Online Environments

On tuesday I had my first lesson of online environments and it was quite interesting, I made a stick figure walk and I made a basket ball look as if its bouncing off the ground. I also in my own time I made a smiley face move its mouth and eyes.

I have got some ideas already of what I am going to do my quiz on, I have decided to do a pub quiz, when ever I go to the pub I play on this machine where there is a game called pints make prizes. I am going to get a series of questions off the machine to use in my quiz. I am also going to video someone playing the game and get some similar images off of it.

3d Animation

For some reason my video is not starting from the beginning and it is not playing the music i put in the background, it works in premier pro, i think its something to do with youtube, i realise something is wrong with this and will try to fix it.

Here at last is my 3d Animation:

Here is my 500 word rational describing visual and conceptual influences for my piece noting genre, tropes and semiotics.

After thorough research to design a perfect lair for my 3 little characters, I have decided that my genre for my lair would be superheroes based on a cartoon style.

The influence that made me design my lair the way is it is the power-puff girls who are three little girl characters that have different powers and identities/symbols. They are called Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup, they all have a signature colours, Blossom being pink, Bubbles being blue and Buttercup being light green. I have made a few objects in my lair those colours to represent the girl’s influence. I used to watch the power-puff girls when I was young and they had a normal average house, which consisted of a kitchen, lounge, bedroom and a lab that was underneath the house. In my lair I have created a bedroom, lounge, kitchen, playroom and a lab, which is in the middle of the house and you have to go through a tunnel to get there.

While the power-puff girls have given me great inspiration in the design of the Lair I have also given it my own unique style and I have called it The Three Gems. I have had many other super and anti hero influences from the films including Hell Boy, Jumper, The Incredibles, Leon the Professional, Batman, Dr Frankenstein, Superman, Fantastic Four and The Joker.

At first I was interested in making an anti-hero where you are a villain and a hero but after researching and digging deeper to find more I really got interested with the Power-Puff girls. I found it very hard using the 3ds max software at first and I did not want to make any solid plans in case I was not able to create a good design, so I have gone into this design process just practicing and now I feel more confident in making things that I want to appear in my Lair. I feel I have shown who has influenced me in my lair with the symbols, colours and the way I have organised things together. I was influenced by the culture of the Power-puff girls, they revolve around the adventures of Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup, three little girls who were accidentally made my chemical x. A typical episode would be some humorous variation of the girls using their powers to defend their town from villains and giant monsters. They also have to deal with being very little, dealing with normal every day issues having a young child like faces, bed wetting or dependence on a security blanket. The thing is with the powder-puff girls they seem harmless but they use excessive violence, this is very unexpected especially as it is a children’s cartoon, however many cartoons use excessive violence as well. This show in particular has come under criticism for its rather excessive violence including images of the characters having blood from their mouths when they are fighting.

I have set my film of the lair as a widescreen angle to give it a more sophisticated look; some parts are fast, slow, smooth and edgy. I was trying to create a sense of suspicion as if someone is sneaking around seeing what your lair looks like.

I really enjoyed making this lair, at first I found the software very hard and not interesting, but gaining a confidence and practising with the software, I managed to create a perfect lair for my super hero's.

My Secret Lair

At last here are the pictures I have been promising :)

My Secret Lair

I am currently working still on getting pictures up of my lair I am sorting out my lighting this week and I will be posting up shortly.

I will also being posting my 500 words about my lair too, I have written it I just need to go over it a few more times.

Pathway

At this point in time I feel Film is my choice, I had a very interesting tutorial today which has given me ideas on how I can start my visual essay, I plan to do more research this week to further my ideas and to start doing it.

My Secret Lair

I am currently working on my lair on 3ds Max and I will be posting some images up soon to show you what I have been up to, I am currently struggling on lighting and once this is clear I will post to show. I have come to grips with the software now but still find it very hard.

Today we watched a series of films in our Lecture.

Un Chein andalou

This film was made in 1928 and released in 1929, it is 17 minutes long. It is the most looked at silent film and is spanish. The director is an author, poet and playwriter. This film promotes an emotion of unease, it shows a use of photography which is an reflection of art. At the beginning this man slits a lady's eye open with a razor, I am not sure why or what the relevance is to it. Also Cyco anilitical writing was used, there was a scene with the man fondling a womans breasts which turned into her bottom which is used of fraud. It shows a useage of surrealistic movement which if did not happen we would not have any so called pop videos now. The director wanted to be automatic but couldnt as much as he wanted to. Someone mentioned in the lecture that the ants moved the same way the humans did which was odd but I am not sure what that means. The scene where the man was pulling two men with pianos which had two dead horses on them, there was tango music playing in the background it was very dream like/ nightmare scene.

Sunrise

This film was released in 1927, which had a collage squence, it is a silent film also. It is based about a woman who has come from the countryside to find herself a city man. She gets involved with a married man and tries to seuduce him and tempt him to leave his wife. There is a scene where there is a moolite courtfield, a collage of city life made from models, candles and super emposing.

Spellbound

In this film a man said "peices of a puzzle that doesnt fit". In this film there is another example of fraud. Hitchcock released this in 1943. This was a peice where darley worked with Hitchcock, they used shadows, a man with no face, odd angles, stone and landscape. There is a bit where there are pictures of eyes and this man cuts them up with scissors so we can see what is in the brain, like in the film un chien andalou but with a razor. It is important for us to realise how we have to push this industry and not stick with the same areas and same ways, if it wasnt for the past creators we would have nothing. We thank them for what we have today otherwise we wouldnt where we are now.

To be honest I found most of these films rather boring, films in black and white or silent films with subtitles really bore me and make me not want to take an interest in them.

Zero de Conduite L'atalante

This film was released in 1932, and was directed by Jean Vigo whom was a lyrical film maker. This film was about a boarding school in France where the children had decided to act against the teachers and to break out. This film was apparently the first film to use slow motion in the pillow fight scene of the film. Also when we were discussing the film I heard that in that scene the music was played backwards which I however did not notice. Apparently when this film came out it was banned as it was thought it may encourage riots and it was the first film which had children fiddling in it. I felt this film was rather boring and having subtitles and being in black and white made it more dull for me.

The Cabinet of Caligari

This film was written in 1919, filmed in 1920 and released in 1921. This was the first film 1st film in history to be told in flashback according to Mr.Francis and the 1st german expressionist film. As well as it being the first proper horror film with a twist at the end, as it turns out to be a fantasy. As I mentioned earlier above it was the 1st german expressionist film, they used backdrops, all the angles were shot differently, they used makeup as an expression. Influences established were Tim Burton for his quirky themes, Tara Tino, James Whale, Alfridge Hitchcock, Terry Gilliam. This film was bit confusing for me, I understood that Caligari had a somnambulist who went around different towns as a sort of circus show but the twist was he was getting his somnambulist to kill people, he was obsessed. Then when someone got too close and found out what he was actually doing, he would turn it out on them as if they were crazy and he would turn them into the new somnambulist, which he would care for.

My Secret Lair

Having conducted extensive research of alternative hero and anti hero's and their Lairs I have decided to design a Lair for the Power Puff Girls. The reason for this is that I identify with the feminine nature of these heroins while also respecting their evil nature.

I have designed a Lair which addresses the issue that the Power Puff Girls were created accidentally as a result of an experiment, the fact they are Children and always will be but that they are also vulnerable and have a human nature.

I have tried to include features that are in their home to make it relevant to them, their father wanted to treat them as normal children too, hens why i have included a bedroom, lounge, kitchen, dinning area, but there is also a lab where they were mad by chemical X.

My Secret Lair

I decided after extensive research to base my lair on the genre of anti-heroes, which combines the characteristics of a good guy and a bad guy in one individual.

Characters/ films that have influenced me in this choice include Hell Boy and Jumper. Hell boy is a demon, raised by a secret US Government Organization from his early years after being created by and rescued from the Nazis; he grows up to become a defender against the forces of darkness. In the film Jumper a young man has the ability to teleport himself anywhere in the world. He discovers this gift has existed for centuries and that he is not the only one with it. He finds himself in a conflict that has been in progress for thousands of years between Jumpers and those who have promised to kill them all. This young man is a good/bad character as he wants to protect the important people in his life but he also does things for his own benefit like stealing money from banks while using his special power.

I have also looked at the cartoon characters the Power-Puff girls, who are three little girls who gained superpowers when they were accidentally created by chemical X by their father. They are called Blossom,Bubbles and Buttercup. Each episode is about the girls using their powers to defend their town from huge monsters and villains. They are more of a good character than an anti-hero but in some of their episodes their images and attitudes have changed into villains. I am attracted to the colourful nature of the characters and how the episodes have been set out, it’s very full of life.

I have recently watched the films The Incredibles and Leon the Professional, which are super/antihero/villain related. The Incredibles is based on a family of undercover superhero’s, while trying to live the quiet suburban life, are forced into action to save the world. Their lair was there house with their family, so it was similar to the Fantastic Four who lived in an apartment block except they were not a family.

Leon the Professional is a film by Luc Beson based on a professional assassin called Leon who reluctantly takes care of 12-year-old called Mathilda, a neighbor whose parents are killed and teaches her his trade. Leon had many lairs, which consisted of hotel rooms, he is actually an antihero, he is a hit man but he would never hurt a woman or child. He cares and looks after a plant, he never drinks alcohol and he doesn’t do drugs. This film is a untypical action/love film.

Bate Cave

This picture below communicates many different things to me, it looks very spooky, dark and mysterious. There are stalactites hanging from the ceiling to make it look like an actual cave, hence this being the metaphor since the room is obviously not a cave. There is a huge batman symbol lite by spotlights which tells me that this is the Bat Cave but the ordinary chairs lowers the effect of the image created.

Dr Frankenstein’s Lab

This picture to me shows that you are meant to believe there are human organs in the cylinders. The sphere in the middle looks like electricity is running through it and gives the impression that something perhaps a life form is being created. At first I saw a sort of operating table, which seemed like a body was on it but as I looked deeper into the picture no one was there. But I started to think there was someone standing next to the table but I am still not quite sure. I think they do not want you to see that someone is there and that's the potential horror of it. The picture is drawing your attention to the certain areas with stronger lighting. It is not a very clear picture, but a lot of horror scenes are not clear so it makes you think, your imagination is filling the gaps.

Superman's the Fortress of Solitude

This picture shows many faces. The Lair was for Superman to communicate with his father who sent him to earth to escape the destruction of their home planet and as a safe location to grow up. The Lair is made of ice in many different shapes. Light can pass through the ice and the Lair is very bright. The spectrum of light effect when light passes through ice/glasses has the effect of creating rainbows.

The one advantage Superman's villains had against him was that he was allergic to Kryptonite.

Fantastic 4's Baxter Building

With this picture, the building looks quite confusing, there is a lot going on and happening. Fantastic four is based on a group of astronauts that gain superpowers after a cosmic radiation exposure and they must use them to contradict the plans of their enemy, Doctor Victor Von Doom.

The Joker's Lair

From this picture, you can see the Joker is insane and loves colour, he is delusional on many levels.

Giovanni Battista

Was a famous Italian artist and known for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric prisons.

Tim Burton

Is an American film director, producer, writer and artist, he is known for his quirky themes. Tim Burton is very close friends with Johnny Depp, he has been working with him on his latest film due to come out on the 5th March 2010: Alice in Wonderland.

Maurice Bernard Sendak

Is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature, he is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are.

Joseph Cornell

Was an American artist and sculptor, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage. The Surrealists influenced him; he was also an avant-garde experimental filmmaker.