Baby Dinosaur

For our Studio experience project we needed a concept of toy. The baby-dinosaur is supposedly a first fully mechanized toy in 1950's cute and adorable.

This one soon turns into a threatening 50ft Alien after a meteorite crashes. 

More on Void Canvas .

Car Modeling Progress Week 5

This week the task was to refine and even out geometry and add details.

Character Design Development (continued)

Both Colin White and Justin Wyat gave similar advice regarding character improvements. Apparently hero's and villain's heads had "problems", one looked like clayed onto design and another failed to convey the personality correctly. So having put some thought I came up with some ideas.

I had to make hero more human-like, so the audience could empathize with the character more and recognize him as "the good guy"

And for the villain, quite simply ( and I don't know why I didn't do that from the beginning) I just had to keep the same design logic with the head as with his body - more edgy, sharp triangular shapes.

I'm not quite sure if these are working perfectly, I wouldn't hesitate to change anything if it be more communicative. So I guess I’ll wait for some feedback or a good idea to come.

Other than that, this week’s assignment was to write a dossier for each character, sketching out whatever detail might be important.

And I quite used it. Before drawing test expressions I’d read it so to respond to it when creating expressions. So further follow few examples of that for each character. I didn’t want to rush myself with this, since really, I’m only beginning to get to know my characters, their construction. It does take a while to get your head around their shapes and how they’d change in a particular reaction… I felt my brains swollen…:D

Car Modeling Progress; Week 4

Its getting there..

Mulholland Drive (2001)

Discussed by J. J. *Jolanta Jasiulionyte*

Like word by word we expect an idea to be finally explained and revealed, a scene by scene we also expect to reach the closure in “Mulholland Drive” (Lynch, David; 2001). But as film reviewer Roger Ebert marks, “The movie is hypnotic; we're drawn along as if one thing leads to another--but nothing leads anywhere” . This quote, as the film itself illustrates one of the main postmodernist points.

According to author of New Ways of Seeing the World, Christopher Butler, one of the key ideas of postmodernism is, that truth as we know it is fiction at the same time and understanding as well is a form of misunderstanding.

Simply because nothing can reflect the truth or explain the reality. The author argues that even language itself fails to explain reality, because of its encapsulated system. One word is described by other words, the language uses itself to explain itself and doesn’t quite relate to the external reality in a way expected. Therefore, it is another  system, which also fails to explain the reality or reflect the truth.  

So if there are no universal truths (because there’s no system that could explain it), the postmodernist thought is that everything is only relative and depended on the standpoint we choose , that all is only interpretations.

It could be said then, reality at the same time as well has  a lot of qualities of a dream, where nothing is absolutely clear, all is loose and dependant.

Likewise in Mulholland Drive,  the depicted “reality” soon starts feeling bizarre, surreal  and a viewer questions if this is not only a dream he’s watching.  “Like real dreams, it does not explain, does not complete its sequences, lingers over what it finds fascinating, and dismisses unpromising plotlines” (Ebert; 2001)

Postmodern man therefore no longer seeks for a unified truth, so doesn’t this film: “This movie doesn't feel incomplete because it could never be complete--closure is not a goal” (Ebert, 2001).

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Discussed by J.J. *Jolanta Jasiulionyte*

Film uncovers a plot of alien invasion. The story is about the alien, Klaatu, who came to earth with a message. The figure of Klaatu comes as a messiah, as Jesus Christ. “Discussion on the film concludes that Klaatu is a Christ figure, but his big, destructive robot friend is decidedly Old Testament” (Koler, 1999)

 

As simple as it sounds he warns earth people to live in peace otherwise he would have to eliminate the whole planet as earth’s developed martial means (use of atomic energies) became a threat to other (“neighbor”) civilizations in space.

The Context of the Film.

Jamie Gillies refers that  „this film is truly the first anti-atomic movie and it is surprisingly anti-American in its message“ .

The film was created 1951, relatively soon after the final stages of Second World War when United states dropped 2 atomic bombs “Little boy” and “Fat Man”   on  Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Within the few months of the bombings, the acute effects killed around 230 000.  About half of the  people died on the explosion days, from flash,  flame burns and from falling debris. Another half during the following few months, from the effect of burns, radiation sickness or other injuries.

Therefore the film, one might imagine, at that time’s context wasn’t simply perceived as a peace of entertainment, yet the words it speaks are equally relevant to current day: “the future of your planet is at stake”.

Further goes some analysis of film’s aspects relevant to our Narrative unit. 

The Use of Sound

Particularly noticeable was the use of eerie soundtrack. These metallic, abstract sounds, in my opinion really succeed to set up the bizarre, confusing and ( if set up with appropriate surroundings) the   uncanny feel of the scenes/film. The more indefinable the sound is the better it does its job.

The Depiction of military

I took a note of how the military was portrayed in the film. Stereotypically macho. Action goes before notion. ( in the very first scenes soldier shoots the alien when he intends to hand over a gift to state’s president)

 Such idea of army role was represented by showing the tanks and military cars rushing here and there, lots of army men, a suitably frowned and uniformed stubborn general. 

Just lots of action, movement, rushing and lots of relevant elements (tanks/guns/army men/ bombing sounds) to emphasize blunt force.

To generally sum up, the film doesn’t look dated almost at all, and personally I think it’s because of the great cinematic elements incorporated in the film , like lighting (! stunning effects, which made  beautiful pictures),  camera moves, editing, special effects  ect. The film really  is now in my list of favorites .

 

Character Design Development

These are more developed character designs for Aliens and Monsters topic. We're meeting Colin White tomorrow and He'll give us some feedback about our designs, so I tried to bring all the ideas I had till now(whether its about texturing, props or color, not only just shapes)in these drawings, so he could perhaps suggest what's working what's not. For example only one character is textured, because fur is his distinctive attribute.

Week's progress (!)

To summarize this week's experience... It was one of the most productive as well as the most hectic week this year. Didn't have time  to upload anything since apart from project work,  I worked  for University,  at career's  fare in Brighton (It looks like there's an expansive interest in CG Arts and Animation) and an open day at Rochester. So after all last week's fresher balls, house parties, pubs and festivals this week was all about concentration towards "the serious“

Most of the attention was given to our Narrative unit, studio experience.

 I was responsible for creating the concept art, animatic and script as well as fully resolving storyboards with additional panels and character design of the alien (this one still to be done soon).

I started with the military base concept. 

This is one of the most impactful shots in the trailer. I wanted the Military base to look cold and very inorganic as it is an institution of brutal force (at least that’s the perception we want to bring across in our trailer)   the progress of the work can be seen in the additional picture.

Second concept came for the abandoned toy scene outside the factory. It should capture the eerie and a changed atmosphere in the air as the meteorite is about to fall down and transform the silly-putty into the alien.  I tired to emphasize the “abandoned toy” theme in this concept.

Lastly, there is the concept of the city. We were researching Doctor Caligari’s cabinet  and some of the more contemporary animations (like Samurai Jack) so got some inspiration and a direction for this concept piece.  Its all covered under the eerie green sky and windows only further reflect it, one of the buildings actually reflects the monster in a very subtle way (red eyes ). Our world is stylized but still doesn’t lack of realistic details here ant there, in every corner.  

The quick video showcasing the making of:

This week after long formation of our idea, finally A script was written. (sorry for the spelling errors,  a foreign sitting late  is not the best speller :/ )

And finally,  I should be uploading the animatic, but considered not doing that, cause it's under developments, also its boring, cause there is no sound. I'll surely post it soon.

So there you go, pretty much all the secrets of The  Attack of 50 ft Alien from Toyland are uncovered :D

(In case you wan't follow our progress here are some links:

Blog address: http://voidcanvas.blogspot.com/

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Void-Canvas-Studio/160833670612543 

Character Turnarounds

These are the turnarounds for my three characters. Hopefully it's not even necessary to say whish is which, cause they read clearly :D  But we'll see after tomorrow's lecture with Justin

Storyboard for The Attack of 50ft Alien from Toyland

Nothing much to add here, except hopefully it conveys the sequence of the trailer. Also some changes are taking place as we work on the project.

Dead point

Its been three weeks now and so far I have only a vague idea of how the villain might look like. Its easy with the sidekick, I have few ideas, but the hero.. I had no strong ideas of how the hero could look like so far... These are the developmental drawings I did, however, non seem to offer the solution..  Well, today I'll be concentrating on that more and hopefully some good ideas of shape/structure and just a direction of hero's design will come. This is a collection of some sketches..

Car Modeling Progress 2

As modeling progresses it really becomes more and more complicated to edit geometry. The advice to keep the geometry as low-poly as possible makes great sense now -  you really don't want to find yourself moving dozens of vertexes around your model. Its such a waist of time and the result is still not satisfying. The current car model still needs lot of tweaking and cleaning...

Character design: Lecture 3

This lecture was al about the skeleton of the character and the differences in anatomy of male and female characters. The task was to deconstruct the structure of well known characters (here are examples, of Jafar, Hercules, poppey ect.) and then attempt to create a female version of it.

Intro to Lip Syncing

Scream and Postmodernism

I just want to say, this was the best horror movie I’ve ever seen, really enjoyable and entertaining. Loved it from the very first minute. The decision to get the sexy blond (Drew Barrymore) killed right in the very beginning was an unexpected turn. Much like it was in Hitchcock’s Psycho – when Marion Crane, the presumed protagonist was brutally killed in the first half of the film.


What makes this film postmodern?

To start from the obvious , Scream intentionally references other horror films (Halloween, Friday the 13th ect) .For intance, one of the characters is surnamed Loomis, a name shared by a character in Halloween, and another in Psycho. 

It  is ‘built’ On the overused formula of horror films like Halloween, Friday the 13th and their sequels. Its always about a psychopath stalker with mask, a group of teenagers left alone ect.

But yet  Jem Bloomfiel in his film review writes: "Scream invented a new genre, the so-called “postmodern slasher flick” or “meta-slasher”. Its for this film is self-aware of the formula of slasher film its using. The conventional rules of it are parodied by characters who themselves are experiencing the established routine of a slasher movie.


For example one character explains that “there are rules for surviving a horror movie”, which involve suspecting everyone, never drinking or having sex and certainly never saying “I’ll be right back.”



So the film references the past style but at the same time is self-aware satire of the slasher film genre.