Grey World

This project is a proof of concept animation for a series I call Grey World. It is an animated story that follows a group of characters who suddenly wake up in a strange and mysterious world. A flat land bathed in a spectrum of grey colours, with surreal and odd structures and machines dotting the extensive wheat fields that seem to cover the entire landscape. Grey World is a strange, lonely, creepy, but intriguing and somewhat wondrous land, which the group of characters must survive and find a purpose in. Danger permeates throughout this world, from weird food to an ever-shifting landscape, and the many shadowy creatures that roam the land. If the group is to ever find answers to how they ended up here, and maybe find a way out. They must confront their fears, vulnerabilities and flaws, to overcome the dangers of Grey World, and the very thing that brought them there.

There are quite a few concepts and themes that Grey World explores, as the narrative deconstructs the characters and how they go about evolving themselves. The characters must confront themselves, regardless if it's for better or for worse. This idea comes from the main theme of the story, the feeling of being an alien in a new place. Arriving in a new place, moving into a new neighbourhood, travelling through city streets and such. In these moments, there's overwhelming anxiety, fear that you're doing something wrong, social rules that you don't know about, and just feeling like an alien. This was one of the driving ideas for this project, to create a world that exemplifies this mixture of feelings and anxiety. Grey World was an idea I created years ago, and I was experiencing these emotions, but since then, a lot has changed. I've grown as a person and I grew comfortable with my new surroundings, because of this, I've expanded the themes to reflect that. Grey World isn't just about loneliness, fear, anxiety and isolation, but it's also about growing as a person. Confronting your your flaws, fears and the feeling of being an alien, and finding not just your way in life, but also your place in it. The characters reflect that journey, and so their stories revolve around becoming better people and finding friendships in each other. 

The purpose of this project was to create a proof of concept animation for Grey World, as well as to expand on my abilities as a background designer. The original idea had unfortunately changed as the project was rescoped, changing from a short snippet of a narrative to a trailer format. Ultimately, my goals, despite looking different from the original concept, were a success. The animated video is able to get across the idea and concept of Grey World to viewers, and I had learnt quite a bit about background design.