So firstly I looked at pigs since they're the main characters of they story. I tried to find a range of reference imagery that included pigs covered in mud, pigs in a pig sty in a type of factory farm environment, and the animals from a range of angles. These images coupled with some other influences were very useful when trying to design the characters for the story. Despite the pigs in the story being anthropomorphic and not being realistic in that sense, when looking at exaggerating features and placement of body parts and proportions the come in very useful. The colours of the pig differ depending on the pig too, so some will have pure pink skin and fur whilst others have brown spots or sometimes even black - so colours is another interesting and useful element to take from the visual research I complied looking at pigs and their housing on a farm.
The second type of imagery I looked into was stills from classic or popular war and prison films. These included, The Great Escape, Band of Brothers, Apocalypse Now, Saving Private Ryan, Platoon, The Shawshank Redemption and Fullmetal Jacket. The reason for looking at this genre of film in detail is for a number of reasons. Firstly, I wanted to make it seem as though the escape the pigs undertake in the story is a military type of operation, making sure to include aspects of this such as the helmets, the idea of a ranking amongst the pigs, perhaps hand signals and really try to parody the idea of pigs escaping using military techniques and wearing helmets etc. Next, I want to include several explicit references within the animation from some of the classic war and prison films. This was an idea I have discussed with Wing, Mat and Sara and we all agree it would be a subtle and humorous addition to the animation. Things such as the disposal of dirt from The Shawshank Redemption via his trouser leg and pocket, or the poster covering the hole in the prison wall. We also wanted to include the scene in The Great Escape where the baseball is being bounced off the wall in his cell. I also collected the images to replicate the mood and lighting shown in these films, with the washed out colours and perhaps also the low key blue and green lighting.
The next collection of images is barns, farms and farmland that could be a huge influence and good reference imagery when trying to build the environments or design them from different angles. The way the buildings are constructed and the colour palette of these mood boards are particularly influential and some of the bright but dark colours could be used in the designs also. Another element of these images that I want to take forward is the vast scale that they display. Fields that go on and on for a while, with row after row of crops with mountain ranges and big open skies in the background - these are the kind of elements that it would be great to incorporate into the animation when setting the scene and introducing the audience to the environment because it gives the story some justification when the pigs are trying to escape and the lengths they go to in their planning. Finally, it helps tell the story from the perspective of the pigs. The unknown outside and the fact that they're a lot smaller than humans could make the vast farm environment seem a lot more intimidating and therefore by putting emphasis on the size of the farm it helps demonstrate that fact to the audience.
The final mood board I created for the purpose of visual research was all about mood and lighting. I tried to retain the rural farm environment for some of the images but in general it was more about low key dusk lighting that I want to incorporate into the animation. Since a lot of the story takes place at night when the pigs are trying to break out, it's essential that the correct mood and lighting is captured to put forward the nature of the escape and illustrate the tension in the story. I tried to gather silhouettes, dark skies, late sun sets and large cloudy skies to show the time of day and find the correct mood. I like the use of silhouettes where appropriate and the silhouettes I found for the mood board are quite eerie feeling which adds to the level of danger and tension that can be achieved through the story and setting it in this particular location.
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