Concept from Silhouette

I have taken one of the silhouettes and tried fleshing it out in Photoshop but this first attempt has turned out pretty weird because the shapes were hard to turn into recognizable arms. Especially the right arm which has turned into a fleshy alien claw. I'm going to try working with a few more silhouettes to see what other designs can be created.

Snark Silhouettes

Build-A-Snark's as Silhouettes

More Snarks...

Thank you everyone once again who participated in Build-A-Snark today. Im gonna take a selection from those that I have gathered so far and begin creating silhouettes to start working from.

















Operation Build-A-Snark Is GO!!!

The Build-A-Snark kit is ready! I asked a few people today to read the poem extracts I gave them 3 minutes to assemble some images to show what they think the Snark looks like. The responses to poem are already looking great! Its fascinating to see how unique everyone's Snark looks. Over the weekend I am going to ask a few friends from work to give the activity a go to get more people involved. I will also be about Monday and Tuesday in the university for any more volunteers :). 

Thank you everyone who took part today, and I'm looking forward to seeing more Snarks!!!  

   

Sam Tremain

Build-A-Snark Image Selection

To make the Snark kit I am going to use Zoological illustrations I have scanned from a book of natural history illustrations I found in the library and ones that I found on the Internet. I have printed them out some acetate and cut them up so you cant really tell what each image is. Then operation build a Snark is GO!    

Build-A-Snark Kit

Instead of approaching my designs by creating silhouettes from shapes of animals and sketching up creatures myself Phil suggested a more exciting way to create the Snark... make a 'Build-a-Snark' kit. The idea of the kit is to get people to arrange a selection of shapes, illustrations, photographs of animals to make a representation of what they think the Snark looks like, after they have read selected extracts from the poem. I feel this way I should be able to get a more interesting representation of the Snark because I am not limited by my own perception of the creature. The method also works in favor of the absence of description that nobody knows what it actual form is therefore they can only imagine what they think it looks like and it changes from person to person. The idea works in a similar way to a Boggart in Harry Potter which turns into what the person fears the most and has not single form.

Below is the extracts that I have chosen from the poems to start the Build-A-Snark kit... Next step gathering images.  Build a Snark Poem

Influence Maps

After reading though the poem I got the impression that the Snark is a master of disguise therefore I started looking at how animals have adapted to disguise themselves from predators or prey. I also found it interesting how one animal can make itself look like another as the poem states a Snark could be a Boojum:

“ ‘But oh, beamish nephew, beware of the day,

 If your Snark be a Boojum! For then

You will softly and suddenly vanish away,

 And never be met with again!’

Catapillar - Snake (Bends its head backwards)

Spider - Ant (Hides two of its legs)

Butterfly - Owl (Patterns on wings)

Also plants that look like animals and vice versa could be a disguise.

 Personality Influence Map



Initial Sketches

 After reading through the poem I began to conjure up my own image of the Snark as an initial response.

The Hunting of the Snark

From talking with Alan in week one and researching ideas for the animation involving the left and right side of the brain I started to feel like I was heading down the wrong path attempting an abstract animation. Mainly because character design element would not for fill the depth of detail that I am drawn to. Although the idea for the animation was perfectly valid I just felt that my calling should be well within the realms of pure character design.

Talking with Phil in week two it became clear that I want to continue down the path of character design. Being back at square one again in week two I wanted to seek out places where I could start and brainstorming with Phil showed me to the nonsense poem of The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll. The best thing about the poem is that there is no actual description of the creature just the account of the hunting of it. Carroll purposely doesn't describe the creature because he wants the reader to question what it is... which means the design could be anything!!    

The poem is in the link below :)

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/carroll/lewis/snark/

Year 3 - Minor Project Research and Ideas

Firstly I apologise for the absence on blog but work has been going on behind the scenes so in the next couple of posts I will bring everything up to date.

In the first tutorial with Alan in week 1 I put forward 3 Ideas that I have had in mind from the summer break:

Looking right the way back before first year at the summer project, I liked the machine design I created from the shapes in the brief. The character I designed was originally for a game concept (hence the guns and weaponry) based around a futuristic earth in mining caves. The brief for this project would be to build a futuristic robot drawing inspiration from the American mining industry in the 1800's.

The second starting point came from a pretty cool Mercedes Benz advert I saw that illustrated the characteristics of the left and right side of the brain. Once I read the descriptions on the ad I found that I could easily create two characters that embody these particular trait in behaviour and appearance. Talking more in depth with Alan about this idea we came to the idea of an animation involving two objects of some kind coming together to solve a problem or achieving a common goal in their unique ways.    

My third idea was pining of of the mining theme I had from the summer project involving a canary bird to follow a similar plot structure to that of the tale of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. The canary would be stuck in the cage within a mine but he would become bored sitting there day in and day out, so he decides to play dead and scares the miners. The ending of the story has the potential to be quite sinister with the bird dying or comical be caught seeking attention. The animation would stay within the cage and focus on the bird as a character and its movements. 

After the talk with Alan I chose to do take on the Left and Right side of the brain concept and he pointed me towards looking at Leonardo Da Vinci as the underlying theme is combining science and art.