Evaluation

It is hard to evaluate my progress over a whole year as so much has happened and we have learnt so much. I was really pleased with my practical projects, I liked the outcomes, particularly the filming. The blogs I find really difficult. I need to give them more time. Some of them I had time to give more thought to and these turned out much better so I want to make sure that I give myself more of a routine with the blogs and lecture attending, so that I am more on the ball with stuff and able to do a little bit but often to keep on top of it. I find it hard to express myself in writing, maybe that’s why I prefer the practical stuff. I also got mumps just as I was getting it all ready in the end, and this was a real disaster. I know I got an extension but I felt so tired and the distance also made me feel distanced from the course as I was quarantined in my room and couldn’t see anyone. So I have struggled with the last bits of the course which is a pity as I would have like dot go out on a higher note! For example i was quarantined in my room and was not a loud to see anyone so i did not do a presentation. I have overall though learnt so much in this first year and I am really looking forward to the rest of the course now i all so believe i will have to put a lot more effort in to next year as i do not think i put enough effort in.

cyriax (lecture)

i love cyriaks work, the shorts are funny and so original, everything works, the music adn the weirdness. he must be a weird guy, but it makes me think of salvador dali and his surreal art, especially the teddys on the seafront, with a giant pigeon riding on top of a car kind of incidentally. i thinkits brilliant, it is hard to be original these days, but htis really is original. the music also adds to the surreal ascpect of the short films. and the special effects are so not how sepcial effects are normally applied, so excellent and inspirational.

Writing an evaluation (lecture)

Writing and evaluating your work is a really important tool in the creative process. We evaluate things in many ways without necessarily thinking about it. when you design or create something you are always looking at it and seeing what you could change, that is a kind of evaluation. At college when we have to write an evaluation really we are trying to show the tutor that we are able to objectively look at our work and see what we could have done better or differently and hopefully this means that the next piece of work will be an improvement as you have shown that you are learning as you go. At college an evaluation is basically an academic exercise, an essay with an introduction saying what you are evaluating, and the main text where you say the things that went well and those that could have gone better and a conclusion where you may want to think about the reasons for certain decisions or lack of progress. This process is really useful for students as it forces you to reflect on what you have done and this should hopefully register somewhere the mistakes you don’t want to make again. It is also useful in work, after each job or process and evaluation is a really good tool for analysing what you have done and what you could do better.

Social networking ( Lecture )

Social networking sites such as twitter and Facebook though relatively recent have really taken off dramatically since their introduction, the most popular and well known being Facebook, this was started by a Harvard college student and has really changed the way people communicate with each other. Of course there is a link with all this to the copyright issues, but in general it is now easy to communicate with all your friends and colleagues – at least all of them that are using the same site as you, for example Facebook, at the one time so information can be shared really rapidly. This is particularly effective as the rise of handheld media devices and smart phones means that people are much more contactable than they would have been even 20 years ago. This is a useful tool for those who have an issue they want to share, look how information was able to be broadcast from Tahrir square in the recent uprising sin Egypt, using social media to spread the word. Also the riots in London last year were thought to have spread and grown so quickly because of this new media technology. This also give people a chance to showcase their talents, Justin Beiber, one of the most successful recent pop artists was discovered after singing on YouTube. These days aspiring agents for example need to be fully fluent in the use of social media so they can be ready to approach the next big thing, it is not just a case of trawling around clubs and bars looking at live acts any more. These sites also give people a great way of sharing what they are doing with their peer groups and gauging reactions. They have transformed communications. Of course there are problems with exploitation; it is easy to pretend to be someone you are not on line. Copyright remains an issue too. And of course issues such as privacy and internet bullying are all the downsides of the new communications, but as time goes on I am sure this will evolve and also people will get better at protecting themselves. Politicians and governments are interested in controlling this type of communication, obviously they can monitor emails and internet use, and it will be interesting to see how this develops.

Skim reading ( lecture )

Skim reading is a really useful tool for a student, it basically means a technique of reading in such a way that you skim over the text picking out the key words so that you get the gist of the text without getting bogged down in all the language. It is of course important to do it correctly so that you so not mis-interpret the text and get the right “gist”! It is interesting to note that studies show ( see skim reading for dummies series) that people can skim read written text much faster in book format than on a computer screen. It is important to read the opening and closing or concluding paragraphs carefully though to make sure that what you are skimming off the text is the right stuff! Ti takes some practise but without realising it we all skim read a lot of the time anyway, modern journalism with its sound bites is made for skimming, you can jump from bite to bite and really get the nub of the argument or point of view. I find that it is useful to read the important intro and conclusion paragraphs and then scan through the document for key words used in those, and then to skim read to see if you can glean the gist, much faster than reading the text word for word, and practise – which I need – makes this an easier thing to achieve, important for those like me who are a bit daunted by a huge text.

Copyright laws (lecture)

Copyright law is about getting the benefit for something that is you intellectual property. This means that you get the credit for your ideas in theory and protects the creator from others using and profiting from their ideas and creations. The use of downloading and internet stores like iTunes has really opened up lots of problems for copyright as it is harder to track down those selling yoru ideas or songs for example, but as the internet develops the controls are getting better and this seems to be becoming less of an issue. In the UK the applicable law is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and this is applicable to films and other creative media. More recently The Digital Economy Act has become law in the UK and this is itself being accused of being big brother ish and not dealing with the real issues, along with being very expensive. It is attempting to deal with tracking down the culprits but by trying to make it harder for them to avoid responsibility, there are accusations that it means that eg big bosses in a company can be held accountable for one errant employees actions. It is a start though, and I suspect there will be much negotiating til a suitable compromise is reached, this is of course important, without copyright there is no incentive really to design new things, it will be interesting to see how this develops.

Gears of war

This is the game that got me into online gaming big time, I feel like I did nothing else for a while, the online aspect of the game as you are interacting with other real people rather than just playing the computer which is so much better and you can get to know how people think. The graphics were the best of their kind at the time too, really amazing, I liked it much more than all the first person shooters, this was the first third person shooter I played and I could really lose myself in the game. It was a really useful tool for me in getting through some personal traumas as I could get lost in this. The graphics are fantastic too, the colours bleak, fantastical and gritty.

Dennis the menace downfall in my opinion

I looked at some Dennis the menace cartoons, 1st from when I was a kid, and again the more recent animated series, I don’t like how the voices are, and I think it is important to keep the voices the same or it spoils it, Dennis wasn’t northern in the first series but suddenly he is, in the future if I were to do something like this I would want to keep this in mind. It is strange as the characters are animated and so look almost exactly the same, but the voice changed, also the story lines are a bit different, maybe this is just to keep it contemporary. The old style animating works so much better in my opinion, the rough edges add something to it. I think the series I watched as a kid was truer to the original comic strip, crisper animation, the newer one seems to have been made to appeal to say America or something the streetscapes and backgrounds are much more bland and kind of could be anywhere.

SB TV

This is a YouTube programme showcasing new rap and beat box artists and other musical genres started,off little and has taken off and become quite a big thing now with a lot of followers. Of course I like this as its my kind of music and I am a beat boxer, but I like the way you can make a programme now without having a production company behind you and with the internet and social networking this can become a big thing and develop into something more. This show has a mixture of new talent and well known artists, always worth checking out.

My uncles old company the mill

I have posted this as I did work experience in this company when I was at sixth form college and this was really inspirational and encouraged me to get into this field. I got to work on some big adverts, saw all the different software they use watched them make a nokia ad and apply the special effects, really interesting and really nice working environment. I think doing something creative is a great job, as you work hard but it is interesting and you really get job satisfaction at the end of the day when you see what you and your team have come up with. I was working as a runner, which was a good training, and it felt really trendy, in soho, cool creative people. I have posted this as I did work experience in this company when I was at sixth form college and this was really inspirational and encouraged me to get into this field. I got to work on some big adverts, saw all the different software they use watched them make a nokia ad and apply the special effects, really interesting and really nice working environment. I think doing something creative is a great job, as you work hard but it is interesting and you really get job satisfaction at the end of the day when you see what you and your team have come up with. I was working as a runner, which was a good training, and it felt really trendy, in Soho, cool creative people. Even though my uncle worked there, I had to go for interviews to get this work experience, and I do know how competitive it is and how hard it will be to get into this after college.

Gold farmers

As a gamer I am aware of this trend, gold farming, basically the ability to buy a head start in a game when you don’t have the time (or possibly the ability) to build it up for yourself. So basically someone else does the ground work for you and you pay them for the service. This ahs got tob e about as far away from what my mum would call “a proper job” that is is possible to be! The site – www.chinesegoldfarmers.com is a site about a documentary looking into this phenomenon. It is so interesting, purist gamers think you shouldn’t be able to buy your way in like this, others think it is ludicrous to earn a living in such a virtual way. It is certainly far removed from doing a traditional job, linked to your surroundings and for your actual community, such as building, or farming. Bt it does get these workers involved in a virtual community and to meet up with others doing the same thing while playing the games they love, but is this going too far? And is it really any different from buying a “cheat” book like you used to be able to do when I started gaming?

Unreported world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amcHV9cdijo I always try to watch this programme on channel 4, though I end up watching it on channel 4 od. They report on otherwise unreported issues in remote places and areas where other reporters may not dare to go as it is so dangerous. I think this is a big difference in the world today that we can get so much more information about other places and other ways of life because of digital camera technology making equipment so much more portable, even mobile phone cameras can be used, and this can be a force for change in the world as issues come up that might otherwise be unreported. I think I like to see that stuff I could do could actually have an effect or even help other peoples lives, and this is very powerful. Perhaps now more than ever people can really make a difference as they can drum up internet support for their cause and this is motivating.

Gorillaz

I think Gorillaz have a great concept, they use animation and keep their real identities hidden. The animation is so cool and was really a new thing when they first came out, also the music is really good, and I think its cool that they do it for the music not for the fame as such. One of the things I would like to do with the stuff I learn from this course is to have the capability to do something like this myself. Animation really is an important medium today, and this use of animation is brilliant. They have created a style of character which has sort of become their brand if you like. The animation sequences themselves are great, they feel like the sets for a game, but with the music and instruments playing the biggest part in it.

this film released this year, is again a political satire,Again it has caused some controversy, all critics agree that this is a provocative film, it is all the usual things, racist, sexist, etc but the edge is lost somehow by the fact that Sacha Baron Cohen is of course now so well known that there is really no humour in this anymore for me, same old jokes, different characters, though of course up to date and even though I didn’t think it was great, it did make me laugh, in a guilty sort of way! The main character is loosely based on Gaddafi, the recent Libyan dictator, and footage of Sarkosy and Hillary Clinton talking about Gaddafi as though talking about this fascistic dictator from northern Africa. Throughout this and his other films, there are lots of anti- Semitic comments and footage, and I think that perhaps this is seen to be ok as Sacha Baron Cohen is himself Jewish, but this must be flawed eh? I think that this kind of assumes that the people watching are of the same mind as you, but of course you can’t assume that, and while it is ridiculous to think that this kind of blatant satire could somehow make people think it was ok to be anti jewish, anti women etc, it is not a risk I would want to take, there are enough crazy people out there that will see this kind of film as somehow making it ok to tell dodgy and offensive jokes. Where to draw the line eh…

borat

I recently saw the film Borat again, this film was released in 2006, and the first time i saw it i thought it would have a been a good laugh as I like the character Ali G, also one of the main actor Sacha Baron Cohen’s caricatures. Well, to be honest I though the film a bit silly, some bits were funny, but the main thread of the film is that the tow main characters, Borat and his aide, along with Pamela Anderson, are the only actual actors in the film and the other s are all filmed documentary style, believing that Borat really is from Kazakhstan, and a journalist making a documentary about the great U S and A! so though it is funny I think it is a bit unfair to laugh at people like that and is kind of like tricking people. The film caused so much controversy, cited as being anti-Semitic, homophobic and sexist to name a few … but the fact that these subjects are raised in the film, does not mean that the film is those things surely, especially as it is a comedy and really I think it is making fun of those who are sexist, homophobic etc The films whole title is Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan which is clearly a dig at poor use of English, and it would be hard to see this film as anything other than satire or comedy. There are so many things wrong with the film, the languages used are not in fact Kazak, but Armenian, Hebrew and some Russian, and there are other (presumably deliberate) inaccuracies. So what do I think of the film, well, not great to be honest, funny, but in an uncomfortable way as you are laughing at someone for their stupidity, and they aren’t in on the joke, so it makes you feel like you shouldn’t laugh, but you do, so you feel a bit bad about it. It is shot documentary style, with moving cameras and you feel like you are watching a documentary but then it is funny. It also seemed a bit old hat actually after just 7 years, and I need to think about why that is, and why some films,, like the Agnes Varda avant garde films, stand the test of time so much better. If I do eventually make something to show, I would like to think it could last a bit better. Maybe it is the humour that is dated.

The assassination of Jessie James

One of my favourite films a while back was the film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. (2007) The way this film plays out really draws you in even though you do know what is going to happen, from history and of course from the title itself! What is interesting is looking at how the characters develop and how Rob Ford’s obsession with Jesse James turns into an opportunity for him to be someone. The development of his character is steady and chilling, whereas the character of Jesse is much more edgy. The film itself is shot at a slow pace, with slow piano or guitar music (mostly) and in very sharp focus so you feel like you get to know the characters, you know that most of Jesses gang are dead or in prison and he is using this Robert guy in desperation really, and also out of a need to keep doing what he does. I love how the film is slow paced and yet draws you into it completely, it is more about whats going on in his head than a traditional gun slinging western, you realise that Jesse actually is fed up with his life, the great days of him as a hero are over, he wants to die, and realises that this Robert Ford is his man, weak, obsessed and in need of the reward money, and he sets out to ensure that if he kills him, he will not get to be the hero, but that Jesse will remain the hero even after death. The cinematography was amazing they used old camera lenses taped over the cameras to give a blurred effect to the film edges like the old style movies, and, for example used some bleaching to enable the scene with the train robbery – held at night- have a bit more contrast and to be more realistic the only light coming from the carriage lamps, as it would have been.

Final game done in unity

SCENEOGRAPHY – REFINED BRIEF Name :Finn barmer Project Brief : FAIRYTALE Project Title : Castel/Goblin village in a swamp Broad Audience : Child / Teen Mood / Atmosphere : Tranquil Scene Description A decayed village / castle in a swamp Time of Day : 9 pm EXTERIOR Explanation / Backstory of Scene : Many years ago their once lived a family of goblins in a swamp. The village had to be abandoned for various reasons not known to you the player. It has been said that in this village lays a forbidden treasure of great value and mystical powers. Many people have ventured into the village but no one has ever come out. Your mission is to explore the village in search of it but beware of what’s around the corner as it may just kill you.

While researching ideas for swamps I came across this site explaining the though processes behind a series of games, very similar to the idea I had been coming up with, though this was a later world being develop in a series o settings. This image above was a fisrt idea where the designers had come up with another planet where everything was metal. I love this image, the steaminess is great, in this case they thought it too industrial and after a lot of brainstorming came up with the design below which they used as a base for their next game setting. http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/feature/194 “You can see that this first concept by Carl Critchlow, while very beautiful, looks too industrial. The color pallet of browns and blacks is too expected. We wanted to try and get some bright-green color in to represent the corrosive necrogen mist that devours everything living in the Mephidross Swamp. I had this idea that the necrogen could bubble out of the ground, like lava does in the Pacific. I wanted to see bubbling sores on the metal plane’s surface that built up as the necrogen oozed out. Mark Tedin went to work, and by his third sketch he had something we could use.”

Basically they eventually came up with this design for a swamp,. Which is much more organic but I like the colour palette they have used, and the graphics for the swamp too, kind of fairytale like but also gritty with the dark colours mingling with bright greens, I like how with these images you think you recognise the landscape but when you look closer you realise that they are not made form materials you are expecting and though it looks like a ruin, you cannot be sure that it is not something that is growing rather than decaying.

this image also came up in the research, I like the idea of the building being absorbed back into the earth, another advantage of using timber, but the image is not at all what I want to create, but I like the theme of the building being eaten up by its environment and might try to develop this.

While looking for images of decaying buildings I found this shot by a Michigan photographer in an article about decay in Michigan, USA.” Photographing Michigan” I love this image, at first I thought it was a drawing…it has a magical quality,and I want to have a magical quality in my game. The clouds are awesome. I think I want to develop this idea about decay and so I am going to look at doing my building for my assignment in timber, this gives great textures, and also eventually the game could use the decay, floors could collapse etc, also I like the sounds that will be available with this kind of structure, creaking and groaning of a timber structure in a humid swamp like setting.

I found this image of structures built on swamps, I like the contrasting sloping piers and the almost ludicrous idea that you can use a timber structure in such an unsuitable setting!! This also made me think about stilts, possibly another element for the games development, what is going on in the swamp below the castle..for example.

Assets for my game with texture

All my Maya work for my scene

the witcher is also interesting, the animated film has an interesting use of coolour for the action scenes and and almost black and white background wihich is a ogod effect. i like the animated peics in this, but i think the characters movement is very wooden and not that well done. the animated weapons and boat etc works well and this along with a lot of use of slow motion are really effective for the fighting scnenes which i guess is what this game trailer is all about. The frozen bodies is interesting but derivative, i think these were better done in Narnia, where the speical effects mixed with live accotrs and were much more realistic, obviously i suppose! I still like this as it has a game feel, i think it has an eerie feel, due to the sound track and the slow motoin,but the inanimate objects work best, the shattering of the boat and the arrows work really well. i guess the fact taht the characters do'nt look so real makes the game a bit more appealing as it is clear that this is animation and so the gore is less offensive.

ppp1

I like the reeps one short as i really like the use of stop motion animation in this other context, it makes the beatboxing more appealing as it minimises the bizarre facial expressions that are inevitable while still making you realise that it is him doing the sounds and that they all come from his mouth...this makes me see what a useful tool stop motion is, and how it can apply to more than just film making as story telling etc. this appeals i do a lot of beatboxing myself so i can relate to this.

Dave kendall

http://www.rustybaby.com/index.php?type=gallery#

I really find the illustrations of David Kendall interesting, they seem very detailed but yet quite childlike (I’m not really sure that they are that good in fact technically) and so they are quite intriguing. I quite like the pencilly effect and this reminds me of rendering in traditional animations and also it clearly indicates that this is fantasy, not fact, adds to the feel of the game and lets your imagination run riot as you don’t have to be limited by what could really happen.

Sucker Punch ppp1

I decided to watch the film Sucker Punch as it was by the same creators as the film 300 witch was epic. I found the film fascinating even though the story line was crazy and for most of it i had no idea what was going on but the ending concluded alot of confusion and answered the mysteries. The things i liked most about this film were that is was very fast paced and this kept my hunger for action. The camera angles were thought through a lot. The bits of animation were astounding the level of detail must of taken hours and hours of hard work witch gave an outcome of brilliance. I know this as in the modules i have countered in this course have been on animation. In the future i would like to be able to produce something similar to these if i go down that path. This film has also given me a few ideas on things i will do next year. For example i want to produce a fast paced movie and try to add in my own bits of animation to give the movie added effect.

NoahBradley concept art ppp1

Noah bradley "I am a concept artist & illustrator who specializes in environment art. My clients include Deep Silver, WotC, AEG, and FFG. I have been published in ImagineFX, Spectrum 18, and Exposé 9. For a more detailed look at my experience, you can download my résumé".(http://www.noahbradley.com/)

This artist has inspired me greatly by his work the two pieces of art work up above are just a taste of his talent,he specializes in environment art. The way he uses scale to create these amazing pieces of art got me interested at first. The detail in his work is also divine as he uses a minimum amount of colour which is something i try to do in my work. In my eyes he makes you believe that you are the person in his creation and that you are the one looking up at this great monster and or landscape. It makes me want to just jump into the picture and experience the view for myself. I all so found out by looking at his Facebook page and how he has become a freelance artists makes me think if i stick at my artwork i could go down the same path as him.

ppp1

Then thinking about the two short trailers from the Bristol film festival, I was thinking about how things aren’t always what they seem and that is an important tool for a filmmaker. And then I saw this music video, similar to the knit n purl in many ways, cool music, simple background, and then interspersed with lyrics which flash on the screen – is that FUTURA again!! – and this innocent kind of retro video, a bit like the start of Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” dance sequence, but the lyrics that flash up are what would be considered obscene, not that you can really make them out until you read them. I think its brilliant. I love a surprise!

ppp1

While trying to do a bit of background reading, I came across this short film festival in Bristol, which has a website. I looked at the 2010 shorts of the submissions for the festival and picked two that I liked, to look at and think about. This one called Knit n Purl is on the face of it a cute kind of trailer for an animated couple of knitted characters. You watch it and feel like its kind of relevant as knitting as a hobby has become strangely popular again recently, there have been many “random acts of knitting” for example knitted bar covers on a pedestrian bridge in Bristol appeared as if by magic, there have been other inanimate objects that have had covers knitted for them too around the country. So anyway, this short makes you think that this is worth watching, it links into your subconscious in a kind of way. It seems cute. But then at the end, it turns a bit dark and the knitting character that has used part of the other character to make a small doll, which makes you think that this is going to be about parenting or something. Turns into a voodoo moment, which is really surprising, and quite disturbing, so now I want to see the whole film as though I felt in was interesting in a passive sort of way, now I think, well I don’t know what this will be about but it’s surprising, and I find myself quite drawn into it. Plus I do like the simple looking stop-motion animation, no background, a bit like the Pixar credit with the lamp that you see all the time… (in style anyway) This one grabbed me as I had just been looking at a short anime about the font FUTURA - http://vimeo.com/33434885 - and i think the titles of this are in that font! I like this style of plasticine type animation, so I watched on. This is a simple animation with a small character, who gets caught in the lift doors and comes – presumably – to a squishy end, as the lift then moves up to the next floor. Again dark but in a tom and jerry kind of way, not scary, certainly not threatening, but seems to be designed to make you laugh, a lot of this is because of the soundtrack which makes it light-hearted. If there was different music and sounds from the character, then the feeling would change completely, which is an interesting thought in itself.

Palenque ruin

this kind of image of the ruins in Palenque might work instead of a castle, I like all the steps and all the tall trees over shadoiwing the ruin.

Research

maybe there could be a castle like this in a swamp…

Research for the making of my swamp

I looked at some images of alligator skulls, I think it would be good to have some parts of dead animals and skulls/skeletons for example protruding from bits of the swamp and forest, I think this would add atmosphere and the feeling that things are lurking where your back is turned…I would also like to add some splashes in the swamp water, maybe these are drips from the trees above, or maybe the alligator closing in on me…I think the shadowy and green scene in a rainforest swamp would be great for a game level, your imagination would run riot… When I was looking for images of splashes I found this image of a castle from conan, brilliant, now I have to think about how that would work with the swamp l I don’t see why not really..

this image is from - http://www.benitogallego.com/viewImage.php?image=209 tough the image of the temple at Palenque maybe would work better as there are lots of options with the stairs etc, from the outside, so a simpler set to achieve. And here are some splash ideas, I love how you don’t really know what has caused a splash unless you are looking at the bit of water all the time, you see it after it is almost finished usually.

I am also thinking that maybe I could add to the atmosphere by having distorted reflections in the splashes and ripples, kind of subtle distortions so that you maybe don’t at first notice them but then when they do they can freak you out.

These are some images from swamps in New Orleans, in Louisiana. It is interesting how anything man made seems to be decaying, it is a hard environment to maintain a hut in, very humid and damp. and with rising and falling water levels. I like the huge trees in the swamp with not much foliage at low level, they look really spooky, I think they would work well in a game. Also I am just thinking, should the character travel by boat…

First ideas on my game design

I want to look at a game level which involves a swamp and a desereted castle, so i need to research types of trees, as i want this to be realistic, what trees would you find in an old swamp and what type of castle would there be. am i looking at a particular continent for example...i could use a mexican rainforest setting, and an old ruined temple like that at Palenque, which i have been to i think this would be a green kind of colour scheme, as this was in a rain forest. or should i go for something darker, more european, say like Bavaria or a setting from a dracula film.. or something magical like maybe the film Avatar which was a lot of blue colors or like in star wars... which was more like a real forest but where the trees were bigger with rope bridges etc.. or the cartoon film the rescuers, set in New Orleans swamp with decaying houses all around... do i wnat to put bones into the swamp give a bit of atmosphere. what is the feeling of the level, is it gloomy and scary or is it surprisingly scary? shoudl it start out nice and then change over the course of the level...light day to night i need to give some movement to the foliage too to make it more realistic, maybe moving leaves to imply that something is coming but maybe its just the wind..

History of Advertising

The advertising industry was effected greatly by the large scale printing and developing that was introduced in the 19c.This printing break through Led to many people starting to advertise all their products in color to appeal to a greater audience. Then color TV came along this was the beginning of ads that used technology to display their products in a variety of different ways. This boomed the sales as the color was just to appealing to a lot of people as it drew people them in very quickly.

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Fashion as photography

The lecture looked at specifically pfashion photography which was interesting, many of the images shown are of course well known and the lecture puts thi into context which was interesting for me, as it makes me realise how much you absorb wihtout thinking about it. the photos by Cecil Beaton in the 1920s are really well known inteernationally, but the lecture brings his style into the context of hi shaving worked as a set designer and hence hi sknowledge of set design etc, which is evident in his photographs. this is a great shot by Beaton and the mise en scene is interesting, almost theatrical. the lecture also highlighted that fashion photography is sometimes depciting waht is happening in socisety and current trends and sometimes it is creating new trends, it is a pwerful force in our society, probably more so now than previously as we have so much more media bombardment.

French new wave cinema

The film pointe courte is interesting and is the start of french new wave cinema. of pointe courte and can almost feel how exciting it must have been to be there at the start of new wave french cinema. This also touches on the idea of high and low culture, Varda used real working class people from Sete where she spent her adolescence, along with hig brow famous actors from paris as the main two characters who are visiting to see if their marriage is worth saving, this is so interesting as it was such a low budget film that they did not even record sound with the film, it also had existential undertones, and a low key pace intermingling ponderous thoughts on relationships with tragic lives of poor fisher people in Sete, with lots of shots of day to day images of houses and boats and everyday life.This is so far removed from the hactic pace of many modern films and i would love to get a chance to try to re create a film like this b ut would this be possible in a modern setting, though life in the languedoc where this film is set is still fairly sleepy in many ways and it may be interesting to tyr and shoot some film in Sete again, my mum lives near there so maybe i could tie that in with a visit!

Posters influenced by Saul bass

I really enjoyed doing the research for the essay on Film title sequences and the artwork done by Saul Bass i find particularly inspiring, and i know i am not alone in that! I thought it would be interesting to try to use some iconic film posters such as Kill Bill and images such as Elmer Fudd and the implication of Bugs Bunny and try to see if i could create my own film poster and i am really pleased with the results. I like the visual impact of the blood with the kids cartoon cahracters, and this kind of makes the posters seem a bit eerie, in the same way that shots of dolls , as kids toys, are used in horror films, and give an eerie edge. The blood in the original poster for Kill Bill is interesting as it clearly indicates that the film will be violent,in the same way the trickle of blood used in the opening titles sequences for james bond films indicates a foretatse of what is to come. I tried to stick with the same theme in my other poster by finding a poster with the same characteristics as the kill bill poster.i also like saul bass's minimal use of colour and think this adds clarity to the image, i tired to use as few colours as possible and this makes the image clearer and the blood more striking. I also wanted to play with the idea that kids cartoons are generally extremely violent and that this is seen as ok for kids as the characters are cartoon and not people generally, i'm not sure i agree that cartoon violence is ok for kids, but wanted to explore the idea of seeing real blood in a cartoon, and Kill Bill is one of the most violent non horroro films i could think of.

Avant - Garde

Avant-garde This term when used in enlgish is a adjective or noun to refer to works or people that could be known as being experimental or innovative,especially with respect to art, culture,and politics. Avant-garde is another way some people (artists) try to push the boundaries of what is accepted (the norm),primarily in the cultural realm. The existence of the avant-garde is considered by some to be a hallmark of modernism,as distinct from postmodernism. I suppose most artists and film makers who do their jobs for love of the art, rather than purely for commercial reasons, want to be seen as avant-garde in some way, but is this really possible when so many turns and innovations have already been made. This is why many ideas get re-hashed in a modern context as everyone wants to be doing something new, or groundbreaking. Looking at the lectures on French new wave cinema, the film Pointe Courte was truly avant-garde, in its mixing of high and low cultures, low budget and use of everyday people and scenes.

Modernism and Film

Modernism in films is very hard to define.
The camera angle and the other space that is outside of the plot nd narrative becomes of more importance as the film maker tries to alter our experience of the film.
Or rather the film becomes about your experience of it.
Though this type of fim making generally fell out of favour with the onset of WW2, i do find it interesting, and wonder if the surreal approches would be good to use in an animation that i do.
I think that the altered state they represent could be relevant to youth culture today, especially the kind of highs people get linked the type of music in some club scenes.

Un chien Andalou (1928)
This film is really interesting, ther eare bizarre scenes, designed by the famous surreal artist salvador dali, and the narrative gets interposed with close up gruesome shots of an eye being sliced and a cloud floating past the moon the two images being similar in thie movement. it is so hard to get your head around, but i think it is a great example of the genre of film broadly called modernist. it is crazy to think how this must have been seen in the time it was made, when the world was so different and the development of special effects with no CG for example.

Context of typography for moving image

300
Lightning illuminated titles. “Probably the quickest titles ever,” says Yu. The main end titles memorably employ 3-D blood splashed upon 2-D images to provide a clear link to the source material of Frank Miller’s graphic novel. The creative process was unusual in that Yu worked with Snyder’s team from start to finish, including work for the project’s initial pitch. Snyder himself has explained his appreciation of the titles as an integral part of a film: “I look at title sequences as part of the movie, not just as a way to get people’s names up on the screen.”

To elaborate on the paragraph above i believe this title sequence was made to drag you into the film straight away.I feel that this title sequence was constructed in an artistic manor as it all seems to be hand drawn (silhouettes).
I strongly agree with what Synder said “I look at title sequences as part of the movie, not just as a way to get people’s names up on the screen.” as this title sequence is very graphic just like the film.

Post modern film and games

In a way the relationship between cinema and post modern film is similar to graffit and its relationship with art, as each take parts of a recognised genre and redefine them. i need to give this more thought, but i think its interesting.
It is interesting to think that Once Upon a Time in the West and 24 Hour Party People are both post modern, though so different in setting and era.

I want to think about what it is that is similar with these two films, what is the essence that makes them post modern? i think the similarities are in the production and the art direction, seemingly insignificant details are honed in on, things may not follow a logical sequence, but all of these add to the atmosphere of the film.

This makes me think about defining post modern film
"post·mod·ern (pst-mdrn)
adj.
Of or relating to art, architecture, or literature that reacts against earlier modernist principles, as by reintroducing traditional or classical elements of style or by carrying modernist styles or practices to extremes: "It [a roadhouse]is so architecturally interesting . . . with its postmodern wooden booths and sculptural clock" (Ruth Reichl)."
this is a definition from thefreedictionary, an online dictionary
so the definition is farily broad, perhaps more like to cubism in art than graffitti??

Graffiti,street art and animation

This lecture really interested me probably because i lived in bristol to do my art foundation and banksy is of course very much part of life there and so there are lots of discussions about graffitti and street art and which is which

I have seen the famous german graffited house before and while looking for it again i found this , this is interesting, graffitti is often associated with politics and squatting... as well as with vandalism, is the truth somewhere bewteen these ideas, or can it be both at the same time. when is graffitti acceptable, is that when it crosses the line to become art and who is to judge that.

http://www.whattoseeinparis.com/fr/rivoli-squatters-paris/
This is an example of the banksy graffitti that was painted over in Stoke Newington where i grewup, i remember this! i thik this is a really good exampleof how what is art to one person is graffiti/vandalism to another. see the link below to article about this in the guardian

this is so camp it isn’t true, just brilliant family entertainment, great sound effects, doesn’t take itself seriously at all, so cool in a kitsch way I guess now. The bright colours, the shaky sets, the “pow” noises, something of its own kind, not like anything else, I loved it, you could act this out as a kid. And you alwys knew the good guys would win of course, that was the whole point. Then as time goes on everything gets a bit darker, love the new films too, but not sure that they would be suitable for me at the age I started watching batman films way back. They are actually scary, my little brother (11) couldn’t watch the dark knight, it really freaked him out, the old 60s film just wouldn’t have done that at all. So anyway I love these films and I think they get better as time goes on and the films develop. the latest batman film, the dark knight rises, being penned as the last batman film, is really looked forward to! So I have only seen the trailer of course using the star spangled banner hauntingly sung by a young boy in a football stadium in the USA, cutting to the cockney michael caine butler, with seemingly amazing special effects and real suspense, amazing, a whole new kettle of fish, and I can’t wait to see it. this for me has amazingly managed to add a touch of reality to a ludicrously fantasy story, so you think, what if…while you are watching it…what an achievement really, I’d love to be bale to do that, let your imagination run riot but yet with a veneer of “ this might really be possible “ alongside. Cool.

Test scene

Unity Web Player | test scene

« created with Unity »

3 point light tutorial

Truck motion path

This was the final outcome i got when i went through the tutorial on motion paths.

Bouncing ball tutorial

This is a bouncing ball i made on maya using a tutorial i found online as i had been ill and the ball file off the VLE wouldn't open up on my computer so i improvised.

Final scene with color for animation

These are still pictures from my Maya animation set. I tried to use as little colors as possible as i think less is more. I recon i could of still used less colors but this is something i can think about for future projects.

Maya concept art using Photoshop

These are a few of my drawings i done before i made my animation you could call it concept art i also tried to base my characters on.

New storyboards for final animation

This was the plan i had for my new animation as after we had discussed as a group about are animations it made me change my mind and to add a bit of narrative to the animation.