"Of Bots and Bananas" 500 words rational

There were a few challenges we had to face for this project. Unlike our last 3D work (previous term) where all we had to do was having a camera fly through various rooms, this time around things got pretty interesting indeed: not only we had to create a proper animation, but we also had to tell a story… and a funny one too.

At the beginning of this term we were introduced to slapstick comedy, we were shown examples of it and we were also explained what’s slapstick and what’s not. The basic gist of it is this: No room for subtlety. No verbal witty jokes, just physicality!

But that’s not all… in my humble opinion a good gag can only work if the subject (or victim) really fits in with the storytelling. Considering that I’m aiming to be a concept artist, this was a very important aspect to me. Is it funny to see a nerd slipping on a banana skin? Sure, why not… But I believe is even funnier when is a well suited gent that gets a facefull of dirt. That’s where I started, by the character. I called him Von Kakkienberg…

He’s an engineer, an inventor but also a bit of a fop and a bit of a warmonger. I wanted the environment where he creates his machines to look serious and grand. I thought that a steampunk inspired factory/lab would’ve been the perfect place to set the gag. I wanted the environment to look like the setting for a serious/dramatic animation, not a slapstick comedy. I believe the best way to achieve that was to add a few details like an elaborate floor tiling, a golden plaque on a wall, a couple of banners with his family insignia hanging from a balcony finely decorated with gold and wood, marble columns at the sides of the massive entrance door, expensive looking wooden desk where he sketches his ideas… The Devil’s in the details, right?

But I also realised that I had to compromise something. My initial sketches of the steam engine walker he’s piloting in the gag looked a little too serious. A little too ‘cool’ even. I wanted to create something that, although mounted with cannons and very dangerous, would’ve make people smile as soon as they saw it. So I ditched the spider-like crawlers of my initial sketches and chose something a little less dramatic… like a chicken! That was perfect in my opinion. Even before the gag reaches its conclusion, the guy’s already a laughing stock to the viewers. Like a guitar amp sporting dial knobs that go all the way up to eleven, only the person who’s dumb enough to come out with such an idea can see its usefulness… no one else can, no one else should!

Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with the final result. Given more time I wished I could’ve shown more of Von Kakkienberg than just the head sticking from the machine. Maybe having him climb up the walker before revving up the engine or maybe jump down onto it from the balcony!

Welcome back!

After a lazy summer spent scratching my a** I'm ready to start my 2nd year at NTU... Well, it wasn't all about lazyness: I'm currently designing some background graphics for my website, which will be hosted by WIX (It'll carry the same name as this blog, Outlaw Creations) and it'll have a vague steampunk vibe.

I've also kept my 3D skills up to scratch with some 3DsMax and Z-Brush, just to brush off the 'summer rust'. You can see the result below. Enjoy!

500 Words ‘Why&How’. DP2 – Virtual Environments

The Virtual Environments project was a great challenge. The task was simple enough yet allowing a great deal of freedom. We simply had to create a ‘Secret Lair’. We had to choose a superhero/heroes or a super villain’s, however at a closer inspection of the brief given, the allowed influences were various and loose… pretty much anything could’ve been used as an influence! That meant that I was able to let the imagination go while considering how make the four areas required for the project consistent with the vibe of the scene/s.

I decided to create my own set of heroes and villains (The TriStar Team Vs. The Legion Of Doom. I posted about them few weeks back) … and then decided to create the secret lair for T.L.O.D.

The way the lair had to be shown was through an animated movie file… which gave me the idea, why not making it like a video-dossier addressed to one of the two groups? There were also a couple of Z-Brush models I was having fun with, and I wanted to include them in the scenes… And the inclusion of these characters were a source of inspiration for what kind of environment would they fit in. Consistency is the key word while creating something. If you are re-creating (copying sounds awful) the environment of a well known character, somebody else’s IP, the technical details are probably more important (because it is through the details that you achieve consistency in this case), but by making my own set of characters, I just needed to make consistency my business card.

The general style used for the 3D design aspect of the lair, was to be gloomy… almost morbid at times. Even in the more sophisticated areas like the laboratory and the experiment chamber, the colour palette chosen is dull, although some reflective surfaces were used ‘here and there’ simply to increase and amplify the austerity of the surroundings. An appropriate use of the lighting was also considered to create the right vibe… if I had to give an example of this, I’d choose a particular scene where the camera cut from the lab to pass to the arena, and it does it across a corridor where two of the rarely used spotlights were illuminating the only doors… the darkness surrounding the path send a grim message about the prospect of being conducted to the arena.

Although the dossier starts by addressing the group, and shows stills that vary from real life pictures to artist impressions, consistency was the reason that prevented me from including ‘everything’. The sketches of the two super-teams were not included in the final piece for two simple reasons. The breaks in the animation when text appears to explain the previous scene or the presentation of the next scene, had to be kept to a minimum. Otherwise I would’ve risked of taking the attention away from the 3D design focus of the piece. The second reason is that these sketches are so bold and colourful that their style simply didn’t belong in the animation. I also didn’t include the pencil sketches for the creatures and the lair design… they were redundant. (I included some of this work as part of my visual essay, however).

Above you can see details from the other two rooms we have to do for our 3DsMax 'Secret Lair' project.
The first one is a bog-standard laboratory where the captured prisoner's vital signs are monitored whilst injected with a 'super-soldier' type of serum. The second area present a sturdy and rusty structure, affectionately (!?) named the 'Elimination Chamber', where the prisoners are forced to fight each others for their lives... and to entertain their cruel captors... as usual, very lighthearted stuff...

This are 2 of the 4 rooms we are required to do for the 'Virtual Enviroment' project. The first one is the cave through wich you can access the higher levels of the lair. The second one is a top view of the experiment chamber, were the poor prisoners (see few post below about the Z-Brush prisoner) of this team of supervillains are incarcerated and turned into Wrestlemania contenders... I have the 'camera fly-through' animation for this two rooms as well but I want to show it to you only once I've completed the other 2 rooms... be patient and you'll be rewarded... (plus I got to leave you begging for more, right?)

Last tuesday we were asked to write something about what are we doing to improve ourselves... Well, I guess practicing Z-Brush does count as developing new skills, so;

These are two models I'm working on for the Virtual Enviroment project we'll start later on. The project consist in designing a secret lair for a superhero/villain. I choose a villain, and the above images represent the genetic experiments that our villain's doing on human subjects... I'm planning to use this images (plus others) to embellish the Virtual Enviroment project, showing what's going on in the various rooms of the lair...