FMPA1 ENDS

PDF done and handed in, this ends this project.

The Unborn

This is the trailer for the teen horror The Unborn, whilst a lot of it is your typical evil child scenario what i do like is the creepy upside down man/creature. It plays on the type of fear that i want to get into my main character, a very humanoid type of character that is twisted and evil.

All in a big circle!!!

Paying attention to what happened during the 80's allows us to see the similarities not just in political movements but also fashion and especially music fashion. Whilst I appreciate that there are now higher production values I find myself just recognising audio and visual references back to the 80's decade, is it because that this decade in all it's boom and bust very similar to that decade and we as residents in this western society looking for some guidance and hope for the future?

Here is a track from Five o'clock Heroes that screams 80's, right down from the "Madonna" image choices to the Police guitar rift;



To take this musical video just a tad further here is Agyness Deyn in a purfume advert for Jean Paul Gaultier;

Interesting charcter insight

Here is the final 10 min segment from the BBC program My Wasted Life that which lets us into the creative mind of Matt Groening, this small segment of the program (the other segments can be found on You Tube if you are interested) gives us a brief glimpse at his design decisions and the reasons behind them. Such things that he hints at are silhouettes and colour, adimitadly they are only brief but these reasons help to understand why the show is so successful and why the choices on shape and colour are very important to not only the viewer of television but also the game player who wants to empathise with the on screen presence.

Shape is very important

Going through the chaarcter design research it is clear to me that the silhouette is very important for the design of your character, by looking at the examples below you can easily make out who the charatcer is without have the need for the shading, colour work or texture. The simple theory is that is the silhouette is good then the character will become a much more recognisable to the observer. Depending on the designer of the character and their preffered workflow the silhouette will be checked at different times, artists such as Feng Zhu checks his afetr thumbnailing where some preffer to play with sihouttes at the beginning loosely looking for and interesting and striking shape that is both pleasing and catching to the eye.

Below is a silhouette board os various cartoon character that are iconic and easily reconisable, how many can you pick out?

And who is this one? This is an advert for apple using a very popular television program and in my mind one of the most recognisable in the world even without the catching colour.

Taking this element of charcter design I am going to incorporate it into my design workflow curing concept phase to check if the overall shape is striking enough to easily recognisable and pleasing to the eye, how I work this in is still up in the air though as I am yet to start my concept phase (3rd December!!) but I will experiment by either trying it after thumb nailing or at the very beginning and then try to work out the features of the character.

More del Toro

Here are a few pages from del Toros sketch book fro Pans Labyrinth. The reason I am looking at these is the way that they are presented. Even though these are a few pages from his personal sketchbook what is apparent is how they have a fairy tale like look and style to them, the actual book which he is seen clutching in his hands at come interviews is a think leather bound book that has a charm all of it's own which adds to the sense that this is a story about faeries and mythology.It's reminds me of a journal of someone who is exploring and seeing new things and is keeping a record of everything that he finds, the sketches around it makes fro an additional charm and it has given me an idea on how to present my work for both the presentation and the final submission.

TICKERS!!!!!!!!

Gears of War 2 was released a short time ago to massive sales bringing back more action from the Gears of War universe to the player after the huge success of the first, whilst I appreciate that it is a good game and one that I am enjoying playing what interests me the most in the character and the monsters. What struck me over the first is the time paid in helping to create a back story to the heroes and how they relate to each other, by giving them a more 3 dimensional existence in the game it helps tie the world and their plight more closely together helping to drag the player further into the action. In the overall narrative there is the story running in the background where the character Dom is looking for his missing wife and how this is giving him hope to continue in his struggle against the Locust. This story whilst a little cheesy also helps us to see how the relationship between Dom and Marcus works and allows us through all the gore see a softer side to Marcus without all the need for a fluffy story line for him, this is a clear illustration of how the story of one of the characters can be used to show a more in depth view of another character within the same universe.

One of the monsters in the game has interested me too, the Ticker. It may not be the biggest and most powerful in the game it's the overall presence of it that is slightly unnerving due to it's quick pace and overwhelming numbers and that clicking sound that they make before they come into sight that makes you stop and pay extra attention to the whole area surrounding you. Whilst I appreciate that this character itself is designed for a fast action paced game there are elements from this that would work well within my game concept. The idea of fast moving creatures that overwhelm you would up the pace for a short period in the game play that would make the player player at a faster rate causing a heightened sense of panic whilst playing.


Other nice things to note are the way the who game has kept a good style even between the two opposing forces, the armor on both sides have a kind of similarity and style that helps to bind the societies in one believable world at conflict, even the architecture has certain similarities although they are different they still compliment each other.