Concept art for Lauren

Lauren is currently (excuse the pun) 'fleshing out' a gratuitous zombie splatter extravaganza for her 4th Year piece.

Her style is incredible - think Tank Girl meets Metal Gear Solid. She asked me to design a 3D plane to be duplicated for the outside airport scene.

I kept the geometry low in the model, feigned a toon shade / cell style using a ramp shader, some tinkering and a vector texture, then throwing it into Photoshop to add some added grit.

Here are 2 slight variants.

Mark

More Concept Art

Here are a couple of new concept art pieces.

As I mentioned in the last post, Samurai Jack has been a huge influence on us. It really was one of the few cartoons (possibly even programmes) that managed to beautifully gel high art, comedy, sincerity & compelling storytelling.

The style is certainly one which I'm not used to designing; my work is mostly inspired by darker, gloomier films, literature and art. However, this departure allows for all new experimentation and its something Finlay, Kieran and myself are really looking forward to getting our teeth into.

I'll post a breakdown of how I designed, coloured and textured these for those who are interested.

The next step will be to apply this to our 3D models. I've been trying out texture tests on a plane for Lauren's project (which I'll post up soon also).

Mark

New Concept Art

Here are a couple of new concept pieces for our 4th Year film. We've been watching a lot of Samurai Jack re-runs of late, along with a brilliant Danish students' short animation, 'The Saga Of Biorn.'

We still want to retain the isolated atmosphere of The Shadow Of The Colossus and the dauntingly angular angles of Giorgio De Chirico's work, but fuse it with a colourful palette and slick textures so that we have plenty to play with in post-production.

Mark

Rango vs Django

Ok, he's no Franco Nero, but the Don Quixote-esque Rango is quite the unexpected badass..........as is the film and everything about it. Countless Leone references, really invective, despicable bad guys, and plenty of brilliant jokes.

However, the visuals are something else to behold. The textures, environment, effects and colours are incredible; words honestly can't do them justice. The creatures are as beautifully gritty and ugly as the cast of Once Upon A Time In The West and animate as convincingly as actors move in a Terry Gilliam film.

It is a must see.

Mark