Final Animation

How this has uploaded now when it wouldnt last week i dont know, but here it is!

Final Image: Casino Scene

This image shows a scene in the 'Circus Circus' casino, where the character describes his disgust at the greed of Las Vegas people, through a hallucination involving women with lizard heads. Originally there were alot of lizards all over the floor, but the darkness of the image meant you couldnt see them properly, so i cropped it. As with the carnivorous plants piece, i didnt want to sacrifice the atmosphere by using too much light.

I think i should mention the devastation that this set suffered on the way to college, as a result of my own idiocy and lack of sleep. I put it on top of the car while i got my bag out, and as predicted by Kachia, it flew across the fucking car park and fell apart. So the next hour was spent in an absolutely foul mood gluing it back together.

Final Image: Dollar / Alter Piece

The idea behind this relates to the American dream, the materialism and the almost worship of money. I originally had a few objects arranged on an alter id made, untill ian pointed out how crap it looked. So iv redone it, photographed from below to give a sense of the dollar being above, as if worshipped. All the objects are made from bright coloured plastic or acetate as i wanted a tacky Las Vegas feel to the piece. This is one of the images i photographed on my own, so no doubt it could be better but in a way i dont really care cos i learnt alot about photography, particularly lighting, by being left on my own and having to experiment. So at least some progress there then.

Finished Animation that wont even upload

I was looking forward to getting this on the blog. and yet again, technology has failed me. For fucks sake, i have done this before! and to take the piss even more, it spends half an hour telling me its uploading before deciding to simply not bother. its quite good anyway, i think. and this is what i had to say about it:

Finally the animations finished! Really pleased with the result, and its been a good process aswell cos iv learned so much about istopmotion and even managed to achieve something with Premier, these types of programmes normally hate me. And i think the music really adds something to it, cheers to duncan for all the help with that that! We sampled 'white rabbit' by Jefferson Airplane cos i really liked the way that song builds up, kinda like the animation does... added alot of effects, it was really insane and paranoid, and i thought it was quite cool and then realized after hearing it a few times that it was one of the most annoying things ever & this is gonna be played at the show on repeat and probably someone will at least try and smash something over my head as a result.... so we changed it. Recorded alot of random tapping noises and screams etc, the bats wing sound is us beating the couch wth cushions. And the money & till sounds are from 'Money' by Pink Floyd.

So iv enjoyed this alot. The i stop motion camera and programme is added to my long list of stuff i need to buy.

Lizards Animation

Iv done various little tests for the different parts of this animation , i think iv got this lizard bit right in terms of their movement, i used two acetate & wire lizards with their legs and bodies in different positions and swapped them over every shot, quite time consuming and a bit of a ballache but i love it.

Fear and Loathing First Animation

The opening line of the book is "We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold". It inspired me to produce this animation, its only rough and theres alot more i can do with it; basically i just wanted to produce a scene that maybe in a pretty abstract way conveys a sense of the madness thats about to unfold in Las Vegas, and the insanity and paranoia that the cocktail of drugs ingested by the characters has caused. Its all based on the description in the first paragraph.

Fear and Loathing Photos

These are made mostly from metal gauze and wire. They were easier to make than i thought & im really pleased with how these photos have turned out, i just used coloured acetates on a light box. The bat and cactus are for an illustration based on the first scene in the book which opens "We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold". The problem iv got now is cutting the object out of the photo to put in my design...

Major Project - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

During this self initiated project, I intend to develop further the visual style that I have been working towards over the past few months, through more ambitious experimentation in terms of 3D work, and the appropriateness and range of materials used. Using the influence of sixties psychedelic poster artists such as Alan Aldridge combined with the 3D work of contemporary illustrators like Juan Carlos Federico, I hope to finish with a bold visual language that will stand out from the crowd. I also intend to look again at the way Christian Boltanski uses shadows & silhouettes in his photography – I think this could be a useful reference in trying to create a sense of paranoia.

I want my work to express the insanity and paranoia, and the erratic nature of Hunter S. Thompsons LSD / Mescaline experience, and also the disillusionment felt by the author over the death of the dreams and idealism of the 1960s. Representing the views of both the author and myself, I intend to explore ideas relating to the greed and materialism behind the American dream. Despite the quite dark nature of the book; the bad trip and the hallucinations and paranoia it causes, as well as the authors underlying criticism of American society, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas retains an element of humour in the writing style; something that I would like to come through in my work.

As discussed in my last tutorial I plan to look at incorporating pattern into my work, in terms of creating good designs but also communicating a message. I intend to research the possibilities as to where my work could fit in within the music industry, from the obvious sleeve artwork and merchandise, to growing industries such as designs online for example bands websites.