Video based on Lalique's work: Reference

Just a video/ website that I will need whilst I continue with my research. Its an interesting watch if anyone wants to take a look.
http://www.gemeentemuseum.nl/en/exhibitions/ren%C3%A9-lalique-1860-%E2%80%93-1945

Other useful videos showing work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHGYx_FOdVs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLZkl5XxYKI
http://vimeo.com/16135938
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un-oDrxVGSo

Rene Lalique: Work Influence Maps

For our next project the Artist I have randomly selected is a French glass artist called Rene Lalique. His body of work includes many different versions of jewellery, vases and perfume bottles, all made out of coloured glass and jewels.

Initially looking at this artists work I am very excited about the possibilities that can come from his designs. Straight away I'm getting an emerald city vibe from The Wizard of OZ, bright crystalline buildings and extravagant glass statues. Although these are just initial thoughts so we shall see where we can go from here.

Useful Website
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Ren%C3%A9_Lalique.html

DVD Cover

Its very simple but I figured Id spend more time on my final pieces.

Crit Presentation

Presentation 2

Low Angle Shot: Complete

Here it is, The final design of my Low Angle shot, I'm fairly proud of this piece however the building on the left still bugs me a bit, might see if I can change it after the interior shot is finished.

What do you guys think?

Concept Artist: Who's Who

Concept Artist. Who's Who

Low Angle Final few minutes.

Almost done with the Low Angle shot, just got the floating mountain in the background and some more lighting hanging in the streets then it shall be finished.

Low Angle Establishing Shot: Colour Time!!!

Well the start of the colouring anyway. Not too long until its finished along with the final image.

Low Angle shot: Block Colour.

Finally starting to get something visual after all this time, Once the block color is complete Ill just need to detail the piece and add some extra structures. It will be the same with my establishing shot and the interior shot as well.

Hopefully Ill get everything finished in time.

Establishing shot: No more!

If I spend anymore time on this piece, Ill go crazy, here is the final design for Octavia, now to finish off the low angle and interior shots.

Here is a line drawing of what to expect from my next painting.

Final Establishing shot piece

Still not too sure about the colour's and I could definitely add some more details in but, here is the establishing shot. 

Another Colour Test.

Octavia Establishing Shot: Advice needed.

I need some advice on this part. I've almost finished my establishing shot, I just cant decide which one of these versions I should use in the Crit, or if I should redo the colour altogether.

Perspective Tutuorial's

1 Point Perspective 

2 Point Perspective

 3 Point Perspective

Establishing shot development

I hope to have this piece finished later into the night. I'm quite proud of the way it looks at the moment, although it looks much better on photoshop then it does on here. 

It's nice to be able to paint like I would with oils in photoshop, it makes it much easier to comprehend then just throwing colour onto the image. 

King Kong Movie Review

King Kong

Meridan C Cooper

1933

King Kong, the eighth wonder of the world. This movie is one that I watched many years ago with my grandfather and spurred my love of monster movies, especially the original Japanese Godzilla movies. The way they are presented and framed fills me with childish enjoyment that I haven't felt since I was much younger, playing with my power rangers.This movie"Arguably the monster movie of all time"(Collins) was essentially the start of that genre and I am incredibly grateful for it. 

"It's unrivaled in its sheer cinematic quality, and one of a kind" (Vasquez Jr).Whilst watching this film as a much older individual I can truly appreciate the cinematics effects and ideas that Cooper has attempted to work into the story and truly bring his version of Kong to life. Many scenes in this film show long dead creatures (dinosaurs) attacking our cast of adventurers. Although at the time this film was made the idea of CGI monsters was deep in the minds of children, waiting to be unlocked. Cooper was able to display these beasts in all their size and glory, although in some gory ways. The shots look like the characters are moving against a green screen with a projection of the beast cast upon it, which would have been the case. This effect really encapsulates the sense of scale and ferocity that these creatures have, making the actors often comical reactions almost look believable.  

Referencing the actors, this movie brings life to the scream queen herself, Fay Wray. Whilst she does little but scream in the entire movie and woes men with her often, glazed over eyes. You really start to see a development between her, the shipmates ans even Kong himself." An icon of pop culture with truly erotic and emotionally touching scenes between Fay Wray and the massive gorrilla"(Levy) Sultry and inappropriate at times (Kong sniffing his fingers and ripping Anne's dress) you believe that he truly feels for the girl. Creating a new rendition of Beauty and the Beast and leaving the audience almost feeling sorry for Kong in the end, being killed for protecting a woman that he really new nothing about, but was drawn to her because of her beauty.

Part of my childhood, its taken me years to fully appreciate the cinematic purity and comedy that his film really is. A film that will be influencing people for years to come, even people who have only seen the newer version's know the iconic scene of Kong on the Empire state building fighting off a small number of fighter planes. A movie that everyone should have the privilege to watch at some point in there lives. Then go on a marathon of classic monster movies beginning with this then Godzilla. 

Bibliography

Andrew Collins, Radio Times, October 5th 2013

http://www.radiotimes.com/film/cfm44/king-kong

Felix Vasquez Jr, Cinema Crazed, October 9th 2013

http://cinema-crazed.com/blog/2013/10/09/king-kong-1933/

Emanuel Levy, Emanuellevy.com, April 5th 2011

http://emanuellevy.com/review/king-kong-1933-masterpieces-of-american-cinema/

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White Highlight In Blogger: How to fix.

Hey everyone, just wanted to notify you about a problem with blogger, which highlights some of your text white once it has been posted. It can be fixed quickly by;

1. Going to Edit post on the effected post
2.Clicking HTML
3.Press CTRL+F
4. Type in White
5. Where it said's background colour white, delete only the word "White"
6. Change the Background colour of all the text to white
7. Click update and you're all done.

This is just an easier way to fix it, rather then re typing all of it back up, ill include a link to a video that helped me solve it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwev1qwEp3o

2001: A Space Odyssey Movie Review

2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick (1968) 

A " mind-bending sci fi symphony". Never has there been a more accurate description for a movie then this. 2001: A space odyssey Is one of those once in a lifetime experiences. The first time I watched this film there were so many different thought's and feelings running through my head from confusion to intrigue to down right terrified. Although we never really get too see the full story of this movie come through, as Phill hall said's "Perhaps the beauty of 2001 is appreciating that some of the best stories are the ones that are half-told" (Phill Hall) We don't need to understand the full story, Interpretation comes from the viewers ideas and thoughts, something that Kubrick has managed to succeed with through this masterpiece of film making 

As the film opens we see many beautifully framed shots of desert landscaped, encapsulating the environment that was once our world, free of human influence and destruction. After a short time we see ourselves. or what we once were. Ape like creatures with little intelligence fighting among themselves until they encounter the mysterious monolith. 

An image that all film fans and critics have ingrained into there minds as deep as King Kong hanging onto the Empire State building. A dark monolith, black as space itself surrounded by curious pre-humans. An endless choir in the background conveying a foreboding atmosphere. It is through this monolith that we evolved into the beings that we are today. Venturing into space and colonising other planets as seen in the next shot that catapults us millions of years into the future.

Kubricks designs for what life would be like in 2001 are astonishing, as is his interpretations of space and the way things would act and interact in an low gravity environment. Everything in the interior's of his ships are clean and pure white, showing how we have grown to crave perfection and cleanliness. The integration of HAL 9000, a computer AI that I would deem as the most influential AI in Film history. His monotone voice and complete lack of empathy makes him a truly terrifying, knowing that that type of software is not far out of our reach. Kubrick has created a world that is so grounded in reality whilst still being able to convey a science fiction type storyline is what truly makes this film ground breaking as explained by Smithy "With his virtuosic adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's novel, Stanley Kubrick invented the modern science fiction film". (Cole Smithy) There were many shows and movies before this that tried to explore the future and non had created as much of a masterpiece as Kubrick could.

"2001 certainly is a colossal bore, unless you're on its wavelength, in which case it's one of the greatest films of all time" (Chris Barsanti) While I agree that his movie, if not fully appreciated by the audience will bore many film goers before they even manage to reach the future sections of the story. The sound design makes you feel incredibly uncomfortable and the characters are very one faced and expressionless, However I feel that this adds to the world that Kubrick has created. In space there is nothing, no sound, no light. The characters on the shuttle have only themselves and a robotic AI who cant convey emotions. In that kind of environment I feel that people would start to become desensitized to any kind of feelings. During the scene when Dave is watching a video message from his parents, wishing him a happy birthday, he doesn't seem happy, sad or lonely. He just goes back to talking to HAL one of the only other people he has to interact too and who will eventually try to kill him.  

To sum up this movie is a spectacular science fiction movie that really pushed the boundaries of what directors can achieve, however if not watched in the right context or mindset will really grind on the audience who will be unlikely to finish the movie and get to the better parts of the film. 

Bibliography

Phill Hall, Film Snobbery, September 16, 2010
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1000085-2001_a_space_odyssey/?search=2001

Cole Smithy, ColeSmithy.com, September 3, 2010
http://www.colesmithey.com/capsules/2010/09/2001-a-space-odyssey.html (Original link is not working at this moment in time)

Chris Barsanti, FilmCritic.com, November 8, 2007
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1000085-2001_a_space_odyssey/?search=2001 (Original link is not working at this moment in time)

Exterior Shot: Tree's

Trees!!!

Start of the exterior Shot

I have begun to paint the exterior establishing shot for my interpretation of Octavia. The piece itself is very basic with only blocky color and little detail at this moment but I will be continuing with it today until it is finished.

Some feedback on the design and a particular color scheme would be nice. So comment away.

Scanned Thumbnails:

Here are some of the Newer thumbnails I have produced for the newer version of Octavia. Unfortunately the scanning quality isn't that good, probably due to the way I've drawn the images.


A newer design for the city, based on the idea of wind chimes and suspension based architecture.

Some architecture designs, there not amazing as buildings are not really my strong suit, I tried to incorporate some type of cog/mechanism into the work too try and give the buildings a bit more character and make them look more robust.

A design based off of the original, changing the chains for support beams, resembling bridges.

Some further random ideas from the day. 

Color Compositions for Octavia

Today I wanted to get a few color sketches down onto some of my more recent thumbnail's which will be uploaded shortly. I feel that some of the lighter greens and blue's seem to be working much more then the color palette of black and red that I was originally
using before I started to rethink my Ideas.

Take a look and see what you think? I could use the help right now. Personally I feel that 112 is my strongest design so far considering Jordan was the one who colored it.

Maya Pencil Character: Was saved as a draft on the blog without me realising

Here is the first character modelling tutorial. It was finished a few days ago but I had saved it as a preview and forgotten to properly publish it.

This character took me a while to get right, although you can probably see that the tongue is still a bit too thin. It seems that Maya has times when it wont let you do anything and then will switch to letting you do everything easily.

However I finally got there and am happy with the final result, even without colour.

Octavia Re-design

After the green-light, I took a day off, to generate new ideas a think of a setting that wasn't as gothic and dark as I was originally making. I eventually came up with a new design that I would like to share with everyone.

The scan isn't the best quality, due to the way I sketch but its better then a photo from my phone camera.

As you can see the design is vastly different from the other two larger images I created. Although I have retained the idea of the chains and the webs holding the city together and to the mountains.
I feel that this is a much more imaginative piece and is outside of my comfort zone and style.

There are still things I need to research and adapt but for a first idea this isn't too bad.

Robot Textures Maya tutorial