Wednesday 29 September 2010

Hand Studies

Hand designs for a Gazelle-human hybrid

Life Drawing


Only had about 5 minutes to draw one pose.
We had to draw only using triangles and four sided shapes for this pose.

Photoshop Drawings

I started drawing in black and white first to get the shape and the tones right.
I added more shading and added an extra horn and changed the background colour.
I then added some colour.
I took out the third horn as I didn't like it.
The finished drawing of what my creature could look like.

Cat People 1942 Review

My Review on Cat People 1942

I thought this film was slow and not very frighting at all. I found none of the scenes to be scary or at all make me jump. I felt that it lagged out too long before anything really happened which was near the end at the scene in the swimming pool, which was a build up to nothing. 'The Cat People is a labored and obvious attempt to induce shock' (The New York Times). I did notice some scenes of animal cruelty in this film with the kitten in a shoe box and various big cats pacing stressfully back and fourth in small cages in a zoo, but back in its day care for animals was minimum. If this was seen today with big cats kept in small cages in local zoos it would be seen as animal cruelty and would kick up a fuss with animal rights organizations, which didn't exist back in 1942.

The story is about a Serbian woman named Irena that now lives in America and believes in all the cat people stories from where she came from, about women that could turn into panthers when aroused. She meets someone in a local zoo and eventually marries him. She tells him her fears about the cat people and believing that she is one of them and fears that she would kill him if she fell in love. 'Its heroine is a beautiful woman who never sleeps with her new husband (indeed she never even kisses him) because she fears that passion could turn her into a panther' (Chicago Sun-Times). He recommends that she get help and see a psychiatrist, which she does. The psychiatrist she sees tries to help her and does not believe her stories and says that she is a step away from insanity. Her husband starts to see another woman due to all these stories and not being able to get close to her. Irena finds out about this and stalks her. 'Fable has it that women descendants of a certain tribe, when projected into a jealous rage, change into panthers or other members of the cat family for attack, later reverting to human form' (Variety). In the end she is enticed by her psychiatrist and kisses him, only to end up killing him.

           

Tuesday 28 September 2010

La Belle et la Bête Review

My Review on La Belle et la Bête


The date of this film is 1946 and despite this the make up for the Beast was fairly good considering its age. It didn't look cheap and looked as if a lot of care and thought went into the creature design. Even though it was a black and white film and in French, there was still some interesting elements to see, like the eerie candle holders and a curtain like door that was made of human arms that moved when anyone went near them. Even the statues are alive in the dinning room and follow the characters every move. 'Are they captives of the Beast, imprisoned by spells?' (Chicago Sun-Times). Unlike Disney's Beauty and The Beast which is aimed at children, the audience by which this film is aimed at is adults due to its slight horror feel with the Beast and complex story. 'This should be understood, however: the achievement is on a definitely adult plane and the beauties of Cocteau's conception will be most appreciated by sophisticated minds. It is not the sort of picture that will send the children into transports of delight, unless they are quite precocious youngsters of the new progressive school' (The New York Times).

The story is about a poor family where Beauty (Belle) is treated like a slave by her two sisters and their farther who has lost his merchant ships at sea. One night their farther crosses a forest and stumbles upon the home of the Beast and steals one of his roses. The Beast notices and sentences him to death or he can choose to make one of his daughters take his place. The farther heads back home and explains what had happened, Beauty decides to take his place and heads to where the Beast lives. The Beast falls in love with Beauty and decides not to kill her, but imprisons her in his home. Beauty finds out that her farther is dieing and wishes to return. The Beast lets her go on one condition that she must return in one week or he himself will die of grief, he also gives her the key to his riches. Beauty returns home and nurses her father back to health and tells her story of what happened including the key to the Beast's treasure. Her two sisters steal the key and give it to their brother and his friend. Beauty returns to the Beast to find that he is dieing, while her brother and friend attempt to steal the riches, but one is killed doing so. When this happens the Beast is magically brought back to life and has changed into a prince, Beauty and the prince appear to fly away together. 'The final ascent into the clouds by Beauty (Josette Day) and the Beast (Jean Marais), transformed into a handsome prince, this is one of cinema's most magical films and writer-director Jean Cocteau's greatest popular success' (Guardian The Observer). 

             

Sunday 26 September 2010

Maya Dice

Maya Dice
 
  
I added all the split polygons and extruded where the dots go.
  
  
I then added a NURBS plain and duplicated the dice, then position them where I wanted and added a spot light.
  
  
Exported the texture for editing in photoshop.
  
  
Gave the dice some colour using photoshop.
  
  
Added texture to the dice and smoothed it.
  
 
Completed the Maya Dice tutorial and here is a render of my dice.
     
  
Another render from a different angle.

Saturday 25 September 2010

The Fly 1986 review

My Review on The Fly (1986)


This remake of the original 1958 The fly was far better in my opinion. There is more gore and the transformation is made more horrifying as it should be, just like a common house fly which is also a disgusting creature. There is a creepy feel to it as it compares the growth like transformation into a fly with the disease cancer. 'As Brundle slowly turns into a ghastly, mad creature, though - he resembles a decomposing body' (The New York Times). The special effects are made far better than the original and really go flat out with the body horror and gross anatomy, which I like in a film, it gives a sense realism and makes you wonder if this is what would happen if this experiment was real than what was seen in the 1958 film. 'David Cronenberg's remake of the 1958 horror classic The Fly is not for the squeamish' (Variety).

The story of the film is similar to the older version with the use of teleportation pods and a scientist concealing his work from society. Other than being made more gory and horrifying than the original the one difference is that human and fly DNA are genetically fused in this film, where as in the original film body parts where swapped round. 'Rather, this is a film about fusion. That of man and insect' (Time Out London).

Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) is the scientist that is experimenting with teleportation pods and invites Veronica Quaife, (Geena Davis) a journalist into his apartment to show her what he is working on. After attempts to make her story heard and not believed, she ends up assisting him by filming his progress. 
Seth sends a baboon through the teleportation pod in hope that it will make it through, the animal ends up turning inside out. After correcting the problem he tries again with another, which turns out to be a success. He sends himself through, but a fly enters the pod too. He emerges from the pod and appears to look normal and unknown that he has fused with the fly. He eventually starts to change and adopts the fly's physically and emotional abilities. Fingernails, teeth and various other body parts start to drop off as the fly's appearance starts coming through, like a fly he even starts vomiting acid over his food and over the hand and foot of Veronica's previous lover. 
At the end he turns into a creepy half fly half human creature and forces Veronica into one of the pods and he also enters the other pod hoping the both of them will fuse together. She manages to escape with the help of her friend, but Seth continues through with the teleport only to end up being fused with part of the pod itself. He comes out a mangled mess, a part organic, part machine suffering creature. He wishes to be killed and reluctantly Veronica shoots him in the head with a shotgun.

                      

Thursday 23 September 2010

The Fly 1958 review

My Review on The Fly (1958)


Even though the film was dated, it wasn’t bad at all. The storyline was interesting with the idea of body parts being swapped between a human and a fly by a teleportation experiment gone wrong. 'There is something irresistable about this tale of a man who swaps heads with a housefly' (Film4.com). The creature design was probably great for its day, but looks quite silly and basic by my view. The whole film was really tame and even the death of the creature under the press was mild as hardly any blood or gore was seen. Crushing the head of something would of been incredible messy, but for the year of the film this thing was considered absurd unlike today’s standards.

The story is about a scientist named Andre Delambre who conducts teleportation experiments on various items including the pet cat which disappears and never comes back. After sending another animal through which teleports successfully he then sends himself through, unknowingly that a fly was also in the chamber with him. Both Andre and the fly have swapped body parts. He has a head and arm of a fly and the fly has the head and arm of a human. 'This desperate 'double' struggle cleverly detracts from the cheap-looking monster effects and allows a dramatic and quite poignant film to form'. (BBC Films review) In the end he destroys his work and himself with the help of his wife. Helene kills him by crushing his arm and head under the press at a factory.

When she tells the story as to why she killed him and tried to explain what he had become and the only proof she had was the fly with the human head and arm which had escaped. The detective thought she was insane until he saw the fly in the garden caught in a spider web. 'With a tiny, screaming human's head, trapped by a spider on its web'.(The New York Times) He killed the half human fly in the web and thus committed murder himself. After he had done this he now believed what had really happened to Andre and made Helene's murder look like suicide instead.

Life Drawing

The Human form

We had to draw the flesh and bone seen on the human body. On this drawing I concentrated more on the legs than anything else, that's why the figure appears to have a small head. The drawing looks a bit abnormal to me.



Next we were given 20 minutes to draw a part of the body, then another 20 minutes to draw another part, then 20 minutes to draw our last body part. I was drawing the muscles and bones seen under the skin in all three sketches. 

Tuesday 21 September 2010

Thomson's Gazelle mixed with human DNA

Hand and Foot designs

Thomson's Gazelle mixed with human DNA

Head designs

Thomson's Gazelle designs

My creature is the Thomson's Gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii)

It is a common gazelle often seen across the plains of East Africa traveling in groups. It is an incredibly agile mammal, leaping up high and out maneuvering the cheetah with quick turns and higher endurance, its able to keep going when the cheetah begins to exhaust itself.

  Sketches of the Thomson's Gazelle