Monday, February 28, 2011

Post 5-The Tale of the Three Brothers






 
Medium: Digital
This is the Tale of the Three Brothers directed and designed by Ben Hibon for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1. Ben Hibon was born in Geneva, Switzerland and studied graphic design at Central Saint Matins College of Art and Design in London. Hibon got famous off of his short cartoon film Codehunters. This led to him creating the short film in the most recent Harry Potter: The Tale of the Three Brothers. I saw this movie in theatres and my favorite part of the movie was this short film. I definitely wasn't expecting to like it, I was honestly expecting it to be cheesy and just ruin the movie. Woah to my thoughts when the first thing I did after the movie was look up the director of the short film. The first reason I find this short film intrigueing is the color scheme, it's very old school paper and flowing ink colors, with the peach/tan, textured paper used. All of the characters were elongated and very smooth moving with thin stick like limbs that just added to the flow of the characters. All of the clothing was also light and free flowing, like they were on a different gravity scale. Beyond the way the characters and back drop looked, the interaction between Death and the three brothers was magnificent, showing the cunning and trickiness that you might expect from a meeting with death. Death was also skeletal, beyond the point of stick-likeness of the brothers. The overall feel of the short film just makes me want to watch it over and over again.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Post 4-Pencil Sketchings



This is by an artist named Linda Huber. Linda Huber does all sorts of pure graphite drawings with the goal of realism. She has been drawing for 40 years and these types of pieces take her 20-40 hours to do. For me, when I saw some of her pieces, I honestly thought I was looking at a black and white photo.  It was kind of like a wow factor when I realized these were all drawn with a pencil. The techniques she uses makes her art look true to life. Drawing these every day objects like cars, people and light bulbs in such a realistic form really shows our innate ability for creation. I chose these two pictures because of the reflections used in the cars, and I like cars. I just find it amazing that a pencil created something that looks like what a camera should have made. This is definitely an artist that I will spend some time checking in on to see new pieces.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Post 3- Assassin's Creed

Patrice Desilets

http://img.phombo.com/img1/photocombo/5809/Assassins_creed_1024_x_768-14.jpg_Assassins_creed.jpg

This is a promotional image for the game: Assassin's Creed. The creator is Patrice Desilets, a French Canadian game designer. His best known work is this game, Assassins Creed. This is another one of those games I keep around just because of the amazing visuals. This medium is through a 3D design program, most likely Maya. Ubisoft is the company behind the game, so credit to the actual design probably goes to one of it's employees, based off of Patrice Desilets creation. The size of this piece is ambiguous, meant to be used as a desktop wallpaper or a magazine. An element of design in this piece is the movement along the piece. First your eyes are drawn towards the knife, from the difference in value compared to the background. It's shiny. Second your eyes move to the knifes target, the soldier, the line going directly from the blade to the soldiers neck. Third, your eyes then move to the "Assassin" and you find that he is not looking at his victim but at the viewer of the piece. This, to me, is a message that after the knife kills the soldier, your the next target. That message can go two ways, either your the next target or he's waiting for you to tell him to go for the kill. Another type of movement is present in this piece, the crowd in the background is blurred from their supposed movement and it creates the feeling that this assassin is alone in his little bubble of killing the soldier in the midst of a society going about their usual business. It causes the focus of this piece to be directly on the assassin and his kill. I chose this piece because of how the assassin is looking at the viewer, if he wasn't looking straight ahead, I would find less meaning in the piece. This is a game and interacting with this assassin is the whole point of the game anyways. Making a connection with a fantasy character, or alter ego.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Post 2 - Epic Mickey

Game Informer's Epic Mickey cover really IS epic (update) photo


Cover Art: Epic Mickey by Warren Spector

This is the cover art for the video game: Epic Mickey. The designer of the game is Warren Spector who is a video game designer for many games like the Deus ex and Thief series. I have never actually heard of these games but I will have to go check them out now. I couldn't find any information on the medium for this specific piece but the idea of Epic Mickey was intended for a video game so I am guessing this piece was made in some sort of digital format. The first element of design I see being used is value. Value is one of the reasons why I like this piece. The artist made a dark version of mickey and set him in a dark, evil world. The contrast between the eyes of the ink monster with his crooked grin, is set off against his dark nothingness of a body. Another principle being used is proportion. The mansion is actually smaller than Mickey, which we would take as being really far away. Not to mention up a crooked, sinister path that has all sorts of sharp edges that shows off it's sinisterness. Sharp edges lead us to think of danger, like a knife or a horn. My absolute favorite part of this piece is the Mickey figure. He has red pants that emphasizes his figure and then his stance itself is made to look like he is ready to go kick some evil butt. Mickey is also dripping away, and that dripping ink is actually pointing towards the center of the piece, where you know he will end up eventually.