Huabanyouliu: Revising an Old City

As I looked to the future I had a suspicion that I may be looking for a job for a little while, so to keep my skills sharp I went back to an old design, the city I built in my first year with fresh ideas to make it more convincing. Maybe more expansive or more true to something Philip Treacy would design, as while the key buildings are certainly Trracy-like, I feel the rest of the cityscape could do with a more true-to-his-work look.

It's only a blockout so far, but going back to my inspirations I have a few new ideas for the city's layout.

  I went back to my old inspiration, the Zhangjiajie Forest National Park in China where the city was nestled in the pillar-like mountains to look for ideas on layout and construction. Maybe the mountains form part of the city itself. The original city's design involved many platforms, elevated psaces for people to move and interact. The mountains provide a perfect preface for such vertical construction, a foundation as the city reaches out into the air, it's people rooted in the rock but living among the clouds.

  Key structures will be installed, of course - the opera house and some of the platforms will remain as they are symbolic features of the design as it was during my final submission. I might not get to populate it, or expand it as more than an empty city once vibrant, but it's a wonderful exercise to fill empty time.

Zhangjiaje, in particular some rock formations that might work very well in the revised city. (Amusing Planet, 2015)

References

• Amusing Planet, 2015; [Zhangjiaje, in particular some rock formations that might work very well in the revised city]; zhangjiajie; available at https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtoRrCKClHbHehbqdH2JRo_BKEbVicoS9rzqapdDKGSq1vYbmYx-K2pfMtxtllS_LmboW8M3n_bDTWtH-Jnz2F27WFiRrbn3FGEDRBTWDD9kMRYVFcXIhW_k1nx0373FOFZ_byjlJdXBRH/?imgmax=800 (last accessed 13th September 2017)

Major Project: Final Designs In Sight

  Today's priority was getting a final idea for what Four looks like I looked back on fighting fish and, entranced by the draping silk-like tails they had looked into giving something like that to Four. As can be seen, there are shades of dilophosaurus in some of the drawings which I want to avoid (this is mostly due to possessing similar frilled crests.) the main difference I think is Four's is a lot more swept back. It would give her an edge in swimming. I don't want ot go too overboard with the frills - these will likely be animated as ncloth materials in the animation (so lots and lots of flow!). Too many frills and she might lose her shape in the action. But I believe the most successful adult form is 78. 83 and 85 I believe were fairly successful bust shots.

  Perhaps she can retract these sails. We see this shape in its full glory during her escape. It makes perfect sense that she escapes from captivity when she is in her most impressive. She is at her most beautiful and David sees this. As well as this, I looked at the juvenile, which will be a much dumpier and less attractive look. While the adult is inspired by Asian fish, otters and ferrets, the juvenile was strongly inspired by naked mole rats and axolotls.

What is probably needed now is a final concept piece. I have plenty of thumbnail material, now would be an extremely good time to set to work on the final design.

Major Project: Some Primary Research

  I've been mostly out of commission today after a bit of a bug. Regretting that a sudden bout of illness might stop me from watching Alien with the First-years on Tuesday I booted up Alien: Isolation this evening in order ot perform a photo-gathering opportunity. Because it's a computer game it's not a perfect rendition of the interiors of the 1978 classic, but it comes close. ANd it has still given me ideas of how to build my base.

  I gathered several dozen screenshots ingame, I chose Alien: Isolationn as it has been critically hailed as an extremely authentic replication of the original Alien universe. The ship you use to arrive at the space station where most of the game takes place is even said to be the same model as the Nostromo - complete with an authentic medlab, hypersleep chamber, and mess hall.

When I walked in she said "I feel like death". Creative Assembly you're doing a bang-up job.

I'm not spoiling but I think I figured this guy out after about thirty seconds talking with him.

  I also did some corridor snapping because that's one of the areas I haven't built up as much as the rest of the base. The downside is the environments within the game are very dark. Tweaking the brightness-contrast filters is a definite priority for any reference images.

  My plan for my condition is to get as much rest as possible. The sooner I feel like I am in a condition to work, the sooner I can get back to the concept art and the camera work. Fortunately I have had some thinking time so once my head stops spinning for long enough I could pull out my sketchbook.

Major Project: Refining Concepts

  With some progress in finding voices for the project, and with the concepts for the base gradually crystallising, progress can be made on the finer details. Looking at floor plans from Space 1999 and 2001: A Space Odyssey I gained an impression that the 1970s were a period of open spaces and neatly organised furniture. Everything in the future was tidy and organised, with strong lines and an emphasis on comfort. I was told one fashion of the 70s in science fiction was padded leather panels. In hindsight a rather peculiar material to coat your walls in but then again the modern perception of the future promises walls made of either glass or plastic so I suppose it was a quirk of the times.

  Four's adult forms are coming along mentally but one priority is to work out what the grub looks like. I had considered there could be a degree of translucency to Four's body so I had a bit of fun working out where all her organs could go. It was then I struck a few ideas for a few anatomical elements to make Four alien. She could have her nostrils on her back or on the back of her neck while her skull has a bulbousness to it that could extend into a crest.

  Four's grub form got me thinking on the juvenile and adult anatomies. I'm thinking a touch of fox and a touch of otter into her genetics, so to speak: An elongated but bouncy hunter of small animals with a nice fat tail and plenty of agility. This is something I could explore with silhouettes as I develop the other forms. My primary goal with these drawings was to work out the simpler of Four's forms. The cocoon I realised could be more shaped by Four curling up.

  Researching an influence for Four's larval state I came across beetle grubs. Two things caught my attention. The first is that ground-dwelling species like the Goliath beetle and the Japanese beetle lay their larvae in the soil, where they live curled up until they mature. Once they develop into adults, they crawl out of the soil. The second is that some species, like the aforementioned beetle grow enormous as grubs. Some can be large enough to require both hands when being held.

References

• Jameson-Gould, 2012; What is the biggest insect in the world?; Real Monstrosities; avaiilable at  http://www.realmonstrosities.com/2012/03/what-is-biggest-insect-in-world.html (last accessed 12th October 2016)
• Krischik, V., Maser, D., 2011; Japanese Beetle Management in Minnesota; University of Minnesota; available at http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/insects/find/japanese-beetles/ (last accessed 12th October 2016)

Major Project: Bug Thumbnails

  Today's been mostly about my bug. I had this though after discovering a scanning electron microscope (SEM) photograph of a hydrothermal worm. These seep-sea worms are tiny, the size of bacterium but the thing that intrigued me most was they had jaws and teeth. So I wondered, to add to the chill factor, if Four could have this kind of mouth, that opens to reveal another mouth.

Figure 1: A hydrothermal worm (Crassous)

  Beyond this, I want to refine the adult form so I can get a good sense of the larval form. I'm leaning towards the blobby slugs Ginger and Fred from Splice as inspiration for when Four first emerges from the soil.

Figure 2: Perhaps the definition of ugly-cute (That Was A Bit Mental, 2015)

Image References

• Figure 1: Crassouls, P., unknown [A Hydrothermal worm]; Crassouls 3 PhC-C; available at https://www.fei.com/uploadedImages/FEISite/Content/Image_Gallery/Images/IM_20100225_Crassous_3_PhC-C_lg.jpg (last accessed 3rd October 2016)
• Figure 2: That Was A Bit Mental, 2015; [Perhaps the definition of ugly-cute]; Splice Pic 6; available at https://thatwasabitmental.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/splice-pic-6.jpg (last accessed 3rd October 2016)

Outpost Inspiration: Chris Foss and Angus McKie

A friend of mine was discussing his experiences with No Man's Sky today. He showed some screenshots he had picked up, and mentioned conceptual artist Chris Foss. Foss was a powerful inspiration in the 70s, working on Dune (1977, which I might watch today for ideas), Alien and more recently Guardians of the Galaxy.

Figure 1 (Rowe, 2015)

Foss's work however is highly iconic. But I am getting a feel for the key elements of the work that was iconic of his era: Bold lines, blocky shapes, bold colours, fairly simple but sleek structures, but more textured and colourful than the Apple aesthetic that has dominated future-thinking science fiction over the past few years.

Figure 2 (Simotron, 2011)

  Another possible influnece is Angus McKie, Who again looked at vibrant colour palettes and key lines. This work is a useful influence for the design of the outpost.

Image References

• Figure 1: Rowe, A., 2015; Chris Foss Planet Of The Dying Sun; available at https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0kmkIHnAmij4F8SUTBLN4o3P9YOgHyHZK6NgmiJwsC5yRUOkbj1j9rIVFZOcUTsb1bj-9Weaq6v7N9ao_SquKWOn1qgt8aRsjWXH0nc8toJV4jMiTiCea2Et1zuduko8ztjY4UWkHN148/s1600/02+CHRIS+FOSS+-+THE+PLANET+OF+THE+DYING+SUN.jpg (last accessed 2nd October 2016)
• Figure 2: Simotron, 2011; Angus McKie-2; available at https://simotron.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/angus-mckie-2.jpg (last accessed 2nd October 2016)

Major Project: More Logos More Creature Heads

  I got drawing more logos but I feel like I'm honing in on an idea. I was drawn to the W-X combinations like 29 and 37, but also the iconography of 25. I think I can make the W-X combo distinct. I tried playing around with alternatives all the while thinking of how other companies manage it. While the common theme is it's simple and straightforward, designs themselves vary wildly from monograms (Volkswagon,Uber, Virgin, AOL, First Great Western) to iconic (Monsanto, Lloyd's, Birdseye) to abstract (Amtrak,, Ubisoft, Legendary Pictures, Mercedes-Benz). Abstract icons are interesting as there is imagery in their logos. Maybe Smithston-Wessex could simply be something like "Wessex Frontiers" or "Wessex Frontier Interests".

  As suggested by Phil, I spent the afternoon watching Splice. I thought it was going ot be a standard Alien-esque haunted house film due to the marketing angle (the back of the jewel case for instance has such lines as "an uncontrollable mistake that's about to break loose and rip their world apart into tiny pieces"). But it wasn't, and chimed with my story much more closely than I expected. I might have taken inspiration as the creature in it started off quite alien, but over the course of the film developed into something much more human. Its almost a shame the creature developed the way it did as earlier instances such as its baby phase and the first creatures shown - the latter of which were practically blobby translucent slugs - were much more bizarre. But I can understand why it developed the way that it did, as the story had tones that related to parenthood and growing up.

  The themes were there, and I find myself likely to take inspiration away that will help a lot on this project to sell a convincing creature design.

Major Project: Ideas For The Alien

  I might be close to the starting point for a script. Something that might come to fruition in early September. For now I had been thinking of the content, as the concept of the scientist is at a fairly solid state at the moment. The logs and the world will contain scientific notes, so there is a benefit to nailing the creature's form early for the benefit of the script.

  I had some inspiration after some food I discarded a while ago attracted flies. Days after disposing of it, the food bin sustained a colony of maggots but that is when the inspiration hit me: It seems quite common in the bug world for insects to begin life as an ugly grub, a mass of flesh that exists only to eat and fatten up, before engaging in a metamorphosis into a new kind of creature. I don't like flies, and this inspiration could help me avoid that cliche that an ugly grub turns into a beautiful butterfly - the creature could emerge as an adolescent, but instead of being graceful, it's the monstrous fish-creature I was experimenting with the other day. A possible maturation cycle could be as so:

• The initial sample will be in an egg or maybe a fluid state. Maybe this creature starts life as a kind of moss. It'll be dull, but that'll spur the resentment the scientist has for the project.
• As the moss matures, it develops a pupa underneath itself. This pupa will then emerge once it is large enough.
• The pupa develops, before creating some crystalline substance that it covers itself in in order to metamorphose into the adolescent form.
• The adolescent phase will be a juvenile form of the adult creature, it could develop features that would help it find a mate in the wild.

  As for a timescale, perhaps something somewhat brief like 5-12 years. Short enough that a mature scientist can watch it develop at a speedy pace, but long enough that his bosses will question the cost-time effectiveness of studying a creature from birth to adulthood.

  I will have to consider that the more life-phases I have, the more models I will need to build. The adolescent and adult will be fairly similar, and the moss form could be a surface that uses hair to give the impression of foliage. So in a sense the older this thing gets, the more complex the model. Two or three feels like a magic number. Or perhaps the adolescent grows into the adult.phase by way of extra bones or blendshapes.

Sketchbook: Fish and Aliens a Colourful Mix

  I was still felling inspired visiting the London Aquarium so while they're not the best studies, I decided to draw some fish, thinking it might help with inspiration over the creature that will appear in the film. Although I was also inspired by watching James Cameron's Aliens on Sunday night (somewhat fitting given Weyland-Yutani's obsession with acquiring a Xenomorph for use as some experimental bioweapon reflects one idea that the creature in the project could be there though some big company looking to use it for commercial purposes.). Halfway though, as demonstrated on the right-hand size of the page, I decided to see what beasties I could fashion out of fish parts. It still feels a little generic at the moment but with time, revision and further inspiration will come something distinct.

There are some truly bizarre creatures that lurk under the surface of our oceans. Not just the classic bizarre creatures like the Angler fish. While at the aquarium I encountered two species of shark in particular: One swam like a manta ray and the other, the aforementioned Nurse Shark, had catfish-like whiskers attached to its nose. Unfortunately I only had my phone camera which takes terrible pictures in low light conditions.

  Still it gave me a few thoughts on how to make a creature that was otherworldly and grotesque. Sketching while watching James Cameron's actionised sequel for Hollywood's most iconic kill-happy alien monsters may have also contributed towards a bit of inspiration. To ad a bit of ferocity maybe adding a touch of shark or eel to the creature is going along the right lines.

Sketchbook: Birds Of The Natural History Museum

  Attending New Designers 2016 yesterday, I had arrived in London a few hours early to get the most out of my visit to the capital. One thing I decided to do, as I had brought my sketchbook, was to investigate the Natrual History Museum. As I had mentioned in a previous post, I was keen on drawing some birds for a change of pace, fortunately the museum has quite a nice collection of  them. And while the current display wasn't as impressive as a previous year's exhibition showcasing a display of around 100 taxidermied hummingbirds in flight,

  Granted these aren't as finely tuned as my previous drawings as I only had an hour or so and I wanted to focus on body shapes or profiles rather than fine detail drawings, but these sketches did give me insight into these animals, who all share common anatomical features that evolved with the express purpose to maximise their flight capabilities.

  I also took time to investigate how wings work, as it is something I want to improve on. Fortunately one of the museum's longstanding displays shows how a bird's feathers and muscle connect to the bone. And I was able to work out the primary shapes that are assembled to make wings in this case. There's still some variation to investigate this is a foundation, as wings - be they bat, bird or whatever other animal - are usually a form of arm in some shape or form.

  Stellar's Sea Eagle, a bird of prey found in Northeastern Asia was the crown of my visit. Asian hunter of the sky, as can be seen in comparison to the more familiar dodo, and the budgie-sized Ou, is enormous! A giant of the eagle world that took my breath away with its massive talons and grand wingspan.

  These photographs taken of the way bird wings are constructed were particularly inspiring. And I think they could go a long way to improving my anatomical understanding when it comes to drawing and designing wings.

Sitting in the same exhibit as other great birds, the humble tawny owl.

  Outside the bird exhibit, the Natural History Museum has a beautiful display of sea-monster fossils, most prominently the Pliesiosaur, and the dolphin-like Icthyosaur. I also took a visit to the dinosaur wing, took some photos but didn't do any sketches as the museum was roughly an hour from closing for the day when I visited.

Artstream 11/06/2016 - Battlefield One Art

  Watching the trailer for Battlefield One I was greatly inspired by the sight of a Bedouin warrior early in the trailer. What interested me most was the hint that Battlefield One might at least partially show the Arabian theatre of the first world war, a theatre that aside from tales like Lawrence of Arabia is relatively poorly-known to the general public compared to the fields of the Franco-Belgian border. I particularly enjoyed painting the horse, as I had spent a lot of time as of late looking at horses that got me particularly particularly inspired though I think there could be some improvements made to how it ended up.

Sculpting Workshop: Garrus Orthographic

  For today's sculpting class I plan on working on a bust of Garrus Vakarian, an alien squadmate from the Mass Effect franchise. I decided on sculpting him because there is a lot going on in terms of design that quite interests me. He has a nice balance to his design; cars on one side of his face (which interests me as it seems like a fun texturing opportunity), and a visor/viewfinder thing on the other side. His horns are another interesting feature and thanks to the exoskeleton he has some very clear facial features.

  Because of how much his eyepiece obscures of Garrus' right eye, I chose to draw it on in a different colour, to help see what is underneath it when it comes to sculpting. I may sculpt the head festures first, with the visor being a secondary feature.

Adaptation A: Investigating Creatures to Adapt

  I have considered an alternative in creature design. So today I looked into a number of legendary creatures I could make into something for a project. I am still discovering what I might enjoy most but I have come to a couple of conclusions. I kept some rules for myself to keep the project interesting: Nothing from East Asia, nothing too humanoid, and nothing that would be too publicly known. Although the last one how well-known it is depends on what part of the world you live in.

  The following are creatures I have taken some consideration in:

Alkonost

• Region of origin: Russia
• Key physical characteristics: head of a woman, body of a bird
• Key behavioral characteristics: evasive, largely benign, lays eggs on beaches then rolls them to sea
• Key abilities: Hypnotic voice; can sing beautifully and entrance travelers into turning back and forgetting them. When their eggs hatch ,the act of hatching creates thunderstorms

Adlet

• Region of origin: Hudson Bay
• Key physical characteristics: Legs of a dog, body of a human, taller than Europeans
• Key behavioral characteristics: aggressive, In conflict with humans.
• Key abilities: Can outrun humans

Chamrosh

• Region of origin: Persia
• Key physical characteristics: body of a dog, head and wings of a bird
• Key behavioral characteristics: Benevolent, said to have gathered the seeds of a great tree and cast them across the world
• Key abilities: Uncertain, powerful wings

Chiccan

• Region of origin: Yucatan Peninsula, Central America
• Key physical characteristics: four giant water-dwelling reptiles
• Key behavioral characteristics: Live in lakes that correlate to the four cardinal directions
• Key abilities: their thrashing stirs the lakes to send water to the sky, the water is returned to earth as rain by other gods 

Colo Colo

• Region of origin: Chile
• Key physical characteristics: varies, common elements are of rats, snakes, feathers and other reptiles
• Key behavioral characteristics: feeds off human saliva, lives under a person's house, has the call of a wailing infant
• Key abilities: Those who are fed from by Colo Colo feel regularly exhausted, thoutr to bring disease, draining power can kill

El Pollo Maligno (Evil Chicken)

• Country/culture of origin: Colombia, South America
• Key physical characteristics: A chicken, large enough to devour humans
• Key behavioral characteristics: feeds on human flesh, malicious towards hunters
• Key abilities: Haunts hunters, driving them deep into wooded areas where they become its prey.

Encantado

• Region of origin:Amazon Basin
• Key physical characteristics: pink river dolphins that can transform into humans with blowholes on the crown
• Key behavioral characteristics: Playful, like attending fiestas, seducing women, wear hats to cover their blowholes when in public
• Key abilities: Shapeshifters, entrancers, can cast illnesses on people, can transform at dawn or dusk

Wolpertinger

• Region of origin: Bavaria, Germany
• Key physical characteristics: body made up of wings, fangs, tails and antlers of various animals all connected to a small mammal's body, often a rabbit.
• Key behavioral characteristics: Unknown
• Key abilities: None known, presumably some inherited from the animals it takes parts from
• Related story from late 19th century Sweden of Skvader, a rabbit-like winged creature hunted by one particular man who hunted it north of Sundsvall.

  There were a number of creatures upon my examination that didn't look strange enough or had quirks that I felt were inappropriate for a broad audience or contained some particularly gruesome facts about them. So far however I think my most confident inspirations are the Akanost, Colo-Colo and Chiccan.

Narrative Project: Thumbnailing Stage One

I worked on some thumbnails for the narrative project today. Very few I admit are on the pufferfish when he's puffed up but the focus I found myself with was the emotions of the fish. So far we have yet to discuss if there will be speaking in our animation or if it will be an emotive one so in preparation I looked at expressions nonetheless.

I also focused on emotion because even if we use dialogue, we are creating a very expressive world for our story with vibrant colours and at least one energetic character. Expression could also be used to show our character is bright, thoughtful and energetic, he wants to express himself so it makes sense that his face and his body should show it.

    One of the ideas was that the pufferfish in focus runs into trouble that unsettles him, which prompted the question of what would trouble him. Other fish? Other puffers? Predators? It's more characters true but at the time of thumbnailing I felt a vibe of a rule of three if we were going for a group; three scary creatures that would unsettle him and trigger his nervous reaction.

    Because we talked about patters I wondered to myself "what kind of patterns?" so I looked into fractals, repeating and flowing patterns for a bit of early inspiration. And there was also the crop circles that puffersfish would use to try and gain the interest of a mate. What would his attempts look like? What would the others' works look like?

    I think the story is emerging. Something is starting to coalesce from the cracks.

Character Project: Influence Map

    For my project's influence map I looked mainly at style but also at games that I could use as the basis for my game. The inclusion of wraiths and smoke in the influence map were a development of the idea that cards could be gained by vanquishing bad spirits. In Chinese, the translation of "Ch'i" or "Qi" (the life-force as described in Buddhist teachings) is "breath" or "wind", so it might make sense that its negative "bad luck" counterpart is also related to air. Because bad energy is seen as pollutive, I got the idea of portraying it as black smoke, which in both Eastern and Western cultures is seen as unsightly and toxic.

    I am tempted towards colouring my Nian white, as this is a colour that in Chinese culture relates to death. While I have found images portraying Nian as green, I feel certain this is based off the copper statue that dominates my influence map. It seems inappropriate to colour Nian green as Chinese jade (generally a light green or dark green colour) is and was a highly-desired material in Chinese history, comparable to how gold, diamond or possibly marble has been treated in European aand African culture.

Fantastic Voyage: More ideas

    My mind is becoming set on Malaria for the fascinating way it reproduces and the tricks it conducts in order to do this. While talking to one of my flatmates as well as Andy, the merozoite phase conjured up two inspirations: The Xenomorph and the Grey Goo scenario due to the way the merozoite surgically enters the blood cell, uses the cell's own body to replicate itself then reporduce to such a quantity that the host eventually bursts open, releasing thousands of merozoites to repeat the process in other blood cells.

Figure 1: The Merozoite enters a red blood cell much like a virus (Miller, 2011)

Figure 2: Merozoite close up, the construction could be like that of a single-purpose machine (Bannister, 2000)

     The Alien/Grey Goo combination has given me the thought of using a Gigeresque style, with the components looking somewhat like machines as at the subcellular level the difference between "organic" and "mechanical" begins to blur (I was once told to think of mitochondria as cell-scale power stations and the Golgi apparatus as a cell-scale sorting office). These things use their hosts to make more of themselves, which is Grey Goo in a nutshell.

    This might also give me a chance to build on the idea of using the shape profile.of a mosquito as the basis for something like an aircraft or a spaceship, to fit with the biomechanical theme.

Image References

• Figure 1: Miller, H., numerous, 2011; [The merozoite enters a red blood cell much like a virus]; F6.large; available at http://www.pnas.org/content/108/32/13275/F6.large.jpg (last accessed 25 February 2015)
• Figure 2: Bannister, L., 2000; [Merozoite close-up, the construction could be like that of a single-purpose machine]; Merozoite; available at http://mpmp.huji.ac.il/maps/merozoite.gif (last accessed 25th February 2015)

Fantastic Voyage: First Impressions

    A new project has been given to us by Prof. Klappa of the University of Kent. The task is to create an informative story/animation on the life cycle of one of four microscopic organisms: hookworms, influenza, malaria and slime mould. The two year Applied Science BTEC is currently acting as a big contributor to my enthusiasm

Looking over the videos provided by Professor Klappa, here are my initial thoughts on each. The overarching theme I got was that nature sure is lovely when it comes to survival tactics.

• Influenza: Microbiology was part of my studies so it was intriguing to look into this. The nature of a virus indeed makes it hard to define it as "life" since viruses like influenza are essentially a protein/lipid shell containing several strands of RNA: No biological processes. Once it gets inside a cell and reprograms the host to make more of these carriers it works the host like a sweatshop and spitting out viruses like a machinegun until the cell dies of exhaustion. 
• Slime mould: I got strong vibes of the hungry-hungry caterpillar, Terminator II and The Blob from this one: Spores mature into a kind of amoeba that eats bacteria until it starts starving; this "wave of famine" then causes them to combine into an aggregate mass of amoeba in the form of a slimy blob. The blob then grows fruiting buds that extend upwards, with a select few acting as "baby factories". The top of the bud explodes and the spores are scattered into the wind.
• Hookworm: This one ties with malaria in the disgust factor as cycle of this one starts with pooh. Yay. When Klappa talked about the worms biting and getting into the bloodstream I got this image of blood cells being pushed aside by a massive worm that speeds all the way to the lungs. I thought it was clever how the larvae triggered a coughing reaction that had them capitalising on the natural tendency to swallow. Their preferred method of feeding (latching on and feeding on your blood) reminds me of vampires. The fact that the species that have adapted to humans are resistant to our stomach acids - tough little things, certainly.
• Malaria: This one is certainly sticking in my mind even if the life cycle is quite extensive. When Klappa was talking about the method of reproduction (sporozoids infiltrating liver cells and multiplying until the cell swells until it bursts to release thousands of merozoites (larvae I guess) that do the same with red blood cells) is definitely viral and the exponential pattern is characteristic of a zombie apocalypse. The idea that the rarer gamete cells that swim around the blood (cell?) to be sucked up unintentionally by another mosquito is quite devious and makes it sound like infected become living incubators for the gamete cells that form a zygote in a mosquito's gut. Which, joy of joys, opens up to release sporeozites into the mosquito’s saliva for the whole cycle to begin again.

At first I can only envision the hookworm and slime mould being potentially cheerful and it is hookworm and malaria that are sticking in my mind the most.

I am a keen advocator of science and am one for believing that it is something that anyone can take an interest in. So for now I have a few initial considerations for the life form and target audience:

For the Hookworm:

• Children: A happy story of a cute hookworm that finds its way into someone's body and lives a happy life cutely sucking blood. (Okay this one might be a challenge. Maybe it looks like it kissing the intestinal wall, or I look towards either squirrels or Japanese media).
• Students: Perhaps another explorative story of a curious hookworm. Less cute than the one for kids, maybe something tech-y or informative.
• Back-benchers: Connotations of vampirism could draw interest.

For Influenza:

• Children: I got creeped-out by a student-level animation of a virus entering a cell when I was 12. Might want to stay away from this audience with this.
• Students: Might require some thought. I've seen so many demonstrations on YouTube and TV that I get the "everything's been done" vibe.
• Back-Benchers: Shouldn't be too hard to give a zombie-like or robotic aura to it. Showing a cell swarming with infant viruses like a flock of birds could be quite striking.

 For the Slime Mould:

• Children: The aggregation phase could have a mood that the amoebas are getting together out of desire. If I were to have the animation showing the behaviour of the amoeba I should make sure to make it look like an act of cooperation. I should put emphasis on a charm factor for spores being scattered into the wind
• Students: The scene in Terminator II where the T-1000 turns into a liquid and reconstructs itself could be an influence here.
• Back-Benchers: Again, Terminator II. Although maybe combine it with an aggregate blob monster feel. Maybe the first stage could be somewhat game like: The player controls am amoeba as they hoover up smaller bacteria. 

Malaria

• Children: Unless I aim for the kind of child that craves the disgusting, this might be harder to do and not scare the living daylights out of the audience.
• Students: The viral multiplication phases could work like a map of a viral agent on a computer network where malaria "infects" connections on the network, spreading over the body. The video could also end how it began with a vector transferring the matured virus to a new network.
• Back-Benchers: This microorganism has "zombie apocalypse" written all over its life cycle. The delivery system doesn't have to be organic - perhaps a dive-bomber or spaceship with the profile of a mosquito. It could be to the tone of science fiction (According to one recent art blog, at least one of the ship designs in Jupiter Ascending was inspired by the shape of a lobster, and it wasn't an isolated theme)

This project, depending on which direction I go, could end up quite fun to compose. While looking though my ideas I began to notice that perhaps some of the ideas for each audience could be swapped about.

Summary: Barcelona, February 2015

The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (National museum of Art of Catalonia) is one of my favourite buildings that for me draws forth images of the zenith.of the Spanish Colonial Empire. Such a legacy was bolstered by imported trees and parakeets flying in flocks particularly here.

    I have returned from the five-day trip to Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. A beautiful city nestled along the coast of the Mediterranean and at the foot of the Spanish Alps. I fell in love with the city within the afternoon I had arrived due to the staggering abundance of large Italian-influenced neoclassical facades combined (for at least half od the city) with a well-planned Roman-like grid system. Tree-lined avenues (sadly leaves had not blossomed while I was there but I can almsot imagine what they look like in full bloom) crossed the city and were occasionally peppered with statues and gorgeous fountains. It is a shame that in my haste to leave for it I had left my camera behind because I do nto believe these sketches or my descriptions do the city full justice

     My days were very busy so I did not have much time for sketching. So I used much of friday to wander the city committing it to it to pencil in a new sketchbook. I got the chance to draw La Sagrada Familia and the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. The top two images ot the left were from two things I had seen outside the Salvidor Dali Theatre and Museum in Figueres, a town an hour or so outside of Barcelona. Even with most of the city being these stone-faced mid-rise buildings the metropolis still felt huge with blocks rising between seven and ten stories in the metropolitan area and between four and six in the older, more tightly-packed and warren-like Gothic District, with four-to-five metre-tall ground floor levels on many of the metropolitan buildings.

Theere were many large ornmaneted buildings like
above.

    This is a city I would definitely love to return to. Despite it's age i'd say it combines it's ancient history and historic architecture with the modernity of an organised modern metropolis (such as New York) very well as much of the city is quite spacious thanks it it's wide avenues. I was able to visit many places by keepign a relatively straight path and it was only in the more maze-like Gothic district where I felt the risk of getting lost.

    As I said above, it is  shame I did not bring a camera because I felt there was a wealth of inspiration here from the broad avenues to the canyon-like Gothic district and Barcelona's central cathedrals. It is a city that despite the 2008 recession is still one of the great cultural and commercial hearts of Europe. The elegant buildings make the entire city ooze wealth and influence even in this modern age of economy and minimalism.