Final Render

Here is my Final Render, as you can see it clearly links with my research showing the calm voice and colour scheme.

Week 6: Final Concepts

Week 6: Moodboard

As I stated in my research I want to focus on the more Grimm style fairy tales. This led my research further in realising that the character doesn't necessarily have to be good with in the fairytale, they can be a villain leader like Maleficent. I feel this will also help me create the Grimm style due to the darker colours often used for villains. I also want to use very sinister poses for this characters to truly show they're evil.

Week 6: Research & Techniques

With this week I wanted to go against my first week and look into the darker sides of Fairy Tales. Such as Grimm's fairy tales which originates from Germany. These tales are often a lot more dark yet have strong moral about life for example. Within the story of Red Riding Hood it presents the situation of talking to strangers, the stranger being the Wolf. The fact she spoke to the stranger about her personal details put her family in danger and caused her Grandma to be eaten, this is a classic Fairy Tale but yet with the Gothic twist of a surreal style moral of life. This I feel is I way to best represent the different side to fairy tale and to show how Grimm's fairy tales often created a surreal effect about what influence fairy tales should have on their audience, there audience being children. So by using this Gothic twist it would often scare or confuse the audience thus making it memorable, an effect also used within horror. Overall I feel this will contrast from my first week into Fairy Tales, thus broadening my research further.

To see how I have developed over this assignment I wanted to use the techniques within my last week, this spans from Faces to Poses and I wish to cover them all. This will help me see how I have developed over the 6 weeks and which techniques are my strongest and weakest, I will then be able to develop these further in my own time. For the poses for this week I feel I am going to have to do confident and imposing poses to reflect a sense of leadership within the characters, to help me develop this I will use the line of action to create a natural flow to the body to show the character has comfort in this position. For the faces I will be able to reflect the characters emotions as a leader, how it effects them in there daily life, do they enjoy it? or hate? These are elements I will take into consideration when producing the close up faces of the characters 

Week 6: Fairy Tale Leader (Further Development)

Rules

The rules in which I have chosen for this week are listed below:

1. Techniques: I want to reflect on the work I have produced these 6 weeks by using different techniques from each week, such techniques like poses in week 5. 
2. Improve & Refine: I would like to go back on some of my concepts from week one and improve those ideas further, this will help me Identify my key elements that a improved and those that need improvement.
3. Tradition & Breaking It: I want to look into different ways in which different elements of media have gone against elements of Fairy Tale to break the stereotypical style.   

Week 5: Final Concepts

Week 5: Moodboard

As you can see from the various images, the colours often associated with horror seem to very dark and ominous. I feel the shape and the texture and the shape of the are quite rough and are limited when in comes to smooth edges other than skin, this suggest that the artists have used this to help reflect the style of horror. They also either have some spiritual style or a almost rooting the characters. This is something to I wish to implement into my work.   

Week 5: Research & Cultural Influences

Horror has always been a genre the thrives on playing with peoples fear, from pounding hearts to shaking hands that is what horror wish to achieve, that is what makes it significantly different to other genres. It has be come a key element to pop culture very recently due to development of the pop culture TV Series American Horror Story. The series follows iconic places in which the horror genre has taken place in iconic horror places with America, such as a asylum, a place that is normally thought of when it comes to horror. As you can see this regional identity has made the television series very popular. Thus showing the effect of cultural influences and how they have became something of the genre. This is why I plan to take inspiration from the locations used within my characters to represent the american culture. This could be the potions seller of a coven or the shopkeeper of a cafe in an asylum. Overall I feel this is really effective way to show cultural influences that a character has experienced.

                                                                                                 

In China spirits are often used as a form of the devil or bad luck, this in fact has became a key part to the horror culture represented by forms of ghost and supernatural appearances. This is something I would like to reflect in my characters. I could use the spirit as a way the shopkeeper carries the goods or as a bodyguard. This is a key element I want to distil from the Chinese culture as I feel it represents the ideology of the unknown and that itself is quite scary. I will also uses the Chinese oriental style to reflect there culture as I feel the designs really suit the spiritual Idea, such as the swirling patterns and plum reds. I feel with a dynamic pose of the character casting a spell with the spirit looming behind the character it will give it a very good looking effect. Overall I feel that looking into regional identity has really helped me with this weeks task and I will continue to develop in my last week of quick fire concepts.                                              

Week 5: Rules for Horror Shopkeeper!

Rules

The rules in which I have chosen for this week are listed below:

1. MY EEYEEESS!: I want there eyes to be a key part to there identity as within horror they are normal used with in graphic cuts to create the idea of someone is watching you, such as in Halloween when the camera does a graphic cut through a jack o lanterns eye.
2. Odds and ends that sort of thing: What are they selling? I want this to be reflected in the way there posing, for example they might be nervous to show there selling something illegal.
3. Killed or Cured?: What happened to them to be of the 'horror' style, where they killed and have not completed there true meaning of life so they have return as a ghost? We don't know, the possibilities are endless, this is why it is one of my rules to represent this in there style.

Week 4: Final Concepts

Speech & Expressions

I want Yomur’s tone to be very low and calm, this is to reflect the fact that he is living in pure peace and clearly identifies him as a dream like concept instead of a nightmare. I want his pace to also be slow to enhance this effect. His pitch will also be quite low to give him the masculine tone. I will record this by recording myself on Audacity, one way I have of achieving these effects is talking at a lower volume therefore forcing me to go lower.

Here I have drawn different expressions for my character Yomur. From this process I have learnt the importance of eyes when it comes to expressions, this also gives me a skeleton or template to build me expressions from when it comes to the dialogue. He will be quite calm throughout it I want to either use the second expression or the 7^th to enhance his calming nature.

I also decided to draw phonetics that I think I would find difficulty with the give me a better knowledge of the movement. I did this by using a mirror and pronouncing these letters. I feel this method will help me have a greater understanding of the phonetics I am using within my dialogue, due to its primary evidence.  

Here I have decided to lay out the dialogue I am using and draw the different phonetics that are used to pronounce it. This I feel is going to help me a lot in the near future when it comes to animating me character, this is because I will be able to blend shape these individual phonetics in order to make the transition between each smoother. Overall doing this process has enabled to be clairvoyant in which phonetics I will actually use and which are the most common.  

Synopsis & Dialogue - The Elven Prince

The city of Alwen was like no other, the city itself was a forest guarded simply by the nature within it. The elven people respected this land by cherishing it sweet soil to grow the most beautiful fruit and vegetables the world has ever seen, the fruit itself was considered to be from the garden of Eden due to its sweet taste and beautiful growth. The Eleven people did not hunt the wildlife or abuse it in anyway because they believed it presences was a gift like no other. The land was practically untouched due to the elves respect for the land life wasn't more peaceful. Life was a dream for them but unfortunately this has not always been the case, the royal family (The Twilights) and many others were born into slavery. Until they were able to understand that there was more to life due to the dreams they dreamt at night. The Prince Yomur used to dream of the Alwen forest and its natural beauty thus giving him the strength and knowledge that this life of slavery was not all what was destined for his family. This is when he decided to share his dream to his family which gave them the courage to escape. After days of traveling they found the city, greeted by divine animals and the most exotic fruit. That is the reason they respect the land, for if it had not have shown itself in Yomur's dreams they would have lived a life of slavery. Yomur believes that dreams are merely goals that you want to reach or ideas of a better life. Due to his first hand experience of this Yomur always goes by the idea that 'Dreams are merely a different reality' that we want. This in fact is the reason as to why the Elves live in such peace, due to the fact they see there dreams a goals not impossible delusions.     

 

Eleven Moodboard

As you can see from collecting various representations of the Elven race there is various similarities. One of the key similarities is the colour scheme, the uses of natural browns and greens create a very peaceful atmosphere and highlights the importance of nature to the race. This also helps to highlight magic by using bright contrasted colours to the environment such as cyan. They also share the similarity of using traditional weapons such as swords and bows thus reflecting the middle earth style of the race. The one main similarity is there ears, this is a key element to the race which clearly identifies them, the pointed ears. These are all elements I want to bring to my model. I will bring the colour scheme by using the colours when texturing the colours. The weapons I feel is something I will be unable to represent but I do want to create a crown similar to the one in the image to the middle far left, this is to represent my characters status as a prince. The pointed ears I am going to model in mudbox to give them a really clear look like the images.

Week 4: Research

Trolls are normally come across as very aggressive creatures within the media due to the fact of there large build and unappealing appearance, for example in the trilogy Lord of the Rings, a group of trolls they plan to eat the main protagonist. This act itself shows a very mean lifestyle for the creatures. I feel this is an element I will show in my concepts however I also plan to contrast this element by doing a friendly troll which I want to be inspired the BFG (The Big Friendly Giant). Though the BFG not being a troll I want to take elements from him to create a more friendly looking troll such as the crooked smile and the large eyes, elements that can be easily added to the creature.

I then went and thought about trolls within a culture and what as species would they be identified as. Maybe some unban cultures consider them a creature they can use as a form of transportation due to there large build whereas rural cultures may see them as a form of  godly creatures that should be celebrated. I also want to take into consideration the time era these trolls are from, for example if they were in the prehistoric era they might have a more natural appearance whereas if they were in modern day they may have modern enhancements such as metal arms or protective gear. This I feel is of importance for this will give a clear background to the identify of the trolls lifestyle.

   

Week 4: Mood Board

Here I have a selection of underwater/swamp trolls representations throughout media, as you can see they are normally suggested to be of the male origin and have elements of there environment growing on them. I aim to break the gender assignment with my characters as I feel they could just as easily be represented as female just as much as male. Whereas with the environment growing on the trolls I feel is a really effective element to create context for the creature or there origin, this is something I would like to implement into my work. I feel it is a really good way to represent the character, for example I could have the character covered/surrounded by happy looking fish giving the troll as very positive atmosphere to his appearance or I could the troll could be covered in moss suggesting he came from a swap.   

Week 4: Rules for Underwater Trolls!

Rules

The rules in which I have chosen for this week are listed below:

1. Unique Shape of Eyes: I want my trolls to have unique set of eyes when compared to the others, this I feel will give them an identity to where underwater they came from, for example if the troll was from a swamp I feel his eyes would be very murky or very black due to the water.
2. Troll-valuation!: Trolls normally do not originate from underwater so I feel there body would have been forced to adapt, such as having to growing gills or webbing there feet! This an element I feel is important to my concepts to show context as to how they became used to there environment.
3. Trolls can love too!: Through there appearance I want me trolls to represent there love for something, whether it be fish, toys or even seaweed! I think that emotions are something that are forgotten about trolls.

Primary Reasearch

 

I asked a group of ten people who've experienced Alice in Wonderland in various formats of media. I then asked them whether they consider a nightmare or a dream, six answered with dream and 4 answered with nightmare. As you can see the majority saw it as a dream however I believe that this is down to there personal experience of Wonderland. I believe this because of there replies as to why they thought it was a nightmare or dream.

When I asked why they thought it was a dream rather than a night mare they said that because it is presented as weird and wacky it makes it very appealing. This suggests that I should make my character aesthetically pleasing as have a unique quirk to reflect the dream element to my character.

In contrast the people who said that it was more a nightmare thought that this made the world very dangerous and threatening. They also said there was no control or consistency throughout the world which also scared them. Through this I learnt that there personal opinion on the world was dependant on there view of it for example, those you thought the world have no control or consistency feared it however those you thought it was a dream liked this whacky element. This I feel shows to me that when it comes to dream like environments it become very personal to the person. This is why I feel I should make the character very personal to me and my dream experiences to get the most effective representation.

  

Research into Dreams & Nightmares - Alice In Wonderland

Research

Dreams:
A series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep.


Within my dream sequence I want to create a surreal style like Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, by this I mean the way in which Lewis Carroll (the author) has taken elements of our life style such as animals and adapted them in an artist way. The reason as to why I feel this links into the dreams and nightmares style is the fact that Alice experience this world in which is considered very fiction, such as a talking rabbit with a waistcoat. This style also fits the description of a dream over than the fact she is not asleep however, the novel begins with her falling into a rabbit hole. When she falls she transitions into this world which suggests this is a metaphorical sensations of falling asleep or experiencing a dream like phase. Overall the style of this book is what I want to produce from my lip sync, the idea of another reality that has elements of are reality in it but are presented very differently.

I also want my face to have Elven elements to him as I feel this will clearly show a dream like style due to the fact Elves are fiction and often are a key element to fantasy. I also personally like the settings of the Elven race, often very peaceful creatures and like in wildlife reserve style places. I think this fits well with dreams as often good dreams are very peaceful and happy and you awaken feeling good, this is often the atmosphere and emotions presented around the Eleven race due to the fact they are quite peaceful. The colour scheme too is something that is quite relaxing due to the gentle colours used such as greens and calm yellows. This is the atmosphere I would like to produce from my lips sync. I feel I can achieve this by having my character take inspiration of the eleven style and have the talk in a very calming tone to relax the audience. 

 

Animation

 

 

 

I decided to look into animations of dream/nightmare sequences to see how the style and setting have been represented before. From this animation I discovered the movement often used within dream sequences. As you can see from the video the man is floating effortlessly and freely, idea of floating I feel definitely represents the feeling of dream in a visual manor. To distil this into my work I am going to animate my character with slow and relaxed movement to clear represent this style. To enhance the nightmarish effect the animator has used a dark red colour scheme, this suggests a form of danger or fear. From this I learn I should stay clear of these colours as I am trying to create a dream style lip sync therefore it should be the opposite if am I going to represent dreams instead of nightmares.   

 

 



Week 3: Final Concepts

Week 3: Moodboard

With my moodboard I wanted to show to the diversity of how witchcraft has been represented in media, I also looked into some elements of Steampunk like the witchdoctor style artwork. This backs up my research due to the fact of the similar colour scheme being used in the Steampunk images thus strengthening my idea to use the brown and grey style colour scheme.