Project Crit Tomorrow Guys...

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Crit Presentation

Crit Presentation.pptx

The Final Three

Final Three Paintings + Corresponding Influence Maps

                                                 

Experimenting with Colour

Last 'Four Grid' experimenting with colour for my final painting... I think I will use either number 2 or 4 :)

Combining

Another quick idea ...

Experimenting with Colour

Colour comps for third final painting. Personally I think 3 would fit in best with my other two but I think there's still something about it that doesn't quite look right ?
Feedback welcome (:  

Submission Disk Artwork

Just had my artwork printed on to the disk for submission on Friday. This was one of my pivotal thumbnails, after playing about with the colours in Photoshop, this then made me decide on my colour scheme that would run throughout my three final paintings.

@Phil - Final Three Ideas in Colour

So, these are my three ideas for my final paintings, I've decided to take them all from one book (The Red Room) as I feel it has the best atmosphere and potential. If you could let me know what you think of them as a set that would be great :) 

Experimenting with Colour

Again just testing colour combinations to see what works best - thumbnail 1 was the original and the others were edited. This is another idea for one of my final paintings, I think 3 and 4 are the most successful as the colours are most eye-catching and 4 is quite 'toxic' like Phil said in my previous colour  comps.

2001: A Space Odyssey - Film Review

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – Film Review.

Although many parts I didn't quite understand, I enjoyed watching this film. As the film didn't have much of a storyline I think it's meant to be very open to interpretation and probably has many different meanings, like George D. DeMet says "When audiences first saw "2001" in the spring of 1968, many were baffled. The film lacked a traditional plot structure, contained almost no dialogue and had an ending that many found confusing." (D. DeMet, George) 
The film starts in a prehistoric time in a canyon-like setting with vast space inhabited by hominid creatures (Figure 1). Kubrick makes great use of perspective filling the screen with foreground, middle ground and background space and there is a monochromatic night time shot using different shades of blue which contrasts effectively against warm setting previously. 

 The scene ends by focusing on one of the apes playing with the bones of a prehistoric corpse (Figure 2); he picks up one and starts smashing it against others whilst the film’s theme tune plays at the moment of his realisation of finding a weapon in which he uses to attack another enemy hominid.  The transition from this beginning of the film to the next section was really well put together. As the ape finally releases the bone-part into the air, the camera follows it as it then cuts into the outer space scene where there is a satellite of similar shape navigating slowly. Within 20 minutes of the film we are at the peak of human evolution.

Whilst the audience watch the futuristic objects floating in space, there is classical music by Johann Strauss playing alongside which gives a sense of peacefulness and grace.

The exterior texture of the spacecraft reminded of a circuit board and once the viewers are introduced to the inside of the spacecraft, they can see how futuristic the interiors are, very white / clinical and the unique shaped red seats stand out against the light walled interior (Figure 3). The ‘too-clean’ looking space and low ceilings that give a cramped and claustrophobic feel might make the audience feel a little uncomfortable – especially at the time of the film’s production as this was a type of world that they were not used to. 

As man hadn't actually been to the moon when this film was made, it was a very accurate portrayal of the moon, surface very open and vast again, very canyon-like and with craters.

In a scene in one of the space cabins there is a very obvious contrast in lighting (complimentary) highlighting the two different compartments the astronauts are in, giving sense of depth / space. Outside of the spacecraft, on the moon’s surface, eerie sound effects are played whilst astronauts are marching down towards the mysterious monolith. The camera is following them directly behind and it’s very intense so that the viewer may feel uneasy. Throughout the film, Kubrick has set up many uncomfortable angles (Dutch angles) which are common in horror genre films so that the audience naturally feels that something is not quite right. He also thought about the robot HAL 9000’s perspective from inside the machine and gave a ‘fish-eye’ lens effect (Figure 5) when looking out from HAL 9000’s point of view on to the other characters (Figure 4).

The use of sound in the film is used very effectively, particularly when one of the main astronaut characters Dave is floating in space and the audience can just hear his very loud, slow and heavy breathing. This represents the total emptiness and silence of space and it makes you feel his fear.

There is strong irony in this film where even though the human race is at it’s absolute peak in evolution and technological development, the astronauts on the journey have to learn to walk again (in the zero-gravity environment), eat food like a baby, and be ‘toilet trained’ (Kubrick2001).

The mysterious appearance of the black monoliths, for me, resemble a similar concept to the remarkable British monument and mystery of Stone Henge in Wiltshire (Figure 6).

Bibliography

Images: 

Figure 1 - Initial Prehistoric Scene
http://neofilm.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/2001-a-space-odyssey/ (Accessed 20/10/13)

Figure 2 - Ape Discovering Bone / Weapon
http://www.domusweb.it/en/design/2012/07/18/do-androids-dream-of-an-electric-aesthetic-.html (Accessed 20/10/13)

Figure 3 - Spacecraft Interior
http://allthehappycreatures.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/mega-therions-promethean-space-odyssey.html (Accessed 20/10/13)

Figure 4 - HAL 9000 Perspective
http://marciokenobi.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/ (Accessed 20/10/13)

Figure 5 - Fish Eye Lens Examples
http://petapixel.com/2010/04/20/make-a-nifty-soda-can-fisheye-lens/ (Accessed 20/10/13)

Figure 6 - Stone Henge
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/stonehenge/ (Accessed 20/10/13)

Quotes:

D. DeMet, George - The Special Effects of "2001: A Space Odyssey"

http://www.palantir.net/2001/meanings/dfx.html (Accessed 20/10/13) 

Kubrick2001 - The Space Odyssey Explained

http://www.kubrick2001.com/ (Accessed 20/10/13)

More Experimentation

This was a quick painting I made yesterday in Jordan's Photoshop class. I started off with a line drawing of a sort of corridor scene (1) and then started to put in some colour to the walls and floor in a new layer (2). Thumbnails 3 and 4 were where Jordan spoke to me and told me not to worry too much about being too precious/precise at this stage of just experimenting. So here you can see where he demonstrated to me how to just block out areas of colour really quickly and play around with what perspective angle is right before I start putting in too much detail as he was saying that my perspective angle seemed a bit off. He recommended that I produce a set of thumbnails that are the same scene but just to test out different angles and perspectives so I can see what works as a composition.

Experimenting with Colour

I put my last digital painting (thumbnail 1) into Photoshop and duplicated it so I had 4 of the same image. By changing some of the reds, blues and greens in the 'Levels' option and changing 'Hue/Saturation', I came out with some really interesting colour combinations.

I think thumbnail 2 is a lot stronger than the original image (1) as I feel the colours are more intense and fitting for the story whereas I feel the original was a bit too light. Number 3 has a really Halloween-like feel and real spookiness - Hannah also mentioned that it reminded her of The Cabinet Of Dr.Caligari film in which I agreed on. For the fourth one, I went for a more blue looking scene although nothing too outrageous. I think that it actually works quite well, giving off a very cold, dark atmosphere with the hints of dark red on the walls and in the shadows.
Overall pleased with this quick exercise - feedback welcome! :)

@Phil - More Thumbnail Development

The Red Room - Digital Painting
Again, just trying to develop a thumbnail idea, had a go with using two point perspective this time and would just like to know your thoughts on it :)

@Phil - Thumbnail Development

Hi Phil, just wondering if this sort of idea (for The Red Room) is too generic / boring ?

Development on Thumbnails

This time I thought it would be good to experiment with colour and relate them more to my book excerpts. So some of these are for 'The Red Room' others for 'The Magic Shop'.

16 Digital Thumbnails

Just experimenting with some quick ideas using just greys / black and white. This set was included in my OGR along with some pencil sketches, my first lot of digital thumbnails really; it was difficult getting used to the graphics tablet and the different brushes.

Metropolis - Film Review

Metropolis Review - Director: Fritz Lang

From the very early scenes and throughout the film we begin to get a feel for the environment that it is set in. The film was made in 1927 and the high rise, geometric buildings in the busy city environment would have been a very futuristic idea of life at the time of the film’s production. It is scarily similar to today’s urban areas (Figure 1) and a viewer watching the film today would not have much of a reaction / opinion on the setting as this looks like a normal street scene from the 21^st century. 

 

                                                                            Figure 1

Figure 2                              





                                                                                                                                                                                                           Figure 3

The Robot-Maria that Rotwang creates has also been very influential in today’s world. A couple of examples are the Cybermen in BBC’s Dr Who series (Figure 2) and pop icon Beyonce, who dressed in a costume almost exactly identical to the robot in Metropolis for one of her performances (Figure 3). Both examples were used to give a sense of power / domination.  

           

                                                                                                                                 

The tall, empowering buildings represent the power and domination of the wealthy inhabitants to the workers below the city. Ruler of the city Joh Frederson “looks out from his office in the Tower of Babel at a modern, highly technicized world.” This shows empowerment and success.

Quote:

http://metropolis1927.com/

Images:

Dr Who’s Cybermen - http://www.scifiscience.co.uk/extras/top10/villains/cybermen.html

City / Tower of Babel – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Metropolis-new-tower-of-babel.png

Beyonce - http://vigilantcitizen.com/musicbusiness/the-occult-symbolism-of-movie-metropolis-and-its-importance-in-pop-culture/

                                                                                             

Space and Environment OGR

OGR by megan_doyle_1829

Influence Maps

Influence maps for my excerpts from The Red Room and The Magic Shop.

There's something about the influence map for The Magic Shop (on the right) where the collection of images just doesn't feel very exciting to me. Perhaps it's amount of white space in background of the images which makes it feel that it's lacking. Whereas with The Red Room (left side) I can actually begin to feel the amount of eeriness and darkness that the story holds. The images give the viewer a good idea of the narrative and the themes within it.