My Interior Design Phase - Pt. 2

     Finally the long waited sequel to My Interior Design Phase - Pt. 1. In the previous blog post I wrote about the big structural changes to my work space. In this post I'll be talking about all the small details that came together to bring the set to life. And there are some details that are hard to 

    Let's first go over the back wall. I wanted to concentrate on this part of the set since its visible for most of the opening. Going left to right, the first slot has a salt lamp. The lamp doesn't really brighten a whole lot, but it adds some color to the frame and serves as more as an aesthetic addition. The next slot over is the book section. 

    There are books from filmmakers and books about filmmaking to show the animator's interest in the field. There are also 2 photo albums, one for photos taken by the animator and the other a collection of photos from musician, Phil Elverum. And of course there are a few books that were later adapted into films like The Martian and The Shining. The third slot is fairly simple with it just being place for a small digital camera. Some of the photos on this camera would be printed and put into the animator's photo album. 

    The last slot has a wooden manikin figurine on a wooden motorcycle. Mankins are often used as references for making characters of certain body types, so it'd make sense that an animator would have one. And the figurine sitting on a motorcycle is meant to display that the animator has fun with their job. Having the manikin seat on the motorcycle gives it a bit of life as opposed to it just standing on display.

    Above the organizer there are a few folders, some sketches (some of which you'll see within the first few shots), and a pile of magazines from Empire. While barely visible in the actual scene, I really liked the addition of the Empire magazines. Being a magazine focused on filmmaking it'd make sense that the animator would have a few of them. And as a nice tough, the top magazine of the October 2021 issue from Empire, a.k.a. the Edgar Wright Special Edition that was release along side his most recent feature, Last Night In Soho. If he's going to influence me and aspects of the project, I might as well include him in it. Fun Fact: I started reading through issues of Empire because Wright said they were his favorites to read.

Empire magazines and sketches

    On the actual wall we have a few things on display. I personally believe that if anywhere is meant to be some kind of work space it needs at least 2 things, a clock and a calendar. The calendar was the first things I put up since it was already on the wall, so all I had to do was just move it. I wanted a blank month, so I skipped ahead to June; this was I able to cross out all the days leading up to the final due date (Friday, June 17).

    Next up was the clock that was initially going to be a small stand for a clock, but I decided to switch it to a clock that could hang on the wall. The choice was made more for practical purposes, since when I initially put it up I realized it casted a huge shadow on the calendar. For the new clock I stole the clock from my dad's office. And placed it on the far left. 

    For the chalk board, I luckily had a sister that bought one that never used it. I was going to have it above the 3x4 organizer, but it was too tall; I ended up placing it to right of the organizer.  The chalkboard would have "Friday!" in large text with cross hatching surrounding it. Cross-hatching is a drawing technique that is fairly easy to implement and tends to have an aesthetically appealing look to it. And the crosses imply the animator has procrastinated their job, by instead choosing to stress about the due date than actually work on the final piece they have to make.

    As I was setting up, I realized that the clock, calendar, and the chalk board progressively got bigger and bigger, so I decided for the quark board to be in between the the sizes of the calendar and the chalk board. I've had some quark rolled up in some closet for the last several years, so I crossed my fingers and pulled it out and unrolled it. Luckily for me there was nothing majorly wrong with it, so all I had to worry about was trimming the edges. Okay so now I have a nice piece quark up on the wall but with nothing. I thought that the quark board can show off some of the storyboards the animator has previously worked on. 

    Luckily for me, about a year ago I made a different music video to the song Take On Me, where I tried my best to mimic the original's art style. In order to do that I physically animated with graphite and paper at about 6 frames per second. This meant I didn't have to work on making new storyboards since I could just use the ones I already made. I eventually dug up the folder with all the drawn out frames grabs 2 pages each from 2 different scenes. There was an issue though, the frames were too lightly drawn, so I had to add a darker outline around the frame and some of the subjects in the frame. This made each frame pop out a bit more and if it's out of focus you can still assume that they're storyboards.

Frames I drew for the Take On Me music video

    With that out of the way, let's move on to everything else. On the right, its fairly the same to how it usually is. It's a general work station, so it has the mouse, keyboard, and a tons of sticky notes with reminders and notes. There's also an agenda that serves a similar purpose to that of the calendar. And below the monitor there are a few pieces of memorabilia collected over time from the animator like the photo with friends. This is mainly to show that this person does have a life outside of their work.

    On the left desk, we have the tracing station. My mom recently has wanted to get a bit more into art and bought a tracing surface with a  backlight. A common element in the references I saw were all the tracing stations people had. The only issue was, the tracing surface didn't have a kick stand, so I had to jerry rig a kick stand with some blank canvases and a lot of tape. Since the surface did light up it provided another light source in the scene. Next to the tracing station, is a script that is further implies that this person is just one gear in a massive machine full of other filmmakers. This also adds a bit of pressure on the animator knowing tat other people are relying on them. And of course how could I forget the massive 3 foot Akira poster. When looking at the photo references, many animator would display projects and items that have inspired them. Akira has not only influenced me in real life, but I have a feeling this character would also be a fan of Akira.

   And lastly on the main brainstorming desk, there are again more sticky notes with memos about certain due dates are notes to consider. There's also cup full of Pilot G-2 07 pens. Personally they're my favorite pens to use when it comes to sketching things out, and tends to be a favorite of many other artist that I know personally as well as online. The collection of pens implies that the animator tend to be very specific with how they go about things; in this case it shows that these are the only pens this person likes to use. and on top of all that, personally I think it's a funny sight seeing 15+ of the exact same pens.

    And like that I'm done taking about the set design. You should hopefully be able to assume that not only I tried to put a lot of effort in this project, but also a lot of myself. All the elements that came together were real things I've used and made, so I feel that made it easier to give off the impression that the set is a real lived in space. I'm honestly Super happy with how closely I was able to follow through with the initial sketch I made, and I'm really happy that it just looks cool. I've even joked with my mom that I might just leave it all as is.  Anyways, I promise the next blog post shouldn't be this long, but I hope you had a bit of fun reading it. Until next time, I'll see you soon.