Dream Worlds - Hans Bacher

I decided to do a little personal research into environments so I took out a book called Dream Worlds and this book was very interesting to read as it went through every element in production design and that is something that I am very interested in!

Bacher talks about how they went to France on a reference trip to look at castles that would inspire the one in Beauty and the Beast and they gathered many pictures, video and sketches. However, this was all thrown away as the art directors decided they should just go for the generic Disney look instead.

The book also looks at composition that you have to consider in animation and I found this section very useful! I did know a little about composition  but because this was written by a professional who actually has hands on experience in creating composition in animation I found it to by more useful than reading a book written by a filmmaker. Some basic rules explored in this book were that you could have different shots depending on the mood of the scene and after determining this it will actually help you come up with shots. It explained that to have a good composition you need order, rhythm and balance. The balance part was being able to deal with negative space as well as the layout you choose to use, below is part of a page from the book where it gives good and bad examples of composition.