At the moment for my thumbnails, I'm trying to stay relatively loose and somewhat abstract. To do this I've been just trying to draw forms based on emotions rather than using too many reference photos just yet. While it may not be obvious what things are exactly yet, I think I'm getting some interesting results. At the moment my focus is on getting across certain feelings and emotions rather than drawing too specific of an object or thing. Out of these, there's something about #9 I like and I feel it has more emotion than some of the other thumbnails I've made so far.
After focusing on the infographic, I wanted to try to get back into my Adaptation B project. I recall being told to try free association writing, which I have done already in my notebooks. I looked back over them and the notes I took after some tutorials and I decided to try out some free association sketching. It may be a bit difficult to see what is going on in them (especially the pen sketch as I could not erase and redo things) but here they are, I think there are some aspects of them that are interesting and I think I may continue doing drawings like this for a little while just to see what happens.
After making the front view of the Frankenstein Monster, I wanted to make a profile view so he could fit in the bathtub. I also put the lightning rod in the tub and I painted some water to see what it would look like. I also decided to make a version of the head where the eyes are closed, so when we first see the head, the viewer knows he is dead. I want his eyes to open after the lightning strikes the tub, and I also made a subtle happy and angry expression. I made this so when he has a name, he is happy...but when the name tag disappears he becomes angry and confused. I think I'll probably cut out the eyes so I can move the eyes around, then I think I can start animating.
Here are some thumbnails of the monster itself. I'm quite happy with how he came out, I struggled a little bit with the face but I don't want it to be too realistic, I want it to look like something is slightly off since he is undead. I also separated the body parts and added in some fleshy bits for different parts of my infographic. He still needs a few touch ups, but overall I think he's coming out ok. I have to also make a profile view from the chest up for when he is in the bathtub.
As I was making the metal rod for my infographic, I found it a bit dull since it was essentially just a line that looked metallic. To make it more interesting, I had a better look at some lightning rods to see what other things I could add to it. I think these are far more interesting to look at than my initial idea was, I think my favourites are #36 and #37.
Here are a few bathtub thumbnails I've made for my infographic, I wanted to focus on some old fashion/gothic/victorian style bathtubs for my designs. Most of them are clawfoot tubs but I also wanted to include one that was slightly different as I felt that maybe something that was less fancy would make more sense for what my infographic is about. I also wanted to include some designs that were more grimy, so perhaps I could have the bathtub show up clean in the 'what you will need' portion of the video but when the body is in the tub waiting to be shocked back to life, I could have it be more dirty. I'm not quite sure which one I prefer the most, I think I'm leaning more towards #29/#33 and #30/#34. I can also mix and match the bottom clawfoot pieces onto different tubs as I made them on separate layers.
Today I focused on making a few different styles of thermometer for the part of my infographic that suggests a room temperature to prevent the body parts from decaying too fast. I decided to include one that was a meat thermometer as well instead of one that would be hanging on a wall. I also wanted to experiment how they would look if they were more dirty like how I did with my name tag thumbnails. I think I prefer the cleaner versions, but I think it'd depend on which one I chose to use...I think the grimy meat thermometer would work better than the clean ones but I prefer the rest of them clean. I think my favourite thumbnails are #20 and #27. I'm also quite happy how I painted the metal considering how difficult metal can be to draw/paint.
Today I made a variety of shovels so I could see what sort of shapes I liked and what different handles I could have. I think my favourites are #16 and #18 but I also like the handle on #17 so I may combine them.
I wanted to make a speedpainting using my old artwork and some thumbnails I've made so far for reference. I wanted it to be more painterly, like how my old artwork used to be when I hand painted it. I also used this painting to try out a few new brushes that I haven't used before. I quite like the results and I hope to make some more thumbnails and speedpaintings soon.
For the final step of 'building a DIY Frankenstein monster', my infographic recommends giving the creature a proper name. I thought that making a 'Hello my name is' tag would be a good visual to accompany this step. I mostly stuck to the typical rectangle shape but I also tested out some rounder shapes. I quite like #13 and #14 because 'my name is' is below the grey border and makes it look more interesting than it all being white lettering.
I've begun to make some assets for my infographic. I wanted to see what different types of needle shapes may work best considering it's meant to be used for sewing together body parts. I looked at some surgical needles but I've also drawn more straight needles just to experiment. I've also made my own Periodic Table of Elements so it fit with the rest of the fonts/designs. Since my main font does not contain numbers, I've been using a different font for the numbers that I think still matches reasonably well. My main font also does not really have lower case letters, so I decided to look at how the table would look with both my main font and the font I've been using for numbers. I quite like both but I think I prefer the one using my main font even if the lower case letters is just a slightly smaller version of the upper case letters.
After watching the animation Ego, I wanted to brainstorm and see what sort of real life locations I could possibly start my story/animation in. Out of my ideas I feel like I'm preferring a bedroom simply because it's a place that is normally a place of comfort and security. I feel that it suddenly turning into this unwelcoming trap or mental space could be interesting, something to show how some people feel so trapped in their own security if that makes sense. I felt that bathrooms were too common in the horror genre, and a hospital room may not have as much impact because it's already a relatively cold, scary location for many people. Again, these are just early ideas and I'm going to continue exploring.
I've watched some tutorials in VR/AR/MR on Lynda.com and I've learned some things that I think will be useful because I wouldn't have considered them immediately such as ensuring things are at real life scale, the height of the character and the width of doorways to feel like the viewer has shoulder/head space that feels real. I'm also considering looking more into a 180° animation vs a 360° animation simply because I'm not sure if I'd be able to lock the viewer into place so they could see what was going on, but I'm also not sure if this would matter or if there were other ways of ensuring the viewer is looking at things at the right time. I'm not sure if using VR to have a sort of first person experience without turning your head would be enhanced by VR that much or if there is a way to at least limit how far the viewer can turn.. Alternatively I could see if I could learn how to make events so they happen when they are looked at but I'm not quite sure how to do this, but I have time to consider options as I develop my idea, I may be overthinking it.
I've also done a few more really rough sketches of the creature, I'm enjoying drawing it loosely at the moment, just to see what elements of it I like. For example, do I want it to have legs, do I want it to be more of a phantom without legs, do I want it to have more animal-like legs than human ones, do I want it hunched over, do I want it to have horns or sharp teeth...all things that I'm exploring. I've also tried incorporating some spider-like qualities to it as I'm terrified of spiders and I wanted to see what would happen.
Today I wanted to further organise my thoughts about this project and try to figure out what I want to accomplish. As mentioned in the notes below, I want this to be part of my third year project but I want to focus on making a detailed monster for this project. I've been considering what I want my environment to be and I've been bouncing back and forth between a more surreal 'human psyche' sort of environment that is meant to be within someones head and a more realistic environment to contrast with the monster. I've also tried to do some quick sketches to get back into drawing things like this, I think I may start to exaggerate certain aspects of the creature more now and making the ribs and bones more realistic. I also may start adding some elements of animals into the designs just to see where it goes.
After my tutorial I decided to look more into what the ending for my infographic would be. I also did more research about the original Frankenstein story. I feel as though the best option would be 'being a responsible creator' and making sure that your monster is well integrated and is accepted or else it may turn ugly. This is because the original Frankenstein was actually emotional, sensitive and articulate and the only thing that made the monster truly angry was the fact that no one, including his creator, accepted him (hence why the monster doesn't have a name. Perhaps I could even have the final step be 'make sure to name your monster' or have that be part of it.
I also thought a bit about what I want it to look like and I think I'm going to go for the old silent horror movie style. This will make the selection of music and sound effects even more important as there wouldn't be a voiceover I don't think, but my idea may change still. I also was originally going to try to design a very unique monster but considering the short amount of time to do this project I think I may go for the more typical Frankenstein monster design but this may change as I make drawings.
