Fighter Jet Update

Added Hardpoints and IRST dome

Should probably come up with a better name than "fighter jet" though

Project idea (very rough)

Thinking about what Phil said about ambiguity, I was reminded of the "Fortress of Ultimate Evil" in Terry Gilliam's "Time Bandits", and how it is constructed to look like its made from giant lego bricks

I wondered if I could use a similar technique to make an image that's ambiguous in scale...

Lifedrawing 23/11/2010

Trying only using hatching in only one direction

Trying combining one-directional hatching with dark background to define form

Lifedrawing 16/11/2010

Maya Space Project final renders

Followed Alan's instructions, apart from adding a camber on the road and door handles (since a street of buildings without doorhandles looked weird)

Also tried out a basic bit of texturing

and for a bit of a laugh :)

the CG artist's recurring nightmare lol

Scott Robertson Doodles

After watching a couple of Scott Robertson's Gnomon DVDs, I thought I'd give his perspective drawing technique a go.  I also used the opportunity to update some old pictures of mine (I like to do it when I'm suffering inspiration block to keep my eye in)

So, here's the redesigned M83 main battle tank, along with the M17 armoured personel carrier

(in case anyone is interested in the original pics, here they are ^^;)

I don't actually have an old drawing of the M17, but this is built on the same chassis ^^;

Avatar (collectors edition) (2010)

From the very begining of the film, it is clear that Avatar is going to be a film of epic scale.  The action begins on earth in an unidentified city, where the light comes not from the sky but the myriad glowing advertisments, casting an unnatural blue glow over the anonymous masses on the ground.  However, the true scale of the civilisation is best conveyed by the massive industrialised mortuary where crematorium ovens sketch back into the distance in an uncomfortable echo of Nazi extermination camps, an impression reinforced by the masked and apronned attendents who wheel cardboard coffins to and fro.
In contrast to the industrial grimness of earth, the lush greenery of Pandora (the alien moon on which the majority of the story unfolds) is a visual feast, an imaginary ecosystem realised with meticulous detail from the plankton like "seeds of Aywa" to the massive predatory Thanator.  Within this environment, the humans in their drab camoflage and rebreather masks stand out a mile, while the native Na'vi fit in despite their blue skin.
The film is the pet project of director and writer James Cameron, but to lay the credit solely at his feet would be to do a disservice to the massive team of artists that helped flesh out his vision and bring it all to life in (truly incredible) 3D.  However, the fact that the essence of the film is the result of one man's vision must be a least partialy responsible for the way in which the film feels "complete".  As Anita Singh, film reviewer for The Telegraph notes, "In the hands of a lesser director,...(the)...awe-inspiring special effects would have overwhelmed the film. It is to Cameron's credit that the story grips and carries you along from the beginning"

 As if to emphasise the distance between Earth and Pandora, the action on Pandora is highly vertical, from the many flying scenes to the floating "halleluja mountains", which manage to hover in the sky without seeming fake or painted.
Although some critics have criticised the story as being cliched and basic, (and indeed in the original theatrical release it did feel a little like that, although the 16 minutes added for the collectors edition have done a good job of remedying this situation), they all acknowledge the fact that any failings are more than made up for by the beauty and visual scale of the special effects.  As David Edelstein says in his New York Magazine review, "The problem until now with CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) is that it didn’t make the final perceptual leap. It was impressive rather than immersive. But Cameron moves the boundary posts... On the moon Pandora, he creates a living ecosystem—and You (the audience)...Are There."
Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of Pandora (and one that is actually new to science fiction films) is the bioluminescence that almost every pandoran lifeform includes, and turns night-time into a visual feast of coloured lights.  This is almost certainly a result of James Cameron's personal experience with deep sea diving, as the deep ocean is where the majority of terrestrial bioluminescence is found.  Several other parts of Pandora appear to draw their inspiration from the deep ocean, particularly the spiral-leaved plants that retract into their stem when threatened (which are basically scaled up versions of a real creature that is found under the sea)
From the technical point of view, this film's use of 3D may perhaps be seen as a milestone in the history of the medium, as it refrains from the cheap gimickery that previous films have resorted to (objects jumping out of the screen at the audience in an attempt to make them duck, to give one heavily overused example), but rather treats the 3D camera in the same way as a normal 2D camera, allowing the 3D to enhance the immersion in the film rather than destroying it.  As Manohla Dargis, The New York Times film reviewer says, "After a few minutes...you tend not to notice the 3-D, which speaks to the subtlety of its use and potential future applications. Mr. Cameron might like to play with high-tech gadgets, but he’s an old-fashioned filmmaker at heart, and he wants us to get as lost in his fictional paradise"

Dark Crystal (1982)

The first thing that you notice when watching Dark Crystal is the fact that the entire cast are animatronic puppets, created and brought to life by Jim Henson's Creature Works.  In fact, the story was co-written by Jim Henson himself.

Critical reception for the film was mixed, with the fantastical world created by visual designer Brian Froud being criticised as "busy" and a "visual muddle" by New York Times film critic Vincent Canby.  In particular, the forests, populated by a variety of fantastical plants and creatures, were criticised for distracting the viewer from the action. 

However, these backgrounds are masterpieces of scenery design; complete artificial ecosystems populated by everything from tiny insects to massive, long-legged "striders".
From a technical point of view, the film is a masterpiece of puppetry and animatronics, with every character, creature and even some of the plants brought to life by the team from Henson's Creature Works.  These puppets represent the cutting edge of animatronic technology, and can be extremely convincing.  The film takes full advantage of the technical possibilities afforded by the use of puppets, especially the death scene of the evil Skeksis emperor in which he literally turns to dust and crumbles in front of the camera.

Although the backgrounds of the film are a masterpiece of set design, the story revolves around the cast of fantastical characters that inhabit them, particularly the vulture-like Skeksis and the elfin Gelflings.  In addition to these groups, there are several unique characters, particularly the wisened old oracle Aughra with her lone removable eye and skreeching voice.  In fact, the Variety film review says  "The outstanding character is the Aughra, an ancient one-eyed harridan of an oracle who somehow reminds one of a truly blowsy Shelley Winters."

Overall, the film is technically highly polished, and at times manages to look absolutely real (one particular scene in which the "striders" march across a plain against a background of sunrise looks totally convincing), it is hard for an audience raised on "the muppet show" and similar to suspend their disbelief for long enough to become immersed in the story.  This is a shame, as the film is actually a fairly sophisticated allegory for the battle between innocence and wickedness, and the story is at least as good as more famous fantasy films.  As the Urban Cinefile film review notes, "(the film is an)...adventure made the more fantastic by being neither animation nor live human action ... but live puppet action."

Cave concept development

Blocking in basic foreground

Adding background

Starting to add detail to the foreground

Added specular highlights

I added tight highlights because the lava tube's walls are described as glittering with embedded gems

More detail, including figures for scale

tweaked the hue/saturation to create a colder image, and added a glow for the lantern

Forest concept development

building upon previous attempts at the mushroom forest, I started fresh again

blocked in basic focal elements

 

 

 

 

added background and more middleground

placed down an undergrowth of ferns to tie the mushrooms together and ground them

inserted some smaller mushrooms to add interest to the forest floor, along with ivy on the nearest mushrooms

laid down block colours on overlay layers

Added the sky and atmospheric effects

Flattened the image and added fine highlights, along with extra details

Seaside concept development

After some thought, I realised that the problem with my previous thumbnails for the seaside scene was that they were all rather small in scope.  It occured to me that there was an increase in the size of the environments as the story continues, from the claustrophobic and crampt lava tube through which the protagonists access the underground world, to the larger mushroom forest, and finally the enormous scale of the underground sea.

I've tried to convey this sense of scale by using a large, panoramic picture, using references from the previous influence sheet.

blocking in basic shapes

Taking my inspiration from the limestone islands of the south china sea, I wondered if I could try to convey that the image is underground without showing the ceiling (which in the book is described as being permanently hidden by cloud).  Hence, the islands are meant to be enormous stalagmites.

added background detail

sea and sky added

started to add colour and detail

finished adding colour

clouded the sky and added some waves to the sea

since adding every wave would be both time consuming and difficult, I concentrated on adding waves where they would be most noticable - at the shore (where the breakers are white) and in the foreground - so hopefully they suggest the rest of the waves ^^;

seaside influence map 2

style experiment

Following a suggestion from tutor Phil, I tried out doing the scene in the style of a victorian etching

Not sure how successful I was, but I know for a fact that this technique does not suit digital work, especially with a graphics tablet.
(my mood wasn't helped by the moronic interface of the Mac >.<

Maya Fun

played around with maya for a bit, just had fun really ^^;

Maya Space project part 3

Mushroom Forest Mark II shaded

added shading to the mushrooms to help define form

Mushroom Forest Mark II

After (tutor)Phil's feedback and a discussion with (photoshop) Phil in class, I did a bit of thinking about the previous mushroom forest.  The main problem with the previous pic was the ground looked sterile, and as a result the mushrooms looked "placed".  At the same time, the forest wouldn't work as an ecosystem, as fungi cannot photosynthesise, but live on decaying plant matter.

My stroke of inspiration was to fix both problems by turning a real forest upside down;  plants as a sort of undergrowth with mushrooms growing up through it.

This also gives me a chance to add to the sense of scale by using recognisible elements (like the ivy climbing the foreground mushrooms)

Mushroom Forest painting

untextured version

with paper texture

still not sure which style I want to use; I might do a third watercolour style or cel-shaded version

Cloud Influence map

forest thumbnail 2

Trying to make the mushroom forest look more "out there" (and detailed).  I think the general idea is quite good, with adding some of the wierder fungi at the front to let me suggest detail further in.
It should also look better with a sky in, so I think I'll try and work that up next

Forest Thumbnail

On Alan's advice, I tried turning the dramatic perspective up to 11 :)  not sure it works to well though ^^;  also tried out one of the alternative styles of mushroom