Contextual and Theoretical Studies Level 5 Week 11:Image Analysis

Doom 3: A first person shooter, set in the future based from the overall look, looking clean and something which wouldn't seem to be of a time in history or present and consisting of a horror theme based on the blood in the center of the room and dark lit room which is deserted.

From the image we can tell that this is an in game image from the layout of information around the screen telling of health and ammo and because of the components within the image are of 3D models which seem unrealistic to be a photographed image.

You can tell from the camera angle being of first person perspective that it is suited for a game is this form of perspective is consistent within shooting games and the image seems to be suitable for teenagers plus due to the form of violence with blood and weapon being shown and along with the extra information needing to be tracked and watched would seem incomprehensible for a lower aged gamer.

Curios Case of Benjamin Button: This next image is from the successful film in which Benjamin Button is born in reverse physical perception in which he is born looking like an elderly person but as he gradually grows with age he becomes more and more younger and healthier.

From the image we see that as elderly looking Benjamin Button looking in the mirror as he begins to realise that he is gaining strength as he flexes his muscles and from earlier on in the film Benjamin Button is in a wheelchair but from this image you see that his health is improving from him being able to stand -up and look in the mirror.

The tone within this scene is pretty steady composing of a light lit mood to engage the viewers of how he is still the Benjamin Button from before but he is beginning to improve with each day gaining the much needed light and using the over the shoulder shot you are able to view that it is indeed Benjamin Button posing and allow you to be fascinated along with the character as realisation of improvement begins to show.

From this image you can see that visual effects had played a part, you see how the face looks similar to Brad Pitts but aged and this is a process used regularly within films as it was used for Tron Legacy enabling Jeff Bridges to look much younger and from the seriousness of the film i would say its more of a adult directed movie simply because it focus's on an elderly person becoming younger a transition which the older audience might feel subjected towards as it is a subject in which they favour happening to them to become young and enriched with energy.

Nosferatu: The image is taken from the 1922 German Film Nosferatu with similar time setting as Benjamin button this film mainly is an impact of the Horror genre and this is clear from the the dark, shadowy figure with misshapen fingers and body you sense that because of this it is much towards horror as facial features which are different become scary. Also shown with the setting as you can clearly see that this figure is heading upstairs and towards someone within a room and because of the dark mood of the material which is of an old tapestry you sense that this is a old film and allows the realm of uncertainty of realism through the photograph.

From the camera angle being perfectly placed to view the figure and most of his body shape and the direction and location he heading towards all in one view and this allows viewers to know what to expect next and with the effect of an old tapestry you see how with the angled shot it allows the capture of one movement as you would see in a tapestry and this is why the audience is clearly adult as its a horror movie one which would not be suitable for younger kids and this dark setting allows the viewers to become engrossed in the film.

James Bond: Taken from the widely successful Bond series of films, this iconic scene is played with James Bond films and becomes synonymous with the mention of James Bond, because of its unique scene which en captures the whole jist of the film as James Bond is a secret agent who will kill.

The images meaning is that James Bond the main character, is a secret agent who kills and is known as a smooth and on target character and from the down a barrel view the viewer is shown what to watch, with the scale being focused in towards the center you are lead to the focus of the scene and the shape makes the viewer seem as if they are within the barrel of a gun and because of the colour you don't really lose focus on your directional view and only focus on whats going on until the screen fills with red from the bullet shot and because of that you would believe that this film is for a teenage and above audience as it is a film about a double life agent who carries out killing and relationships throughout all his trials and tribulations.

Contextual and Theoretical Studies Level 5 Week 11:Notes from Theoretical text

X-Men and Philosophy Notes

The lure of the normal:Who wouldn't want to be a mutant? Patrick D. Hopkins

•       From the 3rd Live Action X-Men movie-cure found-who would want cure?-who would want to be normal?

•       Fans see reason in cure for Rogue-other fans see it as a rejection of something special and glorious

•       Rogue wants to be normal so she can fit in and be able to do normal things such as touch

•       Being ordinary or Being Unique-Why wouldn't anyone want to be a mutant?

•       'Normal'-an indication of how something should be-e.g not getting angry at the simplest of things would be seen as normal, getting angry at the simplest of things would be seen as not normal

•       Something being 'normal' has to be the measurement for how things should be?-Just how things are which make them 'normal'

•       'Normal' would be to fall into the standard traits-Abnormal' can be seen from being talented

•       Human beings normality would be that we want to fit in the suitable range of people not to stand out e.g goths with goths and emos with emos-We also want to attract the attention of others so that we are distinguished and noticable from the ranges of emos and goths-We want to be normal enough to show mates that theres nothing wrong with us but enough normality to allow us to attract attention and give us an advantage over competitors

•       X-Men are mostly normal although they class themselves as mutants-see themselves as normal as the look human whilst there powers are not visible unless shown-certain mutants aren't seen as normal because of their mutation being physically shown through skin and objects shown on their body

•       So these mutants would want to be cured and be normal in the sense that they would seen as normal and human and won't be distinguished to the extent they were with the mutation and be outcasted and seen as a threat

•       Michel Focault (1926-1984)-history of the abnormal beginning with concept of 'monster'-a mixture of the unnatural and impossible-as something seen different from the majority of what you see that are similas is seen as abnormal

•       Mutants like Wolverine, Jean Grey and Storm are seen as normal as their mutations isn't visible through sight, touch or smell-Where as mutants like Mystique, Beast and Nightcrawler have their mutation visble through sight, touch and smell and would be seen as abnormal

•       The same probem with Rogue as she is unable to touch as she would sap the life out of the person she touches-because of that she has to maintain her distance and beware-makes her become abnormal as she isn't acting in the way to what is perceived as normal-which is why she would want to become normal

•       The perceived notion of normal is that which constitutes the natural behaviour or traits of someone so humans are seen as normal because it has been accustomed to the society of humans-when mutants show up abnormality begins to ascend-but if the majority of the population could fly then it would be seen as a normal form of behaviour

•       Morlocks are a prime example of abnormal because of their mutation and have to hide in the sewers as they feel they are not seen as normal because of their defects

•       Although we as humans would want to some of the powers of the Morlocks some would choose to look like them-we function with the evolutionary sense of what is attractive and what is ugly and would find the Morlocks ugly-no matter what powers you would have of the Morlocks the knowledge that you would be despised by normal humans and perhaps even normal looking mutants as they would see themselves as prettier than you

•       The fixation of wanting to be an X-Man is to be different-way which makes them stand out-in terms of beauty, power and normality-wanting abnormailty trait to the level where they wouldn't have anything inhibited socially or physically-People want to stand out on conventional terms

•       Fantasy and science fiction provide an escape of the normal-allow us to imagine riches of life by having enhanced special abilities and extraordinary experiences-wondering what we could do if we weren't so restricted or limited/ordinary-creators, would have felt they did not fit in society so made this world where characters who did not fit were magnificent and enviable

•       Excitement in being abnormal with new abilities-Comfort in being normal without worries of being judged-but whole point of these worlds is for comfort to escape into

Amnesia, Personal Identity, and The Many Lives of Wolverine Jason Southworth

•       Personal Identity-what makes a person a person-praise and blame of person on their actions which constitutes to their personal identity of praise and blame of the act that the person has committed-the visuals are not the personal identity but the mind of the body

•       within the superhero world we have an identity of this hero such as Wolverine-who had many identities due to the amounts of memories that were erased a new identity was created-a hero has an identity of being almighty, almost god like, superior over everyon else due to the advantage you possess

X-Istential X-Men:Jews,Supermen, and The Literature of Struggle Jesse Kavaldo

•       "Each storyline becomes a new attempt to rewrite human history through the lens of a superheroscience fiction, where the world can be saved..."

•       Picking one X-Man through their constant traumas over the years they feel unaffected of the act after a while-unscathed as if they have healing powers for the traumas-but can we?

•       Sigmeund Freud (1856-1939)-if supermans is a wish then the X-Men are the flipside of the wish:fear-superhero's appeal are their powers that each individual has to distinguish one another-unlike superman the powers also represent the possibiliy of what could happen if it came true

•       Mr. Incredible "No matter how many times you save the world,it always manages to get back in jeopardy again."

•       Camus' Myth of Sisyphus-Sisyphus is condemned to roll the boulder up the hill everyday for the rest of his life and before it reaches the top it rolls back down the mountain hill and althought Sisyphus knows this will happen for the rest of his existence he doesn't rest for the next day as he does his chores and contains some aspect of being normal

Layla Miller Knows Stuff: How a Butterfly can Shoulder the World George A. Dunn

•       "Hi, I'm Layla Miller. I know stuff."

•       Layla Miller can anticipate the future-Not through means that are usually associated with future gazing-but in a Butterfly Effect form-where she can predict what will happen by the events that lead upto the specific moment of that future

•       Edward Lorenz (1917-2008)-Flapping of a butterflys wings cause a slight change in the atmosphere and therby setting off a chain reaction

•       Due to Layla knowing the future-weight of the world is on her shoulders-using her powers came with a responsibility and instead of using it for her gain she sacrficed herself so that the weight of the world lifted

When you know your just a comic book character:Deadpool Joseph J. Darowski

•       Deadpool knows he's a character in comic book

•       PostModernism-Breaking the fourth wall

•       Deadpools awareness that he is a comic book character is generally used to deliver the punch line of a gag

•       Wise cracking pop-culture refrencing attitude

Professor X Wants You Christopher Robichaud

•       Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)-...it's heart is the idea that a person's well-being consist in her maximising her pleasures and minimizing her pains.

High-Tech Mythology In X-Men George Teschner

•       Creating and beleiving in mythical heroes and heroic deeds are ways that human consciousness conceptualizes major forces and conflicts

Contextual and Theoretical Studies Level 5 Week 11:Short Film or Opening Review

We were asked to write a review of a film or the opening of a films title sequence and i have chosen to do Frank Miller's Sin City and from the intro title sequence we see that the whole visual  have been taken from Frank miller's comic book creation and that setting allows a smooth transition from comic book to film as the black and white noir visuals set a straight forward perspective and make sure the viewer keeps focus on the areas in which they will need to pay attention to. As you see in the opening the text is following the black and white setting of the comic book and allows the viewer to expect the similar style to flow throughout the film and when we see a form of colour appear over the overall contrast of colour it shows what the film will be exploiting to get a better feel to the scenes and that was done with the red appearing over the lettering of Sin City which empathizes how the film will be graphical at the scenes to be able to show the viewers that the character has been shot or killed.

As we get into the names of characters and their respective actors and actresses that are playing them we see how the images are taken from the comic book to show the characters which allows the viewers who are familiar with the comic book become aware of which character is being played by whom and allow them to understand the movie allot more and when we see the character images with the name across the image in red it allows the sequence to show off the artwork as well as allow a quick and clear way for the viewers to read the name as there isn't much of a colour reduction for the viewers to clearly read the text. When you see the text it seems that the film has taken a lot from the initial comic book as the font is used to a comic book standard and how the font is corroded, bold and gritty giving the whole perception of what to expect from the film based on the font a much more heavy hitting in you face with the more visual scenes by using the black and white contrast and amplifying the scenes with colour to get the scene much more across to the audience who wouldn't be able to tell from the contrast of black and white to tell if the character has been injured or not.

Overall the title sequence was great in using concepts of the comic book to transition into the film for comic book fans of the series and taking those allows those unfamiliar with the series or style become aware of a film which stands out from the rest by not relying on the visuals when it come to the colour and how bright certain areas show parts of the scene well enough for the viewer to notice. The title sequence also shows the artwork through the intro of the characters and actors playing them showing how the concept of noir was taken from the comic book and staying true to it makes the film a much more of success as it isn't a different view on the series but a much more live perspective of it.

Contextual and Theoretical Studies Level 5 Week 11:Annotated Text

We looked at the concept of 'Cinema as a door' and it allows the viewers to go through a simple act of trasnport into a fictional world to acknowledge it as a part of reality and we see that through different forms of passages as there is the common narrative of when a character whom is part of the storyline is narrating throughout the story to give the viewers another perspective. Narration ca introduce the viewers into the plot of the story from as early as the start of the film as such films have an early narration to give a back story to certain characters and allow them to an understanding of why things are happening.

Another form is music which again is in parallel usage as narration as music allows the setting of the mood to be played throughout the film and in films such as a horro film the type of music commonly used would be the dark and eerie, heart building feel which makes you begin to get the mood that something is going to happen whcih will cause you to be frightened and those types of music are used to introduce scenes which will cause a ramification in the storyline, whether it be a murder, kidnapping or a criminal act, music helps to empathise the scene to be more than a visual effect.

'Cinema As A Door' is a form of transition allowing the viewers to enter a world which they need a quick and effective back story or build up to the films story and allows the viewer to engross themselves into the film and acknowledge reality when retaining the awareness of transitioning into the film through means of narration or sound which helps to get into the mood of the filma and know what is going on.

Game Art Design and Animation Week 8:Redoing UV Texturing Basic Design

When redoing my UV mapping i could use some of the already textured image to UV map certain areas of my model onto such as using parts of the head to UV map onto the air container taht would go over the mouth SAving time on having to redo alot of work when there is texture that i can still work with.

Again i used parts of the texture image that was already available to benefit from and adding it onto the model using areas of UV maps and placing them onto the model.

Once i couldn't use any of the texture available because they weren't the right shape or proportion i had to take a UV snapshot and go back into Adobe Photoshop to repaint texture that would be used.

Here is the texture that will now be used for my basic model and adding the air containers and wires onto the texture will allow minimum anomalies  once i do start to move the model and from what you can see i didn't have much to place on the already complete texture.

Once i had my UV texture completed i placed it upon my model and had to go back into the texture editor to modify some UV maps to not show unwanted colour or lining up shading.

This image show my model with the UV texture placed and positioned in the correct places of the model and the outcome makes the model look much simpler and easier to animate because of the onde node used.

Game Art Design and Animation Week 8:The Root of the Problem

As i had stated in my previous blog that the weight painting process was an issue mainly the fact that there had been influence from the root weight.

Once i had tried to remove the weight from the root of the model it would begin to collapse in on itself and so left me with a huge problem in getting to the next stage in my process.

After going back and forth with my weight painting problem i was told that the root of the problem was the extra nodes i had combined with my model and this was true because a wanted the air containers and wires to be apart of the model which was a separate model to the character. I had used different polygons for these and then combined the overall model together and now i have learned that because of that when i do move my model these separate nodes althought combined together will still move separately.

 So what i had to do next was to go back to the previous state of my model without any additional polygons and work from there by creating the essence of the air containers and wires on the texture.

 From that i would have to redo my UV mappign as it needed to work with the model in its current state and then paint the textures back on.

Having to redo my UV mapping i had simply matched up the UVs to the texture as it was reviously and then i will be adding the air containers and wires in after.



Game Art Design and Animation Week 8:Battle Pose Test

Now after i had completed the rigging, weight painting and set driven keys i thought i would test my work so far and after seeing an image of Chris's model in a battle pose i thought that would be a good test to try and so i had my battle pose already done in the form of my concept art and tried to model but once i had gotten all that done i found a huge problem and that was with the weight painting of the root which once i had tried to remove the weight the model had started to collapse so i will now be searching for a solution again for this constant problem.

Contextual and Theoretical Studies Level 5 Week 10:Essay Ideas/Brainstorm

Here is my brainstorm of ideas for my essay i know i will be focussing on Superheroes as i have recently been getting into the comic book world alot more where the birthplace of the superhero was conjured up and thought this would be a great opportunity to learn alot more through the psychology of a superhero and because i have been fascinate with the concept of a superhero since i saw them on televsion.

Game Art Design and Animation Week 7:Set Driven Keys

My next step in the whole rigging process was to add set driven keys to the hand and feet to allow them to have individual movent from the arm or leg and that would be to make a fist or tap your toes. This process was complicated with all the little procedures needed by adding attributes and parenting certain functions but after the process was completed there were again a few anomalies that woul need to be weight painted but they were only minor setbacks to how the arms weight painting was but all in all the set driven keys are fully functioning and ready to begin animating.

Game Art Design and Animation Week 7:UV Texture Problem Solved

 After receiving a reply from Matt i was told that my problem with UV textures was that i had too many UV sets which messed up the visual standing and so i tried his solution and like he knew it worked but once i had seen the texture that i had painted on the model i didn't like it and went back and redid the whole texture.

 Whilst redoing my UV texture and now knowing the solution to the problem i was able to work on the texture whilst constantly viewing it on the model which helped in the process and placing muscles and shading.

Here is my UV texture after finally completing it and found this worked really well once upon my model and the shading and muscles were positioned in places that i had wanted but because the shape of this character is human does not mean he is as i wanted something mysterious under the suit.

Here is the final views of the texture on my model and like i had mentioned it worked best redoing the texture as it allowed me to view it on the model whilst creating it.

Game Art Design and Animation Week 7:Weight Painting-Colour Ramp

 After looking for a solution for this problem through different types of medias i went through the various options in the weight painting and found an option that lowed a much more insight of weights through different colours and immediately found influences and removed them and found that this had helped and once moving the arm there was no influence.

 So i carried on the process throughout the whole of te body after seeing the success from the arms weight painting through the colour ramp.

 But after going much closer into the model after moving certain parts i still found influnce and had to go back into weight painting and still found influnce so i had tried to remove this weight but as soon as i do that portion of the model had collapsed in.

After trying to look for a solution for this problem again, i did find something which could help and it was that if i change my aximum influence there might be a difference and so when trying that idea it had worked and after cleaning up the areas there were no influences when moving that body part.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 13 Music Video:Final Editting Process

Effects test with target distortion

 During todays editing we were able to complete a rough version of our film and started to finalise a few shots and tweak a few frames to line up to the music but after doing the overall production of the music video we were able  to locate the effects in final cut to which we had forgotten we had and so began to have a few test and apply to the footage.

A lot of our flow of production whilst editing was stopped and started due to the process of rendering our videos each time we had made a slight adjustment and the amount of footage that was placed above other footage's on the timeline hadn't helped the rendering process.

So after having multiple work flow pauses to wait for rendering to be done we asked Matt the AV Suite Technician why this was happening and after he had checked the settings and found the information about the Mac he told us that the Mac hat we had been using had 2GB of Ram which was why it was taking longer and that the Macs should have about 16GB of Ram to do video editing and the highest GB of Ram he had available on his Macs was 8GB of Ram and so we had to move all of our footage and files to the 8GB of Ram Mac to render quicker.

Although the Mac that we had moved to was an 8GB of Ram Mac it was rendering our footage a Little quicker but still had taken longer than expected.

 Although the effects that were available worked for most of the footage we had, we created our own effect such as adding multiple Robbies (Gorilla Suited Actor) to go along with the beats of the music as the wax monster forms up.

The effect was so good we had the multiple Robbies appear after each row of the beats of the music and used the footage of Robbie dancing which was just excess footage that wasn't planned which was seen as a right piece of footage for this shot.

 We had found that there was a piece of footage that was so absurd to match up the action of our actor that we decided to have him seem as if he's surfing along on top of it as it slides across the screen.

Doing this bit of film was similar to animating in Maya, as we had to do key frames for the scale and center point of our actors actions and making him animate along with the wax monster movements.

Here is another one of the effects which we had found fitted this particular bit of footage as it is the scene where the actor comes out of the world of monsters to  the real world and by using the pond ripple effect we were able to create an outcome or a connection between the two, with the person getting from one to the other.

Here is a image or snapshot of the background image we will be using for the background of the before and after entering the monster world footage. The reason we chose this was because the background was basic and not too complicated allowing a continuity to not be a factor in terms of animating it to go along with pans and zooming in.

Contextual and Theoretical Studies Level 5 Week 9:Writing and Being

All writing is a form of story-telling, story telling about ourselves and our positives and negatives, most of the time it is through verbal communication with friends or families but overall in our mind we always talk to our self for assurance or confirmation and even ideas. From our inner voice we known as our own narrative and create our own stories for understanding of ourselves to act in certain ways, which over time becomes a character of its own and when we know e aren't that character we are able to change our opinions to return back to the character that has been created.

Michael Gazzaniga's view is that of an interpreter within us which creates a unique feeling to make onesself unique and this is through the interpreter having separate knowledge on our lives and our inner voice from our previous character become a history to seep into our current understanding and damage to the area of the interpreter can result in narratives created by people who have an unfixed perception of reality.

Ouriner voice is an important assewt to our being as it is an understanding and interpretation of our outer actions and reactions and known as 'narrative self'' allows us to think out reactions or language preceeding the actual verbal usage, for example if you are learning a new language and you begin to pronounce the word with your inner voice to get the word correct.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 13 Music Video:Continous Editting

When creating the initial idea for this music video we hadn't put too much detail into specific parts of the film we wanted and so during editing we had joint ideas and one which was to have a close up of the wax monsters as when they get close during the melting process create some weird visuals, the effects which would go well with our video.

This wax monster particularly had a egg type face which set it out from the other wax monster allowing us to have a close up of its face creating a weird close up along with the music.



Initial idea for this was to test if having more than one Gorilla Suited Actor in the shot at once and as you can see from this image we can use this as an advantage allowing a mirrored effect making the video more peculiar and random than it already is.

On of the main aspects of the wax monsters was that the monster took minutes to melt and so we had to manipulate the speed of the footage to how fast or slow we wanted it and even reversed to have many of the monsters seem like they are forming up.

A effect that is so simple can come across as what certain pieces of footage may need and that was the case for this bit of footage as it the footage seemed inappropriate and maybe disgusting we thought we would have it short and upside down to make it weird and unexpected, overall watching it with the other effects the video works together.

 Here is an image of a text for having the Gorilla Suited Actor be surfing on one of the wax monsters and as we stopped the footage it seemed like the little gorilla is on the big gorillas back which made it funny to see and perhaps be used later on.

Adding more than one piece of footage that is the same makes a great addition to the look and overall presentation of the music video we are trying to achieve, comedic and this is shown with the same footage zooming into the bigger version of the footage as it zooms out.

Game Art Design and Animation Week 6:Weight Painting

 So i started weight painting and found some of the problems and knew that this is the solution to sort it out and as you can see i used the standard black and white process to add or subtract weight to the movements as there is influence when moving the leg on the right side of the model.

Once i removed the weight from the model i began to see anomalies in the form of out of place vertices and so had to go back and merge those vertices back up and return back to weight painting.

 You can now see that once i merged the vertices back up there were no faults when moving the leg and so could carry on the weight painting process to the upper body.












But when it came to weight painting the arm this was the most annoying of all the weight painting as rotated the arm to a position where i could see the weight painting would benefit.

As soon as i went into weight painting i could see this as being a straight forward process of removeing weight where not needed and just cleaning up.

 Then when i went back into moving the models arm i found there were still more influence and had to go back and search for this problem.

 Going through each of the individual areas of movement cleaned up until there were no influences from that region.

 But again there were still influences and decided to go back into modelling and see if there were any vertices out of place or even two vertices which i missed that were in the same place.

Going through the model inside and out to get the vertices merged around the areas of which were separated such as the leg to the torsso and tried to go back into the movement of the body parts and still found influence.