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.

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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.

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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!

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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..