Adaptation A: Infographic (Repost)

Adaptation & Professional Practice Part B - Updated Crowley

I will be working to make the design more blocky to refer back to my inspirations from backwater gospel, Also Alterations to the lines around the body and face.

The model should be something similar to this, but keeping the backwater vibe running through

Interim Crit - Good Omens

Interim Crit

Good Omens - Aziraphale Orthographics

Good Omens - Crowley Orthographics

Adaptation & Professional Practice Part B - Aziraphale Designs

Good Omens : Drawing Aziraphale ( David Wenham)

Good Omens : Drawing Crowley ( Ian Somerholder)

Adaptation & Professional Practice Part B - Crowley Designs

Maya Dynamics - Surface Emission

Adaptation & Professional Practice Part B - Mudbox Face Layout

Maya Dynamics - Fireworks

Maya Dynamics - Drain

Maya Dynamics - Directional Emitter

Maya Dynamics - Omni Emitter

Maya Dynamics - Particle Grids

I have encountered problems with this tutorial, Following Alans instructions carefully but the rendering will not lighten the scene even with the correct layers visible. Also the actual particles won't budge and Ive redone the tutorial three times resetting all my settings to try to get a different response.

Ive saved my progress on this tutorial and will update this post when I return to it.

Film Review - The Triplets Of Belleville (2003)

Written and directed by Sylvain Chomet, The Triplets Of Belleville is an animation comedy released in 2003. The film is Chomets first feature film and was an international co-production among companies in France, The United Kingdom, Belgium and Canada. There is little dialogue to the production with the story telling done through the use of song and pantomime.

The animation is derived from french culture and follows the story of a boy named 'Champion' who dreams to win the Tour de France, the journey is wacky, grotesque and its plot is hidden beneath the exploits on screen by the absurd doings of the characters. The humour is quite dark in places and the animation looks to surprise at every turn, becoming quite surreal in places you would expect realism. With almost everything being exaggerated in some form, it keeps the animation fresh in the audiences mind and that being said keeps them glued to the screen.

I would recommend this film to those who enjoy watching humorous grotesque animations, a flair for the theatrical or into the wacky day to days of people who rival the personas of some cult classics such as 'Wacky Racers'.

Maya Dynamics - Sketching Particles

Good Omens - The Marvel Way

From the guide it shows you how the cubes and cylinders become one to form the complete form of the character. Subdividing these cubes and cylinders also indicate where certain additions will be added once more detail has been put onto the character. Using straight lines also outlines the perspective and direction the characters body is facing. 

A quick orthographic of Mr Fantastic also gives depth to the design and you can definitely tell from the shapes what parts of the body stick outwards and where the figure cuts in. The lines get darker to show where the figure cuts in on certain parts of the body.

The poses are quite dynamic and they experiment with the flexibility to the characters they are used upon. The drawing starts from the most simplest designs with thin shallow lines and then build up into structures and then the final design. 

Good Omens Art Style Re-think

I have looked at a number of different styles and I have tried working in them. The most of which was the adaptation of styles from Backwater Gospel and the TellTale game series. It was at this point that I drew the following image.

Alan and I discussed this outcome and decided it would be fruitful to look into drawing straight blockier character lines, more like a superhero comic series. So I was prompted to look at 'How to draw like Marvel'. It details everything someone would need incite to before creating the more well known poses and physiques we recognise from Marvel. 

Ill be making a blog post soon just following how I drew some of the tasks. I know full well the Good Omens novel doesn't have a link to superhero's but its the decisive straight bold lines that invoke me towards it. 

Adaptation & Professional Practice Part B - Casting Aziraphale and Crowley

Crowley

I looked through a wide variety of highly recognisable male actors to produce the spark I need to casting Crowley and placing his character. I wanted a charming smooth talking actor that can flip into becoming quite serious and if needed to be quite evil in nature. Here are the names for the actors from top left to bottom right

• Benedict Cumberbatch
• Zachary Quinto
• Keanu Reeves
• David Tennant
• Robert Downey Jnr
• Ian Sommerholder
• Johnny Depp
• Russell Crowe

Aziraphale

I wanted to direct the angel role to an actor who looks clean cut, formative and can be perceived as upper class from the way they speak. Aziraphale is also described to be an eccentric Librarian, a collector of items and because of this I have chosen specifically these characters. I feel that when I look at them they fit the role I personally wish to assign, also the characters they play in some films seems to fit the criteria for the role perfectly. I have chosen to look at;

• David Denham
• Harrison Ford
• Alex Pettyfer
• Martin Freeman
• Paul Bethany
• Jude Law
• Leonardio Di Caprio
• Joseph Gorden-Levitt

Adaptation & Professional Practice Part B - Initial Drawings

 

 

 

Adaptation & Professional Practice Part B - Possible Modelling Style

Looking into the art styles of Backwater Gospel in more depth I have taken to the styles well and look to incorporate the style into my own working. These are the planes from the character designs for the Tramp, separate planes that have image planes UV mapped to them and then simply curved round to sculpt the head.

 

 With the front plane there was a grid that displayed all of the tessellation and it seems like the modeling has been done upwards to fill out and form the face. Then it seems like plane is curved from the edges to form round the then would be face.

 Then they simply marry up the planes and from what I could derive from it is that the back of the head (hair plane) isn't warped round and is instead pushed up to make a flat back of the skull.

All of the head assets are very low poly with low tessellation, with most of the detail actually coming from the textures instead of the detail made from the model. The mouths are interchangeable and marry up to the facial expressions made by the character.

 

Backwater Gospel: Concept Designs

 

 

Telltale Games - Good Omens Inspiration

The Wolf Among Us

 The Wolf Among Us is set in the year 1986, decades before the events of the first issue of Fables. For years, many of the magical and mystical lands described in myth, legend, and folklore (known colloquially as "the homelands") have been occupied by an enigmatic tyrant known only as the Adversary. To escape the Adversary's marauding armies and totalitarian regime many creatures and characters known as "fables" fled to the mundane world and created an enclave known as Fabletown in colonial America, now located in modern-day Manhattan. To mask their presence from the native humans (referred to as "mundies") all non-human fables have to purchase an enchantment known as a "glamour" which allows them to appear human, or be relocated to a rural community known as "The Farm". 

The Walking Dead : The Game

 The game opens with Lee Everett on his way to prison after his conviction in Atlanta, Georgia. In route, the deputy sheriff's car in which he is travelling strikes a walker and careens off-road. The officer is killed in the crash, and Lee takes shelter in a nearby home, discovering a little girl named Clementine hiding in her tree house. After learning that her parents had previously left for Savannah, Lee offers to protect and care for Clementine, and help her find them.

Game Of Thrones : The Game

At the Red Wedding, the Stark bannerman Lord Gregor Forrester and his heir Rodrik are killed by the Freys. Lord Forrester's squire Gared is sent to the Wall to escape the revenge of the ascendant Boltons, and his daughter Mira, a lady-in-waiting for the King's bride Margaery Tyrell, looks for support for her family at the court in King's Landing. But the young heir to House Forrester, Ethan, is nonetheless killed by Ramsay Snow, bastard and enforcer of the new Warden of the North, Roose Bolton, in order to gain control of the Forresters' valuable Ironwood reserves. Lady Forrester sends her brother, Malcolm, to search Essos for her son Asher.

Blackwater Gospel - Good Omens Inspiration

As long as anyone can remember, the coming of The Undertaker has meant the coming of death. Until one day the grim promise fails and tension builds as the God fearing townsfolk of Backwater wait for someone to die. 

Bo Mathorne - Director
Arthur Gil Larsen - Animation Lead
Mads Simonsen - Technical director
Thomas Grønlund - Animator
Rie Nymand - Animator
Esben Sloth - Art Director
Martin Holm-Grevy - Environment lead
Tue Toft Sørensen - Animator

Music composed and performed by:
Sons of Perdition

Adaptation & Professional Practice Part B - 70/80's Tv Attire

I have combed through everything I could to find out what year that the book 'Good Omens' takes place, it only states what places the book takes us to. So taking this into consideration I thought using the date the book was originally published might be the best point of entry to designing my characters. The book was published May 1st 1990, but I have chosen to look at some British Television police drama examples for inspiration. I am looking to put the characters in a 85-90's environment, I think the following are good examples to designs their costumes into.  

The Sweeney

British police TV series which revolutionized the genre on UK television in the mid-1970s starring John Thaw as a hard-edged detective in the Flying Squad of London's Metropolitan Police.

Life On Mars

After being involved in a car accident in 2006, DCI Sam Tyler (Simm) wakes up to find himself in 1973, the era of 'Sweeney' type policing, Mark III Cortinas, and flared trousers.

The Professionals

This series chronicled the lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism

Adaptation & Professional Practice Part B - Dogma Research

Dogma (1999) Is a comedy, adventure, fantasy written and directed by Kevin Smith. It stars an selection of well known actors/actresses; Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Chris Rock, Alan Rickman, Linda Florentino and Salma Hayek. An abortion clinic worker with a special heritage is called upon to save the existence of humanity from being negated by two renegade angels trying to exploit a loop-hole and reenter heaven. 

The whole comedy factor in the tale is the fact that the antagonists are supposed to be quite angelic in both approach and appearance, but they are far from perfect. Swearing runs amok throughout the film to lighten the 'heavy' tone of religion and keep it as a spoof and something not to be taken seriously. The film even begins with a disclaimer stating not to take it to heart and enjoy the film, every film in a way can upset audiences in some way or another. But doing this, it feels like Kevin Smith could cover his ass while he makes a mockery of the catholic faith. 

The characters I look to highlight are Azrael, Bartleby and Loki, some of the films religious deities. Now Bartleby and Loki are the angels who have been sent to earth after a fall out with the big man upstairs, while Azrael is the demon creating havoc and looking to fuel armageddon. Bartleby and Loki are presented as 'a couple of guys' looking to get home. In a way we feel sorry for them and wish they succeed on their pilgrimage, then we find out that because of some stupid thing with reality keeps them away from heaven or all existence must pay. The only thing that the two characters have a connection with their spirituality is the tasks they must complete, they cannot contradict themselves because they are above humanity and therefore can pass divine judgement. Now instead of being presented as very powerful figures, they look quite normal don't they?

Adaptation & Professional Practice Part B - Initial Designs

Aziraphale Designs

Crowley Designs

Still experimenting with the costume layouts for Aziraphale and Crowley here and I think the best idea was to use the trench coat ideas from number 3 of each initial ideas. Then experiment with some designs that could be inbedded into the costume? adding symbolism into their designs.

Adaptation & Professional Practice Film Review - Sita Sings The Blues (2008)

Sita Sings The Blues (2008) was an independant project that was written, produced and directed by american illustrator Nina Paley. It was her very first feature film so she took much pride and consideration into her work, taking 5 years to complete the film. The film has hailed several awards which includes Best Animated Feature at Ottawa International Animation Festival and a Special Prize  at the MONSTRA festival. The film is free to all and was released to download in early 2009.

The film itself was divided into two, with one half being the explanation behind the Sanskrit poem Ramayana. The prince of a prestigious kingdom is exiled to the wilderness with his devoted wife Sita. They survive 14 years in the wilds away from society. The second half is related to Paley's own experience with love, her husband was offered a short contract abroad in india and ever since travelling over there they have grown distant from one another. Nina has incorporated an old poem to relate to her own experiences on the matter.

From the transitions between each section there are three illustrated motifs that share their own opinion on the story of Sita. They bring humour into the equation by contradicting the story and giving both modern and contemporary views on the relationships between the characters. The film has both eastern and western influences running throughout, the Bollywood styled dancing and musical sections bring the film back to the Ramayana poem with style and looks to captivate a wider audience than most influenced animations. Overall I recommend this film to people who are interested behind some of india's culture and teachings and those who watch animations with a lighter tone.

Adaptation & Professional Practice Part B - Crowley & Aziraphale Design Inspirations

I researched some possible attires for Crowley, I was most drawn to the largest costume on the screen because of the embodied designs into the trench-coat. For me it illustrates how old the design could be and intricate as if carefully planned. It could then help the viewers realise he is very stylish and intelligent. This paired with the addition of the glasses and yellow snake eyes could make for a sinister character design.

Also it would make sense for there to be some form of patterning into his clothing because he is first introduced as a snake to the audience, even down to the fact he hisses his tongue every now and then. I understand that the book explicitly says that he wears all out black attire, but I would like to break the colour into a crimson shade also, because then I could bring another colour into creating Aziraphale.

To fit Aziraphale into the same kind of environment as Crowley there needs to be similar or opposite design choices in his attire, I thought that the waist coat could have heavenly symbols on it and really sell him as a pure certified religious character, but toned down slightly. maybe small hints towards this. Ideally I would like to use light greys and brilliant whites for this character, maybe the scarf he wears could be a tartan green?

Adaptation & Professional Practice Part B - Aziraphale & Crowley Styles

 BBC Radio 4 Part 1 Illustration

As part of the Radio 4 live adaptation of the best-selling novel 'Good Omens', They issued some illustrations to capture key moments from the novel to highlight the significance of each stage to the listeners. In this particular stage its the beginning of the story, so it tells us the origins of the character and the significance of the items they wield. 

 Dining at the Ritz

In there many encounters together, they tend to go to the more posh and expensive meets. The Ritz is one of these places. It seems fitting for two head honchos for good an evil meet up and sit on opposite ends of the table to discuss how things are. 

 Steampunk version

The steampunk version was different to vision, although it could have taken steps further down that path, with the only plausible links I could see were the animatrons in the pieces. Tackling the style away from realism may give me the originality I desire.

Discussing Business

When Crowley and Aziraphale meet it is always to discuss what each other had done to kind of measure egos. But in there meets they seem to be able to tease each other but always seem calm and collected instead of at each others throats, trying to assassinate each others plans. Its like they understand the need for balance.