I'm not sure what the middle of MingXia's story holds. I thought about her having her first face off with Jaw-Long, or even Jianquo, her mentor. But I wanted those battles to happen at the end, like a big plot twist before the big battle. So I thought about a Monster that guards Jaw-Long's home, and refuses to let them past, giving them warnings and everything. As soon after MingXia wins against Jaw-Long, she releases Jinaquo who un-arms her and leaves. That leads up to last big battle scene. So I think a guardian monster would be a good middle-point.
For a storyboard reference, I've looked at some of Mark Andrews, Glen Keanes and Hayao Miyazaki's work. They all have a style that I would like to use for my character and her story.
For example, Mark Andrews does very detailed and clear backgrounds. His shading is very prominent. I find his angles quite creative too.
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Hayao Miyazaki has a different way of story-boarding, a way which gives him lots of room for notes and extra drawings. I like how he uses a totally different color for things like shading. He will use a color like yellow so you can still see the detail in the shadows.
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Because of how I created and based my character, I'm mainly looking at Disney and some anime for a animation style. My story is action based, so I want her actions to be fluid and controlled. I also want it to be very visually appealing. MingXia is heavily based off the Disney Mulan and Hercules, so I have looked at both films and animators for references.
Mark Henn is a famous animator, renowned for his work on Mulan.
His animations flow very nicely. It's kind of the animation and style I would like to use for a dialogue scene, as it is very expressive. I find it a bit slow i the way of fighting action, but it's ideal for talking or a calm scene.
In Atlantis the Lost Empire, the animated Disney film, I found that Kida's transformation was quite similar to MingXia's Transformation.
The White hair is similar too my characters transformed hair, and their eyes both glow.
Only as Kida is beginning to change, it resembles Mingxia's full transformation. As Kida looks like this once she is changed. But she has a interesting glowing effect, which is something I could do for MingXia.
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Here, she is a lot like MingXia. The flowly clothing and hair, and how she floats, resembles her a lot. I was going for a Greek goddess look for my character, but I feel like Kida captures it here.
But MingXia is more in control and has more of a threatening presence in her new form.
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So I look towards action animes, mainly ones that had a lot of sword fighting. Also because a lot of them had what I was looking for in the way of special effects, intensity and mood setting.
Afro Samurai is a very intense anime, maybe too intense for my character as she is heavily Disney based. But I like the heavy shading in the show, and the flowing bands. It has a strong color scheme, sticking to dark colors, white, blacks and reds.
It's movements are very fast, snappy and sharp. But it would be a good reference for very intense fights.
I like the angles, the quick cuts, the focus on the symbol on his headband, and moment where it shows the action reflected on the sword. Also I like how everything is plainly colored except the bright red blood. This puts a lot of focus on it, but it is also a very dramatic effect. In this shot it also has the symbolism of his headband, a very important part of him and the cause of the fight.
Sword Art Online
This anime is centered on a talented sword fighter, which is why I chose it has a fighting reference. It has smooth, dramatic fight scenes with cool effects. It differs from Afro Samurai, as it is more toned down and they also face different beasts and monsters, just like MingXia.
The characters are much more simplifed and are closer to a Disney look. I've found that the characters are the most expressive when in action, so I think I'll stick with Disney's Mulan and Hercules for the dialogue scenes.
Instead of lots of different angles and cuts, the like to keep the action in one long shot, with the camera moving with them. Or just not as many quick snappy cuts. I think it is a cool way to capture a action scene, especially if it's a tense moment between two people.
Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works
What I like the most about this Anime are the action scenes. The animation is very good and fluid. Although I think the tidy animation is important, I'm mainly looking at the special effects during their fights. These are powerful magic beings, that's how their similar to MingXia. I would like to use the colored effects and the swirly wind effects to make my fighting scenes more dramatic.
They usually have a certain color allocated to each character so that they clearly clash when they face each other. I think that in itself has a lot of symbolisim, as in my story, color has a lot of sybolisim.
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