Personal Work: #Inktober2017 - Days 6 - 10

Personal Work: #Inktober2017 - Days 1 - 5

This year I decided to participate in Inktober. These are the first five pieces I've done following the official Inktober prompt list: 

Maya Tutorial: Arnold Practice - Old Man (Model by Eat 3D)

Ambient Occlusion

Wireframe

Skin (Original)

Skin (Colour Corrected)

Minor/Major Project: Further Thoughts/Influences

The Book:

The book I would like to write as an old, Victorian-style journal, with sketches/studies of the different creatures, parts of maps showing where the writer has traveled and where the creatures were found.

The Writer: 

The the character writing the journal will be a renowned explorer and cryptozoologist called Adelaide Rodriques. Adelaide travels all over the world looking for rare creatures and documents them in her journal, as well as collecting physical proof for her home and eventually her exhibition at the museum. Though the journal may only contain a couple of images of her, I wanted to get a feel for how she would dress and hold herself.

The Poster/s:

 The poster/s will be for a museum exhibition showcasing  Adelaide's findings from across the world. I looked at old posters as well as posters from the Dishonored games to find the kind of style I was looking for.

Style:

For style I looked at games that use simple models with painterly textures. Life is Strange has clearly visible brushstrokes in all of its textures, as do Dishonored and The Wolf Among Us. This would be a good alternative to trying to create realistic fur on a model.

The Video:

My main inspiration for this is old Pathé News reels from the early 1900s. Combining the style of these news reels with something similar to the character trophies in Batman: Arkham Knight should create what I currently have in mind, though I may place my creature/s in a cage or prison-like room.

Below are video examples:

Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea Kinetoscopes

Unexplained Mysteries: Loch Ness

Man Stabbed with Sword!

Life Drawing

First 10 minutes.

3-5 minute poses.

It was nice to go back to life drawing after a long summer. I mostly tried to get back into quick sketches and watercolours, though I hope to go back again and work on A1 paper with more close-up studies in my sketchbook.

Minor/Major Project: Further Thoughts/Research

Cryptids (and other creatures):

A cryptid is an animal or creature usually believed to be nonexistent, e.g.: Bigfoot, Mothman, The Jersey Devil, Chupacabras, Loch Ness Monster. Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience that aims to prove the existence of these creatures, as well as proving the survival of real animals that have gone extinct. While cryptozoology is usually considered something of a joke, cryptids and the stories around them continue to fascinate people today. Vampires, mermaids, sea monsters and supernatural beings continue to appear in modern media, with films and shows (Hellboy, Stranger Things) about such creatures becoming very popular.

Bestiaries: 
Medieval bestiaries contained all manner of fantastical creatures, such as dragons, unicorns and basilisks, as well as real animals that most people would never have seen, including crocodiles and whales, though the people who drew these creatures had usually never seen them themselves, and as a result crocodiles were often dog-like and whales were large, scaled fish. Today we have accurate documentation of existing animals, but books such as Dragonology and The Resurrectionist are written and designed as though the magical creatures within exist, with anatomical drawings and information on where the creatures live and their eating habits. These will be part of the inspiration for my work.

Page from The Resurrectionist

I've always been fascinated by taxidermy, anatomy and the supernatural, so I want to combine these interests for my minor/major projects. 

The Book:

Books like Dragonology, Fairyopolis and The Resurrectionist are accredited to fictional authors, something I would like to consider doing with this book myself. Otherwise I would like to include around 20 creatures in this book, with drawings, descriptions and anatomical studies of some. I'm still unsure about art style and the general look of the book, but I will be able to work more on that in time.

Another option would be to produce posters on different creatures, as well as a poster for the opening of a museum/exhibition on cryptids.

Dr Ernest Drake - The fictional author of Dragonology

Video:

I would like to make a short video on one (or possibly more) of the creatures. The creature will be animated and moving within a space while a voice over describes them and their attributes. While I'm not yet certain on art style, I would like to keep the design simple to help with the modeling and eventual animating. Some of the animation will be a simple idle animation, with more elaborate movements depending on what the voice over says, examples of what I have in mind can be seen in the Batman: Arkham Knight character trophies and Overwatch's hero gallery.

Year 3 - Minor and Major Project: Initial Ideas

1) Factory of Fortune (Year One From Script to Screen Project)

• This would most likely be more fitting as a major project, and would involve refining character/location/prop designs and the story before making a short animation.
• I would keep the four complete characters mostly the same, with minor tweaks. The location and props could use more thought and finalised designs.

2) Continuation of Adapted Blake Poems

• Continuing with the second year project to produce three 3D models of the characters I created.
• Each character would have a small video with minor movement and a voice over reading the poem.

3) A Guide to Cryptids 

• Covering minor and major project, I would like to create a booklet about different kinds of cryptids and other mythical creatures, going over their anatomy, where in the world they are found, their diet, etc. A kind of bestiary.
• The art would be a colourful yet simple style (similar to that in my Fantastic Voyage animation), giving the booklet more of a "art of" feel.
• To go along with the booklet I would like to create 3D models of a few of the creatures (again, very simple in style) and create short videos with a voice over that will go over facts about the creatures. The models will have walk cycles and other movements depending on information given in the voice over (e.g. a creature spreads its wings when the narrator talks about its wingspan).
• This project could also be a minor project, in which I would be designing and creating character sheets for the various cryptids.

4) Cassie (a story I began writing at 8 years and continued on and off through secondary school).

• I brought this up with Alan as a possible subject for my Adaptation B project, and was told it might be something to consider for 3rd year.
• The premise of the story is: in a fantasy world, the Mother goddess (mother nature) is overthrown by a false god created by industrial cultists. Representatives of The Mother (people with an affinity for nature who are called upon by white elk) are exiled or sacrificed to the false god. The Priestess, a woman chosen by The Mother to hear her voice, has been forced to take refuge deep in a forest, protected by the few remaining representatives and their elk. As time passes, more and more of the forest is destroyed and The Mother becomes weaker. As a result of this, plants and animals far away from the forest begin to die out, and towns and villages are slowly abandoned as people move closer to the mother's power, which in turn results in more forest being cut down.
• The protagonist, Cassie, is fifteen years old when she is approached by a white elk whilst out hunting. Her attempts to shoo the elk away fail, and she realises she has been chosen. She manages to get away from the elk, and after reluctantly consulting her parents, discovers her aunt had been a representative of The Mother, but had been killed defending an altar dedicated to the goddess. Cassie's parents reveal they are part of a group of heretics wishing to remove the false god in order to bring The Mother back to power and make the world what it once was. Her parents and the other heretics cannot rise against the false god without the help of the representatives, but haven't had any way of finding them until now. Cassie is tasked with finding the Priestess and convincing her there is still hope, and that they can defeat the false god.
• For this project I would like to mainly focus on world building and character design, and eventually make 2 of the characters in maya (or a character and a location), as well as producing an in depth art of. 

Personal Work: The Jester

Original quick sketch.

Coloured design.

I originally sketched this character while on the train to uni a couple of months ago, and wanted to take him into photoshop and colour him as soon as I felt I had some time. I'm not 100% happy with his design yet, but it's something I can go back to in the future.

Personal Work: #MerMay

After seeing so much art on twitter for MerMay (a drawing challenge started by animator Tom Bancroft) I decided I wanted to participate. Though I didn't go all the way and draw a mermaid EVERY DAY, I managed to produce this piece, of a creepy deep sea mermaid.

CG Toolkit Submission

Maya Tutorials:

Samples and Quality Control

Final Gather

Physical Sun and Sky

Film Reviews:

Mary & Max

Sita Sings the Blues
Kubo and the Two Strings

Acting Classes:

Wednesday 22nd March

Wednesday 29th March

Wednesday 5th April

Wednesday 26th April

Wednesday 3rd May

Sculpting:

Vinny