My Gnomon talk tank

above the Gnomon final, below a close up of work in progress.






Well, I know I promised this a while ago, but better late than never. Here's the examples I made for my talk at the Gnomon school in LA about making sure the design fits the story, and is not just fluffy Hollywood slick design. So for the talk I made up a sample story in order to establish "the problem". At it's heart that's what design is, problem solving. So in order to design something for a purpose you need to establish 'the problem' and/or design constraints. I'm going to save some of the details for a later offering, but here's the jist of what I came up with. The basic design problem was a tank, that could do nearly 250 miles an hour, go on and off road, carry up to 5 crew and be low enough to fit under underpasses. Armed with some sort of pop-up turret and the ability to smash through road blocks and keep going. So first I started by doing some small sketches and some research to explore some existing tank tech, and find some cool shapes. After a few pages of exploration I weeded out the impractical designs that didn't fit the needs of the story, and combined the ones I did like. Above are some of those sketches and what I had finished at the time of the talk. I've since worked on it a bit more, but I may save that for a later offering...hhmmmmm. :)
OK I hope you enjoy these and Happy 4th of July!
-Think Above and Beyond!
-Alx

Go see THE FALL....now!

WOW, I usually don't recommend films but I can't believe that this film hasn't been widely released! The Fall is an amazing fairy tale that will make you remember the whole point of film making... a beautiful art form in which to tell a tale with drama, humor, sadness and breath taking visuals! Not to mention the most honest acting performances by the 2 lead characters, one of which is a 5 year old girl. I'm confused as to why the movie was rated R, because it's not as violent as many PG-13 movies and it has a beautiful redemptive story line. So go search it out, and try and see it on a big screen if you can. It took nearly 4 years to complete it and was shot in 18 different countries around the world, that's right, no blue screens!
Don't read the so called 'critics' reviews, their inner child must be dead, because this movie has heart and a vivid imagination and is a film lovers film, not a shallow popcorn flick like most films these days. I've seen it twice now, and my wife has seen it three times. It is a joy the second and third time because you get to pick up other details you missed the first time.
Go see it and let me know what you thought!
http://thefallthemovie.com/
check out the clip "I'm touching one" for a little taste!
The Fall Trailer and clips!