Film Opening: Set Design

    In animation, set design is a very purposeful thing because, unlike with live-action, every single tree and rock was placed there by choice. The environment creates the world that the story takes place in and reflects the characters. When designing the set for my film opening, I wanted the fantasy elements and the medieval inspiration to be felt by the viewer. I tried to put in extensive amounts of realistic details to imitate the look of a painting in the leaves of the trees and the smoke from the fire. 

    The color that dominates the set the most is certainly the colors red and orange, representative of fire. This helps to establish the mood of the scene as intense and dangerous, showing the damage that has been inflicted upon the village, and the harsh orange lighting from the fire creates dramatic effect.

    One of the most important aspects of the set design is the main character’s house. Inside, it is filled with objects to convey the life and the family that the protagonist once had before the fiery attack, such as a cradle, a dining table, and a photograph. It shows the audience his backstory.

    Though there was of course no location scouting, I did take inspiration from a real-life village that had retained its medieval architecture to this day. I was having a bit of trouble finding the right angles, and I knew that I could get better images of reference from real life pictures. The village in the film is based off of  a few real European towns such as Gordes, France, Strasbourg, France, and Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany. Both served as perfect locations to base my own set design off of in a medieval fantasy world, having a kind of “fairy-tale” aesthetic.

    Really wanting to make the set feel magical and overwhelming, I made the backgrounds very intricate, detailed, and layered.