Life Drawing 5

2 minute pose x 7

1 minute pose x 9 

25 minute sitting down pose

Stroyboard for Zoetrope Animation

Maya: Car Animation Rig

Secret Lairs - OGR 2

Secret Lairs OGR 2

Life Drawing 4

2 minute pose x 8

20 minute pose - blocking out colour

30 minute pose - watercolour

2 minute poses x 4 

Red = 1 minute, Green = 30 seconds

Maya: Whimsy House Lighting



Midday



Sunset



Romantic



Night

Experimenting With Colour

They're a bit extreme, but I was just playing about with colour in Photoshop for my lair's concept art. I am aiming to keep the vibrant, graphical style :)

UPDATE:
After speaking with Jordan, he suggested it would be best to keep the colours limited and not to apply the level of vibrancy to the whole lair otherwise it comes across as too fun and happy. I want a slightly more sinister feel as it is for a Master Criminal. It was also mentioned that I remove the kind of panel/desk object in the foreground as this is distracting from the focus and disrupts the sense of scale. In my next paintings I am going to start with much more dull colours and add elements of brightness and and glowing feel by using some tools and techniques that Jordan showed me, I think this will be more successful.

Film Review: Edward Scissorhands

Edward Scissorhands Review

Maya: Secret Lair Experiments

A quick play around on Maya, adding textures / colours to my idea for my lair. I quite like how it's coming along, just wandering if the colours are too playful for an 'Atomic Master Criminal' ?
Any suggestions / opinions ?

Starting Zoetropes

In Meg's class today we started our ideas for our Zoetropes, we drew out a grid of 24 squares for the 24 frames and began to plan the breakdown of my animation. Mine was two people in the snow and then one throwing a snowball at the other. I made a quick storyboard and then drew each frame out on a separate piece of paper to load in to Dragon and test that it worked smoothly as an animation. Although there were only 22 drawings in my storyboard, I did fit another two in when I drew them out separately. It wasn't detailed at all, just basic sketches and once viewed as one running piece, I think it turned out quite well. So I will continue with this idea with better detail and colour for my final Zoetrope.

:)

Thumbnails to Maya Development

I painted these thumbnails in Jordan's Photoshop class, I'm happy and confident in keeping a vibrant colour palette for this project and my secret lair but I struggled to get a good sense of scale in my concepts - they all felt quite close-up. So Jordan suggested that I go into Maya and create some basic shapes in a scene for my lair and just to play around with scale and the camera angle as this will then help me create more exciting thumbnails with interesting shots. This is what I've created so far...

 They are mainly inspired by thumbnails 2 and 3;

Life Drawing 3

First time drawing a male model, I found it okay, but I'll admit I much preferred the female.
We started with three poses on one page, five minutes each, and I tried to get information down to show the shadows. Next was a continuous line drawing which wasn't so bad, I also included some of the objects in the background around him. (roughly 20 mins). Third was a sitting down pose (roughly 25 mins) using what we wanted so I started off in pencil then went over in charcoal. Last we drew Alan in five poses for just one minute each, I wasn't really that happy with the overall outcome of this one in comparison to the quick poses of Jane but there's always time to improve ! (:

Influence Map - Hero Prop

Thinking of making a sort of 'sleeping pod' that protects and energizes the Master Criminal.

Influence Map - Atomic Lair

In my OGR feedback, Phil suggested quite a few images for me to look at inspire me, most of them I've included in this Influence Map as I really liked them and they are helpful for my lair design. I've included a few others too relating to what was said in Phil's suggestions. I hope to include the vibrant and exciting colours again in this project.

 :)

Maya: MEL Robot

Pixellation Animation - The Hole

Pixellation Animation we made in Meg's class today. We were first shown some videos that use the same technique and then thought of our own quick animation, we had good fun making it and it made us think in new ways, like how to get Sam to appear out from the 'hole' in the floor. I'm quite pleased with the outcome :)

Maya: UV Mapping (Cube)

Got my UV mapped cubes finished. I actually had a few problems with this one especially with the lighting at the end, not sure if it was something I did and messed it up by accident as i'm sure I followed the tutorial properly. This wasn't a tutorial specifically for lighting anyway so at least I got the UV mapping part done with no problems. :) 

Maya: Motion Paths

Secret Lairs: OGR 1

Secret Lairs OGR 1

Further Development for Lair and Prop

Life Drawing 2

 In today's Life Drawing class we had the same model as last week to draw. We started off by drawing Jane in four different poses for five minutes each, I quite enjoyed doing this one as the time limit made me work quite quick but it was enough time to get some other information in the drawing such as light and shadows. When it was finished it showed how she was moving about the room quite well. In the next exercise we were not allowed to draw any lines straight away, we just had to focus on the light / dark areas and negative space around Jane. Once I had put all my dark areas down on the page I worked into the lines and structure of her body with pencil to make the composition stronger. The next task was to draw her 10 times for one minute each but still trying to capture the tonal shadows, I found this one more difficult as I felt I was quite rushed for time and some of them could of been a lot stronger with little bit of extra time. Finally we did a continuous line drawing for 15 minutes of a medium of our choice, I chose pen as my previous pieces were all done in charcoal. This one didn't turn out so well in my opinion, I didn't mind the technique with the 'sketchy' effect to show tone but my proportions were not right. The top half wasn't so bad but something went wrong in the bottom half and it just doesn't look right. Overally pleased with the outcomes :)

La Belle et la Bête - Film Review

From the start of this film I was captured and wanted to follow Beauty and her story, treated as a slave in her home, the audience already begin to feel sympathy towards her. Set in a small village with old stone cottage-homes and cobbled streets, the residents travelled by horseback. The “credible French country landscape contains not just the realistic home of Beauty but also the weird, enchanted domicile of the Beast." (Malcolm, 1999). When Beauty’s father sets off one day through the mystical and enchanting forest he stumbles upon the Beast’s Lair and after trespassing through his private dwelling and picking a rose from his garden, the Beast confronts him and threatens to kill him. The Beast lets him free on the condition that one of his daughters takes his place, when he returns home, Beauty sacrifices herself. She arrives through a big, arched door; wooden, with lots of bolts, bewildered by her surroundings. It is clear to see how much Disney was influenced by Cocteau’s creation when they remade the film in colour animation in 1991, “From the long corridor of candelabra, held out from the walls by living arms, (Figure 1) to the glittering temple of Diana, wherein the mystery of the Beast is revealed, the visual progression of the fable into a dream-world casts its unpredictable spell.” (Crowther, 1947). Disney’s Lumière character (Figure 2) was one of the ideas that were most obviously kept from the original film and I also thought that the re-made animated Beast still looked fairly similar (Figure 3).  

As Beauty dined in the Beast’s castle, she sat in a chair that was like an intricately detailed throne; with beautifully carved patterns and it seems very ironic to me how such an ugly beast could acquire such an enchanting and magical home. It is juxtaposed as two extremes to great effect and his home is made out to be his main power in gradually charming and winning over Beauty as she is not used to such kind treatment. At one point, Beauty is walking about the castle’s gloomy hallways and there are some very thin, kind of curtains by the window that slowly move with the wind and brush against her (Figure 4). I feel that many of the elements of the Beast’s luxury lair are representative of Beauty and as if she has always been part of his surroundings.

There was a certain shot in the film that I really liked and thought was quite cleverly done but unfortunately I can’t find an image for it, it was when Beauty first encountered the Beast and fainted in shock. The camera changed from being in the scene outside to then inside the castle and looking out through the window at them. What I liked about it in particular was that the window had a kind of ‘lattice’ style design and one of these squares in the window was being used to frame what was going on outside and aim at a point of focus for the audience. It also made the connection with Beauty and the Beast seem more intimate as he carried her away to safety.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Quotes;


Crowther, B. (1947) La Belle et la Bete (1946) THE SCREEN IN REVIEW at
http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B03EFD71E3EEE3BBC4C51DFB467838C659EDE 

(Accessed 4/11/12)

Malcolm, D. (1999) Jean Cocteau: La Belle et La Bête at http://www.theguardian.com/film/1999/jul/01/1 

(Accessed 4/11/12)

Images;

Figure 1 – Corridor of candelabra
 http://www.whitecoffeemagazine.com/2013/classic-la-belle-et-la-bete/
(Accessed 4/11/12)

Figure 2 – Disney’s Lumière and Beast
http://www.empireonline.com/features/50-greatest-animated-characters/default.asp?film=39
(Accessed 4/11/12)

Figure 3 – Cocteau’s Beast
http://reelmusicreality.wordpress.com/
 (Accessed 4/11/12)

Figure 4 – Curtains in hallway
http://www.mondo-digital.com/orpheus.html
(Accessed 4/11/12)

Hero Prop Ideas

A quick page of 'Hero Prop' thumbnails. By typing words relating to 'atomic', 'bionic' and 'nuclear' into a search engine I found some really interesting items that could be of use to me in creating a Hero Prop for my 'Atomic Master Criminal'. These are not drawn free hand, I quickly traced over the images to get the general idea and inspiration for my final outcome, I may end up using parts of these and combining a few to make one quite interesting finished piece.

Influence Map - Lair Design

I'm thinking of creating a underground nuclear laboratory kind of space, so here's a few images I've gathered together to help inspire my drawings and paintings.

Shape, Weight and Spacing Animation

Today in our animation class with Meg, we were practicing the motion of a bouncing ball and learning about how to space the frames out correctly so you produce a realistic outcome. We started off with a rubber / tennis ball object and prepared how we would space out the frames on a single piece of paper before we began, to use a guide. By using the light box and our peg bars we could trace each frame and then take these drawings to be photographed with software Dragon to play our animation back and make any changes if need be. I was quite pleased with how this one turned out :) 

My second set of drawings were meant to represent a bowling ball falling and then going through the floor but it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. I think I might re-do this one and just have it hitting the floor with a minor bounce and then it rolling a little way which I think will be better.

Maya: Robot Character - Common Shaders

Starting Lambert

Matte Ceramic

Red Plastic

Silver

Chrome

Gold

Glass

Glow

Glow in the Dark

Hidden Glow