Wednesday 28 July 2010

John Foster and Korky Paul MONSTER POEMS

The John Foster and Korky Paul - MONSTER POEMS hase arrived, at first glance of the children’s poems I noticed a few that have gained my attention more then others, yet another possibly here and material to work around. The content of the book has a collection of poems based on the monster theme.



Assessing the way which I could perhaps take these pieces of text, I thought about the original cg/real world combination and think with these poems for example I need to consider using another medium of just cg, if the decision was to use these I think this would result in a better outcome. Need to think outside the box as well as keeping with the initial idea.

Tuesday 27 July 2010

Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

Keeping with the theme of wonderful things happening within the scene the Charlie and the chocolate factory comes to mind. I’m still in search for the perfect piece of text for my world to come to life in. Roald Dhal has some interesting visions perhaps I can find something here. These are some nice visual shots taken from the adaptations made over the years.
The first adaption (1971) of Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel.

The more present (2005) adaptation.

Saturday 24 July 2010

Lewis Carroll

Much like the transcription project I’m hoping for great success in this assignment I need to find a suitable candidate, locating that perfect scene where things come to life. Going back to my proposal its clear about a few things I’m going to incorporate live action with cg (1) in addition to the animation it may incorporate a kind of species creatures/monsters of some kind (2) the animation will require a good sense of direction (3) by obtaining these factors I can bring existing text from past to present with a modern twist.
Poetry or some kind of literature may be the way forward to finding the text needed to get thing rolling the first of which is Lewis Carroll. I’ve witnessed a good transcription from Lewis Carroll’s fiction perhaps there might be some of interest to me.
Various Lewis Carroll poems:
http://www.poetry-archive.com/c/carroll_lewis.html

‘Alice’s fantastical adventures that have endured in their popularity for over a century, influencing contemporary authors, artists, musicians and inspiring adaptations to the stage and screen. Carroll’s particular mix of creativity, fantasy, word play, satire, nonsense, and dry wit have gained him iconic status in popular culture with such memorable characters as Alice herself, the March Hare, the wise Dodo, a mad Hatter, the hookah smoking Blue Caterpillar, and the Cheshire Cat.’
http://www.online-literature.com/carroll/

Lewis Carroll is most famously known for bringing ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)’ to life this is an area I can considered as it has some reality in the text which is in context with my vision and also contains very rich mouth-watering scenes, I’ve looked closely at two particular parts of writing ‘The Garden of Live Flowers’ and ‘The Looking Glass Insects’, here are a few of the illustrations taken from the book.
John Tenniel illustrations

Saturday 17 July 2010

Minor Project Proposal (Phil/Alan)

It’s been a few days since my departure from squint and now it’s about time I’ve uploaded the proposal for my minor project, being intrigued by the whole match moving live action mixed with cg area this is the kind of ball park I’d like to continue and express in the next project.


I’d like to take a modern day scenario and add cg to it. This is the basic idea I’m looking at, thinking about the world and the way it is progressing I believe that, we as human are not the only living things in the universe, where is the world going? Thinking beyond our kind what else is out there? Things change can change quite dramatically in life so therefore using this thought as my basis, I’ve worked out a scenario I can work around. Creating extra terrestrial creatures to add to the whole drama of my animation.
The idea come around watching some students match moving work on the Mac computer at uni, during that week the film cloverfield was being broadcasted on TV which I watched, prior to this matchmoving tasks where being worked on during the last assignment, so a lot of events just lead up to my decision. Also having worked with AfterEffects this would be ideal for use in this project.

Here’s a quick script of the scenario:
mobile phone in dirt

phone beings to flicker
recording rewinds
then plays
enters phone screen
Intro
friends playing in park (gordon promenade)
things become disoriented
friends run from scene..
creature appears from Thames.

friends continue running..

gordon promenade pavilion is noticed as friends hide
friends are astonished and amazed also fearful at the same time
gordon promenade pavilion is seen transforming into space craft as alien species enter

high tension
action/dramatic

As noted in my script and the location in which my animation will take place I found that I have everything I need in my home town of Gravesend, the Gordon promenade has been a great tourist location over the years and obtains some nice historic facts about it. Many people visit the park for that reason it makes a nice area to film. These are some snap I took with my mobile and other images sourced from Google.

Gordon promenade pavilion












Gordon promenade (Thames)



Accompanying art work sketches and concepts.


No real depth or conviction has gone into the art work at this stage these are just some pieces playing in my thought I needed to get down.
I’ve been thinking closely about some of the challenges that will or may cause the biggest problem and delay in my project. I need to understand these obviously earlier than others some of the challenges I may face are new, distinguishing these specifics out for instance a key scenes for instances an opening scene when the creature emerges from the water (particle?) how will I portray water the best with programme that are able. Visual effects wise in end scene with space craft, recording the footage, this is an area already discussed with some friends from back at school who have knowledge within live action so this would be a great benefactor. Loads to consider, but now the real question is if this is achievable with the time have? What are your thoughts can this idea work?Would this work?
Phil and Alan if you get the chance to read this please comment your thoughts.

Tuesday 13 July 2010

Work Placement

My time at Squint Opera is now complete I’m free to start working on my minor project and other things, so much has been gained from this experience I have made the first steps to connecting with the industry and beginning to establish the network within it , the placement was very positive meeting new people and learning a great deal ,having little knowledge in some of the programme used such as 3ds max and final cut pro for example, these where put a side and the focus was on primarily the abode programmes Photoshop and AfterEffects, most of the technical aspects of the project consisted of heavy use of these packages so therefore most of the techniques learnt built up around theses programmes, I now feel much more confident in using AfterEffects and would like to carry it on into the minor project as some of the procedures can be of great use to me. Looking back at ways in which the company operates it was noticeable how busy the atmosphere was although this was a result of the expansion Squint is going through, more full time employees and more freelances where being recruited. I enjoyed the nature of the working environment especially as you feel quite stress free it was nice to see a family like relationship between the employees and how everyone had the freedom to liaise with one another even though some where working on different projects at one time.
One of the main highlights to the experience was to observe how I would cope, thinking I’d be under pressure with the work, as the weeks went on this assumption went straight out of the window, the tasks given did not have a huge deal of difficulty attached to them so this made the experience much easier. It was important to establish whether I could see myself working in a studio like this or the creative world so to speak and now feel confident enough to say my views have changed I can see myself working in an environment of this kind in the future.