THE LOOK

Here's a slide show and link to our Tumblr, where you can see a lot of concept art influences.  The realm of The Island is far advanced technologically and has experienced unmitigated growth, so a lot of the scifi landscapes would relate to the Island itself.  There are also examples of props, costumes, vehicles, and user interfaces that would be synonymous with Island agents.

Ever since Chaos Agent's conception, the goal has been to merge the worlds of video/photography and 2D anime.  Though the concept has still not been realized, Cinematographs are the best examples of how the finished show will look.

First lets examine backgrounds.  The idea is to shoot backgrounds as stills and then to animate certain parts of them.  In the examples below from Blade Runner and Alien, you can see that only parts of the frame are being animated, like the ceiling fan, or blinking lights.  Often these elements are animating on a loop in order to have constant motion without having to constantly animate new frames.  This creates an appealing still/moving hybrid that evokes tradition animation through the use of video.

Next we have character animation.  The plan is to shoot characters separately from backgrounds and then to composite the two together.  Though the actors with be shot with video, they will be animated through stills, much like traditional 2D animation.  Still can be animated in various loops to preserve that traditional anime aesthetic while using real actors.  Shown are examples from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Brazil, and Ghost in the Shell.

The two cinematographs below are exemplary of the isolated looping technique, one from Lolita, and another from 2001: A Space Odyssey.  There are several elements working independently: the finger on the book, the head raising and lowering, the pauses in between animations.  And below that, the head turns and the looping light reflections on the face and suit.