Dolbadarn Castle and Tutorial

The castle that Im going to use as reference is Dolbadarn Castle as it was built by Prince Llywelyn. It is also not that far a drive from my home in Chester so I can go there over the weekend and take some photos and do some reference drawings.
I found this website that has some good photos of it and a good description of what it may have looked like before the walls and towers fell because of age.
http://www.walesdirectory.co.uk/Castles/Dolbadarn_Castle.htm

TUTORIAL
I found this tutorial for building a castle in 3d Max so Im going to use that to help me.
http://www.enjoycg.com/forums/member-content/2101-castle-modeling-textures-render.html

Wolfhound drawings

Here are some wolfhound drawings I found. I think its always good to research what other people think characters look like, hence why i did this.

Celtic Character Design Idea

I've been doing a lot of research into the character designs for my Gelert piece. I like the idea of a disneyish style mixed with a more sinister anime type thing.
One of my favourite ideas is making it very welsh and very Celtic by even putting Celtic knots and patterns onto my characters. I found a wooden dog puppet with a similar idea, which is shown here.

Dark animation references

I want to turn the story into a dark type of animation so below are some videos of the kind of darkness I would like to do.

Hounds of Flesh (Pica Tower Series) by Marc Craste and Studio AKA


The Pearce Sisters by Aardman Animations and directed by Luis Cook

AtomFilms.com: Funny Videos Funny Cartoons Comedy Central

Insight by Salvador Simo
I really like the style of animation. How the characters and cats look.


Live Life by Jonathan Pasternak
I like the titles for this and I think it would really suit my story so I may use that.


Space Alone by Ilias Sounas
I love the music. character design and the sort of static over the top.

The Hound Gelert

This is an old Welsh legend that I've known and remembered since I was young. I've even visited the supposed grave under a tree in Wales. I love this story. It has a lot of emotion and makes you think that you shouldnt just act on your emotions.

The Hound Gelert
Prince Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, was a great huntsman and had a beautiful hound. The dog’s name was Gelert and he was a fine hunting-dog as well as a good-natured animal who endeared himself to Llewellyn and his family.One day, the Prince decided to go hunting and gathered dogs and huntsmen together. The hunting-horn was blown, but Gelert was missing and didn’t appear. As time was getting on, the Prince gave the permission to lead the hunt away and left Gelert behind.Now Gelert was actually inside the castle, lying at the side of Llewellyn’s son who was asleep in the cradle. Although he heard the hunting horn, he decided to stay and watch the baby. It was perhaps half an hour later that Gelert heard an unfamiliar sound. He rose to his feet and placed himself protectively in front of the cradle. Suddenly the half-shut door moved a little and a ugly and brutal-looking wolf appeared. The wolf was twice as big as Gelert and obviously hungry because it had been a hard winter.He leapt towards the cradle, deciding that the baby indeed was a tasty meal for him. But Gelert leapt too, and a long and bloody struggle began between the good dog and the dangerous Wolf. The cradle was overturned but the baby lay under it and therefore was protected for the present. At last, it seemed that Gelert had no more strength left, he made one final effort to kill the wolf and actually succeeded before he might have been killed himself.The wolf’s dead and huge body now lay behind the cradle and Gelert collapsed, lying weakly in pools of blood. At that moment Prince Llewellyn, who had returned from the hunt, entered the room and saw in a horror that his child’s cradle was overturned and that there was blood everywhere - even his hound Gelert was covered with blood.‘Wicked and evil animal’, he thundered, ‘you have killed and devoured my only Child.’ Prince Llewellyn drew his sword in vain and plunged it straight through the dog’s heart. Gelert died instantly and then, for the first time, the baby began to cry.Llewellyn rushed to the cradle and turned it right side up. There lay his son, screaming heartily, and behind the cradle he discovered the dead body of the biggest wolf he had ever seen.Eventually the Prince realised that he had drawn a wrong conclusion and that the excellent and innocent hound had saved the life of his only son. After that he was full of guilt and remorse and gave an appropriate burial to his faithful grey hound Gelert.

I also found this version of the story that misses out the fight between Gelert and the wolf. It has illustrations as well.
http://www.valleystream.co.uk/gelert.htm

Studio Zeds and Design Flavr

Some pretty cool designs from two different companys, Studio Zeds and Design Flavr.
Most are in the style of illustration I like.

http://www.studiozeds.com/work/

http://www.designflavr.com/browse.php?category=illustration&page=1

MTV Virus

I found this website which is actually very similar to my idea. Its very funny but immature.

http://www.immaturity.tv/

UTOPIA / DYSTOPIA ART

For my Virtual Enviroments Module we are making a book based on Utopia and Dystopis so below are images I have found on my travels that I may use.

Back at Uni

Well I'm back again for my second year. I was quite happy with my marks for my first year. I got B's and 1 C.
My summer was fun except for my car being broken into and everything being stolen.

Been a While

WOW its been a while since my last post!!! Oops
Errr what have I been up to.

Well, I went to Edinburgh for the Pixar Exhibition, which was brilliant... I loved it. When I've finished some stuff I will write about it on here.

I will do this in numbers as it will be easier for you to understand... or at least i think it will be :p

1. I've been getting people to do voices for my autobiography animatic.

2. Finishing my designs and ideas for my Redux Cat... it is now a series called 'The Fish Shop Cat'. After the cute cat that lives at the fish shop in huddersfield but its basically the same idea except its in a fish shop and the owner gets distracted by customers.etc.

3. I've been working on my objects for my Sprite and what they would do, if I knew how to make them do what I want LOL

4. I've been working on my Place to Play stuff the most as I have been modeling my final idea. Below is an old version of where I was up to and an up to date version. Its a bit different I know but I thought it was cool :)

I can't really think of anything else I've been up to other than helping to organise the Smelly Duck Rally page for the HUMCC site. You can see it at www.humcc.co.uk
Please let me know what you think :D