Maya!

Some weeks ago, we were introduced to Maya. We were shown the basic layout and toolsets, as well as the different surface model types and their components. I had a faint idea of what vertices and edges were due to my experience with Blender but most of it was all very new to me.

We were given a task to create a Truck which proved frustrating at times, but altogether a really fun experience.

Here is my truck-

And my laser death truck-

Stop Motion Animation

After seeing the presentation of different methods of stop motion, I am now aware of how diverse it really is. I found some really interesting and weird methods such as strata cut and pinscreen.

The title sequence for the movie 'Freaked' seems to be a combination of strata cut, clay animation and model animation. This produces an effect, when combined with the music, that is quite disorientating. The constant flashes can hurt your eyes sometimes. 

Out of all of these different and unique methods of animation, I find model and puppet animation to be the most interesting. Model and puppet animation doesn't only include the animation but the buildings of sets and thousands of pieces for small models. The animation only seems to be half of the fun.

Here are some behind the scenes of the movie Coraline. I find it fascinating to see the scale to which they work. The amount of work they put into the each set and model is shown in the animation and both complement each other.

Film Theory 2 - French New Wave Cinema

- There were periods of ‘new waves’ coming from Britain and France.

- Paris being the most influential area

Significant group of French filmmakers

•       Jean-Luc Goddard

•       François Truffaut

•       Claude Chabrol

•       Jacques Rivette

•       Eric Rohmer

- All were once film critics with a background in film theory.

- The film La Pointe Courte (1954) by Agnes Varda began new wave.

- Particularly significant as the film was directed by a woman.

- Themes such as infatuation, romanticism and boredom were often revisited

French new wave post-1960

Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard

- reinvented film from the ground up

- based on American gangster films, however everything is deglamorised

- used natural light and handheld cameras

- violated continuity editing rules

- use of digressions and suspension

- try to make realistic films

- character,  ending ambiguity

- influenced by American actors, particularly Humphrey Bogart

French new wave in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s

- Against the ‘cinema of quality’, they would often work with cheap cameras and equipment rather than the industry-quality equipment that would normally be used.

- influenced by American genre films, particularly film noire as they reflected urban life

- They had cinematic rather than literary values and realised the importance of personal expression

- Often spontaneous and digressed from norms of current cinema

French new wave – existentialism

Philosopher Jean Paul Sartre stressed the:

                - individual

                - experience of free choice in cinema

                - absence of any rational understanding of the universe

                - sense of absurdity of human life

Existentialists seek to:

                - act authentically

                - use free will

                - take responsibility for their actions

                - avoid playing out roles pre-ordained by society

Batman: Arkham City Review

Batman: Arkham City lives up to and exceeds the expectations set by its predecessor, Arkham Asylum. Batman is immediately thrown into the action and chaos of Arkham City. The controls are familiar to those acquainted with the series with Rocksteady only improving upon the controls by adding gadgets and new moves in combat. Gadgets and combat moves can now be chained together to create some awesome combos while enemies surrounding you act strategically, surrounding you with new weapons and sometimes attacking you simultaneously.
The game balances the aggressive combat with stealth mode. Stealth mode provides the tactical approach to battle what the sometimes button-mashing aspect of the free-fighting doesn't.

Gliding is the main way to get around Arkham City. Players can traverse the entire area of Arkham City without ever touching the ground. It can be exhilarating and makes being Batman extremely addictive.

Paul Dini, Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy reprise their roles to create one of the best superhero stories in gaming history. The narrative includes a lot of major villains which complement each other as the story progresses. Each villain gets their share of the limelight as you take them down one by one.


The side missions are varied and provide a short but abrupt break from the story. I found myself starting all of the side missions after I had finished the game. With the tension that the main plot creates, you feel you have no time to stop for a break and tackle one on. But after you do finish the main story, the side missions provide extra content sometimes featuring other villains to keep things interesting.

Rocksteady spared no expense in making Arkham City beautiful in its own decrepit, gritty way. They have put a large amount of detail to make the place feel like it has been lived in and taken damage from its crazy inhabitants. Arkham Asylum used small spaces to create atmosphere whereas Arkham City develops this in its dark alley way so although you may be gliding over them, there is always the presence that something nasty is hiding in a dark corner.

Each area is specifically designed to suit the inhabiting villain providing a varied landscape while classic landmarks have been added from the Gotham universe to ground the story. This is particularly enthralling if you are already a fan of Batman. Riddler trophies provide the chance to interact with this brilliant environment. Rocksteady have made it so that you will never be bored collecting them by making these challenges so varied.

Arkham City is one of the best superhero games of all time. It provides enough to satisfy all players, from those new to veterans of the series. It possesses an immersive story and gameplay mechanics and even if it doesn't particularly enthrall you, who can pass the chance to be Batman.

I lived on the moon

Yannick Puig is the director, designer and animator of the music video 'I lived on the moon' by Kwoon.
Puig was inspired by the rythm of the music itself, animating what seems like dream sequences that reflects the music.

The world is very dark and muted in colour contrasting with the weird and wonderful creatures that carry the child throughout the animation. I think it was interesting that although the child does not have any facial expressions, his eyes are still very expressive. 

One of Puig's main source of inspiration is nature. He says he likes to play around with the properties of fauna and flaura until they are not distinct anymore. This can be seen in his earlier animation, Krapooyo.

Alfred Hitchcock interviews

learn a lot from seeing a professional talk about his own process.

The Last of Us

After the release of Uncharted 3, Naughty Dog have announced that they are already making another game, The Last of Us.

Naughty Dog have a tendency to develop one game franchise on one console, so to see another game coming out so soon should be really interesting.
The game also has a post-apocalyptic setting with infected, zombie-esque creatures. As there are so many other games that are similar to this, it should also be interesting in seeing how Naughty Dog can create something original and authentic.

Blender

Blender is an open source 3d modelling and animation program. As Blender is open source, a worldwide community has been created allowing people to share and pick up Blender any time. It can be a really powerful tool allowing users to model, animate and bring out their own games and films.
The only problem I have had with Blender is the lack of an instructional guide making it quite difficult for first time users.

These short films were produced by the Blender Foundation displaying how far you can take Blender.

Elephant Dreams

Big Buck Bunny

and their latest, Sintel

Olly Moss

Olly Moss remakes some classic movie posters by adding a modern, minimilist style to them. This work appeals to me as I am interested in reworking old concepts and putting them into different styles and mediums. Other works of his include the redesigning of video game covers such as Half Life and The Sims.

Film Theory 1 - the auteur

Auteur – a filmmaker, usually the director that produces movies which are characterised by their own creative style

Auteur (Sarris) 1962 – the technical competence of the director, the director’s distinguishable personality and interior meaning

Auteur – French for ‘author’

Audre Bazin – ‘Cahiers du Cinema’

History of film as the history of auteurs

·         like artists

·         original work

·         creative control

·         personal film language

·         start the conventions of a genre but does not follow them

Critique of the auteur

·         presents a canon made by ‘elites’, usually males

·          disguises the work of the other people in the film, (screen writer, editor, etc)

·         Offers universal view of quality

·         Used to sell a film just by using the name of the auteur

Alfred Hitchcock - The Auteur

His technical competence

·         expressionist lighting

·         story telling by using visual elements, especially in the silent era of film

·         use of the subjective camera

·         use of the ‘dolly zoom’

·         clever use of montage and cutting to create tension in spite of the production code (1939-60)

His personality shown through films

·         expressionism – evokes emotion

·         cameo appearances of the director

·         using the same actors

·         use of blondes

·         suspense

- Suspense is generated when the audience can see the danger that the characters cannot see

Themes that are often revisited

·         ordinary people caught in extraordinary events

·         mistaken identity

·         espionage

·         murder

·         madness

·         sly wit

·         macabre sense of humour

·         strong sexual themes

·         exploration of the human mind

·         ‘Hitchcockian’ suspense

Quotes

·          ‘there is no terror in the bang of a gun, only the anticipation of it’

·         ‘always make the audience suffer as much as possible’

BAF day two

The second day of the Bradford Animation Festival was mainly a demonstration of 3D scanning technology and its future and uses. Thankfully, there were only a few issues with some of the demonstrations, e.g. movie clips not playing and other minor issues.
My main interest was Brendan McNamara's talk about the face capturing technology in L.A Noire. He explained the processes it took to capture the actor's face while highlighting its difficulties and successes. It was really interesting seeing how much work went into the process

Lecture 3 – Graffiti/ Street Art

Graffiti – Latin ‘Graffiato’ – to scratch

Beginnings

- Lascaux cave drawings – scratched with animal bones with natural pigment

- Ancient Roman graffiti – political drawings, caricatures found on walls

- WWI – US Kilroy/UK Chad

- Paris May 1968 riots graffiti – Civil unrest inspiring cultural and creative material

Urban Graffiti

- In 1970’s New York, spray can graffiti evolved alongside him hop culture, became visual language of   the street, a way for artists to gain attention

- Jon Naar, photographer, 1973 – ‘Majority of graffiti comes from the low-class, neglected hispanic or African-American population’

- Jean- Michel Basquiet – SAMO

-  Jean Holzer – Times Square Show 1980 - Video game culture – a comment on lack of availability of brands and technology in Eastern bloc – Feliz 1984 – space invaders tiles resemble pictures ‘invader’

BAF day one

The first day of the Bradford animation festival was quite interesting. The talks were varied and provided a professional viewpoint into the game industry. I was particularly interested in Adrian Hon's talk where he pointed the need for better narratives in gaming and bringing them into different platforms.
One example he suggested was the game 'Zombies, Run!' being developed for the iPhone. 'Zombies, run!' is a game that works around running and jogging in real life.

As you run, you are led through the game's narrative while collecting items to advance in the game. The further you run, the more items you collect. Adrian Hon said
“We want to tap into a fantasy that we think a lot of people have when they’re running or deciding to get fit — that you can be the hero of your own action movie. After all, why does anyone want to run? Probably so we know that if things get bad, we can rely on our bodies to get us out of trouble.”

The game provides motivation for tasks that people tend to shy away from. Maybe this could be applied to mundane tasks such as washing up or cooking, real life 'Cooking Mama', anyone?

BAF felt unprofessional at times due to technology failures. These failures led to a lack of demonstrations and periods of waiting. The first talk was about a piece of software called Faceware. Due to technology failures, half of the time was spent fixing the problem.

Max Payne 3

Rockstar's take on Max Payne 3 looks very promising. The game draws on noir influences, placing Max in familiar noir territory, New York. However, Rockstar plans to take Max to Brazil, possibly the furthest place away from noir. This aspect is what I find so interesting. How does Rockstar plan to bring noir to Brazil? Possibly through atmosphere, gritty storytelling or simply dark alley ways and night scenes. If Rockstar is successful, we would see that film noir isn't restricted to several locations, it is the way you tell the story to create the right atmosphere that makes it.
Rockstar plans to release a design and technology series soon, showing the various features of the game which I am looking forward to.

Moving Image Analysis

'Corporate Cannibal' is a commentary on consumerism and large businesses. The video begins with the unnatural grotesque movement of what is later revealed to be Grace Jones. She takes on this appearance throughout the video, changing form suggesting that she isn't quite human. This is possibly a reference to the large and often cold nature of big businesses that often hide behind a human and almost friendly mask to acquire customers. This form also brings to mind a parasite or leech. This is again suggested by the title 'corporate cannibal'. Corporations often have an outward appearance to the liking of the consumers they are directed at, however this is not always the case. Grace Jones is presenting herself as the true face of business, cold and distant.

This could also be a reference to the consumer as they constantly demand more products. Like Grace Jones in the video, she always seems to be hungry and wanting more. The video often shows only her mouth, disturbing imagery suggesting that this is all she is, a hungry mouth always consuming things. This imagery resembles that of Francis Bacon's Triptych, both are grotesque, animalistic masses with mouths. If the Triptych could move they would move like this.

The lyrics 'Your meat is sweet to me' suggests that she is addicted to products and  reminiscent of programs such as QVC where the consumer is often addicted to buying products. She makes references throughout that showcases this animalistic behaviour. 'Every man, woman and child is a target', she suggests that corporations view their customers as faceless people, she regularly calls them meat on a plate. Perhaps she is suggesting that the real consumers are these corporations that try to lure in everyone to garner profit.

The video is monochrome and showcases hard, sharp lights to highlight the grotesque features and make them ever more present in the video. The heavy, industrial music accentuates these previous themes and further highlights the very mechanical way business is done.

At the end of the video, she begins to gnash her teeth showcasing this animalistic behaviour more than ever revealing her true self and possibly the true faces of corporations and the effects of consumerism.

Context of Practise - Postmodernism

Some people believe that the post modern age does not exist

Modernism is associated with

                - experimentation

                - innovation

                - individualism

                - progress

                - purity

             - seriousness

Post modern condition associated with

                - exhaustion

                - pluralism

                - pessimism

                - disillusionment with the idea of absolute knowledge

Note – Modernism and post modernism may overlap

                Modernism

                                - expression of modern life/ culture/ technology

                Post modernism

                        - reaction to modern life/culture/ technology

Origin of postmodernism

1917 – German writer, Rudolph Pannwitz spoke of ‘nihilistic, amoral, postmodern men’

1960’s – beginning of postmodernism

1970’s – postmodernism is established as a term

1980’s/1990’s – dominant theoretical discourse

today - postmodernism is worn out

Uses of the term postmodernism

- after modernism

- Historical era following modernism

- contra modernism

- equivalent to ‘late capitalism’

- artistic/ stylistic eclecticism

- 'global village', a globalisation of all cultures

Charles Jencks – ‘modernism died at 3.32pm on 5^th of July 1972

Date of the demolition of the Pruitt, Igoe development, St Louis

Demolition of the Pruitt revealed failure of modernism and modernist projects

Modernism reduces human aspect

'utopia' a 'world city', where each city is identical

Postmodernism

- Questions everything

- reaction to modernism rules

- only rule is that there are  no rules

- celebrate what is known as ‘Kitsch’

- starts as a critique of international style

- critique began with architects

Modernist buildings are perfect on paper however unrealistic in reality

e.g. run down flats Park Hill, Sheffield

                                                             

J-F Lyotard

                - ‘the postmodern condition’ 1979

                - ‘incredulity towards meta narratives’

                                - meta narratives – totalising belief systems

             - the result is a crisis in confidence

Instead of modernist ideals we have postmodern aesthetics

                -complexity, chaos

                -high art/ low art divide is beginning to crumble

Robert Venturi – ‘Las Vegas is a postmodern city’ 1972

Modern city – utopia

postmodern city - dystopia

1950’s – pinnacle of modern painting/ formalism

1984 – new depthlessness

advertising is the greatest art form

postmodernism is cynical

Context of Practise - Modernism

Modern – 1600’s meaning

                -contemporary or as good as the classical works

John Ruskin – 1800’s meaning

                -contemporary, pre Raphaelites

Modern – present meaning

                - up to date

Modern is an important part of what has gone before

Fashion/ consumer culture all rely on what is currently modern

1900 Paris – a city of modernity

After Paris is New York

Competition for being modern

This modernity began 1700’s

Some say modernism ended in 1960’s

We live in post modern era?

Industrialisation, urbanisation, communication, new leisure, vice, electricity, new technology

All caused modernism

All centred in city

caused life to speed up

Modernism

– new way of looking at the world

- gives new perspective

Race/competition for modernism

                England – Great Exhibition 1851

                Paris – Paris Exposition 1855

                And so on every five/ten years or so

‘Process of rationality and reason’

Enlightenment – period in late 18^th century when scientific/ philosophical thinking made leaps and bounds

City begins to develop its own identity

Modernism led to world time for ease of use

e.g. train times

modernism increased loneliness/isolation

fashion became key way of expression

shown in paintings of that time

Haussmanisation

Paris 1850’s – new Paris

Old Paris architecture of narrow streets and random housing bulldozed

Haussman redesigns Paris

Large boulevards in favour of narrow streets – (easier to control people?)

Poor/lower class moved to outskirts of Paris

City centre becomes subject to Modernism, to art

Growth of psychology- last boundary – led to critical thinking of art

Society controls art and view of art not other way around

Fashion becomes a way to show of wealth and importance in society

New art forms and techniques

e.g. pointillism

- pointillism due to studies in optical sciences, of light and colour

Degas Painting

Subject drowns sorrows in free time due to hard life

Photography changes the composition of painting as seen in Degas painting]

The Kaiser panorama 1883

People prepared to pay to see things and places in the Kaiser Panorama rather than going out and seeing it for themselves

Max Nordan 1892 – anti modernist

He begins to think about the subjective experience – the experience of an individual in the modern world

We begin to come close to understanding modern art and modernity

art abandoned realism for expression

Modern design – anti historicism

                - never looks back, always looks forward

                - truth to materials

                - form follows function ( although not always)

                - technology

                - internationalism

Adolf Loos, 1908, Ornament’s Crime essay. ----------Read!

Internationalism

                - language of design that could be understood and recognised on an international basis

Technology

                - new materials

                - mass production

                - cheap materials

Conclusion

Modern is not a neutral term, it suggests novelty and improvement

Modernity (1750 – 1960) – a social and cultural experience

Modernism – a range of ideas and styles due to modernity

Importance of modernism

                - a vocabulary of styles

                - art/design educates

                -idea of form follows function

Casablanca

The director Micheal Curtiz has produced some of the most iconic scenes in the film Casablanca. I recently decided to expand my film library and while watching it, I thought it was relevant to the character and environment concepts I am doing.

The film stars Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine, a cynical American running a shady

nightclub.

In the film, Rick is a maverick due to his attitude, independence and past experiences. He describes himself as 'never going out of his way to help anyone'. The atmosphere that he possesses gives him a distinct quality that I have only seen in his character.

Rick's Cafe American also has an atmosphere similar to those of film noire. It houses corrupt officials and businessmen on Rick's own will. He doesn't mind that they are there as long as they don't bother him. The only good comes from Victor Lazlo and Illsa Lund who motivate him to do the right thing.

I wanted my character to posses the same cynical attitude as Blaine who is then motivated by an external force to become the hero.

Dave Gibbons

Dave Gibbons is a comic book artist and best known for his work in the graphic novel Watchmen. I have been looking into comics and manga as they ground action poses by using dark, hard lines.

Comic books and storyboards are similar as they both feature a sequence of images that tell a story. Unlike comics, Storyboards are unfinished, they give a general idea of how a sequence plays out. They are usually drawn loose and sketchy rather than using the dark, hard lines that define comic book art.

Instead of portraying movement by blurring the image, movement is based on key action poses and the number of panels on each page. By keeping the number of panels low, fast movement is produced. A high number of panels usually indicates slow movement, such as something fading out.

Environment floorplan and elevation

1CM = 2M

I found it hard to keep all the measurements exact and up to scale.

Character environment

This is the environment my character will inhabit.

I did some experimenting with layers and colours to try reproduce the dirty and smokey bars seen in film noir films. I tried to concentrate on the atmosphere and on the concept as a whole rather than on the details. 

I found that I didn't enjoy working this way as I had trouble keeping track of the layers which made it time consuming.

The final result also turned out to be messy and loose.

Overall, I'm not really happy with it.

The art of L.A Noire

L.A Noire has been a constant source of inspiration in this module. Sadly Rockstar doesn't release any concept art so I have had to use in game images to develop my character concepts.