Right. Let's update this thing.

First, I'll show you two videos;

Tim Minchin's 'Pope Song':
[bad language]


Not only do I love Tim Minchin's music and agree with the lyrics, but the actual video itself really caught my eye. The cut-out style is simplistic but effective. I like the use of shaky camera and the flickering film. I've noticed lately how much better things can look with a non-static camera, even to a subtle degree. I'm not sure why it looks nicer, but perhaps it's to do with it seeming more natural as if we are there, as our eyes and heads almost never stay perfectly still. I found this out first hand making that Dead Space animation, it looked quite bland with a static camera, but add some jiggle and BAM! Panic!
The video was made by a man named Fraser Davidson, who, after looking through his other work, has had quite some experience with motion graphics.
I'm still humming that tune in my head.

Dead Space 2 Trailer:


Multiple reasons for this one being here.
Firstly, I'm still excited about winning that competition and that I will actually be in that game.
Secondly, I really like that inkblot/rorschach effect. They've used this before in two promotional images [here] and [here]
They've chosen this because in this sequel, the protagonist Isaac isn't in the best state of mental health after witnessing the massacre on the ship, Ishimura.
In these inkblots, silhouettes of creatures from the first game are seen.

-being the horrendous geek I am, I translated the last bit on unitology writing in the trailer, just after the man talks. It says "reborn as one 614". Hmm, perhaps that's when Dead Space will be coming out? 14th of June next year? Hmm.-

Enough geeking it up, how's all this work stuff going...

just to get this out of the way, the arrowtongue is actually, believe it or not, nearly completely unwrapped. Once this texture is sorted out, it will be ready to rig and animate. with all of the current projects, however, I can't imagine this will be completed in a while.


Right. WHAT?:
We've gotten character designs and a basic storyboard done, although it's going to need a bit of cutting down before we get animating.
We have 2 characters modeled, the policeman and the 'forensics guy'

He still has some textures to sort out, which is in the capable hands of Olly
We've got Hugh working at the environments, which should turn out well.

Word games:
Last week I used something I made up in free periods in upper school. I call it (very imaginatively) the 'three word game'.
You simply get 3 people to give you a word each, one a verb, one an adjective and one a verb. You the draw what comes into your head. The good thing about it is that you aren't in control of the muse, which lets you go to ideas you wouldn't normally go to.



Animal Firm:
In all honesty, I haven't really thought about this one much. I think the WHAT project is taking up most of my brain.
But I haven't got nothing to dictate.
I did have one idea, which as distant from the brief as it is, could be worked into a more fitting situation;
So there are a bunch of octopuses [yes, not octopi] that are posing as a band of clerics and bishops. Claiming as a divine line to an afterlife. The poor victims of this deceit are a colony of crabs. However, when a crab is 'divinely' chosen by the bishops, they believe they are saved. Instead, they simply become the octopuses next meal.
I guess think of it as Shark's tale meets the island.
I'm still trying to think of a way to make it more gangster-like, though.
I chose octopuses because they are intelligent, they are manipulative (a play on their dextrous tentacles) and they can turn bright colours and intricate patterns using their chromatophores, amazing to any lowly, dirty crab scurrying in between the rocks.
As for making a world to fit in with the setting, I really like the idea of organic, living buildings. Perhaps the main cathedral is a giant sea sponge, decorated with bio-luminescent jellyfish and anemones , with the doors 'made' of living crabs, and perhaps this could apply to other furniture.
I like the idea, and I do want to do something underwater, but I'll scrap this idea if I really can't make it work. maybe I'll go watch snatch a few more times; get some ideas.



What do you see?