help on Maya (Egg)

I am stuck on something on the Maya tutorials. I've obeyed every command that the video instructed however every time I click "extrude" it creates something that isn't correct (see the bottom picture), which is not what I wanted or was instructed. I made sure that "keep faces together" was on so I don't know what happening and I've selected the right faces so I've done nothing wrong (as far as I know) and it still fails to give me the options that the Maya tutorials instructed. (FYI: no, I don't know why there is a dent on the top. After I completed everything the video instructed I found it like that, am I missing something? I watched the video three times and attempted the egg twice).

Thank you to those who can help me.

First art class

First art class.

The object.
We had an object placed in front of us for the class to sketch.

My drawing of the object. We had to draw what was in front of us by using a pencil. This is how my work turned out. Personally I think it could of turned out better by darkening the lines I've already drew.

The space in between drawing. This is something I believe I've never done before, the class had to draw or fill in the spaces in between the object. I drew the main part of the object with the gaps that I meant to be the rope around the object.

Drawing in chuckhole. I ha great difficulty drawing in chuckhole as the feel of it makes me cringe. I tried my best continuing to draw despite that however I ended up with this, which I'm not too proud off.

King Kong review (1933)

King Kong Review (1933)

A story about King Kong, The eighth wonder of the world.

This well-known story starts off with a filming crew setting sail to shoot a movie. The crew managed to find a mysterious island that contains a tribe that worships this giant gorilla “King Kong”. They took a hold of a female, Ann, which was on board with the crew and used her as a sacrifice for the almighty Kong. The King shows up and takes her away. At that point the crew sets off to find Ann and comes across many untold creatures that should have been long gone. The heroic crew member, John, finds the captive girl and saves her from the monstrous beast. The director was hyped about the opportunity that was in the palm off his hands and couldn’t help but capture and show off King Kong to the rest of the world so he could be rich and famous. During the show the photographers was using too much flash on their cameras, which naturally caused King Kong to go berserk and wreak havoc around the city to try and find his beloved. The battle was underway and planes and fire trucks was on the track to find and bring down King Kong. They succeeded with the final words “It wasn’t the planes that killed him. Tis beauty that killed the beast”.

The movie and the way it showed its visuals was very interesting and unique. They used stop-motion for all of the monster scenes and they combined it with the actors on the set by over lapping them by having the monsters in the background, despite how cheesy and tacky it looks today, I will give them credit that they doing something that looks impossible and they obviously show a great deal of determination and care for this movie. The music is this movie’s high point not only having the tone of the music match what was presented on the screen but also timing too, for example: when the chief of the tribe walks slowly down stairs to meet the film crew you can hear the drum beat timed perfectly with each step making him more fearful and it works as people in the tribe fears him and steps aside for him.

 

The only bad points is mainly the romance scenes in the movie, John just pops out of the blue saying to Ann that he loves her for some reason, which is a little rushed even by movie standards, which is chuckle worthy. However without that awkward love moment we wouldn’t have the motivation to rescue her. Another failed point of this movie is Ann herself, she doesn’t have her own identity and mainly exist to be saved or a reward for the hero. Other than being attractive and blonde she doesn’t have any appealing character traits however given the time it’s understandable why however the screaming is unbearable.

In this movie there is a lot of racism stereotypes and sexism remarks, which is interesting seeing how much that not only movies has evolved but humanity did too. The sexism remarks is  interesting since they have a lot of “women can’t do anything because they are women” moments, looking into it and considering it “normal” for those times It's almost similar to the “Batman can do anything because he is Batman” meme today; sooner or later we all will grow out it and look back only to see how silly and arrogant it was.  Women can do anything just as much as a men and Batman can’t do everything just because he's Batman.

 

Overall this movie is a 7/10. There is a lot of problems that could have been fixed however the effort of making the movie was clearly on the screen and It’s nice to have sound despite how muffled it was. This movie suffers the same problem as “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” it takes itself too seriously that it seems cheesy for our point of view however this movie is a great deal of fun despite it was meant to be a horror film.

Which King Kong is better the 1933 or 2005? Nostalgia critic's review- (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DMDrczrSLc)

 

"It's unrivaled in its sheer cinematic quality, and one of a kind."-Felix Vasquez Jr (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1011615-king_kong/)

 

"First, the 1933 version of KING KONG, is for me, the greatest fantasy film ever made. Sure, there are fantasy films with far better special effects (THE MATRIX, JURASSIC PARK) better acting (the acting here is of the period!) but KING KONG is a film of tremendous excitement". - Glenn Andreiev.  (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024216/reviews)

 

 

Maya notes.

I've taken notes that I believe will help me when I use Maya.

"Face" means a flat surface of an object.

"Edges" means lines that connects to the faces of the objects and the parts that you are able to move around freely.

Splitting technique: click "Edit mesh" then "Insert edge loop tool". (It is used to create more lines so it looks more dense so you can move more around and to create in better detail). 

Push 3 on the keyboard to smooth out the lines (BE WARNED COMPUTER MIGHT CRASH) 

To make it ACTUALLY make the object smooth click on to "Mesh" and click "smooth".

To create a shape: click on "create" on the top bar selections then select whatever shape you want.  

Click on the "scale tool" to change the scale of an object. 

Right click and select "face" and select any face surface you want and click "edit mesh" and "extrude". 

Push 4 on your keyboard so you can see inside of the object. 

Click "Offset" on the right hand side is where you can create another layer so you are tightening up the object's faces. 

TECHNIQUES edit polygons/objects:

1) right click on the faces and click "edit mesh" and then "keep faces together" (turn that on). That'll allow you to edit all the selected faces at the same time.

2) to create more limes on the object click "edit mesh" and then "insert edge loop tool" 

3) to cut/split the objects click "edit mesh" and then click "cut faces tool". You'll be able to use though the object. 

4) right click an object and select "edge" and select any edges (while holding down alt you can select many edges). Click "edit mesh" then "bevel". This helps to create extra faces that'll combine with the object. 

Metropolis review

Metropolis review (1927)

A fiction world brought to life!

This is undoubtedly an interesting movie with a clear understanding of the three act structure, character tropes and gorgeous soundtrack that plays through the beginning to the end.

The story starts off in a futuristic utopian city where a set of people was divvied into two different class. The wealthy city planners who works above the surface of their city and the working class are the people who do manual labor underground to power up the city. One of those wealthy class Freder spots a beautiful women with a group of children. She ended up disappearing where the young man tries to find her only to discover the realistic horror of the underground life which causes the city above to functioning. He went to plead with his father, the creator of the city, to let them go however he refused. As a response he took over one of the worker's life and continued to experience the hardship and learns of Maria, the beautiful women he saw before, and ends up joining them for their quest for freedom. During the meantime the creator of the utopian city visits an old friend the inventor who created a robot which he plans bring the creator's wife back from the dead. The creator had a different idea, he asked to capture Maria and use her as a tool for the robot and cause her to sin so that her encouraging words would be discarded. The inventor agrees and does just that. After a while of ordering Maria-robot to sin the lower class becomes angry and that an attack to the city above is the only way to solve it, only to realise that they forgot their children and the city below starts to flood. Freder saves Maria and together end up bringing the children up to safety and putting a stop to the inventor's plans. The father saw the horrific battle and understands that what he done wrong and aims to correct that.

The story clearly escalate from a lovely romance story into end of the world movie. This movie obviously wants to be recognised to look visually appealing and unforgettable by taking the next leap forward from the other previous films by having unique design and style of the buildings. A great deal of care and love went into making this film and you can obviously tell that by watching the actors try to do their best to portray emotions and body movements into their characters however at some points it's almost too funny and that you can't take this movie too seriously in which they wanted you to.

Maria is probably the worst point in this movie as she just turns everything from all seriousness to goofy and cheesy in a mater of seconds however with that being said she isn't completely bad as during the ending where the Maria-robot is taking over the city's surface she does her best to separate the two different characters so it's easier for the audience to figure out which one is which by looking at her body language and facial expressions but sadly goofy is still goofy no matter how much they try to sugar-coat it.

 

Overall this movie gets a 7.6/10. It was very well paced compare to the "Das cabinet des Dr Caligari" movie and we do get to see the main protagonist undergoes few obstacles and changes that makes him an identifiable character. This movie was clever to show every character's point of view and ideals so the audience can understand why they are doing what they are doing. Sadly the iconic robot was only seen around eight minutes and the movie could of been a little more interesting if the robot had more scenes resulting in an ending between the robot and a Freder. The soundtrack, visuals and story are all fun and enjoyable to experience and highly recommended even if you are not the general target audience.

"Devoted film- and music-lovers alike will enjoy the latest reconstruction (images and sound) of Fritz Lang's truly marvelous tale of mediation over violence." - S. James Wegg
(http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1013775-metropolis/)

"The newly restored footage enhances sci-fi's first masterpiece, making this essential viewing for any movie lover." - Kim Newman
(http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=136955)

“Metropolis” does what many great films do, creating a time, place and characters so striking that they become part of our arsenal of images for imagining the world. The ideas of “Metropolis” have been so often absorbed into popular culture that its horrific future city is almost a given" - Roger Ebert
(http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-metropolis-1927)

Thumbnails ideas, Invisable Citys.

Le vovage dans la lune & Das Cabinet des Dr.Caligari review

Le voyage dans la lune review (1902)

An unexpected film that delivers a huge amount of fun.

Le voyage dans la lune (“A trip to the moon” translated into English) is an absolute bizarre but enjoyable film to experience despite being made over one hundred years ago, has no dialog and it has cheesy but lovable visuals. The story starts off with a group of scientist that wants to explore the moon. They managed to accomplish this by shooting a rocket ship from a cannon to the moon’s face (seriously) and ends up exploring and coming across new planets and life forms, of which they battle and try to escape back to their ship.

It’s a simple story but just because it is simple doesn't mean it’s not effective. It knew what it wants to be and aims to just that by charging ahead without changing the tone or style of the movie. You should see this short film in the same way you are supposed see “Kung Pow: enter the fist” or new “Gardens of the galaxy” where you are not meant to take it too seriously but you are meant to have fun and to see new things that brings laughter and enjoyment back into your lives. What also make this film unexpectedly great is that even though that this old film wasn't designed to be for my general target audience it was still enjoyable for my demographic.

It's really am amusing that that the audience could be so entertained for something that is outdated with no dialog but the movie seems to be smart enough that it can explain everything though its visuals so dialog is considered as pointless in this movie. The visuals are so cheesy that you could considered it obvious that it was fake but unlike like most fake visuals that we see today this film knows about it and aims to continue on being silly and fun like in “Kung Pow” where the film itself is a joke on cliché tropes and story lines. It feels like an early self-joke and it works. You can also feel that they put effort into the background designs as they are made out of realistic objects and not cheap lifeless green screen effects so when you are watching this you get this sense of understanding of the character’s wonder instead of blandness of an obvious green screen shot where everything feels boring.

Overall I give this movie an 8/10. Take this information from a guy that lives in the modern world where the latest technology is supposed to amaze me “This movie is fun to watch and worth seeing into. It’s quick so even if you happen to disagree and become bored at least it is 15 minutes and not an hour and half long”. 

Das Cabinet des Dr.Caligari review (1920)

Das cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari that translated in English) is a strange but interesting film that most films has evolved from by following the so called nowadays “cliche tropes” or “A hero’s journey” that focus on creating its own ideal themes that we see in modern films today and may have been perfected in other films. For example they created the “suspense in the murder scene” however “Psycho” (1960) perfected it by having the audio of a violin screeching in a high pitch tone that makes the audience feel uncomfortable and they also gave us details and understanding of the character so we would care for their safety.

The story is very complex and all about the human mind with the link it has towards insanity. The story starts off with the main character called Cesare talking to a random man on a bench about his past, long flashback was shown that Cesare once had a close friend and that they went to see the somnambulist (sleepwalker) at the circus only to be told that his friend will die by the sun rise tomorrow. Before the predicted death scene happened they met a lovely women called Jane, which they both agreed that no matter which of them she marries they will still be best friends. During the night the somnambulist’s predictions came true and the friend was no more. Cesare was in shock and aims to find the murderer. He suspected that it was Dr. Caligari who murdered his friend however it turned out to be the somnambulist himself, during the night he went over to Jane’s house to attack her however she awoke and screamed, the somnambulist was confused about what he had to do so he took Jane from her house and fled only to be caught up by the civilians. During the mean time Cesare still on the look for evidence that Dr. Caligari was the one behind all those attacks and he ended up in the insane asylum where he found proof from Dr. Caligari’s dairy that he planned everything so the other doctors sealed Dr. Caligari into one of the cells only to be revert back to where this story began where Cesare was talking to a man on the bench only to be told that he was insane.

The film is quite questionable. It's classed as a good movie because it took a new direction in telling a story or it's a bad movie because of how the whole idea was put together and deliver. It’s amazing that one film managed to cause the next generation of films however it feels like some films that was inspired by this feature length film done some of its original ideals better, for example: this film ends in a cliff hanger that the main character is insane however in "Inception" (2010) they ended with the question “is it a dream or not?” It was more effective as we know about the main character in this movie but in "Des cabinet des Dr.Caligari" we was given so little information about Cesare that the audience might as call him average Joe.

The only character was interesting enough to continue to watch this was Dr. Caligari with his weird, hilarious acting abilities while everyone else just looks like a cut-out cardboard. This film by no means is bad, in fact it was pretty good however the previous movie (Le voyage dans la lune) seems to understand the direction to go and understands how to be itself and not for other movies to rip off and do better. The one thing that "Le voyage dans la lune" does better than this movie is that Le voyage dans la lune can be watched for fun and silliness however the same can be said for this film however this film was designed to be a horror and unless if it’s a spoof it won’t work for this generation as we have seen more scarier visuals and story so in simple terms “Le voyage dans la lune” can work for both generations while “Das Cabinet des Dr.Caligari” can only seem to work its best during its time.

Overall this movie is a 6/10. The ideas are really good and it has a unique art direction it took was superb and fitting towards its tone however basic character introductions other than names and what they look like isn't enough for me to care what happens to them. Even though that the other film had this problem they showed the passion of their main character by having him arguing to go to the moon so I at least want him to succeed. The duration of the movie is too long and any line of dialog was exchanged by subtitles in its own frame, which can be annoying as if you can read too fast and you would have to wait for the next scene or too slow and not care about the story at all, again: the other film managed to get around that and only allowing their visuals to tell the story and that's why "Le voyage dans la lune" is objectively a better movie.

  

"The influence of Robert Wiene's Caligari is so great that it threatens to obscure the work itself." - Rob Humanick  





(http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1003361-cabinet_of_dr_caligari/)

""The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" as a viewing experience must have been unsettling to the audiences of 1920." - Roger Ebert
(http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-cabinet-of-dr-caligari-1920)

"Early filmmaking at its best." -  Wesley Lovell
(http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/le_voyage_dans_la_lune/)