I had some spare time earlier today, before narrowingly escaping a rogue firework ,shortly after lighting it (Very short fuse, I blame the Chinese, where it was made) so I started to play around a bit more in Maya.

I had an idea of using some of the stuff from Alan's tutorial to create a larger house, rather than a single terrace. I created this scene below, which isn't finished and is definitely not as detailed as Alan's scene. I brought in the windows from the other project, along with the ornamental roof. I made everything a bit bigger, along with some steps leading up to the house.

I doubt I will finish it off as I was just trying to learn a few more things in the program. I'm looking forward to Alan's tutorial tommorow, as well as Phil Hoskin's concept art class.

I've been looking through some concept artists, and one which stood out was Iain McCaig. As well as working as a concept artist on the three newest Star Wars films, McCaig has also worked on the concepts of 'Terminator 2', 'Hook', 'Harry Potter' and the more recent 'Outlander'.


Below are some of Iain's work he did for Star Wars: Episode One, I really like his basic, but detailed style.

I am looking forward to this afternoon's lecture film, 'The Haunting'. I've never seen this original, but I have seen the remake a couple of times when I was younger. I would of thought the newest version has the same plot, which was a group of people suffering from sleeping disorders are invited to a house by a doctor, with him claiming he will be able to help them, however, it turns out that he is testing the affect of fear on the patients, to see how they react. I remember the film getting a bit strange, including parts with lots of crying children coming out of the walls. Hopefully, the one we're watching this afternoon is better.I'll update this post once we've watched it.

EDIT:

I thought the film was quite good, although the pace of it was slow in some places, especially the scenes which consisted of long-winded conversation. I tried to concentrate on the set-design, as Phil mentioned. The way it was filmed gave the house a very strong pressence throughout the film, especially with the first establishing shot of the house looming over the woman character. Once inside, the decoration was very cluttered and the rooms were filled with shiny objects and furniture, this gave the house a very strong personality, as well as a eery feeling. The was the plot unfolded was clever, as it allowed the viewer to choose a explanation, either the slightly more realist one of the main woman, Eleanor, loosing her mind and exaggerating noises and events in the house after the death of her mother or the second explanation: The house was 'haunted'.

The lighting also made the characters seemed trapped, the inside of the house was mostly bright and open, whereas the garden and outside the windows was very dark and unpleasent, almost as if the characters couldn't leave. The camera angles also created a horror feeling, as there were a few shots when the camera seemed to have been pushed a long the floor, or at one point near the end, up the spiral staircase. This made it seem as ifyou were looking through the view-point of something 'supernatural'. Overall, I quite enjoyed the film, it was much better than the recent one as it created suspense and the story was more believable.

I had a bit of time this morning, and I thought Maya may be a good way to get rid of a hangover. I started playing around with the first part of the scene that I built for Alan's tutorial, and added the windows and roof to a shop front. I've added some images below. There are a few mistakes I've made, but as I said, I was just fiddling with it really.

I've just completed the first week of Maya for the street scene. It took me a couple of days, on and off, which probably amounted to about 3 hours or so. I thought the video tutorial was very well-done, and I barely had any problems. I'm looking forward to the next set on Friday.

The Night of the Hunter is an American film made in 1955. It was directed by Charles Laughton and by what I've read of him, he was a miserable bloke. He was known for playing the Captain in the 1930's film 'Mutiny of the Bounty'. I found out, after watching The Night of the Hunter that the scenes that included children (Which confuses me, as about 70% of the film's scenes included them) were directed by Robert Mitchum (Who played the preacher, Harry Powell) who is uncredited as a director. The reason for this is that Laughton didn't like children at all. After Night of the Hunter was released, with commercial failure, Laughton gave up his directing career.



Overall, I think the film was very enjoyable. Although the plot was quite predictable, the story was very good. The cinematography and locations were portrayed brilliantly, from the misty dark house where the preacher first appears, to the bright farmhouse where the children are eventually rescued, the lighting and enviroment is impressive. One part, which Phil pointed out, where the enviroment and set really shines, is when the children are sailing down the river. The progression of the river includes showing different animals, and the starry background behind reall creates the lonely atmosphere. The constant theme of the river throughout the film also adds to the splendor.


The film wasn't too far fromlast week's German silent films. The lighting in some scenes was similar, using very odd shadows and saturated rooms. I also noticed the contrast between the lighting when the preacher was in the children's home, with dark lighting, foggy surroundings and eery shadows compared the the last few scenes in the old ladies house, where the lighting was bright, and the mood much happier.

I prefered this film to the two German expressionist ones from last week, mainly because I find it easier to understand and follow a character if they have dialogue, which for me, made the Preacher character very sinister, intimidating and wild.

We had the introduction to our next Maya project of Friday with Alan, and he showed us the first hour or so of building the next scene.I have started it today, and although it is harder than the last group of projects, I think it is much more enjoyable. I haven't been stuck with anything yet, as Alan's videos are great, I prefer them to the PDF tutorials as they are quicker to follow.

As MyUCA has seemed to have gone down, I'veonly got to part five of the tutorial, I was hoping to do more tonight. I've just finished the roof. I didn't find the UVing as hard as I thought I would, once it is all mapped, putting it together doesn't take too long.



Tommorow we're watching 'The Night of the Hunter' with Phil. I've looked up the plot of the film, as although it sounds a bit depressing, I'm sure it will have alot of good scenes (Or else Phil wouldn't show us!) I'm looking forward to it and will post a review up tommorow afternoon.