Escape From NIMH I - Previsual Art Book

The Logo needs a little love still, but that's back burner to getting the content done.  This is a personal project for pre-pre-portfolio (only I've already had pre-port and am in portfolio now).  A prequel Visual Development Artbook to the 1982 animated film directed by Don Bluth, The Secret of NIMH, based on  Robert C. O'Brien's 1971 children's novel "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH".

The prequel will focus on the escape and founding of the society of rats in Rose Bush while introducing the political intrigue and growth of polarization of power between the leaders: Nicodemus, Jenner, Justin, Mr. Ages and Johnathan.

The plan is to format it something similar to what Scott Robertson guided his students at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California,  Khang Le, Mike Yamada, and Felix Yoon to do in their "The Skillful Huntsman."  Granted, there were three students there and they had 14 weeks to produce really amazing work.  I'll have been just me, and essentially 8 weeks to have enough time to then try to throw it together to some sort of 'book'.  But goals are good and this is something I can work on and refine even past graduation.

Mr. Ages, one of the two surviving mice.

Jenner, the eventual villain of the movie.  He has to appear aggressive and more tending towards violence, but at this point he is still very much part of the brotherhood and group effort.

I started out with character silhouettes, utilizing Alchemy because it really forces straight up plowing forward-there's no undo.  There's not really any layers.  What will be evident, is that at first I was spending (wasting?) a lot of time redrawing the silhouette for each outfit design.  In some cases that would be very helpful, but the basic character shapes for this project are predetermined to the Bluth property/designs.  They have to be recognizable.  So one silhouette and a lot of outfit designs was really what I needed.   Then I discovered the 'Load Background Image' in Alchemy....and felt like a total noodle.  So later design sheets have standardized main silhouettes with focus on the outfit and breaking of the silhouette.  

 

Johnathan Frisby, the other of the two mice that survived.  He's supposed to look inquisitive and friendly.  Throughout the book "The Rats Of NIMH", the mice prove themselves the most generous and heroic of characters compared to the somewhat isolationist and (some might argue) facist practices of the Rats.  Additionally, Johnathan dies later in the story, so it is important that he be instantly readable and relatable- able to be enjoyed and understood by a player.

Justin, eventual captain of the guard.  Some military elements need to show through, as do his sense of honor and his youth this early on.

Nicodemus, the leader of the Rats.

During the pre-production and scripting phases of the Secret of NIMH, Don Bluth and his fellows encountered the problem inherent with the Shapeshifter as a Mentor of the Hero’s Journey – they know everything.

A  character who has all the answers destroys the tension in a plot or the sense of uncertainty.
The solution they found the solution to this in their voice actor, Derek Jacobi.  He focused his readings on Nicodemus’ time in the labs.  It drew the focus of the character’s on screen time to the mystery of who he was rather than all the answers he could provide – therefore providing a mirror and possible foil or foreshadowing to Brisby’s own trials of self discovery and growth of courage.

(Don Bluth’s The Art of Animation, p.34 May 2005)

For my own purposes this approach to the character is important to know as the prequel will start with the escape from NIMH itself.   While still a leader, Nicodemus is no longer a ‘mentor’ character, but is at the beginning of his own journey.  This will need to be reflected in the concepts – he’s in his prime, he’s intellect and wisdom without worldly experience, and therefore he is fallible.