Week's Progress on Studio Project

From now on I was  free to concentrate on studio project, after having postmodernism and character design out of the way. So one of the main focuses was to finish  the toy maker's model.

And here are the layed out Uv's. Mainly his head and costume needs hand painted texturing, other bits ( shoes ect.) will do fine with procedural textures.

Apart from working on character I further developed the texturing of the set.

Paying close attention to the stylisation and colour palette of selection.  Since the scenery is mostly green the design was to add some complimenting blood red which would both signify danger and add some visual interest.  

Likewise, textures are dark, high in contrast, harsh. Even if we see "only" film announcement or cute toy's commercial, it should message it's danger or unsafeness

this is the window texture sheet. Again, introducing some complementary colours, treating red like a seasoning.

One of the last bits to have sorted was the poster/toy box wrap of the cute toy Harpo which then goes on to bring chaos.

All of the efforts and intentions so  far shaped into one of the settings. Also other group members of Void Canvas  have presented other atmospheric settings .

At the moment I'm in the most wonderful lands of skinning and rigging... Not rushing myself with it even a tiny bit, since I've already experienced the bitterness of doing so and how badly it affects further processes ( or nerves...)
 My biggest joy would be to finish the preparation of the character before flying back home :/

Ice-breaker Research: Sky Lanterns, Ship Workshop's, Dream Island and Styles

Discussed and arranged by J.J. *Jolanta Jasiulionyte* 

Sky lanterns, also known as Kongming Lantern are constructed from oiled rice paper) oil prevents it from burning) on a bamboo frame, and contain a small candle or fuel cell.

When lit, the flame heats the air inside the lantern, and by lowering air’s density the lantern raises into the air.

The sky lantern is only airborne for as long as the flame stays alight, after which the lantern floats back to the ground.

Other than that I've been looking to Ship modeling workshops.

Also gathered some  reference for the dream Island.

To keep the style and feel of animation consistent, I’ve gathered some of my favorite artist’s works which I thought pictures well what I have in mind so far.

But as stated previously, I’ll try and aim for my own stylization. There is a work I favoured since I’ve painted it, I think it fits this occasion well. 

So my brain was really soaked into visuals, I feel ideas are bursting now. Still not having other choice ( to maybe focus on the more relevant projects)  , I’ll gladly spend some time sketching them out 

Analysing Soundtrack's Rhythm and Adapting it to Story's Structure

Since I couldn't work on studio projec ( because of the snow in the way to take the relevant files from univeristy) here again I come back to the soundtrack I'll be transcribing in the future project. After having talked to Alan, I decided to return to the music and analyse its  rithm because it then  suggests the structure of the story. This was  done before but only intuitively. But now it is dead clear how to plan the action of animation.



I think this analysis might be very helpful to the following processes , I'll use it as a guideline.

Transcription Project Proposal

 It's the story which miraculously unraveled to me during the summer. It follows the musical storyline I was delivered that time.

A story of a mash-up Bird.

It starts when we see a mish-mash bird „sleeping“in ship model workshops. A passing by match-character wakes him up and soon after the bird finds himself overwhelmed with the surrounding, not fully satisfied he continues on exploring the place: jumps out of  the workshops to the outer world. There, to he is struck with the beauty of a little island in the lake. The island has something so attractive to the bird, he can‘t help himself but try do anything to reach it. 

So he tries to swim there (surely, since he is made out of ship parts) . But in fact there are lots of  holes and as he also realizes, he isn't constructed perfectly to funtion, he sinks.

Disappointed and he gives up while still looking towards the island dreamily … Match-character constant accompanier, struck with an idea, jumps onto the bird, opens something in his chest and Ivan pops open into a sky lantern!
Match matches the fire inside Ivan, and gasses start lifting Ivan to the. And then with little effort of his own, in short time the wondrous island is reached.

The metaphorical story tells about looking into the world, having dreams then trying to reach them. And that often  means also looking wor ways to reach it, for changing (improoving)  yourself . If you take the challanges, the reword is always there.  And perhaps most importantly  that everything best was already  there and waiting inside .

I really  feel passionate to express this one. We'll see how it goes.

The Making of Monsters and Aliens

The last post for Character Design Unit, I upload the (soon to be) book pages of The Making of Monsters and Aliens Character Design

Character Design of Aliens and Monsters by Jolanta Jasiulionyte

Last Touch ups and Character Design Bible layout

Final Touch-ups - colour pallete for each character. This is adding up to the information sheets about each character to further inform production stage as well as to keep consistency if it was to be developed in a group of people.

Having added all the details and final touch-ups here is the layout and the cover of character design bible.

Drawing Therapy

Today at uni I saw all the wonderful graphite pencils Godwin has, the ones which have no wooden container, full graphite only. And  literally just tried draw nothing, purposefully nothing. Later on Godwin employed all the colour meanings and Freudian  theories   we were taught last year to interpet it :D .

Anyway, it felt good to draw just for no reason. Refreshing. But now its time to get back to the character design  :)

Character's Pipeline in Maya: Rigging

After a decent amount of struggling I finished the body rig.

Villain's Props: Cape Design

This is the cape design I came up with. As previously intended, it is a stiff leather cape, barely moving on Villain's back, it is more like another layer of armour.Also the material it's made of is.. the creature, like his sidekick,  skin.  The decision was taken to both, interlink the two characters as well as further emphasize the overpowering of Villain's character.

Carefull attention was payed not to ruin the shapes allready created, contrary to that I honestly think it now further emphasizes them.

Car Modeling progress week 8 & 9

It starts feeling like a car now.

Character Design Tests and Environment Suggestions

I'm still thinking about that cape. It looks to be such a detail. Only. But it does change the perception of character. With the cape the Villain looks older, it adds lots more weight to him. Without it he looks more agile and menacing, capable of fighting the hero himself.  And I think that would make more sense, since I gave him four sharp legs, the veil would only get in the way and perhaps  contradict the logics of design.
On the other hand he could simply take it off  when fighting . But really.. the use of cape would be more convetional  I believe.
Anyone's opinion on that might help here, eventhough  it seems to be such a tiny detail..

But if he has only the sceptrum ( which has to be that  long,  when  he stands in his full hight to reach it ) it might suggest he is only a soldier. Or might not... It's now hard for me to see it objectively  :/

The Idea for the World.
It is a place of never ending canyons, that's way the hero (and supposedly the indigineus) has such a leg structure :  they need to stretch to full legth to jump over the canyon gaps. But after alien invasion the planet is seeded with otherwordly structures, mineral-like control points, walls and main castle.

Reference for the combination of both ideas :

And here is a sketch for the environment of Monster Land under invasion of Aliens. I imahine  a creamy soft landscape with edgy castle-wall  "grown" like a minerals  out of the canyons throughout the Monster world .

Since environment concept isn't what brief asks us to produce I believe I wont develope it to finsihed stage because of other commitments to the course and university.

Mulholland Drive's Postmodernism Essay Plan

Having chosen David Lynch’s film Mulholland Drive, first thing found was it can be interpreted using more than one key idea of postmodernism. It could be the ideas of  hyperreality or a work of pastiche and so on. So to single out an aspect I wrote a short plan. Main points should logically follow each other towards the conclusion.

Postmodernism Essay Plan:

1. The view towards conceptual systems ( languages and conventions)

2. Deconstructing Oppositions.

 One of languages quality is said to be it tends to categorize and structure itself into oppositions, then  prioritizing one of the two.  The film as truthful to postmodernism avoids privileging or relying upon transcendental signifiers and suggests their equal interplay (such as reality – dream, truth-fiction, understanding-misunderstanding ect.) 

3.The explained (reality) is the constructed (illusion)

In continuation to the previous point t the film much like postmodernism then declares: no singular truths. As it  is only our own interprets, projections, constructs and illusions.

4. The suggestion then might follow, reality is like a dream and a dream (nightmare) is also real.

5. No Closure

Therefore no unified closure is suggested, what the film asks for is ones own interpretations as only such are possible in the world as postmodernists argue.

Additional Expression and Pose Sheets for Aliens and Monsters

The project comming to its end I add the rest of expression sheets and poses for each character. As asked I drew only those expressions these characters would do.

 

Last touch ups for the Villain’s design, his props. Originally I was also planning to include the veil, but having spent time on it drawing, I came up with conclusion it just doesn't go along with the shapes I created already. Completely distracts from his  triangular and more communicative original  silhouette. Also he then looks a lot  older then I intended.

But here is the symbolic scepter.

 

Character Desing Lecture 9: Triumphant Sewer

This lesson we were given again, a random set of words, one which specifies environment another what mood it has to evoke.

I’ve got triumphant sewer.
To first familiarize with the environment I looked for some reference.

Secondly started thinking of which environments in our lives evoke a triumphant feel. To me its church with massive musical organs.

Further are the concepts I came up with during the class:

Character's Pipeline in Maya 3: UV layout & Joint Placement

This week’s lessons were… a mind opener about, for example, Organic UV layout. I found it surprisingly easy and couldn’t help myself but kept on remembering my summer’s experience when I worked on Bird’s character. It took me round for days to prepare the layouts... Then I used the method we were thought for laying out city set’s UV’s. So honestly what a relief it was to find its actually that simple, I found myself even enjoying the process :D

On the other hand the second half of the tutorials; joint placement, was really difficult to finish. Honestly I’m not sure if its all gonna work, even if I really took my time and tried to position them correctly, even using the  mathematical rules :D for correct jaw’s joint placement.