Visual aesthetic influences

We began to look at the way that we wanted our final film to look from an art direction point of view, and looked for existing examples of interesting and/or challenging aesthetics that we might be drawn to. For us two clear examples presented themselves. These were Bendy and the Ink Machine. and Cuphead.

Bendy and the Ink Machine

Background

"The game begins in the far days past of animation and ends in a very dark future. Take on the role of Henry, an animator from long ago returning to a forgotten place he never thought he would see again. What follows....is a mystery."

Bendy and the Ink Machine is an episodic first-person puzzle action horror game by Joey Drew Studios. It was officially released on Steam on 27th April 2017.

Aesthetics

The thing we liked about this aesthetic is that it uses a very simple colour palette with strong lighting to enhance the drama in each scene. It also uses a very simple box set with sketchy and interesting texturing to create a nostalgic and highly effective aesthetic.

Cuphead

Background

"A classic run and gun action game heavily focused on boss battles. Inspired by cartoons of the 1930s, the visuals and audio are painstakingly created with the dame techniques of the era, i.e. traditional hand drawn cel animation, watercolour backgrounds and original Jazz recordings."

Cuphead is an Action/Indie gun runner game by Studio MDHR Entertainment, released on 29th September 2017 on Steam.

Aesthetics

The element of the aesthetic that we liked from Cuphead is the static, simple backgrounds, with more complicated, detailed and expressive characters imposed on top. We also liked the paler washed out colour as this gave the game an element of nostalgia for anyone who has seen and/or enjoys pre-1960's animations. 

We feel that the combination of both of the simplistic styles and colour schemes is something that would work very well with the pre-existing Moom rig that we have to use with this project due to its cartoony style.