Toolkit 2: Moom Animation with Breakdowns

Here's my progress of animating the moom model to a weight lifting reference. This includes Key poses, inbetweens and the breakdowns for it.

Toolkit 2: Finished Lego Car

Here's the finished lego car properly rendered, lighted, and composited

The Lion King (1994) - Archetypes

The Lion King (1994) is an animated film about the lion prince Simba, whos father is killed, and Simba is outcast by his traitor uncle, only to return to challenge and overthrow him after he grows up. This review will cover the archetypes of The Lion King’s hero’s journey.

Some of the characters hold several of known archetypes, but the one and only hero, ofcourse, is Simba the young lion prince, having been promised the kingdom, betrayed by his uncle, ran off, and returned to save pride rock from his treacherous uncle Scar. His heroism shines throughout the film. As a cub he was ready to be brave and face dangers like, protecting Nala and, ofcourse, his journey of atonement to his father, family and himself.

The shadow in this film without a doubt is Scar. He is filled with envy, anger and loathing, capable of doing the most despicable actions to have his way and revenge. Being the weaker and younger sibling of king Mufasa, he was, in a way, his brother’s shadow.

The herald, or the one to call to adventure, are both Mufasa and Rafiki. Rafiki begins the call in the opening sequence as he presents Simba to the world. It is his entrance into life and a show of his destiny that awaits him. The spectacular ceremony with all the animals there to witness is a clear sign that Simba is no ordinary lion and that there’s much more in store for him.
Mufasa is the herald when he brings Simba up to the top of pride rock to teach him about the responsibilities of being king. It is when it’s made clear to Simba, that he is destined to be king one day.

When Simba and Nala run off from Zazu they enter the dreadful elephant graveyard, outside of their territory, and there they meet the threshold guardians, the hyenas. They are confronted by Shenzi, Banzai and Ed, who are keen on hunting the intruders down, leading into a suspenseful chase.

The tricksters in The Lion King took away Simbas worries and disconnected him from the troubles he had. Timon and Pumba were introduced as laid back and carefree characters, they distract Simba from his responsibilities, but not necessarily in a bad way. They help with comedic relief in the film and keep it light.

The biggest mentor to Simba was Mufasa. He taught him life lessons throughout the film, starting with the lesson on top of pride rock, to after delving into the elephant graveyard and even after his passing as he appears in the clouds when Simba has grown. Other than Mufasa, Rafiki also takes part as a mentor when Simba feels lost and doesn’t know who he is. He guides him through to reach the ultimate lesson from Mufasa so he can gather the strength to return home.

Simbas allies were any characters that weren’t Scar or the hyenas. Most prominently being Timon, Pumba, Nala, Zazu, his mother Sarabi, and the other lions.

The mother and father in the film are clearly Sarabi and Mufasa, both responsible for raising up Simba.

The child archetype in the film fits Zazu the most. He is Mufasa’s majordomo, with all the information, complaints and advice. He insists against Simba’s mischief, and is always worried.

Nala appears as the maiden in her and Simba’s reunion. Their previous friendship turns to love in the romantic sequence, but ends in them trying to convince each to no compromise. Simba refuses to reveal the secret he holds, and Nala fails to understand him. Reguardless she is the one to reintroduce him to the reality and kickstarts his return back home.

The shapeshifters of the movies are Scar and the three main hyenas. Scar all along the movie plays the ally all while plotting a coup at the same time. He continues his devious plans with convincing the lions of pride rock about Mufasa’s and Simba’s death and takes upon becoming king. But by the end of the movie, the hyenas also have a change of opinions. Starting off as allies with Scar, after him badmouthing them and their motives, they turn on him and end him off.

In conclusion, The Lion King follows all the typical archetypes fairly clearly, with several character's roles overlapping. 

Illustration list:

Figure 1: The Lion King poster (1994). Available at: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwif0KXQ7bDlAhWJkxQKHRF8DlsQjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FAdvance-Rolled-Movie-Poster-27x40%2Fdp%2FB07SV41XR4&psig=AOvVaw3HFfO5T0qX8zevNsFbtHdy&ust=1571867633010365 (Accessed on 22 October 2019)

Collaboration: Character Designs

In creation of our group project we have come up with a story that involves a handful of characters. Here are my first concepts for some of them:

Kyle, the main character. His story is that of a reckless and opportunistic type. Living his best life, perhaps in disregard to the others around him and even himself. He should capture the vibe of someone who some may refer to as "a player". In other words, he's just really cool.

And since the story follows through his life, we reach a moment of him in his elderly times.

During the story we also encounter 2 characters, which are his lovers. So far only hair design for them.

A few more characters will make an appearance, and are to be worked on!

Collaboration: Moonrise Studios OGR

Find the OGR pitch presentation on our studio blog here: https://moonrisestudios.blogspot.com/2019/10/collaboration-ogr-wrong-response-to-life.html

Toolkit 2: Character Design 2

This session in the first part we were given a movie/universe and had to design a character fitting for it both design both style wise.
I got Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, me not having seen it, after doing some quick studies, my first go-to was designing my take of Dr. Octopus, as I hadn't seen the actual design within it.
After that I went with a play on those daddy long legs spiders.

The next task was to take a character from our given universe, and put it in our assigned term's setting, mine being a mechanised, falling apart victorian era. I used the Spiderverse's Goblin design to play around with the concept of combining mechanisms and solid porcelain or plastic body parts.

Toolkit 2: Life Drawing 2

Here's my results of our second drawing session.

We started off with 2 minute poses, then 10 minute, then 15 minute and ended off with a 25 minute pose. We explored dynamics, shapes, lighting and whatever we found we need to focus on

Puss in Boots - The Heroes Journey

Fig. 1

Puss in Boots (2011), the animated film, directed by Chris Miller, follows the origin story of the fabled Puss in Boots, an outlaw cat looking to redeem himself of his past misunderstanding. This review will look over how the narrative follows The Heroes Journey plot points.

With the rate of how fast the film moves along, a lot of the Heroes Journey points can be found repeating several times, merging, or mixing around. It starts off in the ordinary world, which is the overall world of Puss being an outlaw, looking for yet another heist.

This leads into the first call to adventure, where he is given several heist options, all which he refuses, up until being offered the heist of the magic beans, which could be a supernatural aid in accepting the adventure that would help him redeem himself. Though, there is another moment that effectively portrays the call to adventure,  it is where Humpty Dumpty asks for Puss’ help. The call is quickly refused because of their past, but he gives in and accepts because of the supernatural aid of how the magic beans could help him get the golden goose eggs to redeem himself to his mother and childhood home.

Crossing the first threshold fits to the moment of entering Jack and Jill’s room through the window. This is the first action of the heist and first proper encounter with the antagonists and the magic beans. This leads into the belly of the beast, in a chase that leads throughout the city and into the den of cats, where Puss has a showdown with Kitty, which in itself could be seen as a start to the road of the trials. The road of the trials continue in the heist for the beans.

It was introduced earlier, but at this point made clearer, that Kitty is the woman as tempress, aswell as the meeting with the Goddess. Together, Puss, Kitty and Humpty reach the Apotheosis, where they plant the magic beans that propell them up to the giant’s castle, in which they find their Ultimate boon, the golden goose. This is also where the epitome of the magic flight is emphasised with the wonderous world of clouds and enormous castle.

The atonement with the father, or rather in this case, the mother, is after being left behind from the ambush and finding his way to his hometown. He is betrayed by Humpty who claims this as revenge and Puss is confronted by the guards. His mother intervenes and pleads Puss to stand down, and in atonement he does so, allowing himself to be arrested.

While in prison, Puss learns the consequences that because of acquiring the golden goose, its mother will come after it and destroy the town in the process. This triggers the refusal of the return, where Puss refuses to stand down and is motivated to save the town. He attempts to escape and receives the help of Kitty, the rescue from without.

The crossing of the return threshold is perhaps very literal, with the moment of Kitty cutting the rope of the lift, sending Puss flying into the light of day, into the town.

After successfully saving the town he becomes master of two worlds. He is still a master outlaw, but now having redeemed himself to the people he cares about, he is also seen as a hero. This gives him the freedom to live, with the past no longer haunting him, and still able to live his exciting outlaw life.

In conclusion, the movie Puss in Boots follows The Heroes Journey, although in a very mixed and matched fashion.

Illustrations:

Figure 1: Puss in Boots poster (2011). Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448694/mediaviewer/rm407879168 (Accessed on 15 October 2019)

Toolkit 2: Shading, Rigging and Animation

The lego car continues to come to life!

Here's the car shaded!

Then rigged the rotation and made the wheels rotate with translation on the Z axis, then animated.

Toolkit 2: Drama Poses

Second go at posing Moom we had to focus on drama poses, which are more nuanced.

I don't believe I broke any this time, though they could use more liveliness or work in portraying the emotions or tension!

Collaboration: Logo exploration

Me and my group with Victor and Ren quickly picked up an astrological idea wavelength for our Studio name, and after some discussion over lunar themes, we settled on the name Moonrise.

Here are some of my sketches for a potential logo, though none of these stuck as much as a concept by Victor.

Toolkit 2: Character Design Lesson 1

On our first Character Design lecture we were given a prop to then research on and study. And afterwards to create a character based on it.
I was given a Doctor's Stethoscope, and after researching, I was fascinated by how they used to look, instead of the classical look.

Another class assignment was to study the face and features of one of our classmates, and exaggerate it, making it into another character even.

The other half of the day, we were to start researching the themes we got for the character design we'll have to work on this term. I came to the conclusion to research more on machinery, clockwork and what could make a robot move, aswell as the general styles of a victorian era, such as clothes.

Perspectives: Pulp Fiction and Postmodernism

This review will analyze the factors that make the film Pulp Fiction a postmodern film. Directed and written by Quentin Tarantino. The main reference sources will be John McAteer’s
Three Stories about One Story: Postmodernism and the Narrative Structure of Pulp Fiction, Vikram Murthi’s The Eyes Behind the Mask: “Pulp Fiction” and Postmodernity 20 Years Later, and Sabina Easmin’s Film and Postmodern Culture. This will explain, how at any moment of the film there is something that backs up its postmodernity.

Figure 1

Pulp fiction carries a schizophrenic, yet at the same time relatable air, by showing mundane situations or conversation, followed by a clashing of not so mundane scenarios. I.e. the first scene leading from Vincent and Jules talking about Europe and foot massages, leading into a violent confrontation during breakfast. (see Fig.1)

“Postmodern cinema is characterized by disjointed narratives, a dark view of the human condition, images of chaos and random violence, death of the hero” (Easmin, 2014) The way Sabina Easmin notes the possible postmodern characteristic, precisely fits several quirks of Pulp Fiction. The film follows the stories of a number of characters, whose storylines intertwine, but in a broken up timeline. Moreover its focused around the stories of violent roles such as hitmen, boxers, gangsters, and robbers, which ultimately lead to gruesome and unnecessarily violent visualizations, as well as a just as violent death of a hero, although the idea of hero here would be wildly interpretable. Tarantino does not shy away from depictions of death and gore. (see Fig. 2)

Figure 2

Its ambiguity is another of its key factors of postmodernism. “Right from the opening title, the film emphasizes the multiplicity of possible meanings, and it ends with a discussion of an ambiguous event that may or may not have been a miracle.”(McAteer, 2015) All throughout the film its established that the interpretation of any situation depends on the person as well as the knowledge of the narrative. Jules insists on the incident in the first scene, where they didn’t get shot by the man hiding in the bathroom, to be a miracle, while Vincent likes to think it's a lucky coincidence. This also ties in postmodernism's fashion of often being blasphemous, as the theme of religion repeats throughout the film.

John McAteer explains, “postmodernism rejects the existence of an autonomous self and the ability of the artist to impose absolute meaning. Postmodernism aims to deconstruct itself, revealing itself to be just another construction.” (McAteer, 2015) That is unlike modernism, which focuses on the purity of the medium itself as an art form. McAteer continues to exemplify, that the films most cited and influential postmodern elements are its self-awareness and irony when using pop-culture references. “This sort of technique is associated with many terms in academic jargon: pastiche, homage, intertextuality, bricolage, metafiction, etc.” (McAteer, 2015)

The film is filled with recognizable political, pop-culture and historical references and symbols that are taken out and isolated from their actual historical context. “It’s a pastiche of various cinematic modes—film noir, B-movies, samurai films, Blaxploitation—coupled with a disregard for coherent historicity” (Murthi, 2014) Vikram Murthi points out the scene in Jack Rabbit Slim’s diner, which is filled with ’50s iconography, followed up by the ’60s pop music and topping off with the ’70s “cool”, that the characters hold. (see Fig.3) These normalized absurdities and playing with cliches is one of the defining factors of Tarantino’s worlds. “They all take place in a world Tarantino supposedly calls the “movie-movie world.””(McAteer, 2015)

Figure 3

In conclusion, Pulp Fiction embodies postmodern qualities not only with its unconventional narrative and storyline progression, but also with complex yet seamless pastiches, weaving in pop-culture and history, without dwelling on their context. The film covers controversial topics of religion and race, without dwelling on the controversy with no sense of consequence.



Bibliography:

Easmin, S. (2014) Film and Postmodern Culture [M.S. Dissertation] BRAC University. At: http://dspace.bracu.ac.bd/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10361/3944/12163011.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (Accessed on 5 October 2019)
Murthi, V (2014) At: http://moviemezzanine.com/the-eyes-behind-the-mask-pulp-fiction-and-postmodernity-20-years-later/ (Accessed on 5 October 2019)
McAteer, J. (2015)
Three Stories about One Story:Postmodernism and the NarrativeStructure of
Pulp Fiction. At:https://www.academia.edu/8365999/Three_Stories_About_One_Story_Postmodernism_and_the_Narrative_Structure_of_Pulp_Fiction_ (Accessed on 5 October 2019)

Illustration List:

Figure 1. Double dare scene. At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvEik9N_xWI
Figure 2. Vincent Vega death scene. At: https://imgur.com/gallery/jJVMx/comment/73643799
Figure 3. Jack Rabbit Slims diner. At: http://movielistmania.blogspot.com/2011/02/this-is-jack-rabbit-slims-pulp-fiction.html

Toolkit 2: Life Drawing 1

The setup for today's drawing was an intricate construction. We started off with rotating to and continuing the next person's drawing every 2 minutes. Afterwards we worked with negative space, then lighting and finally a focus on the tapestries. All done on A1 paper

Toolkit 2: Modelling

Or in other words, Toolkit 2 - beginners edition.

Because of my inexperience with Maya, I was provided with a different set of tutorials than the rest of the year 2 students, to get a grasp for the program and everything.
So here's my first model, following the Intro to Autodesk Maya modelling tutorial:

Toolkit 2: Action Poses

We were assigned to try out the Moom model we'll have to use this term, by choosing 5 action poses and posing Moom as similarly as possible. And then rate whether he lives or not...

This being my first time actually handling Maya, I'm fairly happy with my results, though I feel they could definitely be pushed forward more in their dynamics!

1. First choice of photo, not so great, and i hadn't yet figured out the nuances of the fingers, so in result, some broke!

2.

 3. I'm a fan of the bounciness in Keanu's run, good reference subject

5. Very bendy pose

...ALMOST made it out without injury. Almost.

5.

A fun exercise, I learned that posing isn't too hard. But good posing sure is!