Concept Art and Sketches

The first concept art I made of the animation, and really the core of the story and what I wanted to explore. I and everyone on this planet have undoubtedly been in a situation in which we were angry or upset, but choose to hide it under a strained smile. For one’s own fashion to betray that would be a new situation altogether, and certainly an intriguing one that I chose to analyze and portray.

Continuing off of the ideas above, the concept art of the red/angry individual being visibly different from the others, as well as attracting their attention, was another way of showing how one’s anger, when unable to be hidden, could be seen as “ugly”, similar to how one’s clothes can be seen as “ugly”, and attract people’s attention when one does not want it to. In the top-left are the main ideas I wanted to explore in the animation, and at the bottom are two panels focusing on the colors, an early sketch of what I did in the animation: show a sequence focusing on their colors instead of their faces, so as to mimic what people in that world see.

Sketches of how I wanted the character to look, as well as choosing what style to draw in. In the end, I found that a very gestural, simple art style worked best for the animation, so that one’s eye would be focused on the expression/body language and color instead of any details, as well as for the sake of time and convenience. There are also notes in the middle of how I did not want the protagonist to appear obviously angry, and instead gave him a warm smile in scenes, so as to appear all the more unsettling or odd when compared to his furious red.

Concept art of how the clothes should look. I wanted something simple and easily visible, but still look like clothes and not too sci-fi, such as the piece in the upper left that resembles armor. There is a change from too sci-fi to something more casual, such as replacing ties with color shapes. I explored areas besides the chest, used flowing lines and hearts. In the bottom-right, I first drew out the idea of a person using their color to reflect, to wonder as to why they feel that way…and then I drew out the idea of someone modifying or jailbreaking their own clothes so as to showcase false emotion, such as their color always being yellow, so that they may avoid any self-reflection, similar to how people work now; even with new technology, I do not think everyone would change so easily.