Finished!

I've finished everything on my dissertation, all chapters, titles, contents for chapters, surveys and all the artwork to go with it. I have to say, I'm very much relieved!

To be honest although I'll be happy when we get it all handed in I didn't actually find this module to be stressful what so ever because I handled my time very efficiently and made the most of the time and research that I had. I finished in good time and have enough days left to go through the essay to make sure that I haven't got any spelling or grammatical mistakes.

Now all thats left to do is make my folders for submission and get the dissertation itself bound properly.
I feel like I've really tried hard on this module and I hope that I've gotten my points across when writing my essay. I know that I've tried my best and thats what matters.

I'm really excited for the FMP. I know what I'm wanting to do so now that I have a bit of time on my hands Im going to start thinking about things that I want to add to my FMP and different things I can draw.

Chapters 1 to 4 Done.

I really feel like Im making a lot of progress with my essay now, I've very nearly finished it. So far I've done the into and 4 chapters that go into great lengths about the whole fear and human psyche  process and also the uncanny valley and how it can be applied into feeling fear.

What i have left to do is to write up the chapter all about my own personal research and how that lead me to the results that I reached in the end. I'm looking forward to writing that as i can really get into the nitty gritty about everything that I have looked at in order to create my monster designs and just generally get the notes I needed to write my dissertation.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to do another two thousand words or so and get a few steps closer to completing my dissertation.

Death & Disease (READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED)

Please note: as part of my essay into looking at what makes the perfect scary monster I have been looking at various forms of death and disease. This blog post features images of extremely deformed humans, human corpses, diseased human limbs, murder and other such material. It is neither pleasant nor pretty. Please read at your own discretion. Although nothing sexual or perverse is referenced in this post the images are regarded as NSFW (Not Safe For Work). Please keep this in mind, thank you. 

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As part of my research into what makes a truly scary monster I've been doing a lot of research into some things that monsters are generally based around, the two main themes being death and disease. For the past week or so I have spent every other day trawling through various online blogs of medical cases, criminal profiles and scientific research to find examples of elements taken from real life and applied to the film and video game monster. I've put them into separate categories for each piece of anatomy that I looked at and applied to my monster creation. FROM HERE ONWARD READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Limbs

When trying to build a monster one of the most important aspects to consider is what its arms and legs will look like, I found the following images while surfing a medical blog on Tumblr, these and others like it helped significantly in the building up of some of the beginnings of my creature designs:

Syndactyly - a condition that occurs when two or more of the fingers are fused together.

The fist image that I found interesting was a photo taken of a Syndactyly, a condition that occurs when the finger or toes are fused together from lack of development while in the womb. Instantly I thought of Silent Hill: Homecoming boss: Sepulcher who's hands are severely Syndactyly. Though this isn't a particularly threatening nor scary deformity it is still one that is interesting and a common occurrence in horror monsters. 

The hand of a woman who attempted suicide via self immolation.

Moving onto the little more disturbing we have here a woman who survived her own suicide attempt of burning alive. The texture and colour of her skin is something that is used frequently in various horror games and films, both to identify burnt monsters or simply rotting ones. If I were to reference this image in the creation of a monster, it would be for a monster that symbolises pain of wearing its own skin. The film Paranormal Activity used similar effects for makeup that are seen as a real life example here. 

A male with a severe tibial fracture

One thing that monsters are renowned for is the way they move, the way that their limbs and bones don't seem to fit correctly into their bodies. Its for this reason that I found the above picture to be so important. A monster that walks as a normal functioning human being is less likely to be as scary or unnerving as one that is able to walk despite its misshapen limbs, showing that it either does not feel pain or simply does not care that its bones are so deformed.

Face

Obviously when creating a monster or any creature for that matter, almost all the attention goes towards the face (if it even has one). The face of a monster can tell the audience an awful lot about the creature itself and its intentions. Is it meat eating? Nocturnal? Does it symbolise the death of a characters family member or lover? The following images are of what I found to be extremely interesting in the make up and design of my creatures initial sketches:

Real photo taken of a man who's face as been mangled, cause of injury not stated.

The first thing I noticed to be a reoccurring factor with monster faces is the lack of distinguishable features. Creating a monster who cannot express its emotions or intentions creates extreme anxiety and unease within the audience. Monsters with similar traits include the "Bubble Head Nurses" of Silent Hill.

Wet specimen of half of a childs head. 

A lot of the creatures that we see in games and films are often directly symbolic of disturbing events that have either happened to the character in their life or the characters own thought process. Many monsters utilise the shock factor of seeing a horrific monster in the shape of a child or infant. Dante's Inferno "Unbaptised babies" show similar characteristics, they are infants who have had their arms cut off at the elbow and replaced with blades.

Tertiary Syphilitic Ulceration of the scalp (19th Century)

Something that many creatures fall into in horror games and films is the Uncanny Valley. A monster may in fact look reasonably life like, only something is 'off' about them, something is amiss, it is this feeling of unease when looking at an object or creature under the influence of the uncanny valley that makes audiences so frightful. Such things are used in todays world such as realistic dolls and robots.


I will continue to do research into various elements used in the game and film industry for what makes up a good scary monster. The research itself has actually been quite enjoyable and interesting on a somewhat morbid level and has given me a new insight into how the human body works.
I will use this knowledge to my advantage as I sketch up creature designs.

Dissertation Poster

A while ago we were asked to design a poster outlining out intentions of what we would be involving into our dissertations. I quite like the way that my poster turned out, it has bits of my essay in the background and clear categories for the things that I am looking at throughout the essay.

On the day that we submitted our posters we all went around each others pieces and commented on what we thought of them and mine received generally positive comments. The only thing mentioned was that people would have liked to have seen my artwork, this is in fact actually shown behind the "research - applied art work" section as all the artworks are my own.

To be honest although I enjoyed making the poster itself I really didn't understand why we had to make it. I know that we had to in order to show what it is that we would be writing about in our dissertations but aside from that we could have just spoken about them in small groups rather than making a once off poster of intent.

That said I'll be using this poster to my advantage in order to help me plan my essay out into separate categories, this should help it piece together bit by bit and I shouldn't have to worry about having to write enormous chunks of text fearing a lack of direction.

A Night of Horror Films

Just like the night I spent playing video games with my classmate, Hollie Lowry, the other night I spent watching horror films to try find similar techniques to invoke a scare. The three films that I watched were The Ring, Jeepers Creepers and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.

The Ring

For a long time this film and I have had a very love-hate relationship. I love that it scares me but I hate that despite watching it time and time again I still panic over the "7 days" time period in which you supposedly have left to live. The story follows a young woman who is trying to lift a curse that a little girl has put on her after watching a video, the curse is that 7 days after watching the video the little girl crawls out of the TV and mangles you. This film pretty much touches on everything unpleasant: Suicide, animal cruelty, child murder, torture and death. The reason why I find this film so scary is the way in which the antagonist, Samara, presents herself to the audience. After the 7 day time period the TV will turn on regardless of if it is plugged in, water will begin to leak from the screen (symbolising how Samara was thrown down a well and drowned). The little girl then proceeds to walk towards the screen and crawl out of it, twisting the face of the person who watches it into an unrecognisable form. The fact that there is a time limit on how long you have to live is what scares me, 7 days is all a person has in order to try and lift the curse of Samara before she comes for you, knowing that you have gone from being perfectly healthy to being a week away from being murdered is beyond terrifying.

Jeepers Creepers

Another favourite of mine though mainly for the creature design of the demon antagonist more than anything. The scare tactics employed in Jeepers Creepers are quite similar to The Ring in the sense that the creature awakens once every few years and hunts for a short period of time, when it catches the scent of the two travellers they then have a limited amount of time to get away from it before they are caught and mutilated for whatever body parts "Jeepers" may find useful. The reason this film scared me was because the creature design is based on that of a scarecrow, something usually designed to help ward off pesky critters, throughout the film the creature can be seen standing stock still in the fields and observing the travellers as they try to escape. Because the two travellers are in the middle of nowhere it made me feel quite trapped and unable to hide from the creature.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

The most horrifying thing about this film is that its based on the real life events of the original Texas Chainsaw murderer. Just knowing that innocent people died at the hands of a chainsaw wielding maniac is more than enough to turn the stomach. Whats more is that it wasn't just the single man, Tommy, but his entire family that were in on the sickening things that were going on. The film portrays the families insanity well and truly speaks out about possibly one of the most famous chains of murders in American history. In my opinion, horror films based on real life events are the most terrifying by far as it makes you realise that things like this can happen, people like Tommy do exist and the reason why they exist is so they can kill you. A definite reminder to stay vigilant.


All of the films followed quite similar paths and processes in order to invoke a scare, the use of darkness seems to play a key role in making the audience feel trapped and isolated while the sound design and ambience adds to the anxiety of the situation. I dare say I won't be sleeping well for the next few days, it was worth it however as I now have more things to write about and compare in the personal assessment part of my dissertation, the more research I can get under my belt the better.

Why are things Creepy?

Whilst doing research into why we feel fear I came across this wonderful video by Vsauce on Youtube named "Why are things Creepy?"
This video has proved extremely valuable in providing me with some good solid quotes to use in my essay as well as new theorists to do research into as well.

In this video not only does Vsauce discuss what fear actually is but also what forms of fear their are and how this effects us. He also goes into the topic of Freuds Uncanny Valley, something that I have been doing research on for my essay and the creation of my own monsters.

Evolution of a Monster - Pt 3

After a lot of hard work sketching and scribbling I've finally designed my final two creatures for the outcomes of my dissertation. 

The first one that I made was one that could look however it wanted to, one that didn't have to be plausible in the modern day world and one that didn't have to make sense. As a result I created this:

This creature is a mix of a few things, both real and fiction. The device that holds onto the creatures waist is actually based on one of the first models of wheelchairs / walking aids that was designed in the early victorian era. The creature has no legs, a bloodied stomach and stumps from being rubbed against the leather of the chair and the seat. The creatures arms are long to enable it to drag its weight and its face is covered by a thick black lock of hair. 

The second monster I created is in fact fully capable of being a reality. It isn't a monster as such, it is just a human suffering from extreme elephantiasis of the legs, skin calcification of the spine and a malnourished frame. Once again the face is covered, this time by a veil which would suggest that the creature doesn't want its face to be seen but this also hides its intentions. Originally when designing this creature its legs were covered in blood on the inside from where the elephantiasis had caused the skin of the inner thighs to rub raw but I felt this not as realistic. 

I've had quite a lot of fun designing the two creatures though if I had to choose I would say that designing the less realistic creature was more enjoyable than designing the one that could exist in real life. I almost felt sorry for the second creature I had designed as i know that people do suffer from diseases such as the ones I've drawn and they are ridiculed and labelled as monsters when they are just human beings. 

The next monsters I design Im going to try to evolve further into something just as terrifying as these designs only in different forms, maybe something that symbolises insects etc. 

Taught Fear

What it is: Taught fear is something that is neither passed on to us through instinct nor earned through an experience. It is taught to us by our friends and family and is one of the leading factors towards our development in our values and beliefs.

Examples: Homophobia, racism, religious beliefs.

Case Study: Having grandparents who grew up in a time when racism was acceptable, passing it on to their children (your parents) who then pass it on to you.

A Night of Horror Games

Recently myself and a fellow class mate, Hollie Lowry, had a night of playing horror survival video games in order to figure out exactly why people get scared of playing video games.
Before we started we set up various cameras around the bedroom where the experiment would be taking place and made sure that there were no technical problems. Then it was onto the filming itself.

We began by playing Silent Hill: Homecoming, a game in which the main character must fight through a world riddled with hellbent creatures in order to try and find his lost younger brother. The game starts off in an abandoned hospital after the main character is supposedly injured in the war he was fighting in.

All the time we were playing this there was an overpowering sense of dread as we turned each corner, always expecting monsters to jump out on us. The who game is very dingy and dark, using extremely restricted vision, only allowing the character to use a flash light to make his way through the hospital.

The next game we played was F.E.A.R. 2. Although this game was arguably more 'brighter' than Silent Hill, it still featured very similar tactics to scare such as sudden noises, rapid changes in lighting and the creeping up of enemies on an unsuspecting player.

Even though the night of playing games was fun we also learned quite a lot about the reoccurring elements that build up a horror game and what exactly it is about these elements that we found to be scary. The commentary of the two of us playing the games explains why we found certain things scary and in what way these things could be changed for the better or worse.

I'll definitely be writing about this experience in the personal assessment side of my dissertation as the whole night proved to be extremely valuable to both me and Hollie.

The next thing that I have to do is have my own film night and report on the same similar elements used to induce a scare.

Rational & Irrational Fear

As part of my essay I've started looking into the various types of fear and how they effect us in different ways. The first two that  I looked at were rational and irrational fear, rather than writing up a paragraph about the bog standard definition I'm going to turn it into somewhat of a fact file, this will make it a lot easier for me to understand when I come back to referencing it in my essay.

Rational Fear

What it is: Rational fear can be related somewhat to instinctive fear. It is the fear we experience when coming into contact with things that we know could do us harm.
A rational fear has a strong, verifiable basis in reality. Is there a reason behind the fear.

Examples: Venomous animals, heights, water, fire.
              (fear of being bitten)(falling)(drowning)

Case Study: - Being in a relationship with a man or woman who has a history of being unfaithful and being told by a friend that they have seen your other half holding hands and kissing with someone else.

- Being in the company of a venomous animal such as a snake or spider, that can and will bite without being provoked.


Irrational Fear

What it is: A persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid it, despite the awareness and reassurance that it is not dangerous. Irrational fear is also a form of paranoia or phobia.

Examples: Butterflies, germs, flying, loud noises.
                 (flying near person)(plane crash)(storm or fireworks)

Case Study: - Being in a relationship with a man or woman who has no history of being unfaithful. Knowing where they are and what they are doing yet being unavoidably scared of them cheating on you.

- Being in the company of an animal such as a snake or spider that has no venom and is of absolutely no harm to a human being what so ever and still being scared of it biting and injecting you with venom.

Instinctive Fear

Instinctive Fear

What it is: "It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus which is perceived as a risk of significant loss of health, wealth, status, power, security or of anything held valuable. In short, fear is a motivating force arising from the ability to recognize danger leading to an urge to confront it or flee from it, (fight or flight). Fear can be a manipulating and controlling factor in an individual's life." - Wikipedia
Instinctive fear is arguably the most primal fear that we have, it is the mechanism that we have evolved with in order to survive, at its most basic definition, it is the fear of becoming a meal for a bigger, stronger predator.


Examples: Big cats (Lions, Tigers, Puma, Leopard), other large carnivores (Bears, Wolves)
                   (the fear of becoming a meal and eaten by a bigger and stronger predator)

Case Study: Living in an area where it is common for big cats to prey upon humans for meals.

Evolution of a Monster - Pt 2

Over the past week or so I've been gradually building up my monster designs to try and achieve my final product.

Its been quite difficult so far, I'm getting close to designing my first symbolic monster but its hard to really get the feel that I'm looking for.  I think that even though Im doing a lot of research into various real life deformities that can be applied to monsters maybe I need to start getting a bit more fictional?

To try and fix this mental block I'm having at the moment I'm going to try and watch a few scary films, play some scary games and just get more of a feel for what the creative industries feel of a monster really is.

I've already been looking at a few monster profiles for the silent hill games and although a lot of them are based on human and animal disease and deformity many of them are seemingly stitched together from the artists own imagination, some not even looking particularly scary such as Silent Hill Homecomings: Robbie Rabbit toy which although is just a regular stuffed rabbit toy its still extremely scary and unnerving. 

Perhaps I should think a little more outside the box and use more of my imagination rather than focusing no so much first hand research?

Evolution of a Monster - Pt 1.

So the first step I've taken to designing my monsters was to create various mood boards of the things that I've been looking at. These mood boards featured various things including death, disease and human/animal deformity. These mood boards have been very valuable in helping me to make my initial sketches and notes on the kinds of monster that Im wanting to make.

The first mood board that I put together was based on the theory of masks and monsters that hide the face. These masks are made up of various cultural designs, from traditional theatrical masks and oriental masks to latex or clay masks used as "death masks" it was these death masks that interested me the most as they were once commonly used to capture the face after a person had died in order to be kept as a memento of the person who has gone. There is something about the death masks that reflect how lifeless and drawn in the face becomes that makes what was once human into something that is more befitting of the uncanny valley.


PLEASE NOTE: THE FOLLOWING MOOD BOARD FEATURES DISTURBING IMAGES. 

The next mood board I created was based on the physical extremes of the human anatomy and how drastically it can be effected when faced with death or mutilation. This Mood board was very useful for me as I was able to use references for how the deformed human face and body can be related to monsters. The way the the skin hangs from some of the faces of the people, as if they've melted, is quite important to create the "masked monster" that uses anonymity and lets no emotion show.

The last two mood boards that I made focused on slightly less gruesome facial deformities, I researched babies and animals born with cyclops genes, leg deformities in frogs and body deformities in various murder cases and animals that had been caught in rubbish who's bodies had grown around the waste that had wrapped around them.

These mood boards are proving to be very useful to me, not only am I learning more about medicine and how the human body works but also how these different ailments, accidents and deformities aid in creating monsters that are both bizarre and terrifying.

Progress of my Essay

The following is a small snippet from the introduction of my essay:

Over the course of millions of years creatures have adapted to survive the environment in which they live, be this a change in diet, skeletal structure or process of thought. All of these things have once aided in the evolution and build up of the human race as we know it today and little by little as we have reached our evolutionary peek these various physical and mental changes have come to a standstill.

There is one trait however that human beings will forever have hard-wired into their beings and that is the primal instinct to feel fear towards anything and everything that could do us harm. But what exactly is fear? Why do we feel it?

So far so good. I feel like I'm asking the right questions and tackling my subject that I want to discuss. 

It's just going to be a matter of making sure that I don't stray too far away from what it is that I'm doing and hopefully it should all make sense. 

That said im not so sure on the rest of it, I have all of the questions written down that I want to ask and find the answers to. Its just hard getting the motivation and actually finding the information I need. 
For some things its proving quite hard to find the correct explanations of some things, that's one of the big bring - downs of using the internet for sources  I think. You never know if what you're reading is actually correct or if its just some speculated riff-raff.

I think theres only one way to avoid any sort of mistakes in that sense, and that's by hitting the books. 
I'll have to get right on it, I have a few ideas about what I'm looking for, what sort of book to read and discover. Who knows, I might find more than I bargained for?

Spooky Scary Monsters

So its finally gotten to the point where we have to write our dissertations. I had a good think about it over the holidays, thought about me as a person, what I enjoy reading about and drawing, things that are bound to catch my attention no mater what. It became quite clear that if i was going to write a dissertation on anything, it would have to be about monsters and fear.

My essay is going to look at what fear actually is, the different kinds of fear that we feel and under what circumstances that we feel it.
After that I think I'll get more into the nitty gritty of how the film and video games industry ties it all together and uses this fear to manipulate and exploit people.
On the subject of exploitation and manipulation I could even touch upon how the advertisement industry exploits audiences into buying products using scare tactics eg: If you don't buy this product your house might leak gas in the night, killing you in your sleep without any prior warning that would be given off by our product.

For the practical I'm going to make some nice concept art for a monster that reflects the things that I've been studying for this module. Making some nice renders, sketches, studies etc. I'm wanting to ask for the help of local biologists for help with building my monster up from its roots and to evolve it piece by piece into something that could actually live amongst us. I just have to find out how to get in contact with them!

All in all I wouldn't say that I'm particularly worried about this module, I'll be happy when its out of the way of course, I'd much rather spend all of my time drawing rather than writing a long essay. But I think if i do a good job of my time management I shouldn't have anything to worry about.
I just have to take a deep breath and go for it, the hardest part of writing essays for me is getting the ball rolling initially, once I've managed to write up an intro I shouldn't do too badly.

Borderlands - Sketchy Scruffy Cinematics

Borderlands has always been a personal favourite of mine from the moment I first played it. The way that the story string itself together along with the play style and all around game genre is just what I look for in a game. However its not just the game play that I love about Borderlands, its also the art.

The reason why Borderlands attracted me was due to the style that its presented in. The heavy cell shading gave this game a air of surrealism rarely seen in the modern game so it was nice to feel like I was playing a more retro looking game. When I decided upon doing a game cinematic I knew that the opening cutscene of this game would be one that I would reference.

Unlike Guild Wars 2 who's cutscenes focus on more fluid animating of the concept art involved in the video, Borderlands has static pictures that appear to have been scribbled onto old paper, much like map drawings. The cutscene itself focuses more on the transitions from scene to scene rather than the actual animating of the concept art which I found to be interesting and surprisingly engaging.

I think that the reason I like this cutscene so much is that it has the ability to be extremely interesting and attractive yet it lacks any true form of animation past the movement of the scene transitions which proves that it does not always take a huge action packed cutscene to attract the viewers attention and sometimes it can be as simple as feeling like you are reading a book.

Although I'm aiming for a more dynamic and animated cinematic I will certainly keep this cutscene close at hand for future reference if I do more animatics. I love the style that this cutscene is portrayed and I will certainly be developing this style of art for future projects to come.

Diablo 3 - Stationary Movement

Diablo III is a game that I've adored since I first got my hands on it. The game play itself I thought was interesting but overall average for the diablo series. What attracted me the most about this game was its art and cutscenes. 

What I find most interesting about Diablo III is the way that the game combines absolutely stunningly detailed cutscenes that sport fully rendered and animated models with the sketchy ancient concept art feel that reflects Diablos time period. 

The cutscene shown above is an example of how concept art is used in Diablo III's minor in game cinematics. I love this cutscene for the subtle combination of stationary concept art coupled with animation of the same concept art in later scenes, the way that these two factors come together gives the entire animation the feel of being in a magic storybook of some sort and its this style of animating that I would like to look further into in the future as well as learning more about how the effects are made (presumably in After Effects) and how to get such fluid transitions in my own projects in the future. 

The colour of this cinematic is also something that I have now begun to consider with my own prospective animations as prior to using Diablo III as reference to my work I had only considered to use intricate colour theory as shown in Guild Wars 2 cinematics, until now I hadn't considered giving my projects the feel of looking at an old painting or map so I've found this to be an extremely useful reference to have so far. 

Watching the Diablo III cutscenes has also spurred me on to trying to find other cinematics that share similarities in style and colour, two that I know of being 'Borderlands' and 'Sonic and the Secret Rings.'

I will continue to look further into this style and presentation of cutscenes and will consider developing this style further in the future. 

Making Connections - Granny Bacon

Granny Bacon, is a man who I've been talking to recently about the video games industry and how I could improve my chances of getting my foot in the door. My recent talk with Tom Evans and Lawrence Mann has given me a bit of a boost in confidence to try and talk to more people that are already in the industry.

Granny Bacon isn't actually a concept artist his skills lay in Maya work and games level development but even so its good to get in contact with other people in different reaches of the industry.
Bacon suggested that I try to make my portfolio as good ad it possibly can be and after a while  I asked him about his company and any paid internships that they might have to offer.

Recently he got back to me saying that he would be more than happy to send a few emails my way for the people who might be able to help me out in asking around the company about details on how to get more involved in company activities in order to meet new contacts so once he sends me emails including the contacts I'll be able to get started on emailing people and hopefully making a good impression for myself.

Making Connections - Lawrence Mann

Shortly after our latest guest speaker, Tom Evans, came to the college to talk to us about being freelance and working in the creative industry I managed to talk to him for a while and we began emailing one another. After speaking to him on various occasions about trying to get connections with other artists he offered to send me the email of a professional illustrator called Lawrence Mann.

I emailed Lawrence and shortly after he responded, we spoke about a few various things, mainly about the difficulty of what its like to get into the creative industry and to get a foot in the door in companies. I explained that I really just needed someone to give me a chance and to help me to become a better artist and to reach my goal of becoming a master concept artist in my own field.
Mister Mann was a lot more helpful than I first expected he would be considering how busy he constantly is working on various projects, he told me that if it would help, I should forward him some standard JPEG images of the work that i've been doing.

When I heard that he was interested in looking at my work I was quite taken back, he seemed to be very enthusiastic and wanted to see what my work was like, I decided to muster up the courage and send him a few tester images to see what he thought about them.
Shortly after I got a reply and he commented that he really liked my style and thought that it was very unique, something that he hadn't seen in his work which is also what Tom Evans had said previously about my work also. Hearing two professionals compliment my work in such a way really was wonderful to me, it gave me an enormous boost of confidence and made me feel that I could really develop my wacky style of artwork into my signature art form.

I've been continuing to send mister Mann various bits of my work on a regular basis to keep him up to date with the work that I've been doing and hope to get a lot more feedback in the future from him as it really is extremely useful for me to hear everything he has to say about my work.
I'm also considering asking him if he would forward on some contacts to me that he knows that could give me a further insight into what they think about my work which will not only improve the standard of the art that I produce but will also help me to network and build up contacts for the future also.

Hazardous Concepts - Website In The Making

Because my facebook page seems to have become quite popular, certainly more so than I expected, I've taken it upon myself to start designing my professional website.
This website will be the place where people can properly get in contact with me, view my portfolio work, email me and discuss commission prices and general art work related topics that I might be able to help in.

I have been talking about my website design to my friend, Kyle Prior, who knows how to design professional websites and wants to do web design as a full time career.
We have both decided to help each other in making this website for my artwork as in return for his designing of the website and actually getting it up on the web, I'll be promoting his web designing abilities and allowing him to use my website as a part of his portfolio work to help him along in future jobs, because we are trying to network and get as far ahead as we can I feel that its important that we both help each other in order to achieve our goals.

The web page isn't nearly complete yet, it is still in its most basic html stages and needs to be completely fleshed out before it can even be considered to be used for the world wide web. In the mean time I'm going around various websites and writing down notes on the presentation that each website has, which elements I like from each site and how I feel they might improve my website should they be included. Some sites that I've looked at include Kekai Kotaki's art, Daarken, Nicholas Kay and Lawrence Mann. I'm going to sit down and really think about what could be unique and eye catching on my web page that would attract more people into visiting the page and hopefully getting in touch with me.
I need to have my own stand alone attraction that makes my website stand out above all the rest while creating a professional outlook on my work. I know that it's going to take time but I'm extremely looking forward to it and really can't wait until the site is all up and running for public display at last.

Hazardous Concepts - My Facebook Page

Over the past few months I have been considering various ways to attract outside audiences and network with other people both locally and globally. Generally a place where people can admire my work and build up a steady fan base over time. Because I don't currently have the funds to run my own website I have instead made my own FaceBook page where people can 'Like' both my art work and the page in general.

This is the front cover of my profile on facebook. At first I wasn't sure if I was going to get anywhere with it, people would have no real way of finding my artwork and even through promoting it there are still many other well established artists pages on facebook that quite easily overshadow mine.
I was actually quite nervous of making this page, my confidence isn't at all up to scratch so having to publicly display my artwork not only to friends and family but also to complete and utter strangers everywhere seemed very daunting even if I wasn't showing my work to the people face to face.

It surprised me that over the past few weeks my page has gained a steady flow of people visiting and liking my work, some even commenting on pieces which gives me some extra confidence as it has shown me that people have taken enough interest into my art to actually write something about it. Its a plus for me as any feedback I get on my work is good and will help me improve immensely.

I've also noticed that now that I have my facebook page I can take notice of what it is that people enjoy seeing out of my work. recently I've been uploading a lot of dinosaur concepts, I've noticed that the carnivores in particular have attracted a lot of likes so in the future I'll be sure to focus on more meat-eating and scary concepts. It really does help me to know just what people like and what they don't like as it means I can make more of what they do like and less of what they don't.

I'll continue to update my profile and make sure that I network with the people who talk to me on there, even if they just want artwork from me I think it would be a good opportunity to keep in touch in the hopes that my work not only spreads through friends of friends liking it but also word of mouth and eventually other mediums too.

First Hand Field Research - Environments

In order to improve the amount of first hand research and referencing for my project I decided to take myself out for the day and do some exploring around the local area. I ended up at the local quarry which I knew would be full of life and would provide me with some awesome references that I could use. 

The quarry itself is abandoned as all the major rocks and minerals had already been mined out of it, whats been left now is a one mile crater in the middle of the forest that woodland life has slowly begun creeping its way into. Due to the mix of weather, hollowed out explosives craters and general secrecy of the area there has become several forms of habitat for a wide variety of wild animals in the area. Ponds, long grasses, damp mosses, caverns and hollowed out rocky areas, all of these have become host to foxes, wild rabbits, squirrels, bats, moles, birds of prey, amphibians, fish and water birds such as Mallards and Swans. 

I spent the whole day exploring every nook and cranny, not so much looking for wildlife but more fitting scenery, textures and objects that i could involve in my world of Golgotha. I managed to take a number of different pictures showing the examples of how varied the quarry was and how I could incorporate such scenes into my work:

In the centre of the quarry is a hollowed out pond with a marsh surrounding it, this mashy swamp is full of toads, frogs and tadpoles from the recent mating season.

A shot of how the grass has begun to grow and shape itself over the scarred landscape left by dynamite, bulldozers and various other digging vehicles. The numerous lumps and hills in the ground make a good home for rabbits and an equally good spot for foxes on the hunt.

A closer look at the small pond in the centre of the quarry, Mallards and their mated pairs have been swimming here. The combination of pond grass, boulders and general landscaping makes this a beautiful photo for reference.

This is the only standing structure in the quarry, I'm not entirely sure what it actually is but the majority of it is under the soil which gave me the idea for referencing it as ancient ruins of some kind.

I took a picture of this Moss because as soon as I saw it I fell in love with its lush spongey texture and its various shades of green and lime. I could use this as reference for animal fur or perhaps some sort of moss / plant / tree hybrid.

This picture shows a clearing in the forest edge away from the quarry itself where a large pond has formed. I like how the trees have cleared and moulded around the pond, if I were to create a landscape for my world I would want a pond clearing like this only more green and lush, this could also be where I reference the Moss picture above.

First Hand Field Research - Animals

As part of my research into various animal concepts I went to a place called None Go Bye farm over in the countryside. The purpose of coming here was to take snapshots that would give me suitable first hand referencing of animals that I could use to create monsters for my world.

Even though this time on my visit there weren't any exotic animals like there normally is I still managed to take some nice photos of various farm animals and various breeds of bird.

The posture that this duck was displaying could be useful for referencing carnivorous reptiles or other birds of prey. His red fleshy mask is also very interesting as is the dimorphism between the male and female.

I took a photo of this rooster because of its various colours and the muscular shape of its body.

I was quite disappointed with my trip to None Go Bye farm as all the animals that are normally there weren't on that trip. I did enjoy getting the snaps of the animals that I did see and was able to get a lot of suitable references for possible creations.

Finalised Transmedia Decision

After thinking more about how my project could be reflected through the transmedia process I have decided to create a bestiary or creature compendium.
It is my aim to create a small book that looks as if it has been discovered in my world of Golgotha and was written by a scientist / natural biologist who has adventured around the world documenting various species of mammal, insect, sea creature, avian and plant life that he has encountered on his journey.

The book itself is going to look tattered and worn, as if it has been lost in the mud and dirt for a long time prior to its owner documenting their findings in it.
I'm using my little sketchbook, staining each page with tea to give it a worn look and may burn some of the edges to make it look even more tatty. Each page will have various drawings and sketches of the fauna and flora of Golgotha as well as first person descriptions from the view of the scientist writing about each new discovery. The book and form of documentation is very similar to that of how Darwin documented his natural findings when he was exploring.

Even though we aren't obliged to create our transmedia artefacts I will be making mine as its given me a good reason to use mediums of artwork outside of just using the computer and thumbnail sketches as I usually do. I've begun staining a lot of my pages of the notebook and will start to document various 'discoveries' that are found throughout my world. Even after this module is complete I think I'll continue to create thsi creature compendium and various other ones in order to better myself in different mediums of work.

A Change of Plans and my new Pro forma

Over the course of this most recent module I've had high hopes of making my very own opening game cinematic using After Effects and my own concept art. For this initial idea I had already designed and planned out a lot of work, including character plans, scripts, narrative casting, music and various pieces of concept art. Originally I thought that everything was going to go well timed and organised. What I didn't count on, however, was that I got Measles.

Because of getting Measles I was bed ridden and under quarantine for over a week which as to be expected threw my timetable completely off course. Being unable to do hardly any work at home sent me into a bit of a panic as I knew that I wasn't going to be able to get anywhere near to my animating stage in After Effects as I still needed to do the rest of my concept art first. Instead of panicking anymore about it I decided to change my proforma criteria.

Rather than trying to animate my concept art I decided that instead I would design more concept art of more creatures that would live in the world that my animatic is set in. Even though this means having to draw up A LOT more work I now feel very much more calm and happy with the result that I'm going to produce without the weight of having to rush an animation.

As well as drawing up a lot of concepts I'm also going to do various size charts for the concepts I create, character sheets, descriptions, backstories and food chains. I hope to make each character as detailed as I possibly can with their own unique feel and personality that reflects upon the world of Golgotha.
The transmedia side I think will be more based around a watercolour book of some kind that translates the creatures in a different light.

Crit Notes

Today was our crit day so I took some notes of each persons projects, what I liked and what I think could be improved or followed up on.

Joel - Nice layering on the pictures, make more moving layers rather than just stationary images, consider using a piece of music to accompany the animatic, maybe some sound effects over the fire ect. Try avoid completely static shots if possible. Maybe look into some form of narration throughout the story to make it clear of whats happening in the animatic (make it easier to understand for the audience). Vary the ways that each shot is opened and closed (not just constant fade ins and outs). In general try to make it a bit more fluid. Nice little animatic so far.

Siobhan - Beautifully animated, wonderful lip synching on both the fox and the humans. Lovely walk cycles for both the bipedal and quadrupeds. Trees seemed to be overlapping one another and 'flickering'?  Try fix this if possible. Adding music or sound effects for walking through the forest, tweeting of birds and try to keep all voice acting roughly the same volume as some bits came across more quiet than other parts. Don't push yourself so hard! The work you do in animating is always beautiful and in my opinion its always better to have a shorter animation look awesome than try to push yourself into making a longer animation that isn't as good as it could be, what I'm saying is don't worry if you don't get it all fully rendered and looking complete, if anything decide which scenes you want to fully render and then do that and leave the other parts blocked out, that way you can afford to be able to take it a bit more easy and at a steady pace. When you get round to adding the rest of the environment in maybe consider adding a few extra assets such as little fallen logs, flowers, bushes, mushrooms and other woodland things. So far beautifully made, I very much look forward to seeing the finished result.

Ryan - Awesome music, very fitting to the animation. It still seems like there is quite a lot to be done though. Going on the first little bit of animation it looks like the finished result will be very fluid. Although the rest of it was an animatic its nice to see how its coming along and its clear to see what is going on in the story despite it not being properly animated yet. Not sure if its just going to be the music that is already in the animatic or not but maybe it could be an idea to look into using cartoon sound effects for running / mummies groaning ect (The old Scooby Doo sound effects for example) I'm not sure what your transmedia work will be in this project but maybe think about designing a retro movie poster for your animation? Study the old Indiana Jones film posters / Star Wars ect.
So far it looks lovely, I really like the style of the animation (nice simplicity) and the story has a nice twist and is well thought through. Just try to get more of it animated fully if possible!

Andy - Nice colour try experiments with your character. Lovely sketches of different emotions, comes across as quite a professional comic book concept look. Perspective is very good, its lovely to see you working from different facial angles. Lovely landscape of the construction site, good rule of thirds and lovely warm colour scheme. Very nicely rendered in the picture looking up at the Ram mans face, makes him seem empowered and strong. You've improved on perspective and the whole final rendering process in general. Perhaps try experimenting with different styles of art, Ram man seems to be somewhat of a super hero so maybe try experimenting with heavy cell shading art, traditional retro comic book art ect to get different feels of the character. Maybe grab a lunchbox picture off of Google stock images and make your own 'super hero merchandise' like the old Spiderman lunch boxes/ t-shirts and other memorabilia. Try to step out of the box and challenge yourself with other mediums of work.
Lovely artwork in general and I'm looking forward to seeing more turn outs of the Ram character.

Scoff - Beautiful concept art, you've really developed your style over the past few months. It's getting hard to tell what is your artwork and what is Kekai Kotaki's work. Lovely little character designs, its nice to see that you are using references and improving on drawing faces. On the other hand, DON'T push yourself too much! I think you maybe asked for too many characters from people which at times handicapped your talents as an artist and forced you to rush at times. Also don't be afraid to go outside of your comfort zone! You have your style down to a T, but don't neglect the other art forms that you have previously touched upon before, challenge yourself. Also when animating in AE try to think about layers and what is going to move where rather than just focusing on the artwork itself, remember to try and plan ahead to the final result so that you can prepare yourself for it through your art as well as furthering your own artistic skill.

Myself - Really nice styled character designs, keep up with your most recent works as you have really come into your style and are getting so good at making your artwork look 3D and really pop out of the page. Dont be afraid to be brave with brushstrokes and keep experimenting with things you have not tried before as everything is relevant and informative to fully rounding your own style. Be more proud of your work! Try and make colouring a part of what you love to do as much as the line art, maybe try taking colour reference from other similar images to get a more realistic colour. Very detailed character / race biography for the Saurians. Try documenting plantlife as well as wildlife to really bring out the type of world the animals live in, the wild dangerous plants could compliment the aggression and survivalist instincts that the animals have. Eric Ryan - Animal creation explaination

Guild Wars 2 - Opening Cinematics

This guild wars 2 cinematic is my main source of inspiration for my own animatic.
The reason why I love these cutscenes so much is that I adore how beautifully animated the cinematic is and I especially love the colour theory.

Some parts of the animatic itself are animated incredibly simply, using After Effects to move each piece slightly. Even with some scenes that include minor movement the other combinations of particle effects and transitions between scenes makes for a truly stunning introduction to the character as well as insight into the backstory and history of the race that the player has picked.

Its this style of concept art that I am most interested in trying to produce and I will continue to use this video as reference for my work and inspiration in the future to one day hopefully create similar concept art and cinematics such as this one.

Character Concepts - Demmi Sparrowstone

Demmi Sparrowstone is a character that I created for the purpose of being the face behind the narration of my animatic. When i originally designed the character it was an old woman but I decided to redesign the character to be a young and more relatable teenage character. 

This is the original design that i sketched out before fleshing the design out, I wanted him to look like a jungle boy or tribal character that had generally scruffy nature clothing and messy hair.

This is the finalised refined design that I made for him, he has less scruffy clothing though it is more nature related with a chain made of twig and cherry branches, also leafy clothing and jewellery.

I've now scrapped the idea of using this character as my criteria has changed for the module and a narration character is no longer required. I'm still happy that I designed the character though and im relatively happy with the final outcome of this character.

Character Concepts - Saurians

The Saurians are an ancient tribe of dinosaur-like humanoids who inhabit the majority of my world, Golgotha. They are one of the oldest races of the world and can thrive in almost every part of Golgotha.
I have depicted them to have a combination of both carnivorous and herbivorous characteristics as they are omnivores and eat both meat and vegetation.

This first image is of the initial design that I made of the Saurians. This representation of them is slightly more carnivorous looking than the secondary version that I have made, the colour scheme of the left Saurian is based on that of a Long-tailed lizard, the Saurian in the middle is a more desaturated and mottled earthy tones that I imagine some Saurians would need in order to blend in more.

This other image is a more fleshed out and finalised version of the Saurian species, or at least one species of them. I plan on creating more kinds of Saurian depending on where in Golgotha they live.
Unlike the previous sketch, this version of the Saurian is more based around herbivorous dinosaurs and present day reptiles. I also decided that the previous designs were too bare and lacked proper tribal outfit so kitted them out with shoes, bone wraps and a prehistoric sword to give it a more detailed feel.

Overall I'm extremely happy with the results of this design and I'll continue to create further designs for the Saurian race to hopefully get a true feel for the different sub species of this creature that inhabit Golgotha.

Character Concepts - Sirens

Character Concepts - Forest Matron

The Forest Matron (shown on the left) is one of my first characters that I have designed for my world of Golgotha. I have used various references such as Spriggans (Elder Scrolls, Skyrim), Sylvari (Guild Wars) and various female aliens from Mass Effect.
The Forest Matron is made up of wood, bark, moss and various other things that grow on trees. At the moment although she lacks colour I believe the race would primarily be green or varying shades of.

Forest Matrons are tall, elegant and slender in body shape, they have two stilt-like toes that help them to balance when on the ground, the race generally hovers above the earth however.
I have drawn this matrons hair as defying gravity and floating above, I imaging it moves very similar to how hair does when under water, flowing in a beautiful elegant and smooth motion.

I've yet to really add any true detail to the Forest Matron, this sketch is only the very first sketch so she needs a lot of fleshing out, right now I'm not entirely happy with her design or back story so I will continue to create more of a history of her and the race to try and give her a clearer understanding for the viewer. I think that if I do flesh her out in the future I will make her more full bodied, giving her much more detail and varying her appearance such as adding thorny vines, flowery crowns and other woodland aesthetics.

Guest Speaker - Tom Evans

Top tips for getting into the digital industry:

8 years experience. - Freelance creative.
- No experience is bad experience.
- Be able to sell yourself in a sentence.
- Be diverse, don't put eggs in one basket.
- Don't expect to get a job instantly, be prepared to put in a lot of effort.

WORK EXPERIENCE!!!
- Email plenty of companies, work on projects, new portfolio stuff, ask for unpaid work experience -> good to put on CV to show that your not sitting around.
- Work experience gives you the chance to decide what sort of company you want to work for e.g: Huge with big projects or small with dedicated projects.

MAKE AN EFFORT!!!
- Meet people
- Ask for extra briefs
- Go to the pub when they do
- Start up conversations
- Make an impression
- Bond with people, go out of your way to make relationships

DONT EXPECT YOUR FIRST JOB TO BE GLAMOROUS!!!
- Odds are you'll work as a junior member of a much larger team
- People will tell you how to do things, suck it up and put up with it
- Show people you can do everything to a high standard and you can do what you are told
- Its your chance to be seen as a professional
- You will climb the ladder and get promoted

PRACTICE BEING FAST!!!
- The more you push yourself the more you will learn
- Be a sponge
- Keep learning all the time
- People love talking about their passion, exploit that
- Keep asking about the things your interested in and you will move closer to it

THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT!!!
- Don't be afraid to take a step back and think about what it is you truly want to do
- Do your research and find about the choices you have
- There are more roles than you know

LEARN TO TALK!!!
- Being able to talk about your work and explain it professionally is a key skill
- Listen to people talk, learn from it
- Learn to write and know your audience
- Do your research on the agency that you want to apply for
- Tailor your portfolio to fit each agency

BE PROACTIVE!!!
- Don't sit around waiting for people to come to you
- Anything off of your own back looks good on your portfolio
- Join competitions, win or lose it looks good on your portfolio
- Meet interesting people
- Go to networking events, talk to people in industry, show an interest in what they represent
- Don't talk about yourself too much, listen to everything they have to say
- Print business cards off to take to events

Interim Crit Feedback

Today we had our first crit of the new self directed module, rather than all of us having to sit around and wait for everyone to come up and explain their research and ideas we were put into little groups of 5 and 6 to discuss and show our work in more concentrated detail.

The idea that I have for my project is a game opening cinematic. Based in a world I've named 'Golgotha' where everything revolves around life, fertility, growth and nature. In our real world terms using the name Golgotha to resemble a world of life is a pretty big juxtaposition as the original Golgotha was the place that Jesus Christ died on his cross. Religiously speaking, the word Golgotha means 'dying place/place of death' and is generally negative or sad.

For my world, Golgotha is lush and full of forests, flowers, water and life. Ancient and mystical beasts wholly referred to was 'Life Walkers,' preserve all nature around them, be it the forests, mountain ranges, streams or grass plains. At the center of this lays the worlds own life source, magic Gems that connect the Life Walkers to the Earth and the Earth to nature. But these Gems have been stolen and with each Gem lost the Life walkers lose power, become weak and turn into stone with very few remaining. The loss of the Gems from their rightful places has caused the Earth to lose balance with itself and as such an evil, previously dormant, is beginning to take advantage of the dying nature. Dark beasts known as Mortum Walkers roam the once lush forests, turning everything they touch into brown decay, the flowers have gone, the trees have withered and died and the water has become stagnant. The only way for nature, the Life Walkers and Golgotha to return to the way it was is to return the Gems back to their rightful places and restore the power of the dormant Life Walkers. This project will be created using Photoshop & After Effects, the transmedia side will be in the form of a water colour painted storybook.

The feedback I got from my artwork and plan of operation was all around positive, there was no real changes to my chosen method other than ways to further its development and to help it improve.
Everyone agreed that my artwork had come along in leaps and bounds since last year and the line art for it was described as 'beautiful' and 'delicate' which made me extremely happy to hear as I didn't have much confidence prior to the module.

I'm really looking forward to doing more work for this module and although there is alot to do I'm excited for the outcome providing I do it right.

The Gaze In The Media

Upon comparing the writings of Mulvey's - 'Visual Pleasure' and Coward's -'The Look,' it can be said that both women convey similar opinions on how women see themselves, both personally and in society. This is confimed by Mulvey, writing that ‘it appears to women that the whole possibility of being loved and comforted hangs on how their appearance will be received,’ this could be viewed that Mulvey considers women to be very aesthetic dependant, feeling that they must look physically appealing in order to mate with a male or be appreciated in any form by the opposite, or even the same sex. It could also be argued that there is some psychological scarring behind the thought of only being accepted by essentially looking pleasing to the eye. To Mulvey it appears that women are objectified, ‘men look, women are to be looked at.’ This could raise questions as to if women should be considered people or more like objects of desire.

Cowards form of writing is generally similar to Mulvey, where Mulvey appears to consider women as little more than objects of attraction, Coward discusses how women are oppressed and perhaps held back within society. This point could take a more feminist route as examples such as women being given less pay than men, women being refused the right to vote and females being generally stereotyped as typically housewife ‘stay at home mother’ types.

Unlike Mulvey, Coward approaches the topic of women and how they are perceived in the media in a generally more light hearted, if not comical tone, she discusses her own personal experiences as a child and uses this to draw on her perceptions of todays society.

It could be argued that Cowards point of  the psychological development and experiences of childhood are what have developed women to how they are today. Examples of this can be seen almost everywhere, posters of models, video game represented females and magazines conger up a false and unachievable representation of the female body and thus create a mythic beauty.

However it can also be said that each girl grows up to be their own person and the sights of the surrounding environment should not effect how a woman sees herself directly.

Mulveys writings appear to be more formal on this note and she speaks in a more direct, academic form, often referencing more psychological terms in order to back up her arguments. Mulveys main argument is that it is moden day media and film that seems to have caused women to rely so heavily on improving their aesthetics to become the mythic and unobtainable airbrushed beauties that they see everywhere on the covers of magazines, posters and plastered on the introductions of the old james bond films.

These writings both convey similar arguments concerning how women value themselves, it could in fact be said that the arguments are in fact more accurate as both theorists are in fact, female, this make the writings of both women come from their own personal experiences and emotions, giving the reader a clearer understanding compared to that of a male theorist writing on a woman’s behalf.