Invasion of the BodySnatchers

Who would have thought it? A black and white I actually enjoyed!

There's no point going into the story here as we all know it. To be honest you get the idea from the name. But to sum it up:

Evil space pods come from... well, space, and take over our bodies by cloning and becoming us while we sleep. We humans are awesome so can we blame them?

But why humans? There pods, not a sentient being so why not consume all the... lets say cats. Or maybe because a farmer found it? Who knows. Plus why does a body need to be produced by the pod? At the end Becky was taken over by sleeping for a second so why is the duplicate body needed. Why did the clone of Jack wake up and where did it go? Jack was then taken over when he slept so what about the clone? Maybe he went to the Bahamas. Or is there two of everyone?

Above: Dead Jack is now enjoying himself in the Bahamas. Well the original dead one that came alive and then the alive one died.

But I'm nitpicking. I actually enjoyed it and if the 70s remake is on TV over Christmas I'll watch it probably.

But on an ending note: In the movie I thought Kevin McCarthy (Dr Miles Bennell) looked a lot like Keifer Sutherland in some scenes. Keifer's father is Donald Sutherland who plays the main character in the 70s remake. Weird...

Here he is:

(Why wasn't this scream in the original? Was this an adaptation of the main siren?)

Finished street scene

And here it is all done.

I really can't believe I created this image. I'm really proud of it. So lets texturize this thing.

For some reason or another the image above won't enlarge. It seems blogger decides when to do it. So for a clearer view visit here:

http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu264/bluejetdude/Streetfinal.jpg

The Museum Final 3

The Final of the three concept pieces.
The important part of this piece is that I wan't it to nearly exactly the same as the previous one. As it is literly the room next to the libary I figuered it would be nearly the same themes.

Step 1: Creating the clam fountain at the front of the scene was the starting point of this endeavor. The background was a clean yellow one as I wanted to see how lighting would affect it.

Step 2: Filling out the clam shell with white and adding in the curves of the shell.

Step 3: Big update this time. I wanted to make it look like the water is... water. I think the whole look works well. I also added a door in the same vain of the previous door. I also added a trophy above the door as described in the chapter. Because it was a fountain I needed a water shot and I think I actually did it really well.

Step 4: Added another trophy to the wall as well as one behind the water. I also added portraits and pedestals to emphasise the fact that its a museum/collection place. The pedestals are spread around unevenly because it was meant to be untidy as described.

Step 5: Simple update... to say. I added more detail to the scene to try and make it a collective scene.

Step 6: Another big change. I changed the colour of the background to match the previous scene. I also used lighting to create focus points over the portraits.

Final Piece:

And there you have it. The final of the three with changed lighting.

Honesty time: I haven't enjoyed this unit, but I am proud of the three pieces I have created. A few months ago I would never have thought I could create these.

Job Done.
Job Well Done for me.

The Libary Final 2

The second final Piece.
The production process:

Step 1: Creating the table was big part of the scene. I needed the table to be important because I wanted to show the clutter that gathered in the library as well as the contrast of space between the door and bookcases. I have a theme of clutter and emptiness.


Step 2: The beginning of the door. I wanted to give it a futuristic as well as an old fashioned style. The lines give a 'sci-fi' aesthetic to the door.

Step 3: Filling out the door with colour. Also started adding a door knob to keep it old looking. I think the light and dark maroon compliment each other.

Step 4: Adding clutter and mess to the table was a key part of the scene. I tried to give the scene a 'clean but messy' look. The books are stacked but paper is strewn about.

Step 5: Simple background for now. I wanted to create a warm but common environment inside the ship. The colour will change as it goes on.

Step 6: The background wall is darkened so the lighting would have more of an effect and the bookcases are brought in. In wanted to give the bookcases a look of curvature.

Step 7: Expanding the bookcase to the right. That's about it.

Step 8: Placing the book cases to the right and getting ready to change the colour on some of the books
Step 9: Filled out the spacing to create the scene described in the book. I added the seats underneath the bookcases and used colour dodge to add in lights.

Step 10: The near final scene. All that's needed now is some colour change to differentiate the books.

The Final Scene:

I added shadows and changed some book colours to red. I actually found inside scenes INCREDIBLY hard. I would have preferred to an outside scene again.

The Submarine Forest Final 1

So here goes.

The Submarine production first:

Yep. Just a background. I wanted to give it a deep dark murky feel so I could use light piercing the water to create some atmosphere.

I added the edge of the submarine Forest to the right of the scene. The reason that the forest only takes up part of the screen is because I wanted to contrast the open space of the sea and the large group of trees. I added a descent because in the chapter it explains that the characters move down to the forest.

I added more detail to the ground around the trees and added leaves. I read the chapter as a land forest deeply nestled under the water. So I tried to make the trees look earthly as well as being clearly underwater. I also added bubbles to add to the effect.

The near final scene. Not much is added except the detail of the sand and the depth of the turtles in the distance. I also added kelp into the background swaying in the distance to emphasise the location and the emptiness.

And now for the final Piece:

There it is. I added more detail to the sand as well as obviously the light beams penetrating the water above. I added a small man to show the scale as well as give a lighting point.

All in all, I'm proud of what I've produced. To be honest, I didn't enjoy this unit because its no where near my 'Forte'. But I did it and tried my best. I am happy with this piece specially.

Some quick thumbnails:

Heres some thumbnails about my three pieces of concept art. I took Phils advice and scanned instead of taking pictures of them. I don't want them to be blurry.

Forest:

Libary:

Museum:

House continued

Bit late posting it up but here is the is the house so far:

The Submarine Forest

I'll be honest: when I saw this unit I was dreading it. I'm not a concept artist or any good it but it's something I have to do so I have tried my best and created my first image of three:



The atmosphere has spread forward and faded out while I changed the lighting so it was visible but not overwhelming. The scale image is of a character resting (which happened in the chapter) adds... well, the scale. Fine details were added to make it look 'concepty'.

I have honestly tried my best to create an image and I know it's not as good as my classmates. But I tried right? But I have two more to do...

The submarine forest creation

This is my process of creating my submarine forest (We will get to that later)

1:

Using the guide I posted yesterday, I started to fill in the spaces. I wanted to make sure the path through the middle was the main focus of the scene. The meaning behind this is this chapter is all about an expedition therefore exploration. I wanted to give a sense of 'what's round that corner?'

2:

I focused on the foreground first so I could experiment with depth using colours. The bushes have a mixture of pink and green leaves so I tried to blend the two together but I didn't want it to be 'tonelly bland' (not that mistake again).

3:

More colour added to the scene with the bushes. This would be applied to the 'Mid' Layer to make manourvering easier.

4:

More filling and I've added detail to the foreground trees and ground. Still using the guide obvoiusly.

5:

Not much to say at this stage of the process. KEEP IT IN THE LINES CHILDREN!!!

6:

I filled out the colour some more and started to experiment with the background colour to make it feel underwatery. Not quite yet...

But I have removed the guide to try clearing it up.

7:

This is where it starts to take place. I continued to edit the background to give it a 'deep, murky' look. Atmosphere was added to the 'mid' layer by using colour dodge and an opacity change causing a mist effect. I also used colour dodge to create beams of light coming from the trees.

8:

More detail in the objects and I added a shark in the background to simbolise the underwater and the chapter does include a shark.

9:

A scale image has been added so I can get a sense of size. The details not finilized yet. Not till the final one...

House of tommorow!!! today, with UV

Happy housing:

Could anyone reming me how to render without the textures? I forgot.

The concept guide for tommorow

The above image is a guide that I created to use tommorow in the Concept art lessons. I have created it using just lines as you can tell. No tone, but I did try to add sense depth using different brush sizes. The Plan for tommorow is:

Add colour,

Add tone,

Depth (using colour)

Atmoshere between the layers

I think I might be able to pull this off. On a side note the tablet I have doesn't seem to support 'pen pressure' so I will need to get one from Uni.

Quick post quote

I was just watching the 'Dragon age Origins' Bonus Disc thats in the collecters edition and one quote made me think:

'The concept art for Origins is the make the team pumped to make it and work on it'

So theres the key:
I need to make people excited and to want it.

How to be Awesome

I need to change my current work on the 'forest' concept art but how is the key.
So heres some things I need to make sure I've done or going to do (with thanks to Simon Holland) :

DON'T be tonely bland: use light or dark tones to 'guide' people around the picture. DO NOT allow the tones and colours to blend together. I'm not trying to make an illistration

Use a focul point to center the work around and continue to build to the strenghs of focusing the persons perception.

Use light sources (I haven't added any yet) not only to add atmosphere and possibly depth but to add a guide for the viewer. I would rather the light to add atmosphere and to enhance the look of the art.

Use a horizon to set perspective. It helps to have a set distance. I can then build 'up' to it or 'down' from it.

Use some sense of Scale. I noticed on Rubens blog that Phil mentioned a use of scale. A human is a simple way of appling scale as we all know the average size of human.

In regard to my 'Submarine Forest) I want it to ooze atmosphere so I have to work on lighting. The issue I am having is the conflict between conventional concept art and the vision I have. I want the forest to be cluttered and full while I'm being told to open it to allow distance and a look at the horizen. I can do that but it then compromises the vision I have for my work.

Maybe Modern Warfare 2 can help me...

Essay pondering:

Time to start thinking about the forthcoming essay. I'm looking forward to this essay because it allows me to write about the narrative structure and the how the enviroment affects it in games. Plus with the feedback from Phil about my previous essay, I know what fields to change.

I might look at:

How the enviroment effects, or is affected, by the story in 'Uncharted 2: Among Thieves'.

The reason I am leaning towards this game (Except the fact its awesome) is that it has an extremely powerful story and the narrative pushes the game forward. There is no instance in the game where the enviroment is not neccesary. It all developes the characters and the plot itself.

Concept artists to look at:

Whether or not they relate to your concept art or book, you owe it to yourself to look these guys up:

Henrick Hansen
(Mini Ninjas)

Shinkiro AKA Toshiaki Mori
('CAPCOM vs' series)

Istvan Pely
(Fallout 3)

Ryozo Tsujimoyo
(Monster Hunter Series)

Tatsuya Yoshikawa
(Breath of Fire Series)

Aaron Garbut
(GTA series)

Edward Pun
(inFAMOUS)

Mike Haney
(inFAMOUS)

Victor Antonov
(The Orange Box)

Moby Francke
(The Orange Box)

Jay Epperson
(Henry Hatsworth In The Puzzling Adventure)

A look at concept art... Part 'the second'

Star Wars:

Iconic movies = WIN!!!

OK fine, I cheated. These images are from Lucasarts 'The Force Unleashed' and Biowares upcoming 'The Old Republic' but they all started at the films. I think the second image is a fantastic showing scale. The star destroyer justs hovers above the city and casts its shadow across it. A lick of atmosphere? Perhaps. Great work all inspired from the brain of one man.

Indiana Jones series:

Just a note: I LOVE INDIANA JONES...

but anyway:

Doesn't these images just ooze atmosphere? The depth really lends itself to the adventure and discovery of the series.

More to follow: