Narrative: Coral Type #2

This one is elongated, the texture was drawn with a mouse so it doesn't look a %100 good, but will improve on it at home.

Lens Blur effect

Tried the method Alan presented to us today, looks very cool :)

No Blur:

 

 After the blur was applied:

Narrative: Coral Design Modeling experiment

This first one was a quick mock-up. Hopefully the next ones will look much better.

Character Design Workshop: Final session

We had some fun designing specific characters and their environments this week. First one I did was Jetpack Jones, along with some symbol designs for Galactic Aviation Force and some plasma gun designs.

Second one was Tessa Storm and a few tool designs.

Final one was an environment, in my case it was Bio Lab 77, which is supposed to be filled with carnivorous plants and completely taken over by them. The plant design is in the bottom right corner and at the top are the poor scientists taken over by the spores, walking around, zombified :)

 

 

Character Design Workshop: Environment experiment

A quick concept of a forest with a more romantic lighting and a softer feel. Don't think it particularly works with the overall theme of my project, but it was worth the try. :)

Character design project: Personal character

Decided to work on something a little more humanoid after all the dragons recently.

Character design workshop: Dragon concept

I don't think this design is going to make it for the final character but I am planning on making "filler" cards of all the concepts that are left, creating a bigger variety of monsters for different card designs.

Character design workshop: Dragon redesigns

Finalizing some of the versions of the dragons I will be painting.

Since ferrets have a very fluid body, I did some pose studies that will help me with the final look of one of the dragons. Already picked one. Rhinos were used for the posing of the predator and a swan for the arcane design.

 

Character design workshop: weekly update

We had to play around with designing a card game interface (which was helpful for my personal project too). The word I had to draw inspiration from was "ninja".

Character design workshop: Designing the back of the cards

This is the initial design of the back of the cards. The front is going to be consistent with the frame.

After designing the three symbols for Mind, Body and Spirit  I stuck them at this version of the cards back, finalizing the design. It also serves as a cheat sheet - the spiral (spirit) defeats the chalice (mind), the mind defeats the body and the body defeats the spirit, creating a full circle.

Character design project: Map

 

The map of the world is inspired by Gondwana and will be used as a playmat for the game and the back of the card game I am designing.

 

Character design project: Symbol design process

 

 The process is in the first picture. Tried simplifying the actual symbols and unify them so they look like they belong. The main idea in mind was to keep them similar and easily recognizable  from a distance so that the flow of the game feels natural.

 

 

The designing process is explained on the images. The symbols are important as well since they are used for the back of the cards.

UV Layout - Part 1 - 3

Body Modelling Part 20 - Completion: Bring the Head & Body Together

Character design workshop: Painting

Couldn't resist doing this little one after a busy weekend :)

"Jack the Giant Slayer" movie review (adaptation)

(Fig. 1 –original poster)

“Jack the Giant Slayer” is a film directed by Bryan Singer in 2013. It adapts the story of “Jack and the Beanstalk” which is a traditional English folklore tale. The film introduces quite a few changes from the original tale, in a mostly unsuccessful way, however it does have its perks. As Richard Roeper says: “"Jack the Giant Slayer" is filled with neat touches, from the casting of Ewan McGregor as Elmont, a knight in shining armour who's supposed to be the hero of the story and is indeed A hero, but not THE hero, to an epilogue that's just flat-out cool.” (Roeper, 2013)

Perhaps the most annoying detail was the main character who, as in many teen/children films believes his way out of any situation and his positive attitude immediately translates into a successful outcome for any challenge. He is implied to be a dreamer and disappoints his uncle by trading the family horse for a few “magic” beans. However the moment the beanstalk appears he turns into some sort of an action hero and quickly becomes the saviour of the whole kingdom.

 What this film does is mostly expanding on the story, rather than omitting details. It lasts for around 2 hours and drags a bit. The overall feeling is overwhelmingly positive though. Even if at times the film feels a bit generic. David Hughes says: “Where Jack The Giant Slayer really stands head and shoulders above other recent fairy tale adaptations is in its sense of adventure, which is closer in spirit to The Princess Bride and Shrek than the try-hard Twilight wannabes.” (Hughes, 2009)

What the movie adds to the source material are a lot of little details to make the narrative smoother for the big screen and some major changes like adding a romantic touch in the face of a princess that falls in love with Jack. Since the idea of the film is slaying giants too, it would have been a very unfair fight if the humans didn’t have any advantages, being so small and crushable by the deformed giants. The story includes a crown, forged from the heart of a giant and whoever wears it controls the giants.

Visually the film is very CG dependant. It starts a bit shaky but it soon turns very cinematically pleasing even though a lot of the landscapes were not particularly memorable. The scenes have this fake quality about them and make the viewer very aware of the matte paintings used.

In a sense “Jack the Giant Slayer” is doing its job successfully. At the end of the day it was a fairy-tale adaptation and perhaps the audience it was aiming for is slightly younger viewers. The film was a box office success and has a lot of value to it.  

Bibliography:

Roeper, R. (2013). Jack the Giant Slayer Movie Review (2013) | Roger Ebert. [online] Rogerebert.com. Available at: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/jack-the-giant-slayer-2013 [Accessed 17 Nov. 2015].

Hughes, D. (2009). Jack The Giant Slayer. [online] Empire. Available at: http://www.empireonline.com/movies/jack-giant-slayer/review/ [Accessed 17 Nov. 2015].

Illustration:

Fig. 1 - Upload.wikimedia.org, (2015). [online] Available at: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b4/Jack_the_Giant_Slayer_poster.jpg [Accessed 17 Nov. 2015].

Narrative: 2D Coral test

This was so fun to do, but it ate my whole evening, the animation was rushed but the actual potential of using 2D planes in our animation is there.

Character Design Workshop: weekly update

This week's exercises were really fun, designing creatures based on real life ones and environments.

Will paint most of them as soon as I have the time. My personal favourite is the plant dinosaur on the second picture. :)

Character Design Workshop: OGR

OGR Vlad Yankov CAA Year 2

Chracter Design Workshop: Card Layouts

Just some quick ideas, trying to visualize how will the actual cards look like. I will add the text on the finished cards and the symbol in one of the corners. :)

Body Modelling Part 19 - The Shoes

Body Modelling Part 18 - The Hand

Body Modelling Part 17 - The Arm

Body Modelling Part 16 - The Lower Body Part 2

"The Pixar Story" documentary review

 

"The PIXAR Story" (2007) is a documentary directed by Leslie Iwerks and narrated by Stacy Keach. It reveals the story of the animation studio from the very shaky start to its roaring success in the present day. It mainly focuses on the career path of John Lasseter and his experience in the Disney studios and the beginning of CG animation.

The expository nature of the documentary is perfect for the historical theme of the subject matter. As Bil Nichols says: “The primary purpose of the Expository mode is to make an argument. This is the model that is most often associated with documentary in general. The structure is grounded in a series of assertions backed up by evidence. The assertions are presented through verbal commentary from an invisible voice-over narrator, while images provide the evidence.” (Nichols, 2015)

  Following all the facts and the biographies of PIXAR's creators it presents an entertaining insight into the lives and thinking behind the creators of the animation studio. The only thing that strikes the viewer is that the film is distributed by "Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures" which can only mean that the overall nature of the film is biased. Even when the documentary explains how John Lasseter was fired from Disney because they didn't know what to do with him and his fascination with CG animation, it somehow presents these dreadful events with a very positive attitude and underlines that Disney was somehow doing it for the right reasons.

As Rebecca Murray says: “All was not always happy in the land of computer generated animation. The Pixar Story traces the incredible journey Pixar’s founding fathers went through as they blazed new trails in the land of animated films.” (Murray, 2015) The documentary illustrates that very clearly and shows what an incredible achievement it is to be so successful.

Trying to decipher the key to a successful animation studio is always difficult, as Peter Debruge says: “it’s easy to mistake Pixar’s success as savvy planning on the part of Lasseter (“talented artist”), Catmull (“creative scientist”) and Jobs (“visionary entrepreneur”), but the documentary goes a long way to remind just how remarkable the meeting of these three minds proved. After all, even Lucas, who developed Pixar as the computer-graphics arm of his own filmmaking operation, decided to cut it loose before the division had revealed its true promise.” (Debruge, 2007)

The opinions in the films are constructed in a very skillful way and the main focus is always the success of PIXAR. The documentary is factual and follows the history of the animation studio step by step.

Bibliography:

Nichols, B. (2015). Six Principal Modes of Documentary Filmmaking | Meridian Stories. [online] Meridianstories.com. Available at: http://www.meridianstories.com/media-resource-collection/creative-how-to-guides/six-principal-modes-of-documentary-filmmaking/ [Accessed 10 Nov. 2015].

Murray, R. (2015). The Pixar Story Review. [online] About.com Entertainment. Available at: http://movies.about.com/od/newmoviesandreviews/gr/pixarstry122907.htm [Accessed 10 Nov. 2015].

Debruge, P. (2007). The Pixar Story. [online] Variety. Available at: http://variety.com/2007/film/markets-festivals/the-pixar-story-1200557572/ [Accessed 10 Nov. 2015].

Weekly Character Posing

 

Character Design Workshop: Weekly update

 This week we were practicing poses, working in groups reenacting characters and sketching each other.

Second exercise was picking a character and providing a fictional expression sheet for them. Couldn't think of anything particularly inspiring so I worked on creating something on my own. Mr. Deer was fun to work with. I am sure I could have done more with the overall body shapes and not just the face but time ran out before I could start sketching. Still fun to do though. 

 

Narrative environment concept

Environment concept for the final shot where we see the ravine from the top and the vast deep blue open space, contrasting with the claustrophobic ravine.

Mad Max movie review

 

 

(weekly fan art)

“Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015) directed by George Miller presents a character with clear inner-struggles that is constantly revaluating the line between sanity and utter madness. The world portrayed in the movie is post-apocalyptic that is more than a harsh environment, it is a merciless place where cars and vehicles are worshipped and human life has no value. Diseases are everywhere and water is kept private as a currency and a way to control the population. As Brian Tallerico puts it: “As a reflection of more desperate times, Miller has updated the needs of his future world from commodities like oil to pure survival. Max has been reimagined as a fighting, driving machine, a man who “finds his own way,” moving forward in an attempt to outrun his ghosts.” (Tallerico, 2015)

The thing that stands-out immediately in this new production of “Mad Max” are the strong women characters and the complete equality with which they are represented. Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) plays a major role in trying to rescue the “breeders” and fight for their future.

Technically the film is perfectly executed it just makes you wonder, how was the camera operated in such a seamless way, where the flow was beautifully smooth and it creates an incredible feeling of scale and space. As Peter Travers states: “As Furiosa seeks redemption with Max at her side, Miller keeps the images coming at you like a meteor shower, from a ferocious sandstorm to war boys catapulting from vehicle to vehicle and the scalding sight of a dude shredding his guitar as the world burns. Miller downplays green-screens and digital effects. He wants it real.” (Travers, 2015)

What cannot be denied is that “Mad Max” is incredibly entertaining and the sheer realism of it is just fantastic. The attention to detail on every single design decision is amazing, creating a very believable world all the characters occupy.

In conclusion “Mad Max: Fury Road” is a great spin on an already existing franchise an exploitation film that offers so much to the genre. Definitely having a strong leading female characters who assert their independence brings the film to the new century and gives a lot of hope in those long needed changes that need to be brought in cinema today.

Bibliography:

Tallerico, B. (2015). Mad Max: Fury Road Movie Review (2015) | Roger Ebert. [online] Rogerebert.com. Available at: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mad-max-fury-road-2015 [Accessed 3 Nov. 2015].

Travers, P. (2015). Mad Max: Fury Road. [online] Rolling Stone. Available at: http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/mad-max-fury-road-20150513?page=2 [Accessed 3 Nov. 2015].

 

Character Design Workshop concept 02

The idea behind this one are the fins that the dragon uses individually.

Character Design Workshop concept

Character concept idea, tried using a contrasting colour palette.

Environment concept art

After discussing things with our group I did an environment concept using the corals from the production art to help visualuse things better.

Production art #2

After a brief discussion about the route we are going for in production art terms, we decided to keep things in the theme of imprisonment. The assets needed to suggest lack of freedom. The thinking behind the design was just that, lots of vertical lines imitating prison bars and capsules, trapped light and patterns.