Brief Response

In this page, I'll showcase a bit more about my "Child's Dream" project, which I decided to make my main project going forward. My objective is to make it a full animation someday, and what is shown bellow is meant to be various elements of the full thing.

Synopsis

The story is set in 1879, at a farm in Northen Ireland. It follows a boy, Isaac, who works the farm with his parents, growing primarily corn. He's dissatisfied with this life, but it's made harder by the Scarecrow, that his family has had for as long as he can remember, which scares him.

After an unnatural storm late at night, the Scarecrow is destroyed by multiple lighting strikes, leaving mostly ashes. Isaac feels relieved about this, but that very same night, when he falls asleep, he feels a strange terrifying feeling wash over him and has a nightmare about the Scarecrow.

The nightmare is long and terrifying for the young boy, but he manages to defeat the Scarecrow and wake up relieved. He's called by his mother and his life goes on as normal.

He felt as if his life was truly in danger, but it's mostly just a gut feeling... or is it?

Full Script

Ireland, 1879

On a northern coast of Ireland lies a quaint little farm, home to a small family of commoners: A father, a mother and a young 13 year old boy named Isaac.

The farm, sat opposite to a lighthouse, is surrounded by a large cornfield, which acts almost as it's borders, and in it stands a very tall, very old scarecrow, which has always unsettled Isaac, due to it's decrepit and ragged look. The bag on it's head worn terribly due to pecking from the crows it's intended to scare, the clothes dirty and ruined due to the constant exposure to nature and on it's head Isaac's Grandfather's old hat, decorated with a large raven's feather.

Isaac never got acostumed to farm life, but the scarecrow never made it easier, usually being the source of many a nightmare for young Isaac.

But on a terrible October afternoon, a storm passed over this little farm. Strangely enough, nothing was severely damaged, apart from the old tall scarecrow, which was struck multiple times, leaving only a burned tree stump surrounded by charred clothes and hay. Isaac's parents were left a bit frustrated, since the scarecrow would be hard to replace, due to it's size. His mother especially felt saddened by the state of her father's old hat, but knew theres was not much she could do. The boy felt nothing but relief, seeing as now he wouldn't have to worry about looking at the creepy old thing anymore.

That very same night, Isaac went to bed more relieved than ever, ready to face the coming days, but as he fell asleep he felt a strangely familiar discomfort wash over him.

.........

As soon as his conciousness returns, Isaac feels his face pressed against dirt and just as quickly feels a cold breeze cooling his entire body. He opens his eyes and quickly jolts his head up. He looks up, the sky is heavily clouded and with a sinister dark orange color. He's inside a cornfield, in an empty patch of dirt, the only thing there with him being a massive crooked boulder that he doesn't recognize. Not wanting to get lost in the tall stalks of corn, he climbs the boulder to get an idea of where he is, but when he reaches the top, he sees nothing but an endless sea of corn stalks, as far as the eye can see.

He looks all around, panicked and suddenly sees a lighthouse, way out in the distance, the lighthouse on the edge of his family's farm. He finds it odd that he didn't see it sooner, as he's sure he looked in every direction. Seeing as it's the only thing in the vast sea of corn he can recognize, he sets out to the lighthouse, but right before he starts to climb down the boulder, he notices something between him and the lighthouse, a tell, dark silluette. Isaac looks as hard as he's able to, to see if he can make out what the shape is, but quickly, and terrifyingly, realizes it's the old Scarecrow. As if it was reacting to the young boy's fear, the silluette slowly sinks into the sea of corn, the crows resting on his head flying away.

In a rush to climb down the boulder, Isaac slips and hurts his leg, making the situation even worse. He gets up, turns in the opposite direction of the Scarecrows last position, and in a few steps realizes he won't get out unless he reaches the lighthouse, as it is the only thing he can recognize that isn't a threat. He turns towards the lighthouse, scared but determined, and enters the cornfield but as soon as he enters he feels a strange shift in the air and turns around to see that the empty patch of land that he once stood in is gone, now replaced by a giant bottomless cliff that replaced the entire opposite half of this sea of corn stalks. No turning back now.

He wanders through the stalks, nervously and cautiosly looking in every direction to see if he gets a glimpse of the creature stalking him. After wandering through the field for a minute, listening to the ominous sound of crows in the area, he notices the flying creatures suddenly shift their circular flying pattern. As they do this, Isaac hears something behind him. He turns around and he's suddenly in a new empty patch of land, the Scarecrow at it's center, a spiral pattern on the corn cut beneath it. Isaac freezes in fear for a second, just enough to notice the eerie orange glow behind the eyes of the sack on it's head and the crows flying above him. Isaac feels something in his chest, a pain that he feels only when he's near the Scarecrow.

He runs in the direction of the lighthouse, still a long distance away. Halfway there, he hears a loud strange sound behind him, he turns around terrified, expecting the Scarecrow again, but it's just his family's barn, an orange glow coming from within, visible through the barely open doors. He runs inside to try and hide from his pursuer, he slams the barn doors behind him. He then turns to face the source of the orange glow and sees his father's old lantern, beaming with a supernatural orange glow, similar to the crows eyes, but much, much brighter. He grabs it's handle and immediately feels a strange confidence wash over him. He feels like this could be his key to beating the monster.

Isaac runs out, lantern in hand, and keeps running for the lighthouse not even turning around when the barn dissapears behind him, replaced by the sea of corn stalks. A minute later, the Scarecrow pops out of the corn, swinging a broken scythe at Isaac. The lantern makes the monster flinch, making it miss it's attack. Isaac never stops running, now closer than ever to the lighthouse.

The Scarecrow is now visibly angered, the glow in it's eyes now many times brighter. It starts to increase it's speed, now faster than Isaac, so much so it'll catch him is a few seconds, now that he's just a few dozen meters away from the Lighthouse. Realizing he won't make it at this rate, Isaac desperatly throws the lantern behind him, the splash reaching the nearby corn, which unaturally cathes fire to the entire sea of corn and blackens the sky. Isaac keeps running for the lighthouse's stairs, not noticing the Scarecrow growing massive in size behind him.

Isaac reaches the stairs, sprinting up them. As he does this the Scarecrow swings back his now giant scythe, aiming for the base of the lighthouse. Isaac reaches the door, opens it and slams it behind him, just as the giant monster hits the lighthouse. The slice cuts away at the dream, waking Isaac up.

.........

He made it. The first thing he sees is his bedroom ceiling. He looks outside his window to see the bright blue sky and the still charred scarecrow in the middle of the cornfield. He sighs in relief and falls back onto his bed. He's still not sure how real that nightmare was, but decides not to dwell on it. He hears his mother calling him for breakfast and he replies with a tired tone:

"Coming!"

End.

Moodboards

Here i'll show some moodboards, to show my inspirations for 3 aspects of this brief: the Environment, the protagonist and the antagonist.

Environment

On the left is an environment moodboard.

The Farm is the home of a long running, although poor family. Creaky floors and walls aplenty and enough rot on some places to annoy anyone. The winter is always unbearable and the summer is always a relief. It's surrounded by a small forest and the family's cornfield on one side. the only visitors are government inspectors who come to check the lighthouse once in a while. It's as quaint a farm as it gets.

As you can see, the aim was to recreate a very classic farm setting. Old house, old barn, isolated, etc, but i added a twist by having it located near a cliff edge facing the ocean. Because of this, there's a lighthouse sitting near the very edge of the cliff, one of the farm's inhabitants being the caretaker. The lighthouse becomes an important element of the story.

I felt this was a good setting for a horror story, since it's not used very often and, since I thought of the antagonist's design first, this would be the most fitting time period for that design to be in.

Old paintings and pictures were the main inspirations and referances for this setting. I discuss some of the aspects of the environment's design in a different page.

Bellow there will be 3 aditional detail drawings, 2 of them being extra moodboards showing some aspects of the environment, those being the family barn, tractor and farming tool barrel.

For more detailed assets like the Barn and Tractor, I had to take some inspiration from outside sources, but I felt that the barrel was a simple enough object that didn't require much inspiration.

The Lighthouse is an important element of the story, one which I haven't fully developed yet. For it's design, I wanted the classic looking white lighthouse with red stripes (or red lighthouse with white stripes?).

Protagonist

This story's protagonist would be the farm's only small resident, Isaac.

He's the typical farmboy of the time, dirty old clothing that belonged to his father, none good enough to keep him warm during a cold winter, but hey, he's not naked. He hates the farm lifestyle, wanting to move to the big cities, but is simply unable to do so. The family Scarecrow sure doesn't help.

Isaac was based off of very old pictures of late 1800's to early 1900's farm children.

In the drawing in the left he's wearing what i consider to be his non-working outfit/pijamas, that being the reason he doesn't have overalls. I discuss some of the aspects of Isaac's design in a different page.

Antagonist

Here is the moodboard for this story's antagonist, the Scarecrow.

It's meant to be an old family scarecrow, over a hundred years old, even sporting the hat of one of the family's old patriarchs, which is being kept by the farm's current owners.

It's always unsettled Isaac due to it's look and size. After an unusually strong storm, the Scarecrow gets hit multiple times by lighting bolts and gets completely destroyed. Isaac thinks it's the end of his problems with the Scarecrow, but that night he's visited by a visage of him in his dreams, though by the end he's unsure if it was really just a dream.

My main inspirations were mainly monster scarecrow designs from a few different games, the character "Scarecrow" from the Batman comics and a couple of painting depicting monster scarecrows, which were the biggest inspirations. I didn't give it a more monstrous look to make it more belivable that a poor family would have a scarecrow like it. I discuss some of the aspects of it's design in a different page.

Gestalt's Theory

"Gestalt's Theory emphasizes that the whole of anything is greater than its parts. That is, the attributes of the whole are not deducible from analysis of the parts in isolation. The word Gestalt is used in modern German to mean the way a thing has been “placed,” or “put together.” Gestalt Psychology [Encyclopedia Britannica]

Getstalt's Theory can be applied to design, specifically, when it comes to Silhouettes, or Outlines, in this case, character silhouettes.

When drawing both the Scarecrow and Isaac, it was clear from the begginning that they'd have to be visually different in terms of their size and shape. In the case of my project, it's very obvious who is who, but something that becomes clearer when these characters' details are hidden and reduced to silhouettes is the difference in detail between the two. The Scarecrow has way less straight lines and flat surfaces compared to Isaac, and compared to the Scarecrow, Isaac has a softer look in general, less protruding shapes or large pieces of clothing.

I like to think that this difference in detail can mean a few things, mainly how disimilar both characters are, Isaac being a young boy with raggedy, yet clean clothes and a slim figure, while the Scarecrow is this hulking giant thing that's been in the boy's family for generations, having parts swapped and replaced with it's aging, giving him a rougher outline with more detail.

Colouring

When it came to colouring my characters, I had a few options on how to do so. Either traditionally or digitally, and even then both of those options have multiple way of being achieved, but I chose to go with digital colouring, as it allowed better control of colours, layers and gave much more room for mistakes.

As this is my first real attempt at colouring my drawings digitally, my characters lost some of the detail in their design, but as this is simply meant to show colour, it's not the biggest issue.

For the Scarecrow, I wanted to go for a washed out, yet warm look, fitting for an old farm setting. It's wearing old clothing, which adds reason to the colours being washed out.

This isn't my final colour palette for this character, but this is what i'm going for.

For Isaac, it's almost the same situation, but with the biggest difference being that instead of warm colours, Isaac is wearing colder colours, which again, due to the setting, are decently washed out.

This isn't my final colour palette for this character, but this is what i'm going for.

And, for the sake of experimenting and testing out multiple colour palettes and looks for these characters, I made 3 alternate looks for each, with radically different tones and colours.

And because why not, I gave each one a name.

Winter Fit

Earth and Sky

Scary Neighbour

Field Runner

Summer Time

Sports Novice

These are mearly a little bonus in this brief.

Story Boards

Bellow I have 2 story boards I was able to create in time for this brief's deadline. They're meant to exemplify how i'll make the proper storyboard in the future, although I can't promise all the drawings will be of the same consistent quality.

"...he climbs the boulder to get an idea of where he is, but when he reaches the top, he sees nothing but an endless sea of corn stalks, as far as the eye can see."

"Isaac runs out, lantern in hand, and keeps running for the lighthouse not even turning around when the barn dissapears behind him,..."

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Brief Response

In this page, I'll showcase a bit more about my "Child's Dream" project, which I decided to make my main project going forward. My objective is to make it a full animation someday, and what is shown bellow is meant to be various elements of the full thing.

Synopsis

Full Script

Moodboards

Here i'll show some moodboards, to show my inspirations for 3 aspects of this brief: the Environment, the protagonist and the antagonist.

Environment

On the left is an environment moodboard.

​

​

​

I felt this was a good setting for a horror story, since it's not used very often and, since I thought of the antagonist's design first, this would be the most fitting time period for that design to be in.

​

Old paintings and pictures were the main inspirations and referances for this setting. I discuss some of the aspects of the environment's design in a different page.

​

Bellow there will be 3 aditional detail drawings, 2 of them being extra moodboards showing some aspects of the environment, those being the family barn, tractor and farming tool barrel.

For more detailed assets like the Barn and Tractor, I had to take some inspiration from outside sources, but I felt that the barrel was a simple enough object that didn't require much inspiration.

The Lighthouse is an important element of the story, one which I haven't fully developed yet. For it's design, I wanted the classic looking white lighthouse with red stripes (or red lighthouse with white stripes?).

Protagonist

This story's protagonist would be the farm's only small resident, Isaac.

​

​

Isaac was based off of very old pictures of late 1800's to early 1900's farm children.

In the drawing in the left he's wearing what i consider to be his non-working outfit/pijamas, that being the reason he doesn't have overalls. I discuss some of the aspects of Isaac's design in a different page.

Antagonist

Here is the moodboard for this story's antagonist, the Scarecrow.

​

It's meant to be an old family scarecrow, over a hundred years old, even sporting the hat of one of the family's old patriarchs, which is being kept by the farm's current owners.

Gestalt's Theory

​

Getstalt's Theory can be applied to design, specifically, when it comes to Silhouettes, or Outlines, in this case, character silhouettes.

​

​

Colouring

​

As this is my first real attempt at colouring my drawings digitally, my characters lost some of the detail in their design, but as this is simply meant to show colour, it's not the biggest issue.

For the Scarecrow, I wanted to go for a washed out, yet warm look, fitting for an old farm setting. It's wearing old clothing, which adds reason to the colours being washed out.

​

This isn't my final colour palette for this character, but this is what i'm going for.

For Isaac, it's almost the same situation, but with the biggest difference being that instead of warm colours, Isaac is wearing colder colours, which again, due to the setting, are decently washed out.

​

This isn't my final colour palette for this character, but this is what i'm going for.

And, for the sake of experimenting and testing out multiple colour palettes and looks for these characters, I made 3 alternate looks for each, with radically different tones and colours.

​

And because why not, I gave each one a name.

Winter Fit

Earth and Sky

Scary Neighbour

Field Runner

Summer Time

Sports Novice

These are mearly a little bonus in this brief.

Story Boards

Bellow I have 2 story boards I was able to create in time for this brief's deadline. They're meant to exemplify how i'll make the proper storyboard in the future, although I can't promise all the drawings will be of the same consistent quality.

"...he climbs the boulder to get an idea of where he is, but when he reaches the top, he sees nothing but an endless sea of corn stalks, as far as the eye can see."

"Isaac runs out, lantern in hand, and keeps running for the lighthouse not even turning around when the barn dissapears behind him,..."

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