Visual Forms: Sketchbook #2 (Madness)

Rethink.

I have been thinking a lot my subject, as I am not really interested in war at all. It was suggested to me that I could study Romans which is a great idea being as I am currently in Cardiff. They also had a lot of culture and art themselves which would be good to replicate and again there is a lot of Roman history in my hometown so I am never too far way from it.
One thing that really interested me with Romans was mosaics, I remember when I first learnt about them in primary school and I thought it was that best thing ever and had a go at making a few out of cut up bits of paper, I really wish I had taken it further in secondary school when I did pottery. Nevermind. Also my Nan really likes Roman history so I have a beacon of knowledge too.

Roman Mosaic

Alas, although Romans are awesome, they don't really interest me as much as .. pirates. (I, given this gift of knowledge and practically instead choose pirates.. I am a child).

I have a back up of Romans but in fairness my head is all over the place for this project. I have always been bad at sketchbooks I don't know if they should be presentable or just like I usually do them "everything everywhere all in one maybe a napkin or two, oh I drew on this receipt and half  my work is in my note book and there is a bit in another sketchbook -somewhere-" my sketchbooks are currently a mess and I hate ripping pages out to scan them in. I just can help thinking something and putting it in... maybe I can do Roman pirates ? Help.

I am going home soon and I will be going to Liverpool to have a look at the Maritime Museum and a few others in the area as well as aquariums for underwater references. I will be looking at Roman things in my town (they are pretty hard to miss anyway). On my return I will be looking in Museums in Cardiff and Newport which i know have some nautical/pirate-y things and perhaps some roman stuff too. I will look at both and see which I take too better.

Visual Forms: Sketch book.

My ongoing project is my visual studies sketch book which is due in May. To a re-cap I have to study either; processions, market places or ruined civilisation. In previous blog posts I mentioned that the most interesting topic seemed to be ruined civilisations, but it is a visual study - it has to be first hand, making it quite tricky.

Originally I wanted my work to be game based, as the project game about around the time of the release of Fallout 4 it seemed obvious that was going to be my main inspiration, but - it can't, as it is not visually first hand.

My plan has now evolved in to looking at war time technology,  being as we have advanced an awful lot since then due to how much we rely on it now. (Maybe we're the ruined civilisation- joke).

My study will begin with second hand observation, probably off the internet just to do some sketches and perhaps have a read up from some books on typewriters and code machines. My main part of the project will be visiting war museums however being located in Cardiff it is very difficult to get anything war time related at all. My best bet is my visiting home: Manchester.

Here are a few places I plan to visit for my studies, probably over a break or when I can on a free weekend:
I am planning to go to visit a war time museum in Manchester http://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-north as well as
http://www.carewcheritoncontroltower.co.uk/
http://www.watchetmuseum.co.uk/maritime/
being as there are no museums or history of ww1/2 in the museum in wales

I have an internal conflict too, as much as the game interests me, war and pretty much everything to do with it in real life is uninteresting to me. But that is bring my personal beliefs into the matter, so we'll not go there.

Another thought; I could scrap the war idea altogether and just use what I have on my doorstep, it is very much a history based topic after all and there is a beautiful museum here in Cardiff.
Although ruined civilisation seems the most interesting, it is also the one that requires the most travel/work; for processions I could use the traffic outside my window, or my footage of the carnival from my home town I got over summer. For market places, there is a very decent market place here in Cardiff and another close by in Newport, however this topic I am not interested in as I find it boring and restrictive (probably because I can see literally no excitement or variation in it - at all)
I would really like to study something that I am interested in, and am able to accomplish (and not be financially strangled).


My previous blog posts:
Oct 8th 2015
Nov 1st 2015
Dec 15th 2015

Major Project: Preproduction #2

Preproduction #2

Premise

Yesterday we had critiques on our story ideas, my story has changed quite a bit really but it does still keep the bare bones of it all (insider joke ;) ).

Here are my rough thumbnails from my story before the critique, I will be working on new ones today as well as altering my written work for premise and format today.

My original story is in a previous blog post 13/02/16, if you would like to refresh your memory.
In summary it is about a sorcerer that doesn't want to dye and takes a potion to prolong his life, however it has adverse effects and he turns into a wraith. Later a forest spirit requests that he goes peacefully into the earth the wraith refuses and the two have a battle resulting in the wraith being forcefully pulled into the earth and becoming a thistle. - It was all based on Scottish folklore.

Instead I got a suggestion off a peer that can nature suck the life back out of him and peel away his flesh to reveal the dark wraith? I thought this was a bit too dark and perhaps a bit disturbing (I am very squeemish too) So instead I think i will use an already existing prop; the hourglass on the desk and make that suck the life back out of him there for making time the enemy not nature. It still need a bit of work and I will be rewriting it over the weekend.

Enough about the story, I have done some character design, it is nearly there. I just need to get a solid construction of the character, draw up the props  and backgrounds also do a few colour tests.

Concept design

A jumble of background swatches and concepts. 

An experiment to make a night sky.

I have done quite a few tests regarding the background for this project, I am still working on the character design.
The character design is something I will be working on, on the train back to Manchester.
Whilst home I am going to find some good background references for a forest and some castles because I know a few places at home that would be perfect!





I did an experiment with a latte I had the other day by taking photos of it and inverting the colours and messing with the contrast and saturation. I think it worked pretty well, I may edit it a little bit; adding a few more stars here and there.

Major Project: Production

Preproduction

I have decided that I am doing my story on Scottish Folklore, or at least based on it. I have written the story in the structure of a folktale; in small chunks. This works well for me and my time management because it means I have formed the entire plot in to 4 bite-sized "episodes", meaning I can add the other episodes on as and when. 

Here is my premise:

An old sorcerer of the forest looks to prolong his life through unnatural means, due to the law of nature his soul is torn and he is turned into a wraith. When the unnatural wraith appears, Ghillie Dhu the forest fae appears to beacon the soul to past back into the earth. The wraith being so warped from nature it retaliates and attacks the fae, supposedly killing the creature.

The wind starts to howl and the leaves swirl of the body of the fae. Ghillie Dhu is not dead, he pulls himself up off the floor his movement is stiff and crooked, his eyes darken and skin crackles, the wind flurries through the trees making branches snap. The wraith flails in terror, Ghillie Dhu opens the earth under the wraith and it curls around it swallowing it whole, the wraiths ethereal claws get pulled through the earth, the wind dies down and where the wraith passed through grows a thistle.

REVISED EDITION, My reasoning is annotated in orange. 

First Episode:

The sorcerer, old and weary, is dying. He looks at his hourglass to find that he doesn’t have much time left and so heads to his position room for a potion to prolong his life, he drinks it and starts to rejuvenate back to a younger state, the sorcerer sees the hourglass is flowing backwards and is happy about this.

This leaves the story with a happy end, the old sorcerer lives and can continue with his magick ways. 

Second Episode:

The backwards flowing hourglass gets a crack in the glass, the youthful process is interrupted and flashes of a skull are seen within the sorcerers transformation, the sorcerer panics. He gasps for air as his hair and beard flitter away, he knocks over the remainder of the potion and collapses on the floor the room is filled with darkness, out from it eventually emerges the warped sorcerer.. He is now a wraith.

Developed further, we see that the sorcerer made a mistake and is turned into an unatural entity.  This connotates that you shouldn't stop what is inevitable. 

Third Episode:

The wraith roams the forest when Ghillie Dhu, a forest fae, crosses his path. The fae asks the wraith to return to the earth.  However the warped wraith retaliates and attacks the fae, supposedly killing the creature.

The fae is a representation of nature, and the sorcerer turned wraith is a representation of man and his power/will/greed to surpass and change natural events. 

Fourth Episode:

In a turn of events, Ghillie Dhu did not perish; he picks himself off the floor and becomes enraged. He grows more and more monstrous, he manipulated the wind to batter the wraith and then the fae opens the earth to swallow it. The wraith is pulled into the earth, the forest is restored back to its tranquillity and a thistle grows where the wraith fell. 

With the last installment the story changes again, the message becomes; no matter what you do to fight nature it wiill come back bigger and better than man, after all we are all still part of the earth. 

Major Project #2

I am leaning more towards the animation side of the project being as i want to do my own thing, although I feel i would be more at home with the Art side. It is tearing me in tow at the minute my love of art and my love of animation are equal, but the freedom of the animation route is very appealing. 

My more refined ideas for animations include: 

Inspired from my Scottish heritage, I looked up where my Clan's original homeland is, it is Loch Earn. From this I found that a creature called Each Uisage is linked to the loch (as well as others) but it could be a good starting point for a story. 

Being as the Each Uisage is a "water horse" it is very monstrous and has kelp for a mane and is often confused with a Kelpie, it lures people away and drowns them or devours them- the tales vary. the story could be perhaps one of morals for children that run too far away from their parents or misbehave. It would be very cliche.

The Wulver is a creature i have always liked as a spirit that is kind and humble, with the figure of a man and head of a wolf that leaves fish on the doorsteps of the poor and less able but is hostile/deadly when approached or antagonized. Again more of a moral story similar to "the boy who cried wolf" but more of "don't judge what you don't know" story, again rather cliche.

My strongest and favorite story would be one with my own twist and not heavily based on folklore like the other two ideas: According to folklore, a sorcerer that defies natural life by unnaturally prolonging it becomes a wraith: With this as the base of my story; a sorcerer of the forest prolongs his life unnaturally and becomes a wraith, then the forest fae Ghillie Dhu beacons the sorcerer to come to the earth and be at peace. However the wraith is too warped from nature for Ghillie Dhu to control and so strikes the peaceful fae (presumably killing it). However the fae does not die and in a "rage" Ghillie Dhu manipulates the earth into swallowing the wraith dragging back to the earth where it becomes a thistle. (Basically a story about man vs nature)

My only idea for the art route is to reinvent Yoda as a padawan, although Yoda is animated he is in a live action format so I would presume it would be allowed. His character would be basically the opposite of what is depicted in the films, thus he'd be rowdy, mischievous and perhaps fearful/hateful.

---I have drawn up my ideas for Yoda reimagining and the Ghillie Dhu which I will post at a later date ---

Preparations: Major Project

Preparations

We have not been given the brief to this module yet, but I know it is just around the corner. What I do know is that we can make a show reel or a film.

I think I would like to make a film, however I want to take the art route on this course and I don't know if the film is the art route.

My initial ideas

I would like to make a film about fantasy creatures and/or scenarios, I would love to have a forest setting with all kinds of wildlife, I would stick to British wild life for now because that currently is the wildlife I know most about and can reference better. I plan on taking a trip to a local petting zoo to study some animals as well as get reference footage.
Secondly, I have also had this image in my head that is set far in the past, perhaps quite Nordic and Pagan, again I would have to research this as currently I am too ignorant on the topic.

Another thought was a Boadicea like character charging through the woods with her animal companions, obviously very stylized as it is purely an inspiration not a representation. (You probably guessed it was kind of Miyazaki inspired, Celtic Mononoke).

I may also want to do an animation on my heritage, my family is from Scotland originally although, I am born in England. It would be about the clans of Scotland, again it will be based in the distant past and involve folklore. I have been very inspired by films such as Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, obviously Brave (which could of been better story-wise, but I am not going to write a review now).

One thing is for sure, its roots and theme will be ancient/ historic Britain. and it will have fantastical twists.

I was very inspired by the animations Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea 

Advance Animation Technique: E4 Stings & 1 second animation.

Brief

For this module we had to do 1 E4 sting or 5, 1 second animations. I opted for the 1 second animations. 

The hand in is today; 18/1/16. and recently i have been a bit overwhelmed by the amount of work i have needed to do, not just university work, just trying to juggle life in general. 

Here is my self assessment of how i dealt with this project;

"I feel i could of handled this project a lot better, once again the time organisation was an issue for me, it is a issue i really have to focus on with my next project.

For this project i really wanted to animate traditionally, however the brief states i animate in flash or TV paint, none of which i have much experience in which will be another skill i need to improve on. Unfortunately I missed the lecture on flash due to my house signing which had been arranged before Christmas. I feel this hindered me as it would of been useful, and prepared me a lot more.

Due to personal issues around the time of the brief, i feel that i have not given this project as much input as i could have done. Just a note, none of my issues were severe just that there were a lot all at the same time, mostly finance related."

I think I could of done more research, really Christmas is a killer for me because it stopped my motivation. Dead. I wasn't meant to be going back home this year because i knew i had enough work to do, but as always I gave in and went home. It was a nice break though. 

So far me "kicking" this year in the face has not gone too well, i was meant to really up my game this year, but personally I don't think i have. 

Research

I looks up some videos and made some of my own reference material for my skull and high five animations. I also looked at the shapes and colours of coffee cups that i think would work well with the colour scheme, i thought the bright purple didn't go very well. I will upload videos at a later date once my work has been marked. 

PUBLISHED : 18/01/16 @ 12:16