Sunday, 30 December 2012
Friday, 28 December 2012
Character: Issac Pose and Colour Reference Sheets
Pose in Black & White
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Pose in Colour
Thursday, 27 December 2012
Character: Fat Cat Pose and Colour Reference Sheets
Pose in Black & White
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Pose in Colour
Character: Kat Pose and Colour Reference Sheets
Pose in Black & White
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Pose in Colour
Wednesday, 26 December 2012
Tuesday, 25 December 2012
Monday, 24 December 2012
Sunday, 23 December 2012
@Justin. Character: Experiment 9's Form Concepts - Agility, Endurance, Strength
Agility: Jaguar-themed enhanced arms and legs.
Strengths: Agile, fast-moving
Weaknesses: Not very durable
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Endurance: Lion-themed protective exoskeleton.
Strengths: Invulnerable to most harmful materials and projectiles
Weaknesses: Causes Kat to become slow and heavy.
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Strength: Tiger-themed puppet aura. Can lift 10-times own weight.
Strengths: Incredibly strong.
Weaknesses: Slow and leaves host open to harm.
Saturday, 22 December 2012
@Anyone: Just a little concern about Character Project:
I've been up North at my grandmother's home for a week to meet relatives; she passed away not too long after the Narrative crit presentation. We've been having to organize funeral arrangements and attend said funeral itself, so I've been busy with family matters and been unable to make further progress. We've had no internet up here besides getting some connection from my cousin's phone, which, sadly, doesn't give me many bars. My Netbook, which I brought up with me, doesn't have Photoshop or Maya on it either. I'll be back down South tomorrow on Sunday.
I'm just having concerns that I may not be able to get all of my work done in time for the presentation. I'm having particular concerns about the Maya tasks. Any thoughts?
I'm just having concerns that I may not be able to get all of my work done in time for the presentation. I'm having particular concerns about the Maya tasks. Any thoughts?
Monday, 17 December 2012
Character: @Justin: Issac Costume & Color Scheme Ideas
Would I be able to get some more feedback, please? :D
Friday, 7 December 2012
Thursday, 6 December 2012
@ Phil / Alan
Did you manage to check out my latest post about the character presentation? It's a slight concern I'm having. I did manage to get some feedback form Justin. The general consensus was not to go overboard, but the rest he suggested talking to either of you
Sunday, 2 December 2012
Character: @ Phil/Alan/Justin: Thematic Presentation idea & Music Concern
For my character presentation, I want to go for a cinematic kind of feel, similar to my landscape (I think that was the name of the project) presentation where I set up a montage of pictures depicting my progression through each piece of landscape concept art. What I want to do is essentially the same thing, but for each of my characters. I also want to, since I seem to be ahead on my character project and have plenty of time over the holidays, create some pieces of story-linked concept art which act like comic book panels in the presentation, playing on the whole superhero theme. Each one of these short sequences would have their own musical score to go along with it.
However, I'm concerned about the music. Should I be creating my own music (of which I, unfortunately, have zero knowledge on how to do) or would I be allowed to use music from existing sources providing that, at the end of the presentation, I cite the sources of music and their composers? The reason why I ask about this is I don't want to jeopardize the results from my character project or my place at the university through plagiarism. The pieces of music I had in mind I picked out because of their heroic and techy/futuristic themes.
However, I'm concerned about the music. Should I be creating my own music (of which I, unfortunately, have zero knowledge on how to do) or would I be allowed to use music from existing sources providing that, at the end of the presentation, I cite the sources of music and their composers? The reason why I ask about this is I don't want to jeopardize the results from my character project or my place at the university through plagiarism. The pieces of music I had in mind I picked out because of their heroic and techy/futuristic themes.
A couple of tracks here I thought I could use in a car chase sequence:
Ctritical Perspectives: @Phil: In need of feedback for essay's main body
This is what I have so far.
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Essay Title: Blade Runner and the Hyper-real
The broad
term ‘Post-modernism’, widely accepted to have been coined near
the end of the late 19th century and near the start of the 20th
century, has its roots as an answer for the open-minded attempts to
annotate reality. It includes many different subjects, including
fiction, economics, art, literature, architecture and philosophy.
Post-modernism is often considered to be a very controversial subject
as there is no widely accepted single definition of the term. What
the term means, fundamentally, is the concept that the understanding
of reality is not fixed as we humans see it. Instead, our perception
of reality is created through our own, modern-culture influenced
biases. Therefore, skepticism is wide-spread, particularly against
theories which assert themselves to be accurate for everyone and
everything. Instead, postmodernism seeks out the objective realities
of each individual. How each person views reality is what
Postmodernism centers around. It depends on evidence from experience
rather than indefinite conventions and how one person’s view on
reality is not be the definitive, universal truth.
Post-modernism
argues that the realities that many people abide by are constructed
by social concepts which are constantly changing and attempts to
explain that how many see the world is not objective fact, but is,
instead, subjective and that it also affirms action based upon
beliefs and ideas from power relations and language. Such subjects
that it attacks is the use of ‘fixed’ divisions in semiotics and
social language like the use of male verses female, white verses
black straight verses gay and how one will always be seen as superior
to another, but is relatively plural and how it relies on the group
involved. The views of the post-modernist mind think accordingly
about how society’s social concepts like hierarchies of power can
influence how humans perceive the world and how the results of this
can affect the distribution and creation of knowledge.
As well as many
other types of media, post-modern film is often inspired by and is
subject to critical analysis by the audience. Much like the
post-modernism consensus, the films relating to and of the new
post-modern era are a response to the predictable tendencies of
modernist cinema and even go so far as to parody these tendencies.
The "Scream" saga, a series of slasher films dating from
1996 to 2011 directed by Wes Craven, is a good example of this. In a
quote from the the opening scene of the original Scream, Casey, the
first victim played by Drew Barrymore, mentions her disdain for old
slasher movie clichés, unaware she is talking to her killer over the
phone. "They're all the same. Some stupid killer stalking some
big-breasted girl who can't act who's always running up the stairs
when she should be going out the front door. It's insulting."
(Drew Barrymore, "Casey", 'Scream', 1996) Not too long
after, she is faced with the killer and then proceeds to run up the
stairs herself. The film questions the previous cliches from the slew
of slasher films that came before it, taking the predictable clichés
of old and mixing self-aware humor with them. Much like the
post-modernism consensus, the films relating to and of the new
post-modern era are a response to the predictable tendencies of
modernist cinema and even go so far as to parody these tendencies.
Post-modern films
often share many similarities between one-another which distinguishes
them from modernist film. These include the amalgamation of many
different genres and/or styles to create a pastiche; the exploration
of different styles and genres in order to create uniqueness is a
comfortable position for the post-modern film genre to be in, as well
as the melding of definition of art styles by mixing and merging
texts, techniques and high to low art styles. This once again touches
upon the technique of mixing to create pastiches. This is usually
accompanied by the merging of techniques which come from different
places in culture. Finally, the idea of contradiction and paradox
within concepts like values, technique, styles and methods conflicts
with many ideas of modern cinema, but is very important to
post-modern film. Post-modern film-makers must be willing to take on
the idea of paradox such as Michael Haneke who directed the horror
film "Funny Games", released in 1997 and its identical
remake in 2007. He uses this technique to break existing tropes in
the horror genre. Usually within this genre, children are safe from
harm from the killer. However, in Funny Games, the family of victims
witnesses its first causality in the film: the child. This creates a
paradox and breaks modern horror traditions. These traditions are
what we have been exposed to in order to create a world that is
organized and tradition-based, creating a representation of our
world. This is something which Post-modernists call 'Hyperreality'.
The term
'Hypereality' is used in post-modern culture and philosophy to give a
name to the conscious inability to differentiate a synthetic and
constructed reality to true reality. This most prominently happens in
technology and in the society of technologically advanced countries.
Hyperreality identifies the characteristics of what we see as 'real'
in societies which can manipulate our definition of the truth and the
simulated. The philosophy of Hyperreality is frequently applied to
post-modern film when dealing with the subject of a manufactured
reality. Perhaps the most well-known and studied of these films is
the Matrix Trilogy spanning from 1999 until 2003, directed by
Laurence and Andrew Wachowski. The main story line is that machines
have taken over mankind and use them as batteries, all the while
immersing them to an artificially constructed virtual reality where
they live their lives, unaware that they have been enslaved. ‘Neo’,
played by Keanu Reeves, becomes aware of this and the code that makes
up the Matrix and breaks out with the aid of other ‘enlightened’
humans.
This leads us on to the Simulacrum. A simulacrum is a copy of
the real, which eventually evolves its own sense of reality,
ultimately becoming more real than reality to those who have spent
more time in a Hyperreal environment. It is a process in which
events, worlds and even living beings are substituted with virtual,
digitized or electronic versions of the former. The simulacrum is
most often discussed and has the most attention around simulations of
human beings and simulated realities and the theories surrounding
simulations are closely related to hyper-reality, linking comfortably
with the notion of constructed realities and constructed life-forms,
particularly human or humanoid ones. The result of a simulated or
artificial human can be a result of the Hyper-real environment that
one has inhabited or the Hyper-real, commercialized society it has
been exposed to. This is heavily used in many films as a plot element
or is used to pitch a unique style of world to the viewer and the use
of such appears to be successful. Using another film as an example,
“The Truman Show”, released in 1998, has effectively created a
partially artificial man in an artificial which he has lived his life
in. It’s a world created by a professional media team without his
knowledge. Arguably, this conditions the main character’s mind into
a simulated, influenced one rather than one which has freely
developed in the real world, which
leads him to almost become a simulacrum. The world in which Truman
inhabits is constructed around him without his knowledge: it is a
simulated reality. However, both the elements of simulacrum and
hyper-reality come into play within some movies, especially in 'Blade
Runner', directed by Ridley Scott and released in 1982.
Blade Runner combines both hyper-reality and
simulation and integrates it into the plot and the unique architecture of the film, presenting the viewers with many deep
meanings, particularly in the overall style of architecture used in
the futuristic rendition of Los Angeles. In his online article
entitled: “Dreams of Post-modernism and Thoughts of
Mortality: A Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Retrospective of Blade Runner”,
David C. Ryan mentions the architecture when talking about the
integration of a hierarchy system in the designs of the buildings.
“Initially, these contrasts may seem like capricious
juxtapositions that exist as part of an aleatoric post-modern system
that favours randomness and chance, but scrutiny reveals that the mix
of ancient, contemporary and futuristic designs not only imposes a
sense of hierarchy and majesty, but creates a synthetic environment
that links the past, present and future. This particular post-modern
vision not only represents a symbolic culture composed of and
strengthened by diversity but also helps develop the thematic issues
of temporarily and spatiality.” (David C. Ryan, 2007)
What Ryan attempts to explain here is that, at first glance, the
varying style of buildings is merely an effort to differentiate
itself from other sci-fi movies by randomizing the types of themed
buildings in this future vision of Los Angeles, originating from the
different cultures in the time period the film takes place in that
humanity has come to embrace, but in actuality, the architecture
reflects a hierarchy in social development through human history and
how diversity in culture has bettered the human race. For instance,
the Tyrell Corporation's spacious building is reminiscent of a Mayan
temple, reflecting its god-like influences on Los Angeles. In
opposition, the cramped skyscrapers littering the city reflects the
social bitterness surrounding apartment complexes, their living
conditions and how they are, architecturally, purposed for fitting as
many people in one compact space. What Ridley Scott wanted to do was
to with this reflection between buildings was to create a
relationship between its population and its architecture and how
highly commercialized this multi-cultured society has become,
simulating what could happen to societies in real life, almost like a
constructed, fictional reality. The reality in Blade Runner even goes
as far as to construct beings to inhabit it and to live among others
who also live in this commercialized society. In the Blade Runner
universe, these are called replicants.
Replicants, in the Blade Runner universe, are flawless replications
of human beings, thus a great example of the simulacra; they are a
merging of originality and the
simulated. However, the narrative of the humanoid simulacrum has been
used many times in the past prior to Blade Runner. Take Der Sandmann,
a short story written in 1816 by E.T.A. Hoffmann, as an example of
this narrative and can be easily be used to study Blade Runner's
replicants. One of the most significant examples that metaphorizes
the simulacra, the story focuses around Olympia, an android who
appears so perfectly human that she is mistaken for the human
daughter of the inventor who created her. Nathaniel, the story's
protagonist is captivated by her and falls in love. However, it is
revealed that
Olympia is, in fact, an android, resulting in her destruction. In his
book, “Ramble City: Postmodernism and Blade Runner”, Giulianna
Bruno mentions this story in relation to the replicants, stating:
“In
Hoffmann's time, replication is still a question of imitation, for
the real still bears a meaning. The replicants of Blade Runner are,
on the contrary, as the name itself indicates, serial terms. No
original is thus invoked as point of comparison, and no distinction
between real and copy remains.” (Bruno, 1987:68)
He
appears to explain that during the time that Hoffman wrote Der
Sandmann, when looking into the concept of copying, it was simply an
issue of trying to create the copy as close to the real thing as
possible. However, whether or not it looked, felt or moved like its
living, breathing counterpart was not of any concern. However, in the
Blade Runner universe, replicants are to be seen as such: perfect
replication of human beings which move and act how human beings do.
However, the artificiality of the replicants is exploited by man's
drive to seek power, which ultimately turns again him.
This
is increasingly made apparent in the film when they become more self
aware of their slave-like role in society, used as tools and weapons
for man's own desires. It is in Annette Kuhn's book,
“Alien
Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema” that
she explains this power within the society of the city.
“It
is, indeed, in simulation that the power of the replicants resides.
Since the simulacrum is the negotiation of both original and copy, it
is ultimately the celebration of the false as power and the power of
the false. The replicants turn this power against their makers to
assert the autonomy of the simulacrum.” (Kuhn, 1990:188)
The
concept that Kuhn could be explaining here, in essence, is that
because the replicants are both a merging of humans and manufactured,
hi-tech machines, they, for example, have more physical and aesthetic
power than a human being. This is further backed up by her latter
sentence in which she explains that they can take advantage of their
artificiality and, in the film for example, cause the main male
protagonist, Rick Deckard, to become infatuated with the artificially
perfect replicant, Zhora who is a simulated human woman in appearance It could also be backed up by the sheer super-human strength of the
main antagonist, Roy Batty and how he uses it as a weapon against
Deckard during the climactic battle between the two. Both Zhora and
Batty are classified in the Blade Runner universe as having 'A
physical level' attributes, meaning that they have super-human
endurance and strength. This also means that these two were created
with these attributes in mind. Thus, their falseness as real humans,
whom lack these super-human qualities, becomes their power.
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Any kind of feedback would be appreciated. : D
Saturday, 1 December 2012
Narrative: Wheelchair. New UVs to Prevent Stretching
The main seat of the wheelchair (excluding the battery pack and wire) and the wheels have all been mirrored in order for easier texturing.
Added to Dropbox under the name "Wheelchair2.mb"
Chair
Switch
Wheel (Same UV for all 4)
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