@Phil Unit 3: OGR

Unit 3: Online Green Light Review

Unit 3: Photoshop Session 2.0

Within this Photoshop session we moved onto creating frames and signs using the texturing skills we learnt from last week’s session. Unfortunately I have lost one out of the two frames that I designed, the file got corrupted. The good news out of this though is that I still have one to show and understand the process of how to do it.

Here is my design of the first frame that I created, it may seem a little rushed but I just wanted to get a general idea before I moved onto a much more detailed sign/frame.

Unit 3: Maya Session 2.0

Within this session I carried on with the treasure cheat model, texturing it still. The first step I took was to carry on with the texturing of the coins. I finished the designs within Photoshop in the last session so in this one I created the blinn I needed to it as well as the other get the shine on the coins before I added the designs on.

Here is the rendered view of what the coins looked like

After that I then started the texturing for the goblet which was very simple to do because all I had to do was the same texturing which I used for the coins, all I had to do was delete the designs and keep the blinn and lambert. Here is what the Hypershade view looked like as well as the rendered view underneath that.

I then moved onto the map designs which did take a while, firstly take the UV layout by doing a snapshot then taking it onto Photoshop to then design a map making it look a little burnt and dried out because of the sun and sand. After that then bring it back onto Maya to then create the texturing for it.

Here is the rendered view of the map.

The gems where quite easy to do because within the tutorial it showed you how to create the right colour shade for the blinns within Hypershade and then all you had to do was use the same texturing but just change the colour to blue, red and green.

The barrel was probably the most tedious one out of the lot because I had to take the UV, create the design for it on Photoshop, bring it back onto Maya and then do it all again for the rim of the barrel to give it a more realistic effect, same process as the other steps it just took longer that’s all, still needs work to it, need to add the rust to the metal of the barrel which will be done within the next session or free time.

Unit 3: Thumbnails: 01-21

Here are the first lot of my thumbnails that I have sketched to try and build an uncanny scene using 4 out of the 5 ideas I had. The thumbnails are based around Hallways, Abandoned roads, Childs Room and Roadwork’s. The research of the Shining and Sven Fennema has helped bring out some thumbnails which I feel are stronger than others but I am only halfway through them at the moment so more need to be done before I settle on a thumbnail that I want to carry on with.

Here are the thumbnails 01-21. The first bunch of thumbnails 01-06 are based on a Childs Bedroom.

07-12 are based around Hallways

13-18 are based around Abandoned Streets

19-21 are based around Roadwork’s on a Motorway/Highway

The theme for all these thumbnails are to have a kind of uneasy, unfamiliar and nervous feel to them to give them a spooky atmosphere about them all.

Unit 3: Artist Research - Sven Fennema

While continuing my research I came across a photographer called Sven Fennema whose work is around ‘lost buildings’ for example abandoned houses, hospitals, prisons etc. Her work has a feeling to it which gives me a chill as in I do not want to be in this place for its hidden mystery’s and odd presence about these places which I really like and feel influenced by her work. I feel like this is a good source of research that I found to help push me in a good direction for my tableau vivant-style scene.

Here are some photos of her work that I felt had the most relevance to my work.

 Abandoned Hallway

 Abandoned Hospital Hallway

Stairway

http://www.sven-fennema.de/index.php?area=foto&photocat=lost%20places

Unit 3: Further Research - The Shining Set Design

While researching I came across The Shining, I have seen it before and I thought and how it made me feel so unwelcomed and strangely nervous by its empty long narrow hallway’s, the silence throughout the entire hotel really freaked me out.

Stanley Kubrick was the director and one of the main producers of the Film adaptation and how he has envisioned the hotels interior to build so much tension by their vast corridors and ceilings that seem to go on forever, as it looks like it is overwhelming the cast. This to me gives the right sort of feel that I would like throughout my work to build up my scene.

Danny playing in the Large Hallway

Lifeless Corridor

With this last film still I liked the angle that it gives with the atmosphere already filled with tension this gives the fear of what could be in that room ‘237’ and if you have already seen that film the janitor tells Danny not to go in there, evil room, long story short, and only knowing that about the room it makes it even worse that you want to know what’s in there but really don’t want to know.

Room: 237

Unit 3: Film and Visual Influence Maps

Here are three influence maps that I have filled with images and film stills of scenes that will help with my initial ideas of the child’s bedroom, the motorway, the hallway of a house/hospital and an abandoned street which I want to go for a nightmare/horror approach to give the idea of fear and there’s something not right about the environment to make the audience aware of unfamiliar situation within the scene.

The film stills that influence me are from 28 Days Later, Coraline and Paranormal Activity 1 and 2, by how there scenes give of abnormal and uneasy feelings to the audience, how each scene is uncanny by Coralines real bedroom scene (Middle image on the right) is dark gloomy and gives the audience a idea of a boring plain room, were as her other bedroom is filled with what she desires giving the feeling of a much brighter and unfamiliar bedroom by how its compared to her main bedroom.

Unit 3: Uncanny

After going through the presentation that Phil had posted on myuca as well as Sigmund Frauds, The Uncanny essay to get a better understanding of the meaning of ‘Uncanny’ and Freuds views. There was one quote from his essay that did interest me and gave me some ideas to go down a route of a frightening and uneasy tableau vivant-style scene. “All one can say is that what is novel may well prove frightening and uncanny; some things that are novel are indeed frightening, but by no means all. Something must be added to the novel and the unfamiliar if it is to become uncanny”. (Freud, The Uncanny, 1919). This is the approach I would like to go with throughout my thumbnails and throughout my progress to give and unfamiliar meaning for it to be uncanny to some of my ideas

I like the idea of something that shouldn’t be there even if you could see it or if the audience can feel it. I have some ideas here are some of them:

-          A Childs Bedroom

-          A Hallway

-          An Abandoned Street

-          A Beach

-          Roadwork’s

I will be going into more research into Freuds, The Uncanny as well as other artists and theories to help get a greater understanding of uncanny to help with my thumbnails and the matte painting designs.

Unit 3: Maya Session 1.0

This units final piece is based around Maya and creating an uncanny environment within the five week period. Firstly we had to go through some tutorials to understand and learn the techniques we will need to learn to create our ideas on Maya. We started by creating the rig camera, so that we can use these later on throughout the unit and for other animations and images. Unfortunately I did not save any print screens of my rig camera instead I have the texturing process of the Treasure chest that we need to do for this unit.

Firstly we had to create a sand color and bump, by using the source images that Simon gave us, I followed the video tutorial and went onto work with it through Photoshop and Maya. It was a quick process nothing to difficult. The next stage was to create the bumps and color for the coins, using the hypershade tool to create blinns and lamberts for the texture; it was a bit of a long process with the coins but once done. I was able to use this over again for the next Maya session.

Unit 3: Photoshop Session 1.0

Here is the first session of Photoshop for this unit, “Environment”. This session was about understanding and learning new techniques within Photoshop to create Tiles, so can we create our own in the next upcoming weeks for our final piece for this project.

I created four tiles which range between two brick walls a mosaic wall and a metal type flooring/wall. The most difficult ones out of these was the metal type one by how I had to crop it perfectly down the middle of the detailed points to be able to change them later to be able to look suitable once merged together to make a tile wall of the tile that I have made.

Film Review - The Innocents (1961)

Figure 1 - Theatrical Poster (1961)

The Innocents directed and produced by Jack Clayton and released in 1961. The Turn of the Screw was the novel that influences Clayton to direct a movie adaptation of the novel. The plot is off a middle aged woman in Britain being hired by a wealthy man to look after his niece and nephew in his mansion in the countryside away from London, she accepts and finds herself succumbing to ghostly apparitions of the houses former employees which now want the children’s bodies to be together.

The film took a while to get into the whole ghost story, but the build-up was promising by how it showed the relationship between Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr) and the children Miles (Martian Stephens) and Flora (Pamela Franklin) brake throughout the film from the odd sightings of those deceased figures around the mansion and its grounds.

The director and production team’s use of the landscape and effects even though in black and white to give off a feel of beauty and such a bright vibrant scene throughout the day and eerie spooky feel at night. Here is a quote from Andrew Pulver to evidence my point: “Filmed with a luminous brilliance by cinematographer Freddie Francis, The Innocents is the apotheosis of old-school Brit spookiness” (Pulver, 2006). Clayton pulls this off with the traditional Scooby-doo feel with a spooky mansion in the middle of nowhere which for its time was a good approach for the film industry with the use of lighting and dramatic turns and zooms into objects that could make the audience jump with the basic suspense theme, but The Innocents go with a different approach of the suspense being noises of the house and the noises of the children laughing and whispering which has a more physiological thriller approach which Clayton and Francis intended to give a real spark to the film.

Figure 2 - Suspence Scene (1961)

There is a scene that has hidden meaning to it when Miles the boy kisses Miss Giddens on the lips which seems to be quite a long scene which asks the question what was that all about. The hidden meaning behind that was that the two children used to watch the two characters kiss and make love before they died and the children only half knowledge of sexual acts and when appropriate to use them seems like it gives the sense that Miles in the man of the house and needs to be the dominate one. Here is a quote from Raymond Durgnat about his views; ““The Innocents arraigns Victorian fears of childhood sexuality, it acknowledges also the evil in children”. (Durgnat, 1989). This is a very valid point that is brought into the film by how the children seem to know more than they should about adultery from the cursing and rude comments, you would think they were just disobedient children but it’s a lot more than that which catches the audience off guard.

Figure 3 – Peter Quint with Miles Scene (1961)

The film still above is off the scene where Miss Gidden has confronted Miles about the ghosts and that they are trying to take Miles and Floras bodies to be together. Throughout the film the children never actually see the ghosts they are looking in the same direction from time to time when they appear but there has never been any proof that the children can see them, the only person that does see them is Miss Gidden. This adds speculation near the end of the film if Miss Gidden can actually see ghosts or is she going into a spiral of madness from the pressure of looking after two children in a mansion. A quote from Gafke had this to bring to the topic; “I hesitate to call it a ghost story, as the presence of the ghosts is never confirmed (or denied, for that matter.) Nor is the sanity of the main character” (Gafke, 2003). This is a true point as the film ends with the main character holding onto Miles who has died from when the ghost lifts his hand up and disappears, this doesn’t explain anything and leaves the audience baffled either they were real or she was insane, and how directors bring this into a strong story like this adds the finishing touches to give that extra impact at the end making the audience want more.

Bibliography

Illustrations:

-          Peter Quint with Miles. (1961) From: The Innocents. On Best-Horror-Films, http://www.best-horror-movies.com/the-innocents.html (Accessed: 30/11/11)

-          Suspense Scene (1961) From: The Innocents. On Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/autumn-twilight/2919860318/ (Accessed: 30/11/11)

-          Theatrical Poster. (1961) From: The Innocents. On MoviePosterDB, http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/49204293 (Accessed: 30/11/11)

Sources:

-          Durgnat, R (1989), CLAYTON, Jack.

http://www.filmreference.com/Directors-Bu-Co/Clayton-Jack.html (Accessed: 30/11/11)

-          Gafke, (2003) A Masterpiece, From; IMDb, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055018/reviews (Accessed: 30/11/11)

-          Pulver, A. (2006) The Innocents. In: The Guardian [online] http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2006/jun/02/horror.thriller (Accessed: 30/11/11)

Unit 2: Crit Presentation

Unit 2- Crit Presentation 1

Influence Map 11.0 (Colour Palette for Extract 3)

This is the third color palette that I have created which is the one that I have used for my third concept piece about the desert bone cemetery.

Unit 2: Photoshop Session 6.0 (Without Photoshop Phil)

These are draft designs of my progress with the final concept piece. This piece is about a desert, which is a bone cemetery for dead prehistoric dinosaurs and animals.

The effect I wanted with this piece though is with the sand in the desert it has covered some of the bones with the bones fading through. The two adventurers will be in the distance where the point of the horizon line is and the perspective lines and in the bottom right corner the human skull will be showing as the object that you see most in the foreground, because in the extract at the end they find a human skull so I wanted to give this a more cinematic feel.