CG Artist Toolkit: Master Studies

My Master Studies digital paintings from Jordan's lesson. I feel as if I am slowly improving with my digital painting skills and becoming more familiar and comfortable with different brushes. This will help my with my final concept pieces of my chosen city of Esmeralda.

Space Oddities: Metropolis (1927) Film Review

When thinking of the original impact films that paved the way for today's cinematic industry it would be impossible to overlook Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis' (1927). Just from viewing this film you can see how actions and techniques where used in some of today's most influential films. When trying to describe the plot of the movie and what it is about this can be challenging to an extent as there is such confusion yet understanding. As Rodger Ebert said "The movie has a plot that defies common sense, but its very discontinuity is a strength. It makes "Metropolis" hallucinatory--a nightmare without the reassurance of a steadying story line." Rodger Ebert (1998). The film has an underlying eeriness about it which makes it a horror / sci-fi. There are no visually scary moments that will make you jump out of your seat with your heart pounding through your chest, rather it is a fear that you will feel deep within you when contemplating the idea of a Metropolis.






fig 1.




One of the most impressive features of this film is the set of the Metropolis. When watching it we can see clearly that the sets are not just simply 2d matte paintings, rather then actual buildings. To create this effect of having a real Metropolis city Lang used model sets and camera trickery to make these visually enticing sets (fig 2). Making it appear that a city, which would be extremely futuristic for the time of production, to be of a full scale and extremely realistic for the time. Due to this it could be said that Lang is one of the pioneers in special effects along with Robert Wiene.









fig 2


As beautiful as we see Metropolis conveyed as the big futuristic city with sky scrapers and roads on different levels, there is another level of the city that is much darker and is what brings in the eeriness of this movie. The other part of the city is a workers city which is underneath the Metropolis. The reasoning for this workers city is to keep Metropolis running. The heartless big company owner, Jon Frederson, has no regards for this city which lies underneath his Metropolis other then it is needed to keep his city running. The workers within the city are stuck on repetitive paths of life having 10 hour shifts on and off. From the first scene you see these men who are forced to work are shells of people who have nothing to live for apart from attending work. This is one of the aspects that gives the film its eeriness as it shows the two different aspects of this amazing city. Above the surface everything is beautiful with incredible structures and buildings, where on the other hand there are people who have no lives and are forced to run the city below it in the depths and darkness. This could be said to show the two different sides of things and how nothing can be perfect without a dark side. As Nev Price said "With its immense sets and stark lighting, the workers' city is a credible image of hell, while the overground landscapes were a seminal influence on all subsequent science fiction." (Nev Price 2003)










Fig 3.


Another aspect of this film that particuarly stands out is the story line with the character Maria. We see two sides of Maria, well of her body that is. When we first see her the main character, Freder, she is portrayed as a beautiful woman who is kind and loving. We can see this from the way she is looking after children and the way in which she moves, soft and elegantly. But later in the film we can see how Lang's plot comes into play with Maria.When she is kidnapped by the sinister inventor Rotwang. When being kidnapped we see the iconic scene of her being chased by the inventor but this is represented in her running through dark catacombs but the only light is from a spotlight being shined by the inventor. Lang used a combination of dramatic music and lighting a long with exaggerated movements from the actress to portray the fear that should be felt during the chase. The inventor then uses Maria to create an evil version to manipulate men. The part of this that stands out the most of this is the movements by the evil Maria. To show the difference between the two we can see that evil Maria has very jerky movements almost appearing as stop motion, whereas the original is still elegant and smooth with her movements. As said by Rodger Ebert "The good Maria, always bathed in light, seems to be the caretaker of the worker's children" Compared to the evil version manipulating men with her "The lascivious dance of the false Maria, as the workers look on, the screen filled with large, wet, staring eyeballs." (Rodger Ebert 2010)






Overall we can see a lot of political messages behind Metropolis with many people saying that Lang's personality came through with this film trying to portray the injustices within society at the time.






References:


Rodger Ebert (1998) - http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-metropolis-1927


Nev Pierce (2003) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/01/06/metropolis_1927_review.shtml


Rodger Ebert (2010) - http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-metropolis-2010-restoration-1927


Fig 1 - http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BNDAzNTkyODg1MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMDA3NDkwMDE@._V1_SX214_AL_.jpg


Fig 2 - https://flavorwire.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/metro1.jpg


Fig 3 - http://www.rowthree.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Metropolis-workers.jpg

Invisible Cities - Online Greenlight Review

Invisible Cities - OGR

Life Drawing class

Invisible cities 65 - 94

Thumbnail 65 is a shot of Zirma trying to convey the girl walking the puma but I found trying to draw the animal rather difficult. Thumbnail 66 is of Moriana and the girls dancing under the chandelier. thumbnails 67 - 69 are of Esmerelda, 67 is showing if you arrive to the city by boat. Image 68 is a above shot of the city and 69 is showing a gondola going down the canals. Thumbnail 70 is of a suspension bridge in Phyllis.

Thumbnails 71 - 73 are of Phyllis showing the different bridges and the use of barges. Thumbnail 74 is an interior shot of Esmeralda and looking out onto the canal through a window. Thumbnails 75 and 76 are trying to convey the bamboo and zinc houses of Zenobia.

Thumbnails 77 and 78 are of Argia. I found it difficult to try and convey the presence of dirt everywhere. Image 79 is of a statue in Diomira. Thumbnail 80 is an interior shot of Octavia with the hammocks. 81 and 82 are two different imagery I could visualize when thinking of the secret garden pool in Anastasia.

Thumbnails 83 - 84 are of Despina, one approaching the city wall from the sand and the other from a boat. Images 85 and 86 are of Thekla trying to show all the scaffolding outside a building and then a shot of an empty building with tools in it. Images 87 and 88 are one way in which I visualized the houses in Octavia to look like.

Thumbnail 89 is of Esmeralda showing the bridges of the different levels. Thumbnail 90 is another shot of Anastasia secret garden and pool. Thumbnail 91 is a shot of a skyscraper in Zenobia but from the bottom of the building. Thumbnail 92 is another shot of Esmeralda with the bridges going from different levels of the city. Images 93 - 94 are long shots of Octavia showing the huts attached to the spider webb like structure.

Invisible cities thumbnails 35 - 64

 When producing these thumbnails I realised that painting in colour, although making the images more appealing, is a lot more time consuming as I am spending a lot of time trying to decide what colour should be used for what. If I continued like this I would have been in a bad place as I would be very behind I believe. I still feel as if I need to improve my skills both drawing and digital painting but I do believe I am slowly improving.

Images 35 and 36 are of Zirma, one of the cobblestone street and the other of a lunatic internal shot. Image 37 is an internal shot looking out the window of Ersilla. 38 - 39 are of Zenobia with the houses on bamboo stilts. And thumbnail 40 is of Tamara.

Images 41 - 42 are of Leonia, I was trying to represent the plastic coating over the side walk and all new items in a bathroom but I did find this a bit difficult and think the thumbnails are a bit unclear. Thumbnails 43 - 44 are of Thekla trying to show the scaffolding and construction taking place past the plank fence. 45 -46 are of Diomera with 46 an attempt at an internal shot but I have found internal shots rather difficult to convey.

Image of Tamara, I have found it rather difficult trying to portray this city, it is supposed to be a front shot of a store with the scale sign above it. Image 48 is of Armila trying to show the porcelain bathtubs and sinks left behind. Thumbnails 49 and 50 are of Ovtavia showing the bridges and beams from the mountain supporting the city. Images 51 and 52 are of Moriana showing the serpentine encrusted columns and also behind the big rusting metal wall.

Image 53 is a shot of houses along the canal in Anastasia. Images 54 - 56 are of Phyllis, I particularly like this city as there are so many different possibilities with the bridges. Image 57 is of Ersilla looking down from the mountains onto the city and image 58 is a thumbnail of looking down one of the winding streets in Esmerelda

Thumbnails 59 - 60 are internal shots of Fedora inside the building which is a 'museum of orbs'. Images 61- 62 are of Isura, the city of wells. Image 63 is an internal shot of Sophronia, trying to show the two different halfs of the city. Thumbnail 64 is  of Esmerelda, showing a bridge at the end of the street crossing a canal.

Invisible Cities: Images 17 - 34

Images 17 - 18 are of Isaura, the city of wells. Images 19 - 20 are of Phyllis. Images 21 -22 are of Armilla

Images 23 - 24 are of Baucis, with image 23 being a long shot of the city on stilts and image 24 being an internal shot looking down to the earth. Images 25 - 26 are of Ersilla.

Images 27 and 30 are of Sophronia. Images 28 - 29 are of Argia with 29 being an internal shot of the stairs filled with dirt.

Images 31 - 33 are of Fedora with 32 being an internal shot of the crystal globe. Image 34 is Moriana with the light hitting the transparent gate.