Space and Enviroment

Online Greenlight Review Lekti Rose Jacobs

Contents

Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Project Influence Map Social and Cultural Context Cultural happens of the early 20th century Existing Adaptations Plot Synopsis Author Information

Page 6 Scene 1 Breakdown The Ocean Influence Map Key Thumbnails

Page 8 Page 10 Scene 3 Breakdown The Temple Influence Map Key Thumbnails Scene 2 Breakdown The Forest Influence Map Key Thumbnails

Page 12 Creative Partnership

At the Earths Core Edgar Rice Burroughs Plot Synopsis At The Earths Core tells the story from the authors perspective and starts out with a journey through the Sahara desert, where he encounters a remarkable machine and its pilot David Innes. David turns out to be a mining heir who is financing the experimental "iron mole," an excavating machine designed by his inventor friend Abner Perry. In a test run, they discover the vehicle cannot turn, and it digs straight down 500 miles into the Earth. They later emerge in an unknown world they believe to be the surface of earth, but latter discover they have surfaced inside the earth at its core where a prehistoric land still exists. In Burroughs' concept, the Earth is a hollow shell with Pellucidar as the internal surface of that shell. Pellucidar is a land inhabited by prehistoric creatures of all different time eras, and controlled by the Mahars, a dinosaur, bird hybrid race of reptiles capable of flight. The Mahars enslave and feed upon the stone aged humans that live within the earths core.

Author Information Author Biography Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, born on September1, 1875, in Chicago, Illinois. He is widely recognised for his novels Tarzan and the science fiction adventure John Carter, although he has also produced many novels in a wide range of genres. His vivid way of storytelling and descriptive scenes has influenced a wide range of modern storytelling and Filmography. Novelist Michael Crichtons Jurassic Park novels took influence from Burroughs early work, and James Camerons Avatar has taken influence from a storytelling perspective. Cameron quoted on many different occasions referred to Burroughs work, and how he gained a lot of influence from his stories. With Avatar, I thought, forget all these chick flicks and do a classic guys adventure movie, something in the Edgar Rice Burroughs mould, like John Carter of Mars. (James Cameron, The New Yorker, October 26, 2009),

Social and Cultural Context His Pellucidar series may perhaps take influence from the pseudo-scientific speculation. This speculation apparently started in 1692 with scientist Edmond Halley (1656-1743) who suggested that the Earth was full of spherical shells with atmosphere between each shell. The Aurora Borealis, in Halleys mind, arose from gas escaping from openings at the poles. Considering the science in the 1600s, it is understandable that Halley would have such a wild and incorrect theory, but many others took up similar speculation around the idea of a hollow earth. In 1818, John Cleves Symmes, Jr. imagined a hollow Earth with an 800-mile thick crust and 1400 mile-diameter openings at each of the poles. It is unknown where Symmes detailed knowledge of this hollow world came from. He and others who followed him, proposed expeditions to the poles in search of these openings, and the idea still captivated people in the early 20th century. Cultural happens of the early 20 century There were many cultural happenings going on around the early 20 century, such as the first plane flight by the Wright Brothers in 1903, which may have has some influence on the very vivid idea surround the drill machine. Automobiles were also becoming widely used around the globe, and the first subway opened in New York in 1904. This may have been another influence; the idea of huge trains moving underground must have been a very wild thought at the time. The technological advances surrounding the time period obviously helped influence the story for the th book a lot, but there were also a lot of geological events happen in the early 20 century too. Mount Pele Erupted (1902), San Francisco Earthquake (1906), Italian Earthquake Kills 150,000 (1908), and The Tunguska Event (1908) an enormously powerful explosion of unknown origin that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. Halley's Comet also made an Appearance in 1910. All of these natural disasters and happens, would have been a big influence on the design and architectural style of the inner world. One could only speculate on how and why these phenomenon where happening, and if left to the imagination of people like Burroughs they were indeed very imagination based. Existing Adaptations The novel filmed as At the Earth's Core (1976), directed by Kevin Connor, and starred Doug McClure as David Innes and Peter Cushing as Abner Perry. The main characters featured steam punk style attire, and filming appeared very similar to Doctor Who in production style.
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The 2008 movie Journey to Middle Earth also shares several similarities with the events and locations of the novel, although Jules Verne intended the film as a loose adaptation of Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Overall project Influence map

This is the first influence map I created based on my initial thoughts while reading through the experts. I hope to be able to incorporate an Avatar like theme into my work, but at the same time keep it realistic. Other things that come to mind where Jurassic park, because not only did they recreate the dinosaurs they also made a lot of extinct plants that still be alive in the hollow earth. Also as something I have been experiencing lately, Guild Wars 2 art work and in game landscapes reminded me a lot of the story because the game features very dense forests and wide open lake areas.

Scene 1 Breakdown The Ocean Before us a low and level shore stretched down to a silent sea. As far as the eye could reach the surface of the water was dotted with countless tiny isles, some of towering, barren, granitic rock, others resplendent in gorgeous trappings of tropical vegetation, myriad starred with the magnificent splendour of vivid blooms. Influence Map

This is the influence map for my first chosen expert. Because the scene features the sea and some variations of Tropical Islands, I thought it was initially good to look for real life references, while this was a good idea I later discovered that it can be slight bland. Therefore, I started to think of ways to make the scene feel more alive. For instance, breaking it up into three sections, foreground, midground, and background. This will help to lead the views eye through the scene to create much needed flow and bring a sense of life to the image.

Key Thumbnails

Figures 1 2 and 3 were all very quick five to ten minute sketches, the main p[erpose for this exercises was to find the right angle and style in which to build upon. I think figures 1 and 2 are successful because they both have flow and movement, figure 3 was one that stood out to me visually because it has both flow and depth.

Fig 4 Figure 4 was a little more in depth revision of figure 3, I wanted to add a little more visual impact to the foreground, which in this case I decided to add one of the main characters into it. I feel that this one is the way forward and am looking a new ways to take it forward. A few thoughts I have had was to perhaps make the islands bigger like they are in figure 3, and maybe consider making the background blurry as if you were in a desert. I also think the sun should not be in the shot completely, but have the rays beaming down from one of the sides to create a little shadow.

Scene 2 Breakdown The Forest Behind us rose a dark and forbidding wood of giant arborescent ferns intermingled with the commoner types of a primeval tropical forest. Huge creepers depended in great loops from tree to tree, dense under-brush overgrew a tangled mass of fallen trunks and branches. Upon the outer verge we could see the same splendid colouring of countless blossoms that glorified the islands, but within the dense shadows all seemed dark and gloomy as the grave - (Found in the Chapter two experts) Influence Map

This is the influence map for my second scene. A very dark a dense forest is depicted in the expert, this can be brought through in a verity of ways and I think that shadows will play a major role in the scene. I again chose to look at the real world primarily for this piece, places like the amazon rain forest came to mind because they are somewhat similar to the described scene. The tree towering over the forest floor create a dark and vivid world for shade loving plants, and as described the undergrowth is a very thick and difficult to walk through. Key Thumbnails

Figure 7 - This was a test to see how a sketch would look with lots of vegetation, I think it works really well because this si how a forest should look if it hasnt been inhabited a lot of larger life forms. I would like to keep this aspect in the final piece. Figure 8 Another test, I wanted the trees to have a vine like texture to them for this one, I think it works well for the picture. But the main reasoning behind it was the depth, I think it works really well here and as it adds such a huge impact to the image I will be keeping that style of depth and darkness. Figures 9, 10,11,12 These were all test for styles of trees, tree tops(leaves) and undergrowth, I think the undergrowth works well but I think in regards to the tree tops, the scene works better when they are not in the frame as this gives the forest a very tall felling and makes everything seem massive in proportion.

The above sketch will be the basses for the new design, for this I have had a few ideas in regards to how the forest should look. As with the ocean scene, I would like to make everything be massive in proportion and not be confined to sticking to reality. I think the fore and midgrounds are the way to tackle this because if I can get the scale between plant and tree just right, the trees will seem massive in proportion to everything else. Something that came to mind again while thinking about this scene was James Camerons Avatar, and concept art from the video game Guild Wars 2, because they both feature forests and very vivid plant life. Scene 3 Breakdown The Temple

"We are within the outer wall," said Ja. "It is hollow. Follow me closely."The red man groped ahead a few paces and then began to ascend a primitive ladder similar to that which leads from the ground to the upper stories of his house. We ascended for some forty feet when the interior of the space between the walls commenced to grow lighter and presently we came opposite an opening in the inner wall which gave us an unobstructed view of the entire interior of the temple. The lower floor was an enormous tank of clear water in which numerous hideous Mahars swam lazily up and down. Artificial islands of granite rock dotted this artificial sea, and upon several of them I saw men and women like myself. - (Found in the Chapter eight experts) Influence Map

This one has an almost cave sounding description, as if the natural land has been turned into a temple for the Mahars use as temple. Studying underground cave systems, as well us natural cave lakes was an obvious choice for this piece. The temple should be large in scale, to give the Mahars enough room to fly around, and have small granite islands dotted around the large body of water. Initial troubles I have with this is finding the right perspective as the character mentions climbing a ladder, which suggests the viewing angle would be looking downwards towards the sea of water inside the cave. Key Thumbnails

Figures 13,14 & 15 These sketches where again tests to see what type of land scape would work for this piece. I decided that the granite island dotted around the water should be above the water level rather than at the same height as it, because I felt that this would add more depth to the image and make the islands stand out more. Figures 16, 17 & 18 all play around with the idea of stalagmite and various openings around the ceiling and walls, this added some more depth and life to the image and will definitely be brought through to the final image.

The above image was an attempt to create a better viewpoint and a better landscape perspective. I have also decided to ditch the rear wall of the cave because I feel that doing so will help to create the illusion in which the cave is massive in scale. Like in the first Sea scene, I have decided to add more elements to the foreground, one idea I ahev is to have the character crouched down peering out from behind the corner. This will also help add to the sence of scale, but also bring life to the image.

Creative partnership

GeorgeHind on 08/10/12 Hey Lekti 9 really stands out to me as the perspective seems to give it a spooky kind of feel, it feels like its at the same height as me like I'm walking through it myself it pretty cool. I also really like 16 for the lighting and shading you had done on the rocks. on Cinematic Spaces - thumbnails 1 - 18

Lekti Rose Jacobs on 05/10/12 Thanks George, i have a pretty good idea of what i want to do indeed. Its starting to show in the thumbnails i have been doing.(will be uploading them this weekend) on Cinematic Spaces - Influence Maps

GeorgeHind on 05/10/12 I really like these Lekti the way the Blue reflects off a lot of the images you have found look really effective and I love the brightness of it all, these must give you some really good ideas. on Cinematic Spaces - Influence Maps GeorgeHind on 01/10/12 hey Lekti I really like number four the way you have done the lighting and colour to your image really makes it stand out! on Cinematic Spaces: Digital Painting 28/09/2012

CG Artists toolkit Reviews:

Voyage to the Moon - http://lektirose.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/cinematic-spaces-reviewvoyage-to-moon.html The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - http://lektirose.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/reviewe-cabinet-of-drcaligari.html

Life Drawing:

25/09/12 - http://lektirose.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/life-drawing-250912.html

Digital Painting

28/09/12 - http://lektirose.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/cinematic-spaces-digital-painting.html