Proof of concept for a story in the works I’m calling Too Far To Climb - at least currently. Unlike the stuff I usually animate, this it’s going to be a lot more serious, with a full dramatic arc. Other than that though, there’s not much I can say about it because it’s going to be a while before it actually ends up getting animated.
Here was my attempt at pinning down an ending sequence for the episodes, where much akin to Steven Universe's intro/outro credits (showing the statue's hand), it would change based on the episodes, either weather-wise or by altering bigger details. Since the thing that they're sitting on has a huge role in the story, I figured what better way to lead out of an episode than a shot of the group sitting there.
This time around I've gotten a better feel on how to design the backgrounds for the frames. Suffice to say, my original inspiration for the backgrounds came from The Legend of Korra, where I noticed the backgrounds - especially the stone and wood textures - had noticable brush strokes. I tried to emulate this before, but ended up going with a sloppier painted style, that admittedly struggled to show smaller detailed. For this piece, brush strokes are still implied, but geometry is a lot cleaner, and certain aspects, like distance fog, give it a more realistic feel. On top of that, I found that going down this path is about as fast as the previous style of backgrounds, so I won't be losing any time by changing to this style. It's a win-win.
Most of my concepts have been going into a personal sketchbook, but things more tied into the animation/production end I'll be putting here, be it pallette tests, stylization experiments, or anything else. :)