What If? Metropolis Travelogue

What if? Metropolis Cities and Cycles by Georgia Nicole Betteridge on Scribd">

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Looking at Primary Colours, Flow, Shutter Speed, Motion etc..

What If Metropolis? @Phil

Any advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

So I started thinking about the fact that the city needs rotation,orbit,trying to think bigger and the city/citys being off the ground.. balance ( influences of Calder he looked at the circus when he did wire sculptures and I took inspiration from his shapes too. ) not trying to define too much here in terms of the buildings..just where things are or what it could be like. . I was thinking about getting influence from 2001 A space odyssey/The Jetsons or the 1970s  if I found it hard for ideas..and looking at calder more. I was also thinking about trying to draw in my sketchbook and then paint with assets like before..

Flash: Halloween Bat

First Ideas for What If Metropolis?@Phil

Things to consider:

Alexander Calder looks at Balance 

Suspended Shapes/Structures
Kinetic- The idea of movement form touch or air currents.
Made Wire Figures
Drawings made in Space
Circus Works..Bright Colours

Parisian Avant Garde

Forest? Or Industrial
Abstract

What I have been looking at as reference:

Floating Tree Houses

Container Houses

(Any Advice and opinion would be greatly appreciated) 

Life Drawing session

First off we did a turnaround where I used different lines and tried to get a more 3d look.  

Next was the leaning pose where we had to establish weight I tried to be looser with these and add colour. 

The last pose i had to think about perspective and the face, hands and feet. Which I'm going to try to develop on.

2001: A Space Odyssey Film Review

2001: A Space Odyssey-Film Review (1968)

Realism

This film was created before the Nasa Moon Landing and because of this Conspiracy Theories were formed around this, as there is not known if they're has been another visit to the moon people said that Stanley Kubrick produced this due to how good in terms of realism Stanley used Optical Effects (no cgi) and use of Physical Sets and Models that were done in such a specific way for example the designing would have taken a lot of influence and the technical drawings from the fact that Kubrick hired aerodynamic space engineers, product designers, interior designers these different specialisms helped when it came to imagining an exciting future look on what ongoing development of our technology would be like. for example the switch panels. "There is not a single moment, in this long film, when the audience can see through the props. The stars look like stars and outer space is bold and bleak."-(Ebert,1968) This detail and precaution doesn't allow the audience to be taken out of this world. The Film has a monolith and this depicts the time its also the most celebrated monument of cinema ."Who put the monolith there? Kubrick never answers, for which I suppose we must be thankful"- (Ebert, 1968 )

The reason I like this quote is because it has a sense of realism..we don't know whats out there and we have a code of enigma about the future or what is out of our reach. Kubrick makes us wait.......by making things slower or feeling slower this is another realism factor and makes us feel like we ourselves are the ones travelling because space travel and gravity have this effect.

 I can understand his motives. If his space vehicles move with agonizing precision, wouldn't we have laughed if they'd zipped around like props on "Captain Video"?- (Ebert,1968) I like this quote because it shows how important things were constructed in terms of movement or timing to be believable. Narrative ponders our existence and how we continue to develop from the very beginning Dawn of Man all the way to seeing the embryo opposite from the earth. There is also the idea of the technology having too much responsibility for mankind. After watching this film I realised how beautifully made each shot is kind of reminded me of Grand Budapest Hotel because the shots are evenly balanced and obsessive almost especially known for the one point perspectives the film almost gets you to just sit and admire.

This film is also not really outdated as Kubrick was ahead of his time and part of this was because of the realism incorporated.

Bibliography

Ebert, R. (2017). 2001: A Space Odyssey Movie Review (1968) | Roger Ebert. [online] Rogerebert.com. Available at: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/2001-a-space-odyssey-1968 

Digital Painting Robin and Lorry

In our digital painting session with Jordan we had two things we had to find a common correlation between the two. I got a Robin and a Bin Lorry. A Bin Lorry processes waste and is seen as communal which is why I used the blue... and Robins are a gardeners friend. So here I have tried to mix the idea of organic shapes a robin would have and mechanics of a lorry so there is a mixture of shapes. The front is from the idea of the Chest gets the shape for the cockpit and the part where the lights are. The other idea was to have it like a hovercraft as robins fly and maybe some kind of signal or loud noise or bright colour. The back part where the hydraulics are is intended to be like the beak of a robin ( part where the rubbish goes. ) Also what kind of weather this could be made for as Robins are Winter Birds. Also looked into trying to draw the blue one more 3d in a box and also some various views and silhouettes to break down the shapes. These were the outcomes

Maya Rendering ( Directional Light )

Today in Simons Lesson we made a Blinn and made it look Reflective like a mirror ( Glass )

To get a more realistic look we had to look at Refractive Index and change the limit.
We also uploaded a file onto it for the reflection.

The Chrome effect was done by adding blue.

Today we added directional light on to the polygonal spheres and rendered by using the film gate so you can select the area that you want to see, we then had to make the shadows not have a grain to them by changing the raytrace to 24. Here we also put down The Checkered PlaneP.

These were the outcomes for the different shaders e.g.  Thongs ( used a lot in video games ) Blinns and Lamberts, RampShade.

When Rendering we were using Maya Software.

Just like the chrome we also did gold.

These were added by using HyperShade.

Invisible Cities: Crit Presentation

Invisible Cities Crit Presentation by Georgia Nicole Betteridge on Scribd

Invisible Cities:(3)Build up Gifs

Establishing Shot

Street View Shot 

Interior Shot

Thekla: (Gradients)Street View

Life Drawing Session

Continuous line drawing of Continuous motion

 Looking at Character  

Thekla: (Gradients) Interior shot

Invisible Cities ideas for interior angles/shots (1 of 3)

(In progress would be more cluttered to the left etc with construction resources..

Here I have been trying to get an idea of an interior of the architects workspace and the builders. 

I looked at the reference of a warehouse to get this and the conveyer belt gave me the idea of putting the models of the big structural project/s they have been thinking about and how many times they could have repeated this process. The model at the bottom however is broken foreshadowing that the project is doomed to fail and end in conflict. Im also trying to think about how it would be in motion..the conveyer belt with models maybe lots of ideas could be thrown away or just left the people are like sleep deprived, stressed etc crossed out blueprints ripped ones..I tried to give the sense that even this building is still in construction and the people are nowhere near their goal. theres a sense of repetition and continuation so you get an idea it could be a big room without showing all of it and I'm trying to think about liveliness even without the people like a sense they have been in there. And thinking about how to show a story in a picture about that place. I thought of metropolis when I drew the conveyer belt as I reminds me of the whole machines operating and constant work etc..I might rotate or do a stranger angle to make it more uneasy/chaotic or unstable looking.

This is a more simple interior but it gives the sense of a catwalk with ladders and how it looks old by mixing in the post war look into the ruined walls and the hole in the roof etc.. I am trying to mix the modern (today construction and past influence of post-war in the spaces this kind of unfinished space. 
I was thinking that drawing all the angles will give me a sense of what is believable for a structure or the story and I was going to paint into the better ones on photoshop to get the style to match how I see the world to get the balance id like also the colours before but looser and look at some tutorials on painting. Any advice or feedback would be great. And also I'm trying to figure out what I need in the drawing and what I don't. :]

Metropolis: Review

METROPOLIS-1927 REVIEW 

Fritz Lang is the director of this Science Fiction Drama Film (Hybrid Genre ) who worked along side his wife Thea Von Harbou who wrote the screen-play and novelisation. This Silent movie was created in Germany and was set in a futuristic urban distopia However he didn't seem to like what his wife had done,they separated and she joined the neo-nazi revolution. One interesting part about this film is its social/historical context it includes.

"This vision of plutocracy vs. labor would have been powerful in an era when the assembly line had been introduced on a large scale and Marx had encouraged class warfare."- (Ebert, 2010)

After Watching Metropolis i noticed that the lower class was working for the higher class as they made Jon Fredersons Metropolis for him and then were disregarded and used as slaves whilst his son Freder tried to help these depressed half humane people by giving them work hour breaks underground all of the mechanics are done by hand and the feelings of exhaustion and Industrialisation by using smoke and time continuation and showing how people go crazy. Freder is the go-between the sympathetic character that shows what doesn't work with the system., Religious References and Communist messages are also included in the film.
The Set is done really well as it includes the tower of Babel which is a myth/legend which follows the idea of the creators wanting to reach the stars but the building never got built due to misunderstandings and conflicts between them and there is also gothic areas in terms of religion. Also how these different buildings that show these ideologies from the high dominion and indulgence of what people imagine of consumerist quality with spotlights and music that seeks entertainment.

Bauhaus,Cubist,Futurist and Art Deco designs are clearly used in Metropolis to provide the aesthetic appeal with its miniatures. Which is seen as rather impressive and practical for the way the machine age was shown. The setting also has a Pathetic Fallacy to it when it look drudgery -industrial it looks like the way the workers must feel on the other hand it can look how the owner feels proud an indulged even though he used slave labour.

Metropolis resembles H G Wells Time Machine by the leisure of this city for the higher class but the fact that the workers are downtrodden and actually acts as a worry of what could happen in the future if put in the wrong hands The German Expressionism suits well because of the Neo Nazi Party that was taking place at the time and Hitler was actually reported to be a big fan of the film.

The Dr Frankenstein, Avante Garde professor, CA Rotwang creates the Machine Man, Bridgette Helm. influenced the character C3PO in Star Wars and the film In general could be argued the first science fiction film, it influenced others like Blade Runner.. and as a women Bridgette was represented as a damsel in distress sexist view when she is abducted and replicated to become the aesthetic of the robot in the film and later becomes sexually objectified when the men are drooling over her, she winks her eye or subjectively you could say she becomes empowered in terms of manipulating and deceiving the workers into destroying the work they had done in hopes that they will all flood themselves. She also has these two sides shown of her one of that of a sign of hope an angel type figure then the other version a devil robot.

You could say that this film that's ideology is that society's technology is what actually drives or controls the development of the social structure and cultural views or values This is called Technological determinism which is a reductionist theory, However Lang saw his movie as anti authoritarian see quote:

Freder: "Of where they belong?...In the deeps? ...And if those in the deeps one day rise against you?"-(Rotten Tomatoes, Film Quotes 1927) 

Ironically the Nazis liked the film and offered him control of their own film industry so he went to America and the ideas in Metropolis are kind of echoed in "Triumph of the Will" (1935) a pro-Hitler film by Leni Reifenstahl.

"Maria/Robot: The mediator of the head and the hands must be the heart."- Metropolis 1927 quotes ( Rotten Tomatoes Film Quotes 1927 )

Right at the very end of the film the two forces end up becoming equal and work together as if a statement about conflict that arises from industry and rebellion. The Anti-Humanism could be to emphasise how fighting against each other in terms of that power is wrong. and Anti-Science could be trying to show what is included in conflict and the impact the dictators actions have on the rest and that science is not political,conservative,liberal..its more neutral and that's how the right system should balance out to have more peace.

Bibliography

Ebert, R. (2017). Metropolis Movie Review & Film Summary (1927) | Roger Ebert. [online] Rogerebert.com. Available at: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-metropolis-1927 [Accessed 12 Oct. 2017].

I.makeagif.com. (2017). Cite a Website - Cite This For Me. [online] Available at: https://i.makeagif.com/media/10-31-2015/npObJ_.gif [Accessed 12 Oct. 2017].

Thumbs.gfycat.com. (2017). Cite a Website - Cite This For Me. [online] Available at: https://thumbs.gfycat.com/FriendlyBeneficialKawala-max-1mb.gif [Accessed 12 Oct. 2017].