Monthly Archives: September 2013

Character Design Contest ♯43- Psychics

This week I want you to use the power of precognition and create the winner of this weeks psychic powers contest. Basically, create an awesome character with some form of psychic powers. They can have  Telepathy, Telekinesis, Clairvoyance, Precognition, Astral Projection, Mediumship, Mind Control, Possession etc. but you MUST do some form of visual representation of their powers.

As per usual, there are no entry limits, the contest will close at 12am Sunday (blog time). Please read the rules before entering, have fun and good luck.

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges that I am hosting: Original characters only, no copyrighted characters, no characters based on copyrighted characters, no characters based on RPG’s or other games. The characters must be your own design and not based on any character that might be copyrighted in any way. I have the right to delete any post that I believe crosses this line without warnings. Only post characters that you have either created for this contest specifically or you know for certain have never been entered to a contest before. If you aren’t certain, don’t enter it, because I’m not going to go back through all of the contests and check.

Sci-Fi Corner: Aliens

This week, we're going to have a look at the major sci-fi staple; Aliens. The main thing I want to look at is why we seem to identify best with humanoids. If we look at the best loved and most famous aliens from sci-fi history, Predator, Chewbacca, the Klingons, E.T etc. they are very easily identifiable as humanoids, bipedal, human forms, all features (mouth, eyes, nose (usually), hands, feet) all in places we'd expect to be. Even the less humanoid aliens, such as the Aliens or Jabba The Hutt have some humanoid features with few bits taken away, like the humanoid rear legs on Jabba (but he still has very human arms) or the human-like head/ face on the Aliens, which is the bit that makes them so scary, as we humans seek emotion from the face, so removing the face makes the Aliens emotionless and unnerving. The only major alien that has no humanoid features, that I can think of off the top of my head, would be the Daleks, and we can argue semantics over whether the Daleks count as full aliens or cyborgs, because of the pepper-pot mobility suit, but even there they were engineered by a humanoid from humanoids, which is meant to be (alongside the Cybermen) a metaphor for the dangers of surgical enhancement, by making them less human they become more scary.

Anyway, I'll let you guys take over now. Why do you think we identify better with aliens that are more human? Can you think of any famous non-humanoid aliens that are worthy of major note that I've missed? And who/ what is your favourite alien?

Character Design Contest ♯42 Poll (Public Domain Amalgamations)

[polldaddy poll="7433999"]

Character Design Contest ♯41 Results (Fashion Show)

I have to say last weeks contest has to be my favourite that I've done. There were so many excellent entries, it was so hard to pick my top 5. However, there can only be one winner, and I am preparing for more remarks about unfairness due to certain peoples careers and all that, but YOU GUYS voted that this weeks winner was djuby for his piece hautecouture.

41 djuby-hautecouture

The Pop Quiz Returns…

pop-art-gary-grayson

 

Just a reminder that the next Pop Quiz will be on Saturday, October 5th. In addition to the regular monthly version, I am thinking of running a second monthly Pop Quiz with a seasonal theme of some kind...Halloween is coming! Let me know what you guys think.

No COTW today

Sorry, but I won't be able to do a Character Of The Week post today. I've had so much stuff to do and now I just feel completely out of it, I can't even think of what to write. Admittedly I'd usually have done the post yesterday and scheduled it for today, but I forgot, what with it being first day of my third year of uni and sorting out my final year project. Hopefully I'll be able to do it next week.

Iron Man 3: Pix of Armour Construction

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/nailbiter111/news/?a=87076

Make It Sew – The Costume Blog: Tales From The Fitting Room

indiana-jones-and-the-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-original

I love my job. I am reminded everyday as I walk into my shop how truly lucky I am. There is an old saying that if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. While I wouldn't go quite that far, the fact that I have managed to combine what I love with what I am good at, and that someone is willing to pay me for it, is pretty cool.

But the job of a costume designer is not just drawing pretty pictures and making pretty clothes. There is an astonishing amount of paperwork involved in costume design - a fact that I have been trying to find a way around for 25 years. There is the script analysis: studying the text and flagging all references to what the clothing needs to be and what it needs to do; the costume breakdown which is a comprehensive list of all the pieces worn by the actor in a given scene; the all important budget which assigns a monetary "limit" to each piece required for the production, and the costume plot which traces a performer's entrances and exits and costume changes and provides information like potential quick changes.

Doing this for a play can be daunting enough - especially in Shakespeare - but when you approach a musical with a cast of anywhere from 24 to 60 people it can be a huge undertaking. But it has to be done - every time - all the time.

All of this is countered with what I consider to be the true joy of costume design: working with actors. I love actors. I admire their talent, their discipline, and the balls it takes to stand in front of an audience night after night and deliver text committed to memory as though they are saying it for the first time. Couldn't do it...never want to try. But working with actors - or anyone for that matter - has its pitfalls.

Image is an interesting thing. We design ourselves every day. Each morning as we get ready to leave for the day, we make subconscious decisions that will dictate our image to the world. Battling that image can be the biggest challenge for a costume designer. Throughout my career I have run into several image issues. Predominantly they have involved young performers who are just starting to figure out the actor/designer relationship. Seasoned performers have, for the most part, figured this dance out. It's a collaboration. Through the rehearsal process they build a character from the inside out, while the designer works from the outside in. Once a performer reaches some sort of fame or recognizability, image can become a whole other issue.

One of my most memorable encounters with "image" occurred when I first started designing and teaching for the Sheridan College Theatre Program. I was working on a production of "The Return of the Curse of the Mummy's Revenge!", a musical which is a send up of 1950s B horror movies. It's the story of a guide, an heiress, her archeologist father, an evil priestess, and a tap dancing mummified Egyptian slave. For the design of the show it seemed that using images of movie icons would be appropriate. The heiress became Kate Hepburn from the "African Queen", and the guide was modelled after Indiana Jones.

When the actor playing the guide showed up for his fitting I could never have predicted his reaction. We recreated the look to a T. Fedora, worn khakis, stunning vintage leather jacket stripped of dye and weathered with French enamel varnish, bull whip, the whole nine yards. When he emerged from the fitting room he looked great - except for the fact that his eyes were filled with tears. Truly concerned, I asked what was wrong. His response floored me. "This is all brown, and I have blue eyes!"

Stunned silence.

I was dumbfounded. My years of experience had prepared me for a lot of things, but not this. As I explained - again - the theory behind the character's look his anxiety continued unabated. It was only after a quickly manufactured lie that he started to come around. "Well you see Mike. by dressing you in a contrasting colour, we are actually drawing focus to just how blue your eyes are. If we dressed you in cool colours they would get lost." While this is true in practice - especially in film - on stage, the distance from the audience all but ensures that eye colour is rarely noticed at all. He came around slowly, but bought it hook, line and sinker. The next time I worked with him, which was in a production of "Guys and Dolls" he even asked if he could have a brown suit!

He is not the only of his kind that I have encountered over the years, but he is certainly one of the most memorable.

 

 

Things I Like: Every Starship Ever On One Chart

Just found this on Facebook. Pretty awesome if you ask me. See how many you can name before you look up close.

(Massively down sized to fit on page)

Here's a bigger version: http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/191accgnmnevzjpg/original.jpg

Open Critique Day

Considering the turn out for last weeks OCD, and the fact that some people have been pestering the moderators to bring back the OCD for a while now, I thought we might as well have another one today.

Same rules as apply to the contests apply here. No copyrighted characters, no characters based on copyrighted characters/ RPG's and other games, they must be your own characters. I will delete any posts that I believe have crossed the line in any way, and that includes with the critiques. Keep it friendly guys, we're trying to be helpful here.

Ok, lets see what you've got.