Over the last couple of week's I've been in a terrible mode, both with my time management, motivation and general intelligence, I'm hoping it has just been a blip on the course-radar and nothing more, but I have really dissapointed myself with the last unit as well as the admin side of things. I cocked up the last project, theres no excuse for it, it isn't the first time I've done that, but it will definitely be the last, so putting that all behind me I'm feeling enthusiastic about the current unit.

I'm a little behind with the Maya Tutorials by a week or so, I am currently UVing the character and hope to have caught up soon enough, as I'll be starting modelling my first character for narrative soon. The group project is where a lot of my focus is lying at the moment, we're heading closer to the deadline and there is still a lot to learn and put into practice.

Our first scene is a woodland make-out point shot, I'm creating environment pieces for the scene, trying to produce a creepy yet stylised atmosphere. The aim of the shot is to show an 'alien-like' glow emitting from the centre of woodland. After a group discussion based around the characters, we decided a style, whcih needed to be mimicked in the props and landscape as well as the actors. I spent this evening trying to create a cartoon-like style which can still put across the events.

This style, as soon as I put it together, I really liked. It is something I would love to carry on into future projects, maybe stylising even more in this direction. Below are the work-in-progress shots of the scene, it all still needs to be lit and the background will be a painted backdrop which will be blended with the foreground.

Character Design Final

Here are my current character turnarounds. Looking over them, there are things to change. I really want to add more detail to my sidekick, which is where Im going to focus today. I'm going to begin working on some better expressions for my expression sheet as well as an action shot, using all three, which I have in my head, but am yet to draft. The style I've chosen is very simplistic and child-like, after-all, I'm aiming for a children's cartoon. I am creating the weapons separately, I'll add the villain's axe after adding more detail to it.

Prince Pedrum - The Hero

Ruby the Elephant - Sidekick

Emir Bloodaxe - Villian

I've been working more over the last couple of days on my Hero and Sidekick designs, and I think I have a final style together but I still have a lot of detailing to do. Below are my current Hero and Sidekick,  they are still basic, and a lot of clothing detail and shading needs to be done (For the painted action poses) I'm currently working on my villain, trying to give him a good viking edge.

 Edit: I've been working on my Hero character, trying to a more stylistic / childlike approach. The cartoon will obviously be aimed at children, so I've made him slightly younger, and it also allowed his naiveity to come across better. I need to work on his hands, head-gear and shoes more. I also need to do some detailed work into his clothing and weapon.


This week I have a lot of character design work to do as I'm really behind with the project, I've done bits of work on it here and there, but I still have a lot of designs and refining to do before I begin to create my Character Bible. I'm going to use this post to add the most up-to-date ideas as well as working out the synopsis and character profiles / backgrounds.

Below are my draft sketches, I'm working towards my final turnarounds, the below images are what I have so far.

Synopsis
The Kingdom of Saba is a peaceful land. Sitting in the Persian desert, it is ruled by ageing King Namir who treats his people well. However, Emir Bloodaxe, leader of a band of gold-hunting desert Vikings has discovered the kingdom and is planning to plunder it of all treasure, leaving the land in ruin. Namir is too old to protect his lands, leaving his Son, Prince Pedrum to finally prove himself and protect Saba's people. Alongside Pedrum is his trusted companion, a pet elephant from the Royal Palace, Ruby. The prince must outwit Emir Bloodaxe's evil schemes and cut-throat followers to protect his father's throne.

Hero : Prince Pedrum
Heir to the throne of Saba, his father is ageing and is unable to leave the palace. Although only a late teenager, Pedrum has the role of protecting the land from invaders. When younger, Pedrum was taught to be agile as well as to fight, he is energetic, skilled but also naive.




Pedrum wears chainmail vest to show his Royal status, but also wears common clothes beneath. He has an Arabic Sabre on his belt, ready at all times. Pedrum never kills, but he uses his sword to cut ropes, block passages and occasionally throws it.

Sidekick : Ruby the Elephant
Hero's sidekick is Ruby, a female elephant who the hero rides, similar to a horse. She can not speak can understand commands and the hero's speech. She is very loyal as well as clever and brave, Ruby is only a young elephant, adopted by the Royal Palace as a pet. When Emir Bloodaxe hatches his plans, the hero chooses Ruby as his sidekick to help save the kingdom.




Ruby wears a cloth saddle so that the hero can ride her, She has a gold earring to show she is a royal pet and when needed, she wears a viking-styled metal helmet for protection. She is fast for an elephant, not only does she gallop with the hero on her back but can use her trunk to perform tasks and help defeat the villain.


Emir Bloodaxe (Based on ancient Norse and Arabic names) is the leader of a viking band looking for a kingdom to rob and occupy. The Kingdom of Saba is a perfect target, as it's king is old, which leads Emir to attack. Emir has a band of evil followers, following him for gold and to plunder riches. He has a large axe which makes him threatening and a scarred face from past battles. He wears gold bands on his wrists to show off his wealth.





Emir Bloodaxe usually gets his own way, stealing from the weak, however this time he is matched with Prince Pedrum, the kings heir, who out-smarts him at every opportunity, leaving him humiliated.

My postmodernism essay is going to be written on the 1982 film 'Blade Runner'. After a bit of research, It seems to have a huge post-modern background and there is a lot of discussion based around it. I'm going to use this post to add research, sources etc. as well as drafting the essay.



Blade Runner : A Postmodernism View
http://br-insight.com/2001/04/11/blade-runner-a-postmodernist-view/

Blade Runner and the 'postmodern condition' 
http://faculty.washington.edu/thurlow/research/bladerunner.html

Blade Runner and The Postmodern City 
http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~sparks/sffilm/blader.html

Over the last few weeks my work has been all over the place, I seem to be working all the time that I can but not much has been produced, and even less posted up on my blog. I'm hoping to get this sorted out soon, personal problems mixed with a lot of upcoming deadlines is making Year 2 quite intense. I am struggling hugely with character design at the moment, finding the time and inspiration is very difficult, the world is almost conspiring against me attending the Tuesday lessons, including tommorows, which I can't get to as my car has decided to burst into steam when started up, so I'll be driving (or pushing) it to the garage in the morning.

This week, as well as cracking on with Character modelling, I have been tackling my tasks for narrative - the first woodland scene. As a team, we've been trying to decide on a style, something not too realistic, which we can stick to and make our animation recognisable. My job on the first scene is the environment details - the trees, grass, rocks etc. The hardest part of this is trying to make the environment look natural and not too structured.

Below are some work in progress shots of the scene so far. This is a very rough and early layout, making sure things fit together. Matt will be providing the terrain for the objects to be placed on and then it will be a team effort to texture and light the scene.

I've been working on completing the first week of the character modelling tutorial, although it is a lot of work, I think it has taught me a lot about topology and the workflow of a model in quite a short amount of time. I have finished the first three parts- the shirt, jeans and shoes. I'm hoping to have finished the arms / hands by Thursday ready for the head.