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.

Narrative Project: Creativity Under the Sea

    Today the narrative group I am in had a tutorial session with Alan regarding the direction of our project. We had a few ideas between us however the one that struck Alan the most during the discussion related to an idea of a puffer fish and the decorate patterns they create in the sand to attract mates.

Figure 1: An example of blow-fish artworks

    These little fish create amazing patterns by pushing themselves though the sand and using their fins as spades. I did some digging (no pun intended) to find how these little fish manage to create these amazing designs and came across a video from the BBC documentary Life Story.

    As demonstrated, puffers work constantly for a week to create these masterpieces. And as with all fine art, it is very delicate work, which could be considered for the story. Maybe he can't work fast enough, maybe he's too clumsy, maybe other fish or natural factors could ruin all his attempts. Maybe he can't get the pattern to simply "look right" as it were. Whatever the exact situation, the idea was that our fish realises they can't express themselves by doing what all the other fish are doing despite his best attempts.

    The idea we have discussed so far is that our protagonist fish struggles to make these designs, but in recalling a pst event, remembers that when nervous or agitated, like all puffers he inflates (the trigger as it turns out is easy enough; Pufferfish swell up by filling up their very elastic stomachs with water. So if it's an emotional trigger, a panicked gasp or hiccup could both signal a convenient transformation that might induce audience sympathy (it's pretty normal to feel embarrassed from some a public display of a panic-induced reaction) but that is not all that will happen.

Figure 2: When they're not inflated, blow-fish are tiny. Perhaps adorable.

Figure 3: I'm willing to say this one looks adorable.

   But that is where our little fish will shine. As when they have this happen to them, the audience and the nearby fish see their body transform into a beautiful technicolour display. Although I suppose one extra obstacle would be that what is beautiful can be subjective. But the idea is that when it is discovered that this fish can do this, all the other fish are amazed. I personally proposed a fractal pattern but for now the actual design is not important. What is important is getting a story nailed down though thumb-nailing and story-boarding.

    We were also discussing adding a cleaner shrimp as a friend who would try to help out our puffer with making their sand-art or try to cheer him up. The major inspiration for this was Hal the cockroach from the Pixar film Wall-E.

Figure 1: A little cleaner shrimp in an aquarium

References

• BBC, 2014; Pufferfish 'Crop Circles' - Life Story: Episode 5 Preview - BBC One; YouTube; available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpdlQae5wP8 (last accessed 29th September 2015)
• Jobson, C., 2013; Amazing Little Puffer Fish Creates Ocean Floor 'Crop Circles'...Now with Video; Colossal; available at http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/08/mysterious-underwater-crop-circles-now-with-video/ (Last accessed 29th September 2015) 

Image References

• Figure 1: Jobson, C, 2013; [An example of Blow-Fish artworks]; fish-video; available at http://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/fish-video.jpg (last accessed 29th Semptember 2015)
• Figure 2: Wilson, T., 2005; [When they are not inflated, blow-fish are tiny. Perhaps adorable]; Zombie-2; available at http://s.hswstatic.com/gif/zombie-2.jpg (last accessed 29th September 2015)
• Figure 3: Ninsi, 2012; [I'm willing to say this one looks adorable]; Cute Puffy Puffer Fish; available at http://i.imgur.com/9E1kJ.jpg (last accessed 29th September 2015)
• Figure 4: Pets Aquatic, 2015; [A little cleaner shrimp in an aquarium]; XL Cleaner Shrimp; available at https://www.reefs.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=187172&stc=1&d=1440951318 (last accessed29th September 2015)

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.

A Hero's Journey: Kingdom of Heaven

Figure 1: Theatrical Poster

    Kingdom of Heaven is a 2005 historical epic directed by Ridley Scott. The story revolves around the exploits of the Frenchman Balian (Orlando Bloom), who travels to the Holy Land in 1184 in an attempt to find forgiveness after the passing of his wife. While in the kingdom of Jerusalem, Balian is swept up in the politics of the time and must make a new life for himself in the years building up to the Third Crusade.

    I looked into studying the director's cut version rather than the theatrical release as this was the version Scott himself considered the true version (McCusker, 2006) of his creation. As demonstrated by the extended edition of Blade Runner, Ridley Scott has developed a talent for the director's cut.

    It is a classic hero's journey of travelling to a distant land, experiencing a new world and staring down a strange and fearsome opponent with our hero eventually emerging from the ordeal all the wiser.

Elements present

1. Call to Adventure: Balian was approached by Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson), who asks him to join him on a journey to Jerusalem.  
2. Refusal of the Call: Spending much of the first part depressed, Balian turns down Godfrey's request.
3. Supernatural Aid: Godfrey of Ibelin
4. Crossing the Threshold: Godfrey's party is attacked by soldiers sent for Balian who sought to arrest him for a murder he committed just before leaving his village.
5. The Belly of the Whale: Messina, where Balian encounters Muslims and crusader knights.
6. Road of Trials: Balian learns what it means to be a nobleman in the Holy Land, gathering allies and enemies.
7. Meeting the Goddess: Baldwin IV (Edward Norton), king of Jerusalem
8. Woman as Temptress: Sibyila (Eva Green), who makes her affections for Balian clear despite being married to the Templar Guy de Lusignan (Martin Csokas).
9. Atonement with the Father: Baldwin IV's respect for Balian becomes so great that on his deathbed, the king suggests executing Guy de Lusignan and giving Balian Sibyila's hand in marriage for the sake of Jerusalem's integrity
10. Apotheosis: Guy de Lusignan, who drunk with power commits atrocity after atrocity to provoke the Saracens. His recklessness ends up giving Balian command of the city.
11. The Ultimate Boon: The response to Balian knighting every able-bodied man in Jerusalem gives him confidence to see to the defense of the city
12. Refusal of Return: Tiberias (Jeremy Irons) elects to evacuate to Cyprus, Balian turns his offer down.
13. Magic Flight: Saladin's (Ghassan Massoud) assault on Jerusalem 
14. Rescue from Without: Saladin, who after three days of besieging Jerusalem offers everyone freedom to leave the city unharmed.
15. Crossing the Return Threshold: The journey back to France
16. Master of Two Worlds: Balian is a respected blacksmith and a hero.
17. Freedom To Live: Balian and Sibyila, who live happily in France. Balian has recovered from his depression.

The Worlds

1. Separation: France
2. Initiation: The Holy Land
3. Return: The Holy Land, France

    After watching the film I came to realise that the film possessed a few twists to the classic Hero's Journey formula that did leave me thinking a little. The most significant being that the person who rescues Balian from his struggles in the Siege is Saladin himself, the city's assailant. In regards to the apotheosis moment I wondered who had changed the most, Initially it appeared to be Hospitalier, as like Ben Kenobi he gave his life to embolden Balian. But then I realised: After Baldwin's death, Guy de Lusignan went completely off-the-rails. He went out of his way to provoke Saladin by killing Muslims, and after decapitating a messenger rather aggressively murmurs "I am Jeruselem" to himself,  a line Baldwin had said to Reynald de Chatillion earlier on after the former punished the latter for provoking Saladin into attacking Kerak des Chevaliers. But while other stories do this to make the villain more of a threat to the hero, the consequences of Guy's decisions are the inverse: Balian becomes commander of the city while Guy ends up a trophy prisoner paraded by Saladin. 

References

• Irvine, L., 2005; '225m Isn't Bad I, Guess'; The Guardian; available at http://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/oct/06/features.lindesayirvine (last accessed 28th September 2015)
• McCusker, E., 2006; Kingdom of Heaven (Director's Cut); The Digital Fix; available at http://film.thedigitalfix.com/content/id/62921/kingdom-of-heaven-directors-cut.html (last accessed 28th September 2015)

Image References

• Figure 1: Costa, S., 2015; [Theatrical Poster]; Kingdom 1; available at https://tenyearsago.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/kingdom1.jpg (last accessed 28th September 2015)

Character Design: Thumbnails and Art Style

    To help my thought processes I decided to do some thumbnailing. Along with these I looked at some art from the earlier eras of China's history to investigate the art-style. "Chinese Art" however covers over four thousand years of history so there was some challenge in narrowing down the art for the era appropriate to the setting. Which is both good and bad as there is no specific date as to when  the celebrations started.

    While making the thumbnails I had considered that maybe I don't have to stick to one particular era. Myths and legends are often told using oral tradition, which could mean that each retelling and portrayal could have been done in a style that reflected the era it was told.

    There's also the issue that the story involves firecrackers which I'm not sure the Chinese had back in 3000 BCE. They've known the recipe for a long time, certainly, but "4000 years before the recipe reached Europe" may be pushing believability a little. Then again this could be the product of oral hand-down as discussed in the paragraph above.

Year 2 Term One Projects Begin

    Year Two has begun and today we received briefs for our first projects. While the overall subject is "Narrative and Character", the brief has been divided up into two separate projects. One will focus on narrative and the other on character development.

Narrative

For the narrative project I have been paired with Vlad, Eva and Jack and given three words for a two-minute (maximum) story out of a location, a theme and an editing technique - all picked at random.

    The three we got were "under the sea", "freedom" and "crossfade/parallel narrative", and one of the first things we considered was The Little Mermaid. Because of the editing technique however (where two perspectives are told side-by-side) we have to be telling two narratives at once so The Little Mermaid is perhaps too single-perspective to entirely work with a parallel narrative cut. But it is early days but it does sound like we might be trying to avoid things like cages, prisons or forms of confinement.

    I had suggested the theme could be a mermaid (or a fish) and a diver, who were both eager to see the other world differently and may be jealous about the other's ability to explore an exotic world unhindered (the fish being able to explore the world beyond the sea and the diver being able to explore the deep deep sea without the need for a submersible). We did also talk about keeping our story open to interpretation about how freedom can sometimes be dangerous, but there is a lot still to refine.

Character

The character project involves similar multiple-choice picked-at-random factors, the three I have chosen for the project (in order to make a game be it board, card or video) are "events", "collections" and "numeracy". What this means is that the game I will be set to be designing over the next 10 weeks will revolve around events such as holidays and celebrations, and factor in acquiring things and using arithmetic or logic skills. Although fortunately these words have been left open to interpretation.

One initial idea I considered for a theme based on a game around celebration (birthdays was one suggested event) was based on the mythology of Chinese New Year. The idea behind New Year's customs is based around the legend that a long time ago, around what is now Chinese New Year, a lion-like creature called Nian would emerge from the wilderness to eat and attack livestock and even people. The New Year traditions of firecrackers and red everywhere were said to be Nian's fears; loud noises and the colour red, which villagers would use to scare it off. So my first thoughts on a game would be one based in ancient China, where the player must gather the right items in their village to ward off an impending attack by Nian. 

Figure 1: A Nian puppet in Bangkok, Thailand

Figure 2: A statue of Nian within Beijing's Forbidden City.

    According to the page I discovered with Figure 1, mirrors are said to be useful for warding against bad spirits. It was believed the mirrors would expose the spirits to their own grotesque appearance, prompting them to flee in horror. Could mirrors be another possible collectible within the game?

Studio Logos

I also used today to develop a set of ideas for the logos for my group's studio, Forge. I was keen to keep the logo simple, but clear. Something that was recognizable as a forge or a furnace but not too complicated. It's been passed around the group but so far while we have some idea, other ideas will be coming in before we settle on a final conclusion.

References

• Gehmann V, 2008; Bangkok, Chinese New Year - Customs Habits and Symbolism; Nations Online, Available at http://www.nationsonline.org/album/Chinese_New_Year/slides/China_Town_Bangkok_31.html (last accessed 22nd September 2015)
• Tariq, D., 2014; Chinese Festival Dragon Biography; Chinese Dragon Dance, available at http://chinesedragondance.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/chinese-festival-dragon-chinese-dragon.html (last accessed 22nd September 2015)

Image References

• Figure 1: Gehmann, V., 2008; [A Nian puppet in Bangkok, Thailand]; China Town Bangkok 31; available at  http://www.nationsonline.org/album/Chinese_New_Year/slides/China_Town_Bangkok_31.jpg (last accessed 22nd September 2015)
• Figure 2: Tariq, D, 2014; [A statue of Nian within Beijing's Forbidden City]; A Chinese New Year Itinerary Main Special Interest And New Year China 48241241802792; available at  http://www.onthegotours.com/repository/AChineseNewYearItineraryMainSpecialInterestAndNewYearChina-48241241802792_800_600.jpg (last accessed 22nd September 2015)

Summer Sketchbook

I was putting it off for a while due to recent circumstances but I have finally gotten around to publishing my current sketchbook. I discovered that an A5 sketchbook was much more portable and easy to hold while on the move since I have come to realise that one of the advantages of a sketchbook is the ability to pull something out to draw sudden flashes of ideas down. I started this book in the summer and decided I'd number sketches in batches, currently determined by when I do them and what they are related to.  

Page 1 batch 1

Page 2 batch 2

    The picture on the left is really all I managed to do for "Lair of the Samphire King". I can't recall exactly what I did at the time to warrant not progressing further but I vaguely recall it was during the month I was house-hunting.

Page 3 batch 3

    The sketches of batch 5 were inspired by by the science fiction novel "Time's Eye" by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter. The setting is (being a time travel story) a little complicated to summarise quickly but the gist is that strange silver orbs appear in various points and locations in history and whisk away portions of the world to create an anachronistic pieced-together Earth made up of not just portions of human history but practically every point in Earth's geological history exists on this patchwork Earth.

Page 4 batch 4 and 5

Page 5 batch 6 and 7

Page 6 batch 8

    Batch 10 was brainstorming for my interplanetary colonies personal project, and drawing them in town was a test of how easy it is to pull out a portable enough sketchbook to draw down a bunch of ideas and it worked out okay.

Page 7 batch 9 and 10

    The following two spreads were on a trip to London on Friday the 11th of September. Still not sure why I dedicated an entire page to squirrels, could have been inspired by sketches in one the how-to-draw books I have. I also find them quite versatile animals to anthropomorphise because of the way they stand when holding something (#1 batch 11). Batch 12 was a brainstorm on logos used mainly as a way to explore the methodology behind them.

Page 8 batch 11 and 12

Page 9 batch 12

Personal Work: Planetary Colonies 2 of 3

Final Composition

     Encouraged by various art videos I was encouraged to continue with my planetary colony art collection. The second planet in the chain is the third planet in the system. In start contrast to the calmness of Akonoinen II, III was a volcanic planet, with an extremely active system of volcanoes that constantly spewed out lava that made lakes and some bodies were large enough to be seas.

    It is generally ill-advised to trek on the planet's surface without some form of environmental protection. So the structures were designed to look highly resilient to the planet's caustic atmosphere, but evoking a similar architectural style to the buildings found on II due to a shared colonial heritage. The planet uses the vast quantities of heavy metals and electrically conductive compounds to produce a wide variety of consumer electronics. But unlike planet II the site is hardly desirable for a high-teh firm to set up. So while II has a healthy service industry, much of III's high tech industry is making the electronic goods widely used and sold on II as well as exported throughout the solar system and beyond.

Stage 1: Lines and basic colours

The city's first design felt a little too tall. Chances are that each structure is in and of itself a city block to protect the populations inside from the environment. So after some thought and looking back on sketches I had done went for more of a look that reflected the aesthetic style of the colony on II.

Stage 2: basic toning

I used photoreferencing of real-life lava lakes for the look of the lava lake. And the whole environment I tinted orange to reflect the amount of illumination from lava lakes and rivers. To get a smooth look on the colours for the buildings I used the polygon select tool to draw out these areas and fill them in with a paintbrush. I think I'm getting better though at giving depth.or sharpness to structures or objects in focus.

Stage 3: detail touches

Stage 4: Additional finishes

New Year New Plans

    The second year of my computer animation course is starting soon and with that comes a return to daily posting, fresh work and fresh ideas. The first year had taught me that in the field of creative arts, presence is everything in order to get a good start in post-university life. So the coming of a new year has encouraged me to come up with a few plans in order to sort myself out. What I plan can be divided into two categories: The New (in which I start doing things), and the revived (in which I pick up what I once started but may have slowed down with).

    Because there's a possibility that the new year will be as tense if nor more as last year regarding deadlines and productivity rate, I have tried my best to mould the reforms to harmonise with my work hours but there's no guarantee as I can expect a very busy year. 

The New

Livestreams

    Honestly ever since I started watching a couple of artists' livestreams a couple of years ago I wondered if it was an avenue for me. For the longest time though there was the question of when was best to livestream as the time can determine the audience. My thoughts are broadcasting on Saturday or perhaps Sunday evenings where I will stream digital painting work, but maybe also 3D modelling work, depends how things go. Although in terms of spreading presence, more times would logically mean more viewers.

    The content will vary but what I can confirm is the content will be streamed though Twitch TV and depending on work schedules will be a mix of unclassified project work, fan-art and personal pieces. The content itself I will endeavor to keep child-friendly (in the mature content sense, the portrayal of scary monsters and creepy environments will be unaffected).

Time-Lapse Creation

    This ties in with livestreaming and will be a companion for my YouTube channel. Like livestreaming this was inspired by the popularity of artists' time-lapse videos as well as Let's Plays. These time-lapses will be condensed versions of either the livestream videos or projects outside broadcasting hours where creating sessions will be condensed and sped up from 2-8 hours to up to 15 minutes (longer if I get the right things in order, but half an hour will be a cap).

Better Synchronisation

    Along with this blog I have a few other accounts and profiles that I use and thinking about it, apart from the Twitter account to the right they're not very well connected. Looking on the blog it's a little challenging to work out I also put stuff on YouTube, Scribd, Vimeo, Google+ and Facebook. So what I will look into is a bar or section at the top or side of the blog that provides links to these other sites. And if available these other sites will have clear links back to the blog.

    I've been on two Young Enterprise workshop weeks and one of my favourite video games is more of a hyper-realistic business simulator. How I am only now trying to get the hang of this stuff is a  little bit of a mystery.

The Revived

Sketching

    Honestly I tried to get the hang of sketching once a day but it was harder than it seems with a busy lifestyle, But recently I was looking though one of several how to draw guides in my personal library when I stumbled upon the Latin proverb Nulla dies sine linea, "no day without a line." Being an enthusiast in history I was struck with enthusiasm by the proverb and on a Friday visit to London I took up my pencil while on the train and at St. Pancras and drew. Mostly images intended to be logos that don't really relate to anything on the course but got my brain working nonetheless. I'll explain in a more related post.

    So I have decided to look into adding nulla dies sine linea to my list of personal mantras (My Latin's not great but for me the it rolls off the tongue better than the English version) and now that my printer-scanner is plugged in and working again I can get back to presenting my sketches.

YouTube Channel

    Last year I made the rather foolish decision of using a freshly-created YouTube channel "Mark's Moving Arts" as a dumping ground for work-in-progress animations, tests, animated tutorial creations and final presentations. I regret that now

    That will change. I will make sure of that by the time I return to my university studies. A Mark's Moving Arts 2.0, if you will. Which will be much more organised, optimised more coherent. Especially as that is where livestream recordings and time-lapse videos will be going.

No guarantees but I will endeavor to set all this up over the rest of the week and perhaps the coming weeks. So here's hoping it all goes well.

Personal Work: Planetary Colonies 1 of 3

    Over the summer I have been taking interest in the video game EVE Online. Prior to the course I had explored the game's planetary interaction system, setting up production chains in order to make products that are to be exported off-world. At some point I decided it could be an interesting painting challenge to represent three planets I had colonised in my time playing, as the game's representation is from a view in orbit .

The first I have painted is the central hub of the network, Akonoinen II. Ingame the planet has a high-tech industrial foundation, producing supercomputers from coolant and consumer electronics imported from the other two planets and locally-produced water-cooled electronics. So I imagined the city that surrounds the spaceport would be fairly wealthy. Part of my inspiration was from the BASF chemical plant located on the river Rhine which is easily the size of a city. Since the setting of EVE online is of a medium-sized star cluster with hundreds of populated planets, I easily imagined each of the construct-able industrial complexes matching the BASF plant in scale.

    Being the most hospitable of the three planets (the other two being a Mustafar-like lava world and a planet that experiences frequent continent-scale thunderstorms) and where the most advanced products in the chain are made, I wanted to give the impression of the settlement being fairly wealthy compared to its counterparts. Offices and shops would have developed to provide services to the workforce and visiting off-world tourists and immigrants.

    This is the initial city design but I felt it was too like my old style to feel like an improvement, hence why I reworked it in the picture above. It was also missing the central spaceport and the architecture itself felt too plain to demonstrate the colony's purpose.

Summer Work: Cel Shading Practice

    Coming up to the start of the new academic year I decided I needed a push to get back into the mood of drawing. So to do that I decided to try some cel-shading. I had considered shading to give it a bit more depth and volume but that might send me into spending eternity adding shadows.

    The suit worn by the man in the foreground relates to a guilty pleasure of mine. A tailored suit is a thing of great interest to me, and while at a glance a £90 and a £250 suit jacket can look identical, it's how it feels - as well as the materials and where it is tailored - that can make the difference...this isn't easy to convey in a drawing though.

    But I tried

    The wall appeared a little blank after painting do I decided on some decoration to make the room look more stately as well as add some content to his desk.

    The man in the foreground is the focus of the picture. I wanted to make him look frustrated, perhaps infuriated at some important news. One thing I definitely feel proud of with this piece is his right hand: Hands have bugged me a fair bit for a couple of years now, so with a bit of looking in the mirror and some hand study I like the result I came out with for the right hand at least, although his left hand I'm still not sure about how it came out. Thumb seems okay but the rest I'm not so sure.

Maya Tutorials: Santa Hat Fur Practice

    I think this is the last of the tutorials assigned to be completed for year two. But even if it isn't I'm sure that I have at least all the fundamentals I need. Granted this one was pretty quick to do and was fairly simple but the basics were there; altering the fur colour, altering length and strand angle and a couple of other properties.

Maya Tutorials: Interactive Bind Part 2

    I said I planned to push through and I believe I delivered. The weight painting is not the tidiest in the world but the effect of what I have managed can be seen in the animation below.