Lets Make Monsters!

 For the last six months I've been working on my animation project where we got free rein to design a beast and rider.  So now that I've finished all the assignments and not only have free time to play in Zbrush but also don't have to worry about things like the polycount or time constrants what is it I decide to play around with?

If you said "More monsters" then go to the head of the class.  I went back to the concepts and picked a completely different head.  This time around I kept things smaller, only doing a bust where before I had to do the entire beast.

It was constructed in Zspheres before being polymeshed and this kept me away from the movement brushes which I tend to rely on far too much.  I experimented with the other brushes but generally stuck to the Clay Buildup which I've found gives more of a natural feel to the model. 

Next on the agenda is working on the texture for the skin and shell and getting a better blend of colours for the overall model.

 

Colour guide for Phyliss the Pizza delivery monster.  I've no idea who this Boris fellow is or, apparently, how to spell colour.



Another render.  Checking how the pitting looked with the colour scheme.



Concept Heads #1



Concept Heads #2

 

Concept Heads #3

Concept Heads #4



Lecture - Intellectual property

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. THE PERILS AND PITFALLS RELEVANT TO THE ARTISTS AND/OR SMALL BUSINESS OWNER.

So there was something of an impromptu lecture on intellectual property and I took some equally impromptu and, as it turns out, rather disjointed notes.  So if there's anything that isn't covered in these pages I suggest you read them again because I've clearly got my notes out of joint.

1. So whats this Intellectual Property then?
   Intellectual property laws change from country to country. If you are covered in New Zealand for A,B and C it could be that in Australia you are only covered for C meanwhile in Canada you're only covered for "eh"
   
   Anytime someone uses creativity, innovation or enterprise to create something new then this is when Intellectual Property is invoked. It covers everything from new techniques to revolutionary inventions
   
   There is something of a grey area in the field of Intellectual Property in that you might be employed for a company that claims ownership of your developments. This is why such minutiae needs to be hammered out in the contract negotiations.
   Final product is owned by the client unless there is a contract on the side – technoloy created for animation situation stays with the animation business while the finished animation goes to the client.
   
2. Business Assets:
   Several intellectual property assets can be associated with a single product line or service delivery, advertising is a big part of this since everything that goes out to the public needs to be vetted to make certain that each of the elements used in the advertising campaign, sound, visuals, the product delivery system etc has been released by the appropriate parites and is able to be used. - Techdirt Article
   
3. Intellectual Property Asset Tool Box
   Copyright works. There are different contracts which surround what you can and can't use. There are different levels of coypright which are owned in the combined works.
   
   What then do you, the artist, own? You've got copyright at the design stage of the production and also the project development notes.
   
   New Zealand works under an international agreement and it is not compulsary to register your product with the Intellectual Property office. But its pretty clear that if you don't then you're a fool due to the fact that you need to keep incredibly accurate records of who, what and when things were developed so that, in the event that you are taken to court you'll be able to prove that you were the one who invented the self removing trousers and not the guys at BigPants.ltd.
   
   In the situation of the courtroom one possible defense is to claim that you came up with the idea of self removing pants independantly without any knowledge of what Big Pants.ltd were doing. This puts the onus back onto Big Pants.ltd to prove otherwise.
   
4. Confidential information:
   Refers to anything which you don't want competitors to know about.
   
5. What can be copyrighted?
   Trademarks: how you identify your products and sercices from the competition and registereing your product with the intellectual property department will ensure that you have nationwide, but not international, protection. Not registering means that you have to build up your brand and it can take a number of years before you are covered properly. Trademarks are issued in 10 year blocks.
   
   Patents: Patents cover inventions and how they work. They are issued in 20 year blocks.
   
   Design: Design protection works in alignment with Copyright. They last for 15 years.
   
   Company Name: This differs from the branding of the product. The company name is the legal name for the company. If you are a limited company it means that your personal assets can't be seized if the business goes belly up.  Provided you haven't been fraudulant in your business practises which proves that there's always a downside.
   
   Doman Name: At risk from cybersquatters.
   
6. Border Control:
   Notices are filed with Customs, if someone brings in goods which infringe on copyright then Customs are authorised to sieze the goods in questions, or possibly the questionable goods. The two parties then enter into negotiations to decide whats going to happen.
   
7. Trademark:
   In New Zealand trademark covers logos/words/music/dress marks – essentially it's anything that relates to your company. The Warehouse, for instance has the right to their particulaar shade of red and even the shape of the buildings.
   
   In another example of this Cadbury Chocolate hold the trademark for their colour of people. At least they do in this country it's a protection that they don't have over in Australia.
   
8. Career building information:
   What intellectual Property are you creating? It's a retorical question but you do need to consider the following protection options
   Clearence checks. Do you have releseas? Proper licences? Permissions to use the mashups of sounds and videos?
   
   http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/beastie-boys-settle-lawsuit-goldieblox-article-1.1725849)
9. Commercialise: Information missing or otherwise unavailable. I blame the drunken cannibles.
   
10. Intellectual Property Capture:
    Identify potential Intellectual property assests. What of of intellectual proerties affect you and your business?
    Sort out the ownership or acquire the rights to the work. This need to be worked out in the contracting stage.
    
11. Record Keeping:
    Business history – Look at the evolution of the Coca Cola bottles and how the shape itself was trademarked after the war.
    Project history
    Legal documents
    Intellectual Property calender
    Time critical deadlines – for submitting documents and offices, business's need to stay on top of this as much as possible.
    Updates to official records need to be kept current. If your details aren't correct then you can't take legal action against people (which is clearly the only reason anyone ever set up a business)
    Strategic Options
    In house – include in contracts and agreements. Digital files are password protected.
    The Register – There is an application process which gives you the opportunities to sell or license your rights. If you aren't interested in operating overseas due to funds or a lack of ability to get products to the interenational customers. But that they won't talk to you without an application.
    Release – The product might be online access by the public but not the best images or the software is crippled in some way (Shareware is the perfect example of this)
    
12. General application process:
    Application
    Examination
    Acceptance (chance of failure)
    Grant (another chance of failure)
    Renewal payments (failure, yet again)
    
13. IP symbols and indiciators:
    ™: Trade mark
    ®: Registered trade mark in that country
    ©: Part of copyright indicators (the full version of this is the name of the owner and the year that the product was first created)
    Country code + IP type + IP number
    
14. Commercials:
    Clearence checks - What applies to you and what other people are doing which applies to your business and/or product.  Investigate potential business partnership with people who are doing the same kind of thing as you. This enables you to obtain an existing customer base.
    
15. Licence terms and conditions
    Attributions
    Releases

Thingadingaday #10

Just some funny hats, I don't really know what else to tell you.

Thingadingaday #9

"Draw me" said the rat "draw me like one of your French girls"

Thingadingaday #8

Amazing what will happen when you miss your bus and have to wait an hour for the next one.

Thingadingaday #7

I won't do anything special for today (said I)

A few sketches of some guy.  But then the modelling bug bit me and thus we get this, thing.

Thingadingaday #6

The smudge tool got heavily abused during this one.  But on the bright side, pretty pictures!

Thingadingaday #5

The hero from hell, (5)

will save us all. (4)With haiku (3)and guns (2)

 

 

Thingadingaday #4

At 3 in the morning this render looked sooo amazingly arty,

Now I don't have the model because everything crashed

Personally I blame Justin Beiber - but only because we all blame Beiber for everything.

Thingadingaday #3

Some sketchy images of some sketchy folk.

Thingadingaday #2

What a total surprise.
I mean it's another day and here's another monster.  Maybe tomorrow I'll try to make a pretty flower but I think we all know that it'd end up as horribly carnivorous.

Thingadingaday #1

Thankfully the monster turned out better than the sketched version.

Lecture Notes - Burn the Museums!

Notes from the lecture about the Avant-Garde Movement.  There's probably more I could say for an introduction at this point but really what more needs to be said?
Well perhaps the general disclaimer regarding accuracy with facts, dates and spelling. but other than that nothing more needs to be said.

The Analysis of: The Golden Goose or How to pick up birds

THE ANALYSIS OF:

THE GOLDEN GOOSE

OR

HOW TO PICK UP BIRDS

| INTRODUCTION:

As amazing as it sounds it would seem that there are some people in the world who think that stealing is wrong. These radicals seem to believe that those who take things which don't belong to them deserve everything they get.

Thus it is that tonight’s tale is one of crime and punishment or at least it would be if it were not for the fact that nobody actually manages to commit a crime which, logically speaking, means that there can be no punishment.

Hmm, well it could be that, rather than being a rather ham handed story about a non existent crime and an equally non existent punishment, this could actually be a carefully crafted story about the dangers of abducting people, except that nobody was ever in any kind of danger.

Wait, lets think about this again. Maybe the story is just about what happens when people get together and go for a walk. But that doesn't exactly sound like the most exciting of adventures to me.

Nope, not exciting at all.

48 Hour Film Challenge Wrapup Report

| INTRODUCTION:

The claim has been made, largely by myself, that ours was the best team. Of course I'm sure other people are going to use this space in their reports to claim that they had the best team but it should be noted that everyone else is wrong.

The fact that our abilities vary so much is what made us strong since no matter what situation arose we were able to handle it and seek advice from one of our other team members without fear of being dismissed as “the one who doesn't know anything”
Strictly speaking I should have been keeping this journal the whole way through but due to the other assignments pressing down on me the journal keeping aspect more or less fell by the wayside in terms of importance. So while I do have some hurriedly scribbled notes they aren't what I would really call up to my usual standard of writing[1].

Critical Studies - Lecture Notes: Industrialization and innovation. - Part 3

| INTRODUCTION:

Everyone knows that the final part of a Triology is the best part - unless we're talking about Star Wars, where the best movie was clearly Empire Strikes Back.

But here we are at the end of my notes for Critical Studies with standard warnings re accuracy, spelling et al.
PART 1: Industrialization and innovation
PART 2: 19th Century New Zealand
PART 3: 19th Century Photography

Critical Studies - Lecture Notes: Industrialization and innovation. - Part 2

| INTRODUCTION:

Just like it says in the title.  This is part 2 of the Critical Studies notes, it kind of meanders all over the place and once again I refuse to make claims as to proper spelling, grammar or historical accuracy.PART 1: Industrialization and innovation
PART 2: 19th Century New Zealand
PART 3: 19th Century Photography

Critical Studies - Lecture Notes: Industrialization and innovation. - Part 1

| INTRODUCTION:
So much for this being a weekly blog :)  Here's the first part of the critical studies notes that I've finally found the time to work into some semblance of order.  However I make no promises regarding accuracy and/or factual information.  Cite me at your own risk.
PART 1: Industrialization and innovation
PART 2: 19th Century New Zealand
PART 3: 19th Century Photography

THE 19TH CENTURY:

PART 1: INDUSTRIALIZATION AND INNOVATION

Logotypes - Intermezzo Accoustica

For one of our papers we're working on the 48 hour film challenge.  Signing up was easy but now we're all champing at the bit to get started.
I found myself with some spare time the other day and scribbled down some ideas which eventually merged into a logo.

The only criteria for our team name was that it had to be something that we'd go to watch on a Saturday night which means that anyone out there who actually wants to form a band called Intermezzo Accoustica has already got 5 automatic fans.  (woo!)

UPDATE:  The bottom image is the one that is now the absolutely official and no backing out team logo.  I rearranged the body and neck of the uke a little bit but squashed and stretched the hole so that this is the shape which resembles an A rather than relying on the body.

Critical Studies - Aesthetics and Ethics Debate

| INTRODUCTION:

These are the notes that I took during the debate we had about aesthetics and ethics.  I'm pretty sure that I've managed to get everyone's contributions down but touch typing can only go so fast.  Therefore if I've left anything major out then left me know.

Art Course 2014 - Critical Studies: Classicism vs Romanticism

CRITICAL STUDIES - CLASSICISM VS ROMANTICISM

| INTRODUCTION:

Some notes I took from the lecture of Classicism and and Romanticism for the Critical Studies module of the course which have been organised into a semblance of coherency.

Naturally we got a question to write about at the end of it all and todays question was

'Should art have a moral message?'

I'll spare you my 300 word answer since it basically boils down to 'Maybe'

Strangers, Beatniks and assorted Wierdos.

| INTRODUCTION:

I live in a boarding house which sees a wide and varied collection of people and we all get along well except for the times when we don't. Over the past few months the landlord has been actively weeding out the worst of the drunks, stoners and anyone else who's crazy enough to be called irritating but not so crazy as to be called artistic and while this does mean that the house is a lot quieter [1] it also means that I have considerably less blog fodder.

Of course this list makes it seem as though the house is a hotbed of wacky people all involved with quasi-legal activities and I feel that I should point out that 99% of the people in the house are completely normal and boring while it's the 1% who spoil everything, as per usual.

The analysis of The Little Mermaid Or How I learned to stop worrying and started loving seafood

The Analysis of:

The Little Mermaid

Or

How I learned to stop worrying and started loving seafood

| INTRODUCTION

Along with Goldilocks and Snow White the story of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersons has lasted so long is because it's one that fits so very easily into any age group.For the very young there are the pretty mermaids and for the older children there's the love story.
The cynical child gets to hear about binding contracts with the forces of evil and for those of us who read it as adults there's the elephant in the room regarding the Disney adaptation. [1]

Grandiouse Theories - Bloodbanks

THE ADDRESSING OF THE ISSUE OF THE FAILINGS OF BLOOD BANKS, DRIVES AND DONATIONS WITH TOPICAL AND CONSIDERED SUGGESTIONS ABOUT WHAT MIGHT BE DONE TO REMEDY THIS SERIOUS SITUATION WITH THE INCLUSION OF SUFFICIENTLY ADVANCED NOTATIONS FOR THE SUFFICIENTLY ADVANCED OF BRAIN.

| INTRODUCTION:

It's that time again and around my city the call has gone out.

“We need blood!" they cry and "Give blood today!”

When that doesn't work they switch to more pleading tones “Have you got blood? Because we need it" or even

"Just give us the red stuff and you will be instrumental in saving lives”

Before finally falling back on that old favorite, the guilt trip.

“Remember that the life you save might well be your own." [1]

The analysis of Godfather Death OR How I stopped worrying and learned to love the Doctor.

THE ANALYSIS OF:

GODFATHER DEATH

OR

HOW I STOPPED WORRYING AND LEARNED TO LOVE THE DOCTOR.

| INTRODUCTION:

There has been a tendency of late for movie makers to tackle the classic fairy tales in much the same way that I do. But where I remain both faithful and respectful of the material the movie versions are generally rewritten to be gritty action packed adventures with the bad CGI monster dial turned all the way up.

Not long ago, whilst I was perusing my various tomes in a room that was illuminated only by the brief punctuation of jagged lighting arcing across the eternity of ebon night and Fluffywuffykins, my pet Shoggoth, looked about for someone to take her walkies I stumbled across more than a few examples which suggested the Grimms themselves weren't above doing the same thing, although understandably they didn't have the budget for poorly rendered CGI monsters.  This particular gem stands out as an example of their darker works. It first came to my attention when the title piqued my interest and what I discovered is that they've discarded the wicked witches, long lost princes and happily ever afters in favor of Death, a doctor and a father who's not afraid to to tell both God and The Devil exactly what he really thinks of them in the same way that we've all dreamed of marching into the bosses office right now.

A further note: Death "TALKS LIKE THIS" only because I am unfortunate enough to be a fan of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series in which the character of Death plays a major role, has a horse named Binky and likes cats [1]. I urge you to stay away from all twenty books. Trust me you'll hate them, really [2].

The analysis of The Six Swans or How I stopped worrying and learned to love the spaces between the notes.

It is thanks to the demands of real life that Jabberwockery has been dead.  I could tell you about it here but whoever heard of using a blog to provide updates about ones personal life?  What it all boils down to is that Jabberwockery lives once again and without any further ado I present my first posting for 2014. 

THE ANALYSIS OF:

THE SIX SWANS

OR

HOW I STOPPED WORRYING AND LEARNED TO LOVE THE SPACES BETWEEN THE NOTES.

| INTRODUCTION:

It's an undeniable fact that, like so many others, I occasionally wax nostalgic for the old country. This week for instance it was when I was looking at the long list of improbable ingredients involved in creating what I laughingly refer to as a 'simple love spell'.

Aside from the fact that love itself is never simple I take pains to point out the spells of today are even less so. Because what many people don't know is that magic was once very common indeed only instead of mucking around with crystals, familiars and the phases of the moon anybody could point, "Alakazam!" and produce a satisfactory frog from a prince or occasionally vice versa

However the inner workings of the arcane only make up part of tonight's story because what it's really all about is forests, royalty, the importance of family and the great lengths that people will go to to (A) get one and (B) hold on to same.

It is, I believe, also worth noting that this particular Grim Brothers tale wouldn't look out of place under the umbrella of George R R Martins Game of Thrones series although, because of the whole 'children's story' thing, we would have to turn the dragons into swans which is only slightly less threatening as not only can a swan break a mans arm with its wing but will turn vicious pretty quickly as anyone who's ever tried to feed one at a duck pond will attest [1]