#ba2a

In todays feedback session ,  John gave me constructive feedback on the two characters I had been working on over the Christmas break. Over the Christmas break I developed two turnarounds and took first hand reference of New York City. The two turnarounds comprised of both the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde characters and heavily drew influence from 1920s New York. The first character is a Wall Street accountant who enjoys playing poker as a hobby. For this character I tried to convey the sense of arrogance that I noticed when I was in New York from watching people walk by around me . John liked that I wanted to draw in a sort of Disney style as he thought the shape language I could convey would greatly benefit the character design as a whole. He also suggested that I should look into the type of fabrics used for the different classes within society and show how that would greatly effect the character design process as a whole. He also suggested that I focus more on the character itself first and later focus on the elements of the setting I had drawn as well. He also liked the silhouette and design of the next character ‘ Ace of Spades.’ Ace of Spades has a similar build to the accountant character as he is in duality with him. The major design difference is that the characters head is an Ace of spades that floats above the torso. Ace of spades is the character I have chosen to model as I feel like creating the Hyde personality will give me more options for the walk cycle and transformation sequence in Maya.

I continued to make another 3 photoshop collages,  the final look was heavily inspired by the editing style Bill Wurtz uses in his videos with some influence in Leif Podhajsky’s graphic design work. While attempting to transfer them I realised that due to the high amount of dark colours used in the images, they did not stick well to the fabric. They look even more distressed and degraded compared to my previous attempt, which I have mixed feelings about as there’s something I quite like about them despite the process being a failure. 

Due to the inspiration taken From Wurtz’s video style I’ve decided to create a short video piece, an idea I had for a while after reading Omar Kholeif’s preamble from art after the internet. The video was meant to visually represent the overwhelming feeling of the growing web that Kholeif was talking about, combined with the overlaying sounds of notification and alarm rings. I can safely say that the one minute video works as a great tool at capturing the essence of the current online space.

Tessa Fox

Gone to Ground, 2017

THE IRON GIANT - Film Analysis/notes 

I love this film - one of my favourite features ever, animated or no.  Released in 1999 and using both traditional 2D and digital 3D animation techniques, The Iron Giant was based off of the 1967 novel, The Iron Man, by Ted Hughes. 

One of the main things I notice about this film is the colour, and then to a lesser degree the difference in style of the characters (the Giant especially) against the background.

NOTES

Warm colours - a lot of red hues 

The Giant is ‘flat’ compared to shaded background - all grey - helps alienate him? 

Bright, warm colours; meant for a younger audience 

Quite a bit of emphasis on shadow/silhouettes: Giant especially - alien-like?     - Very recognisable - especially with glowing eyes

Giant is always surrounded/concealed by earthy/warm colours and busy environment - when he’s revealed at the end, it’s snowing: white and clear; helps him be noticed? Nowhere to hide? Barren instead of busy

Limited use of blue - only for the Giant’s intro (power-plant scene), his reassembly scenes (the little flashing light) and when he and Hogarth have the ‘Soul’ heart-to-heart - linked with the giant living/dying/having a soul.

Red used quite a lot at the end of the film: danger/warning (the war ship, missile, Agent Mansley (his hair)), the Giant’s eyes - shows the change of the Giant’s character.

Colour helps show the passage of time - warm earthy colours of Autumn at the beginning changes into the cooler colours of Winter towards the end of the film.

White: used for the Giant’s eyes - innocence? friendliness? Neoteny (big eyes, child-like behaviour)?

Parviz Tanavoli Last Poet of Iran, 1964