Brian Edward Miller
Brian is the creative mind behind the Orlin Culture Shop (OCS) based in Erie, Colorado. His evocatively stylistic landscapes and vibrantly energetic human figures are brought to life with bold strokes and intense color palettes.
week 1
Around 2005-2006 he decided to pursue drawing more seriously in his spare time. He started by showing up to work an hour early so he could draw and stayed up 2 hours later every evening to create. Next, Brian took jobs which were less taxing creatively and demanded less of his time so he could have the energy to pour into a drawing. Every drawing he did he saw as an opportunity to grow, and it helped him to maximize his study and drawing times. Brian ended up working at a few gaming studios as a graphic designer with a handful of opportunities to try his hand as a concept artist.
He tried many times to make the transition from graphic design to concept art, though none of the opportunities worked out because Brian could make more money as a Senior Graphic Designer or Art Director than he could as Concept Artist.
Eventually, the decision was taken out of his hands as the first game studio he worked for was dismantled and sold, while the other closed down less than a year later. After the studio closures, Brian decided to put his abilities to the test by venturing out on his own and starting his own business.
Brian's taste and style were shaped by an amalgamation of influences ranging from Vintage Disney, 1980’s cartoons, Manga, Comic Books, 1940-1960’s advertising illustration, and picture books. He tends to fixate on mood and atmosphere in the art he loves the most. When he starts working on a new project, its usually a mix of pen and paper first, followed by all digital. Brian tends to think better on paper where he can quickly write notes and throw down rough lines to get all his ideas out first. From there he heads to the digital platform where he does ‘official’ sketches and final production.
Paul has never attended art school or taken any art classes. He is purely self-taught. He has been digitally creating art for about four years.
Drawing has always been something he did simply as a hobby; his studies have never been art related.
He will be attending Art Center College of Design this fall to study Concept Art.
Marc Silvestri
Marc an American comic book artist, creator, and publisher. He currently acts as the CEO for Top Cow Productions.
Silvestri began his career drawing issues for DC Comics and First Comics. He joined Marvel Comics in the late 1980s and became the penciller on Uncanny X-Men from 1987 to 1990. He subsequently spent two years penciling its spin-off title Wolverine.
In 1992, Silvestri became one of the original seven artists — along with Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Rob Liefeld, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, and Jim Valentino — to form the breakaway comics company Image Comics. Silvestri's stable of titles was published under the imprint Top Cow with the first title released being Cyberforce. Besides his art, Silvestri was also scripter (and co-plotter) on the Top Cow title Codename: Stryke Force. Many of Silvestri's stories were scripted by his brother, Eric Silvestri.
Disputes among the Image partners led to Silvestri briefly leaving the publisher in 1996, but he soon returned after Liefeld severed his own ties with Image.
Top Cow's successes include the titles Witchblade, The Darkness, Inferno Hellbound (publication of which was interrupted for unknown reasons) and Fathom.
Silvestri produced the story and preliminary character sketches for the 1997 video game Fighting Force.
In 2004 Silvestri made a brief return to Marvel to pencil several issues of X-Men, collaborating with writer Grant Morrison. Later in the year, he launched a new Top Cow title, Hunter-Killer with writer Mark Waid. He provided covers for the Marvel Comics mini-series, X-Men: Deadly Genesis by Ed Brubaker and Trevor Hairsine.
In June 2006 Top Cow released a Cyberforce #0 featuring the artistic talents of Silvestri.
In late 2007 (cover date December), he penciled the X-Men: Messiah Complex one-shot, as well as many covers in the crossover of the same name that followed.
Silvestri executive produced the anime adaptation of Witchblade.
He continued his work on X-Men, penciling the first installment, in the form of a one-shot Uncanny X-Men/Dark Avengers crossover Utopia in 2009. That same year, he contributed to the crossover miniseries Image United, penciling all the characters he created during his run at Image that featured in the story.
In 2012, Silvestri was one of several artists to illustrate a variant cover for Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead #100, which was released July 11 at the San Diego Comic-Con.
week 2
Today's task was to create an object/character by using only paper. It was interesting and challenging.
My idea was robot-insect. I struggled a little bit to make it stand.
week 3
Composition and camera shot.
Close-up.
Medium shot.
Long shot
Dutch angle.
Pan
Titanic
The Revenant
week 4
Storyboard
What is the story about?
Based on the brief I have chosen the game based on Greek mythology. I have mainly focused on Medusaʼs story; also she is my main character.
The primary objective for the game is Karmaʼs journey from the Underworld through the Earth to Olimp. Karma is the mother of snakes, she has control over them, but also she can count on them if needed. She is a powerful creature also gifted by magical sources. Her journey begins in Underworld Hades where she was reborn from the dragonʼs egg. On Earth, Karma meets the second essential character of the game - Illa. Illa has drunk water from the Styx river as a child; this is where her magical abilities came from. The girl is a human orphan who survived thanks to the ability to transform stones into any other objects, food, water, and noble metals. She is not as strong as Karma but Karma cannot turn objects into noble metals and gold is exactly what she needs to go through Olimpʼs gate. Guardians of the Olimpʼs gate are too strong for Karma; gold is the only way to buy them off. That was the moment when Karma and Illa decided to become allies. Gods of Olimp are smart enough to know
that there is no more gold on Earth; this is how they separated themselves from the humankind. The human race tried to steal powers from the gods. Zeus, the head of all gods, punished people for their greed.
Karma was in love with a human man whoʼs idea was to take gods powers. Zeus killed both of them - Karma and her love, to make sure she will not try to revenge.
Earth turned into dessert; the sun has never risen again. Humanity was slowly approaching extinction. Zeus did not expect that Karmaʼs love was strong enough to let her be born again. She came back from the dead to punish Zeus and find a soul of her dead lover, which was trapped in Zeusʼs golden jar at Olimp. This is how her journey has begun.
Who are the characters?
Main characters - Karma and Illa. I am going to draw both of them in high details. I am going to based on drawing from Visual Studies module from the previous semester.
The Underworld characters - monsters and one guardian of the Underworld. I imagine monsters as lost humans souls so that they will look like shadows/ghosts. I am going to use my guardian drawing from Visual Studies module.
Earth characters - in my story Earth is nearly empty; only a few people survived. I am going to draw them as a hiding creature somewhere in the background.
Olimp characters - the main character will be Zeus and two guardians of Olimp's gates.
In each scene, which characters are in the foreground, middle-ground or background?
My idea for 1-2 minutes video, 12 frames per second is to show the journey from the Underworld through Earth to Olimp.
Karma will be in foreground most of the time because she is the main character and the story is focused on her. I do not have a specific plan for each scene. The way I am planning it so far is for example when Karma will conflict with the guardian of the Underworld gate I will place the guardian in the foreground.
People who are still living on Earth will be in the background, hiding in ruins or other destroyed buildings.
Illa will be shown in foreground or middle-ground, depends on the scene.
In each scene, with whom are they in conflict, where does the conflict take place?
In the Underworld Karma conflicts with the souls of the dead, they do not want to let her leave that place. When she is about to leave Hades, she will conflict with the guardian. On Earth she does not have any conflict; she has to find gates what leads to Olimp. On the way, she meets need character - Illa. They become allies. After they found Olimp gates, both of them conflict with guardians. The last conflict is Karma and Zeus at Olimp.
What colours dominate each scene?
The Underworld colours will be black and white. I imagine this place as a snowy and shady forest full of lost souls.
Earth is going to be brown, yellow and orange.
Storyboard (drawings)
Dessert
Preparing one of the scenes - dessert.
I used black foam board to create stones and ruins. Trees are plastic figures. The ground is a white foam covered by acrylic paint.
Forest
To create a forest, I used plastic trees models, grass powder, stones, plastic monsters figures and white foam board painted green.
This scene is a part of main character journey to get to Olimp's Gate.
Gate
To create this scene I used black foam board, white foam board and wooden sticks. I covered everything with green and light yellow acrylic paint. I also added grass and stones elements. The background is a drawing I made in last semester.
Olimp Garden
To create this scene I used a white foam board as a ground and I painted it green with a brown path. I made the models of the buildings using plasticine and wooden sticks to make it stands.
Plasticine models.
Garden
Egg
To create this scene I used chicken egg. I made a small hole and I took out white and yolk. I let it dry over the night and I used acrylic paint. I glued painted egg to a black sheet of paper and I surrounded it with grass and leaves elements.
Final Outcome
That is the final outcome of the second semester.
Stop motion movie, 12 frames per second.
Software - Dragonframe 4.
Camera - Canon EOS 700D.
Link to video:
https://vimeo.com/334670352