King Kong

New piece for a Foursight group project on the theme of Monsters. 

Will be 1 of a set of 3 prints along with work from the other Foursight guys; Kris and Jordan.

Sci-fi and Swords

I recently finished this scifi/fantasy montage commission last week. Was a lot of fun to work on given the theme, and hopefully you can tell which shows the different elements are from...

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BTLC: Jack's Truck

A late Happy New Year to you!

I recently did a Big Trouble in Little China themed stencil of Jack Burton's truck for a box containing a BTLC themed present...

Such a cool film, and I'm planning some other illustrations to do with the film so watch this space.

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Poster: Magic Show

I've just finished working on a poster for a short filmed created by graduates from The Northern Film School at Leeds Met University, one of whom was my brother Stuart who was director of photography.

The film is entitled 'Magic Show' and is a dark comedy about a magic show in the woods, set in the early 20th century. The film was made for a competition about promoting multilingualism, for more info check out the site of writer/director Richard Wheatley here.

The idea behind the poster was to make it look like an old fashioned magician's poster from around the time the film is set in the early 20th century. I liked the idea of having the poster black and white like a photograph and just keeping the red of the bow tie to hint at the sinister nature of the film, but I did a colour version also. I also included the smokey red lines to link to the idea of illusions and theatrics etc., and was also a good way to link the type with the image with a bit of an art nouveau flow.

Check out both colour and bw versions below along with my initial drawing...

Final Project Animation

As part of our final major projects, we were all given a brief to create a small animation on the theme of 'transformation'. We were given free reign to interpret transformation in whichever way we wanted in relation to our own projects, and the animation could be anything from a few seconds of an image changing from one thing to another, to a full blown animation that lasted a few minutes.

I think I probably aimed for somewhere in between the two parameters, as the main images I had at the beginning of the project were my astronaut and diver, so I thought they'd lend themselves to a change from one to the other as they were made with the same blueprint. But I also didn't just want to do a fade from one to the other, as I'd already done that with the 8x8 animation I did last year.

I talked with tutors about the possibility of making an interactive app for the ipad, but it became clear pretty quickly that doing that would take a lot of time and would be too complex for me to try and do for real. So instead we decided that it would be possible to make an animation in After Effects and play it through the ipad whilst filming someone faking the movements as if it were a real app. So the final piece is more of a proposal for a possible app that could be made with my work.


Below is the animation on its own, and then the final video showing it in use...

 

One of the things I probably should have thought about at the beginning of this was the fact that I don't actually own an ipad or iphone, so it made it a little bit more difficult to work out how it might work. So I did some research into the different interactive movements you can do on an ipad, and watched some tutorials, to try and get it to look somewhat genuine. I also wasn't able to make versions as I went along to try it out, so if I were to do this again in the future I think it would be best to borrow an ipad/iphone off someone to get it to look as real as possible.


Another problem was working out how I could fake the movements on the ipad, without actually touching the screen (as it would brings up menus etc.) and then having to memorise the actions, needless to say it was a longer process than I was anticipating!
These problems were solved by some high-tech gluing of card onto the finger tips, and a good few takes of the filming. 

Overall however I'm really pleased with the outcome and I think it was definitely worth giving it a go and seeing what happened. I'd definitely like to try and make a real app of some sort in the future as I think my work can be quite flat which probably lends itself to these sort of things quite well, and with the advent of digital magazines and ebooks (not to mention actual apps and touch screen games etc.), we'll probably be seeing a lot more of these type of things in the future.

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Creative Review: The Abyss

We haven't done a creative review session at uni for a while, but I'd thought I'd put up a film recommendation due to it's link with my FMP. Whilst looking into underwater creatures, diving, habitats etc, for my space/underwater project, the film 'The Abyss' is always popping into my mind, particularly when looking into bioluminescent creatures.

The film was released in 1989 and directed by James Cameron, and follows a team of underwater oil drillers as they help search a sunken Navy submarine for survivors. It turns out that they are not the only ones living down their, needless to say excitement and insanity ensues....

Cameron obviously has a huge interest in exploring the oceans, and it's obvious from watching this film. Not only does the story itself explore many areas of interest such as underwater habitats, diving equipment such as underwater rovers, underwater diving technology such as diving suits and liquid breathing, the effects of saturation diving, and underwater creatures etc, but the production of the film itself is incredibly interesting. 

The film was the biggest underwater production of its kind ever, with around 40% of the film being shot underwater. A huge underwater set was created in and old nuclear power station, and the actors had to go through weeks of dive training. Extensive research and development had to be done to create new technology to make shooting possible. For example, the diving suits with full face masks were designed specifically for the film, along with a special radio/sound recording system to capture sound whilst diving.  The film aimed to capture as much real for real footage as possible, with minimal digital effects, model use or stunt cast used. Even the aliens were built and performed by puppeteers!

Seems like an incredible (and expensive) undertaking, and I always find it really interesting to see how much work and effort goes into what you see on screen.

Anyway, check out the making of below if you're interested...

Also, some of the set still exists in the power station, check out some pics below...

Charles and Ray Eames: Powers of Ten

Today I had a tutorial for my final major project about space and underwater, and Ian recommended I take a look at this film made by Charles and Ray Eames from 1977, that illustrates the respective size of everything, from the outer reaches of the universe, right down to the proton, zooming in and out by a power of ten every ten seconds. That might sound a bit confusing but give it a watch and you'll understand. Also check out the website The Scale of the Universe 2, which is an updated version of this idea, navigable by scrolling in and out on your mouse.

It's really interesting to watch and see just how big the universe is and how insignificant the proton seems in comparison. In terms of my project it's interesting to see how visually some of the huge space situated imagery; galaxies, planets etc., look quite similar to some of the microscopic cells and atoms, for example, so there are some nice links there between space and underwater creatures/organisms that I can look into more.

Countdown - Celine Desrumaux

This animation by Celine Desrumaux was recommended to me last summer when I was in the process of researching a space project, and I absolutely love it. It's a short animation about the countdown of a rocket launch, and is a fantastic mix of narrative and slightly abstract images that link back to the technological/mechanical/space flight theme of the film. She has used a huge range of different shots and perspectives, and the mix of narrative imagery and abstract detail images of clocks, computers, logo's, mechanical movements, etc.; work and flow really well. Check it below guys.......

Richard McGuire

Recently, the animation work of Richard McGuire was recommended to me because of an insect animation I'm collaborating on. McGuire is an American illustrator and animator, and the animation below is titled 'Micro Loup', and is a short film about a tiny wolf. The interesting thing about the animation is that it's all shot from above, and uses quite simple and abstract shapes to represent the people and objects etc., but is still incredibly easy to follow and understand. This birds eye view style of animation is something I'm trying in my own work, so its interesting to see it used here so successfully.
There is a great interview here with McGuire, conducted by Steven Heller, which mainly focuses on an animation he did as part of a collaboration, all to do with fears. I've posted his section of that animation below also. Enjoy.

Creative Review - Film

I'm going back a little bit now, but at the start of October, we had our first 'Creative Review' at uni, where we each had to talk about and recommend; a film, an exhibition, an article and a book. These could be about anything and didn't have to directly relate to our work, and was a means to introduce each other to our different interests and influences outside of illustration.

Firstly, the film I recommended was 'A Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou', made in 2004 starring Bill Murray (as well as a tonne of other a-listers) and directed by Wes Anderson. The film centres around Steve Zissou, a Jacques Cousteau influenced oceanographer who makes documentary films of his adventures looking for new marine life. After his friend is killed by the illusive 'Jaguar Shark', Zissou sets out on a revenge mission along with an eclectic crew, whilst also filming it for his next movie.

I only ever seen one of Wes Anderson's other films (Fantastic Mr Fox), but he definitely has a unique style. The film mixes live action with a few moments involving surreal stop-motion animated marine life such as multicoloured sea horses, dolphins and the 'tiger shark' itself. 
It's definitely a comedy, played completely dead pan throughout, but breaks it up with some nice action moments. Not to spoil it, but a gun fight and a mission-impossible style rescue are ones to look out for.

The look of the film is very rich and colourful, and the use of the onscreen writing for the change of locations, and the interesting use of a cross section of the boat (practical set) that the characters walk through, I thought were really cool and definitely made it stand out from anything else I've seen. It also has a really quirky soundtrack/score mixed with on film performances of Bowie covers in Portuguese....., yes that's right.

Anyway, I don't want to give too much away about the plot, but I would definitely recommend watching it. It's not only really funny, but it's definitely visually interesting and has a unique feel to it. I hoping to watch some more Anderson films soon, which I'm definitely looking forward to. 


Check out the trailer above guys! then go watch the film......