strangeworldsproject-seth

[strangeworldsproject-seth]

Blade Runner

[ TRAILER - IMDB - ROTTENTOMATOES ]

Blade runner is a cult classic film that many people love and I can see why. Its tone is very dreary and dull, but at the same time it’s very oddly mystical. The start of the film is very echo-y, and very long, there was a noticeable amount of opening credits that was odd, but most of the movie is very drawn our anyway. Visually the movie was very very pretty, it had really nice colours and a very nice setting, and it looked like a world I would want to explore. The whole atmosphere is really interesting too, along with the concept of robotic people, it makes the air feel both magical and tense. But the line delivery of most of the characters is pretty dull, I understand they’re supposed to be very casual, but it felt flat when mixed with how long the scenes are.

Story-wise it was very confusing, I kept getting lost, the strange howling confused me and the sound mixing had the ambiance too loud so some of the monologues I could hardly hear. And the love between the protagonist and Sean Youngs’ character was very awkward and I didn’t get it- they had no chemistry as characters it felt forced, but so do most couples in sci fi movies. And apparently Harrison Ford has big angry issues with his character supposedly being a replicant which is funny.

38/100

[strangeworldsproject-seth]

EVALUATION

I’ve enjoyed the designing aspect of this term, I liked designing the models we made, the masks, and the ideas for the sculptures. I also liked creating them, having things I design be made into a reality is really fun! I also liked the story boarding and editing aspect of the film shoot- the filming itself was fun but it was confusing to allocate time and a bit frantic.

I thought I did a pretty good job with making models and sculptures, I prefer sculpting with clay than I do plaster.

I like the designing aspect because I like designing characters a lot, I’m pretty good at getting lots of ideas down quickly, and then refining them in a bit more detail. I feel I can get a lot of work done in that aspect. I also do enjoy sculpting a lot- I like modelling my characters into life, I’m not as good as I’d like to be, I’ll detail a sculpture then accidently smudge it over by gripping too hard or I won’t have a proper wire skeleton so it flops after I bake it. 

I think I was pretty good at the story boarding and editing of the movie trailer, I liked how the final edit came together and I got lots of storyboards down. I suppose I could’ve tidied it up and made it neater, but I think it looks fine with very rough, quick notes.

I follow quite a few storyboard artists online, a personal favourite of mine is Louie Zong, he boards for Cartoon Network- but his boards are very quickly doodled but they still portray what the scene needs very well! He also does animatics on YouTube/Tumblr and I like his style a lot!

I do really like the wooden robot that I made, as well as the dragon part of the mini sculpture, although I feel that if it was larger I could’ve done better (easier to detail). I’m not super fond of digital stuff, I’m not bad at drawing digitally and I do really like editing videos, but I just have more fun and get more into doing traditional art.

I feel I need to learn how to use digital art programs better- all I would use to draw digitally at home would be paint and a mouse. I can use the basic tools for video editing in Premiere pretty well, and I CAN use Photoshop- but I feel like I only know the basics, which, for what I would like to do on there, (draw, short animations) I think is okay!

[strangeworldsproject-seth]

Film Trailer: Specimen 87

Finished film trailer!

Pros: I really like the music choices and how well I managed to sync each clip with the music- I think those bits came out really well! I see it a lot in horror trailers where they’ll sync fast clips with loud beats and whilst it’s cheesy it’s very fun to edit. I like how most of the clips were shot as well as the lighting placements in each one (especially the short clips in the shed & my garden at night) I also really like how I managed to edit the music so it jumped from the start of the song to the end- it’s not super abrupt and I’m very pleased with that.

Cons (& how to improve): I should’ve checked the footage at the start before night fell as one of the shots was very blurry and I didn’t notice until editing. I think the one clip of me walking away in the beginning of the trailer went on for just a bit too long- I could’ve taken a few more shots to fix this. I also could’ve raised the volume of any speaking parts as they were pretty quiet and hard to hear.

[strangeworldsproject-seth]

Movie logo and final compilations

Logo: The movie logo I chose was going to be the word ‘specimen’ being drawn through the 87 like a pen, as the idea of the films is to do with lads and testing in a way. But in the end I managed to get it so the word would fade in with the numbers and a black line would go through it so you could read it properly. It’s very simple but I sort of like it that way.

Audio: The second half of the trailer consists of lots of short fast takes and photos- this time I used the song ‘Run!’, again by myuuji. I used the first 12 seconds of the song- and jumped to around 2:10 in the song and played til the end. This part of the song had hard beats that I timed with showing pictures and short clips of more ‘action-y’ shots for suspense building. Then on the last beat i showed the title of the film. I also recorded some ‘monster sounds’ at home with audacity by just making weird groaning/growling sounds and playing around with the speed and the pitch. I think they sound good!

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Compiling Footage:

All the footage in these screenshots were shot with proper photography cameras, however I muted most of the audio as the voices can’t be heard over the music (and due to distance.) The only clip with audio is near the end of the first section (so, the middle) right before the audio stops. I also placed the two gifs of my pretend movie companies at the beginning, which last about 3 seconds long.

Audio: The music I used here was a piece by piano composer myuuji called The Mystery, which I used about 50 seconds of until i cut it out in sections (to imitate a video glitch) and placed some white noise in its place (that I had to lower the volume of- as it was ear splitting.)

[strangeworldsproject-seth]

Film trailer, props & logos

Logos: I made some made up movie companies based off joke names from a series I like to watch- the design wasn’t based on anything in particular, and they both simply fade in and out- so they’re only on screen for a short while. Props: I wrote and drew out a few fake info sheets on the in-movie characters as well as some made up documentation about them, i took some pictures of these close up that I’ll use for some quick takes as well as a short shot of all of them sprawled on a table.

These were done very quickly and I simply filmed them on my phone in a classroom, they didn’t need to be high production.

[strangeworldsproject-seth]

My completed 2D cel animation.

Pros: It’s smoother than I was expecting it to be and I’m very glad about that! I’m glad that the speed the characters were going at seemed natural and I like how the squash and stretching looked good in the end.

Cons (& how to improve): The lighting noticeably changes, I think this is because people walking around were casting shadows- simple fix, just make sure no one’s obstructing the light source. Also, Joey (the smaller character) could’ve used a shadow to show that he was floating, although it looks pretty good without one.

[strangeworldsproject-seth]

Film trailer, techniques and finalizing boards.

Trying out perspective with grids, while a bit time consuming, it it does seem helpful! Although I didn’t end up using it in the final boards.

Another take on the opening scene I had envisioned, this was changed again, but it keeps the same idea.

Final boards, I still had a lot to shoot, and I managed to get all the shots I need, but most of the shots I hadn’t boarded already were fast-paced running shots. The first row is the final idea for the beginning shot, with the smaller ones taking place during the silent part of the trailer (no music.)

[strangeworldsproject-seth]

Robot 2D animation: The animation process

I drew the background first, I did attempt it a few times as the angle I was going for was sort of hard to get right, but with a few attempts I managed to get it right. Though I was suggested to go around it again and darken out the lines as they were quite light and might disappear in the photos.  I cut a slit against the right wall in the background so I could poke through a single frame of one of the characters so I would have less to draw.  The pile of rubbish in the foreground is on its own layer to give depth, and so I can easily slide out the cat from under it.

The smaller robot (Joey) took 38 frames in total, I made the frames by holding the acetate over the background and drawing on with sharpie where they would go, then cutting it out and painting tippex on the back to make it so he’s not transparent. I did the same with the bigger character (Kangaroo) who took less frames, 27 to be exact. I would draw down the key frames, points where their bodies would be noticeably bigger or points where they change direction, and draw the inbetweens to get them from point A to B (relatively) smoothly.

[strangeworldsproject-seth]

Robot concepts and Storyboards

1st Image: Concepts I had a few ideas for, characters I did draw down the wooden robot I made in the bottom right but I wanted to make some simpler designed characters to animate with. I jotted down ideas for a dog like robot, (based on Boston Dynamic’s robot dog) but I settled on some simpler designs. 

2nd Image: Turnarounds The two characters I ended up with are Kangaroo and Joey, names chosen as the smaller one will charge inside of the larger on at the front, like a pouch. I quite like their designs together as they compliment each other well, Joey being an eye, small and fast. And Kangaroo being mostly mouth, large, slow, powerful. 

3rd, 4th & 5th: Storyboards These are the boards for my animation, the I’m going to have both characters move during the animation, but they will enter at different times, a cat is supposed to jump out at them and scare them at the end, however I think I’ll just draw one frame and move it around to save time, as it’s not really the main focus.

[strangeworldsproject-seth]

Film trailer initial Storyboards & ideas.

This first page is mainly testing out boarding, some basic prompts I then drew down however I thought would look good in a film trailer or animation or something.

The Next page is full or random ideas and concepts I came up with, along with some movie genres and titles I enjoy. I ended up deciding to combine a few ideas (seen in the top right) and quickly drew down some scenes I liked the idea of.

This page is primarily just the idea I had for the opening scene of the trailer, it was going to be the longest scene and the most linear one story telling wise so I wanted to get at least a basic idea of how I wanted this scene to go.

This page is also filled with some shots I like the thought of, the drawings are very quickly drawn but I can understand them and I enjoy being able to jot down notes on the side without having to make it all look neat. I can go back and understand what I meant by what I wrote and drew a lot more when things are worded and drawn like this.

[strangeworldsproject-seth]

Adding green screen gifs over an image

I got a photo of my dragon miniature that I liked and found some green screen footage of trees on youtube, which I chose as the mini is set on a primarily green island. 

I put both of these files into after effects, with the video over the top of the image, and cut the video down to an appropriate length. 

Going into ‘Keying’ to remove the neon green of the green screen footage, and adjusted the grain balance so the actual leaves would show up okay.

It still seems pretty obviously green screened, there’s a very thin pink outline around the leaves, but its okay.

[strangeworldsproject-seth]

Adding 3d into video:

I filmed a short clip of me walking down the hallway and turning a corner, my plan was to have a model visible as I turned the corner.

I opened the clip I filmed on my phone into after effects, and opened cinema 4d separately- this is where I would ‘create’ my model. This model is referred to as ‘null object’.

I chose the humanoid model because I wanted to animate it, but I never got around to that, nor would I really know how to, so it’s just in a t-pose.

I used a stack of printer paper as the marker for where to place my 3d object into, but hindsight it was a little bit very large. The fact that it’s untextured and in t-pose is sort of funny though. 

I tried to place the model so it was standing on the floor and facing towards the camera, I think it worked okay but again, it’s a bit goofy looking.

[strangeworldsproject-seth]

Robot Project (Part 3)

I painted the main body of my robot with a dark grey acrylic paint. 

To paint on the screen, I taped a square shape around the body so I could accurately paint it on. I painted it with a light grey and flicked some darker grey to simulate static.

I tried to use the tape to section off an area for the blue box, but some paint got under the tape by mistake, so it ended up being a little off.

I wrote ‘offline’ in white pen as using a paintbrush is too intricate for me.

I painted the head a solid green, waited for it to dry and painted two small white ovals for eyes, trying to keep them the same distance apart.

I painted the wires a few different colours to mimic actual wires you'd see inside something like a tv set or a computer. 

I then painted on a few smaller details, like a few dos to indicate nails, and the lines by his eyes. And the colour of his hand. 

Overall I think it turned out well! I like how it was pretty accurate to the concept design, I just wish i could’ve made the head thinner and more curved.

[Part 1] [Part 2]

[strangeworldsproject-seth]

Robot Project Part 2

I created the legs and the knee joints using the same method as the arms, although I knew this time that it wasn’t going to be movable, so I did it mainly for design purposes. 

I hot glued on the arm and the legs, centering them on the block.

I wasn’t fully sure what I wanted for the feet, so i just made some vaguely foot/shoe shaped blocks and hot glued them onto the bottom of the feet.

The model needed a little bit of propping up for it to stand properly, so I placed a small blob of hot glue under the left heel, and it stood up fine!

I finished sanding the head as much as I could, the underside being rather hard to sand as I had to resort to hand sanding that area, there was no way id be getting that onto the belt sander properly.

I stuck on the head piece as well, and chiseled a small hold in the side where the wires would go.

I filled the hole with hot glue and stuck in the bits of wire at random, until I had the base body down!

[Part 1] [Part 3]

[strangeworldsproject-seth]

Cabin in the Woods

[ TRAILER - IMDB - ROTTENTOMATOES ]

Cabin in the woods had managed to place itself as one of my favourite horror movies of all time, I love almost everything about it! Which is pretty good for a horror, as they’re almost too easy to muck up. I love the weirdly casual opening of the film, very industrial, professional warehouse looking place, very OUT of place for what the film had advertised itself to be. The characters talking vaguely about stuff we, the audience, don’t know anything about (yet). And the use of a jump scare as the title I thought was really good- I just wish that that had been the ONLY jump scare, it would’ve had a way better pay off then.

I only noticed it the fourth time watching it but the books the main character reads at the start (“Soviet Economic structures” & “Aftermath of the…”) are foreshadowing to the guys who tamper with them in the cabin, very subtle, but now that I’ve noticed it, it’s quite clever!   The start of the film is very cliché, so are the characters (initially), but for what the movie is- I think it’s absolutely worth it. The characters are all okay- it isn’t until a bit in when I properly started to care about these characters, around when the girl is getting beaten up did I start to feel bad for her- and when the stoner was revealed to be alive I was very pleased! Then I was fully rooting for them the entire rest of the movie. All the actors in this film were incredibly good I think, they all portrayed their characters very well, especially since they’re over the top stereotypes. The stoner character is my personal favourite, the way he’s written is very funny to me, and the whole film does what most horror movies fail to do- which is: be funny on purpose. Most horror films are funny because they’re so bad- but this one writes itself to be funny and it works.  

In terms of shots, I think the shots are okay, the set design is honestly fantastic, I love the contrast between the actual woods, and the lab area is amazing to watch unfold.

The one liners in the film get a bit cheesy after a while, like the film is being a clever parody, so when it tries to be edgy and sound cool it’s just too much. It’s very good for what it is so if it tries too much more it’ll just roam to ridiculous territory like most horror.

The elevator scene is very good I think, I love the designs for all the monsters, the CGI really is quite good! I love how the giant bat monster looks and how absolutely over the top it is when all the elevator doors open to let all the monsters out, it’s too much but in a good way. The only thing I’d say isn’t great is the fact that the elevators are very conveniently timed, and Segorni plot convince- I mean weaver at the end was kind of unnecessary too. The whole “ancients” thing is also kind of…odd. Like it makes for a very, very good morality check at the end, deciding to die for or with the earth, but it’s also a bit odd to have that placed in with the already fantastic commentary beforehand.

The commentary being, the lab people are the movie makers, the cliché teens are the actors in a movie, and the ancients are us, the audience, wanting the same murders over and over. With a list of different monsters. I just wish that this movies ‘audience’ characters was some form of dark web, dot onion red room server that sick rich people watch, and not actual real gods.

Total Score: 92/100

[strangeworldsproject-seth]

The Thing (2011)

[ TRAILER - IMDB - ROTTENTOMATOES ]

The Thing gets compared a lot to its original counterpart, mainly to do with the effects, many people say the original was ‘more believable’ but I don’t think it is? Like yes the CGI in this one is very obviously CGI but it looks cool? And the first movie was not ‘believable’ at all, it’s extremely obvious that it’s a badly sculpted wax head being dragged across the floor on a string. Anyway. This movie immediately jumps in with unnecessary sound effects, loud jumps of music when an areas is revealed completely takes away any value of the actual reveal shot. Having said that, the actual area the film takes place in is very unique. The artic is a very bright place, very light and soft and open, an unusual area for a horror/mystery to take place in. Very bold.

It follows a lot of horror tropes that are very easy to spot, such as showing a dog within the first 20 minutes and having it die later, (although that does come back in the end in a rather clever way.) Or having all the characters laughing and having fun too early into the film, knowing that something terrible ill happen soon. Although those tropes are engaging ways to lead into anything you want.

The actual design of the monster itself is rather cool, I quite like it. The big mouth and short body aspect is very interesting, as is the contorted and disgusting body horror it grows when it mutates to human. The sounds that the monster makes are also very cool, I like how distorted and weird they are. And whilst the design of the giant alien space shuttle thing is pretty interesting, it is very over the top and unneeded. The fact it came from space is just too cliché and ridiculous, finding a frozen monster with no explanation would’ve been better and more interesting in my opinion.

The way the main character differs humans from the monster clones is interesting, in that it can’t replicate metal, but at the same time… it can make clothes? And you expect everyone to have fillings? Its logic is questionable to say the least. Speaking of the characters, they’re not very memorable, I didn’t much care for anyone, nor did I remember anyone’s names or roles.

Lastly, this movie reminds me of dead space in a way, the long, cold hallways, the almost human monstrosities that lurk around every corner, the fact that you can fight but it’s not always worth it is very reminiscent of that game.

Total Score: 74/100