.... Horrific.
Friday, 22 April 2011
Not My Best Skill
The new problem on my list is how pretty my web site is going to be (trivial but important). I want something simple and conservative but at the same time have an original resounding design or style. Its a tough one. Ill post some layout and design ideas when I have them. I hate graphics, Im not the best at that. Here is an epic fail of a poster I did a few months back for a party at the su....
.... Horrific.
.... Horrific.
Gallery Of Failures
I've decided not just to have a gallery of my best pieces but also a separate gallery for "The Failures" as well as their showreel. This is simply so people can read the origins and have a closer look at the character designs.
Thursday, 21 April 2011
An Odd Bunch
Here are some characters I've been working on just recently all from the same narrative reality. The idea is to break away from the cliche heros of most comics and show how heros and powers can literally come from any were, the humorous randomness of life. Due to their similar back ground, the team and comic is to be called "The Failures". They are all in the same style and are simple character designs displayed in an overall similar way. What I could do, is in fact keep working on this narrative and come up with a series of characters, that would be ideal for my showreel. Not just the same style but the same reality, perfect. Just for interests sake I have given a short origin story to each one.
The "Corporation". A company that has been the biggest producer and developer in almost anything you can think of from Weapons to Cosmetics. On the surface they are straight and honest, supplying the world with the things it needs. Under neath however, they have dark secrets, dark developments and even darker motives.
Above is Pandaman. This character was born in the depths of the "Corporations" darker side. Kevin Blake, s reluctantly retired, highly reputed SAS soldier who was long past his best, returned home to his loving wife and an 8 year old son who resented him for his military life. No sooner had he arrived when a letter was sent to him requesting his presence at the closest "Corporation" facility. He went. They told him that he did not have to leave his glory days behind. They could make him the greatest soldier that ever lived, and serve his country once again. He agreed to it in secrecy from his family. They carried out a six month program with frequent doses of enhancing drugs, operations and scans. In the final stages they back stabbed Blake. Unknown to him, they had been giving him a mind obedience and focus drug. This slowly turned him into a mindless killing machine, that would take basic orders and carry them out precisely. They medically burned his body into a super soldier combat suit and prepped him for transport to the east as a sales pitch to foreign military powers, their true intention from the start. Before his family grew suspicious of his disapearance, they burned his house down with them, and a planted body, inside. They had miscalculated however. The drug dosage was not high enough to sustain permanent effect and during transport, he overheard one of the guards mention his families murder. He broke the mental control, went mental and killed every guard on the convoy with his bare hands. He travelled 50 miles on foot, so not to be tracked, back to his home. All that was left unburnt was his sons favorite soft toy panda. Driven insane by the drugs and the murder of his family, he made himself a symbol of vengeance, modified his suit adn became Pandaman. You may find his appearance humorous, but don't laugh, he is no joke.
(that was way too long Im going to simplify the rest).
This fine looking fellow is Granvill Peters. A extremely simple fellow who grew up wanting to be a delivery man, simply to travel the world. Obviously he was deluded to were he would be delivering to but he love it none the less. When the Corporation hired Granvill's company to deliver a package they recruited their most dedicated employee, Granvill. Though this was not his lucky day. On delivering the package, Granvill was mugged at gun point. His unbreakable dedication however led him to not give up the package, so the gunman shot him. He flinched and brought the package to his chest. The lead bullet passed through the package and hit him in the heart. The package however had a radioactive substance thought not too be dangerous which actually fused with the bullet and then, through his circulatory system, his entire body. Over night, after a incident that should have killed him, Ganvill transformed into a solid piece of bio-lead. This grants him near invulnerability, Super strength and An extremely high resistance to radiation. He is now known as Granvill The Anvil, and though he is a bit slow in the head he joins with the failures to fight the evil doings of the Corporation.
This is SupaDupaMan. Due to a mix up between the Extra Terrestrial Department and the Cosmetic Department at the "Corporation" (yes, they do cosmetics) an alien life form was sold in its containment cell which was mistaken for lip stick. This cell was bought by the famous citizen, Cuban Carlo, leader of a successful gay rights group based in New York. When he used what he thought was luminous pink lip stick he in fact fused his body with the alien life form, which in turn granting him other worldly powers. These powers are flight, speed, super strength, super endurance and a sonic scream beam (yes, he screams a beam).
Here we have The Kestrel a.k.a Alfie Cook. His powers, like the rest, have derived from the evil doings of the "Corporation". They were trying to develop the ultimate re-con soldier and like with Pandaman, they were successful. Human DNA crossed with that of a bird created a Human with hollow bones, stronger leaner muscles and super sharp eye sight. The Kestrel however fled the "Corporation" when they let slip that he had not been crossed with a bird of prey but in fact with a pigeon, a fact he is now extremely secretive about. In his embarrassed escape discovers multiple evil motives behind their schemes and allies with the other "Failures" against them.
With the aid of his specialized suit he can use his bird like attributes to fly. He fights with gadgets and his military combat training.
The "Corporation". A company that has been the biggest producer and developer in almost anything you can think of from Weapons to Cosmetics. On the surface they are straight and honest, supplying the world with the things it needs. Under neath however, they have dark secrets, dark developments and even darker motives.
Above is Pandaman. This character was born in the depths of the "Corporations" darker side. Kevin Blake, s reluctantly retired, highly reputed SAS soldier who was long past his best, returned home to his loving wife and an 8 year old son who resented him for his military life. No sooner had he arrived when a letter was sent to him requesting his presence at the closest "Corporation" facility. He went. They told him that he did not have to leave his glory days behind. They could make him the greatest soldier that ever lived, and serve his country once again. He agreed to it in secrecy from his family. They carried out a six month program with frequent doses of enhancing drugs, operations and scans. In the final stages they back stabbed Blake. Unknown to him, they had been giving him a mind obedience and focus drug. This slowly turned him into a mindless killing machine, that would take basic orders and carry them out precisely. They medically burned his body into a super soldier combat suit and prepped him for transport to the east as a sales pitch to foreign military powers, their true intention from the start. Before his family grew suspicious of his disapearance, they burned his house down with them, and a planted body, inside. They had miscalculated however. The drug dosage was not high enough to sustain permanent effect and during transport, he overheard one of the guards mention his families murder. He broke the mental control, went mental and killed every guard on the convoy with his bare hands. He travelled 50 miles on foot, so not to be tracked, back to his home. All that was left unburnt was his sons favorite soft toy panda. Driven insane by the drugs and the murder of his family, he made himself a symbol of vengeance, modified his suit adn became Pandaman. You may find his appearance humorous, but don't laugh, he is no joke.
(that was way too long Im going to simplify the rest).
This fine looking fellow is Granvill Peters. A extremely simple fellow who grew up wanting to be a delivery man, simply to travel the world. Obviously he was deluded to were he would be delivering to but he love it none the less. When the Corporation hired Granvill's company to deliver a package they recruited their most dedicated employee, Granvill. Though this was not his lucky day. On delivering the package, Granvill was mugged at gun point. His unbreakable dedication however led him to not give up the package, so the gunman shot him. He flinched and brought the package to his chest. The lead bullet passed through the package and hit him in the heart. The package however had a radioactive substance thought not too be dangerous which actually fused with the bullet and then, through his circulatory system, his entire body. Over night, after a incident that should have killed him, Ganvill transformed into a solid piece of bio-lead. This grants him near invulnerability, Super strength and An extremely high resistance to radiation. He is now known as Granvill The Anvil, and though he is a bit slow in the head he joins with the failures to fight the evil doings of the Corporation.
This is SupaDupaMan. Due to a mix up between the Extra Terrestrial Department and the Cosmetic Department at the "Corporation" (yes, they do cosmetics) an alien life form was sold in its containment cell which was mistaken for lip stick. This cell was bought by the famous citizen, Cuban Carlo, leader of a successful gay rights group based in New York. When he used what he thought was luminous pink lip stick he in fact fused his body with the alien life form, which in turn granting him other worldly powers. These powers are flight, speed, super strength, super endurance and a sonic scream beam (yes, he screams a beam).
Here we have The Kestrel a.k.a Alfie Cook. His powers, like the rest, have derived from the evil doings of the "Corporation". They were trying to develop the ultimate re-con soldier and like with Pandaman, they were successful. Human DNA crossed with that of a bird created a Human with hollow bones, stronger leaner muscles and super sharp eye sight. The Kestrel however fled the "Corporation" when they let slip that he had not been crossed with a bird of prey but in fact with a pigeon, a fact he is now extremely secretive about. In his embarrassed escape discovers multiple evil motives behind their schemes and allies with the other "Failures" against them.
With the aid of his specialized suit he can use his bird like attributes to fly. He fights with gadgets and his military combat training.
Onwards
Now that I have the final footage for my trailer sorted I can leave the hyperlinking until later, that will be a simple process. Time to move on to the other points on my brief. The next main task is to create am online portfolio. Now for a specialized artist that would be easy, having a certain talent they can focus around. For me that would be 2D art. My problem is I cant really define it further than that. My styles, media and genre are quite varied, especially those of my best pieces that I would want to use on the site. Also, I have to create a 30 second showreel of my work. This is were I think I can tackle my problem. I am going to have all my best pieces in my gallery which will show my varied styles. Then for the 30 second showreel I am going to focus on one particular style, or even one particular narrative I have been working on. The narrative character I may focus on in particular is Pandaman. The next series of posts will be of Pandaman works for the showreel and the varied pieces I have chosen for my Gallery.
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
Construction, Completion And Most Importantly, Celebration!
Now I had all the pieces to my final piece it was a piece of cake. With a bit of tedious timing and easy ease key frames (godsend) I think I have pretty much nailed it first time. I have made three separate videos, all that is left to do practically is join them together somehow, perhaps using hyperlinks or some other kind of point n click system. I would use flash, but I haven't got a clue how to.
So seems as I have got this all together in plenty of time I went out and bought my self a nice big pile of comics. Not the way you think a student would really celebrate (to be honest, I did go out and have few too many in the evening) but reading a comic is by far the best relaxation and "letting loose" for me. Spending time churning out writings and illustrations, its nice to sit down and enjoy the churnings of somebody else.
So seems as I have got this all together in plenty of time I went out and bought my self a nice big pile of comics. Not the way you think a student would really celebrate (to be honest, I did go out and have few too many in the evening) but reading a comic is by far the best relaxation and "letting loose" for me. Spending time churning out writings and illustrations, its nice to sit down and enjoy the churnings of somebody else.
The Sound of Progression
New Story board. New Colour Scheme. Its all coming together isn't it. Now Its time to put some sound to this picture. The original trailer idea had a bang bang acoustic song and I am pretty happy to keep that to be honest, I really think it fits. However I don't want to have it all the way through anymore. I want just the first 10 seconds to start at the end of each decision conclusion, as they fade into the title. As for sound effects I want to have an atmospheric gusty wind throughout to do exactly that, create an atmosphere. The rest of the footage will be as fully audio filled as I can possibly fill it. I've had a look round for a decent sound sample website and sounddogs.com seems to be the best one so far.
Monday, 18 April 2011
Problems Blending In
So I started adding colour to my illustrations, and went with the cliche scene of jungle and camoflauge and this was the colour scheme that started to come out out.
To be honest....... I don't really like it. So I thought what else would be an atmospheric landscape. I thought wind. I though snow. I thought Blizzard? YEAH BLIZZARD! so I did it again and this is now the colour scheme.
Much Better :)
To be honest....... I don't really like it. So I thought what else would be an atmospheric landscape. I thought wind. I though snow. I thought Blizzard? YEAH BLIZZARD! so I did it again and this is now the colour scheme.
Much Better :)
Story Board Mk ll
So here we have it. I've done the illustrations and have constructed them into a basic flow of images much like the original story board but with the choice branch in the middle.
This first image will last for about 10 seconds with the scope moving around, finding the creature, zooming in and recognizing it with a scan. It is at the point the viewer must make a choice. This is the branch. I have also decided to challenge myself further more by using full sounds effects from start to finish.
If you make the choice of taking the shot then the image bellow is what you will see. The camera will pan across the profile of the character as he takes the shot until it finally comes to the stalking predator leaning right over the unsuspecting hunter. This will take around 15 seconds with the last 5 fading out to say "Apex" "coming soon" to complete the 20 seconds.
If you make the choice to check your scanner then the image below is what you will see, with the camera looking over the hunters shoulder. There will be a red dot flashing and beeping on the wrist radar getting closer and closer. This will last for 9 seconds.
On the ninth second, as you can see bellow, the hunter will quickly draw his blade as the creature bounds towards him. This will be very short only one second.
From the tenth to the fifteenth second the shot bellow happens. The beast pounces, the shot then warps into slow motion but unlike the other ending the hunter is now ready for the attack. It then fades out into the "Apex" "coming soon" for the last 5 seconds like the first ending.
This first image will last for about 10 seconds with the scope moving around, finding the creature, zooming in and recognizing it with a scan. It is at the point the viewer must make a choice. This is the branch. I have also decided to challenge myself further more by using full sounds effects from start to finish.
If you make the choice of taking the shot then the image bellow is what you will see. The camera will pan across the profile of the character as he takes the shot until it finally comes to the stalking predator leaning right over the unsuspecting hunter. This will take around 15 seconds with the last 5 fading out to say "Apex" "coming soon" to complete the 20 seconds.
If you make the choice to check your scanner then the image below is what you will see, with the camera looking over the hunters shoulder. There will be a red dot flashing and beeping on the wrist radar getting closer and closer. This will last for 9 seconds.
On the ninth second, as you can see bellow, the hunter will quickly draw his blade as the creature bounds towards him. This will be very short only one second.
From the tenth to the fifteenth second the shot bellow happens. The beast pounces, the shot then warps into slow motion but unlike the other ending the hunter is now ready for the attack. It then fades out into the "Apex" "coming soon" for the last 5 seconds like the first ending.
IDEAS! Time To Make Some Changes.
Looking though my original idea and imagining it in my head I feel that it lacks enough atmospheric substance. It has potential but simply replicating it in after effects will not be enough to create a sufficient sense of immersion, in turn holding back the potential feel of my game. So I am adding more. But not simply through more footage on the time line but in fact creating a branch in the narrative. Hey presto, INTERACTION! The footage will stay around 30 seconds but before the hunter takes his shot their will be a choice. And it is at that point in which I will place that extra "substance" to take advantage of the story boards potential.
The idea is simple, in my game you have the capability to purchase and level up an area scanner which scans for movement, heat signature, sound etc. So the choice is basically to take the shot or to first check the area for danger. Obviously this will change the out come of the sequence. The next post updates will be art work. Now I have this solid idea from a brief I was initially unconvinced about, I can finally start pressing on with actually creating some designs.
The idea is simple, in my game you have the capability to purchase and level up an area scanner which scans for movement, heat signature, sound etc. So the choice is basically to take the shot or to first check the area for danger. Obviously this will change the out come of the sequence. The next post updates will be art work. Now I have this solid idea from a brief I was initially unconvinced about, I can finally start pressing on with actually creating some designs.
The Original Story Board
Here is the original story board of the trailer. From this point I shall continue to post its development from this to the final piece.
This is the original walkthrough of the story board but I have few changes in mind, particularly due to the fact I am wanting to make it interactive.
"Most of the sequence is taken in one shot. The shot view starts in the rifle scope then moves out and pivots around the hunter as he fires his rifle and finally ends on the drooling predator right behind the hunter. This first shot will be drawn out over 25 seconds, the last 5 seconds will be the APEX logo followed by “coming soon".
Their will be no sound effects to the animation, the only audio will be the the first 30 seconds of a piano instrumental of bang bang."
This is the original walkthrough of the story board but I have few changes in mind, particularly due to the fact I am wanting to make it interactive.
"Most of the sequence is taken in one shot. The shot view starts in the rifle scope then moves out and pivots around the hunter as he fires his rifle and finally ends on the drooling predator right behind the hunter. This first shot will be drawn out over 25 seconds, the last 5 seconds will be the APEX logo followed by “coming soon".
Their will be no sound effects to the animation, the only audio will be the the first 30 seconds of a piano instrumental of bang bang."
Adobe After Effects
Just recently we have had a few workshops using After Effects and I am getting to grips with it quite quickly. The kind of final product it can create, after seeing a few past pieces from other students, reminded me of a game I recently played. Watchmen: The end Is Nigh is the official game of the movie but it isn't the game play Im talking about its the narrative cinematic between the levels. Basically, they have taken the style from the original comic book and semi animated it with audio effects and voice. A simple but highly effective cartoon. So taking inspiration of techniques from this and using the simple key frame system of adobe after effects I can still stick to my traditional style but present it in a whole new format.
Initial Thoughts take 2
Erm well, almost an instant change of mind here. I was looking through my past work, trying to find some kind of inspiration for a simple narrative in my graphic novel and I came across the story board I did for the game trailer and it hit me. What if, instead of doing an interactive novel, I do an interactive game trailer? Something that could be put on websites as a small advertisement and have a very basic element of gameplay which will be something along the lines of choice that could be made in the game. I love this idea, it is very much outside my comfort zone but what the heck, I want a challenge and ill enjoy working it out.
Initial Thoughts
So, Im coming to the end of my two year foundation and have been set a task to bring my game idea to conceptual head. For this brief we are required to create and finish an interactive graphic novel. Not a traditional one but one that in fact has some sort of interaction with the reader. This could be as simple as a 'click to turn the page' or as complicated as a semi animated full audio narrative sequence. Now to be honest, I would much prefer to do a traditional graphic novel but due to the conditions I am probably going to keep the interaction simple and stick to my traditional guns.
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