Ideas and Inspiration

Ok so i have realised i am into hand drawn/traditional animation but i don't think the frame by frame drawing is for me as i can't seem to get my head around it SO i thought about drawing the elements of my animation separately then scanning them into my mac and animating it in after effects rather than by hand but i am still using the hand drawn element. So my next step will be to test this! Another thing i have realised is i am not too good at drawing people and animating them correctly so i am going to try and steer clear of using characters within my animation until i feel confident enough to do so. (I am going to keep developing my life drawing skills throughout the year to see if i can crack it!).

INSPIRATION
I recently bought a game for my I phone and i love the graphics on it, the game is called Tiny Wings and here are some examples of a few of the levels.

I think the reason i like them is because the colour pallet within each level is very complimentary and very subtle, it all seems to feel peaceful and serene. For a game i think this is very unusual as you would expect the colours to be bright and bold. I also like the use of such simple shapes to portray the object within the game and you always know exactly what they are, its very abstract. This is the kind of look and feel i am going for.
Then i thought of what i could animate in this way and i thought of the 4 elements - water, earth, air, fire because i think this kind of feel would be most appropriate and as each level is a different colour scheme that is how i would show the elements. Over the summer i have spent a lot of time in wales and where better to collect bits and bobs from than the sea side! So i thought of representing Earth with a tractor and lots of fields in a similar style to 'Tiny wings' as they are almost like owners of the Earth, they live of it, its how they earn money to live. For water i took a photo at the start of the summer of a harbor at sunset with small fishing boats on it and again they are fishing for a living just like a farmer wood and it fits in with the whole peaceful and gracefulness of the animation. I am undecided about air and fire at the moment so i am going to test earth and water to see how it looks and then develop air and fire as i go along.