So this is my movie poster for the 2013 indie horror film Frankenstien's Army. If there is one thing I've learned in life, it's that nothing quite forces you to tap into your hidden potential like putting 14 hours into a piece 36 hours before it's due. This piece was a pretty even spread of the Pen tool, pencil tool, shapes tool, transparency, textures and tears. The cluster of bodies was made exclusively with Pen Tool, while the dangling feet were drawn and then refined with the Pen. The textures were a split between the clipping method and just outright using textures after I manipulated them in Photoshop. Fonts came from Germanic Medieval fonts (since the German war machines in WWI and 2 sought to use archaic fonts to appeal to a sense of noble history in their propaganda) .
For the most part this came out how I imagined, except I was unable to create a fully illustrated creature crawling across the poster. I must have wasted several hours on it before giving up- I am not nearly experienced enough to illustrate anything remotely detailed in Illustrator, let alone as detailed as my normal work. My only regret was the fine text. I underestimated the effort, detail and importance in creating those chunks of credits, as well as how far it would go in establishing a sense of authenticity. I'm also still struggling with using the texture/clipping tools. I want to create better custom textures and clip them successfully.
Thankfully that can be easily rectified in my free time since it's just text. And that's about it- still a long way to go, but I think I've improved by leaps and bounds already. While no fan of it, I feel more comfortable with using Illustrator- I just need to leave myself a little more time spread out to work on it.
I really love how this turned out, and you say you gave up on an additional creature, but I think that may have made this too busy. The composition as it is now works really well. I especially love the gradient effect you have with the feet and the subtle layering of the creatures added a lot to the piece. I think the font might look a little small, just because it gets a little hard to read under the title. I think just making it a little bigger would help that. I also love the texture decisions you made.
ReplyDeleteI really like the down section of the poster I think is working really well. I can't understand if the shapes on the top are feets. I like the way that you used two different color for creating the monster in the fore ground.
ReplyDeleteRad use of texture on the background Carl. I instantly get the feeling of what this movie is going to be by how you've drawn it. I do feel however that there's something wonky happening with that shape behind the figures. It seems to go in and out behind them and the continuity of how it's happening seems irregular and confusing to the eye. But honestly that detail aside you're really communicating through the image.
ReplyDeleteThe composition of this is really eye-catching - I find that I'm looking all over the poster for the details you must have painstakingly crafted there. The black graphics interfaced with the figures was an excellent composition choice too, and making them different tones of black and gray help them from being too distracting from the center image. It took me a while to spot the subtle texture on the red center image, so I would suggest using a texture with more opacity that will ground the figures that way don't jump out too much from the other textured objects. The slug of course is very hard to see - making it bigger and changing the color of the fonts so it shows up against the black & white areas is something I would also go back into. All in all, this piece was well worth the effort!
ReplyDeleteI think that this piece does a really good job with making the mood come across - I think the silhouetting was a nice choice as well, and is easy to read because of how you chose color and shape against shape. I like how there are also the larger windows of black that come in and shake up the composition because it sort of gives you more of an uneasy feeling. One thing thing that I think yo ucould do is maybe change the curve on the bottom on the bit -- maybe it's that the two curves are really similar, but they're not quite fitting in to one another, (which is probably why I keep looking at it?) or, maybe it's just because it's a large area that doesn't have a pairing somewhere else, so it feels like it doesn't fit as much? But! I think that what you could do is maybe think of using the path, offset path tool to make it more even, and even consider bringing it up a little higher? Or, even think about adding a diagonal black shape instead that sort of helps the red one fit more like a puzzle --- hopefully that made sense. Other than that, I think that you used the two silhouette layers really nicely to make the crowd, and I think that it might be nice to use a subtle texture on the bright red area so that it integrates with the piece a little more. I think that you're right - going back and doing the type at the bottom (and the little tag line) a little more true to the content of the credit info, would really make it look like a legit poster, because besides that, it's a really solid piece. Great job.
ReplyDeleteYour use of placement within the objects was done very well as the composition of this piece feels very cohesive. I really enjoy the use of your texture in the background and I feel that it emphasizes the tone of your poster a lot! The only thing I might play around with is maybe adding a subtle texture to the plain red, although your use of the backdrop is nice it still feels a little flat. All in all great job!
ReplyDeleteThe texture you used for the background works really well with all your solid shapes.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I would say as far as changing anything would be maybe cleaning up the middle of all the legs(? or something) that are hanging at the top? The center ones get a little crowded and I think it would be more effective or creepier than having them kind of squished together the way they are right now.
Your experimentation with the pen tool seemed to work really well for you!
Your use of color and font immediately made me think of Nazi Germany without even knowing what the movie was about. I really like the grittiness of the white background and the dangling feet was a nice touch. The layout of this poster is just great, because no space is left unused and the shapes that you used have more than one purpose. For example your collection of figures in the center serve as a backing for the title, but also establish some characters in the film.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a pretty solid composition. I like the silhouettes of the creatures/monsters and their coloring as well. The bottom of the swastika at the top of the picture may be a bit much cause I feel it takes away from the detail of the hanging bodies and the texture may bit a bit too harsh cause it makes the bottom slug a bit unreadable. I think solving those issues (and maybe changing the font and position of the tagline) would make this a really strong piece.
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