A warm summer evening and the Shawshank Redemption

A moment this week....

A warm summer evening courtyard and the sound of a soprano accompanied by a church organ, drifted and echoed around the buildings...

Reminded me of the iconic scene in the Shawshank Redemption and the sounds of Sull'aria Marriage of Figaro wafting over the speakers in the prison grounds...

Freedom.

Suicide Squad - critical review

Packed cinema this week; to watch Suicide Squad.
Synopsis as found on http://www.suicidesquad.com/  'A DC comics Anti Superhero film'

"It feels good to be bad… Assemble a team of the world’s most dangerous, incarcerated Super Villains, provide them with the most powerful arsenal at the government’s disposal, and send them off on a mission to defeat an enigmatic, insuperable entity."

I was intrigued from the highly colourful and kitch trailer as to what the emotional theme of this film may be...I thought it would be a funky comic style presentation of superhero characters...

So when the first twenty minutes packed a pretty impressive punch, in tempo and editing and the lighting and characterisation was similar in style to  'Clockwork Orange' and I thought this was about to develop into a fast paced dark twisted version of 'X-Men'.

Nope.

After a great start in Act I, with excellent editing and action packed squad assembly, the storyline became rapidly flimsy...the 'mission' was actually caused by the government, so a own goal.. I didn't see where the 'event' was in Act 1 and couldn't really detect any significant change in the protagonists...in fact,I was confused as to who the actual protagonists were, the antagonist (ally opponent) Amanda Waller didn't really amount to much and the remaining obstacles/antagonists (mainly soldiers made from what looked like lumpy cavier glass) were monontonous and repetitive, Other than 'El Diablo' who had flame thrower hands, I wouldn't say that deranged obsessions, good marksmanship, sword fighting, swimming underwater and good occasional use of a boomerang, qualify as superhero or anti-superhero outstanding characteristics...

Scene setting - using 'cheat' film set techniques in Maya - for Elena Lam's project Ragnarok

I've been creating the lighting and scene set up for Elena Lam and her project 'Ragnarok'...

I used the same technique as I used in a working film studio, when creating a desert scene (images below). For the desert scene I hand painted a Cyclorama (scenic backdrop) of a sky, then used scenic flats laid on their sides, with sculpted polystyrene 'dunes' applied to the top edge...positioned strategically away from the camera these dunes the illusion of depth. We used a fan heater under the camera to create heat waves!

I applied the same principle to Elena's Ragnarok Maya scene (excluding the heater!)
The mountains are 2D png files created by Elena and I applied them in the Hypershade to image planes - and then rotated into position accordingly...
I've used a selection of point, ambient, direction and spot lights and have linked the character lights in the relationship editor...
Highlights top left and then sunlight spilling onto the character....and a few accent lights on the foreground...

Final image of Elena's Ragnarok - frame 399
This animation sequence has a static camera; so the scenery is dressed to shot. The model space clearly shows how bizzare this looks when not viewed through the camera...

Camera view

Perspective view

Full size set for desert - Camera view- 'Shaman' National Film and Television School 1993

 Perspective (gantry!) view

Collage for concept and storyboard images for an Animatic

Playing around with collage as a medium for concept/storyboard images for my animatic....

London 2012 Olympics - Previs 'One Night in 2012'; Critical Review

So in the run up to Rio, I watched 'One Night in 2012' documentary http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07l24qp/imagine-summer-2016-1-one-night-in-2012-an-imagine-special. Great to see that Danny Boyle mentioned the use of a Previs as a tool to reassure collaborators, funders, artists etc

Previs shots below of what I believe was an outstanding design for the London 2012 Olympics....I remember at the time being absolutely delighted to see that a highly experienced, professional and edgy creative had been granted permission to 'design' it.....
No trace of local authority red tape and dumming down of design in sight...
And it was evident through the props and effects, not to mention the thousands of linked LED lights that the budget was generously spent on how it actually delivered as a spectacular event....no skimping at all.

Setting aside all the scale of the effects and spectacle, I would argue that the outstanding element of the entire show  was the theme that celebrated our worldwide creative contribution and our uniqueness; coupled with the confidence and ability to execute it. I was proud not only of the choice of director, but that the powers that be, had the humility and courage to stand back and let those with creative expertise deliver this event.

At a time of great recession this was a showcase of our national achievements as a whole; and particularly celebrating the role that the arts play....not only in the microcosm of the 2012 design and concept, but as a worldwide ongoing contribution.

I was proud to be British when I could see our history play out so visually.

In fact, we stood up in our sitting room at the end in honour of the achievement of all involved...including our national ancestry.

Photoshop concept images/storyboard shots for CGI opening sequence

Creating concept images/storyboard shots to show the CGI opening sequence for my Masters animation project...

Quick still life - graphite stick and oil pastels

Graphite stick and oil pastel sketches...inspired by the sketch books of Leon Morrocco