Constructing the 70s



Victoria McDonald's Apartment_Shot 1_Blocking



 

 



Victoria McDonald's Apartment_Shot 2_Blocking


So it had really been a while since I delved into Maya. I made a book for the Atlanta Art History Society Sign Up Sheet, which ironically was never used, but I really wanted to do more. The problem was I didn't really have any ideas. I thought about perhaps staying on the Harry Potter theme since I did want to do more Harry Potter drawings, and so maybe creating Voldemort's environment, which would have included his horcruxes. As enticing as that thought was I came up with another idea. I decided to create the living room at Victoria McDonald's apartment from the Dragon stories that I have written. When the Dragon isn't patrolling the streets and skies of Gothpolis he is hanging here at Victoria's apartment since this is mission control. Victoria is like Oracle or Chloe Sullivan, she keeps an eye out for trouble with her computer and alerts the Dragon to them.

What made this room intriguing was that the stories take place in the late 70s to mid-80s although these two shots are particularly taken in the late 70s. That meant that I had to do a little bit of research on some of the items that I wanted. At first, I was only going to do the research in the modeling stage and ignore it in the blocking stage, but when I needed to build the lava lamps for shot 2 I pretty much used research the rest of the way. Aside from looking stuff up on the Internet I also sought help from my mom since she actually lived through the 70s.

Although I chose random items to populate the space there is one item in each shot that was not random. The items are actually mentioned in the stories. Shot 1 includes Madam Knight's sword hanging on the wall, and Shot 2 includes Victoria's locket on the coffee table. The locket will actually be the focus in Shot 2, but I am leaning towards the computer being the focus in Shot 1 since it tells more about her character than the sword.

Interesting fact, this is a real apartment living room. It's construction is based on my brother's first apartment in Lynchburg, Virginia, and even if the placement of the furniture is similar. That apartment is so instilled in my head that I tend to use it a lot.

Maquette #2

The Vampire Mouse Turnaround

The SCAD Atlanta Animation Society is presenting a three part Maquette Workshop, and it is being taught by Prof. Maloney, who I learned last Wednesday  taught Sequential Professors Shawn Crystal, Nolan Woodard, and Chris Schweizer how to build maquettes. How interesting is THAT?! He is considered the master of maquettes at SCAD Atlanta. My first maquette sucked in my opinion, and so I was definitely taking part in this just for a second chance. The best part of all is that this is being done in a club, and so there's no need to worry about grading. The only pressure will be within myself, which is considerable.

I knew going into this that I wanted to create the Vampire Mouse, but it has to be the villain version since I really wanted to build that cape. Vincent doesn't get his cape until he embraces the dark side, unfortunately. So no shy vampire. Maybe next time. I created the turnaround for the Vampire Mouse, but I was going to run into a slight problem after it was all inked. He needed to be colored, and since he was created in a black and white comic I never came up with a color scheme for his fur during his creation. After looking at some pictures of actual mice (ugh!) I decided to use the same color that I had used for Jerry in It All Started with a Mouse.

It looks pretty good although I realized that I made a mistake that I will have to rectify during sculpting and coloring of the maquette. I didn't draw his ring since I haven't figured out what finger it would be on if he has only four fingers. That needed to be there to create color continuity. The rule is that if you use a color like red on one piece then that same color should be used on another piece. Yellow is the only color that doesn't repeat itself, and the ring would have fixed that.

The Vampire Mouse Armature

 
 So last Wednesday we only created the armature of our character although I actually finished mine last night since I had a lot of trouble in the beginning. It started with the fact that I didn't have the right Epoxy Putty, my brand was, as Prof. Maloney put it, "inferior." Then I had to dismantle my first attempt, but that was my own decision. Prof. Maloney had mentioned that we needed to cut off the tail of the maquette unless our character has a tail. Oh, dear, I thought. My character not only has a tail, but it is rather long, and my first attempt wasn't long at all. I thought that the tail was would be created with just Super Sculpey, but no. So I had to start over to create a longer tail.

I still need to drill two holes in the base and bolt him down, but since I don't have the necessary drill bit I'll have to wait until this Wednesday. Right now I like how it is coming along, but I shouldn't read too much into that because I liked Elisha Grayson when he was just an armature too. 

Final Thoughts

So I finally finished my section of the ANIJAM project although I still need to record the voice of the dog, but I am a bit hesitate to make that appointment with the prospect of being cut from the film. I just think that it would be a waste of time to record the voice for a cut section. I would rather have more assurance that my section won't be cut before the voice recording.

Next week, the Atlanta Art History Society is going on a field trip to the High Museum of Art Atlanta to go through their Fast Forward exhibit. So I'll let you all know what I think of it.

So until next time this is Billy Wright, wishing you all a good night. So long, everybody!

The Captains of Heroism

The Captains of Heroism

FINALLY!!! I have been keeping the identity of the fifth captain a secret for the longest time, and it is great to be able to get that off my chest. Yes, that is Captain Caveman standing among Captain America, Captain Marvel, Captain Atom, and Captain Planet. Not exactly the type of superhero you would see standing alongside those greats, but IT IS the type of character that I would draw. Truly Captain Caveman is my favorite of this drawing. Sadly, however, this was the last drawing of a Hanna-Barbera character that I will do for a while. I will eventually do more Hanna-Barbera characters, but it will be more show based instead of grouping shows together. I just want to take a break from Hanna-Barbera. Disney, Warner Brothers, and comics are still waiting for their moment in the sun, and I should give it to them. 

The funny thing about this drawing other than seeing Captain Caveman standing there with those superheroes was that he was the one who inspired this drawing. I don't remember how I started thinking this exactly except one night I was lying in bed when I began thinking about how many superheroes include a captains title. When I thought about Captain Caveman the idea for the drawing fell into place. I actually had an idea for a Captain Planet drawing that would feature his Planeteers too, but I couldn't make up my mind on how it should look. So when I came up with this idea I scraped the planned Captain Planet drawing in favor of this.

It was a lot of fun working on these character, but I had some trouble with figuring out the background. I didn't want the characters looking as though they were floating in space, and so something had to be back there. Nothing really fancy like the backgrounds of It All Started with a Mouse and The Doo Family Portrait, but it should still be interesting looking. I thought about a flag pole with a waving American Flag, but as my mom remarked, it would be perfect with Captain Marvel and Captain America looking up at the flag, but then you have Captain Atom and Captain Planet turning their backs on the America Flag. So instead I went with a giant star. I still got my American Flag in there with using gradients to create the red, white, and blue.

I feel like there is more to do with it, but that could just be my bulldog mentality of never letting anything go talking, and so I will just move my concentration somewhere else.

Political Drawing

America Burns While Democrats and Republicans Fight

I had promised you all when I first started this blog that I would never ever discuss politics or sports unless it pertained to art. Well, this has been a rather volatile political season with dirt flying from both sides that I have grown tired of it.  Important issues are being used to gain votes and power that I have decided to do my first political drawing. It combines my love for history and my disdain for the political system...or at least those who run the political system. That it is based on the legend of Rome burning while Nero fiddles, but in this case,  America is burning while the Democrats and Republicans are fighting. The drawing will feature a donkey and an elephant boxing with the U.S. Capitol in flames, and in the foreground there are political signs with liberal points and conservative points.

It will be a rather dark drawing, and unfortunately, by doing it I have painted myself into a corner because I will have to do another political drawing. The second drawing would be much lighter, and perhaps it will feature the donkey and elephant working together to put out the flames.

Final Thought

So I met with Prof. Gregg Azzopardi last Friday, and he told me that I needed to add some in-betweens here and there in my section of the ANIJAM film. I understood what he was saying, but I just hope I can add them without having to cut the balloon sequence. So I'll get back to work on that, and I should finally have it finished by next weekend. That's good news because I have a lot of Art History events to plan.

Until next time, this is Billy Wright wishing you all a good night. So long, everybody!