When deciding upon which imaginary venue to make, I chose the music venue as I have a fascination in alternative music, specifically that of Visual Kei. Visual Kei is a subculture of music from Japan. Once I chose the venue, I decided to target the general age range of Visual Kei fans, which would be around 13-25.
After deciding the venue and target audience, a figma board was made to collect various imagery that would inspire the animations and also showcase what to create. I collected images from various Visual Kei bands, with the two most prominent being Malice Mizer and Kamijo. After that, I proceeded to look at various events based around Visual Kei, with the Visual Kei Night being quite a popular choice. Lastly, gothic buildings were added as the music genre is linked with the gothic culture. Along with this, the buildings would influence drawings made.
After deciding on the imagery, I quickly sketched up a storyboard of the animation. This would help me remember what series of events to animate and what elements need drawing. While the sketch isn’t very detailed, the vision will be realised once put onto iPad and drawn.
When creating the logo, I wanted to capture the gothic style as well as I could. Because of this, the logo itself and the font was custom made to capture the elegance but sharpness of the style accurately. In terms of the type of font, I chose serif as it is fancy and is frequently chosen to represent gothic events, Visual Kei Night being a big example.
When designing the overall piece, I drew every element on a different layer so once it came to animating, each part was already separated. The gothic buildings used as references had the most influence on the design, though I had my own style of unique buildings on the sides. The visualisation of the building will also lead into the other animations, connecting them.
Overall I am very proud of how the animation came out and was able to visualise what was in my head. However, on reflection and consultation from tutors, I believe a few certain elements could be better executed. The lightning is the biggest showcase of this, as it could be much flashier and instant, rather than two at different times.