Friday, December 16, 2011

Theo Hinrichs - The Black Cauldron

Embark
Embark
2_night1
Encounter
Journey's end
Journey's End

I did my project based on the Chronicles of Prydain: The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander.

Book Two of the Chronicles of Prydain picks up the tale of Taran, who has returned to his home at Caer Dallben and his humdrum existence as an assistant pig keeper. Although the Horned King has been vanquished, his overlord, Arawn, is still at large in the fortified kingdom of Annuvin. Enraged by his lieutenant’s demise, he is determined to defeat the other kings of Prydain and extend his rule of terror across the entire region.

Rumour has it that Arawn is building an invincible army of deathless warriors, created using an artefact of deadly power – The Black Cauldron. As long as it is in his possession he can continue turning out ‘Cauldron Born’ warriors (re-animated corpses of battle-slain men) and hope of defeating him diminishes with each passing moment. Clearly those who are willing to oppose Arawn will have to find a way to get hold of the cauldron and destroy it before they can even think about an attack.

Following a battle with Arawn’s warriors, Taran and a few friends from Book One get separated from the rest of their company. As luck would have it, they stumble upon a clue to the Cauldron’s whereabouts, and the quest begins to recover it. But enemies lurk around every corner, and even if they find the cauldron, none of them have any idea of the terrible sacrifice required to destroy it forever.

6 comments:

  1. I love the textures in these pieces! They're so much fun!

    One thing I'd maybe do is use a less washed out yellow in the hills. It's just a little harsh to look at.

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  2. The whimsical character designs! They move throughout the environment super well! The background could use a little more work to just sharpen up some edges, but good job!

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  3. Oh nice! I like how deep you made this image.

    I think the hills in the night image could have harsher shadows in contrast with the full moon.

    The only image that's difficult for me to understand is the third image. The characters become removed because they're so small, and its hard to tell what their objective is, since it looks like reaching the castle would be their goal from how the setting is laid out

    also don't forget the WIP and detail shots!

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  4. I really like you characters in the first scene. They really draw my eye to them because they are so in focus. I like the style of the second picture as well. Is the dragon supposed to be chasing them? It is hard to tell because the people look so far away from the dragon. Also, I really like the winding road to the castle.

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  5. The character and environment fit together really well. Really like the colors used for the night scene. The way i see it you have 2 options you can sharpen the edges or you can go even more texturish edges and push all the way with everything. But for the most part I think it's very well rendered over all.

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  6. I love the poses that you've given your characters at the start of their journey -- they seem so thrilled to see their destination in the background - that was such a nice idea. The way you've set up the scene is really easy to read, too - the road leads you back to the castle in a way where you completely understand how to move through your scene. I also really like that youre covering a lot of time, and that you're tinting the background as time passes - i love that as a story-advancing element! the yellow in the top one and the bottom one gets a little crazy bright so it seems to disappear into the sky - but I bet if you took it into photoshop and tweaked the levels (I think there must be a "levels" equivalent in painter near the lighting feature we talked about earlier?? I'll have to check! -- and just take the saturation down a tiny bit! Ithink then, the edges of your hils will stand out much better and you'll still get that really nice shift from day to night. I also think it would be cool to see some texture in the sky back there duyring the day time ones -- I LOVE what you did with the night sky! Love it! Maybe you could add a cloud or two that moves from the first to thr third panel or something? That way it seems like the atmosphere changes between those days, too? Great reference story - it's an awesome one! The last thing I think you could do is maybe add some dry-media texture to the ground, or maybe another type of media to the hills in the foreground! then each type of area would feel like it has a different material - so grass has a texture that's a little different than sky, than gravel. You know! Really nice job on this!! And SUPER huge thanks for such a great time in class. You're always so thoughtful in class as we talk through pieces. it's so nice to have you in class!! Good luck with your crazy studio-filled semester next year!! You can do it!! :)

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