ART BIBLE and our Creation

Art Bibles are crucial elements to every production, be it a game or a short film. They serve the core purpose of defining what the project's art style is about and why stylistic decisions have been made.

What is an Art Bible?

An Art Bible is a document that outlines every "rule and influence behind your art style" (Duniam, 2017, p.2). It serves as the foundation of your art direction and enables all members of the team to gain an insight into the standardized benchmark set by the art director for consistency. It also establishes the ground for newer members to get on board with the artistic style and to be fully aware of where the project is headed towards. Marketing, communication and promotions can also easily be done with the help of an art bible. It is technically the "backbone of a project’s graphics and a well-rounded, singular style" that incorporates all of the major and minor assets of the project (Duniam, 2017, p.2). These include character concepts, environments, props, etc.

What to include in an Art Bible?

An Art Bible mainly includes the following:

• Art Style

• Character Art

• Character descriptions

• Color Palette

• Environment concept art

• Texture & Surface

• References and R&D

• Concept art

• Story And Logline

• Demographics and Target audiences

• Storyboards

• Moodboards

• Inspiration

For a small team like us, it is crucial to have all the important elements. We need to be able to express our ideas in the clearest way possible. Hence, we began working on our art bible elements since day one.

It is also very natural for the art bible to evolve with the changes of the group. It will be built upon and reassessed as the work goes by even though it is set at the end of pre-production. This is because we have to account for the various changes that come along the way while keeping it within strict margins. In other words, the style cannot be completely changed but minor adjustments could be made to small things within the assets of the film.

Therefore, after reassessing the direction of the film and accounting for changes such as eliminating one of the characters, the group sat down to refocus the film into another feasible direction.

New storyboards made for the new idea of the film. However, the group didn't have sufficient time to re-storyboard the scenes of replacement. These changes would be made directly to the animatic and will move on from there.

Here was our new animatic. We had to redo a couple of scenes and camera angles after a series of feedback to ensure we were getting back on track. This re-adjustment of work came by quite late during week 7 or 8, which caused our productions to slow down even more. I was in charge or redoing the scenes which was slowing my progress on the character.

Our new animatic based on the revised storyline.

Our new story needed re-evaluation as well. I was in charge of that too since the team left it on me. Below is a copy of the new story.

Moreover, I had to think of a great name for our film and this is what I came up with. Here were my reasons for why I chose this name, after a bit of research.

The name of our film, its meaning and the setting and demographic.

Overall, these were some of the pages I contributed to the Art Bible. The rest will be presented during the final week as a sift copy version.

References:

Duniam, J. (2017, January 3). Art Bibles - What are They? [Blog Article]. Retrieved from https://jacobduniam.com/2017/01/03/art-bibles-what-are-they/