Introduction
When considering things I could create for the practical work of the A2 Culture brief, I was initially unsure – because of the broad nature of the assignment, there were a lot of different production formats I could apply to the culture that I chose, Gunpla. This shows in my theory and research blog posts ‘Production Formats’ and ‘Case Study Research’. I first thought of making an animated sequence of two Gundam mechs fighting each other, however, this doesn’t directly link to the plastic model kit building hobby of Gunpla, it is just the source material for those models. Then, I thought of creating a website or zine, which would convey information about the hobby along with some images. I later reconsidered. The production format I decided would be best for this project would be an animation – I could animate different pieces of a gunpla kit coming together and creating a Gundam.
Synopsis
My final idea for this brief is a 2D animated sequence, around 15-30 seconds long, of the pieces of a Gundam plastic model kit assembling themselves and creating a full Gundam, which would then move into an action pose similar to those seen in the Gundam tv show. Here are some images of Gundam models and stills from the anime for reference:
The specific model of Gundam I will be animating is the RX-78-2 (the one shown above) as it is the Gundam featured in my case study of Mobile Suit Gundam 1979.
Mood boards
Here is a mood board I created to give inspiration for the Gundam ’79 look that i want for my animation:
The mood board includes characters, mech suits, colours and designs that are heavily featured in the show, and it will be helpful to me when designing my final animation.
Conclusion
Over all, creating a mood board for inspiration for my animation helped me to decide on a look that fits with the colours and theme of Mobile Suit Gundam. I will be referencing the mood board and the RX-78-2 Gundam plastic model when drawing the frames of my animation.