Visual style and inspiration

This is again, another really important consideration in this classic reboot. After looking at a few New Media narratives/ Games/ Other design media. I have come to a number of conclusions about my graphic representation.

My first concern is that I will be unable to use photography in the conventional sense. Some of these classics will use landscapes and places that I will not be able to photograph. With this in mind, I will be possibly gathering photographs and then enhancing them, possibly by drawing places in and making the images look more dated... alternatively I may just redraw the landscapes all together.
















For example I may use an image like this as inspiration and then create the background myself.
(Taken from "http://www.victorianweb.org/technology/railways/41.jpg")

I also realize that I will not really be able to use photographs for many of the characters either as it will be far too difficult to find a 'cast' who will be able to portray the characters effectively. I may use photographs in order to help me re-create certain poses or actions, but it is doubtful that I will use the actual photographs themselves. I am also look at other depictions of the characters in my classic (if any exist)

( Taken from "http://www.aboutwhitby.co.uk/dracula/180px-Draculafaces-small.jpg") As we can see there are a number of different Dracula's here. All seem to suit the different facets of the Dracula character.
I feel that with an illustrative style, the characters representations can be much more expressive and surreal.

(Taken from "http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/castlevania/images/thumb/7/73/Dracula1_small.jpg/300px-Dracula1_small.jpg")








We can see the influence of all the other kind of Dracula's add up to one whole in this design.

With this in mind I also want to try and move away from the 'overly abstract' imagery and navigation you find in a lot of new media narratives.

See http://www.crissxross.net/elit/underbelly.html as an example. I want the user to understand what is going on, even if it is a little more abstract, I want something they can understand rather than a 'figureative' 'deep and meaningful' interface. I want it to convey a reasonably coherent and linear narrative.

That isn't to say that the images will always be within a 'real world' I just want the images on screen to be understandable.

So for 'real world' events as it were (e.g. Mr Smith is in town). I will find a photograph of a town, or draw a town based on an image. 



When trying to communicate character feeling and possible lines of thought, I would like to have backgrounds that are similar to Alicia Buelow's work.

(Taken from "http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/02/20/business/businessspecial2/21security.184.jpg")




I think that the use of symbols and texture will really help communicate feelings and thought. Key words may appear at the side, fading in and out, symbols might appear and fade away, similar to this:




In 'the path' dialogue often appears and fades off the screen, this usually helps reveal the narrative.



I will post more about  character and object design soon.

Also going to put the survey up tonight!