MP - The Struggle Inside - Art Direction 1

While I've been researching my target audience and other aspects, I've been keeping an eye out for any influences for the art direction.

I then came across, and remembered a style I've always been fond of:

Cel Shading (or Toon Shading in Maya)

How does it relate to my project? Well I'll get into that more when I fully research the area, but here is some reasons I thought of it.

My target audience is 10-15, so the average is really about 12. At this stage in a childs life they are predominatly still watching there cartoons, with dabbles into 3D animation and Live Action. Cel Shading is used to create an either cartoon or Comic book look, with its bold colours and thick outlines. Due to the target audience, this would give my animation the feeling and look of a cartoon with an 'edge'.

At the age of about 12, children are looking to broaden there horizon, looking for shows that contains that 'egde'. The asthetics of Cel Shading allow that edge with the fact that its not a cartoon, yet still holds the same quility. The content of the animation also holds a key element, with action featurung heavily into my medical animation.

There are many examples of Cel Shading already, ranging from childrens TV to mature Video Games. This will allow me to look into many differnet areas and why it works and why it doesn't in some cases...

For now though, I've created some simple Toon Shaders on Maya to try and further understand what they are and what they do.