The brief for this project is to create an animated piece of work in nuke to show an interpretation of the theme alone. It could just be the camera that’s animated but the piece has to include a built object from Maya brought into nuke and show use of colour/tone and saturation for a desired effect.
These are the first couple of images I came across when looking into the theme alone I think these are symbols associated with lose so maybe lose of a loved one and the feeling that they have left the world and you alone. As opposed to the obvious images of people on their own which I looked at below.
The first thing I noticed about these images was the body language of the people in them is very closed off arms in towards themselves and they are almost hugging themselves. This I found interesting as normally when your feeling lonely you would be more open with those around you to deter from that feeling of loneliness, so your body language shouldn’t be closed off. This makes me think that the characters in these images are not only lonely but sad. When your sad you normally don’t like people to see that side of your character, this is when you shut people out and keep your body language closed off. This makes me think maybe there are slightly different levels of loneliness so in one case you can feel alone but still maintain optimism and continue as normal, and in another you can feel alone in something maybe a bad situation that makes you sad in which case you’d also feel let down by people around you for letting you be alone in a certain situation. This obviously depends on each person and how strong they are mentally when dealing with bad situations and dealing with things alone.
- Concept1:
This makes me think of creating a piece representing a time where a character feels alone but keeps going as normal. As most of what I looked at was a literal representation of a single person alone. I thought of having a male character in a room with family and friends but the image taken whilst he glances at a photo of him and his partner. Having you as an audience move through this frozen scene and the camera to show the audience what he is looking at with a sad expression on the characters face.
In images I found above I noticed the majority I came across were black and white, DE saturated or had a blue tint.
so I began to look into why these choices were made and look into colour theory.
Aristotle was the first philosopher to look into colour his hypothesis was that there were two primary colours black and white. White being light and black the absence of light as in everyday life that’s what we see light and areas of shadow because the light has hit an obstacle. This is what we use when working with nuke although with computers colours are represented as numbers. White is 1 and black is 0 anything in between is your variations of grey. This when using nuke means the white is visible and black is not
Aristotle also took literal representations of colour from the sun and the sky so the next colours after the black and white were yellow from the suns rays and blue from the sky.
The quote below is taken from Leon Battista Alberti an Italian artist and philosopher born in 1404 who was the second to try and decipher colour.
“Through the mixing of colours infinite other colours are born, but there are only four true colours – as there are four elements – from which more and more other kinds of colours may be thus created. Red is the colour of fire, blue of the air, green of the water, and of the earth grey and ash.”
He did not class black and white as colours just variations of other colours so like the spinning colour wheel the colours spin and blend together causing the human eye to perceive them as white because it can no longer differentiate between each colour. Although if you literally mix paint all colours together creates black.
From the four true colours in relation to this project I began thinking about blue as supposedly it represents air. Which I thought was very fitting for the theme alone as most people feel alone at times regardless of the situation its just you and the air around you. I didn’t want to focus too much on light and dark at this stage just different colours and their representations.
The next scientist was Sir Isaac Newton who proved a prism separated white light into different colours this he called a spectrum. The colours put back together recreate the white light. The colours are identified as Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Known as R.OY. G .B.I.V the colours of the rainbow. Newton maintained that these colours created all other colours.
The theorys or interpretations of colour have all developed and changed over time but now we understand colour as three groups.
YELLOW
- In Japan Yellow means Courage and Nobility
- In Islam Yellow means Wisdom
- Hindus consider Yellow a Sacred color
- Buddhist monks wear Saffron Yellow robes
- In many Middle East countries Yellow represents Golden Prosperity
- In Egypt Yellow is reserved for Mourning
This can be seen in there jewellery or the way ancient Egyptians were buried with their gold and possessions as they believed they could take them into there next lives.
- In India Yellow is the color used by Merchants
- To Native Americans Yellow is the symbol for unconditional Love
- In China Yellow represents Honor and Royalty
Yellow for the most part is taken has a happy uplifting colour but for some can cause headaches and for the brighter yellows be annoying to certain people.
The colour amazingly can sometimes even be made out by blind people vaguely so has been the choice for most emergency vehicle’s and as it is the brightest on the colour wheel its used for high Vis clothing and safety uniform. So to some people can represent safety.
RED
- In Russia Red symbolizes Communism and revolution.
- In China, brides wear Red and it is considered a Good Luck color.
- To most Asians Red means happiness and prosperity as most of their brides wear red and gold.
- In India Red is a symbol of life-giving purity.
- In the Middle East the color symbolism of Red is Danger and Evil.
- In Greece Red is considered a dominant male color.
- In Japan Red is considered a life-giving color associated with female reproduction.
- In Christianity, Red combined with Green is associated with Christmas. Although has something to do with advertising as Santa was in green before Coca Cola used red for their brand and it stuck. So the colour red being overly associated with Christmas is down to that, which is then associated with Christianity.
- To some Native Americans specially the Cherokee, Red symbolizes the East and Sacred Fire.
- In South Africa Red is the color of mourning.
- In Amsterdam Red sells sex in the Red Light district, a legalized zone of prostitution.
Red is one of the most conflicting colours in modern times as to many people is associated with love and passion but to others it is associated with evil dark things. I personally have never really liked the colour I’m not entirely sure why.
Though it is believed that we attach our personal experiences to colours, sounds and smell. So that affects the way we individually perceive colours as well as how we have been influenced to perceive colours from the culture and environments we live in.
Red seems to be very good choice for marketing especially with food and drink , such as:
- Coca Cola
- Pringles
- KFC
- Mc Donalds
- Pizza Hut
They seem to all use red as the base colour for their brand so when choosing colours to use I would have to think about this. As I could give of the wrong feel or be targeting the wrong audience.
Blue
Blue is mostly evokes air and calm serenity to people but like red is a contradicting colour and can be associated with LONLINESS and SADNESS.
In the 1940’s-1960’s blue was used in abstract expressionist art blue was used by artists to create depth in their flat images as to the human eye blue appears to recede when next to other colours.
- In Christianity the Madonna is usually clothed in Blue to symbolize virtue.
- In the Jewish faith, Blue is the color of holiness.
- In Hinduism Blue is the color of the god Krishna.
- In China Blue represents immortality.
- Philosophers in Ancient Rome wore Blue robes to show their rank.
- In Japan Indigo Blue is often used in art and clothing and symbolizes the vast ocean surrounding the islands.
- In Ancient Egypt the skin of the god Amun was painted blue to signify the divine.
- In Germany employees being dismissed are given Blue Letters or “Blaue Briefe”.
- In France deep Blue is strongly associated with Royalty and Aristocracy.
- Some Native Americans believe the color symbolism of Blue means using intuition to serve and teach.
- In Iran Blue is the color of mourning.
When researching blue I can see why it was used in some of the alone images I came across as to some people it does represent sadness and loneliness. Its even used to state an emotion “you seem blue” clearly meaning you seem unhappy or not yourself.
I think obviously different tones of blue like any colour mean something different as I perceive light blues to be very bright and airy normally associated with the sky or the colour chosen for a baby boy and quiet an uplifting colour. Where as I perceive darker or even duller greyer tones of blue to feel quiet eerie and cold could see them making me feel closed off.
For that reason I think I will try and use a dull greyish blue in my piece to replicate that feeling to my audience.
Blue is another colour used a lot in marketing and for very clinical products, such as:
- Tesco
- Skype
- Oral B
- Aquafresh
What I did notice about all the brands here was that they are all used with white which is what I think gives some of them a very clinical feel. So if I steer away from using white in the piece as it will have the wrong effect and feel to light for the theme.
BLACK AND WHITE
White in our is generally perceived as innocence most brides wear white on their wedding day . Its associated with cleanliness, holy symbols and purity. In some cultures people wear white at funerals as its a sign of new beginnings and prosperity.
Some people do relate it with the unknown such as ghosts and eerie things, as well as the white flag. A flag to show surrender which could be a negative connotation with the colour to some people.
Overall the cognitive association for white is mostly positive. Its not a colour I would think to use for this theme unless I was trying to add an aspect of hope to the piece as you cant be alone forever. So maybe as in images I’ve seen before a light at the end of a tunnel or light coming through a window of a very dark room or even a glint in the eye of a character representing a glimmer of hope.
Black is often asscoicted with mourning in western culture since the the romans started to wear dark clothing to funerals in the 2nd century. It is also widely associated with the underworld due to the black throne of Hades. Many people still associate black animals such as cats with witchcraft although people don’t still believe in witchcraft, it does give a negative connotation to the colour that remains prominent to day. The colour is most often associated with darkness even though in the dark you will still seen subtle dark blue or even white tones due to light from the moon or another source. This in itself is a negative connotation as some people are scared of the dark or scared of what they cant see particularly well in the dark. Darkness is associated with evil so black is instantly associated with this aswell.
Overall there are several negative conotations with the colour black but in modern western culture the colour black for clothing seems to be popular especially for smart clothing . Therefore if I was to include a person in my seen I don’t think I would have them in black clothing unless they were intended to be at a funeral as it could give mixed signals to the viewer.
From researching certain aspects of colour theory I decided the animation I want to create will have very dark colours such as black, dark blues and very de- saturated colour as I want to give the audience the feel of loneliness and a hint of fear of the unknown when they watch the piece. I found although red can be perceived as evil and a negative colour the audience could take it to be a symbol of love which I didn’t want the audience to feel when looking at the piece.
Who am I targeting with the piece?
The website above runs through film trends when it comes to audience and states that film makers tend to push their work on a specific audience as opposed to just making something they like and seeing how an audience reacts to it. This is obviously done purposely to gain more revenue from each film. The trends for picking an audience depend on the state of the financial and economical environment in which they are broadcasting the film. Like explained in the article in the war all the men were at work so the films were tailored to feminine tastes. When producing a piece of work whether a film or advertisement etc. You have to think about who is available to watch it so if you know between 9am and 3pm mothers are likely to be at home while children are at school you wouldn’t show as many adverts of kids toys or men’s tools, you’ll show products women would be interested in or mothers would be interested in for their children.
For this project I’m obviously not taking money into consideration and not putting the piece out in a specific part of the world. Though I am deciding the target audience from the theme. As the theme is alone I don’t want to aim the piece at children as it is not a theme they will be familiar with or a theme I would want them to be familiar with. I would like to aim it at people with an understanding of what it means to be alone and people who could either empathise with a character in it or appreciate that they are not in a situation like it. So the age range I’m choosing is from early 20’s onwards as would like a mature audience to perceive my work. The work will have to suit the taste of my audience so id like to keep it engaging not just a camera moving through a flat image. Maybe add some form of animation or depending on the setting some particles etc. This is because although it will be a mature audience they can still get bored if something is too simple and visually pleasing.
More concepts
Concept 2:
The second concept I had was space themed as its the most isolated you could get above the earth and everyone in it and the darkness makes it all the more uninviting and hostile. This idea came about whilst learning a few things in nuke during lessons but I decided almost instantly not to go with this one because I’d seen too many class members produce projects in space from the first year group. It would be to easy concept wise to reproduce the same work. I decided I wanted to do something different.
Concept3:
This was one in the back of my mind when I heard the project , it was involving a young child who had been neglected left alone whether it was outside or inside but somewhere uninviting. Maybe on the other side of a wall or doorway or window another child will be slightly visible to both the audience and the neglected child as a symbol of hope for the child who feels alone in the piece. Although with this one whilst being slightly worried about the work load in such a small amount of time I was a little worried about going to dark/ sinister with the piece. So I again moved on from this idea back to the first idea.
Concept1:
As I said previously the idea was to take a male who felt alone in his own home around people because he was missing his partner for whatever reason. For this sequence the 3d object would be the photo frame and maybe the fireplace it was on. I would have to either draw or stage a photograph then separate it into layers to give it a 3d feel. Which I thought be fairly time consuming just with finding different people to be in the shot. I would of attempted this given more time but I thought it best to focus on the actual techniques in nuke as opposed to staging a photograph because I would learn less about the software I would be using if my time was occupied by looking for models and a setting. So I decided to keep thinking about other ideas.
Concept4:
This idea came to me when attending a family friends funeral at the end of last year the family had asked me to take photographs despite the funny looks I received I did so. There was two images that made me think of loneliness , the first of the minutes before the lowering of the coffin the widow was reluctant to through a rose to the grave. Although she was surrounded by loved ones she in that moment had the realisation she was now alone and wasn’t ready to let go. The other was of all the flowers laid out in a line beside the grave as representation we all leave the world alone although your loved ones can see you off , you can’t take them with you.
The idea I got from this was to have an image where there are flowers were laid out by the grave having one bunch of those flowers in3d and tracking the camera through the scene to show someone’s feet from the side as if they were walking away. Showing that the person has now exited the world alone.
An image like this possibly, this is not the image I took just an example but I thought it was slightly disrespectful to use the images I took in either the project or the concepting stage . I thought it would be difficult to get images to use for this idea without it being disrespectful to someone’s family so again although I liked the idea thought it best to steer away from it.
Concept5:
This concept i came up with while in lesson whilst learning how to make a basic 2d image 3d using cards. The idea was to just grab any image whether your own or of the internet take them into nuke put them on cards and start to build a 3d scene. For this i used the two images below which i found on the internet. I decided for my project i could create a scene using these images and have the alone aspect being from the audiences perspective feeling like they were alone in the environment i had created. I decided it was best to use the images i had found so that i could really focus on learning the techniques that i will need in my later career. Although if i had more time i would rather use my own images and artwork. Though i have learnt from prior mistakes when i had been too ambitious and not got the effect i desired so for the purpose of this project and this time scale i will be using images from the internet. For the piece i want to take the audience through the scene and build some of the rocks in the scene. This i have scene in the film “UP” when Mr Fredriskson and Russell see the scale of the rocks around them and think it does make the audience feel uneasy and alone from the scale of the rocks in the scene.
These are the two images I will be using.
During making the scene:
This idea I stuck with but whilst working on it i adapted it again because of timescale I could not build the big rocks but i did build some small rocks and a plant for the foreground. I also decided to add an animated bird as a symbol of hope for the audience which i colored white as a symbol of hope and new beginnings the bird then leads them out of the scene. Out of the idea of being alone.
Final piece:
rubyakhtar 