The Fall of the House of Usher - Research

The Fall of the House of Usher is another short story by Edgar Allan Poe. To quickly summaries the story the narrator receives a desperate letter from his boyhood friend requesting to come and see him. The friend is minster Roderick Usher who lives a very old Gothic mansion out near a swamp/forest. Once inside the mansion he find more than he was expecting. It is basically a classic story about a creepy man living in a haunted house. There are several good description that i could look into to help with my concept paintings. But the one that i am most interesting in looking at in more detail is the external description of the mansion.

Film Adaptation

The Fall of the House of Usher

Director- Roger Corman

1960

Roger Corman also produced a film based on the classic story The Fall of the House of Usher which was the 8th film that Corman has produced based on Edgar Allan Poe's Stories. The film is also known as Fall of the House of Usher and The Mysterious House of Usher.

When i watched the trailer to this film i noticed that the mansion in the film has a Gothic feeling to it which added to the theme of the movie. Also in the classic story their is a great external and internal description of the mansion that i had some initial ideas about. So i think that i could look into Gothic architecture to help with the development of my ideas.

The Pit and The Pendulum - Research

I decide to look into The Pit and the Pendulum in more detail to help me with producing my concept paintings. The Pit and the Pendulum was one of several stories of Egdar Allen Poe and on of his most popular pieces of work. To quick summaries the story is as story of a mans torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition. The story has several descriptions of his experience of being tortured. As this i just one of the two stories that i was given there are two descriptions that i am thinking about doing. Both are the descriptions of torture he went through in his prison and in the torture room.

Film Adaptation

When looking in to The Pit and the Pendulum a bit further i surprised to find out that their was a film based on Edgar Allen Poe's story. To help with my research i decided to look into the film that was directed by Roger Corman in 1916.

The Pit and the Pendulum initially is a short story so in the film itself not much of the story had been used except the famous torturing device. I haven't watch the whole film but i have watched the trailer and doing this has allowed me to understand the story that much better. When i first read through the story i couldn't.t really imagine what the pendulum looked like. This film allowed me to understand it because  In the film there is a great scene that shows what the torture room looks like as well as the pendulum itself as the image below shows.

First Initial Ideas

Here are just a few quick thumbnails that i have produce for The Pit and the Pendulum which was on of my two stories. These thumbnails are of two different description that i found within the extracts. The first begin when he gives a description of the cell that he wake up in and the second beginning the description of the torture chamber.

These ideas were produced by just drawing what the descriptions said within the text just to get me thinking of what i want in my final concept paintings. The next set to help with these initial ideas is to research into the different things that are written with the extracts like dungeons, prisons/pits, tombs and may other things i could look into.

Film Review - The Cabniet of Dr.Caligari

The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari was directed by Robert Wiene in 1920 and become one of the most important films in cinema history. The films story is based around the theme of madness and insane behaviour. The thing that made this film so interesting to watch was the set design itself which adds to the madness theme throughout this film. The shape of the buildings and the odd shape windows "add to the disorientating impression of a world permeated by subconscious terror and mental instability."

It starts with two men sitting on a park bench with the younger of the two men Francis telling the tragic story of his fiancée. The films its self is told like a story and is shown in a flashback of what happened in the past. It all began several years before when Francis and his friend Alan fall in love with the same woman Jane. This is when the film starts to get interesting when they visit a travelling fair and come to meet Dr.Caligari himself with his somnambulist Cesare. Cesare is an unconscious man that dresses in black and is so pale that you know that there is something weird about him. Caligari awakes the Cesare and tells the audience that he has acquired the ability to tell the future. Alain asks the somnambulist how long he has yet to live he replies that he would be dead by the following dawn. His prediction comes true and become the second victim of two murders. Francis along with his fiancée Jane investigates Caligari and Cesare who ends up eventually kidnapping Jane. Caligari orders Cesare to kill Jane but the slave refuses after her beauty captivates him. He carries Jane out of her house leading the townsfolk on a lengthy chase which ends up with Cesare falls to his death during the pursuit. Francis discovers that Caligari is actually the director of the local insane asylum, and with the help of his colleagues discovers the real truth. In the end it is revealed that the flashback is actually a fantasy. He as well as Jane and Cesare are all inmates of the insane asylum and the man he says is Caligari is his asylum doctor. 

The last 20 minutes of the film for me was the best because the film takes this dramatic turn and what happens in the last scene changes the film totally. When I looked into the film a little bit more I found out that Wiene himself requested the twist at the end of the film when we find out the Francis was the one that was insane and not Caligari. "Thus, at a stroke, the meaning of the story is entirely reversed, by the simple device of framing Janowitz and Carl Mayer’s original story within another story which, to all intents and purposes, cancels out any subversive messages".

As soon as Caligari arrives on the screen you straightway know that he is the villain in this film. "Caligari, the easy to spot villain who scurries around in a black cape and top hat like a bulbous".The way that Wiene has used light and darkness, shadows and dramatic music to portray this works so good in this film .That this way of portraying a character as being the evil villain has been used in many other horror films and could even be said to say used in horror films today. To let the viewer know who the villain is and this film does this straightway.

"This movie is an example of German Expressionism which suits it since horror is meant to show our secret fears and focuses on anxiety and dread; emotions that often override our rational judgment." The cabinet of Dr Caligari was the first film to have used the German expressionist style. It gave a new style to cinema with the painting and angular set pieces and use of light and shade.

Personally this film is not one that I would usually watch but I am glad I did because you can see how a set can be created to portray a theme and can make the film even better. "With twist endings, fear of madness as a theme and of course that outlandish design." The film itself is a bit slow to get in but the twist at the end is so wroth the watch.

Life Drawing Lesson Six

In yesterdays life drawing lesson we were asked to not pay attention to the model but that of which surrounds her so the negative space. With doing this you should be able to see the outlines of the model by drawing the objects that you can see behind her leaving out the detail that i would normally drawing. I found this a bit hard to do with the first of the two task which lasted 40 minutes. I focused on what was behind the model and this ended up with the models outline being at bit off shape.

With the next task which was 1 hour long we were allowed to draw the outline of the model and to add detail but not to focus on the detail to much but what was surrounding the model again. I think drawing the outline in this task help me with drawing the surroundings and you can actually making out the outline of the model.

Unit 2 - Space

Its the beginning of a new project and this one is called Space. Were we have to to produce 3 fully-resolves concept paintings of new CG animated adaptation of a classic story. I pulled folder 3 out of the blue box which is two different extracts for two different books by Edgar Allan Poe. The first on being The Pit and the Pendulum. Just by quickly scanning over the text i can see that their are several descriptions that i could uses to produce my concept paintings from this extract. The second of the two extracts was The fall of the House of Usher. 

When first found out what classic story i had i was a bit nervous about the books i got. But after looking at the extracts i found several different ways i could go because i found them very in depth descriptions of the scenes that was happening within the story. I think that the next step for me would be to look at the book in my depth and to re-read the extracts to see if i missed anything that could help with the development of my concept paintings

Maya- Deskscene Tutorial

Here is my final render of the desk scene but it didn't turn out like how it should be. I am not sure what i did wrong and think i mite have to give it another go. To see where i went wrong when doing this tutorial.

Maya- Moving Animations

Finally i have uploaded my moving animations so here they are.
Rocket Animation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CP7OP9lLXY

Robot Animation.
With this animation i placed the camera too far away when i finally render it at the end and that's why it looks to small in this clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6JQkEUfLpk

Final Portrait

So here is my final portrait i really like how it come out in the end. It had totally changed form my initial ideas and i think that it shows what i was trying to portray with my portrait. That the transformation was in progress and that i was curious with what was happening to me.

More Hybrid Progess

Here is the progress of adding texture and coluring to my hyrbid to create my final piece.

Texture to Hybrid- Feedback Needed Please

When adding texture to my hybrid i decided to just to add the texture of Iguana but instead of covering the whole hybrid in this texture i decided to have patch's of it. So this would show the transformation in progress. The thing is i just cant help feeling that their is something wrong with it and i cant put my finger on it so any feedback would be helpful.

Maya Tutorial- Bottle Task

Throughout this task i had several problems with the texture but i was able to overcome them and produce the bottle.



Maya Tutorial- Poker Chips

I really like the final render of this tasks and I think that i was able to complete it  without any problems because of what i have learnt throughout the other task we have done.

Hybrid Progress

I have finally made a decision of  the position of  my hybrid. I decided to flip the image and i think that this works better for what i want my self portrait to show which is curiosity. The thing is i still think that their is something missing but hopefully when i add texture and colour i will be able to see it. But all together i think that my hybrid is coming together .

Maya Tutorials- Common Shade Shaders

Ceramic

Plastic

Silver

Chrome

Gold

Glass 

Glow

Glow 2

Todays Life Drawing Lesson 5

Today we only had one task which was an 2 hours drawing in the same position. After leaning how to proportion my drawing properly last week this helped with today's life drawing class. This task aloud me to concentrated on getting the proportion of my drawing right. I really like the finally outcome of this drawing the only down fall is the feet for some reason i can not get me head around drawing them. But after more practice hopefully i will be able to draw them as they should be.

Hybrid Progress

Here is the progress of my hybrid from the beginning to were i am working from now.



After getting the basic shape i want for my hybrid i decided that i didn't like the shape of the face and decided to experiment so more. The outcome out of this is what i want the face of my hybrid to be.



After getting the shape of the face that i felt looked rite i added it to the body i had so far and went for there.

I think that my hybrid still needs some work on it. I am thinking of giving it the skin texture of my animal and the hand on leaning on the hand does not look that rite. Then hopefully after these changes i can add colour to it and think about adding a background to it.  

Head/Face Studies

Here are the head and face studies i did to help me with the face of my hybrid to make it more human. I tried to focus on the features of the face so that i would be able to uses them on my hybrid so i decided to draw my face for different angles.

To also help me i decided to have a look at the shape of the head by looking at the skull. This aloud me to get a better understanding of the head of the head.