LO1: Research and develop design ideas

Natural disasters

Hurricane Katrina began as a very low pressure weather system, which strengthened to become a tropical storm and eventually a hurricane as it moved west and neared the Florida coast on the evening of 25 August. After crossing southern Florida - where it left around 100,000 homes without power. It strengthened before reaching Louisiana, eventually making landfall at Grand Isle, approximately 90km south of New Orleans, at 10am local time on 29 August. At this point, Katrina's sustained wind speed was approximately 200 km/h. The storm passed directly through New Orleans, destroying many lighter buildings and causing damage to others. Hurricane force winds were recorded along a 200km stretch of coastline, with scenes of similar destruction and flooding in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Definition of a tropical hurricane

A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a low-pressure centre and numerous thunderstorms that produce strong winds and heavy rain. Tropical cyclones strengthen when water evaporated from the ocean is released as the saturated air rises, resulting in condensation of water vapour contained in the moist air. They are fuelled by a different heat mechanism than other cyclonic windstorms such as nor'easters, European windstorms, and polar lows. The characteristic that separates tropical cyclones from other cyclonic systems is that at any height in the atmosphere, the centre of a tropical cyclone will be warmer than its surroundings; a phenomenon called "warm core" storm systems.

Definition of an earthquake

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time. Earthquakes are measured using observations from seismometers. The moment magnitude is the most common scale on which earthquakes larger than approximately 5 are reported for the entire globe. The more numerous earthquakes smaller than magnitude 5 reported by national seismological observatories are measured mostly on the local magnitude scale, also referred to as the Richter scale. These two scales are numerically similar over their range of validity. Magnitude 3 or lower earthquakes are mostly almost imperceptible and magnitude 7 and over potentially causes serious damage over large areas, depending on their depth. The largest earthquakes in historic times have been of magnitude slightly over 9, although there is no limit to the possible magnitude. The most recent large earthquake of magnitude 9.0 or larger was a 9.0 magnitude earthquake in Japan in 2011, it was the largest Japanese earthquake since records began. Intensity of shaking is measured on the modified Mercalli scale. The shallower an earthquake, the more damage to structures it causes, all else being equal.

Definition of a volcano

A volcano is an opening in the planet's surface or crust, which allows hot magma, volcanic ash and gases to escape from below the surface. Volcanoes are generally found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging. A mid-oceanic ridge, for example the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, has examples of volcanoes caused by divergent tectonic plates pulling apart; the Pacific Ring of Fire has examples of volcanoes caused by convergent tectonic plates coming together. volcanoes are usually not created where two tectonic plates slide past one another. Volcanoes can also form where there is stretching and thinning of the Earth's crust.

Definition of a tsunami

A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions (including detonations of underwater nuclear devices), landslides, glacier calvings, meteorite impacts and other disturbances above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami.
     Tsunami waves do not resemble normal sea waves, because their wavelength is far longer. Rather than appearing as a breaking wave, a tsunami may instead initially resemble a rapidly rising tide. Tsunamis generally consist of a series of waves with periods ranging from minutes to hours, arriving in a so-called "wave train". Wave heights of tens of metres can be generated by large events. Although the impact of tsunamis is limited to coastal areas, their destructive power can be enormous and they can affect entire ocean basins.

Artist research

Steve McGhee uses Photoshop to create natural disasters and images which look like terrorist attacks. On his site, he explains the meaning behind his pieces “...no way intended to glorify or condone acts of terrorism or celebrate the loss of millions of souls who have perished in past events..."

     His images are highly detailed and give a sense of realism. The images created make you feel as if it is real and I like that these images look realistic because it makes them easier to relate to and feel a sense of shock to what is going on in the photos. Image 9 ‘Edge of the world’ shows real terror as the boats and cruise liner trying as hard as possible to avoid the perilous drop that tries to claim them. The burning town to the side, the helicopters add to the chaos in the image. There is what seems to be an effect over the image which gives an impression of ash and the destruction that is happening in the image. This image gives a sense of suspense as you wonder what will continue in this situation. His techniques look like a photo montage as he has the image of a ferry, helicopters, a town and perhaps something like Niagara Falls and manipulated them all together to create this disaster scenario. It looks like he has lowered the opacity of the search lights from the helicopters and lowered the brightness towards the back of the photo, which makes the overall photo look very dark.     http://stevemcghee.com/?page_id=1491 - Link for photos.

Aftermath

David has been focusing his career in the visual effects industry for the last 10 years, specifically as a matte painter/environment artist. He's worked on a number of high profile projects including James Cameron's Avatar, Where the Wild Things Are, Clash of the Titans, Me and Orson Welles, Prince Caspian, Ashes to Ashes (BBC) and a number of TV commercials for clients including; MasterCard, Panasonic and Carling.

“A simple ruined city, the buildings were made in 3d and the rest photo comped. I roto'd the actors out to add into the shot and added various animated atmospherics such as dust and smoke in after effects.” I like his work because he creates really great enviromental pieces which look realistic and make you feel as if you are there. He gives a sense of true destruction and emptiness which makes you feel lost in the piece because it is wrecked and only these two guys are wondering arounding

the wreck town searching for other life. I feel this piece gives the effect of complete emptiness.
http://davidedwards.me/galleries/gal_matte_08.html - Link for photos

Jerico Santander creates highly detailed pieces that have a slight cartoon look to it. This image looks like a photo manipulation piece and possibly some 3D editing software to create the head and the scenery. The colours are bright and also dark which gives a contrast to the piece. This piece gives the feeling that this face is the world in despair or as if the world is being turn't from woodlands and mountains to these big cities which is making the world sad because of the facial expression on the persons face. I really like his work and especially this piece because of the high detail of his work which really stood out compared to his other pieces. 


Pablo Alfieri creates very colourful and also dark pieces which are very crazy and they have a lot of stuff going on in his pieces. This piece is very dark but is contrasted by this piercing green eye and writing which makes the piece stand out. The black and white area of this piece are strange because there's a lot going on and it is hard to pick this piece apart. This piece could be about death because the writing says "beautiful decay" so this could hint to it. I like this piece because of its high contrast in the piece and also his other work because of his colour use and the madness he creates.


Revolution Art

This images style is photo realism. This piece looks as if it is aimed at a young audience because of what is in the piece and the colours used. There are a variety of colours from black to cyan which gives a contradicting effect to the piece. Within this piece there are about six elements which take part in the image. The background, the crying woman, the sea, the desert, grass and buildings area and some other small details which are around the piece. Some of the small elements that are in this image like the man on the moon and the clouds with rain look like they are in a cartoon style, as well as the buildings towards the bottom with its red roofs and building are bright and draw the eye to the area and it complements the green and the blues quit well. The trees look realistic and would have been manipulated with that area of the photo. The bare wooden table top looks as if it resembles a desert because it’s the one piece of the image that is very untouched. This gives the impression that this area is low on life compared to the area in the middle. The ocean area is very bright and has a lot of life, which I feel gives a warm feeling to the image compared to the rest of the piece which looks very dark and dreary. Finally, the woman who is crying and it makes me feel as if she is misses nature or as if this is her memories she is reliving. I like this piece but it is complicated to breakdown as it has a lot of elements within the piece and it is hard to relate it to energy unless it is broke down.     

This is looks like a photo manipulation image. This piece looks like it would be aimed at a young audience, it also looks like a Sci-fi movie poster which also reminds me of star wars, "return of the Jedi", very futuristic and the colours are close to these piece. There are around 5 elements to this piece; one being its dark background, these bubbles that are floating around, the two people in the image and the lightning. The background is very dark, it uses dark blue and hints of orange and pink with the lightning faded in the background as well. This piece looks as if the person on the right is sending lightning out of his fingers and sending it to the other person’s mouth which seems to be causing him pain. The person on the right looks threatening and malicious and that he is out to cause pain to others. There is a lot of focus on the people in the piece because it looks like that it has been blurred around the persons mouth on the left and the person on the right so the audience is focused more on the people and lightning. The depth of field between the two people looks as if the person sending the lightning is behind the other person and sending the lightning forward because the mouth is more at the for front of the image. Above all of this is are these bubbles which are floating around the image but are slightly blurred so the attention is towards the two people in the image. 

Final design idea

I am going to use Adobe Photoshop CS6 to create my final design.

I'm going to use Photoshop because of the tools available in Photoshop. The tools I might will be: Gradient map, Blur, Smudging, filter effects such as clouds and difference clouds. I could also experiment on other pieces to find different techniques to apply to my final piece.

I'm going to edit a mountain scene edit the area so it looks as if the mountain/hill tops are on fire and I will edit a volcano in between the hills so it looks as if it is blending with the mountains and behind other hills so it gives some form of depth of field.

I will make the sky dark as it will give the effect of the volcano being vicious and dispersing a lot of ash which would make it look like it is going to be lethal. I could make the contrast high and the brightness low.

Also, I would go to filter, render and chose clouds to as this would help me to create a sky which would be appropriate for the scene.

I would then edit in a few police cars and fire trucks to add to the drama and edit them so they look dark as if the volcano is blocking out the light. So they don't look stuck onto my image, I will blur them into the piece so the picture looks realistic.

To add upon the drama of this piece, I would add helicopters flying above surveying the area and giving something extra to the piece.