Monday 31 October 2011

Film Review - The Cabinet of Dr Caligari - Robert Wiene



Fig.1
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) is a silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene, that depicts a part of Dr. Caligari’s life where he and his faithful sleepwalker Cesare are linked to a series of murders in a small mountain village.

As the film is... silent, the music plays a massive role in the telling of the story and setting the pace of the film. When there are points of tension and violence the music becomes high pitched and the use loud crescendos and staccato’ed notes to add emphasis to movements on set. “Melodrama was the norm in silent cinema where the relationship between characters had to be communicated with gesture” (Nick Hilditch, 1st March 2001)

“The film's bizarre look. The actors inhabit a jagged landscape of sharp angles and tilted walls and windows, staircases climbing crazy diagonals, trees with spiky leaves, grass that looks like knives.” (Roger Ebert, June 3rd, 2009) Apart from the first scene in the film and the scene outside the hospital/ asylum, there are no 90 degree angles or straight lines in the scenery or buildings, which offsets the focus in the film, so that there is more focus on the actors and their movements on set. (Also, as this is a silent film, the gestures given by the actors need to be emphasized) 

Fig.2

The direction and cutting throughout, makes the film run smoothly, This has resulted in a series of actions so perfectly dovetailed as to carry the story through at a perfect tempo” (Variety Review – 1919) Particularly looking at the introduction, a very simplistic showing of credits wrote on a blackboard the rubbed out then re-wrote each time, however this adds flow and creativeness to the movie.

Having seen this film without being aware of its content, it is safe to say I have never seen a film like it, however the film did not grow tiresome or boring, due to crazy hand-drawn sets and twisted storyline throughout

Fig.3


Bibliography

List of Illustrations

Sunday 30 October 2011

Photoshop progress and Thumbnails -

Using a a thumbnail that I particularly liked, I started to lay it out in photo shop using the perspective techniques taught to us by Phil. This first image shows the stage after I had flipped the canvas over, from the original.

Black and white image

Using overlay methods to add colour

Work still in progress

Original Thumbnails


Wednesday 26 October 2011

Unit 2: Space


Basic Plot

David is a mining heir who finances the experimental "iron mole," an excavating vehicle designed by his elderly inventor friend Abner Perry. In a test run, they discover the vehicle cannot be turned, and it burrows 500 miles into the Earth's crust, emerging into the unknown interior world of Pellucidar. In Burroughs' concept, the Earth is a hollow shell with Pellucidar as the internal surface of that shell.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_the_Earth%27s_Core_%28novel%29) 

After watching the reading the three exerts provided, I felt I needed a wider understanding of the 'place/ world' they were in so I watched the first film adaptation, At the Earth's Core (1976), directed by Kevin Connor. The film helped me see how another concept artist perceived the books descriptive content of the landscapes and buildings.

After reading the passages again I went through highlighting all the areas of descriptive language about the scenery and landscapes, this will help me to develop thumbnails and concept art from

Scenery/ Points of description about the landscape
    
Scene 1 – First Appearance of ‘the new world’

·       In a short time I had removed enough of the earth and rock to the floor of the cabin to expose the door beyond. Perry was directly behind me as I threw it open. The upper half was above the surface of the ground. With an expression of surprise I turned and looked at Perry—it was broad daylight without!

Together we stepped out to stand in silent contemplation of a landscape at once weird and beautiful. Before us a low and level shore stretched down to a silent sea. As far as the eye could reach the surface of the water was dotted with countless tiny isles—some of towering, barren, granitic rock—others resplendent in gorgeous trappings of tropical vegetation, myriad starred with the magnificent splendour of vivid blooms. Behind us rose a dark and forbidding wood of giant arborescent ferns intermingled with the commoner types of a primeval tropical forest. Huge creepers depended in great loops from tree to tree, dense under-brush overgrew a tangled mass of fallen trunks and branches. Upon the outer verge we could see the same splendid coloring of countless blossoms that glorified the islands, but withinThe dense shadows all seemed dark and gloomy as the grave. And upon all the noonday sun poured its torrid rays out of a cloudless sky.
 
·      He smiled, and turning, pointing to the nose of the prospector protruding from the ground at our backs. (could be used as the foreground for an image – the drill)

As I looked I began to appreciate the reason for the strangeness of the landscape that had haunted me from the first with an elusive suggestion of the bizarre and unnatural—THERE WAS NO HORIZON! As far as the eye could reach out the sea continued and upon its bosom floated tiny islands, those in the distance reduced to mere specks; but ever beyond them was the sea, until the impression became quite real that one was LOOKING UP at the most distant point that the eyes could fathom—the distance was lost in the distance. That was all—there was no clear-cut horizontal line marking the dip of the globe below the line of vision.

I glanced up to find the great orb still motionless in the center of the heaven. And such a sun! I had scarcely noticed it before. Fully thrice the size of the sun I had known throughout my life, and apparently so near that the sight of it carried the conviction that one might almost reach up and touch it

Scene 2 – The Tree top village

When we came suddenly upon a dense village built high among the branches of the treesPresently they dragged me within the village, which consisted of several hundred rude shelters of boughs and leaves supported upon the branches of the trees. Between the huts, which sometimes formed crooked streets, were dead branches and the trunks of small trees which connected the huts upon one tree to those within adjoining trees; the whole network of huts and pathways forming an almost solid flooring a good fifty feet above the ground.

Scene 3 – The Mezops Village (also in the tree’s)

·      After proceeding through the jungle for what must have been upward of five miles we emerged suddenly into a large clearing in the exact center of which stood as strange an appearing village as one might well imagine.

Large trees had been chopped down fifteen or twenty feet above the ground, and upon the tops of them spherical habitations of woven twigs, mud covered, had been built. Each ball-like house was surmounted by some manner of carven image, which Ja told me indicated the identity of the owner.

Horizontal slits, six inches high and two or three feet wide, served to admit light and ventilation. The entrances to the house were through small apertures in the bases of the trees and thence upward by rude adders through the hollow trunks to the rooms above. The houses varied in size from two to several rooms. The largest that I entered was divided into two floors and eight apartments.

·     All about the village, between it and the jungle, lay beautifully cultivated fields in which the Mezops raised such cereals, fruits, and vegetables as they required. Women and children were working in these gardens as we crossed toward the village.

Scene 4 – The Temple

·      Here was a mighty temple of hewn rock built in the shape of a rough oval with rounded roof in which were several large openings. No doors or windows were visible in the sides of the structure, nor was there need of any, except one entrance for the slaves, since, as Ja explained, the Mahars flew to and from their place of ceremonial, entering and leaving the building by means of the apertures in the roof.

·      We ascended for some forty feet when the interior of the space between the walls commenced to grow lighter and presently we came opposite an opening in the inner wall which gave us an unobstructed view of the entire interior of the temple.

·      The lower floor was an enormous tank of clear water in which numerous hideous Mahars swam lazily up and down. Artificial islands of granite rock dotted this artificial sea

·      The interior of the oval chamber, to settle finally upon the damp, cold boulders that fringe the outer edge of the pool.


Thursday 20 October 2011

Final Presentation

Final Presentation

More Thumbnails -



Final Disc Artwork -


My final disc image is very simple, but shows the information needed. I was trying to get the idea of a skateboard wheel across. The edges are rough as the CD Printer will not register anything outside the edges of the rings.

Wednesday 19 October 2011

Life Drawing - The rest










Some of the images look like there to contrasted, but I had to push up the amount of contrast so that you could see the drawings because I used a soft strokes as we only had two minutes per drawing.

Film Review - Black Swan

Film Review Black Swan

Film Review - Splice

Film Review Splice

Film Review - The Elephant Man

Film Review the Elephant Man

Film Review - The Company of Wolves

Film Review cOMPANY

Film Review - La Bell Et La Bete

La Bell Et La Bete_review

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Portrait Progression -

After laying out a quick background and objects in the foreground that my hybrid will interact with I put down my rough silhouette of my character and only when I remembered we had to save at important stages did I save out this scene.




Testing Colours -

Testing some colours for my final Portrait. I'm liking the simple flesh tones as it makes he hybrid look more human and like myself and blends nicely with many backgrounds. I went for a pyramid background and a bright sun to add some depth to the image.

Monday 17 October 2011

Thumbnails and sketches


 
The first page of my thumbnails were, fairly simple design's with the body of a lizard and the head of a human. The designs remind me a lot of the sky diving wingsuits



The next page of thumbnails I focused a lot more on the posture of the character and the facial expressions


 These drawings are mainly focusing on the posture and the facial features of my hybrid. I really like the bottom right drawing as it shows a lot of expression in the face and I have tried to add as many of my own facial features into it. The drawing of the hand is a test to see how my hybrid would interact with the environment.

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Maya Modelling: The Fan

 After getting stuck into the modeling of the fan, it became quite simple as you have to repeat a lot of the same processes, like the special duplication tool. I did makes things a bit harder for myself as I built the fan on a different axis to the tutorial :) oops, however once I figured out what axis it was on it was simple enough to follow. Once I reached the smoothing stage, my computer decided it needed a rest and consequently crashed, however I had saved the scene moments before, thank god...

I went for a blue and orange colour scheme, as I found the brown colours dull


 After completing the modeling and basic lighting, I wanted to make the lighting in the scene more creative. So I opened the back_lit lighting scene from the lighting exercises, and removed the character and replaced him with my fan. The lighting makes the fan looks a lot more alive and the reflective shadows are more unique and stylistic.





Monday 10 October 2011

Hand, Face and Feet studies!





The majority of these studies were produced with a 3b pencil, however for the feet and hand studies I used marker and Biro

Friday 7 October 2011

Maya lighting scenes 1-4


For some reason the poster images were linked to another computer so I had to link them back in after.

Monday 3 October 2011

OGR

OGR

Saturday 1 October 2011

Life Drawing - Weeks 1&2




  
During the first week I focused a lot on the tonal side of the drawings, and trying to depict the expressions on the face. I struggled trying to fit the drawing within the boundaries of the paper in the first two drawings as i was focusing to much on the head before I moved onto the body.

During the second week, we were asked to create the drawings without taking our pencil/charcoal off the paper for the whole drawing, this was a challenge!