Steven

Payne

Anatomy Sept 2011

Steven Payne
1

Shapeshifters
Greenlight Crit

Steven Payne

Anatomy Sept 2011

Contents

Creative Task Creating My Hybrid.Page 3 Inspiration and Influences..Page 3 Concepts So FarPages 4, 5 and 6 Written Assignment Introduction.Page 7 Current Project Status Technical Workshops/Photoshop..Page 8 CG Workshops/Maya..Page 8 Body Studies.....................................Page 8 Creative Partnership...Page 8 Reviews.Page 8

Steven Payne

Anatomy Sept 2011

Creative Task

Creating My Hybrid

The creature of which I have become hybridized is the Nautilus Pompilius, or as it is commonly known, the Chambered Nautilus. I have found integrating the features of the Nautilus with my own challenging, simply because the creature is so unusual. It has many defining characteristics, such as its logarithmic shell and aperture-like eyes, and I have making attempts to create a hybrid that is both unique and interesting.

Inspiration and Influences

So far in the development of my hybrid, I have drawn influence from a variety of different areas. The two influence maps above document influences towards the body structure of my hybrid. The aquatic influence map displays examples of similar life in the habitat of my animal, whilst the other influence map shows examples of interesting shapes and additions to the overall visual design of my hybrid.

Steven Payne

Anatomy Sept 2011

Concepts So Far

I began developing my hybrid by applying elements of the Nautilus with the human figure. The idea of creating an armour of sorts has stayed with the design throughout, although it has been modified in various ways at each step. This was the first general design I established. It is basically a combination of each of the minor thoughts and ideas I had of my hybrid at once. I have kept elements I have a particular liking for in most other designs, most notably, the tendrils forming at the mouth and the chest resembling the front of the Nautilus.

Steven Payne

Anatomy Sept 2011

I developed the armour idea further, this time attempting to give a more mutated, damaged feel to the hybrid, the sort of physical distress expected to be present after the transformation. The head is an element that developed more around this point. The idea of covering the eyes whilst keeping the jaw exposed is a design choice that seemed to echo the appearance of the Nautilus; peering only slightly from within a confined housing. As much as I like this idea, its still too human. It resembles a super hero (I thought Ant-Man, personally) and superheroes dont form great silhouettes, unless youre Batman, and in that case, youre going to a silhouette 90% of the time. Being quite a massive comic book fanatic, I found it difficult to push away from this idea, but I have tried frantically to form a more original hybrid. Soon after developing the previous design, I started to experiment with clothing. This quick sketch was simply created to see how elements relating to myself would fit with the general theme of the hybrid. This led to a more zombie-like feel, and Im still unsure whether this is a good or bad thing in terms of design.

Steven Payne

Anatomy Sept 2011 This design is a rough idea of how I could move away from the generic human appearance of my hybrid. The basic idea is one half of the hybrid is my mutated self, fused to the enlarged shell of the Nautilus. I was playing around with clothing elements and the armour-like design still remains in loosely. It forms a more interesting silhouette, although it can be drastically improved. This is a slightly more refined version of the design above. Ive added a few elements to create a slightly more interesting silhouette, notably the tentacles. I like this idea, and I will develop it further to hopefully make a truly unique hybrid.

Steven Payne

Anatomy Sept 2011

Written Assignment

This written assignment will address the key similarities and related themes surrounding human/animal metamorphosis, most notably, the shifts and changes in personality that the transformation brings with it. The primary example being used is the Symbiote from the Spider-Man universe, and how the creature transforms and alters different hosts in various ways (similar to how the fly in both versions of The Fly has radically different effects on two different hosts, if you were to ignore the fact that they are two completely different films, in completely different periods of time). Introduction The Symbiote is a fictitious creature that relies on a host in order to survive (much like the parasitic creature in The Thing). This possession brings with it some generic traits that most hosts experience; enhanced strength, a constant rage-fuelled personality and the ability to alter the hosts form to its will. Although, there are a myriad of changes and alterations that are unique to each different host and these differences in relation to the hosts original personality traits are what will be investigated in this written assignment. In Summary Maind Areas That Will Be Investigated Transformation on an Emotional Level The Effect a Physical Change has on The Mind The Correlation Between the Symbiote and Other Themes in Popular Culture

Steven Payne

Anatomy Sept 2011

Current Project Status

Technical Workshops/Photoshop Digital Painting in Photoshop (So Far) CG Workshops/Maya Intro to Maya Basic Modeling in Maya Body Studies Hand Studies 1, 2 and 3 Film Reviews The Fly, 1958 The Fly, 1986 La Belle et la Bete Creative Partnership Blogger Correspondence Comments from Emma Hi Steven! Really like the way you've approached this and as Phil says some of your ideas look really structural which is a unique and interesting way to take this. I like the idea of the shell armour as the predictable approach would be to stick a shell on top of yourself. #3 and the back of the head on #15 grab my attention as they seem to flow and connect as though your hybrid could be actually exist! on A Small Collection of Thumbnail Sketches (Incomplete) I would say the next stage would be to try and develop the feet and hands some more as even though you have done some work on them they seem to hide behind the abundant body work. Actually... do you need to have hands or feet? If not how would you make the hybrid still seem correct? or if you don't want to take the armour approach...does the shell have to be on your back? on A Small Collection of Thumbnail Sketches (Incomplete) Hi Steven! Really interesting read especially your idea on the theme of devotion and dedication. I couldn't help picking up what you write about Helene having three tasks in order to support Andre. Could you maybe link in the idea of Helene in a patriarchal society impacting on her behaviour and how the metamorphosis of the film is portrayed? Also, like Phil said it may well be useful to find quotes from other sources like reviews, not only do they help make your review flow but they can also help pull those annoying ideas that like to sucker themselves inside your head and refuse to come out easier to defeat. You don't necessarily have to agree with what the reviewer is saying; you may think the complete opposite...but wouldn't this make a nice way to argue your point? :) on The Fly (1958) Film Review

Steven Payne

Anatomy Sept 2011

Hey Steven! I don't know what you mean by spiraling into a horrible mess. I think these are really interesting and capture the forms really well! Like you said it's your first time digital painting so don't think of your pieces as a mess, think of them as a starting point, a place to improve from. Soon you'll be looking back at this post and then you can call it a horrible mess, but one that encouraged you to keep at it. Well I have a few links for you as you said you look forward to the challenge :D First one is to a site where there is a mixture of free and charged video tutorials. The best ones are the digital painting 101 videos which are free woo! http://www.ctrlpaint.com/ http://www.youtube.com/user/FZDSCHOOL This one has loads of digital painting vids, just watching them can be extremely helpful. Think there are silhouette based videos on there too :) You might also be interested in this http://www.vimeo.com/10743423 http://cghub.com/scripts/view/74/ Colour wheel you can on Digital Painting in Photoshop (So Far) Opps another one incase you haven't got it. This isn't just digital painting either. Lots of anatomy talk on there :) http://idrawgirls.blogspot.com/ on Digital Painting in Photoshop (So Far) Comments from Myself wait a second... there was actually something living under all that hair? i thought it was some form of organic tent... on Komondor Research (2) but on a more productive note, good idea working from the inside out, and are you going to go for a natural dog-like stance or take a bipedal approach? as simply altering the stance could change the appearance of your hybrid entirely. On Komondor Research (2) hey emma, loving the skeleton hybrids, they remind me of those crazy fake mermaids found in old victorian sideshows. completely unrelated and probably useless, but still, it sparked that thought in my head for some reason. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiji_mermaid now, on a productive note, are you going to be taking a more human approach to the stance and movement of your hybrid, or a more animalistic angle? an obvious example of a dog-like creature with human mannerisms is Chewbacca. you couldn't get a better example of a human-like dog (other than brian from family guy. clifford the big red dog doesn't really count). you could also incorporate the fur etc as an addition to a traditional human figure, similar to how zulu tribes people use rough furs for clothing. i'm struggling to come up with useful and relevant suggestions, as it seems like you have a million different ways of approaching this! of course, i know you'll develop something impressive and original, can't wait to see how this evolves further! on Initial Thumbnails hey emma, awesome to see where you've taken your skeleton designs, have you tried thinking about a habitat in which your hybrid would live? you could take into account ideas of evolution and how your hybrid's shape would adapt to its environment, lending some additional ideas to the development. you could also look into its survival habits, giving it large claws and sharp teeth for hunting and what not. of course, it will reflect your own personality too, and as far as i know, you don't go around clawing at people and biting their faces, or eating roadkill or whatever, so this may not be an 100% accurate representation of yourself.

Steven Payne

Anatomy Sept 2011

anyway, enough babbling from me, throw some more stuff up on here, i want to see where you go with this!!! on More Thumbnails: Photoshop Week 2

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