Wednesday 29 September 2010

Maya Dice Project

Progression

Got my dice modelled

This is where i thought i ran into a problem. My texture UV looked nothing like Alan's so i thought something was wrong. I asked around the room for help but was encouraged to start again. I've never used Maya before but I knew there must be another way round this apart from starting again so i looked at the picture properly. I realised that what i had was basically the same thing, but a bit jumbled up. The outer square and the first inner square was in the right place but the other smaller squares were just out of place (they are what line the top of the picture).

I came up with a theory that i thought i would try before just giving up and starting over. My idea was to put the white dots over the squares in the dice and over the misplaced squares, then it should come out the way its supposed to.


This was how it  looked after i placed all the dots and hid the template



Walaah! I've textured my dice




This is how the final product looks. Ive added a "Chickens and Ladders" texture to the plane.

Thursday 23 September 2010

The Fly (1986) Review

After watching the original fly movie we watched the remake, made by David Cronenberg.

This fly movie was made in 1986 and was a remake to the old predecessor made in 1956. Straight away I noticed the change of visual style. I was pleased that the film didn't look old because it helped me really get into it.



 
                                    




                                             1986

                   1958                                                                                                        


Also from quite early on i saw that they made some changes to the story. I.e. In the original the first teleportation experiments were a saucer, a cat and a guinea pig, but in the second they teleported a baboon. In the remake Brundle is not married and he is not geeky, which he is in the original.

I really thought they took this film to another level compared to the first film. The first fly movie was more about emotions with no gore involved, while the second movie was one of Cronenbergs best gore movies. I also think they put a lot more thought into the transformation of Brundle and it shows. Unlike the original they considered the timeframe of the transformation, how he would look at different stages, how a human fly hybrid might actually look etc.

"The poster for The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971) used the memorable line "Love Means Never Having To Say You're Ugly". That sentiment is taken to the limit in David Cronenberg's stunning remake of the 1958 sci-fi favourite. His version of The Fly is in a genre of its own - a romantic gorefest and a genuinely touching one at that."
This quote from urbancinefile.com pretty much sums the main factors of the film. It combines gruesome scenes of a man slowly becoming a fly, with a romantic love story which puts the limits of ones love for another to the test together in one film, and makes it work together fantastically! I think in terms of Quaife's role in the film, the moral of this story would be along the lines of "love isnt just what you see on the outside, but its what you see on the inside that counts most".  As for Brundles case i think it was just a common act of fatal imprudence towards Quaife. You see a lot of this in horror films, along with karma coming back to haunt someone.




"Few of The Fly's scares are of the booga-booga variety: On the commentary track, Cronenberg calls the film an "operatic" love story, so the true horror comes from the scientist gradually receding from himself and the woman he loves."
I agree with what is said here. Its not a "booga-booga" type of film at all, there are no mindless acts of violence or killing, unlike Michael Myers Halloween for example (although that still is a pretty good film). The horrors of this film derives from the great depth it has, and also its good storyline.

"The major quarrel that I have with The Fly isn't with its premise or stomach-turning gore. It's that the characters are inconsistent. John Getz as Davis' boyfriend in particular changes from a jealous jerk into a courageous supporter. Davis never has any physical fear of Brundlefly, and she returns to both Getz and Goldblum despite their previously disturbing behavior."
I do not agree with what this reviewer has said. Just because a characters personality in a film may change doesnt necessarily make them "inconsistant". Everyone changes a little bit sometime in their lifes and in terms of the film, if nobody changed then the film wouldnt work. There are countless films where heroes have become villians, good have become bad etc, but most of these changes happen for certain reasons ( e.g. realisation) which are incorporated into the story to actually make a story.
Now lets talk about this point in relation to the fly. Yes John Getz changes from being a jerk to a courageous supporter, but where do you think the drive to become this came from? The same goes with Davis not being scared of Brundlefly, why do you think this is? The answer to both these questions are simple, LOVE. If you watched the film you would know that Brundle wasn't always a fly, he was a normal human being who was in love with Veronica Quaife. Quaife also loved Brundle so although the sight of Brundle being half mutated into a fly may have frightened her a little bit, she wasn't just going to run for the hills and never see him again. This film has been thought of a lot by viewers as a love story with a horrific twist that tests the limits of Quaifes love for Brundle despite whats happened.



As for John Getz im sure its obvious by now why he tries to save Quaifes life, because he loves her. As the saying goes, love makes you do crazy things for that person, so being courageus enough to do what he did (which may have been out of character for him) to save Quaife was an act of love!



At that i will round this off by saying that I really did enjoy this film more then the original. It was well structured, told a good story and had all the horrific effects for it to be classed a horror film.

Wednesday 22 September 2010

More Haliaeetus Leucocephalus research

Im starting to look at the structure of the eagle to get more insight to how its body functions. Im finding it hard to find a picture of the full skeleton but here are a few of the eagles key features




Image


After hours and hours and HOURS of looking more indepth i finally found some informative articles about the eagles bones, including pictures of the skeleton.

Parts of a Bird. - 1. Skeleton. 2. Nictitating Membrane. 3. Brain. 4. Sternum or Breast Bone.

Bald Eagles are primarily fish eaters that prefer salmon, however they do also eat small prey such as rabbits, seabirds, mice, carrion (dead or decaying fish) or anything else that is easy to obtain. Their lifting power is about 4 pounds. An eagle hunts from high in the sky, scanning the area below with its keen eye. When the eagle spots something in the grass or a fish floating near the water surface it will glide down and snatch its prey with a quick swipe. Sometimes the eagle will grab a fish which is too heavy and will be dragged into the water, this is because the eagle refuses to release it. Bald eagles are actually strong swimmers but it will drown if it cannot overcome its prey or swim far enough to reach the shore, it cannot fly straight out of the water.

Breast bone and Wing of an eagle


2038). The anterior extremity of a bird, although an instrument of flight, is found, when stripped of those feathers and long quills that form the extensive surface presented by this member during life, still closely to adhere to the general type in accordance with which this part of the skeleton is invariably constructed. The framework of the shoulder exhibits the scapula (fig. 355,b), the clavicle (d), and the cora-coid element (c), notwithstanding that these bones, forming, as they do, the basis of a limb so vigorous, and wielded by such powerful muscles, are necessarily modified in their form and general arrangement, so as to constitute strong buttresses adapted to keep the shoulder-joint firm and steady during flight. The scapula (b) is a long and slender bone placed upon the ribs, and lying parallel to the spine along the dorsal region of the thorax, imbedded in the muscles to which it gives attachment, while at its fixed extremity it assists in forming the cavity of the shoulder-joint. The coracoid bone (c) is the great support of the shoulder; for while at one extremity it sustains the wing, at the opposite it is firmly and securely united to the sternum by a broad articulation. But the most peculiar element of this apparatus is the furculum, or forked bone (d), composed of the conjoined clavicles, which, being anchylosed together in the mesial line, and also strongly connected with the shoulder-joint, materially add to the stability of the whole.
(2039). In the wing itself, the humerus (f) is at once recognized, as also the ulna (g) and the radius (h.) But in some birds, as in the Penguin, the student might be at a loss to identify one or two small bones (p), forming a kind of patella to the elbow-joint; these appear to be the representatives of the olecranon process detached from the ulna. The carpus (i) consists of only two small bones. The metacarpus is formed of two pieces (k, I), anchylosed together at their two extremities; and these, with two, or in some cases three rudimental fingers, complete the wing. The largest finger consists of two, or sometimes three phalanges (m, o); a second (n) offers but a single joint; and the third, which is a mere rudiment when present, is an appendage to the radial side of the carpus.

References:


Bald Eagle Pictures:-


Monday 20 September 2010

The Fly Review

Today we watched a film called "The Fly" to help us with our metamorphosis project. Here is my review of the film.


                                                        
The Fly is a 1958 horror movie starring David Hedison as Seth Brundle, the enthusiastic scientist. He is always hard at work on his latest invention, a teleportation pod, which he is very excited about. After having several successful experiments with teleporting objects and a guinea pig, Brundle gets a bit ahead of himself and gets into the pod to teleport himself! Carelessly he gets in without checking to see if he's the only one inside. This is where the style of the movie changes from a happy family movie to a gruesome horror flick.



I have mixed views about this film. A few things I liked about it were that it wasn’t just your typical blood-splatting-everywhere type or horror movie, it had imagination which made a good twist of the story.  It introduced the audience to the characters first in order to get some insight into how they live normally; this can make the audience feel a sense of attachment to the characters, which in turn makes the climax of the film all the better.
I would say the film was a love story/comedy which brought in the horror factor that would ultimately test how much Geena loved Brundle.

“But as anyone who has seen the Price version knows, the film is dated, campy, filled with bad science and even worse lines. More than anything, it was the great idea that made the movie a classic”
                                                                     
I partly agree with this quote- yes the film is dated and filled with bad science, but the science of the film isn’t the reason people came to watch it. People don’t read the film breakdown and go “Oh this film is about a teleportation pod, maybe I shall watch this so I can go home and make my own!” now do they? The characters all played their parts convincingly enough to make them believable to the naked eye e.g. the scientist’s theories and explanations of his findings.
Anyway I also agree that it was probably the idea overall that made this film a classic, but I do think this reviewer should be more appreciative and not so harsh.



“The scientific basis of this movie is pure rubbish, as there is no way that insect and human parts could biologically interact with each other. The result of such a mixture would be instantly dead in real life.”- Author drmality-1

This film was written from imagination and creativity, this was Kurt Neumann’s take of what a half man half fly hybrid would be like. I wouldn’t for one second believe that a fly could actually be fused with a human being, unless perhaps I was a child (which most likely wouldn’t be allowed to watch this film anyway). I think this person looked upon this a bit too seriously.

What I didn’t like about the movie is the ending. If it was made in the world of today it would probably have had a sadder ending (since it IS a horror movie.) The end was basically too happy. Yes, even though the mutated fly did get devoured uncle still got what he wanted and Geena didn’t get locked up!

This was a quote from classic-horror.com talking about some similarities The Fly has with another film of the era called “Edgar Allen Poe”:-

“The similarity means that you’re not going to see buckets of blood throughout the film, and there’s not a high body count. There also aren’t literal lurking monsters present most of the time. Instead, there’s a gradual, entrapping progression into an amazingly intriguing and literate story, told primarily through the eyes of an innocent bystander (Francois), and a profound horror in the psychological implications of a tragic series of events. That might rule out some horror fans right away, even fans of the Cronenberg Fly.”

I agree with this statement which is why I will say the film wasn’t really for me. I think this is mostly because it’s just too outdated for me; I’m used to the stuff of today. I would have enjoyed it more if I watched it in the era when it was released. Also I don’t think it really lived up to its genre, being horror, because throughout the film there was not one bit that scared me. The reviewer whoo i quoted just above says this point would rule out horror fans right away which wouldn’t surprise me too much. Horror is generally about seeing blood, gore, zombies and tragic events so without this, what are we watching exactly?

Overall I would rate this film a 6/10.
            

Sunday 19 September 2010

Haliaeetus Leucocephalus

Heres the animal I have for my project. Introducing....
 THE BALD EAGLE!!



The Bald Eagle is mainly found in North America but is originally bred in Alaska and Canada. They base themselves anywhere in North America which has enough trees and feeding ground for them to set up their nests and hunt. However they also need to be near open water. Bald eagles are partially migratory. If they have access to open water then they will stay at the nesting sight year round. If the do not have access to water leave the countryside in the winter and migrate south or to the coast. They usually migrate between 8:00am and 6:00pm to take advantage of updrafts, thermals and food sources.
                                             HELLO EVERYONE

Yes yes i know i've been very very quite on here and i appologise for that. I've been trying to get used to this blogging thing slowly and steadily and im finally going to make my first post, YAY.

Ok so we have been given our first brief last Friday, which is quite an exciting one to me.

Creative Project:

Following an unfortunate accident with your teleportation pod, you have been spliced genetically with an animal (the precise identity of which will be revealed at time of briefing). You are now an extraordinary hybrid!    o.O
You are challenged to record your metamorphosis by producing a full-figure self-portrait, painted digitally using Photoshop and graphics tablet. Please note - image manipulation of photographs is disallowed. Your self-portrait must be drawn/painted.

The creatures which were going to be revealed at the briefing were so...in a mysterious box. o.o
The box contained folded up pieces of paper which we had to randomly choose, the name of our creature was on it. There was a little twist however. The names were written in Latin.....so we had to go and look up what the thing was to discover what animal we had. Mine was called Haliaeetus Leucocephalus, which translates as Bald Eagle ( Andriana you were quite right :p)

After watching all the work the 2nd and 3rd years had to display for us (which some I was a bit surprised at how much they had excelled) and listening to Phils breakdown of the course, i headed straight for my FREE BURGER.

Aswell as eating I found this a good opportunity to get talking with some of the class I hadnt spoken to yet, and what funny conversations we all ended up having.

I will soon post up what i have for my project