The concept was fairly simple. It was inspired the ideology of seven deadly sins with a little touch of Ying and Yang concpet or Chakra so to speak. The whole 30 second animation would play out like a theatrical performance and where little object would transform into other things depending on the scene.
The story
It starts of with a black screen, and a blue light starts to illuminate and appears little stars that transform into little birds ( a nod to how the universe was created), then appears a blue figure (the protagonist). He starts to admire the world created arounnd him. He comes across a tree that has different fuits growing in it. As he is about to touch omnius music starts to play and a red light starts to burst out of the blue figure. He is split into two now a red and a blue one. Whatever the red touches, turns into dust. A face-off takes between the two and blue is deafted. His soul is about to fly away, just when a scared flock of birds start to pull him down. He realises that people need him and the soul flies back in to the body. We cut to the red figure (the antagonist) recking havoc. It’s a red vs. blue showdown and they run towards each other. Both clash into each other and dissipate into thin air leaving luminus dust behind, That gives birth to a whole civilization.
The fight choreography is inspired by the fight between Venom and Riot.
scene from venom, where same spieces fightVenom (2018)
The said idea, will work better as a theatrical performance rather than an animation as such proposed gimicks are better off on stage rather than the screen. Maybe the next couple ideas could be more in line.
A rough concept art of the characters;
The characters are inspired from blacklight performances, as they have a jumper suit. The reason in blacklight performaces is because of technical issues but for the story point of view this way the charcters remain anonymous and could create a more relatibility factor.
There is no refuting that this assignment will challenge my story telling skills, so have to go beyond them. For me creativity is not thinnking outside the box. I believe that creativity burts out when you are limited, constrained to a certain limit. I knew it from the start that there has to be more symbloic ways to show red vs. blue. Lets just get the generic ideas out first.
The phrase red vs. blue instanty gives a vibe of conflict, the most common examples are when two similar characters are used, who have the same traits but are just the polar opposites of each other.
Shawn Frost- Inazuma Eleven
In this example, we see the that the character suffers from a dual personality disorder. When his brother passed away Shawn Frost adopted his personality.
This drastic change in his personality can be seen when his eyes change from blue to red, where blue portrays Shawn as a calm, depressed, shy boy who plays football at defense and red portrays Shawn as his twin brother’s personality who is aggressive, arrogant, playful, cheeky, mischievous and plays football at offense. Just like the colors blue and red, both of his personalities contrast one another.
Uzumaki clan and the Uchiha clan- Naruto
The uzumakis are considered to be healers through their immense chakras. Its members are renowned for having bright, red hair, possessing incredibly strong life-forces and chakra, and their sealing prowess. They are also considered to be extremely passionate, loving and caring of others. Red is the signature color of the Uzumaki clan in Asian culture red is an important color symbolizing prosperity and a long life which the Uzumaki clan is renowned for.
The Uchihas have black hair with blue tint. They are strong, clever, strategic and arrogant. Uchihas are subject to powerful emotions: these emotions typically start as love for a friend or family member that then become overpowering hatred when the object of their love is lost and they gain power from these emotions. The clan grew isolated and began plotting a coup d’état to overthrow the leader of the village and his administration. This shows how selfish and disloyal they were.
Karin Uzumaki (Red) was in love with Sasuke Uchiha (Blue) and despite knowing about her unrequited love, he used her to regain his powers. Whenever he ran out of chakra he would bite her arm to take some of her chakra and heal himself. Despite being a tough, smart and independent woman Karin’s passion and selfless (red) love for Sasuke made her weak who was just selfishly (Blue) using her.
Naruto Uzumaki, the protagonist of the show, has a rivalry with sasuke Uchiha. The two have completely different personalities and this is symbolically portrayed through the contrasting colors and shades of red/yellow/ orange and Blue/purple/grey.
Naruto: he uses warm colors such as yellow, orange and red, it is the representation of the sun and yang. In Japan these colors mean: -Yellow: sun, light, heat, knowledge and fear –Orange: eternity, happiness, protection, kindness, envy and resentment. there is a transition from the less use of red in “Naruto” to a more use red in “Naruto Shippuden” which portrays character development and maturity of the character as he grows older. It also portrays motivations, responsibility, weaknesses and loss.
Sasuke: cold colors such as blue and purple,sometimes with gray undertones and Its the representation of the moon and the ying. In Japan colors have these meanings- Blue:Hope,respect,remoteness and coldness -Purple:honor, recognition, wisdom,knowledge,suffering and death
This is also consistent with the character’s personality, ailments and goals, including the transition from blue to purple resentment from “Naruto” to “Naruto Shippuden” representing the quest for knowledge, loss and despair
However, both of these characters share somepersonality traits which is pottrayed in their eye colours. Here, Sasuke Uchiha’s eyes are red (representing the Uzumaki clan/ their hair color) and Naruto Uzumaki’s eyes are Blue (representing the Uchiha clans/ their hair color)
Another example would be of Dexter’s Laboratory, where the most common trope is they have distingushed the male and female characters in blue and pink ( the generic way of distingishing two genders).
Dexter’s Lab is showcased in hues of blue. While Dee dee’s room is shown in hues of pink. The rival however Mandark is highlighted in Red.
Whenever you hear the word Red vs Blue, your mind automatically comes to conclusion that it must refer to a conflict. I think it is more than that. Red and Blue are the two most common colours of the spectrum. As being complementary colours, together they create a sense of harmony. Lets take a look through the eyes of a colour spectrum e.g. red is often associated with strong emotions like power, passion and energy, using too much can overwhelm the space. Blue on the other hand calls to mind feelings of calmness or serenity. It is often described as peaceful, tranquil, secure, and orderly. Blue is often seen as a sign of stability and reliability. Businesses that want to project an image of security often utilize blue in their advertising and marketing efforts. This is not limited to nature but the concept of Red vs. Blue bouncing of each other dates as back as to the first 3d films ever made i.e. anaglyph 3d. The two complementary colours when inter-twined toghther created mind boggling imagery.
A fews of the examples are;
Anaglyph 3d Wall art by Artist Insane51one of the first 3D filmsBuilded upon the concept of anaglyph 3d and refined it
If you’re looking for a subtle way to make a scene resonate emotionally, there may be no better way than choosing a color associated with the emotion you are trying to evoke. e.g.
emotions evoked by blueemotions evoked by redthe colour purple
The assignment is very self explanatory ‘Red vs. Blue’. In this 2 week long assignment we are supposed to come up with ideas that fit the ideology of Red vs. Blue. In the next couple of blogs I will cover my research work, concepts, ideations, storyboards and animatics.
Arsalan Awais 