Taking inspiration from video games

I've been working on my title sequence project a little bit everyday and so far I've found there are a few extracurricular sources that have really helped me in working out the finer aesthetic details. As I mentioned last week I'm going to be doing a cut out title sequence to the critically acclaimed animated miniseries "Over the Garden Wall". The greatest challenge I've faced so far, beside the laborious never ending tedium that is fiddling with the after effects interface, is combining my onscreen elements in a way that looks and feels like the real show.

In researching this I turned to one of my favorite video games of all time: Paper Mario 2:

Now if you're like me then the very mention of this game is enough to fill you to the brim with excitement and nostalgia. This game stands alone in it's excellence because it masterfully combines fun gameplay with a timeless art style and wraps the whole thing up in a unforgettable sound track. While there are so many things I love about this game, on my most recent play through I tried to focus more on it's paper aesthetics in hopes that I might me able to glean so insight for my own project.

\

Among many other elements I noticed that it was the perspective of the world that really brought it off of the page. Any time you move the background moves with you in a sort of layered paralax that really draws you in. Also the way that many of  these set pieces are shaded really adds to the illusion. Overall I'm really exited to keep working on this project and if any of you have any game or tutorial recommendations please don't hesitate to drop me a line!