Song of the Sea

  

   Aaaaand we're back with another one of Tom Moore's astoundingly gorgeous works! It has been ages since I wrote about The Secret of Kells, so, let's just see how much my writing has changed since then, huh (For the better or for the worst, eh)?

   

   Song of the Sea is a 2014 Irish animated fantasy film by Cartoon Saloon, this would also be the studio's second feature film. The traditionally animated film, which began production soon after the release of The Secret of Kells (2009). Needless to say, with the experience gained from working on their first film, noticeably lesser production time was needed for this film as compared to its predecessor. It premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival on 6 September in the TIFF Kids program. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 87th Academy Awards (2015), but unfortunately lost to Big Hero 6.

   After watching the Secret of Kells, I immediately held high expectations for the studio's very next project, and I was pleased to say that it completely blew away even those expectations. I was firstly able to catch it on a plane trip back to Manchester, and while it was still on a teeny tiny screen, I was still able to admire the gorgeous amount of detail that is put into every single scene... And speaking of detail, a friend was initially reluctant to watch this, believing that the style looked too plain and simple to her... Well, AREN'T YOU GLAD THAT YOU GAVE IT A CHANCE NOW, BUDDY???

   Because, in spite of the show's geometrically simple looking character designs, the overall art direction is anything but simple. One amazing thing was the fact that the concept art and finish product are so unbelievably close to one another, as shown in Tom Moore's presentation during this year's Manchester Animation Festival. It still boggles the mind really how their gorgeously detailed concept art was brought completely to life. The concept art process especially is still something I wish I could relook back on, especially when simple blobs of colors were firstly blocked in before the real details were actually added in with ink (H-How on earth did they do that so effectively?). And that is honestly something that I wish I could do with my own concept, be it at least for the background designs alone.

   One thing that I am a particular sucker for are the parallels drawn in a story as it progresses. And while I don't want to necessarily spoil too much of the story if you have yet to watch it, I think the gifs above are a bit of a give away... or maybe not. While Song of the Sea's universe is absolutely rich with Irish folklore and culture (Very much like the Secret of Kells), they just did such a beautiful job mixing it in with the cast of very human characters. These are incredibly believable characters that are thrown into the most unbelievable situation, that the audience themselves can empathise with. Though from the very beginning, their fates have long since been intertwined with these magical beings that have so skillfully tried to remain hidden from the human race.

   Again, I don't want to spoil you guys with anything, but the main characters' father is certainly one of my favorites, and you will see why when you watch it for yourselves.

   Again, with such incredibly detailed setting designs, it is just so amazing how these character designs are able to blend in so well with it. There is no denying that the character designs are meant to be stylistically simplistic (Especially when you properly separate them from everything else), and yet, they still go so well with the heavily textured settings. This has certainly been a challenge I find myself facing with my own past animations, where flatly colored characters do not blend as well as they should with more painted background designs. And it was certainly an aspect a lot of my peers and tutor kindly pointed out during sessions.

   One honestly needs to know how to balance these things out when considering both character and background designs (More so if different folks are working in different areas). Obviously, the lighting and shading should also be taken heavily into account when it comes to making the character appear as if they actually belong there, as well as the style of line art. I feel especially that the beautiful lighting and shading is what makes everything in each scene just flow so well with one another.

   That and the color palettes as well, after all, if the color palette used for the characters contrasted too much to the setting in which they are in, that will certainly make the scene all the more unnatural and unappealing (Which once again, goes back to the lighting itself and the particular shades of color that should be used to color them).