trying to aim for distinct silhouette and simple shapes that could be easily warped and move around, I also used two, different color pallets through the project, a more subdued color pallet for non-action scenes, which featured blue backgrounds, and a more bright, saturated color scheme which used a bright, red background for action scenes. I did this to help add to the sense of energy and threat to the action scenes, by giving them a more distinct and aggressive color pallet, which I think, so far, looks good.

I made it so the backgrounds were simple and somewhat sketchy, using blocks of color without outlines, while I tried to give characters distinct, black outlines, to help make them stand out from the environments and place the focus onto them.

All in all, I feel somewhat mixed as to how the pre-production project has turned out. Given I had spent a lot of time unsure as to what idea and project style I was going to take forward, it left me feeling somewhat behind when I started going forward with my development work. This meant that, while I do feel some elements of the project got an appropriate amount of iteration, such as the design for the main characters, Ogre and Lady, other elements, like the design of the three poachers, felt somewhat boring and undeserved as I needed to rush them out, with the story also feeling somewhat under baked as I didn't have much time to come up with any greater theming or purpose.

While I am mostly happy with how the work has come out, I think my pre-production has left me a good base to go forward with next term, with the basic art and major character designs looking good enough, I do think the project could have done with some improvement.

For ogre's design, I wanted something that could warp between scary and likeable, while for Lady's design, I wanted something that was sympathetic and expressive, both of which I think I managed to achieve. Meanwhile, For the three poachers, I wanted designs which read as intimidating and villainous, however, given my limited time with them, I think they came out as far to plain and generic to elicit any strong emotions.

I also think, as of now, the style of the project still falls flat, and I need to do some more experimentation with line width to get something that truly pops, though i think, as of now, it's at a good starting point.

If I had more time, or could re-do the project, I would have decided upon a final idea faster, so I could develop it out more rather than wasting time being indecisive, and would have spent more tine on the design of the poachers.

[animationmaraline]

Uni Blogpost #Practice 2: 31 - Poem 5 (26/04/2026)

Yo! Within this blog post, I will show of the final version of my poetry project, and discuss the projects development and final form.

(Bleached Memories By Lucas Wong. 2025)

Since my last blogpost, I haven't made to many changes to the project, outside of adding in some subtitles and credits, alongside some minor changes to the timing and action of shots (such as making the bacon fly up higher when it is tossed).

As for the project as a whole, I think the final project came out well. While their are certain elements that could definitely be improved, such as the ripple of the water in the final shot, as a whole I think the animation came out well. For this project, I imagined a somewhat simple and sketchy look to the artwork, similar to chalk on a chalkboard or the sketching of pencil lines, and an overall abstract and fluid feel, wherein each scene flows into the next using different forms of transition.

I think I achieved this goal rather well, with the artwork clearing having a somewhat scratchy look, while still being clear and polished, and with the work having a good mix of more abstract and obvious imagery, in a way that helps keep the story moving while clearly identifying the tone and theme of the work.

I can't say their are many elements I would have changed for this project, and am happy with how the final product turned out well. I think using a more sketchy style worked well for this project, as it allowed me to be more iterative and lose with my production style, more easily able to change up animation and scenes as the art style helped smooth over any potential issues in translation, and, again at most, I would simply further refine the project beyond what I have already created, if given more time, rather than make any drastic changes.

Reference:

Wong, L. (2025) Bleached Memories. Available at: https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/bleached-memories/ (Accessed: 20/02/2025)

[animationmaraline]

Uni Blogpost #Practice 2: 30 - Pre-Production 20 (25/04/2026)

Yo! Within this blogpost, I will discuss the final art style of my project, looking at it's backgrounds and the art style as a whole.

1: Background Design

(Campsite Layout)

(Background design, Left for action, Right for non-action scenes)

For my background art, I took inspiration from work like Samurai Jack (2017) and Wolfwalkers (More & Steward, 2020), which featured very unqiue, stylised and flat asthetics. I decied to try and go for a similar, flat and abstract style, with objects mostly using 1-3 colours, or having the forest itself be made up of layers of multiplied gradients, within abstract shapes. I decided to go with this look, as I thought it would be make the process of creating the backgrounds, within the final project, easier, due to their simple and geometric designs. Furthermore, by having the background be made out of pure shapes, without outlines, it should help me easily distinguish between the background and characters, even within the action sequences, where the background takes on a bright pink/red, as the black outlines of the characters should immediately distinguish them from the backgrounds.

(color pallets of the backgrounds, left for action, right for non-action)

(background object design)

I made the backgrounds of the action scenes simpler, with less colors, to help focus more on the bright red of the shots, which I hoped would further build on the energy of said scenes via the domination of the bright, aggressive color.

2: Style Test

(Various style tests)

After creating my animatic and designs, I did some style tests. I decided, for the final project, to limit shading to only scenes wherein I thought it could have a massive benefit to the scenes mood, to help the general animation process, by limiting the amount of time I would need to spend with shading. I also thought shading wouldn't be as necessary with the style I have gone with, given how distinct the background and characters have been made. For the characters, I also wanted to give them somewhat large, bold outlines, again to separate them from the backgrounds, and also because I thought it would give the characters a sense of structure which would help the artwork pop. As of now I'm not sure if the test width is a good size, or if it could be made thicker, but as a start I think it all looks good.

3: Logo Design

As for the logo of the project, as stated before, I wanted one that stood out from it's contemporaries.

I decided to go with two designs, a more complex one, featuring a sign with ogre-like elements, with OGRELORD written over top, and a simpler one, featuring just the text, with or without a red trim, with both being used for different situations, depending on which would serve said situation better. For example, the simpler design may be more appropriate for professional events and situations, as it looks more clean than the more complex design.

My plan is, during the future production of my project next term, to make my logo in a 3d software, to help give it a more solid, real and detailed look, which I think would serve it's design well. My hope is that such a style would make the text, if kept appropriately cartoon, to stand out more against the rest of the logo.

As for the design itself, I am rather happy with how it turned out, so far, thinking the logo stands out well, and gets the idea of the project across easily.

References:

Samurai Jack Season 5 (2017) Adult Swim, 11th, March

Wolfwalkers (2020) Directed by Moore, T & Stewart, R. [Feature film]. Wildcard

[animationmaraline]

Uni Blogpost #Practice 2: 29 - Pre-Production 19 (25/04/2026)

Yo! Within the next few blogpost, i'll show of my final artwork for my OGRELORD project. within this blogpost, i'll discuss my final character designs, while in the next, I will discuss all other, final design elements.

Character Designs:

(Character Height chart and colour guide, left for non action scenes, right for action scenes)

(Turnaround for Lady, left, and designs for poachers, right)

(Ogre turnaround, regular, left and silhouetted, right)

For my character designs, I didn't make to many changes since their previous versions, as I thought both lady and ogre's already looked pretty good, outside of needing some slight tweaks to their original color pallets, and thought, though somewhat boring, the three poachers designs worked well enough for secondary characters, each being at least somewhat distinct.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I decided, for the final project, to have scenes feature two, different color pallets, an action and non-action one, with the action color pallet taking on a slightly more saturated and abstract look, with darker-darks and giving each color a more red or blue tone. I think this works well, alongside the bright-red background design, to give the action shots an inherent sense of energy, due to their color pallets, and allowing the characters to still stand out, despite the bright background, due to their use of darker dark's as contrast against the red of the background, and with their slightly more blue tints.

For the colors themselves, I decided to give lady and ogre matching blue clothing, to stand out from the rest of their colors and to connect the two characters together, while I created a pool of colors which was shared between the poachers, to tie that group together. This thus helps more easily identify the good and bad guys of the project via their shared colors, and should hopefully make the viewing experience easier. Each character also has a distinct, primary color, lady's being blue, sword wielder's being green, axe wielder's being cream, knife wielder's being dark grey, and ogre's being a mix of red and light grey, or black when she is silhouetted, which should further make each character stand out from the others, despite their shared pallets.

Ultimately, I am mostly happy with my final character designs. While, as said before, I would have liked to go through a few more passes of the poacher characters, if I had given myself more time to do so, I think both ogre and lady's final designs came out well, with lady feeling easily sympathetic, while ogre's is able to have a good mix of intimating and cuteness, though tricks like removing her pupils when she is trying to be intimidating, as to make her harder to understand and read emotionally. I think the switching of colors for action scenes also look good, with the characters colors remaining clear despite the change in palet.

(Ogre colors)

(Lady colours. Left Action, Right non-action)

(Axe Wielder colors. Left Action, Right non-action)

(Knife Wielder colors. Left Action, Right non-action)

(Knife Wielder (No Cloak) colors. Left Action, Right non-action)

(Sword Wielder colors. Left Action, Right non-action)

[animationmaraline]

Uni Blogpost #Practice 2: 28 - Pre-Production 18 (20/04/2026)

Yo! Within this blogpost, I'll discuss my current, final plan for my projects story, which I will use as a base for the final style experimentation and tests for this project.

1: Story idea and development

Within my previous post, about my initial plan for this project's story, It began with a short section building up ogre as a major antagonist, then cut to a woman walking through a forest, who is then attacked by some poachers and saved by the ogre, who turns out to be far more friendly than expected.

Since this original idea, I have changed up the story slightly.

My initial plan for this story was for it to take on a style similar to that of a fairy tale, and as such, i began with opening narration, discussing the tale of a forest, home to a great and terrible ogre. However, over time, the fairy tale influences of the project became a lesser focus, in comparison to the action of the project, and, given I thought the use of a narrated opening would take a long time and could lead the project to have a somewhat sluggish tone, I decided to cut the project down, now opening on the lady running into the woods, and foreshadowing ogre through signs, warning of her and her danger.

Outside this change, however, the project largely follows my original outline, still focusing on Lady as our main, point of view, character, into the world and Ogre as a way to justify and heighten the fear initial given to Ogre, and with it still building up to the twist of ogre being far more protagonistic than she original appears, with most of the changes being used to streamline the story and make it flow better, while keeping the major theme of not judging others by pre-concieved notions in tact.

For the animatic process, I first began by making a more simple, thumbnail-based animatic, as to block out the basic action and timing of the project, before then creating a more detailed and completed animatic.

(Thumbnail animatic)

(Final Animatic)

Through the animatic process, I decided on some stylistic choices for my final project.

I decided, for the action scenes of the project, I would shift the style of the work, making the backgrounds more simplified and switching up the color pallet, making it more dominated by saturation and red, to help add a sense of energy and danger to the action via this heavy use of read. This idea was inspired by games like Okami (Kamiya, 2006) and Earthbound (Itoi, 1994), which, when in combat, will take you into unique battle sections, with strange and abstract backgrounds. I liked how this gave a unique energy and identity to the works, both as a whole and within their action specifically, and thought, since action is a major focus of my project, it would be good to take inspiration from this effect, to further highlight my action by giving action scenes their own colors.

I also decided, for the action scenes of the work, to have Ogre appear in silhouette. I did this as I thought it would allow me to focus more on her movement, posing and energy, rather than consistency in her design, freeing me up for some more dynamic action. Furthermore, I also thought it helped make her feel more intimidating, by making the character seem more mysterious and unrecognizable thought the lack of distinguishing features.

As a whole, i'm happy with my animatic so far, even if It could do with some further refinement in terms of it's action, though such refinement could likely be achieved during my rough-animation process next term, wherein i'll be more aware of the timing of each movement and how poses come together.

Despite that issue, however, I think the animatic, as a whole, gets the general idea I have for each scene, and the story and atmosphere of the project as a whole, out pretty well.

Now I have created this animatic, my next step will be to use it as a guide, to create some final style tests and come up with finished looks for my characters, environment, logo and etc, before I begin to focus on my final write up for the project.

References:

Kamiya, H. (2011) Okami [Video game]. CAPCOM.

Itoi, S (1994) Earthbound [Video game]. Nintendo

[animationmaraline]

Uni Blogpost #Practice 2: 27 - Pre-Production 17 (17/04/2026)

Yo! Within this blogpost, I'll talk some more about my target audience research. Previously, my researched focused around the general ideas of my projects, trying to identify good audience's for them, while, within this blog post, I'll talk about my research, conducted throughout this project as a whole, into my target audience themselves, works of interest for them, and what elements I should take forward and inspiration from into my own work.

1: Identifying my target audience

Based on my previous research into fantasy and 2d animation, I noticed a lot of works seemed to be aimed towards older audience, and, more generally, we could notice a growing trend in critically and commercial acclaimed, adult animation.

Samurai Jack (2017)

As such, I believe my work should also aim towards an older audience. I decided this as, given I plan for my story to be action focused, I thought it would be more fitting for an older audience who could handle more intense/blood action scenes, I similarly thought it would be good to make the action more bloody, as it would help strengthen the main crux of the story, that being how Ogre, thought initially appearing dangerous, is actually rather antagonistic, making the action more bloody would help add to the sense of danger within the character, by making their actions more violent to the bad guys.

More specifically, I plan to aim my work towards young adults, aged around 20-25, who are fans of action and fantasy animation. I wanted to aim for this demographic since, as mentioned before, it would allow me to push a more gritty and bloody tone, which I thought would fit well with the story I plan to tell. Furthermore, I thought it would be good as, again mentioned before, their seems to be a growing trend in adult focus animation, both within and outside fantasy genre, as seen in works like Samurai Jack (2017), Castlevania (2017), Invincible (2021), Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022), Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc (Yoshihara, 2025), Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (2019), The Legend of Vox Machina (2022) and Blue Eye Samurai (2023). This suggests their is a large market of animation fans, specifically older ones, looking for more serious/action focused works targeted towards them, and, given I think it's good that these works are not only pushing the bounds of the idea of animation only being for children, but also doing so with heavy success, that it would be good to try and aim towards this market to try and further this perception.

I have identified, then, my target audience towards 20-25 year old animation fans, who like adult focused, fantasy and action works. I wasn't able to find much research documenting the genders of such a group, to identify any particular one as my main focus however.

(Castlevania (2017) trailer, taken from Netflix. 2021)

As such, I looked at various works, including those previously mentioned, alongside more general fantasy and action works, like Wolfwalkers (Moore & Stewart. 2020), The Boy and the Heron (Miyazaki, 2023), Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (2023) and Arcane (2021).

2: Research into target audience

As mentioned, I looked at a number of works which seem to appeal towards my target audience.

From this researched, I noticed a trend between the works, specifically the ones aimed towards adults, as having a heavy focus on action.

More specifically, while the action between the works varied, with some having more grounded styles which took inspiration from live action choreography and filming techniques, such as Blue Eye Samurai (2023), and others had a more exaggerated style, focus on quick movements, strong posing and dynamic choreography, such as Samurai Jack (2017), they all seemed to focus heavily on their action scenes, as a core part of their appeal and identity.

(Blue Eye Samurai (2023) episode, taken from Netflix, 2023)

Further more, many of the shows seemed to try and add a sense of tension to their action scenes, and adult edge, by making them more bloody and gory, either in a more subtle way, such as, again, within Blue Eye Samurai (2023), wherein there is a distinct, but minimal use of blood, or in more exaggerated, explosive ways, such as within the huge explosions of gore within Invincible (2021).

This greater use of blood seems to be a defining element to many adult, action focused animation, likely as both a way to help further add stakes, tension and dynamism to the action, with the appearance of blood quickly signing to the audience that a hit was impactful and deadly, and thus adding a feeling of weight and readability to the fight scenes, as well as clearly denoting the work as for adults, given how the use of blood is often avoided in kids work, as it is seen as potentially harmful, and thus works that use blood get marked and identified as being adult.

The action also seems to aim for a more dynamic and captivating feel, often through more natural and minimal use of cutting, letting scenes flow together naturally between actions, or otherwise holding on shots for longer periods of time to let the spacing of the fight scenes be made clear to the audience, using techniques like camera turns and pans to move the action through the space in way that adds a sense of reality to the world, by mimicking the movement of a camera through real, 3d space, rather than using cuts to make scenes feel more separated and abstract.

As such, Making my fight scene clear, dynamic and bloody will need to be a major focus of my story and project, as that seems to be a core appeal, of many adults, in terms of animation.

(Invincible (2021) trailer, taken from Prime Video. 2021)

Another major pattern between the works I looked at was their seeming attempts to tackle more adult topics and themes, such as the need for pacifism and violence in Samurai Jack (2017) or grief within Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (2023). This likely appeals to older audiences, even if the work itself may be aimed at more general audiences, as these more nuanced themes and messages help offer the work a sense of depth a which helps give it a more adult feel.

While I don’t plan for my work to be very long, and as such, with it’s action focus, think it would be hard to delve deeply into any overly complex themes or subjects, I do think the main crux of the work is the idea of not judging others based on ill-conceived notions, given how the main twist is how Ogre is far more antagonistic than she originally appears, so, even if not a particularly deep or nuanced idea, I hope such an idea can appeal, if at least not turn away, my target audience.

While, if given more time, I likely would have looked for a more complex subject to discuss, as of now I feel my plans, alongside what time I have left, means I’ll be unable to come up with a greater theme, at least in a way which will feel natural and be sincere, and I fear trying to shoe horn in a theme without planning nor appropriate integration would be an insult to the work and audience.

As for artstyle, it seems to me that their isn’t any one, particular style that stands out as a pattern within these works, with some taking on a more simple and geometric or sketchy look, like Samurai Jack (2017) or Wolfwalkers (Moore & Stewart. 2020), while some try to appear like comic books, such as Invincible (2021), or use a standard, anime style, like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (2023). As such, it seems the quality of the artwork and animation is more important to this audience, rather than the style itself, and as such, again, I’ll need to make sure my artwork, action and animation is appealing.

3: Conclusion.

For OGRELORD, my target audience is young adults, 20 - 25 year olds, who enjoy adult, action-fantasy works. To appeal to this audience, my work will focus on dynamic, interesting and bloody action.

Going forward, then, into my final, story production, I will try to make sure the story fits around this focus on action, as to best appeal to my target audience.

References

Netflix (2021) Castlevania Season 4 | Official Trailer | Netflix. 29th of April. Available at: https://youtu.be/L7iWXfZzEMc?si=DRbnadRBjzVnw8KY (Accessed: 17/04/2026).

Netflix (2023) Blue Eye Samurai | Hammerscale | Full Episode | Netflix. 1st of November. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm73ma6Ibcs (Accessed: 17/04/2026).

Prime Video (2021) Invincible – Official Trailer | Prime Video. 19th of february. Available at: https://youtu.be/-bfAVpuko5o?si=s7oGX1KkTfWAamGW (Accessed: 17/04/2026).

Samurai Jack Season 5 (2017) Adult Swim, 11th, March

Castlevania (2017) Available At: Netflix

Invincible (2021) Available At: Amazon Prime..

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022) Season 1, Trigger. Available at: Netflix

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc (2025) Directed by Yoshihara, T [Feature film]. Toho

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (2019) Tokyo MX. 6, April

The Legend of Vox Machina (2022) Available At: Amazon Prime.

Blue Eye Samurai (2023) Available At: Netflix

Wolfwalkers (2020) Directed by Moore, T & Stewart, R. [Feature film]. Wildcard

The Boy and the Heron (2023) Directed by Miyazaki, H [Feature film]. Studio Ghibli.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (2023) Nippon TV, 29th of September

Arcane (2021) Available At: Netflix

[animationmaraline]

Uni Blogpost #Practice 2: 26 - Pre-Production 16 (16/04/2026)

Yo! Within this blogpost, I'll show of the logo development of my project, starting with some of the research I did into various logos, from works which I thought were similar or which I took inspiration from for OGRELORD, and then showing of the logo's themselves.

1: Research

The first step I took, in developing OGRELORD's logo, was to look at similar works, in terms of genre, tone, style, target audience, etc, to spot any commonalities, in which to either take inspiration from, or try to use as a guide to spot potential areas for uniqueness.

I looked at a number of works, including many I have already discussed, such as, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (2023), Wolfwalkers (Moore & Stewart. 2020), The Boy and the Heron (Miyazaki, 2023) Princess Mononoke (Miyazaki, 1997) and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Jackson, 2001) and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo, 1998), in terms of more general, fantasy logos, as well as works like Samurai Jack (2017), Castlevania (2017), Skyrim (Howard, 2011) and Mork Borg (Nilsson & Nohr, 2011), in terms of fantasy series more specifically aimed towards an audience that is the same or similar to my own, that being aimed towards young adult (20-25 year olds), action fantasy fans, especially those with a slightly more violent feel.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (2023)

Wolfwalkers (Moore & Stewart. 2020)

The Boy and the Heron (Miyazaki, 2023)

Princess Mononoke (Miyazaki, 1997)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Jackson, 2001)

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo, 1998)

Samurai Jack (2017)

Castlevania (2017)

Skyrim (Howard, 2011)

Mork Borg (Nilsson & Nohr, 2011)

From these examples, I noticed a pattern that most logos seemed to take on a very simple, minimalist appearance, often being flat, singular-coloured text of the work's name. While some, such as in the case of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo, 1998) and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Jackson, 2001) were slightly more complex, featuring added visual elements and more detailed, 3D text, the general pattern seemed to be minimalism.

Futhermore, it seemes that, depending on the work's tone, different styles of font's are used for the logos. As an example, the more serious works, like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (2023), The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Jackson, 2001) and Skyrim (Howard, 2011) using more professional and clear text, seemingly taking inspiration from typewriter fonts through their uniformity and simplicity, this is likely done to give the work itself a sense of legitimacy and seriousness. In contrast, a work like Mork Borg (Nilsson & Nohr, 2011), notable for it's heavy metal inspirations and dark, intentionally disturbing tone, uses a more hand-written, scratchy and grungy look, likely to help enhance the sense of grim-darkness to the work and it's logo, by making the logo itself feel rough and 'wrong.'

Furthermore, it seems a lot of the logo's, regardless of their tone, feature some amount of distressing on the letters, be it scratches, small cuts or wholes, or other such effects. This is likely done to give the logo both a sense of grit, similar to that of Mork Borg's grunges, but in a more controlled way to keep the letters looking clear and professional, as well as giving the letters a sense of age, as if the logo itself has been worn down over time. This could both serve to help identify the work as existing int he fantasy genre, which often positions works in the past or in a setting influenced by the past, and as such, this sense of history is included in the logo by making it appear as if the logo itself has been worn down by time, or it could be done to help add a sense of prestige and history to the work and series itself, through much of the same connections, as positioning the logo of the work as series being form the past, and as such positioning the work as a long standing/running work, series or institution.

2: Font Design

Having looked at these various influences, I then decided that the first step in designing my work's logo would be to design the logo's font, considering how, since many logos are purely text, the style of the font would likely become a core part of the logo's identity, and thus that of the projects.

I tried to go with a mixture of styles for this project, using both various distressed looks (1-2 and 4-6) and looks designed to appear more historical, like those written on medieval text's (3 and 7-10).

For my medievil inspired looks, I also took inspiration, more specifically, from the logo of Wolfwalkers (Moore & Stewart. 2020) and various, illustrated text's in medieval books and bibles, featuring a more heavily detailed, opening letter, while the rest of the text, though still being somewhat complex, being more relatively simplified.

I quite the look of this design, as I think it makes the logo stand out from many of the others I looked at, due to the heavy, medieval theming, and adds a sense of grandeur and significance to the work and logo. However, I fear the detail of the first O in the title may make the text, as a whole, hard to read, and the somewhat religious suggestion of the logo may not fit with the more simple, action story I plan to tell.

Noticing that OGRELORD, when stacked, had two R's in the same place, I also tried to incorporate that into one of my logo designs, as I noticed that some logos within my research, such as Castlevania (2017), would make certain letters within their logos more pronounced, by giving them extra size and detail.

To do this, within Logo 5, I made the R of the logo twice as tall, acting as the R for both the top and bottom half of the logo. I am mixed on this look, as, while I do think it helps add some character to the design, it may also risk making the logo hard to read, as the R can separate the text in such a way wherein people may read the logo as Oglo Red, or something similar, given how the R can break up the text.

Of the fonts, my three favorites were 5, 8 and 4, although I had issues with all three, since I thought 4 may be to similar to Mork Borg's logo, and decided to make them the focus of my further development.

3: Logo Design

I wanted my logo to stand out, and, as such, I tried to do some experimentation, with different styles and framing, to avoid simply making another minimalist, text-based one, which could risk my logo blending in with others to much.

I looked at various ways of framing my logo, such as framing it on a physical object (3 and 4), trying it in with ogre-based imagery (5 and 6) or simply trying to add a sense of depth and 3d-ness to the logo (1 and 2). I did, also, do some experiments with having the different fonts in different colors (6 to 13). Of these tests, my favorite was 4, which featured my double-sized R text placed upon a sign, which features a prominent, ogre head around it. I liked this look as I thought it stood out from other logos I looked at, and thought, given the dark colors of the sign in contrast to the bright red text, it still allowed the logo text to sign. This makes the logo distinct, both in terms of the greater sign and the text itself, while still leaving it easily readable.

To further improve this design, I think I could try to design the logo in 3D software, such as blender, and animate it within said programs. I think this would work well for the logo's design, as it should hopefully add a greater detail and sense of weight, depth and reality to the design, while allowing me to make it more detailed without risking making it's animation process, if it does need to be animated, overly complex, as I could simply move the static, 3d model within the animation software, relatively simple in terms of 3d animation.

Going forward, after I complete an animation for my project, I plan to create a final design for this logo, which, during my creation process next term, I will then try to turn into a 3d model.

References:

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (2023) Nippon TV, 29th of September

Wolfwalkers (2020) Directed by Moore, T & Stewart, R. [Feature film]. Wildcard

The Boy and the Heron (2023) Directed by Miyazaki, H [Feature film]. Studio Ghibli.

Princess Mononoke (1997) Directed by Miyazaki, H [Feature film]. Studio Ghibli.

Samurai Jack Season 5 (2017) Adult Swim, 11th, March

Castlevania (2017) Available At: Netflix

Howard, T. (2006) Skyrim [Video game]. Bethesda Softworks

Nilsson. P & Nohr. J. (2020) Mörk Borg. Free League Publishing. Available at: https://morkborg.com/ (Accessed: 20/02/2026).

The Lord of the Rings: The Twin Towers (2001) Directed by Jackson, P [Feature film]. New Line Cinema

Nintendo (1998) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time [Video game]. Nintendo

[animationmaraline]

Uni Blogpost #Practice 2: 25 - Pre-Production 15 (15/04/2026)

Yo! Within this blogpost, I'll show of some of my current object-design progress, mostly in terms of the weapons of the three poachers, as well as the 'danger' signs for ogre's forest.

1: Weapons

For the weapons of the three poachers, it was important that they stand out, with interesting silhouettes which would make them easily readable and interesting to look at, so, I went about designing a variety of different looks for the weapons. I decided to go with swords, knives, bows and axes as the poachers potential weapons, as I assumed all would be somewhat useful for poachers, and that each could stand out from the rest due to their varying shapes and sizes. I tried to get variety within the designs, through using different combinations of straight and curved edges.

I ended up going with these three, a single-headed axe, a curved sword and a curved knife, as my three chosen designs. I went with these three as I thought each stood out form one another, while also having a clearly defined 'direction' to their shapes, with the curves of the weapons making it clear what direction they are/should be facing.

After deciding upon what designs I liked, I then put them next to my characters, to get a good understanding of what their sizes should be. As of now, I think each weapon may be a little big, and could use with some slight tweaking to look their best, though, so far, i'm happy with their designs.

2: Signs

As of now, i've only gotten out some basic sketches for the 'keep out' signs of the forest. These signs are important, as they will be the main method used to highlight/for shadow the appearance of ogre in the story, so need to be clear and understandable to the audience , in a short amount of time, to effectively set up ogre's later appearance.

Of the various designs, I think the top right is my favourite, as I think the use of an illustration of Ogre should help draw the audience's eyes to the sign, for the short amount of time it's on screen. However, this design may be to similar to a sign which appears in Shrek (Adamson, Jenson. 2001), which also features the text 'beware ogre' and shows an illustration of the titular characters face. Though unintentional, I don't wish for my work to potential rip-of another's work. A way to avoid this issue could be to use a different type of illustration for ogre, such as a simple sketch of their entire body, though, this may risk revealing to much of the character before their appearance, and ruin the surprise/anticipation of when they finally appear.

I have a few, final design elements I need to finalize for this project, that being these signs and the title of the project, which, with any luck, I'll be able to complete by tomorrow. This should then give me time to create a finalized animatic, alongside model sheets, style tests, color guides, etc for my final submission.

I fear I will be cutting it close with this project, and will need to focus hard to get enough work out on time to be prepared for the actual creation of the short next term, though, I do feel I am in a better place than I believed myself to be last week, and, if I am able to keep pace and stay on track with my current plan, should at least have a decent final submission to hand in.

References:

Shrek (2001) Directed by Adamson, A & Jenson, V [Feature film]. Dreamworks Pictures.

[animationmaraline]

Uni Blogpost #Practice 2: 24 - Pre-Production 14 (15/04/2026)

Yo! Within this blogpost, I'll be showing of the expression and posing test's i've done for my two main characters, Ogre and the Lady.

Expression and posing tests!

For these tests, I took them as an opportunity to try and refine the designs of the characters more, such as by simplifying ogre's face down, and taking my changes within my earlier, colour test, by turning her arm-braces into wraps, helping to distance them from her skirt and make her arms more readable. I also changed up how i was drawing the arms, making them more simplified as a singular straight/curved line with a bump, to hopefully make them easier to pose and animate.

As for the expressions tests, so far I'm worried their a little flat and understated, and could do with being pushed further, at least in ogre's case, to help make her feel more expressive and energetic. During these tests, I became interested in creating a more silhouetted and abstract design for ogre, to use through the animation, as a way to make her more expressive and visually striking, by contrasting the more colorful rest-of-the-cast with this pure lack silhouette. This should also, hopefully, allow me to push her design further, as I would need to worry less about consistency, and thus could get some stronger and more expressive poses without risking breaking her design/anatomy to much, as the use of a silhouette should help hid some imperfections.

My plan for the project, as of now, is to focus on getting a few, final pieces of design experimentation out of the way, and then creating a finished animatic/storyboard, which I can then use as a base for some final style testing, to nail down my exact look for the short.

[animationmaraline]

Uni Blogpost #Practice 2: 23 - Pre-Production 13 (15/04/2026)

Yo! Within this blogpost, I'll show of my environment layout, and some further experimentation into the design of my backgrounds

1: Background Layout

For this project/story, I didn't have to many environments/backgrounds in mind, with most being ambiguous shots inside and around a forest, so the only major layout I needed to plan was the poachers campsight, wherein the main fight would take place. To help me get a good plan/layout for this environment, I used blender to create a simple, 3d mock up.

I went with a circular design, as I thought it was simple and would serve well for an action set piece, giving the characters plenty of space for movement, with the top half being more busy and populated, being where the poachers camp has been set up, with a wider and more empty space below, to give the action some more open space to utilise.

I think the general layout for this scene works well, giving enough open space to work with without having the environment as a whole feel empty.

After creating this layout, I then did some experiments with the backgrounds design, creating two looks, one with a more flat (bottom) and 3D (top) look. I'm not to happy with either background's look, so far, thinking both feel rather plain and generic, and think they could do with some more dynamic colors and a greater sense of texture, which i'll have to try and consider going forward.

As i've said in my previous post, my plan is to create a final animatic for this project over the next few days, which I will then use for some final style experimentation, to try and find a finished style I am happy with. For my backgrounds, during this experimentation, I will try to focus on a look which feels dynamic and interesting, through the use of a more eye-catching color pallet and use of texture. as of now, my main idea is to create a near-entirely blue background, without or with limited line art, to try and get a more distinct look, which relies mostly on contrast to define itself. This should hopefully add that sense of texture and dynamism I need, as removing the line art should free me up to create some more abstract looks and allow me to utilise some brighter colors, while further contrasting the characters from the environment.

[animationmaraline]

Uni Blogpost #Practice 2: 22 - Pre-Production 12 (15/04/2026)

Yo! Within this blogpost, I'll show the design's of my color experimentation, and early experiments into the background design of my project.

1: Research

I feel I've often struggled with colors, in my work, leaving them to feel more flat and boring than I would like, so, I looked around at some works, both around the same or similar target market or style I'm aiming for, to try and take some inspiration for my own use of colors.

The works I looked at included the fifth season of Samurai Jack (2017) and Castlevania (2017), both being adult oriented action, fantasy series with rather appealing uses of color, alongside Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022), which, though a sci-fi series, is similarly notable for it's appealing visuals and use of color, within an adult-action animated series.

(Samurai Jack (2017) trailer, taken from IGN. 2017)

Going in order. Samurai Jack (2017)'s art style is focused heavily around distinct silhouettes and colour blocking for it's characters and environments, using very limited line art within it's designs, thus making distinct colour pallets vital for the shows art to be appealing and readable.

The show's aesthetic seems to largely focus on more muted colors, though helps make them pop through contrast, with many scenes featuring two primary, opposing colors to help define the general construction/silhouettes/composition of it shot's, alongside smaller uses of other colors to help define the individual characters and groups within shots, by making them stand out against domineering colors of the rest of the scenes. Some examples of shots like this can be seen throughout it's trailer, such as 0:23-0:25, wherein the sky is a bright, sickly green and everything else in shot a darker and more muted green/blue, while the horseman in the background's eyes glow yellow, standing out. Another example could be the shots between 0:34-40, wherein the background is largely made up of pale whites and blues, contrasting the darker colors of the characters, thus making the characters stand out by their contrast with the background. This is further heightened upon jack firing the gun, which lets of a bright yellow glow, darkening him as it does to draw attention to said glows by having them both contrast against the blues of the background and the dark colors of jack, his outfit and shadows.

I also noticed, in an early scene, how the show created the illusion of rain, by having white lines run across the screen. As I wanted to have at least part of my short set in the rain, this effect would be useful to consider for my own work.

(Castlevania (2017) trailer, taken from Netflix. 2021)

Castlevania (2017) seems to use a somewhat similar style, though in it's case, it seems to largely rely on a contrast between a more generally muted background, and more bright and vibrant characters. Within many shots of the work, we see, despite the characters having similar colors to that of the backgrounds around them, how they continue to stand out due to their greater vibrancy, having darker shadows and brighter lights/highlights, in comparison to a more muted and fuzzy background, which helps make the characters stand out due to their greater vibrancy and contrast, which draws the viewers eyes to the more faded and uniform backgrounds.

Castlevania (2017) is especially useful as an example, given how many of it's scenes are set in the dark and at night, the same as my own project, so looking at ways it creates a distinct color pallet despite the necessity for largely dark shots is very useful. However, given the illusion of night seems to largely be achieved through heavy use of shading, which likely wouldn't be possible within my own work given the time I would have, i'll likely need to find my own ways to create the appearance of a shot set in night, while still maintaining the readability of the characters.

(Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022) taken from Netflix. 2022)

Finally, looking at Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022), we see similar techniques to those in Samurai Jack (2017) and Castlevania (2017). Like samurai jack, the series seems to often utilise shots which incorporate, such as 0:39-041, or 0:49-0:50, alongside a general focus on contrasts between bright, saturated colors and shading, seen throughout the trailer as a whole. One of the series most distinct effects, from what I've researched, however, seems to be the domination of a singular color throughout an entire shot, with the use of dark, black or near-black shading to help define characters, objects and areas of importance. We can see an example of this at 0:07-0:17, wherein almost the entire scene is dominated by a blue glow, which outlines the edges of the characters to make them stand out against the darkness of the rest of the shot, including their own shadows.

This helps give each scene a distinct identity through it's dominating color, though I'm not sure how well I'd be able to take inspiration from this into my own work, however, again given the limited time afforded. However, it is still useful to consider how the series uses domineering colors to help create more striking visuals.

Taken all together then, it seems that the most distinct and shared theme between each works, to help create engaging visuals and color pallets, is to create contrast within them. While this may seem somewhat obvious, I think these works were useful to look at and consider, given the various ways they show us how contrast can be created, either via values, lighting or the colors/tones themselves, which i'll try to incorporate into my own work.

2: Experimentation

To help me design the color pallet of my characters, I first needed to create a background, to make sure my designs worked well within context, rather than only within a vacuum. I decided to use this as an opportunity to also experiment with some different background designs/styles, to try and find a look I thought worked well. I tried to get some variety within my experiments, including some more structured and lose designs, though, as of now, I fear all of the background designs read as somewhat boring and generic. of the designs, the second to-the-top is my favorite, as I think the use of blue for elements further into the background helps add a better sense of depth to the scenes, as if the elements are disappearing into the distance, though I think they still read as somewhat boring. A big reason for these issues, I believe, is how the backgrounds utilise to much color, between both the purple trees, more greenish bushes and the blues of the distance/fog, as well as the use of outlines, which blends the characters and backgrounds to solely together, due to their similar line art styles. Some ways I could fix these issues, going forward, could include making the backgrounds more dominated by blue or purple, to help define that as their major color, or another if so needed, and by removing the use of linear, or perhaps using a different, more loose line art style, as to help separate the environment and characters more.

As for the color pallets of the characters, I prefer the first two styles, as I think they work relatively well to contrast the characters from the backgrounds, though, I do still fear they feel somewhat flat all in all, and perhaps could be improved by adding some greater contrast in tone, and greater saturation, within the characters to make them stand out more. Another potential design improvement I could make is to further distinguish the character and background color pallets, perhaps by removing blue from the characters and making it more dominant within the backgrounds, again to further heighten the contrast and thus help make the characters stand out more.

Ultimately, then, I still need some work on my colors, though, given my deadline is coming up, i'll need to make sure said developments can come up soon. My plan is, relatively soon, to get out a more complete and finalist animatic/storyboard for my project, which I will then use as the base for some final style and color tests, to make sure I have a look I'm happy with.

References:

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022) Season 1, Trigger. Available at: Netflix (13/03/2026)

Castlevania (2017) Available At: Netflix

Samurai Jack Season 5 (2017) Adult Swim, 11th, March

IGN (2017) Samurai Jack - Season 5 Trailer. 6th of February Available at: https://youtu.be/7zqLqO38ZzQ?si=UbksD_toAdx0ECfi (Accessed: 15/04/2026).

Netflix (2021) Castlevania Season 4 | Official Trailer | Netflix. 29th of April. Available at: https://youtu.be/L7iWXfZzEMc?si=DRbnadRBjzVnw8KY (Accessed: 15/04/2026).

Netflix (2022) Cyberpunk: Edgerunners | Official NSFW Trailer | Netflix. 29th of April. Available at: https://youtu.be/JtqIas3bYhg?si=VsMjAIa3DLQku35x (Accessed: 15/04/2026).

[animationmaraline]

Uni Blogpost #Practice 2: 21 - Significant works of interest 5 (13/03/2026)

Yo! This is my final blogpost, exploring significant animated works of interest released within the last few years.

For this final post, I will look at Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (2023), a fantasy animated series which became hugely popular after its initial release, due to its strong sense of character and themes, alongside its understated atmosphere.

1: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

(Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (2023) Trailer. Taken From Crunchroll. 2023)

The series follows Friren, an elven mage who, 100 years ago, defeated a demon king as part of a party of heroes, alongside companions like Himmel the hero and the priest Heiter. Though Friren seemed to distant herself from those around her early in life, as the long lifespan of elves meant they saw life differently, and far longer, than others did, and left her to see many people live and die, she formed a strong connection with her companions, and was struck with grief following the death of her friend, Himmel, which forced her to change her outlook on life and seek to grow closer to people and form greater connections, as she realized she won’t have eternity to spend with others.

We then follow Frieren and a group of new companions, including her mage-apprentice, Fern, and the Warrior, Stark, as they go on quests and seek out new magic spells. Meeting new friends and foes along the way.

(Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (2023) screen cap, showing Frieren and her fellow heroes, shortly after defeating the demon king.)

The series has a lot of stand out elements, including its tone and characters, and its exploration of deep and interesting topics.

The work is notable for its somewhat mundane and understated atmosphere, with character interactions and personality often being left small and subtle, and with the general atmosphere of most episodes feeling far more melancholic and peaceful than bombastic and energetic. This sense of calmness is achieved a number of ways, including through the sound design, which often uses more simple, subtle and calming melodies, alongside more slow and low-energy voice acting, as well as within the animation, which often uses smaller and more subtle movements, and seems to rarely push its expressions, posing and movement into more exaggerated and energetic styles.

This calmness is further enhanced by the stories themselves, which often focus more on the characters' emotions, connections and growth, rather than action or intrigue, which help further highlight the themes of the work, mostly around the issues that come with the passage of time, loss and grief, within the context of eternal life.

(Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (2023) screen cap, showing Frieren with Fern.)

As an elf, Friren has lived over 1000 years, and has seen the world evolve and change constantly throughout that time. This long lifespan gave her a somewhat distant and uncaring view on reality, disconnecting herself from relationships and others, and shunning herself away from society, often being caught unaware of the passage of time and changes that have occurred through them, and often meeting said changes with indifference and/or annoyance. This sense of disconnect is tested during her 10 year long journey with Himmel and the other heroes, wherein she develops a deep bond and connection to the others, leaving those 10 years to have a much deeper impact on her than the many 100’s she lived before, and leaving her grief stricken upon the death of her companions, of old age, as she realised just how little she actually had to spend with them.

The show then sees Frieren take on a group of new companions, wherein she tries to take on a more active and connected role in their lives, as to not waste the little time she now has with them, even as her far longer understanding of time, compared to them, often leads to confusion and conflict, such as her viewing years as being ‘no time at all’ while, to others, they matter a lot.

This near constant contrast, between the understanding of time of a human and elf, helps clearly define and explain the disconnect Frieren feels for the world, and explains her casual approach to life, while also helping to further highlight the inherent melancholy and calmness of the series, by connecting said emotions more clearly to Frieren and her casual, yet disconnected place within the story and setting.

(Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (2023) screen cap, showing Stark.)

The series, then, combines its atmosphere, characters, relationships and plot together, alongside its theme, to create a sense of cohesion within the work, as every element seems to build atop each other and further enhance the others. The themes of immortality and grief, for example, help give reason and motivation to characters, their personalities, relationships and actions, which then helps them stand out and feel more interesting and relatable, due to their clear motivations. These themes also force the characters and setting to take on a more casual and melancholic tone, which then bleeds into the animation and gives it a subtle, slow and calm feel which helps create a unique and appealing mood to the work. This mood then further heightens the sense of depth felt from the themes, as they influence every decision within the work.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (2023) then, shows us how works can utilise their disparate elements to create a more complete and total whole. While this is a consistent element I’ve seen throughout this project and my research into various works, what stands out within Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (2023) specifically is also how it shows how subtle, casual and slower animation can be just as interesting and gripping as energetic, bombastic animation, if said animation is able to create and enhance a similarly fitting tone. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (2023) more broadly, then, shows us how animation can take on a number of different forms, and all be equally engaging and entertaining, as long as the animation and artstyle is able to create and maintain a fitting mood.

Going forward, then, I will try to consider the mood and tone established by my animation and artstyles, as to help the animation shine better and to make the work, as a whole, feel more cohesive, by avoiding aesthetics which create disconnect between my work and it’s theme.

2: Conclusion

Through Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (2023), I again saw the importance of having each disparate element of an animation come together to create a cohesive whole, which I have noticed as a consistent theme throughout my research. More significantly, I also noticed how it expresses the ways in which otherwise more mundane, slow, subtle and ‘flat’ animation can still read as interesting and enjoyable, as long as said animation is able to create a fitting tone and mood, showing us, more generally, how animation of different styles and aesthetics can all be equally interesting and entertaining, as long as they are able to create and maintain a fitting mood.

References:

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (2023) Nippon TV, 29th of September Crunchroll (2023) Frieren: Beyond Journey's End | OFFICIAL TRAILER. 15th of July. Available at: https://youtu.be/Iwr1aLEDpe4?si=XNKi-7Y-oSO72nTt (Accessed: 10/04/2026).

[animationmaraline]

Uni Blogpost #Practice 2: 20 - Pre-Production 11 (13/04/2026)

Yo! Within this blogpost, I'll show the design's of my main characters so far, including the three bandits/poachers they need to fight. I didn't need to do much research for the new, bandit characters, as I mostly took inspiration from the same sources I did for ogre herself, so i'll just be discussing the design process itself.

1: Body Shapes

Given I am coming close to my deadline, I have needed to start speeding up the creative process for my work, so I haven't spent as much time refining the designs for the poachers as I have the other characters in this project. I began by creating a variety of body shapes, wanting to get some diversity in the designs/silhouette.

I liked the idea of having a thin one, buff one and fat one, however, I felt the fatter designs, like the middle top or left most bottom didn't look great, and made the characters silhouette lean to close to Ogres.

I decided to go with top left, bottom second most left, and bottom most right for my three body types, thinking that the overly broad shoulders of the second-middle, bottom body type could be used to create a distinct silhouette separate from the more generally muscular, and thinner body types chosen, as well as those of ogre, who is wider in general, and the lady, who's silhouette tapers down. Getting some unique silhouettes is especially important for this project, as I plan for it to be action-focused, and thus having easily readable and distinguishable character designs will be important to make the action feel coherent and understandable, and mitigate the risk of the audience confusing who is who within action scenes.

2: Lineart and Colour

After getting the basic body types down, I then went about trying to designs final looks for the three characters. Again I aimed for variety in the designs and silhouettes, having outfits which further exaggerate the characters pre-existing shapes. For the thinnest character, I gave them a long cloak, with a pointed hood, which turned them into an almost flat triangle, which I thought helped them stand out a lot from the others. I also created a design for them underneath the cloak, though I'm not nearly as happy with this one. I gave them spiked hair, to try and mimic that triangular shape, though, I think all around this design feels relatively boring and plain.

For the muscular character, I gave them a design similar to ogre, being shirtless, with chunky gloves and boots. I gave them very squarish hair, as the rest of their body seemed very square, and I thought it contrasted their head shape with other characters. I think this design is the best, and reads rather well.

Finally, for the character with the broad shoulders and smaller legs, I tried to emphasize their triangular shape by giving them an unhooded cloak, which tapers. I'm also not to happy with this design, so far, as I think it looks pretty silly, and doesn't mesh well with the other characters.

I also gave the characters some basic color pallets, as placeholders, but, I need to do some further tests into my projects color pallet, as a whole, as so far I fear it all feels relatively flat and dull.

3: Conclusion

I'm not really happy with how these designs have turned out so far, all feeling relatively boring and dull, as i've had to begin rushing work to get ready for the project deadline.

I will try, as much as I can, to do some further development, including color and expression experiments, to get the designs as good as I can for the project deadline, though I can't promise how close i'll get.

[animationmaraline]

Uni Blogpost #Practice 2: 19 - Pre-Production 10 (10/04/2026)

Yo! Within this blogpost, I'll discuss the creative process for my lady character, up to her most recent design. Like ogre, as of now I think I've gotten up to a good base for the character, which, given if I have the time to, I could further develop into a solid, final idea.

1: Head and Body development

The first step I took for developing the lady was to come up with a good body/base for further development, so I began with some experiments into different head, face and body designs. I wanted a body shape that contrasted with Ogres, which was large and blocky, so I focused on more small and thin body types, which were more curvy and triangular to further contrast with Ogres squarish shape. As for the face, I wanted something simple and soft, both so that they were easy to animate, and so the lady would appear relatively cute, and therefor easily sympathetic to the audience.

In terms of face designs, I liked the top middle, and middle row as a whole, thinking those designs were the most simple and read as the most cute, though I wasn't sure if having designs with prominent lips would work within the final design, as it would add extra detail into the animation process.

As for the body types, I went with, as i said, a relatively simple and thin one, seen in the large body to the left of the canvas. I went with this design as I thought it would contrast well with ogres large frame.

2: Clothing Development.

After looking at my preferred body and head types, I then took a developed concept, featuring a thin body, circular head and simplified facial features, and experimented with some different outfits and skin-tones. I liked how a lot of these designs looked, however, even for some of my favorite, like the left most of the bottom row, I feared some looked to young, with me imagining the lady to be around 25 or so, with me gravitating to the older looking designs, mostly seen in the top row. I experimented with a number of different co lours, though I preferred the designs that used heavy amounts of white and blue, as I thought both would help the character stand out from ogre, who wore brow clothes and had red hair, with me also liking some of the darker and more tan skin tones, as I similar thought they would help her stand out from Ogre's grey skin.

I also experimented with different hairstyles for the character, wanting something short that would further contrast with ogres long hair, with me liking the hairstyles of the third left of the top row, and the two most left of the bottom row, as I thought they would contrast well with ogre, and help make the characters silhouette stand out through the contrast.

3: Final Design

For my final design, I combined elements of outfits across the top row, featuring a blue dress, with a yellow belt and white sleeves and neck covering, alongside a short, straight hairstyle

I tried to simplylify the design down for ease of animation, with the dress and sleeves ending in sharp lines, and having the bottom of the dress remain the same width regardless of their direction. So far, I am pretty happy with the design, as, although I think it could do with some further development, as I think the color palet may be to dull, I think this design at least works well as a near-finished base to work of from.

Going forward, I'll try to iron out the design further, experimenting with some different color pallets, alongside some expression and posing tests, to come up with a final design which I think looks good, would be easy to animate and is appropriator expressive for an animated short.

[animationmaraline]

Uni Blogpost #Practice 2: 18 - Pre-Production 9 (11/04/2026)

Yo! In the next few blogposts, I'll discuss the development process of the lady for my short file development project, starting with the research I did for her, and then the steps I took to create her final design.

1: Animated Characters

The first step in my research was to look around at various, animated characters for inspiration, looking for a variety in looks and designs. As I am creating a fantasy work, I also, naturally, focused my research onto fantasy and historical works, especially ones I like or would otherwise consider significant.

(Ariel from The Little Mermaid (Musker & Clements. 1989)

(Tiana from The Princess and the Frog (Musker & Clements. 2009))

(Tiana from The Princess and the Frog (Musker & Clements. 2009))

(Mononoke from Princess Mononoke (Miyazaki, 1997))

(Esmerelda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Trousdale & Wise, 1997))

(Frieren from Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (2023))

(Princess Leia from Princes Leia - The Rescue | Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures (Star Wars Kids, 2019))

(Moll MacTire from Wolfwalkers (Moore & Stewart. 2020)

(The Proud Princess, from The Wedding Veil of the Proud Princess. (Volozh, 2025))

(Deedlit, from Record of Lodoss War (1990))

From this research, I noticed many of the central characters had relatively thin builds, often with either triangular or round faces, though a few were larger and had more square faces, such as Moll MacTire (Moore & Stewart. 2020), and many seemed to have large eyes and simple face designs, though that may be a consistent within their works aesthetics, and to make their animation easier.

Still, all of these ideas are good to consider, especially in how making the character thinner and rounder may help contrast them with the large and broad Ogre, giving each a more distinct silhouette.

Another notable element of the characters was their use of bright colors, such as in the case of Ariel (Musker & Clements. 1989) and Tiana (Musker & Clements. 2009), often mixed with or dominated by white, as in the case of princess Leia (Star Wars Kids, 2019), Frieren (2023), Mononoke (Miyazaki, 1997) and Esmeralda (Trousdale & Wise, 1997). This should also be taken into consideration, as it should help further separate Ogre and the lady via differing color pallets. This bright colors may also serve to help the character stand out, and read as more friendly/protagonist, as the bright colors draws audiences eyes and thus make them more willing to focus on and become interested in the character, which would be especially important in a short, where their is little time.

2: Medieval aesthetics.

(The Accolade. Leighton. 1901)

(Medieval Dress “Green Sleeves”. armstreet. NA)

(Renaissance Dress Women Medieval Dress Ren Faire Costume Renaissance Outfit Irish Dress Halloween Costume for Women. WYZJL. NA)

(Uma Thurman. Maid Marian, from Robin Hood (Irvin, 1991). Taken from IMDb. NA)

(Styles of Sari. Dhurandhar. 1928)

(Evolution of Chinese Clothing and Cheongsam. Nania. 2013)

(Femme du peuple. NA. 1855-60)

(The Costume History. (Racient, A. 1888)

(The Costume History. (Racient, A. 1888)

Another source of research I looked into was medieval/historical fashion. Naturally, given these trends existed before the invention of photography, a lot of my research revolved around artwork and second hand accounts and recreations of medieval/historical fashion from around the world, though I still feel like their were some notable trends and aesthetics worth considering. Many of these styles seemed to feature dresses, which covered up most of the persons body, and seemed to incorporate multiple layers of fabric, alongside featuring hanging/flowing designs. While I can't say the reasons for these trends, beyond them simply being practical for their time, their all useful to consider when designing my character, as their incorporation should help ground the character within their time/setting.

3: Conclusion

Looking back towards my research sources, I noticed a few trends to consider when creating my character. First was that many of the designs of other protagonist characters seemed to be thin, with either triangular or rounded features, likely to make the character read as more feminine and friendly/non threatening, in comparison to wider figures and more squarish features, which can give a strong and somewhat intimidating feel. I think these features would be especially good to include within my character design, for the leading lady, as they would help to distinguish her from ogre, who is designed as wide and blocky, and thus help avoid the character designs as reading to similar and blandly identical.

I also noticed many of the characters seemed to have, relatively simple aesthetics, with bright colors and heavy use of white, likely to both make their animation process simpler, and make them read as more friendly, respectively. These ideas would also be useful to consider within my characters design, as they should help make animating her easier, and make her more immediate read as protagonist and likable to the audience, especially important in a short, wherein their is little time to establish character and thus any techniques to make a character more likable should be beneficial.

References:

The Little Mermaid (1989) Directed by Musker, J & Clements, R. [Feature film]. Buena Vista Pictures Distribution.

Wolfwalkers (2020) Directed by Moore, T & Stewart, R. [Feature film]. Wildcard

The Princess and the Frog (2009) Directed by Musker, J & Clements, R. [Feature film]. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Princess Mononoke (1997) Directed by Miyazaki, H [Feature film]. Studio Ghibli.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) Directed by Trousdale, G & Wise, K [Feature film]. Buena Vista Pictures Distribution.

Star Wars Kids (2019) Princess Leia - The Rescue | Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures. 8th of February. Available at: https://youtu.be/6xAcbqnaIsQ?si=1whY5Lq9bRI02JCH (Accessed: 11/04/2026).

Volozh, A-E (2025) The Wedding Veil of the Proud Princess | BAFTA-qualified 2D Animated Short. 16th of September. Available at: https://youtu.be/1c5n9oAn0nU?si=DL7M2s-vY1KIW9dm (Accessed: 11/04/2026).

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (2023) Nippon TV, 29th of September

Record of Lodoss War (1990) Series 1, 13 Episodes. 30th of June [Original Video Animation]. Madhouse.

Leighton, E. B (1901) The Accolade [Painting]. Available at: https://classicalcanvas.org/a-complete-analysis-of-the-accolade-by-edmund-blair-leighton/ (Accessed: 11/04/2026).

WYZJL. (NA) Renaissance Dress Women Medieval Dress Ren Faire Costume Renaissance Outfit Irish Dress Halloween Costume for Women. Available at: https://www.amazon.com/WYZJL-Renaissance-Medieval-Overdress-Halloween/dp/B0CDXSVSX8?th=1&psc=1 (Accessed: 11/04/2026).

armstreet. (NA) Medieval Dress “Green Sleeves”. Available at: https://m.armstreet.com/store/medieval-clothing/medieval-woolen-dress-green-sleeves (Accessed: 11/04/2026).

Robin Hood (1991) Directed by Irvin, J [Feature film]. 20th century fox.

IMDb. (NA) Uma Thurman. Maid Marian. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102797/characters/nm0000235/ (Accessed: 11/04/2026).

NA (1855-60) Femme du peuple [Colored Engraving]. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/dress-clothing/The-Middle-East-from-the-6th-century (Accessed: 11/04/2026).

Dhurandhar, M.V (1928) Styles of Sari [Painting]. Available at: https://tok.wikipedia.org/wiki/len_Sali#/media/sitelen:Styles_of_Sari.jpg (Accessed: 11/04/2026).

Nania. (2013) Evolution of Chinese Clothing and Cheongsam. Available at: https://minuiko.tumblr.com/post/42642421025/nannaia-evolution-of-chinese-clothing-and (Accessed: 11/04/2026).

Racient, A. (1888) The Costume History. Publisher. Available at: https://archive.org/details/costumehistoryfr0000raci/mode/2up (Accessed: 11/04/2026).