All the references
and how I organized them (it's a bit chaotic actually)
Log
Project | SONHOS
Time in production | 57 weeks and 6 days
Status | focusing on backgrounds (slow)
Hey everyone! This one is about moodboards, references, visual and non visual, fun facts, a bit lighter in general to compensate last month’s math! It has lot’s of pictures. Meanwhile, I have been casually working on BG line art, trying to get back into a proper work rhythm, but the struggle is real. More updates soon!
Conceptual Reference
When coming up with the concept of the short, aesthetic was the main point. Usually I come up with story first, but not for this project, as I elaborate in the very first post about it. After the first visual elements gathered in my mind, I just kind of went to "Mad Max”. Why? Because I like Mad Max. It’s cool and fun and well made - at that time I had only watched Mad Max Fury Road. So this was the main conceptual reference that also influenced the story. A Mad Max story is obviously a chase sequence, best set in a world full of hostile gangs struggling to survive in a destroyed world. Since then I watched the first and second movie too, and the new Furiosa one, and Fury Road is still the peak. But Furiosa was super cool too tbh.
Aside from Mad Max, a main inspiration was the artist Alberto Mielgo. I studied his style in my character concepts, as detailed here, but I tried to capture more than just his visual style - there is a whole punky, adult, daring, flashy aspect to his projects and it’s so exciting to me.
Secondary inspirations, which I watched also more for “the vibe” and getting a feel for Brazilian film, was City of God (Cidade de Deus) and Bacurau (Bacurau). Bacurau specifically motivated me, serving as an example of a Brazilian movie that goes into classic Hollywood tropes but in a local context. SONHOS is about that - bringing American/European pop culture elements into a Brazilian scenario. City of God is just a great movie all around. (They made a series of it now on HBO?)
A very subtle reference, also just inspiration but sort of indirect, is the rap “Rap da Felicidade”. I rarely listen to Brazilian music, but I heard this classic from the 90s randomly on the radio in an uber ride someday close to the inception of the project, and idk man, it just kind of touched me. The main lyric is “I just want to be happy” and is about a context completely removed from mine, but ever-present in the life of everyone who lives here.
And then, the biggest concept, Rio de Janeiro. The project is intentionally in Rio, referencing Rio, for Rio-people (cariocas). That influenced all the locations shown, the character design, the colors, the music. Rio is about energy! About colors, heat, fun, struggle, loudness, green, danger, decay and resilience.
Organizing this
Those references were the first things placed into a Miro board, which slowly expanded with all other research. This first part was loose, more about remembering all the aspects I really didn’t want to get lost in the process. The pink bubbles are keywords about those references.
Visual Reference
As you see above, Akira and Tank Girl also served as reference, both a little conceptual and a little visual. Akira for obvious reasons - chase sequence and classic pop culture imagery. Tank Girl was more about the apocalyptic madness going on and “chaotic character design” specifically.
After those specific IP references, I started plucking imagery from random sources - the photographer Luciana Whitaker, photos from raves (specially Burning Man festival), photos I took myself, pinterest, video clips, google images, it go chaotic but that’s what the Miro was there for.
A key references for the character design was the fashion designer SS Jheni, her style informed how I would approach creating apocalyptic fashion.
Let’s have some fun and highlight some of those random refs!
Moodboards
First, there was a moodboard on Pinterest. That one served more for the general mood and design directions, but I didn’t want it to be my only moodboard, since I needed more specific and precise references for this project. Also, I don’t like scrolling on pinterest to see all the images, so my final moodboards are on miro as well to have a bigger overview.
After the generic Pinterest moodboard, I created 5 separate ones in Miro: environment, vehicles, protagonists (Tapioca and Kellen), Caolheirox (antagonist group) and Agraciados (support character group). Those are specific and more curated reference images, used directly in the design process.
The character groups all had an own design principle and visual references. Tapioca and Kellen were based on a more neutral fashion approach, using SS Jheni as big inspiration and other carioca brands.
For the antagonist group, the Caolheirox, I pulled more from the rave elements and carnaval, as they are chaotic and fun and flashy. But for all of them I used the Guaraná fruit as design base, since their lore is related to it. That translated into color choices, featured patterns and the fact that all of them have an accessory/highlight for their eyes.
What is Guaraná, you ask? A fruit that looks like eyes and is used for soda. Here is an article about it and it’s haunting origin myth.
”Their oral legends describe how they descended from a murdered child, whose eye was buried and grew into the first waraná plant, from which the first Sateré-Mawé person emerged.”
The Agraciados are based on “street clowns/street jugglers”. In Rio it’s common to see people paint their face or dress up as clown and juggle at the traffic lights to get some change. I wanted this group to use graphic elements associated to those clown costumes and re contextualize them, since this group is supposed to be a power force in the world of SONHOS, disciplined warriors who keep the peace (more or less). I like contrasts and merging unexpected elements, and I saw this as an opportunity to subtlety highlight those street-jugglers in my short.
Animation reference
During the animation process itself, I look for reference once I find out I need it. If I need to know how to animate a specific movement, I record myself (or someone) or look for a live-action video on YouTube. If I need to find a way to animate something I don’t know how to deal with, like moving backgrounds for example, I look for anime reference, or maybe I remember seeing a way someone animated x thing and I want to emulate that. My go-to is always Ghibli, but as mentioned, for this short I looked a lot at Akira. Aside from the direct Akira Slide reference, I looked at ways to animate motorcycles, vfx and moving backgrounds.
As for style reference (how I wanted to draw my animation), I was inspired by the Hades trailer and recent Valorant 2D cinematics, as well as Scavengers Reign for backgrounds.
Being honest - sometimes looking for reference in the middle of rough animation breaks the flow, and I get lazy and don’t do it. Either it works and I figure the movement out anyway, or it doesn’t and I give in and record it.
Organization
Again - most stuff is thrown on Miro to have one hub for everything, including links to videos for animation. For own photos and videos I made a folder in google drive. And to have all this easily accessible, I always link all those external platforms in my notion hub for the project.
Up next
Tell me! What do you want to know? Feel free to comment or send me a private message, if you’re shy. Animators tend to be shy.
Thank you so much for reading,
have a magical day!