This page is going to explain my main inspirations and how I am going to interpret and include concepts and ideas from them into my animation while not copying them. I am most worried of doing too much from "Salad Fingers" as the way I draw normally is similar to how the character of "Salad Fingers" looks so I will want to avoid taking too much from it. Overall I think that my contextual understanding and my knowledge of research and how to interpret and use information has improved a lot from the first and second projects as this time I took my time to take in the information and utilise what I have learnt to enhance my animation to the best of my abilities and I really think it payed off in the final project.
.Flow- “.Flow” is a fan game that was inspired by the original game “Yume Nikki”, both games are very similar and mainly consist of just exploring areas of a person’s dreams. This is the part that has inspired my FMP because I want to make an animation where it surrounds someone having a nightmare. This is even more relevant in “.Flow”, this is because the main concept of the game is corrosion, and the mental erosion of someone’s mind. The whole ambiance that surrounds the game is extremely macabre and unsettling which is the atmosphere that I want to try and capture in my animation. This inspired me because an unsettling atmosphere would allow me to have more creative freedom and this game very much captures that essence. “.Flow” was created by “lol” and that is the only alias the creator is known by, using the program RPG Maker 2000 on the 15th of February 2009. The game was created to acknowledge the psychological state of “flow” which is where a person is in a deep transcendence, however this is juxtaposed to the horrific imagery that is witnessed in the game. This has inspired me to perhaps create a false sense of security and slowly corrode or deteriorate the imagery and manifest an immersive dreamlike sense of reality. The game was definitely created to showcase the creators artistic expression and to disturb and give fans of the original “Yume Nikki” more of the disturbing that was witnessed in that game as “Yume Nikki” had disturbing moments as well. (Picture above is .flow and picture below is “Yume Nikki”) (Which translates to literally “Dream Diary”) I got this information from my own knowledge from playing both games and from the “Yume Nikki Fangames Wiki” https://yumenikkifg.fandom.com/wiki/.flow Which I visited on the 12th March 2019, I also watched the “.Flow” review on the YouTube channel “Nitro Rad” which had amazing insight on the game and inspired me to not be afraid to make something unsettling if that is what I so wish. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5rS5UCRakk The video was uploaded on the 11th of December 2014 and I watched the video on the 12th of March 2019
Salad Fingers- Another piece of media that has inspired my FMP is David Firth’s work but specifically his series named “Salad Fingers,” “Salad Fingers” is a series about a man that people have dubbed “Salad” but many people speculate that he is actually the face behind his persona named “Hubert Cumberdale”, Salad Fingers has inspired me because it shows very macabre and dark imagery and themes such as death, The death of a child and abandonment/child neglect which in my opinion are all things that happened to “Salad Fingers” himself and from all of the mental strain he suffered as a child has developed DID or Dissociative Identity Disorder also known as Multiple Personalities. This is clearly shown when “Salad changes his personalities and is able to converse with himself with the personalities he switches between. This idea is very prominent in the as of now final episode named “Glass Brother” which clearly depicts how “Salad”/”Hubert” cannot rid himself of the detrimental thoughts that plague him as he is seen conversing with a mirror which is where we see all of the abuse his mother put him through and how his mind became unstable and broken because of it. This is where I got my idea of someone’s mind breaking. I don’t want to go down the path of multiple personalities but I do want to showcase the gradual corrosion/breaking down of a person’s mind. The creator of “Salad Fingers” David Firth has stated in an interview that he created “Salad Fingers” to make something disturbing and showcase his artistic expression on YouTube at a time when he thought disturbing things were lacking on YouTube, His work has also inspired me because the animation style is very simple and it is a style that I would want to try and emulate that style to the best of my ability to compliment the macabre theme I have chosen and the disturbing imagery I want to present. I have gathered this information from watching the series and from the interview that I have watched and from watching analysis videos on the series by the channel on YouTube “Film Theory” which is owned by “Matthew Patrick” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeE-J-GjAyQ , The “Glass Brother” episode that was uploaded on the 30th of January 2019 and I watched it on the 12th of May 2019, I did watch it before this but I re-watched it for this research. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeE-J-GjAyQ The “Salad Fingers” analysis video which was uploaded on the 21st of February 2019 and I watched it on the 12th of March 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKcyYbEJC9g&list=PLt4WEFLBaIMAKEdTVtzLKdAe8I9p6LzSl David Firth’s Interview video that was uploaded on the 23rd October 2017 by “goingundergroundRT” and I watched it on the 12th of March 2019.
Jaiden Animations- I am also very much inspired by “Jaiden Animations” also just known as Jaiden and the work she does. She is a youtuber that creates animations that revolve around her life and the funny stories she has. In my opinion she is one of the most talented animators that I have seen. This is because her animations are very lifelike and move around a lot and actually seem alive. She also has funny commentary that goes along with the videos. She has also had a huge growth as a person where she has become more confident in her work and just her self confidence too. Although her funny/comedic stories is not her work that inspired my idea for my Final Major Project, her amazing video that has simple animation and is mostly just the line-work animated where she tells her story of battling an eating disorder and bulimia was an extremely powerful story and the simple animation helped to drive this home. This inspired me to try and go for a more simple style when animating and to not be afraid to just tell a story using simple and not extravagant motifs all the time which Jaiden doesn’t really use extensively in her animations anyway. The video I mentioned also very much inspired me because the story it told was very meaningful and good natured and touching. So this has made me want to tell a more meaningful story and go beneath the surface in the animation that I want to create. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhEATqXnXCI , Jaiden created this video on the 6th of April 2017 and I re-watched it on the 12th of March 2019, she made this video to explain why she doesn’t have a face reveal and to share her story with her audience and it was really inspiring to just be yourself in the things that you create. I have also emailed Jaiden myself and asked her a question on whether she storyboards her work and if she could perhaps give me some tips to storyboard, she hasn’t got back to me though, I did this because I am very much inspired by her work and I think her animations are amazing and I was hoping if she could possibly help me with story boarding because I do think that I am not the best at it because you usually can’t tell what’s happening. This is because I have never really found story boarding that useful but I know that it very much is important because it gives you more of an idea of what you want to create and gives you a simple outline to follow in the product that you create.
Nier Automata- “Nier Automata” is also something that I am very inspired by. “Nier Automata” is a post apocalyptic video game that is set in Japan in around the year 3000. The game revolves around three playable characters that are androids, named “2B”, “9S”, and “A2″, the game has heavy themes of existentialism and belonging. The main concept is these three androids trying to make a purpose for themselves in this post apocalyptic Japan, the game is very macabre and somber with a lacking sense of happiness which is a motif that I will want to emulate in my project, “Nier:Automata” is essentially the third in a trilogy of games that close off the story and in my opinion is the darkest by far as the arguably main character of “9S” has the most loss out of any game in the series, he essentially loses the humanity that he gained throughout the game and becomes a ruthless killer, as he loses his only friend/love interest and the character of “Operator” which acted as his sort of big sister. This has inspired me to maybe follow a theme of loss or longing in my animation and have very macabre and sad themes in my project. “NIer:Automata” was created by SQUARE ENIX with the most noticeable or most well known person that helped to create the game being Yoko Taro; the lead writer. The game was released on the 23rd of February 2017 for PS4 and PC and having a port on the XBOX ONE in June 2018. “Nier:Automata is probably the weakest piece of media that has inspired my work as a post apocalyptic setting that is heavily narrative focused is not something that would suit my animation but I do think that I could perhaps link the existentialism theme to the theme of mental corrosion. However the main thing that I will be taking from “Nier:Automata” is the macabre and somber mood. Perhaps making my animation have muted colours like “Nier:Automata” has such as browns and greys. etc.
These four elements that I have spoken about are the main things that I will want to incorporate in my animation. Of course I won’t be able to do everything that each inspiration has incorporated within but I will try my best to have the necessary or relevant elements that I could put in my animation incorporated somewhere within it.
.Flow
Salad Fingers
Jaiden Animations
Nier: Automata
This is a mindmap that I created to collate all of my ideas surrounding my animation and what I wanted to do for it. This is also relevant to my experimental research as this gave me a clear idea of what to do and helped me sort through all of my ideas and pick the one that was the most relevant to me which was to do animation on the computer and by creating a mindmap I was also to d this quickly and efficiently.
In the mindmap I also talked thought that it would be easier to do computer animation as it would be easier to show the themes that I want to express, it would also make a more appealing looking animation so the audience could enjoy it more as it would look nicer even though the style I am going for is intentionally messy.
In computer animation I think it would also help to appeal to my target audience as they would be more used to the type of animation that I am doing and I want my animation to be abstract. I am aware that this could put off many people as the concepts I am going to cover could be off putting but I want to do something out of the box.
I think that doing something I want to do, although may be off putting and uncomfortable will allow me to create a better animation overall.
Recently I have watched a multitude of "Creepy" animations which some of have a similar style to my animation and a lot of them heavily inspire me to delve more into the creepy realm. I have learnt that there is a big audience for creepy animations.
However these animations are usually accompanied by a song.
Moreover, the animations that go along with these songs are usually quite simple. The majority of them that I've seen are simple animations and the movements repeat in time to the song so there is not much development in the animations usually the backgrounds changing and the movements of the characters repeating.
Not all of the animations are like this however, one of my favourite animations was created by "Lovely Lauren" on the 30th of April 2018 and is called "Hypnotic // meme (creepy)" and I originally watched this video on the 30th of April 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVm6gDK9gIQ
I found this video particularly unsettling only at the end and this is because the video catches you very off guard. This is because all audio and music stops and the video changes quite drastically to the character in the video staring at the screen with an "uncanny valley" pair of eyes which personally left me rather unsettled and uncomfortable.
This is because the change in animation is extremely abrupt. The music doesn't fade out and there is no jump scare, it is just a very abrupt change to something which looks inherently disturbing.
This immediately made me unsettled and created lots of tension as I was waiting for a jump-scare but nothing actually happens. It just leaves you with that image as the video ends which scares me more than a jump scare. There is no resolve to the video and the image stays with you after the video is completed. The suspense ends up being much scarier than a jump scare and stays with you much longer than a jump scare would. I was still uncomfortable after the video ended. If the video had a jump scare I would not have appreciated it as much.
This is kind of the animation I want to make, I want to leave the audience unsettled and uncomfortable. Not exactly scared by a jump scare but disturbed and left with a lasting impression from the animation.
More Inspirations
An image from the video.
Another animation that I have very much inspired by is "[初音ミク/Miku] - Love Love Nightmare (PV)" which is found on the YouTube channel "Pomodoro²" and was published on the 13th of April 2014. I am very much inspired by this animation because the animation is quite disturbing which is something that I want my animation to be.
I also very much like the minimalist art style and it seems like something I could do if I put time into learning more about the human anatomy and how to draw it accurately.
Two scene that I incorporated in my animation where inspired from this animation.
One of the scenes being the mouths opening around the character. I was inspired by this scene to create a similar scene but instead of mouths, I use eyes. This is because the use of eyes is a rather prevalent image in my animation and I wanted to extenuate this.
I used eyes a lot to try and disturb the viewer as eyes in an animation may make the viewer feel as if they are being watched. I sort of wanted the viewer to be put into the shoes of Fraser.
The second scene that I used in my animation was the scene of the characters running across the scene. I wanted to input this to create a sense of urgency in my animation and make it seem like Fraser is running from something. Fear of the unknown is usually more frightening than if you know what you are running from so I wanted to tap into this primal fear to create a feeling of unease within the viewer.
I am also inspired by the animation not going for conventionally scary imagery to disturb the viewer. I'm more so talking about the lighting they use not being dark and trying to be purposefully scary. I am inspired by them successfully just using their drawings to disturb and not relying on dark lighting to just be "spooky". I think that this is something I need to improve on. I think I have relied too much on using dark lighting and my editing to make the animation disturbing and not try the hardest that I could have in trying to make the actual drawings on animate look disturbing.
