A different kind of horror

So after much wait our next film for Wednesday afternoons was United 93...and it left me pretty much speechless.

When I first heard they were making a film on the events of 9/11 I was disappointed. The thought of Hollywood cashing in on 9/11 is quite frankly disgusting, but after seeing it, I can say it was one of the most shocking, moving and nerve-racking pieces of film making I have ever seen.

I think that the fact that you already knew what was going to happen and you couldn't stop it, was what really made it effective. There are no A-list actors in the film, which I think is a good thing, since it makes it feel more real and that this was something that happened to ordinary people.

Knowing that this film was as accurate to real life as possible, even using the exact radio transcripts and people, made it hit home just that little bit harder.

This really is a film you have to see, I didn't believe it before I saw it, and it's true that you remember where you were when you first heard the news. I had just finished school, Geography sixth period, and was getting a lift home from my mum. I got in the car and she said "Have you heard....

Chasing my goals...literally

I can have the tendency to become quite lazy with my exercise. I know it's something very important in life, and since in mine I could spend five to six hours a day sitting in front of a screen (and that's just working) it seems like I should put more effort into it.

I usually go running for about 45 minutes at a time, down by the river and along to Abbey park and back, but I haven't gone at all this side of Christmas. I guess I'm quite lucky in the fact that I don't put on weight easily, but to me exercise is something that will make me feel good about myself.

Taking this into account it should be something I do more often, because I'm sure that it will show in my work. Well, enough talking, I'm off for a run!

BANG and the lecture's gone!

I have to say I thouroughly enjoyed working this week, it's been such a good change of working style. We have started our group projects to make Queens building into something special. We have started out well and have got the key component, communication.

Communication is key to the result of this project, with so many people working on it (ok, six) a breakdown in communication can prove disasterous. We've all been in the labs working together everday and are constantly discussing things, showing work, and building what I think is going to be a great end product.

One of my main tasks for this project is to research, design and model the missile that will have crash landed into one of the lectures theatres. I started well by doing a ton of research and have decided on the beastly, yet sleek Taurus KEPD 350 missile. It's a really nice looking piece of kit with amazing capabilities, which is great because it will be the the focal point of the room.

I have started by sketching the missile and testing out colour schemes for it using magic markers (which, by the way, are my new found love) and research all sorts of facts and statistics for it so that I can fully understand the object that i'm going to be creating, and to make sure it is believable that it is in this scene.

Today I also emailed the makers of the missile, Taurus Systems, to ask if it is possible to get some autographic pictures of the missile to model it from. This will make it a lot eaiser to model, and will improve the accuracy of it.

They managed to email me back within two hours, which I think is really decent of them, saying they would like to help us but will need to know the synopsis of the level. I will be emailing them back either tonight or tomorrow, but I am not sure whether they will like our scenario since the missile will be crashing into a civilian building after taking evasive action, but you never know.

My Environment

Heres a few more renders of my environment. I think some of the textures could use dirtying up, like the bricks for example, but it didn't come out very well when I tried, because of the tiling, Baaah Humbug.

To Start a fresh...

I have to say that I'm REALLY looking forward to starting work again. No, it's not that I've missed it or anything but the fact that I get to work on something new.

I always find that If I work on something for too long I will get bored, I suppose its inevitable and probably natural, jus like I prefere doing speed paintings that last about an hour rather than painting longer ones.

So I'm looking forward to a new challenge, notably the group project, because it'll give us the chance to combine our talents and create something really special.

I handed in my powerpoint presentation today, so i'll give ya all a sneak preview.

Beasting!

The work goes on. I'm planning on completing my self portrait by Monday. I know I've been bad and left it to the last week. On the bright side I find that I will get more into a project if I keep a tight schedule and working on it everyday rather than spacing it out over a few week.

I'm quite happy at the moment, my mesh is looking good and I look relaxed and normal, rather than having the rigidness and stiffness than my last one :D

I'm getting there.

Second time lucky

So everyone knows my last self portrait sucked worse than a $12 hooker (ok so there were bits I liked but the bad overshadowed the good), so I've started again and I feel it's looking better. Much less tri's, tidier, and better geometry.

This time I've been following a tutorial I found on the internet that involves drawing over your face in photoshop, making it flat and bringing the verts out. It's work in progress but I'm happy with it so far.

In bad Spirit

I know there was a fair bit of hype surrounding the new Frank Miller film, titled 'The Spirit'. Many people thought it wouldn't compare to the awesome Sin City, and you know what, they were right.

I can safely say it's one of the worst films I've seen in years. I pretty much had a problem with everything about it.

It maintained no consistency with style, constantly switching between heavily comic book styled shots using the classic, black, white, and red cutout style, then back to regular lighting, ok so it was lit well in that style but it just didn't have the impact that Sin City did. Also one thing that really annoyed me was how in some scenes the Spirits tie was a bright, overly-saturated red, and in others it was dulled down and even black and white.


Then there was the story. It didn't draw me in at all, and seemed a bit slapstick at times. Ok so maybe fans of the comic would have got it, but to the average person who wasn't familiar with it, it seemed like it took elements from every super hero film and did a bad job of keeping me interested. None of the Voice-overs had the drama or feeling in them. It felt a lot like they were cashing in on the franchise.


Then there's the acting.........*sigh* Samuel L Jackson played the very weird villain, who took a rather particular turn, when he dressed up as a Nazi and started parading around like he was in some sort of pantomime, which brings me to the woman playing the police sidekick, who actually acted like she WAS starring in a pantomime. The actor who played the spirit, who's name I forget, didn't do much for the character either, his performance was average not showing enough emotion for me. But I suppose all can be forgiven when you see Eva Mendes...

So the film sucked all over. I know people may say 'you shouldn't compare it to Sin City' but I do. So instead of spending a fiver on seeing this, please go and get yourself a copy of Sin City and you can wallow in the beautiful style and storytelling that The Spirit should have taken on.

My mid-year resolution

Wow another year has passed, I'm starting to wonder what the hell I actually do in a year, I mean that's a long time. It also feels weird when I think that I've gone through a fifth of my life (touch wood, or a sixth depending on how medical science gets on).

Well I'm not one for resolutions I'll tell you that but there are a few things I want to change this year, and not just because it's the new year, to me the 1st of January is just another day, one that I usually sleep through that is.

The main thing I want to improve is my summer work. Last summer I didn't do nearly as much work as I should have. I did have a job but it was part time so that's no excuse. I simply got into the routine of doing nothing. Luckily I haven't got into that routine this break, which is a good thing because we're being graded when we come back, but also because I need to do more If I want to get good.

When I'm off for about four or five months in the summer it seems like such a waste of time to do nothing, and this is my twentieth summer on earth! I owe it to myself to do more work and not to screw up this opportunity.

I've got to do a lot of work and it's not going to be easy, but my way of thinking is if I work hard in this life, I'll be rewarded and be reincarnated as a cat.........damn cats have it easy.