Happy Accidents

Today I was working on my storyboards. And suddenly noticed something emerging from the abstract shapes of slime mold.. So I thought to make a break and see what happens further developing the shapes.
I know it's not project related, but still, this was quite surprising to me. And this little drawing gave idea, what I could perhaps develop after the project :)
But now again, back to storyboarding :)

Sketching

These are some of the sketches. I'm trying to resolve how the slime mold would develop. Concentrating on shapes, also having texturing in mind.


A question, can artists be considered an audience?
Because that's what I'm thinking when I'm doing this project, as if it's for a competition where you are given scientific process and asked to make it graphically/stylistically appealing.

Slime Mold Neighbour Glow Worm

This is absolutely amazing.

When I chose the environment and the lighting, colour palette, I accidentally came across the glow worms in caves. The feel and the colour match perfectly to what I imagine! Its also going to be a good source of reference.

Just to make it clear, I'm not going away from our main task, quit the oppositely, I want to make the slime mold more interesting.

Slime molds...

Today I read a good new, that we can look to other types of slime molds ( myxomycetes, protostelids, not only dyctiostelids) so I had a look around.

What i found was a variety of them. One might look alien to another. There's a variety of shapes and textures as well as colours.

One interesting fact, Hieronymus Boch in his Garden of earthly Delights depicted 22 different slime molds ( try to find it!)

Also I looked at concept art of others. But just to see whats out there, not relating it with my work.

Thumbnail storyboard for the lifecycle of a slime mold ( asexual reproduction)

I think I'm going for more stylized interpretation of the process.
Even though it would be stylized, I try to keep the scientific data accurate.

I thought to give myself rules, that would narrow the range of possibilities this animation could be heading for.

Everything takes place in a cave ( one of the environments slime slugs can be found)
Caves are dark, relevantly silent place (I'd imagine hearing water drips and wind blowing perhaps )

As I read in John C. Landlot's article there are rare species of slime molds that are different from terrestrial ones, at the same time the same scenario applies to them just for example the formation of the fruiting body can look differently etc.

But how to show the process in a dark cave?
lets say the scientist's come along and are about to investigate it, dyctiostelids. They would be lighting ''the scene'' where the life cycle takes place.


And yesterday, I wrote a letter with dozen silly questions to P. Klappa about this process, mainly asking for details I didn't found info about in both, articles or videos.

One of the ( not to greatly smart) questions was could the sample of amoebas be coloured so it would be easier to observe them without affecting the process.
He said yes.





Just to make a clue how it might be looking:

Its just a hint what's in my head.

But how its going to look will be more clear from my concept drawings. So far I just need feedback is the story and the direction I'm heading clear. Good's and bad's about it