Adaptation B: Influence map

Beer character's Influence map

To further help me with designing the next character I've done another additional influence map for just the beer character using the words that were associated with the drink in the brainstorm. This will hopefully give me a better sense of direction I will be taking this character down.

Adaptation B: Initial character designs

Vodka Character's companion: Red

Red Character design

To make my project more creative and less conventional I came up with the idea of Glen (the vodka character) having a companion which has turned out to be imaginary friend Red which is the smart-mouthed ghost of his families old Bull-mastiff . The idea behind this was taken from the fact that vodka is usually accompanied by or mixed with Red bull so I will be using Red as a direct representation of the drink . As it is an energy drink the character will be very lively and troublesome and in the first two designs I've incorporated the wings and halo as reference to the Red bull slogan "red bull gives you wings". In the third I've added bull horns as a play on words with the name "Red - Bull".

Adaptation B: Initial character design

Vodka character: Glen's/Smirnoff

Vodka character design

These are the first few designs of the Vodka character that for now I'll be calling Glen. I had a number of characteristics of the drink whilst designing the character, for instance;

 His extravagantly muscular physique is a result of the drink being a typically 'strong' alcohol

His extroverted and carefree persona demonstrated by his dancing pose is an adaptation of the drinks popularity and use in social environments

And his ethnicity and middle costume is a direct adaptation of the beverages Russian/Polish origin

After words with Alan on looking for a less obvious characteristic of the drink to adapt to my character I came up with the idea of the last outfit from the left which is the character but in warm and thermal clothing. The idea behind this is to create a character who has an increased sensitivity to cold as vodka is an alcoholic drink usually served with ice. This could be depicted further through condensation from his mouth when he talks.

Adaptation B: Influence map

This is my first influence map to better my understanding on the different techniques of the personification into human characters.

Adaptation B: Brainstorming Character Ideas

This is a brainstorm of some characteristics and qualities of my chosen alcoholic drinks. My aim is to convert these characteristics into human traits to help me design my characters and their personalities.

Film Review: Sita sings the Blues

Nina Paley is an American born cartoonist and animator who before her recent work such as Sita sings the Blues, dwelled mostly in comic strips such as Nina's Adventures and Fluff. Judging by Sita sings the Blues, Paley's style reflects her artistic background through the incorporation of the comic strip style that runs throughout the duration of the film. Not only the style is a direct link to Paley's life but the storyline in the film is influenced by a trip she made to India with her then husband and a spiritual journey she went on through reading the Indian epic, the Ramayana. The style of the film is what makes it intriguing. the visual style used is abstract with a variety of animation styles and techniques that depict the same story but in different moods. The narrative style is very conversational and whimsical telling the story through the light-hearted conversation of three Indian shadow puppets. The film also incorporates a musical style into the film breaking into 'blues' type singalongs.

The film through this trio of narrators tells the story of Rama and his wife Sita, covering how they met, Sita's kidnapping their life after this incident and so on. All throughout this, another story is being told alongside. The true story of director Nina Paley's marriage coming to an end but shown in relevance to the ancient mythological story of Rama and Sita. Key characters in the film obviously are Rama and Sita as the story revolves around their relationship but also Nina Paley and her ex-husband as their story was intertwined into the plot.

I felt like with the film, Paley was attempting to depict the ups and downs of relationships and by conveying her relationship side by side with that of an ancient mythical being like Sita, she is attempting to highlight the similarities in these kind of relationships despite the time period or cultural surrounding. As far as the exemplification of relationships, Paley succeeded in doing this with a combination of different animation styles and light-hearted humor to keep the audience intrigued. However, the story she chose to narrate is not one that would interest those who are not open-minded to the message she is attempting to portray. So for this reason I wouldn't personally recommend this film despite feeling that it was well made, the relatability of the film does not favor the masses.

Film Review: Waltz with Bashir

Ari Folman is an Israeli film director and score composer born to Holocaust survivors in 1962. His most renowned previous work is film Saint Clara which won multiple awards in Israel including Ophir award for best film, best directing and best supporting act. Waltz with Bashir is most highly distinguished by its distinct visual style using a unique form of animation which was developed by Yoni Goodman and compiling it with very cinematic directing and musical scores. The result of this is a very theatrical visual spectacle. Also, despite the film being completely animated it still contains dark hues and unsubtle eerie visual themes to match the dark overall feel of the film and storyline. The film is set in modern day Israel but with constant referral to 1980's Israel during the Lebanon war. For these reasons the film is currently banned in Lebanon. Ari Folman himself stars in the film playing himself in the present day and when he was a young soldier. By casting himself as the protagonist of a film about his own experiences creates a very natural and unbiased viewpoint for the viewer assisting in the fluidity of the film.

Along with constant reference to the Lebanese war, the film circulates around Folman, upon the advise of a childhood friend, interviewing old comrades and fellow soldiers from the war inorder to retrieve lost memories from the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Beirut. The film uses flashbacks of Folman and the interviewees to depict the nitty gritty realities of the war first hand while also intertwining the personal experiences of the interviewee.

I feel the film was an attempt to bring light of the horrific events of the war to the rest of the world, using one of the most horrific aspects of it (the Sabra and Shatila massacre) as the main focus of the storyline. I feel using animation to do this was very effective as the themes and images conveyed in the film are not ones we usually associate with animation, which we find intriguing. In many senses it achieved what it set out to do as it has won and been nominated for multiple international awards such as Golden globe award for Best foreign language film, Academy award for best foreign language film and BAFTA for best film not in the English language. I would personally recommend this film, despite the language barrier, as it is a good watch and is historically informative.

Adaptation B: Initial ideas

My idea for my part B adaptation is to create characters for a sitcom who are direct personifications of the different types of alcohol students and overall just young people drink at university or on a night out.

Here are the first four drinks I have come up with to personify:

  Jack Daniels - Whiskey












              Smirnoff - Vodka














         Becks - Beer

and

Rosé - Wine

Adaptation A: Further character design

 I've added items or merely just edited the design of these characters to add more personality to them and to bring in context through this detail.

I've made the Christopher Reeve rendition of Superman have smaller pants to suit how they dressed in the 70's/80's. They some how saw a man in speedo's as masculine and he-manish but hey, whatever floats their boat.

The 1950's Superman I've done the opposite and made his pants bigger and Simon Cowell-ish, which is the way he would have worn them in that time period.

For Marlon Brando's character Jor-El I've made his outfit glow like it did in the movie because of his omnipotent persona.

Richard Pryor's character Gus would stereotypically have a pen in his pocket, being a computer programmer. And his actual persona as a comedian would stereotypically have a 'rolled up something' as Alan suggested.

Margot Kidder's character Lois Lane was a 70's character so I added the oversized 70/80's collars and added a pen and notebook as she would stereo typically be seen with this as a reporter.

Adaptation A: Infographic Characters

Christopher Reeve - Superman 1978

George Reeves - Superman 1952

Marlon Brando - Jor-El 1978

Richard Pryor - Gus 1983

Margot Kidder - Louis Lane 1978

Adaptation A: Character Improvement

Christopher Reeve

 An improved version of the old Superman Character. The hair is more accurate and I've made the character look taller and thinner to match Christopher Reeves physique judged by Margot Kidder's description of him as 'the skinny wasp'.

Adaptation A: Character Style example

Superman in infographic style

Adaptation A: Character Style experiments

I like the third from the bottom right

These are some experiments of the simplistic style with shapes I will be using for my infographic characters.

Adaption A: Influence map

Influence map

After my tutorial with Alan today, I got the idea of using a simplistic style of shapes and form to design the characters in my infographic. I've been looking at styles where the body parts are resemblant to the initial starting point of creating a character which for superheros like superman is an upside down triangle with a small circle or square for a head. I may not even attach these body parts together leaving them looking as if they are floating shapes in the air, kind of like Rayman.

Modelling Part 1: Low Resolution

Film Review: Paprika

Satoshi Kon was a Japanese film animator and screen director. He is most renowned for his previous works like Tokyo Godfathers and Millennium Actress which were fairly successful in the anime genre at their individual times of release. As a Japanese animator Kon's style reflects the Japanese visual culture with very up tempo scenes and a refined style of anime but in his last few works including Paprika incorporated what seems to be 3d animation to his work in the more complex scenes. In Paprika, dreams and the subconscious is a consistent theme aesthetically expressed through the surreal style Kon used to animate. The morphing and transforming of objects was animated very successfully and worked well for visual spectacle. Also repeating and looping of scenes really helped in depicting this idea of dreams and reality interweaving. The film stars all-Japanese cast of singer and radio personality Megumi Hayashibara, actor and narrator Katsunosuke Hori, Toru Furuya and Toru Emori. Hayashibara voiced Jessie from team rocket in Pokemon and also Ash's Bulbasaur, Pidgeotto and Goldeen.

The film follows a team of psychotherapists in the near future who invented a device allowing one to view and even enter someone else's dream. When people begin to become delusional and witness some of the patients subconsciouses whilst wide awake, they turn to one of their team members subconscious alter-egos for help. Paprika who comes across as the main protagonist is a quirky and eccentric and fun character yet always seems to save the day flawlessly whereas Dr Atsuko Chiba who is the conscious alter-ego of Paprika is the complete opposite, cold, seemingly emotionless and not much fun at all. The film comes across as Atsuko's journey of the discovery of her true self and the similarities her and Paprika really have.

Similarly to the Christopher Nolan film inception I feel Paprika is an attempt to explore the complexities of the human mind, highlight the fact that dreams are one of life's only things that we all  as humans experience but can never completely share and to visually demonstrate what would happen if we could share these experiences. In this context the film succeeded however I felt watching the film that what Kon accomplished visually he lacked in dialogue and character interaction. The dialogue was too direct and not creative enough in explaining things. But overall I really enjoyed this film and would recommend it. Although I found the soundtrack abit annoying it suited the scenes it was in. And the storyline was not a simplistic linear one you would expect from an animation so it did well.

Adaptation A: Data Plan

George Reeves, 1952 - Superman - Adventures of Superman 
After 104 episodes Reeves left the screens as superman
Because of the height of role he was typecasted and couldnt find work
Went into a deep depression and turned to alcohol
Committed suicide at a party he was hosting.

Christopher Reeves, 1978 - Superman - Superman I-IV
Also typecasted to role of superman and couldnt find much work
Began riding horses although being allergic
In 1995 he fell ooff his horse and broke his neck leaving him paralyzed from the neck down
ironic much?
He eventually died of a heart attack just under a decade later

Margot Kidder, 1978 - Lois Lane - Superman I-IV
After the role she got into a car accident which like reeve paralyzed her
she was unable to work for 2 years
she also went into a depression and had a mental breakdown leaving her in a psychiatric ward

Richard Pryor, 1983 - Gus - Superman III
Comedian who actually had an affair with Margot Kidder
As a result of bad reviews after the film was released he began to lose weight
In 1996 he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis
needed a power-operated vehicle similar to Reeve
Later died of heart attack

Marlon Brando, 1978 - Jor-el - Superman I
Was offered 4 million plus a percentage of the movies gross to play 8 min role of Superman's father
The effortlessly made fortune caused his weight to spiral out of control and couldnt get many roles
Lived in a large house away from society with daughter and her boyfriend
His son went to prison for killing his daughters boyfriend
daughter later committed suicide in the large derelict house, found hanging in her room
Eventually died months before Reeve.

Lee Quigley, 1978 - Baby Kal-el - Superman I
Playing Brando's onscreen son he was picked out of many British babies to play the role
Years later it was plastered all-over national news papers that he had died at the age of 14 of Solvent abuse.

Adaptation A: Testing Backgrounds

A more heroic type of theme maybe just for the title.

A more grungy theme to suit the information and subject matter. 

Adaptation A: Style and Visual Concept

Typically because the infographic is about superman I will be using the infamous blue and red colour scheme, similarly to this example above. I have also been looking the different Superman costumes and want to take advantage of the different shades of red and blue they come in. I will change the shade according to the year of the Superman I m talking about.

History of the Superman costume

Adaptation A: Research

              To know more about the happenings during the Superman films I'm watching this documentary called 'The Curse of Superman' which talks about the topic in highest detail.
              I'm also looking at blogs and other websites that talk about it to get any information the documentary may have missed.

Some facts