Final photos of Prometheus model.

 A giant maquette used for stop motion, this was inspired by the large models Laika studios use in their films. They're known for large scale and incredible technology in the stop motion industry. I wanted it to look other worldy, immortal, godlike or spiritual so I chose to use mixed media; deciding on textures, patterns and shapes that could represent this.
My project became an exploration of unconventional materials, as well as experimentation of how to fully realise a character through different mediums.
Whilst creating this model, I let the fabrics fall naturally, and simply anchored them in place to achieve a better natural flow. Overall I wanted a swirled, shadowy kind of vibe; something you wanted to reach out and touch, or appeared like it was moving. To help this, I tried to suit the materials to where they sat on the model, as well as making an attempt to hide most of the seams to make it a little neater.
A visiting animator informed me of the professional use of chicken wire, which is what gave me the confidence to use chicken wire for the base of this model.
Overall I'm happy with how this has turned out; there were definitely moments it looked too messy or not professional enough, but as a finished model, I'm actually quite pleased with how it's come together at the end. In the photo above, you can also see the little maquette I made beforehand as a practise!

Final photos of mask and theatre realised Prometheus.

Here are a collection of my favourite shots from the photoshoot! I'm so pleased with how these have turned out, the lighting of the cathedral we were in only lent itself to the airy, spiritual vibe I wanted to create. In using a cathedral as a setting, it was mimicking and assisting the religious imagery that I was focussed on with this realisation of the character. Even though a lot of my work this during this assignment has been based around stop motion, my love for theatre, costumes and prop-costume such as masks meant that I didn't want to pigeon hole myself entirely, as I really enjoy camera work of all types. Whether it's stop motion, film making or getting stills like these, I really enjoy realising the character through other mediums; I feel that this way we can learn more about the character. Through this practise I was able to explore how the character moves, sits, holds themself etc.
The model is Jack Taylor. Assistant photographer was Yasmine Lahouag.

Final Mask Photoshoot: Reeds.

This location was not one that I planned to shoot in, as we first came across it when walking to The Vines park for the planned photos. I thought that the colours and textures provided by this environment were very unique compared to the other places I had a planned, (a park and the cathedral.) It was a lot of fun shooting here, and it broadened the opportunities of locations for future projects too.
As much as I like this image, because of the sewn up and hand made look of the mask, I'm aware that it could be coming across too 'scarecrow' so for that reason I believe that the other locations were better choices in terms of characterisation.

Final Mask Photoshoot: Cathedral

The cathedral location provided the kind of washed out, pastel colours that I'd concentrated on using within my concept art pieces throughout this project. For this reason, I feel that it suited the character quite well and that it felt like the two concepts of character and setting could have easily been a part of the same world.
In all of the edits uploaded I've subtly Photoshopped the fingers to be slightly longer in order to create more spindly, bird-like characteristics.

Final Mask Photoshoot: Trees.

My two favourite edits taken from the park location of the photo shoot we did with the mask. I really like the angles these photos where taken at and how this teamed with the framing accentuate the twisted pose.
I felt that a warmer cast suited these photos and the location of the park better than how cold they previously looked pre-edit.

Main Character Final Design: Yool costume sheet

'Yool' Shortened from 'Euelpides'.
His best friend since childhood is Ty. Although Ty is more dominant and confident than Yool, he never envies him of this, he instead has a a lot of pride and faith in his companion. He knows him well enough to know when he's going to lay down one of his famous speeches, and often beams or remains quietly smiling in awe of his friends skills in speech. Although quieter, Yool is no pushover and has the same steely determination as Ty, making them an ambitious and formidable team. Yool is more sensitive to other people than Ty is, often thinking quite rationally and logically and considering how others may feel. Because of this he's usually the first to check if someone is okay. Compared to Ty, Yool is quite level headed, Ty being the one who often gets carried away with passionate speeches and grand plans; sometimes he has to bring him back down to earth.

I chose pastel blues and lilacs to match Yools sweet and gentle nature. This way his design contrasts to Ty's, as one part of my design plans for them was making sure they were obviously different from one another, as the original script doesn't define the two too differently. In fact, the character of Euelpides ends up drifting into the background and not being mentioned a lot towards the end of the initial script. I wanted to avoid these kind of plot holes and have a consistent story rather than conveniently have characters disappear half way through the production.

Similar to the long coat I chose for Ty, Yool wears a large poncho to add to his 'cute' vibes and a neck scarf to hide the maquettes neck joint. I've also drawn him with his bird cage and spotted carry-sack from the opening scene of the film. Both main characters wear simple boots that would be designed to withstand long distance walking. Yool also wears gloves to protection against the elements, whereas Ty has very long sleeves and heavy cuffs.

Main Character Final Design: Ty costume sheet

'Ty' Shortened from 'Pisthetairus'.
His closest relationship is with Yool, his childhood best friend; they were companions when they lived in Athens together and both decided to leave in search of a life of freedom, devoid of responsibility. Together they plan everything, but Ty is usually the spokesman and the leader of the duo.

In contrast to Yool's design, I chose khaki's and more earthy tones to suit Ty's calm, collected and more mature personality. Earth is also the star sign most linked to determination and ambition within the Zodiac signs, linking to Ancient Greek beliefs that Astronomy was the first science. However, I made sure that the colour scheme still matched the pastel aesthetic that I've used to design throughout this project.
Overall, Ty is extremely smart and charismatic, but uses these traits in order to manipulate people sometimes. He is very quick witted and thinks on his feet, which often gets himself and Yool out of sticky situations, and has avoided many a confrontation because of these skills. His downfall is the fact that he perhaps begins to take advantage of people and not even realise it, sometimes putting strains on his and Yools relationship.

The choice of shape and costume came about quite naturally. In cartoons, the main characters are often the most simple in design as these will be the figures drawn the most frequently, therefore should not be over complicated or difficult to redraw and intricately model with every new frame. I went for a cute beret with a bird feather in the band for Ty, as I thought a slightly military styled outfit would suit his strategic and precise mind. The feather also relates to the anthropomorphic and animal themes of the film. Having a long coat also helps in the production of the stop motion puppet as it would mask a lot of the figure, meaning a smaller overall project concentrated on one character.
A high necked coat was decided specifically, as within stop motion puppetry it's a lot easier to conceal maquette than it is to try and making a complex, working neck joint. For this reason I've covered the necks on both my characters.

I chose to draw this costume and expression sheet out in a digital format as I felt that the aesthetic and character design suited that media better than paints and pencil. However, for the darker more twisted character of Epops that holds a lot of character within the sketched out marks themselves I'll be hand drawing the designs.

Owl Character Progression.

Wanting to progress my characters so I can begin finalising the designs, I concentrated on creating a small expression sheet for the Owl character I've been working on. Here I focused mainly on experimentation of potential facial features as well as body shape and posture. I've yet to figure out the exact fashion for the Owl, but as the facial expression and features are what I'd like to take forward into a minor sculpting project, this is what I've been making sure to concentrate on. I will of course figure out the Owls personality and role in the bird city as a whole, as I'd like for my designs to have backstory, justification and a sense of three dimensional depth to their characterisations.

I chose three expressions to work on in Photoshop that, between them, showed the most diversity; neutral, shocked and annoyed. I also chose a full body sketch to show the kind of proportions I'm looking at, at the moment.
My next steps from this will be finalising the design, confirming the personality and characterisation, then sketching out a final expression sheet in order to begin sculpting. I think this order is quite important, as I want to have the personality and characterisation fleshed out before I start thinking how this character would expression emotion.

Character Focus: Epops the Hoopoe.

After looking at the costume piece of the bird mask and discussing the narrative behind it, I wanted to begin concentrating on finalising my choices of character focus. With current events in place, I've taken slight inspiration from certain American politicians in creating this power hungry ruler. First drawing this out in my sketchbook, then taking it over to Photoshop, I've accidentally coloured him to be slightly brighter and healthier looking than I had imagined. I'll probably go back to Photoshop to rectify this, as well as draw out versions of the Hoopoe at different points throughout the film.

This concept art pictured above was to be a representation of him at the beginning of the film; in power over the rest of the birds, he makes an attempt to be formal but it feels a little forced and like he perhaps isn't 100% sure of his decisions himself. He puts on certain graces and takes pride in a diminishing appearance.

After committing unspeakable crimes as a powerful man, he was transformed by the high court and sentenced to live out his days as a Hoopoe; a bird with a 'crown' of feathers, thus mocking his reduction of power. My design will establish this narrative choice by having his feathers falling out as the film goes on and as his character is becoming weaker compared to the two human men, his 'crown' begins to fall.

I've given his clothing a colour scheme of black, white and shades of orange and red in order to replicate the colours of the actual birds plumage. He has twisted, naked 'chicken wing' type 'arms', that were formed after he attempted to turn himself back into a human; this is the only the first of the bodily changes he experienced though. His beak will begin to weaken and chip away, and his feathers will be all but gone by the end. In order to combat this, Epops has a bird mask made, allowing him to keep his once proud and strong beak, and he tries to sew the feathers back into himself in an attempt to maintain his pride and composure. Really though, all this is doing is making him look more and more silly, and it's clear that by he end he's a bit of a mess. It's these changes and the damage to his hubris that sparks him trying to win back the birds and take down Pisthetairus and Euelpides, but I have yet to write that part of the altered narrative in full as of yet, as it's changes to the story I've come to through the designs I've been creating.
The slightly dark narrative of Epops losing his beak and beginning to heavily molt ties into the dark and twisted aesthetic I'm interested in creating, as well as showing the characters downfall.

My next steps will be to create some 'in-character' sketches of expression perhaps, and to create chronological pieces of concept art for this character showcasing his design at various points of the film.
I will also finalise and decide on my other characters that I will be taking forwards so i am able to begin making within the next week.  

Concept Art Collection

SKIN TEXTURE: FEATHERS

OWL SECURITY GUARD

CLOUD CUCKOO LAND BASE IDEA

Above are a collection of pieces of concept art I've been working on this morning. They cover three different areas of the world I'm creating: Realism and interpretation, character design and environment.
These ideas are all originally in my sketchbook, but I chose these three to take into Photoshop and experiment with further as I felt they had more potential.

Firstly, I've begun to consider my own interpretation as well as the mediums I could study for my areas of practice. So far I've mainly looked into maquettes and puppets for use in stop motion animation, with specific interest in Laika Studios. However, the idea previously suggested of a lab of prototypes using different materials and processes could be very beneficial and exciting to undertake, as well as avoiding the risk of accidentally pigeon-holding myself into one category. This illustration was based on a rough sketch I did when thinking about how the characters of Pisthetairus and Euelpides would grow feathers once they eat the root that grants them wings. I came the conclusion that it would be a more realistic interpretation and a definite stylistic choice to have the mens arms turn into wings instead of having then sprout angelically from their backs. This could not only add to a potential gothic aesthetic, but also perhaps show a young audience that in order to gain something, you have to work for it or make a fair excahnge? This is a moral I'll be working more on, as so far I don't feel that 'The Birds' has much of a moral story behind it.
The drawing itself depicts the dark navy feather sprouting out of the skin; something I could later on turn into maybe a piece of costume, like a glove, or several prosthetic pieces!

Secondly, the Owl Security guard was a small doodle I did when thinking about the different properties of the birds mentioned in the texts. I already have a fascination with Owls, and was regarding the way they're able to turn their heads almost 360 degrees. This trait they have reminded me of security cameras, and putting the two together I sketched out the Owl Security Guard:

His nocturnal eyes perfectly suited to dark environments, they watch from the doorways and corners of nightclubs, not missing a single trick or drunken antic. Their heads swivel slowly at first, silently scanning the floors of dancing birds, then a sharp turning their heads back to front at any loud noise or sudden movement. No one would dare try anything under their watch.

Thirdly, is my base idea for the city so far. I'm really pleased with this piece as an illustration, but definitely need to work on a stronger concept. As the city is built in a matter of days, there would be no time for grass to grow, and I would also like it to appear more home made or have attributes that help the viewer believe it was built by birds. Maybe have buildings stacked one on top of the other, or look like the city itself has grown from the inside, then been constantly built upon. Looking into architecture could help this too.

Overall I'm very happy with these pieces and can begin to see an improvement in my work, especially when it comes to technique, which I'm pleased with. My next stages will be:
- Begin to research processes and methods I can prototype and begin basic making ideas.
- Focus on specific characters to create specific designs for.
- Research architectures and create a strong concept for the environment for the city itself.

Further Character Concepts

Based on the quote "A Fox is subtlety itself", I designed a loose concept for the character of Zeus's nemesis and infiltrator of the birds city; Prometheus. He sneaks in to inform Pisthetairus of the God's starving condition, hinting on how to dethrone Zeus. He enters the city in a disguise so as to go unnoticed by Zeus or the other Gods. Tying the quote about foxes being subtle and inconspicuous, I came up with this draft concept for Prometheus' disguise: A large hunch, a textured cloak adorned with dry leaves and weird curled shapes. The foxes mask ties back to the quote and is an anthropomorphic link to the animal symbolism I'm using. For this piece of concept art, I went back to the brush and lasso technique I'm familiar with, as I thought it would suit this image better than the previous methods practiced. However, I did experiment with creating the texture on the body section, as I didn't want it to just look like a flat, blank colour.  

What inspired this character was noticing that at one point in the script, religious ceremonies to worship both the birds and the two founding men are created by the birds; hence the idea of a priest character came to mind. This is however, is a concept with a lot of holes; I would need to consider what religious symbolism would actually be used, or what robes could be worn. What I drew was a quick doodle with these ideas in mind.
I based this character on a Gerfalcon, as they have quite a wise but stern look about them, which is how I remember priests to appear when I was younger. However, it still has a piercing eye and very stern demeanor which I like, and I think suits the role.

I used a new technique in Photoshop for this drawing after downloading a new set of brushes. The lasso tool wasn't used at all! Which is a very big step from the usual techniques I've been using. Instead I selected a few different brush styles that gave really interesting textures and look a lot more organic than the lasso technique style. This method was a little more time consuming, (hence why I only did the main body and head) but I'm actually really happy with how it came out! It looks a lot more realistic this way, with the opportunity to add in a lot of different kinds of details, e.g. the dappled grey plumage and highlights around the eyes and beak. 

Teach Em' A Lesson 2016: Final Piece

Here the full finished production of 'Teach Em A Lesson' can be seen, as uploaded by the Youtube channel UCATelevsion Production. The footage displays the completed professional collaborative product, combining the two UCA courses talents, and it's great to have the opportunity to see it as a  final piece!

Clown Makeup Practise

Using the Cirque Du Soleil mood board as reference whilst figuring out the makeup on my models face, I firstly painted on a white base coat of snazaroo body paint. Making him flex his face and pull a lot of different expressions, I was able to outline faintly the natural creases of his face in light blue pencil. These would act a guide later on when shading in the spaces so only needed to be indistinct as it would be worked over once I began shading. Using blue and purple eyeshadow I shaded in the lines, with a black eyeshadow right at the base of the lines to give a more defined and dramatic contour.
The lips where drawn in with a red lip pencil, then filled in with lipstick. The nose bullseye design was also red lipstick, as I currently don't have red face paint in my personal makeup kit.
Once the makeup was completed we experimented with different expressions to see how the paint moved with the face, which gave results I was really happy with! As a clown, I think it's important to keep the ability to use facial expressions, which I feel was successful in this experiment.

Mermaid Makeup Practise

Using my own makeup kit at home (photo to follow) I experimented with the drag/ punk mermaid character makeup after being inspired by the research images put together. My main goal was to avoid looking petite, pretty, nymphy or waif-like, and instead create the punk with attitude as discussed with the narrative.

Top 1 and 2: This was the first step of the makeup. First a base coat of white snazaroo body paint was applied to the lower half of the face whilst layers of glue were applied through the eyebrows. Glue should be applied first against the grain, then following it, smoothing it flat. Once dried, these layers of alternating glue and translucent powder were built up, then covered with a layer of mouse foundation. Following this, the white paint was then brought up to cover the entire face, a few coats of this were necessary to get an even coverage. Dark purple, black and red eyeshadows were used to sculpt out the basic contouring seen. These colours were decided through looking at the research mood board posted previously, as blue pinks and greens seemed popular colours in the 'seapunk' sub-culture.

Top 3: Greens, blues and purple shades of eyeshadow were used to contour the rest of the face, then a blue eyeliner to outline the shape of the oversized lips. Shading and blending were big aspects to making this a successful drag look! The same blending applied to the lips, to give an impression of them seeming bigger than they actually are. This was done through using a darker liner, and a lighter colour in the centre of the lips. I gradiated from dark blue and black through to a lilac centre shade.

Top 4: Experimenting with nostril shape. In my designs I've specified having small, slitted nostrils so I drew these in with black face paint and eyeshadow. In this image the nostrils are cutting up vertically. However, I didn't think this effectively followed the natural shape of the nose so in the next image (top 5) I had rubbed off this attempt and drew in nostrils that went out, then up. These looked more natural, and whilst I'm not attempting to create a 'natural' makeup look, I still want the 'mermaid biology' and structure to appear believable.

Bottom row: In the following images the makeup look was complete and the only thing left to do was experiment with hair. Having a big mohawk to resemble a fishes fin would be ideal, but I currently don't have the resources to do that, unfortunately. I sent these images to the rest of the group to critique and I got a very positive response to the makeup that I was really pleased with. There was a general agreement that the final silver and blue wig was a favourite amongst them, so I included two pictures of this one. The two toned hair and sharp block fringe contribute to the edgy punk vibe, in my opinion.

Currently, this look is obviously without prosthetics as I have yet to begin making them . I feel that if the prosthetics don't get finished in time then the look still comes together and works for the character without them, although I will still try to manage my time well enough to get these complete with the team work from the rest of the group.

Concept art: Catfish mermaids.

Final design concepts for the Catfish inspired mermaids.
- Bald heads: I don't think long flowing hair would suit these designs, being bald makes the overall look more streamlined. My logic was 'fish don't have hair; it's useless in an underwater environment so I decided against it.
- Simple tops: A tank top with an under bust corset or simple high necked vest top. Gills or stripes wrapped around the sides of the body. Stick to simple colour scheme of orange, grey, white, red. Could buy tops cheaply to then dye up and distress or appliqué/ sequin.
- Tail sewn with a gradient dyed through it and patches appliquéd up the length. Tail fin a different darker colour.
- Body paint: Pale washed out colours with scales textured on up and down arms.
- Face paint: Differs with design but sticks to same basic colour palette. Sclera contact lenses would be ideal but are quite an expensive accessories for such a small part of the characters design, and can be easily done with photoshop too. Ears can be photoshopped on, but if I have time then making these would be ideal.

Drawn in Photoshop with a mouse.

Final Costume Photo

My favourite photo from any of the photo shoots! Love the lighting that the studio manager helped me set up and the effect it has on the atmosphere. A lot colder, moodier, definitely the deep space vibe I was looking for. 

Photoshoot 2: Final Specialist Pathway Photos

Two images from the second photo shoot. A darker setting was used instead of the plain white backdrop last time, as I wanted to create a 'spacey' and more serious vibe. The first shoot, in using the white backdrop allowed for detailed shots of the costume and to experiment with character personality with the model too. However, the darker background gave a moodier feel and also created a bigger illusion of space in the studio.
At this point every aspect of the costume was completed, so shots from behind were achievable, as well as use of the helmet and shoulder piece.

Photoshoot 1

Four final images, taken myself in the first of two photo shoots. At this point, the chest plate had no back piece so only photos from the front were available when it was being worn. The helmet was already sourced and painted, but the colour was a little too light, and the shoulder plate had yet to be finished or attached to the chest piece. This photo shoot was organised to ensure I had professional photos for portfolio, but was carried out while I was still applying finishing touches to the costume! So overall I made time for two separate shoots, one that now shows progression and one with the final completed outfit.

Suit and Ship Concept Art

This design concentrated on expressing personality through formation of posing the character, as well as developing aspects of costume, e.g. the suit, breathing system and helmet. At this point in the project I reaffirmed with myself that making each of these costume aspects in the designated time period was slightly unrealistic, and setting goals of priority was necessary. These ordered as: 1) Designing, sewing and completed the jumpsuit. 2) Sourcing, designing and restyling a helmet. 3) Potential armor pieces, or sections of costume that weren't to be crafted from fabric through sewing. 

Another potential space craft design, inspired by the bio-luminescent mushrooms being researched as part of the eco-system for the environment of the planet. 

Temper05 Spacecraft Design

Original design for scouting spacecraft used in my transposal of 'The Tempest.' Supposedly a small scouting vehicle, built for two people with a small amount of emergency supplies. Incapable of space travel, designed to roam and explore planet surfaces.