This is my Weekly Design Inspiration, this is a space where I share some design work that has either inspired me or caught my attention for its execution or concept. The things I feature on here can include (but not limited to) branding, web design, app design, illustration, typography, video games or anything that shows creativity in a unique way.
Adult animation is something that has been gaining traction for some years now. For me and many others, my first sort of exposure to a cartoon that bridges the gap between a kids show and something entertaining for adults was The Simpsons. As we all know The Simpsons can be enjoyed at many levels, whether you're a child laughing at the silly bald man doing stupid things or a grown ass man who can appreciate the satire and subtle nuances of the show. I believe that The Simpsons has helped pave the way for animation becoming an acceptable medium for adults to enjoy, inspiring the likes of South Park, Family Guy, Archer, BoJack Horseman, Rick and Morty and many more.
In recent years we have scene a huge surge in the number of animations and cartoons aimed at older audiences, whether this is down to the popularity of shows like Rick and Morty or platforms like Netflix investing huge amounts in animation, I don't know. Or perhaps it's because watching cartoons satisfies us millennial's itch for nostalgia and remind us of a time when things were easier. Either way, I'm thankful to see these amazing shows get the support they deserve and see gifted animators getting the chance to express their vision in a medium that live action simply can't.
Earlier this year I found myself bored one evening and wanted to watch something light hearted and easy going. I had seen Final Space being heavily promoted and thought to myself 'hey, this looks like Rick and Morty, lets give it a go’. And what I found out was Final Space is everything that is great about adult animation (and is nothing like Rick and Morty). My expectations for Final Space were that I thought it would be along a similar vein as Rick and Morty or other Adult Swim animations in its humour and tone of voice. I figured the humour would be crude, gross, sexual, offensive or an observation on current social affairs. However, Final Space turned out to be more family friendly (to a degree) and less focused on being outrageous, in contrast to the other animations on offer, and I feel this has worked to its advantage.
I’ll be the first to admit that the humour of Final Space isn’t spectacular, or maybe it's just that my sense of humour is attuned to more offensive and risk taking comedies. Either way, this didn’t spoil the viewing experience for me because Final Space has so much more to offer. Firstly, the attention to story telling, character development, unique characters and world building is phenomenal, you can tell that the creators (namely Oral Rogers) really care about making something unique. Also, at the same time as creating this unique world you can see clear references to relevant media such as Star Trek, Star Gate, 2001 Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, Star Wars and many more, but not in a parody or pop culture kind of way, instead it's more of a product as a result of these things having existed. All of this coming together makes for an interesting take on adult animation/cartoons that we haven't seen executed much until recently.
What really stands out to me is how engaging the narrative is and how dedicated the show is to a consistent storyline across the ten episodes. I've compared the story telling and pacing of Final Space to another adult animation that came out around a similar time that, in my opinion, gets the pacing and story telling wrong. The cartoon I am referring to is Disenchantment, now don't get me wrong I did enjoy Disenchantment, but for vastly different reasons to Final Space. Both shows attempt to tell a consistent story throughout their respective episodes, but what Final Space does better is sticking to the main story without deviating from the path too much. I feel that Disenchantment felt a need to be more like Futurama or the Simpsons and have a few random stories dotted throughout the main narrative (which don't service the bigger picture) to give a similar feeling of its predecessors. However, what this does is instead or enriching the narrative distract from what's going on and makes you care less about the bigger picture. Final Space keeps its focus on Gary and the characters that come into contact with him and as a result the narrative is shaped by these characters personal motivations. This is another thing that is beautifully written about the show, every character has a unique goal or motivation that helps drive the story, whether it's conflicting with the protagonist's goals or aiding them. Gary's goal is to impress and win over Quinn's affection (and save Mooncake of course), Quinn just wants to do her job and Avocato switches from being a bounty hunter to supporting Gary as long as he can save his son, which ends up becoming a conflict of interests later down the line. All the characters motivations chop and change as the show goes on and this makes for a really engaging experience. The show even has to balls to do what most cartoons are afraid to do and kill of a major character (without reviving them).
The icing on the cake of this well written narrative is the stellar animation. I've watched through Final Space twice now and I haven't gotten bored of the visuals. You can literally pause an episode at any point and it looks like a finely crafted masterpiece. Much of this I feel can be attributed to the lighting, special care has been taken to make sure every scene pops with unique lighting, both with ambient and rim lighting creating dynamic scenes. A lot can also be said for the subtle details like the use of soft focus and depth of field (which isn't normally common place in 2D animation). This is especially clear in the scenes when Gary is talking to HUE inside his helmet (in a similar style to Tony Stark in Iron Man) and the HUD is out of focus. Also, the use of 3D elements fit seamlessly within the 2D animations (in a much less striking way as presented in Disenchantment) and lends itself to a sci-fi setting in space.
Anyway, so much can be said for the quality of the animation of Final Space and the fact that it's tied up with such engaging characters and story is a massive bonus. My only issues with Final Space are trivial to say the least, like I'm not 100% sold on Gary's voice (voiced by Olan Rogers), it sometimes feels a bit full on and forced. And as I mentioned earlier, the humour isn't the best I've seen of late, but it isn't bad. Overall, I'm generally blown away with Final Space, especially as I went into it not excepting much from it and came out with one of my new favourite shows and for me it has set the bar pretty high for animation in the future.
Honourable mentions
As part of my Weekly Design Inspiration I also like to share some bits and pieces that I have seen which have inspired me in the last week. I have captioned each image with some info and relevant links so you can find out more.
Mohamed Chahin's 3D work using Blender is truly inspiring and each piece has its own flavour whether it's low poly, high fidelity or isometric.
Bornfight's website is a beautiful example of simplistic design executed perfectly alongside smooth animations/transitions. This website has been a great source of inspiration for a project for myself and the team at work for an upcoming web design project.