fmp2oelanorlamb

[fmp2oelanorlamb]

Haiku 6/5/25

In the frozen North

Huddled around a warm Hearth

Stories that live forever

[fmp2oelanorlamb]

My WIPs

Six panels I sketched and completed the line art for. It depicts the character catching the crow's feather, which leads him to reminisce of his childhood home and his father. The two panels at the bottom were going to be a continuation of this. These were meant to build up the story behind the character's totem, as well as add to the superstition of the scene, having it be almost ritualistic.

The two panels above are right after the flashback sequence, which was meant to also depict the character's father giving him the totem, the last panel is him reaching for the totem in his bag, which then leads us into the final sequence. I set these ones to the side in order to focus on the final 6 to depict the ending to the best of my capabilities.

[fmp2oelanorlamb]

Using a template in photoshop to show what the poster could look like as a physical book. This is a great way to make it look finalised and professional.

[fmp2oelanorlamb]

Storyboard 3 finished

In this one, the character is now on the ground and he's weak as he clutches the totem given to him by his father. Again I made use of two more POV shots, one showing the character's pespective as he held the totem, and the other used to show the passage of time with a close up of the crow, only to cut back to the deceased character, before more crows flock to scavenge his remains as it zooms out.

For the scene with the corpse, I wanted the panel to be the most detailed out of all of these panels, as it's one of the most important sequences of the cutscene, so I gave it shading and lighting, while still keeping with the theme of blue and red. The crows scavenging are meant to be a form of irony, he's eaten and scavenged by the very animal he held and kept with him since his father gave him the totem. It also leaves superstition open and allows speculation. Did he get to Valhalla? He's mortally wounded from battle but did he run to pass in peace? Does that still count?

[fmp2oelanorlamb]

My 2nd sheet of storyboards, again sticking with the same trend of blue character, grey background, and red blood. Here I got a bit more confidant with storyboarding, and with the character being seated, I had the task of making the scene interesting even when the character wasn't moving as much, I settled for two different POV shots, a close up of his expression, and some exaggerated shifts for laughter, as well as a dynamic hand resting on sword pose. I feel I did an amazing job with this page to keep the scene interesting without losing focus. This one is meant to depict the character realising the severity of his situation, as well as foreshadowing as to how it ends with the introduction of a crow wing and feather. I also figured that Viking barbarians were mad, so I had him laugh at is circumstances.

[fmp2oelanorlamb]

Storyboard 1 finished

The final iteration of the first sheet, I left in the overlap of the boxes as I like the hand drawn aspect it adds to it, I used red arrows for the further away scenes to better depict movement and direction, I didn't use them for the closeups as it felt a bit unnecessary, I felt the close ups depicted everything well enough without big highlighted directions. I also used mirror images in far away shots to depict travel, it also shows that in the actual cutscene, the character would be travelling across the screen. Another common theme throughout all my shorts is the use of foreshortening, bringing the foreground seem closer by making it darker, to try and capture perspective and illustrate it clearly.

[fmp2oelanorlamb]

Cloaks

I looked at some references and guides for drawing cloaks for my poster. I was struggling to make it look right while catching the wind and this helped me to visualise it better.

These are also some fur cloaks that I took for inspiration for my character.

Capes aren't necessarily practical for battle, but seeing as this is a snowy landscape, it's somewhat believable that the character would have a cape to shield him from the cold, regardless, I probably would have taken creative liberties for the cape anyways, as there's something dramatic about a cape billowing in harsh winter winds, it can be used to better show the intensity of a snow storm.

[fmp2oelanorlamb]

Working on structuring the poster, thinking about widening and shortening storyboard panels to fit as much on as possible.

Experimenting with colouring, trying to segment the title from the best panels displayed, also choosing my favourite panels to display on the front. Boxing the title, makes the area surrounding less busy and also tying in with the theme of storyboarding, having it resemble a panel. I also did the same for the texts at the bottom right, adding my signature to make it feel more authentic.

Adding a worn filter to make it feel more worn and physical.

This is the final rendition of my poster. The segments are clear and I feel the red serves to really pop when separating the two. I also really like the top segment and the crow decorations with the ravens Hugin and Muginn, It serves to keep the book cover from looking bland and includes some of the artwork already depicted. It clearly shows the theme while also coming across as a formal book instead of a fiction book, with the display of the storyboards and the small information box on the front. I will say, the signature only works in a scenario where this is a famous game and I am a famous artist, so it does play into hypotheticals, but I think it helps to make it look refined and professional. It makes it almost come across as real.

I chose this font for the title as I liked the older touch it gave to the image, I also made it bolder by copy and pasting and arranging it by the other one, giving it a thickness suitable for the title. For the descriptive text I still wanted a font that felt old and medieval, but I needed it to be clearer as the text would be smaller, so I needed it to be easier to read, so I settled on the preset AdornS Serif.

[fmp2oelanorlamb]

Storyboard covers

Looking at books that cover and present storyboards and how it's represented in covers. Most seem to not be as artistic and seem more formal. I may decide to make poster mimicking this to try and convey my work in a professional setting, as it helps to build upon my work being industry standard.

A lot of these covers are very minimalistic, often only showing panels, sometimes only one. The trend between them also seems to be the use of boxing, all covers are using boxed in techniques to display the artwork, the title for the middle one being boxed off from the panels in red.

[fmp2oelanorlamb]

POV shots

POV shots are camera shots that endeavour to show the view from a certain character, whether that's main characters side characters, or even background characters. It's usually used as a story telling tool to show what a character sees in significant moments, and first person is very popular in videogames. For example it can be used to show a character thinking of or spending time with their loved ones or using it to show a characters state (It's often used to show concussed or drunk characters to highlight their state with effects)

Iron man movies usually showed shots within his helmet, showing expressions under the mask

It's usually used to show the audience what the character sees, and one of the more popular uses of it is FPS videogames. A lot of game characters are made to be a vessel for the player, and first person games allow people to project themselves onto the character. First person POV has been used a lot in cutscenes, even in third person games, my favourite example is when Arthur Morgan is drunk in the mission "A quiet time"

I used POV shots in my storyboard, using it to show my character's injuries from his point of view as he holds up his hand, highlighting the stakes by having his hands tremble.

I showed the tremble in his hands with shaky squiggles, commonly used in comics to show shakiness, took a few tries to get it to look right.

I also did some birds eye view shots, a dynamic way to show the character's position on the ground, it also makes him look small. It also is a good tool for showing the environment and surroundings.

[fmp2oelanorlamb]

Flashbacks

Flashbacks are a very effective tool for conveying story and narrative, and can be used in a variety of ways, used to convey a character's thoughts and feelings from a present moment tied to their past, or to be used as a deep dive into a character to give context to their actions. Some movies are made entirely of flashbacks, such as Saving Private Ryan

In Saving Private Ryan, you know from the start that the movie is a flashback because of this opening scene, interestingly, it goes outside the realm of conventional flashbacks and instead is done from the POV of a doomed character that ended up saving the main character's life, which is the big impactful reveal at the end of the film. People were lured into a false sense of security thinking Tom Hanks wouldn't die, only to be crushed when his heroic last stand finally came. This is a great example of flashbacks being used outside the box to inflict emotions on the audience and is definitely something to consider, as I'm drafting a scene that's meant to be emotionally impactful.

Another Tom Hanks film, Forrest Gump also includes several flashbacks that's narrated over by Forrest himself, as if he's telling you his story, in this film it's used to make the audience feel informal with Forrest, as if he's talking to you as a friend and telling you about all he got up to. This is also an option for me to consider, as I could add narration into the storyboard and would lead to me having to make my storyboards feel more personal, perhaps having my character look at the "camera" and talk to the audience, although I feel it'd break the 4th wall and struggle to be taken seriously.

[fmp2oelanorlamb]

Pope Francis dies on easter Monday

Pope Francis is the 3rd pope out of 266 to die over easter weekend.

[fmp2oelanorlamb]

For my poster I initially had the idea of making it a proper illustration, perhaps a game box cover, but after realising I wouldn’t be able to display my storyboard work, I looked into storyboard collectables and books centred around the art, arriving at the compromise of making it a art book showing the art of a game, which is something that a lot of franchises sell for enthusiastic fans interested in the behind the scenes.

Sketching my character for the poster, working on the posing with the sword as well as the hands and gauntlets and how they rest. As well as drafting details along the cape and armour.

Working on lineart over the sketch, working on thinness and thickness depending on angle and perspective, as well as the material drawn, fur is drawn fluffier, leather more rigid.

Working on a potential poster layout as I move on from lineart, I've decided on a symmetrical iteration of Odin's messenger crows, Huginn and Muninn. I feel it's also the perfect way to bring in viking runes for their names.

I also brought in a flock of three cows, using an image I made for a storyboard panel as a placeholder, with plans to change and adjust the wings to make them unique.

Creating two crows (drawing one and copy pasting), with mirrored banner ribbons, with the name Huginn (green) and Muninn (blue).

Working on sword design and pattern, having to readjust the loops to make it fit centred on the hilt better.

Shifted the right arm and hand, making the hand on the sword bigger and bringing the arm down, just to make the posture and arm sit more naturally, and bring the hand forward due to perspective to give it the sense of being closer. I was playing with the shoulderpads a lot, I didn't get them to look quite right, was trialing having it as a harness that connected to the belt and it just ended up looking too loose. I still needed something otherwise the chest looked too empty. To fix it I redid the armour using a reference for viking leather armour. I feel the result is a much more believable and just nicer looking harness.

Starting on flats for the character, following the colours on my initial chracter sheet.

Finished flats for the character, some of the changes I made from the original design consist of the gauntlets, which are ridged and in silver, his hands are also gloved, whereas in the original design they were bracers. I also changed the bottom of the boots, having leather soles and foot area instead of having that also covered in fur.

Starting on lighting and shading the character, as well as trialing sword shine. For the shading I used the opacity brush, experimenting with depth while using it. Also working on the shine on the gauntlets, drawing worn patterns into the leather, and putting some highlights into his hair where it catches.

I didn't like the look of the cape, just used a simple gradient tool instead to give it that lighting up effect towards the ends.

Having the lineart as solid black is something I've always done, but here I'm trialling different colours for the lineart, this is a dark brown, it definitely makes it look softer.

This was the colour I used while experimenting with lineart.

sketching and using place holders for a different layout for the poster, taking a storyboard book approach.

[fmp2oelanorlamb]

All sketches for the panels, alongside the finished character for the fith panel (I worked on it ahead of time in an earlier post.) The goal is to show him slumped against the tree losing strength as he looks at the old relic from childhood, a crows totem. The shot of the crow on the branch is meant to be a time transition before it pans back to the dead character, a crow landing on his knee to scavenge his body. The last panel is then the corpse being picked apart by the very animal he carried with him spiritually.

Starting with the colouring, going quite dark for all the crows.

remaking and restructuring the last panel as a zoomout from the 5th panel, depicting more birds flying to him as the camera slowly zooms out. Felt more natural than just a side POV.

[fmp2oelanorlamb]

Crows and Ravens

Odin's signature animal is ravens, I plan on incorporating this into my project, and so I'll be studying some ravens and other birds in order to draw them better.

My sketch of the raven for the panel, followed by the finished panel. Folded wings proved to be harder to comprehend than I thought, the way they fold and the amount of feathers involved make it quite a complex thing to capture, because I'm storyboarding I just endeavoured to capture the right shape.

Two variations of crows in flight to use as a reference for crows in flight that I plan to use in the last panel to show crows flocking to the corpse.

I also decided to use it in my poster, as I felt it added a nice touch to the border.

[fmp2oelanorlamb]

Sustainability in film industry.

After looking into it, I've found that sustainability in the film and entertainment medium still has a lot of room for improvement. Props are often discarded and scrapped, shredded up into tiny pieces to avoid recognition while in development. With the increasing use of CGI in higher budget films, less and less features are being added to sets. After a movie's success however, props are repurposed and sold as collector's items. An example of this is the dwarf statue at New Zealand's airport from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

I also found a website that shows listings for props and replicas from all sorts of shows and movies, here's some of the pieces used from the viking TV show. Everything from tunics, dresses, to axe and sword replicas, as well as totems and artwork.

UK will also be getting a universal studio park soon, which will likely utilise film props and sets and repurpose stuff from films and shows.

Entertainment companies still have a huge issue with waste, especially in development phases. I spoke with someone who worked at a special effects company who has had to destroy prototypes completely and shred them until they're unrecognisable. The development phase in movies and outfits is some of the most unsustainable parts of a movie or show. Things that do make it on the big screen can be repurposed, but things that don't make the cut usually never see the light of day before they're chucked in the bin.

FBFX is one of the leading companies in the UK for special effects and props in films, contracted by a multitude of companies including DC and Disney. One of their workers who went to my college came by with some of his projects to show and explain the industry to the class. I think this is a great way of repurposing props and products, avoiding copyright laws that might get in the way if you tried to sell it! Instead, use it to teach the next generation of creatives.

Another thing to consider is the materials. Polymer Clay is used a lot for models, it's a very versatile clay but it's horrible for the environment due to it's content of PCV plastics and how it's not very bio degradable. I made a cat model using super sculpy later last year, a form of Polymer clay, It's durable and significantly reusable before baking. It's important to use it in moderation, and whenever experimenting, try to repurpose the clay.

[fmp2oelanorlamb]

Viking Swords

Looking at some modern recreations, intricate designs on both the blade and the hilt. Good for more fantasy based weaponry. I don't plan on having the sword being the main focus of the poster and so I'll likely pursue a more simpler design for the blade, but may touch up the hilt.

A bunch of viking swords, either as recreational or artefacts surviving the era, looking at both examples to get a good idea of viking swords and design. The sword will be at the centre of the poster most likely so it's important to put effort into the design.

I like the design of this sword hilt a lot, especially the patterns and curves of the knots