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Journal

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Life on Tor’vale

It started at the end of the last. From what I have uncovered of the world’s secrets, our present rose from the ashes of the forgotten world before. There were beings of old, with power beyond our mere mortal understandings, that each stood sentinel over each star to protect over our realm. Nobody knows why or how these beings came to be. Only that they are no longer. Our world was, is, the grave of the last stand. The end of the Beholders.

Each star was connected, like a bright spider’s web across the skies. But they each started to vanish, each guardian vanquished quicker than the last. The web started to collapse. To preserve what life that was left, they each collected: knowledge, power, treasures, creatures from the entire cosmos to create the world we know of today. They brought it all to one star. Ours. It was not, however, without consequences. Over the raging eons only 17 Beholders survived the onslaught. As a last resort, the ancients hid us away and used their very beings to do so. The two suns, three moons, two earths beneath our feet, and ten stars above us.  The scars of war that we look upon every eve. The graves of our protectors.

We can only be sure of what came after. Life flourished, babes were born, homes were built, wars were fought and the old passed. The cycle started once again. However, we all know what is lost can be found. As will we. When the skies fall, the suns and moons meet their apex and the ground torn asunder shall we be discovered. The end shall finish what it began.

The concept of a higher power is well known in our universe that it has woven itself so tightly into our society almost completely. It is human nature to make connections and explanations when no legitimate reason is identified. This is both in a literal and figurative sense. One of the most popular and well known theories is how life was created and ended. Whilst society were not as advanced and open minded, the citizens tend to place blame and responsibility onto others to establish a more complex hierarchy system. In past civilizations the amount of power one has is usually gained by either the gods or influence they have over others. Usually it is handed to the next generation by blood or taken from those that are seen as weaker. Another reason that a variety of pantheons were ‘created’ was to be seen as a comfort or punishment. Back to my original point, the best method to explain the relationship to followers of a pantheon and god/ goddess is that of a child and parent. When civilizations cannot understand something, they form a reason in the form of perfect beings that have power over the subject as an easy solution. The people would then idolize the gods like dutiful offspring that would try to live by their pantheons standards. Once the technology has become advanced enough that the people can look after themselves, they tend to leave behind their pantheon behind. However, this is not the case in more rural countries as they would need the stability for events that they could not control or predict. 

Whilst there are many pantheons and religions in our world alone, there are just as many in various types of media. The most prevalent are ones that showcase themselves in TV shows, video games and books. These particular types of media allow for more in depth lore as they run longer than in movies for example. However, no matter history is used there tends to be stereotypical types of gods that I used to create my own. 

For research purposes I focused on Greek and Norse mythology since they some of the well known pantheons without the risk of perhaps offending or misinterpreting current religions. In both pantheons there is one primary god that is a leader of sorts. Odin the all father and Zeus. Then there is other gods that would branch off and represent many different things. I found that the Greek mythology has the best foundation of sorting out what type of gods and goddesses should be like. 

Firstly, each god represents something that occurs much in a human life time. Also, what questions are mostly left unanswered. When we die where do we go, sometimes this is held by either one god or multiple if there is different places.

Gods & Goddesses:

1 sun

Siera the all mother of Tor’vale that was the original beholder and is known for light, forgiveness, peace and love

10 stars

Auremon the beast of creation that is forever loyal, shape changes to be a companion to people that have an important destiny.

Archeheart, people who give their lives and their very existence for others are given the magical ability only if they stay true and good at their heart.

3 moons

Chevran the neutral decider of fates, destinies

Lucious the warden of those who are unworthy. Truth, justice

Tulsorth the maester of knowledge and wisdom

2 earth

Ethalrir the elements. Curious, art, beauty, adventure, music

Shrangier the shepherd of the earth. Strength, growth, stability

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World Map

After creating the questionnaire on possible names for the continents and such for my world, I also asked my peers on their first impressions on each name that was the most popular. After collecting the results I collected each of the key words into a list and set about putting them together with others that could connect.

The inspiration for my creation of this particular piece is a combination of the results from the questionnaires, TV shows and movies as well as the history of our own universe. To be more specific, the process I used to help narrow down possible research links was the keywords questionnaire. Since everything, that is not recorded as factual, is fiction it leaves a too big of a area to fully research. By obtaining specific keywords I was able to research better relate able links to my work which also gave me some good ideas for further progress and developments. Once I gathered enough work to create a collection of words and phrases, I got the idea to first look at our own world for comparisons and some history ideas. 

Selavor was the first continent I created from taking inspiration from the conflicts between past disputes in our world. One of the main reasons for conflict is for the ownership of territory over people that are less advanced technologically and socially. For example, there was the Roman empire against the smaller countries and cities that had little influence that made them easily conquered. However, it mostly came to fact that the Roman empire had the better numbers, influence and discipline. This case is almost similar to our own British empire when we invaded the Caribbean in the 17th century and our primary task trading. After James the first came into power he passed a law that every piece of land that is conquered would belong to the empire and that particular person(s). That also tended to include the trading and slavery of coloured people. The most domineering and oppressive powers that were at large in the past always involved an ‘empire’ so much that in the present day, such a word is immediately recognized as evil in a way. Another key point is that they had the front of a militaristic solution to most political and other situations. By having such a aggressive front made the thought and/ or planning of a rebellion almost impossible in the eyes of the lesser classes. These scenarios tend to fascinate me since there has always been a sort of pecking order in all societies, when the lines between classes become blurred they find a new difference to set the lines again. In these cases it was those that were less advanced had become less than human in the eye of the empires. Basically, once a society has refined all aspects in their territory, they tend to move to gain more influence and/ or power. The time period that my work is set differentiates between each continent so it could vary certain aspects so it would interest a wider range of audience members. By comparing both empires for similarities and differences I was able to obtain a basic foundation for the continent of Selavor. After coming to the conclusion that the time period for this continent does not depend on its advancements, instead it would focus on the oppressive and military of its own weaker or ‘lesser’ citizens.

EMPIRE - an extensive group of states or countries ruled over by a single monarch, an oligarchy, or a sovereign state.

OPPRESSION - prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or exercise of authority.

HIERARCHY - a system in which members of an organization or society are ranked according to relative status or authority.

For this type of structure to work, there must be many variables to make sure that it could go on uninterrupted for a decent period of time without others getting involved. Also, the oppressors must have some sort of foothold  that allows them to keep hold of the power because past tyrants have always lost their power through rebelion whether through war like the Servile wars of Rome or the political replacement of democracy in British Empire. In conclusion, the Selavor continent must be solitary, have a lesser species or people to complete the slavery hierarchy and involve a foothold to have prevented a rebellion from taking place.

Having the Continent separated from others gives the oppressive government to have a strong grip on its citizens without the involvement of other parties that could interfere with the development of said authority. For the foothold, I go the idea of an oasis in an barren land from a collection of medias. For example, I have watched a variety of media to obtain a premise of sorts to start having a brainstorms on possible outcomes. For Selavor specifically, I looked movies and TV shows about: slavery, barren lands, empires and oppressive hierarchies. I primarily searched for medias that were either popular and/ or relevant so my ideas would resonate with my younger audience. By using shows and films, my work would have a twist to it that would separate it from real life events. My main points of inspiration for life on Selavor was Game of Thrones and Sahara desert. In Game of Thrones there is the continent called Essos that is mainly dominated by a harsher climate. The parts which interest me the most are the locations Dothraki Sea and Slaver’s Bay. After watching the show and coming to terms with how the culture work whilst analysing various

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Byte Me & Saul Bass

Saul Bass

For our final major project his was the first case study that the entire class would participate in. The artist that we were tasked to investigate was Saul Bass, one the most famous graphic designers in the 20th century whose work was often described as ‘timeless ’. He is most famously known for his work in the 1950’s with the design work involving silhouettes and minimalism. In this study I will be dissecting the effectivity of the artwork by the imagery he was trying to represent through imagery and visual language. After identifying the key methods we would experiment with our own work and compare them.

Task: 1

For our first objective we were tasked with dissecting three known pieces of Bass’s artwork to eventually compare and contrast them. The three pieces were ‘ Autonomy of Murder’, a Girls Scout logo and ‘Bunny is missing’. By the end session I came to the simple conclusion that Saul Bass’s work is aptly described as timeless because of its simplicity, it is open to many forms of interpretation. Thus no matter who views his work, everyone would take something different from it.

All of the pieces of work include the basic art design of using silhouettes, fore and background, shading and some typography. The missing poster uses these visuals to create a imaginative composition that fully represents the phrase ‘ less is more’. The imagery that is created is a sense of loss and/ or isolation which was possible with the use of a graphic method called ‘looking room’. The definition of said method is the amount of space between the subject and the edge of the screen’. The impression I obtained from this work is that the child has been taken from their family hence the shape of the image of the child is literally torn from the paper. Like the child has been torn from their family. I also get the feeling that there is some sort of time limit as the edge of one the hands is still connected to the border. The white represents the hope, positivity and family connection the child has whereas the black represents the negative representation of maybe the emotions of the people involved or what/ who ever taken the child in the first place. Having the black paper torn and taking up such a large amount of space gives me the visual idea of it showing that the emptiness the family feels like something was torn from them. Like a hole that could never be filled again. Also, the style of the writing and composition gives the impression of an missing person poster or article that would find in an newspaper.

The next graphic design is that of a logo instead of a poster and its main focus is visual shape whilst creating the effect

Visually the work is simplistic as Bass uses silhouettes to create compelling compositions with no features but no lack of hidden meaning. In the “Bunny is missing” poster, Bass experiments with the use of the “looking room”, which is  the “amount of space between the subject and the edge of the screen they are facing”. He does this by organically tearing a sheet of black paper into the shape of a child to represent that the child has been forcibly taken from where they belong, the black paper represents this, and the disappearance of said child has left a lasting impression that cannot be fixed just like you cannot fix torn paper without there still being a tear. Also with the use of monochrome colours and the arrangement of the composition, the poster resembles a lost and found poster that you would find in the newspaper.

What is the effect of the visual language?

The forms and shapes Bass chooses to use represents the subject visually. In the case of the Girls Scouts logo, Bass has chosen to use the colour forrest green, as this relates it back to nature which is an element the Girls Scouts are involved with. The silhouette of three girls are also used, at first glance you assume they are all the same, however due to their placement in the logo you can argue that they are all different which symbolises how they are open to all girls who are all treated the same way.

Does the work send an immediate message or are there subtle parts that take awhile to digest?

Although his posters are easy to interpret at first glance, you do miss hidden details and messages if you only looked for a second. In the poster for “Anatomy of a murder”, you see what we interpret as a body due to the title and the fact the body is lying horizontally. The background is red which is connected to the appearance of blood and the body has been cut into pieces to show that it is being taken apart to look at the anatomy of the limbs, head and torso. When I first looked at the poster I hadn’t noticed that the body was cut into sections or that Bass had organically cut out the body from black paper himself which conjures up theories that perhaps this is rather a study of a body rather than a murder scene.

Why do you think the work could be described as timeless?

Silhouettes are a very popular way of designing posters and logo’s as it doesn’t give away much information, is simple and visually easy to understanding leaves it up to the viewers interpretation. Because the shapes and structures Bass uses for these silhouettes are universal due to their lack of identity, this means that they aren’t related to and can be associated with any time period.

In Bass’ film title sequences, they are also done in a 2D format with silhouettes and the movement is in sync with the sequence music.

In the Atonomy of Murder movie sequence, the use of 2D stop motion moves around the organically and hand rendered limbs (which makes it appear more sinister) of the body in time with the music to create more definition and emphasis. It also cuts away sections of the body to create the illusion that something is dissecting the body and really inspecting it which gives the viewer an indication that the genre might be mystery.

The title sequence for the movie Psycho is much sharp and sleeker than Anatomy of a murder due to its use of geometric shapes to subtract and slash areas of the screen and the composition. Instead of creating a maddening and chaotic sequence, Bass has decided to present the title Psycho as a more intelligent and calculating being but the constant slicing of the screen indicates the sinister undertone and the slipping of ones sanity.

Bass takes a different approach to the title sequence, Seconds, with the use of real black and white, 4D imagery that is distorted until it slowly transforms into a recognisable feature. He plays around with the scale and structure of the imagery to create unnerving and hypnotic sequences that are abstract and looks similar to when you manipulate an image using liquify on Photoshop.

We then looked at other artists who were also inspired by Bass’ work and began to note the key elements in his work.

1. Simple and universal silhouettes

2. Use of block colours (slightly off bright) to use as a “looking window”

3. The relationship between text and image

4. Using organic shapes, often hand rendered, to create exaggerated forms

5. The use of positive and negative space

Experiments:

After we noted down the key elements for Bass’ work, we then applied them to our own to create a variety of different outcomes using both hand rendered and digital processes. I decided to use one of my tree panels from my comic as a base for these experiments as they’re silhouettes and could easily be transformed into Bass’ work.

Space Invaders

Tomohiro Nishikado (西角 友宏 Nishikado Tomohiro, born March 31, 1944 in Osaka) is a Japanese video game developer. He is best known as the creator of the shooter game Space Invaders, released to the public in 1978 by the Taito Corporation of Japan, often credited as the first shoot 'em up[1] and for beginning the golden age of video arcade games.[2] Originally Nishikado wanted to use airplanes as enemies for Space Invaders, but would have encountered problems making them move smoothly due to the limited computing power at the time (the game was based on Intel's 8 bit 8080 microprocessor). Humans would have been easier to render, but management at Taito forbade the use of human targets. Prior to Space Invaders, he was also the designer for many of Taito's earlier hits, including the early team sport games Soccerand Davis Cup in 1973, the early scrolling racing video game Speed Race in 1974,[3] the early dual-stick on-footmulti-directional shooter[4] Gun Fight in 1975,[3] and the first-person combat flight simulator Interceptor[5] in 1975.[6]

Susan Kare

Susan Kare[1] (born February 5, 1954) is an artist and graphic designerwho created many of the interface elements and typefaces for the Apple Macintosh in the 1980s. She was also Creative Director (and one of the original employees) at NeXT, the company formed by Steve Jobs after he left Apple in 1985.[2] She has worked for Microsoft and IBM, and, more recently, Pinterest and Facebook.

According to Susan Kare, good icons should be more efficient like road signs rather than mere illustrations. They should be easily comprehended and keep the users from getting confused by extraneous details. She is of the view that out of million colors all the colors don’t need to be incorporated in the icons and that once a well-crafted and meaningful icon is designed it doesn’t need to be resigned frequently.

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Alternate World

An alternate world (also known as alternate universe or alternate reality) is the change of facts, settings and certain characterisations that explore the possibilities of different outcomes that result in a alternate present. The common representations of this are the genres fantasy and sci-fi in the media, however the more abbreviated term is fiction.

People create and view different types of medias, from books to films, with the aim of escaping from their own reality. Every person has reason for looking for this escape as well as how they view the medias. Narration is used as a foundation to build an understanding on how each world differentiates from other alternate realities.

With digital narration, the main process of introducing a new world is through the eyes of characters that would walk through it with you to gain a better understanding and interest. Where as with analogue media, such as books and comics, there is much more need of exploring the world with the characters as their reactions and choices will be more relatable.

Having the ability of choice is why people create alternate worlds and take part in the different point of views

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Abstract Aesthetics

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Simple Folk

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Saul Bass

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Springboard

Due to my combination of my ideas, it was difficult to plan on how to explain my thought process 

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Out Here In The Field

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Post Up

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Journey Evaluation

At the start of the project I felt quite confident in my abilities and ideas since I am quite fond of all sorts of narration. Also it would be easier to connect to my interest in character designing. However, the fact that there were to be additional miniature projects during the project unsettled me because we have never sone this before and I prefer to work on one subject at a time. The projects main aim was to explore narration and the relationship between the audience and the story. Just from the brief alone I learnt that storytelling is much a broader subject and yet more complex than I initially believed. After researching, for the miniature projects a well as my own personal one on the side, I discovered that each piece of work I completed could be developed and improved in various ways. Especially since for this project I could more easily include both analogue and digital processes.

I believe my work was successful as it continually developed and it didn’t look like it just suddenly stopped, like there was always something more to add which I wish I could have done. Whilst looking back at my artists that I researched for the miniature projects I think that they definitely gave me a foundation of sorts to work from but I believe that the mood boards I created were far more helpful as I struggle more to start the project than midway. Compared to artists completed pieces, my work definitely holds some characteristics of them but at the end they definitely seem more original. During previous projects I distanced myself from messy pieces of work, loose sketching and varied ideas but in this one I let myself just draw the first thing that popped into my head. For example the sketches for the iron man project. Whilst still sticking to the brief I constantly created new ideas/ sketches until I was comfortable with the result but I could still develop them digitally as well.

Throughout the project the audience have mainly been young children and teenagers so I found the initial process quite easy due to my age and the I could present it much more easily for hand in. I presented my work thoroughly in my sketchbook with various notes, sketches, images etc. A notebook held all information from the class and notes I taken whilst watching youtube, tv shows and films for research. However, my blog was less informative because I focused more attention on the sketchbook with more complex annotations. Mainly including my thoughts on the subject and the problems, improvements that could have been done. For reflection I involved who the audience was because if I was stuck on how to finalise my art work I would look at examples online or the mood board that relate to the audience. This assignment gave me the chance to develop my sketching and researching skills but I wished we had more time as I believe I could have added a story to my character or my doll. Especially, since we didn’t get enough time to fully develop the narrations.

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Journey Character

original idea

Once I got the brief i immediately started out researching my game design based ideas by basing it around creating my own character with its own bio and page. Almost similar to a character creation screen or the dungeons and dragon handbook. However, once I started I realised that my topic was still far too broad so to help have a more specific subject I created a character bio. It is basically small pieces of info that make up a character without any specifics on looks. I believed this would help because I can then research specific characters as a reference and/ or inspiration with better results. Based from youtube videos I watched about how to create a character with its own arc/ story I made the bio.

NAME: Count Kaitros Greymaw

AGE: 32

HEIGHT: “6″ ‘3′

HAIR: Raven Black

EYES: Gold

FIGURE: Broad shoulders, tapered waist, muscular, defined

RACE: Shalen

BIRTH: City Ecaisa, Country Itrouis

FAMILY: 

Father :Duke Percival Greymaw - alive

Step-Mother: Duchess Maria Greymaw - alive

Mother: Rachel (unknown) - deceased

Half-Sister: Lady Mira Greymaw - alive

OCCUPATION: Business Owner

PERSONALITY: Reserved, cold, self controlled

By filling the titles in with a few twists here a there I can come up with details to how this man would've, what he could look like and what he could want. For some research I watched and recorded a few characters that have taken my interest for further study and to influence what my character could be like. For attitude I looked at Adam Jensen from the popular game Deus Ex and Kaiden Alenko from Mass Effect because of his personality and how he is treated by others because of his half robot state and alien mutation. This helped see how reserved my charger would be because Kaitros is not fully human and is already an outsider because he is an illegitimate son of duke. 

For ranking and his potential world view I watched Pride and Prejudice, North and south, the musketeers and Van Helsing. 

Since I chose for a fantasy, historical type of world/ genre I came to the conclusion that the race he should be may be from a half demon or minion from a unpopular/ dark god. From various fantasy games they always have various gods and goddesses and to have Kaitros be the product of one of their minions/ followers etc would add to his exotic looks and personality. 

After researching and experimenting with looks, names, characteristics this is what I came to. 

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Scrappers Design

After completing some research and a mood board I discovered that the best option for my character design would be the doll. This is because my design involves a lot of weight on top which could fold over itself if the bottom half weren’t fixed together. However, I would not make my design into a puppet because to make the animation more smooth, the space between frames must be accurate. The puppet would swing far too much and the aesthetic fits better with stiff limbs. Due to the larger weight on the top half I decided to add a cane for a back up just in case something goes wrong during the workshop and flatter and larger feet. 

I am not completely competent with wood work and since with the doll design it requires complete accuracy with weight distribution and the same measurements on the legs. I did encounter some problems during the building process that involved sticking some parts incorrectly or the wrong way round. Such as the right arm won’t completely connect with body and the bottom part of the torso was stuck in the wrong direction. Also, the hat didn’t stay on the head correctly since the surface area was too small. Perhaps it would have been better if I made the hat spin using the same method for the arms, head, and torso. 

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Scrappers Brief

To continue the discussion of narration using moving imagery and in this case was to create either a doll or a puppet to use as a character. The aim of this brief was to explore the relationship with the marionette and the audience. For this task I wanted to have my character to have a comedic effect as well as a recognisable attire or style. In this case I decided that my audience should be no older than 18 years old otherwise the comedic effect would lose its value. 

When designing my doll it must involve certain characteristics that would add to its personality because the animation would not involve speech of any sort. So the characters must completely rely on their looks for the audience to ascertain their personality. 

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Iron Man Book Cover

As apart of the Iron Man project we were tasked to make a presentation on our progress so far. Whilst making the presentation I repeated the same set up that I used for the previous presentation. 

A title slide for a brief introduction on the initial thoughts on the brief. I spoke about how the initial thought process may have been quite restricted due to the specific book and audience. On the other hand, I thought that this could also help to be more specific, considering we only had two weeks to complete the work. 

The second slide is to show my first step into the project like a mind map or, in this case, a selection of quotes that helped me decide on the type of work I should start completing. After saying that I chose the relationship to focus on between Hogarth and Iron Man I shown some quotes they each said and explained how similar their thought processes were. During the presentation I thought I explained my thoughts and reasons well with only a few stutters.

Thirdly, a mood board on all the various styles of robots in the media that relate to 7-11 year olds. Through this slide I made an error in explaining my reasons for choosing to stick to a more simple design. In the presentation I made the reason of more detailed robots are present in the current media such as Optimus Prime and how recognisable he is. What I meant to say was that no matter how detail was put into design, Prime is still recognisable from simple sound of his voice or the red and blue flames. Also, I tended to stutter and not speak out loud.

Next was the representation of the printing workshop. Luckily, I recovered from my blunder on the previous slide and simply explained how I used this workshop as a foundation for future sketches and designs for the robot. However, I did not explain the problems I encountered during the process which I thick was a good thing because I was already well over the timeframe. I did not know this at the time. 

Lastly, was the final piece and a general evaluation of it. For my piece I basically adapted to the fact that the head I chose for the front cover did not seem to fit onto the front properly. Also, one of the main plot points of the story is the scale of everything in it. So to counter act this problem I created a simple outline of a young boy to represent Hogarth. Whilst trying to fit both pieces onto the front cover I thought it would be interesting to have the boy to put his his arm onto the spine of the book to look like he was looking or following something. Since there was nothing to add to the back I made a foot print because it was a major plot device as well. By having the head of the Iron Man looking down on the boy adds to the scale but having both of their eyes white represents their inner innocence because i thought they were both similar from the quotes I picked out. I also made the background blue because the first time we were introduced to the Iron Man is when he comes from the ocean. 

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Iron Man - Print

For our first Iron Man workshop we were tasked to create robots from ink and geometric tools for printing. Since I have never used the wooden blocks as a pressing tool before, I decided to use the asset sheet as a experiment as well.  In the end I found that the more ink that was flattened made the inked shapes more splotchy but could be used as shading or a secondary tone. But the more often the roller was used the ink escaped to the edges and made the ink look messy. In the end I decided not to use the roller for ink and just used the ink straight form the bottle. This way the shapes came out a lot more of a block colour and with the shape I wanted. However, because the blocs have been used with ink on various sides, my fingers got ink on them which were then transferred to the paper with smudges and fingerprints on some of them. 

After creating a few prints of the Iron Man I found that the use of the geometric block gave me the chance to explore the structure of an robot. The pieces were quite varied to each other and I used them as reference to future sketches like as a foundation for detail to be added later.