Minor Project: Sketchbook Concepts

Fig 1: Life Drawing Clown

Fig 2: Mr Plimsolls

Fig 3: Mr Plimsolls 2

Fig 4: O' Barney 

Fig 6: Additional Sketches

 Some sketches in my sketchbook for some of the bogeyman characters I am creating, still trying to figure out the 1930's rubberhose style and I've been looking around for individual characters and cartoons to help in influencing the character designs for individual bogeymen.

Maya Tutorial: Atmosphere

Fig 1: Without Atmosphere added

Fig 2: With Atmosphere Added

Because of the addition of Arnold as the standard in Maya 2017 and 2018, the capabilities of producing realistic renders has increased. An example of this is with the Arnold Environment setting in the Arnold Render settings which allows for the addition of atmosphere to interact with lighting in the scene, it is also able to be customised to allow for many uses. Setting an Atmosphere allows for a more realistic render and Arnold has made it easier to enable this addition to the render in comparison to mental ray in older versions.

Maya Tutorial: Arnold Lighting

Fig 1: Arnold Area Lighting

Fig 2: Arnold Mesh Lighting and Area Lighting

Fig 3: Arnold Skydome

Here are some Lighting effects produced by the Arnold Lighting available on Maya 2017. While these types of Lighting were available in the older versions of Maya with the mental ray renderer, Arnold in Maya 2017 allows for more realistic lighting with its options being more in depth in achieving the required lighting for a scene.

Maya Tutorial: Arnold SSS

Fig 1: Default al.standard Material

Fig 2: Shallow Map Added

Fig 2: Mid Map Added

Fig 3: Deep Map Added

This class practice was about applying detailed skin texture using Arnold SSS. Using Arnold made the whole process of applying Shallow, Mid and Depth maps to texture for the model was very efficient in comparison to the previous versions of Maya.

(Model Provided by eat3D)

Minor Project: Bogeymen Descriptions

Mr Plimsolls:

An old man with a bald head, and a hunched back. During Summer he would wear a peaked cap, a white vest top, white to the knee shorts, brown calf high socks and white plimsolls. Lived in a bungalow with an overgrown front garden, with a giant hedge that covered the entire house, hiding it away from view.
The young girl would see him, early in the morning, shuffle up and down the road, stick in one hand and bag in the other. He would pause, waving his stick and shouting out before continuing his pace down the road. One Summer the girl had such bad nightmare of Mr Plimsolls, of him staring and stalking her, that she spent an entire summer trapped indoors from the fear of him getting her.

(Story by Catharine Lima)

Life Drawing Clown:

A life drawing model, who was modelling in front of a class of primary school aged students, dressed as a clown, wore a red puffy wig on his head and face mask that had a overtly smiley face with a red nose. Wore a purple suit coat, with yellow striped pants, a white shirt and a big comedic bow. Looked scary enough to implement a fear of clowns.

(Story by Kav Bala)

O' Barney:

An aggressive neighbour, he was an unshaven, bald, rough looking man who wore a blue duffel coat. Would stare at his neighbour's house from a nearby field. Was also involved in multiple cases of property damage to his neighbour including, slashing tires, smashing his neighbour's front door and almost doing violent act to his neighbour. The son, my cousin, was terrified of the run ins he had with O' Barney.

(Story by Matthew Robinson)

Mr Polo (The Two Brothers):

Two Polish brothers who, to the young boy, looked "impossibly old and undoubtedly weird". One brother was never seen, acting as though he was a shadow, while the other brother, referred to as "Polo"
Polo appearance was similar to a baby's, bald and neckless, bulky build with skin that appeared grey. He was wrapped up in layers and layers of woollen clothing, and was elusive and mysterious. Picking ingredients in his garden like a witch or warlock. Because he looked and acted so different, hidden in mystery, the boy next door felt as though he brought fear and the cold with him even in hot summer days

(Story by Phil Gomm)

Werewolf Dad:

A dad who when asleep sounded so beastly it was like he turned into a werewolf in his sleep. It scared his daughter so much that she would lay in bed as straight as a mummy trying not to move just in case the werewolf came into her room to eat her.

(Story by Deanna Crisbacher)


More Descriptions will be added in due time.

Minor/Major Project: Mr Plimsolls Concept Art

Fig 1: Head Concept for Mr. Plimsolls

Fig 2: Body Concepts for Mr. Plimsolls

Here are some initial head and body concept art for Mr. Plimsolls in the style of the 1930's. I have decided to go down the route of the surreal cartoon style of early animation, influenced by the early Walt Disney and the Fleischer Studio cartoons. I decided upon this style because I like the appeal of the style and there is a lot more to work here then with my other style choice. Because the animation at the time was very experimental, it lead to very bizarre and, in a way, scary cartoon shorts and because of this I feel as though this style would fit with my theme of childhood bogeymen very well.

Feedback on this post would be most welcome.

Minor/Major Project: Bogeyman Research Assistance @Phil

For my project I am doing it about childhood bogeymen, inspired by my mum's childhood neighbor, nicknamed Mr. Plimsoll who scared her as a kid. I would like to gather a collection of various stories, detailing other peoples childhood bogeymen, to create a good archive of character concepts to have a well informed basis to form character designs from. The main things that I would like answered are things like:

• Who were they to you? a neighbor, a family member, a teacher etc.
• What they looked like (detailed description)? 
• What were the things they did that scared you?

To provide some context as to what I am after here is a synopsis of my Mum's bogeyman, Mr.Plimsoll:

Mr. Plimsoll was an elderly old man who lived down the road from my mum's house as a child. He had a bald head, a hunched back and carried a canvas bag in one hand and a walking stick in the other. In summer he would wear a peaked cap, a stained white vest top, white shorts that went to his knees, brown calf length socks and a white pair of his namesake plimsolls.

My Mother and her Brothers would play "Knock Down Ginger" on the door of his bungalow, that had an overgrown garden. The house couldn't be seen from the outside because of a big bush that so thick that it engulfed the bungalow in its foliage.

He would leave the house early at 6:30, walking up and down the street at a ridiculously fast pace for a man his age. As he did so he would chuck his stick in the air yelling as he went. My mum suffered from nightmares about him, having dreams of him staring in at her through the window. He scared her so much that she spent the entire summer holidays one year indoors.

If you are able to provide you own childhood bogeymen please comment on this post with your stories, providing answers to the questions above. It would be a big help for me in gathering research onto this topic and with the creative process as well.