And here is my last film page...

Christmas was good this year, although it deprived me of the ability to work...
But Scrooged was on the box. That film is pretty dark in places. That said, it is pretty silly in places too. I have now finished my film research.

Started looking at the 30 Days of Night graphic novel. Ben Templesmith's art work has such a rich but terribly dark atmosphere.

Here is a link to his website - plenty of artwork!!

http://www.templesmith.com/faze3/

So its all getting a bit stressful now!
So much to do with so little time...
Oh well, here are a few more sketchbook previews.
Taking scenes from the films I am researching, and attempting to put them in a graphic novel kind of format for practise.

5 more sleeps!

So it's almost Christmas. And how could I use this to my advantage?
...other than the obvious gift receiving.

Well 'A Christmas Carol'. The story could be told in a very dark manner.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm...

'Regan was still silent. Unmoving. Into icy air, thin mists of vapor wafter from the vomit like a reeking offering. Karras felt uneasy. Then the hair on his arms began prickling up. With nightmare slowness, a fraction at a time, Regan's head was turning, swiveling like a mannequin, creaking with the sound of some rusted mechanism, until the dread and glaring whites of those ghastly eyes were fixed on his.

The flickering haze grew gradually brighter. The demonic entity had returned and raged hatefully at Merrin. 'Profligate peacock! Ancient heretic! I adjure you, turn and look on me! Now look on me, you scum!' The Demon jerked forward and spat in Merrons face, and then croaked at him. 'Thus does your master cure the blind!'
William Peter Blatty - The Exorcist

I have read the book now, couldn't put it down. I have now read 'The Shining', 'The Amityville Horror' and 'It', but none of them really scared me. But 'The Exorcist' was terrifying. I decided to look at it because I want a religious theme and even possession included in my story.

Now a lovely night in watching the film!

Call Of Duty 5 and Gears of War 2 are too addictive...

Anyway, started storyboarding, which I will upload soon.
With christmas coming, I will be looking at 'A Christmas Carol'.
Potentially a very dark story...

Back soon.

This week, I ave' mostly been...


watching Horror.

I managed to fit in -

The Shining (creepy)
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (even creepier)
The Amityville Horror (cliched scares)
The Orphanage (beatuiful ghost-story)
(all beginning with 'The' strangly!)

and on television this weekend - The Omen and Texas Chainsaw Massacre remakes!

And again, some previews of my sketchbook.




See you soon

Here is a quick video showing how Dead Space allows the player to view videos whilst still being in control of the players movement around the level.

And also a preview of my sketchbook pages!

Interesting artical I found about Horror games by a writer from The New York Times Magazine.

Gore Is Less: Videogames Make Better Horror Than Hollywood
By Clive Thompson

"I'd only been playing BioShock for 15 minutes, and already I was trembling like a little girl.

It's hard to disentangle what precisely was scaring the crap out of me. Maybe it was hearing the rumbling moans of a nearby Big Daddy, and realizing it was hunting for me. Maybe it was the way those filthy, genetically modified humans would pop out of nowhere, dressed, improbably, in Victorian clothes and creepy Eyes Wide Shut clown masks. Or maybe it was their weirdly garbled dialogue -- how they'd shriek, "Get away from me!" while slashing at me with lead pipes."

full artical at http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/commentary/games/2007/08/gamesfrontiers_0827

Today, I started putting all my research together in a readable format. It's looking okay. I also went to see Burn After Reading. Very very funny. Oh, and a new Joker graphic novel is due for release next week I think. Written by Brian Azzarello; Art by Lee Bermejo and Mick Gray.

Had my tutorial with Nigel on wednesday. Basically I need to look at some graphic novels and then identify my own style. I have looked at both Punch and Arkham Asylum for Dave McKeans work, and next I intend to branch out and look at some other artists (if my loan decides to ever come through! (Below is a page from Arkham Asylum, written by Grant Morrison, art by Dave McKean)



Nigel also pointed me toward a helpful book by Will Eisner, named Comics & Sequential Art.

"All horror is based upon loss, and what you're afraid of losing: family, property, and sanity" Ken Levine - Creative Director on Bioshock.

Last year I researched the game Bioshock, and it had a big influence on the artwork I created. This year I have again looked at Bioshock, but this time from a different persepective. Bioshock is probably the only digital-game where I felt that narrative and story telling was on par with that of a films. Never before have I felt so immersed within a games story. I purchased a magazine (PSM3 Issue 106), which is celebrating the release of Bioshock on the Playstation3, with a booklet that explains some of the influences and artwork.

Above are some scans.

So I finally managed to create my own blog! It's about as much fun as I thought it would be thus far. Hopefully I will get better as time progresses. The image above is a concept piece I created last year on the Games Art & Design course at the Norwich School of Art and Design (now known as the much more confusing - Norwich University College of the Arts). This year I aim to build on what I achieved last year, and look even further into enhancing my game idea. I particularly want to study narrative, something which I feel most computer games lack. Then eventually I aim to use the research into building atmosphere that I did last year and combine that with this years research into narrative. I plan to create some storyboards and then perhaps shape it into the style of a graphic novel.

Anyway, I tried to keep this short, but failed miserably.
I'll be back soon (probably).

Ryan