Sometimes, the final product is very different from what was initially planned for a project. This applies to character design, concepts, personalities, structure, even the plot. So I was wondering, is there anything in AL that turned out REALLY different from the initial idea, or did you have everything more or less planned from the beginning? Was there any unexpected idea you had mid-development and loved so much you decided to roll with it, even though it implied huge changes in the game?
A question big enough for two! I’m (Wilson Taylor) going to field the first question in regards to the writing, directing and production of Animal Lover, then Maia Gross is going to step in with how the art direction has changed over time.
Anything that turned out REALLY different? No. Actually, hardly anything. The structure changed a bit in the first month of planning, but that was before we started dedicating it to script.
In fact, a long time ago on this very blog, I put up a small ‘Read More’ message saying that, yeah, Animal Lover was going to get a little weird by the end, but that it was intentional from the start. Most of the major events (Frankie/Charlie’s coffee shop scene, the Bear Pit, Edmund’s confession, THAT SCENE, Dustin from SoloTravelBlog).
The only big thing that didn’t make it in was the ending where the boys and Lucy all don full armor, get into Dustin’s car, travel to Aadara’s hut and slay the witch. In this ending, Aadara would have, apropos of nothing, turned into a horrible old hag on a broomstick. The battle would have been epic and magical and violent.
We’re not kidding, we REALLY wanted that to happen but it just didn’t pan out.
That said, the art direction is a different story. I’ll let Maia Gross take over from here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I want to start by saying that the character development for Animal Lover isn’t what you’d call strictly conventional. Because I was both the Art Director and the Art Staff, things evolved a little more organically than working in a studio with people to bounce off if. This whole project was an experience, and an experiment.
When we first started concepts I wanted to stray away from pure anime. As time went on, I took more and more influence from it. I’m super picky about anime styled artwork, and generally anime illustrations lack the amount of expression I like to draw. This isn’t a 100% true statement, but it’s still notable.
I started with Edmund, and the plan was to make him as bishie as possible. I didn’t love it, so I moved away from that while still keeping him pretty. There was also an issue of technology for a short time, where the computers I was using didn’t translate color correctly? I can’t recall the exact issue, but everything I colored looked hideous on other computers. Edmund went through recolors easily 5 times.
Here’s an early concept with an older computer/program/tablet in use. It looked totally fine on the Fujitsu I’d been using, but here, it’s all hyper saturated. We got a lot of “tumblr noses” insults for a bit, and the fujitsu computer definitely contributed.
I really wanted to experiment with camera positions, poses, and body language. The problem was that I didn’t realize just how much work that’d entail. Working on AL at the same time as having jobs, and being the only artist on hand, led to dialing back the enthusiasm out of necessity.
Here’s an original concept I’d wanted to incorporate
Would have been awesome! Would have also been more than I could feasibly handle. (uuhg this art is a little hideous now lol)
Charlie is the only character who went through major design changes.
This is the only digital image of this phase. It was just a phase though, I’m unsure If I have anything left. Miguel used to have waaaay more of a Yaoi chin)
Right here is the picture that solidified How I wanted him to look.
Otherwise, for the most part, everyone is essentially who they were at the beginning. Just much better drawn.
