Last necessary stuff For the Character Design Project

Mythical Pirates

Final Sidekick Sheet

Not much needed to be improved for the sidekick and I could go straight into his expressions. It is a lot of fun to play around with this little fellow.

Final Pirate Sheet

After last conversation with Alan and Justin I received some criticism and tips how yo make it better and more logical for my story. I tried not to forget anything and quickly remake the whole design, but the final result is really pleasing.

Full body Villain concept

Full body Villain concept

This took much less time then hero character probably because I didn't had to worry too much about right anatomy. From a simple sketch in the kitchen with a lot of photoshop help pretty cool stuff can come out.

Badass hero

After hours of doodling I just decided to stick to this kind of brutal look. Without any waiting I've also done quick back view turn-around. Some colors will make him to come to life. He is deeply inspired by the "Prince of Persia". I can easily imagine him smashing everything with his paddle now.

Before that I've done some silhouette to play around with different shapes and maybe to find what I could like. 

Prologue to the "Phoenix Brotherhood", Aplistia and all other new stuff...

Sidekick Gab should look fruity and delicious, She is a bit clumsy, can barely fly, but has some special powers. She can't use them by herself anymore, so hero Alithius gains the ability to use her.

This is very generic hero's look with some armor. I still have plans for few different designs.

I wanted to add for this weapon more harpoon/spear-like shape, so this is what I've got at the moment.

New evolved design of the villain is now a Capricorn corrupted by a human made stone that devours powers of gods called Aplistia. When Aplistia reveals its powers Capricorn's head bends back and you can see its face in the throat area. His left eye popped out when Aplistia devoured him, so you can see straight through the scull a little peace of  Aplistia's forehead.

Inspired by the last villain design that I'm working on now I elaborated my prologue to the story of the "Phoenix brotherhood" for several seasons of the show and it also should clearly explain all ongoing plot.


Phoenix Brotherhood Prologue

Alithius against Neptune

Another more detailed and evolved concept of the same fight. I'll have to work hard on my sidekick now. After a huge disaster believe it or not better version just disappeared. it breaks my hearth that hours of my work were gone again and I had to redo a lot, but this one is still pretty good. If somebody knows a reason why photoshop can turn off or crash without any reason randomly, please tell me. It is a second time when I loose really good stuff.

Review: District 9 (2009), Neill Blomkamp

This review is critically analysing Neil Blomkamp's movie "District 9". This movie is about cultural problems between people and it asks before discriminating someone to look through his eyes firs. This review is based on Roger Ebert's, James Berardinelli's and Peter Travers's reviews.

Figure1

District 9 is not one of those ordinary sci-fi movies. It plays with something very familiar to us and uses many cheats in the designs of the aliens. The aliens are basically a mix of human and prawn. They have eyebrows and many other anatomical details that makes them very human like. Prawn is not a dangerous creature, but it is not too cute too, so this design is something like a human of a very different race. Roger Ebert talks: "“District 9” does a lot of things right, including giving us aliens to remind us not everyone who comes in a spaceship need be angelic, octopod or stainless steel. They are certainly alien, all right. It is also a seamless merger of the mockumentary and special effects " (Chicago Sun Times, August 13, 2009). Although UFO still have this usual plate shaped form it is not shiny, but weirdly it also fits perfectly to the place where it lands. Somehow it looks like creators took absolutely different approach from a different angle to put it not in the most symbolically important places of earth by toady's typical understandings, but somewhere else - also big, but full of problems already environment. Peter Travers adds that: "Using a documentary style, with harsh lighting and hand-held cameras, he sets the scene for the vividly real horrors that follow" (Rolling Stone Reviews, August 13, 2009). On the other hand since everything is taken to this other environment and approach, but at the same time everything matches so perfectly with it's style and texture we get this question: "Why does everything looks so perfectly together?". Even though it might have been a goal in the movie to do this, they do not look like aliens anymore. James Berardinelli says: "Although the story is told, there are untiled ground and unanswered questions - not the least of which is what will happen in three years. A sequel, if one is warranted, is effectively set up, but is not mandatory." (Reelviews, August 12, 2009). The movie in deed leaves you some space to breathe and just to make your own ending. It really works well and it really doesn't need a second part, but because of the major succes we can definitely expect that something will come up.

Figure2

All in all this movie has a lot to offer. It can make you to think about world wide problems or just astound you with it's special effects. Aliens are not look like proper outsiders, but it just something to make the story work better.

Illustrations:

Figure1: Aliens being moved out of the District 9
http://www.trespassmag.com/invictus-district-9-a-south-africans-perspective/

Figure2: Main character changes radically
http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Talk:District_9

Bibliography:

Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun Times, August 13, 2009)
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090812/REVIEWS/908129987/1023

James Berardinelli (Reelviews, August 12, 2009)
http://www.reelviews.net/php_review_template.php?identifier=1766

Peter Travers (Rolling Stone Reviews, August 13, 2009)
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/district-9-20090813