Tomb Raider Storyboard Revision - Part 2

Tomb Raider Storyboard Revision - Part 1

Back in november I posted this storyboard I did as a school assignment. I also posted it over on the drawingboard and received a very good and professional critique. The conclusion was that I need to "up my game". The original version was inteded as an exercise in style so that's an excuse. But, yeah, I need to improve my story skills and I really have to make my work more dynamic.

Luckily I had acces to my personal storyboard mentor: Daan Jippes. I showed him the original boards and the critique I received. We talked it through and I did a complete new version. The story is still the same but there is a lot of extra action and added poses. I learned a lot doing this new version and I am very happy that people took so much time to help me improve this thing. I hope you think it's an improvement!

The extra poses and added dynamics have increased the number of panels enormously, this new version is counts 43 pages, that's 129 panels.(The original version was only 52 panels long)

I'm gonna post the whole board here, a few pages at a time. These are the first five pages, please check back soon for the rest!

-to be continued-

Thank you Mister Salinger

'I put my red hunting hat on, and turned the peak around to the back, the way I liked it, and then I yelled at the top of my goddam voice, "Sleep tight, ya morons!"'

Do you know anybody who doesn't like ice-cream?

When I was in my first year at the HKU one of our assignments was to make a mural painting in a nursing home in Utrecht. First we had to develop an idea and then we had to realise that idea in the nursing home. We had to choose from a couple of themes, I chose for the theme memories. (I have actually forgotten what the other themes were.)

My idea was to make a picture of people standing in line for an ice cream truck. The reason for this idea is easy: everybody loves ice cream and everybody has nice memories of getting an ice cream on a hot summer day. Most people in that nursing home were suffering from Alzheimer's disease, because of this they loose their perception of time. I wanted to make a childlike picture that would remind those people of happy times.

I drew the final version with black markers on the white wall in the home. It was a great experience beacuse while I was working on my drawing old peple would comment on it. They reacted exactly as I hoped! They smiled, started to talk about ice creams and recognised people in my drawing.

Unfortunately we didn't have a lot of time to do this assignment and I had to get my own material. There was some paint there, though, but I am really bad with paint, I would have made a mess. So I brought some black markers.

Here is a digitally coloured version of my sketch. And two pics of the final result. That beardy fellow in the last picture is me after finishing the drawing. It seems such a long time ago, I wonder if our art is still there or if new management painted it over...

Carol

Last Friday I went to see Where the Wild Things Are, it just opened in cinemas in Holland. (For some reason we always have to wait at least six months before we get to see all the cool films) Although I probably read the book when I was a kid I don't have any memories about reading it. But I am a big fan of Spike Jonze's work, especially of his music videos. So I was really looking foward to seeing this.

The last year or so there were quite a lot of trailers and featurettes online and each one made me want to see this movie more. (My favourite is featurette 2 here)

Unfortunately I was a bit disappointed by the movie. I've read reviews where they mention the lack of plot as a good thing. But I didn't feel that way, at all. I really missed a strong plotline. It was really hard for me to care about any of the characters and the things they were doing. I think this project might have worked better as a short film or a serie of shorts.

Still the film looks and feels amazing. I just love the whole experience. The effects are also great, I love it when I can't tell where reality ends and CG begins and -even though the movie wasn't what I expected- I'm still much more interested in movies like this then in things like Avatar. (The Jim Henson Creature Shop rocks!)

The colours and textures of Where the Wild Things Are make this film more special then a lot of things I have seen in a long time and I guess I'll probably still buy the DVD anyway.

Also I can't stop drawing the great Wild Things. This is just one of the many drawings I did since Friday. I coloured it with photoshop but I'm not really sure if i like the result. But I have to get back to work so I guess this is it... For now!

Magistratus Pitch

These are some storyboards I did for a school related project, called Magistratus. These will be used in a pitch next monday. If all goes well I'll be attched to this project for the next six months.

It's actually quite funny, because it's a fantasy project and, as you might now, I'm really not into fantasy. I really do hope the pitch goes well, though. Becuase I think this project would be a lot of fun... I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Ho-Ho-Ho

Happy holidays, everybody! As I hope most of you recognise, this years Aapstra-seasons-greetings-drawing is based on one of the best christmas movies ever: Die Hard.

If you haven't seen it I suggest you watch it this christmas, you'll enjoy it! (You should be ashamed of yourself, btw)

That's all for now, Yippee Ki-Yay...