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.

Richard - Deus ex

Deus Ex has a very blade runner-esque and almost film noire environment. There are great contrasts in lighting and colour which define the composition of each concept. Although the environments are futuristic, there are signs of human degredation and pollution. There is litter on the streets and a very hazy atmosphere which produces a dark and often gloomy environment.

Action poses

Here are some action poses of my character. I tried to choose poses that would show the personality of my character.

Massive Black

The website for the company Massive Black is like gold any concept artist.
What I am particularly interested at the moment are the storyboards they have produced. The composition of the storyboard and key detailed poses give the impression of quick hurried movement.

http://www.massiveblack.com/MBwebolution/index.html

Carlos D'Anda

Carlos D'Anda has done some of the concept art for the new game Batman: Arkham City. He depicts Arkham City as a dark, decrepit and polluted area of Gotham. The hazy atmosphere obscures and dims the cityscape, an effect I want to try and emulate in my environment.
Here are some of his environment concepts.

Ryan Woodward

Ryan Woodward’s animation ‘Thought of You’ captures the essence of movement. The animation is kept as simple as possible to effectively show the flowing movements of the two dancers.

Environment moodboard

I wanted my character to work as a musician in a blues club, so I decided to look into old photographs depicting the shady, smokey and decrepit environment I want my character to inhabit.

Finished character

Flipbook Animations

First animation:

I think that, for my first attempt, I shouldn't have tried to do something too complicated. I was focused on the small details rather than the overall movement and as a result it was too time consuming.

I did not use enough key frames and I also did not take into account the movement of the body.
 
The body leans slightly forward while walking. As I didn't take this into account, I wasn't able to create a walking sequence that looks both natural and smooth.

However, I think I have managed to show the movement of the arms correctly.


Second animation- storyboards and animation

I found my second animation easier as I had grasped the concept of key frames.
By establishing the key movements in my storyboard beforehand I was able to shorten the animating process (this one took me a day) and produce a better and smoother animation.

Unlike my first animation, this one had direction and a story. I found it a lot more enjoyable as I was able to communicate this story.

In my first animation, I had trouble keeping the head constant. I decided to use a simple cross structure to show the movement of the head and eyes.
Instead, I decided to draw attention towards the movement of the hands and their interaction with the clothes and the gun.

360 view of my character's head

After a long time of unnecessary tweaking I have finally finished the 360 view of my character's head.

Character Moodboard

In my first mood-board, I used images that might inspire a likeness for my character.
I began to look at 1950's clothes, film noire and blues musicians to try and capture a face that will suit the personality of my character i.e determined, athletic.

 

In my second moodboard, I wanted to further develop the personality and attitude of my character. I looked at the gritty film noire world of Max Payne, the main character of Public Enemies John Dillinger, more Blues musicians and Harvey Dent who possesses two personalities.

The Concept art of L.D Austin - Brink

Brink's distinctive artistic style is partially due to the concept art of L.D Austin.

In theses character head concepts, Austin concentrates detail to the main features of the head while working loosely in areas where detail is not present such as the cheeks and the forehead. In these areas, lighting is used to define the various curves and lines of the head.
By using this technique, Austin is able to portray characters accurately.
I too want to capture a sense of realism with my character, so I shall experiment with this technique.

Character Head and facial expressions

Here are some sketches of my character. I'm still finding it hard to keep my character constant.



Since I am happy with my last sketch, I shall take into photoshop and apply colour to it.

The Reilly Method

I've found that this method of drawing is extremely useful for quick sketches and for practicing anatomy and lighting.

Manga artist Takeshi Obata

Takeshi Obata is best known for his unique manga style that focuses on detail giving his artwork originality and a sense of realism.

Manga is usually defined by its distinct way of portraying features.

For example, the manga eye is cartoonish and is usually the largest and the most detailed feature on a manga characters face.

Takeshi Obata is unique as he focuses on using detail to portray his characters realistically. By adding detail, Takeshi Obata can bring out subtle features and expressions that usual manga lacks thereof.

The best examples of this can be seen in the expressions of Light Yagami, the main character in the manga Death Note.

Each individual mark provides subtle features that makes the expression more believable and human. As my character also leads a double life, I want to experiment with Takeshi Obata's style to find a facial structure that can easily convey good and bad intentions. 

Photography camera and lighting induction

Last week I finished the camera induction and today I have had the lighting induction.

These are some of the images of the object that I brought in.

Photoshop induction

I recently had my photoshop induction.
Here is my first attempt.

This was my first time using the features of photoshop and it was pretty confusing.
The use of layers and changing onto seperate layers was my biggest problem.
I would tend to forget which layer I was working on,
However I recognise photoshop is a powerful tool and, in time, one that I can use effectively.

Mentler

Mentler is an artist on http://www.conceptart.org/ and works with form and anatomy.

He taught me that form is fundamental in drawing

Here are some of is works on one of his forum posts

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=72362&page=11