Some sketches of rat character stood on hind legs.
Monday 28 April 2014
9
Rag dolls:
• 9 (Elijah Wood) is the youngest of the group that represents the Scientist's humanity, bigheartedness, thoughtfulness, and sincerity. He is very intelligent, but he can make mistakes due to his curiosity. He seeks the truth in the history of his creation, and wishes to know the meaning of life. He has a strong brotherly bond with 5.
• 8 (Fred Tatasciore) is the brutish ruffian from the Scientist's personality. He wields the one half of a scissor and a knife as his weapons. He is a master of his weapons. He is the largest of the group, but is the least intelligent.
• 7 (Jennifer Connelly) is the fighter part of the Scientist's personality and (possibly) the only female of the group. A rebel and a loner, she is willing to take many risks for the good of her people.
• 6 (Crispin Glover) is the artistic portion of the Scientist's personality. He sees things what the others in the group don't see. 6's fingers are made of ink pen nibs, which he uses to draw.
• 5 (John C. Reilly) is the Healer part of the Scientist's personality. 5 is caring, nurturing, and the loyal, bighearted "common man" who always tries to play the peacemaker.
• 3 and 4 are twins, and the Historians of the group. They are unable to speak, instead using flickering lights in their eyes to communicate with each other and 4 can project images from his/her eyes for the other members of the group. They are very intelligent and energetic.
• 2 (Martin Landau) is the creative portion of the Scientist's personality. He is a kind, delicate old inventor. He is fascinated by garbage and scrap, and loves to explore the wastelands and look for parts for his inventions.
• 1 (Christopher Plummer) is the cowardly, arrogant portion of the Scientist's personality. He is the oldest of the group and the leader, demanding absolute loyalty from the others and frequently clashes with 9, who refuses to follow him.
Machines:
• The Cat Beast is the first machine that 9 encounters, and the main antagonist of the original short film 9. It was the last active machine in the world until the reactivation of the Fabrication Machine. With a gait somewhere between a lion and a monkey, it has spines on its back, a cat skull for a head, a red mechanical eye in its left socket and a light bulb in its right, which it uses to see in the dark. It kidnapped 2, but was destroyed by 7.
• The Fabrication Machine/B.R.A.I.N. (Binary Reactive Artificially Intelligent Neurocircuit) is the machine that built all the machines. It was designed by the Scientist as an A.I. for use by the Chancellor, but the latter enslaved it as the control unit for weapons manufacture, causing it to go rogue and wipe out humanity.
• The Winged Beast is a pterodactyl-like machine constructed by the Fabrication Machine to hunt down the creations. It has knives and scissors for a mouth, four small red eyes around its "head", a tarp or flag for its bat-like wings, and a harpoon on the end of its tail. Several human bones appear to be integrated in its structure. It can fly through a combination of its wings and an electric fan in its body. In battle, it uses the blades on its head, the claws on its wings, or its harpoon tail, which can be fired and retracted at will.
• The Seamstress is a cobra-like robot designed by the Fabrication Machine to capture the Scientist's other creations, it is also its most formidable warrior. Its serpentine body bears numerous spindly metal limbs that end in a variety of claws, scissors, needles and blades. Spools of red thread are attached to its back, and 2's lifeless body is attached to its tail. Its head is a mixture of a skull and a broken doll mask with a requisite red mechanical eye hidden by the black fabric of its body, surrounded by smaller limbs that can spread the fabric to reveal its face. It flashes light through 2's eyes to hypnotize its victims, immobilizes them with its thread, and binds them in its own body to take back to the Fabrication Machine.
9 has played an important part in research. I personally like that all the characters are very similar in the way they appear (all made out of everyday objects and found items such as hessian, buttons, zips, wood, thread and string etc.) yet their personalities are all very different, and that they have been personified compared to the animal-like qualities of the 'machines'.
Post-Apocalyptic Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery, especially in a setting inspired by industrialised Western civilization during the 19th century. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the 19th century's British Victoria Era or American 'Wild West', in a post-apocalyptic future during which steam power has regained mainstream use, or in a fantasy world that similarly employs steam power.
Steampunk perhaps most recognisably features anachronistic technologies or retro-futuristic inventions as people in the 19th century might have envisioned them, and is likewise rooted in the era's perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art. Such technology may include fictional machines like those found in the works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, or the modern authors Phillip Pullman, Scott Westerfeld, Stephen Hunt and China Miéville.
Mary Shelley's The Last Man, set near the end of the 21st century after a plague had brought down civilisation, was probably the ancestor of post-apocalyptic steampunk literature. Post-apocalyptic steampunk is set in a world where some cataclysm has precipitated the fall of civilisation and steam power once again gains ascendancy, such as in Hayao Miyazaki's post apocalyptic anime Future Boy Conan (1978), where a war fought with super-weapons has devastated the planet. Robert Brown's novel, "The Wrath of Fate" is set in a Victorian-esque world where an apocalypse was set into motion by a time-traveling mishap. Cherie Priest's Boneshaker series is set in a world where a zombie apocalypse happened during the Civil War era.The Peshawar Lancers by S.M. Stirling is set in a post-apocalyptic future in which a meteor shower in 1878 caused the collapse of Industrialized civilization. The movie 9 (which might be better classified as "stitchpunk" but had a large influence on steampunk) is also set in a post-apocalyptic world after a self-aware war machine ran amok.
Sunday 27 April 2014
Fallout
Fallout is a series of open world role-playing video games. Although the series is set during the 22nd and 23rd centuries, its retro-futuristic setting and artwork are influenced by the post-war culture of 1950s America, and it’s combination of hope for the promises of technology and lurking fear of nuclear annihilation. A forerunner for Fallout is Wasteland, a 1988 video game of which the Fallout series is regarded to be the spiritual successor. Although the game worlds are different, the background story, inhabitants, locations and characters draw many parallels.
Fallout draws from 1950's pulp magazine science fiction and superhero comic books, all rooted in Atomic Aga optimism of a nuclear-powered future, though gone terribly awry by the time the events of the game take place. The technology is retro-futurstic, with various Raygun Gothic machines such as laser weaponry and boxy Forbidden Plant-style robots. Computers use vacuum tubes instead of transistors, architecture of ruined buildings feature Art Deco and Gogie designs, energy weapons resemble those used by Flash Gordon, and what few vehicles remain in the world are all 1950's-styled. Fallout's other production design, such as menu interfaces, are similarly designed to resemble advertisements and toys of the Atomic Age. Advertising in the game such as billboards and brochures has a distinct 1950's motif and feel. The lack of retro-stylisation was a common reason for criticism in spin-off games.
A major influence was A Boy and His Dog, where the main character Vic and his dog Blood scavenge the desert of the Southwestern United States, stealing for a living and evading bands of marauders, berserk androids, and mutants. It inspired Fallout on many levels, from underground communities of survivors to glowing mutants. Other film influences include the Mad Max series, with its depiction of a post-apocalyptic wasteland. In the first game, one of the first available armours is a one-sleeved leather jacket that resembles the jacket worn by Mel Gibson in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.
The Last of Us: American Dreams
The Last of Us lead writer, Neil Druckmann, also created a four-issue miniseries of comics (The Last of Us: American Dreams) as a companion to the video game, chronicling the journey of Ellie and a survivor named Riley prior to the events that take place in the game.
The Last of Us
The Last of Us is an action-adventure survival horror video game developed by Naughty Dog. The player takes control of Joel, who is trekking across a post-apocalyptic United States in 2033, in order to escort the young Ellie to a resistance group, the Fireflies, who believe Ellie may be the key to curing the infection that has ravaged the world. Taking place twenty years after the fungal spore-based infection rapidly spread across the globe, wiping out a vast majority of the population by warping it’s host’s brains and turning them into deadly predators capable of killing with a single bite. The player defends the characters against zombie-like creatures infected by a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus, as well as hostile humans such as bandits and cannibals, employing the use of firearms and stealth aided by capabilities such as visual representation of sound in order to listen to the location of enemies. The player can also craft weapons or medical items by combining items scavenged from the world. The game features several locations across the United States, including Boston, Lincoln, Massachusetts, Pittsburgh and Salt Lake City, Utah. Its narrative was noted particularly for its characterisation, application of subtext, and critical depiction of the human condition, dealing with themes of sacrifice, loyalty, fate, and hope.
Joel is the primary playable character and the protagonist of the game. A brutal survivor with few moral lines left to cross, Joel, now in his late 40s, has been hardened by the ravages of the fungal pandemic that has devastated civilisation as we know it. He’s lost friends, family, and everything he valued in life. Living in one of few remaining military-controlled quarantine zones, he operates as a black market smuggler, dealing in contraband, taking numerous de-humanising jobs over the years to survive in this new post-pandemic world. Joel’s conscience slowly dwindles away as he shuts down his emotions to cope to his new life.
I’ve chosen to focus on the traits and characteristics of Joel as inspiration for development of my own character. The Last of Us is also another source of inspiration to further my ideas for a post-apocalyptic environment for my character to reside in.
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