Fullmetal Alchemist vs Brotherhood

Fullmetal Alchemist is series created by Hiromu Arakawa for Manga. While the Manga story was still incomplete, it was animated by Bones and aired from October 2003 – October 2004, during that time the animators did most of the work by directing and reinterpretation of the story while it was incomplete, making it fitting for TV airing. By the time the series was over Arakawa added the finishing touches to her original Manga story, giving her and Bones the opportunity to re-launch the series and air it in April 2009 – July 2010 under the name of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. One year later for each series (2004-2005 and 2010-2011) the Fullmetal Alchemist series were aired in the United States and Canada by Funimation Entertainment.

The story itself is about two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric who live in a village of Resembool in the country of Amestris in a fictional Universe, in an era and place similar to Europe's Industrial Revolution but where alchemy is a powerful source of energy and dominant than the steam powered engines and other engineering.

The young brothers live with their mother, Trisha Elric and with their father gone away, they had nothing to do but to read his books and study alchemy on their own. Their mother and neighbors are impressed but Trisha dies years later because of a terminal disease, leaving her sons alone with no one to take care of them but their neighbor Winry and her grandmother. The Elric brothers have nothing else to do but to continue studying alchemy and find out about Human Transmutation – a forbidden part of alchemy that allows bringing back to life and modifying human life. Normally alchemy has a basic rule called The Equivalent Exchange, one can't create something out of nothing, in order to transmute / to gain something of a value, he must lose something else of the same value.

The brothers try to bring back their mother back to life but they don't do the transmutation correctly, costing Edward his left leg and Al's entire body and instead of bringing their mother back to life, they end up with grotesque malformed homunculus that was supposed to be Trisha. In an attempt to bring his brother back to life, Ed gives up his right arm, to bring back his brother's soul and attach it to a suit of armor.

This act is discovered by a state alchemist named Roy Mustang who offers them a place in the military as state alchemists, giving them opportunity to learn more alchemy and secrets that will allow them to get their bodies back. Years spend at Winry's home; Edward gets new automail limbs (advanced artificial limbs) and go to Central to register themselves as State Alchemists. Afterwards they are assigned to investigate different locations of the country in search of the Philosopher's Stone, a great catalyst in alchemy, but the brothers mainly search for it in order to use it for themselves to get back their bodies.

What is the difference between the series released in 2004 and the one in 2009? Hiromu Arakawa was working on the Manga version of the series and while this was taking place, she let Bones to animate her creation but without her help. She actually allowed it and wanted to see how the animators would roll her story without her involvement. Arakawa was very impressed and using the tv series as a help to improve her Manga version. It took her longer than it took Bones. However, by the time she was done, she went back to Bones and decided to re-launch the series now based after her story, and in 2009 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was aired.

There is no specific appreciation for the first series and Brotherhood from a fan base point of view, they are both pleasing for most of the audience and since most of it is in general anime fans, they don't really see much difference. From an objective point of view, of a non anime fan one, the first series had a more impact and more meaning than Brotherhood who follows more anime specific standards than to give quality to the story.

Fullmetal Alchemist , the series of 2004 starts with the episode Those who challenge the Sun with a scene showing the Elric brothers, Edward and Alphonse, drawing a runic circle (also known as the transmutation circle) in a basement, doing alchemy with them trying to bring back their mother to life. While they do this, Edward narrated the scene as if it is a memory, describing what alchemy is, how it is preformed and what were they doing. The principles of alchemy are to gain something if you give in return something of equal value; this is known as the law of equal exchange. Their mother died soon and they tried to bring her back to life giving materials in return that represent the natural fabric of a human being, but what they gave was not enough, they had to lose more. Edward lost a leg, his brother Alphonse but his mother was brought back to life in a disfigured manner. The flash back ends here and it next scene takes us to the main time-line of the show.

The Elric brothers are now (older, and Alphonse in a suit of armor) wandering through the desert and arrive in a small town called Lior to find something they were assigned for as state alchemists. They are taken at a small tavern by a barman who thought they were from town. They find out from him about a much known prophet from their area known as Cornello. The Elric Brothers were very famous as well but not in the area of Lior. Alphone accidentally breaks a radio that the barman uses to listen to Cornello's broadcasts and quickly repairs it with alchemy. The barman and the crowd are all surprised and they believe that they are doing miracles just like Cornello. A young girl called Rose appears, that makes introduction with the Elric brothers and takes them to the prophet to help them.

Later at a Miracle Gathering, the 2 brothers observe Cornello's performance and realize that he's simply using alchemy but he is ignoring the law of Equivalent Exchange – they believe he uses the philosopher stone. Rose is quite a faithful girl and believes in the prophet but finds it outrageous what the Elric brothers are saying. Later in the temple, after Cornello heard that the Elric brothers are sent by the state, he sends his right hand man, Cray, to take care of them. He shoots Al but fails, since he is already dead but his soul is attached to the suit of armor that he controls. Rose is frightened by this and runs quickly to the prophet.

The Elric brothers follow her into a big room where Cornello sends a chimera and a parrot beast to fight them but Edward succeeds to beat them, leaving him with his automail (his artificial arm and leg) exposed. Then Cornello realizes why he is known as the Fullmetal Alchemist and why he has no arm and no leg, and why his brother was in a suit of armor. What they've tried when they were little was a sin, a human transmutation. They tried to bring back their mother back to life and that was forbidden – that's why Ed lost a leg and Al but he then lost his right arm after he brought back his brother's soul back into his world. Even though they were sent by the state to confiscate the philosopher stone that Cornello uses to perform alchemy without the Equivalent Exchange, they want to use it for them to set everything back.

The second episode is called Body of the Sanctioned. The Elric borthers admit that they've tried to bring back their mother to life but failed and they warned Rose not to count on Cornello on bringing her boyfriend, Cain, back to life because it will only end up the same. Edward and Al then escape but they are overrun by the prophet's mob. In the meantime Cornello pretends to prove Rose that he managed to bring back Cain to life, showing her him in a curtain bed but he can't be recognized, only as a shape. She actually believes the figure in the bed was her lover and turns against the Elric brothers, encouraging the mob to seize them.

With Edward captured and sent into a prison, Alphonse steals the monastery's bell and tries to dig his way in to save his brother. Meanwhile, Rose tries to sneak into Cain's room to assure that he is actually himself but she is caught by Cornello and finds out that she was tricked; the figure she saw earlier was just a transfigured parrot. The prophet locks her in the room to be killed by the parrot but she is quickly saved by Al.

The scene switches on a balcony of the monastery where Rose watches Alphonse install a broadcasting system using Cornello's set and the monastery bell as a giant speaker, with the microphone set all the way down to prison behind Edward. There the prophet was admitting that he was fooling the citizens of Lior to become his faithful soldiers in the future, until he found out that he was tricked with the microphone. Edward chased him outside where the entire town was after Cornello. The two, had a small alchemy showdown until the prophet's stone exploded, letting Edward realize that it was not the actual Philosopher's Stone. Soon after the two brothers leave the town, Rose came upset on them cause now she has no faith to live for, the real Cornello dead and an antagonist disguised as him tries to set the town as calm as before.

The Brotherhood version of the two episodes of the series of 2004 takes place actually as a single episode and the third one. It is called City of Heresy, the Elric brothers arrived to Lior by train (Lior is not a desert town in this series), everybody looks at them with impression, knowing that they are famous. The brothers then go the temple to speak to father Cornello regarding his business, but they meet inside a girl called Rose who is highly faithful and believes in the religion Lior's prophet is teaching them. Cornello who is aware of the state alchemist's threat, orders his men to ambush them and shoot the Fullmetal Alchemist. The brothers fight Cornello's men and they believe he has a philosopher stone, they ask for it so they can leave him alone but the prophet commands Rose to shoot Edward. She accidentally shoots Alphonse and discovers that the armor is empty. The prophet realizes they tried a sin, a human transmutation and gives Rose more motives to believe that they are evil.

The Elric brothers escape taking Rose with them. Ed hides inside Cornello's office while Al installs a giant speaker to and tells Rose what really happened to them, why he's in a suit of armor and why Ed has no arm and leg. While Cornello finds Fullmetal, he admits to him the truth about fooling the citizens of Lior becoming his faithful soldiers to take over the country. He then finds out that he was tricket and that the entire town heard about his confession. He then starts a showdown with Edward but he is defeated and his gem on his ring is disintegrated, revealing as a fake. When the brothers were set to leave Lior, they were confronted by Rose who wanted to steal the Philosopher Stone from them to bring back her boyfriend back to life, she then cried that her faith was taken away from her and that she has nothing to live for now. Edward told her that the dead can never be brought back, and that she should keep on walking and searching.

The third episode of the series of 2004 is called Mother it is character origin flashback episode where the Elric brothers little around 6 years old, and try to make a gift for their neighbor and friend Winry, using alchemy. They try to make a doll but during the process the doll takes a ghostly humanoid shape that scares Winry away. This causes her parents and the brothers' mother to have a discussion about what happened but Winry's mother defends being impressed with their alchemy skill at their very young age. Trisha, their mother, is also impressed how Ed and Al started using alchemy at this very young age; she encouraged them and let them use their father's study (who ran away from home when Al was still young to remember him) to learn more. As they get older and practice more alchemy, their mother gets prouder – they go to show off their skills to Winry as well but they fid her crying because she just found out that her parents died in a war. After some time Trisha Elric dies as well due to a terminal disease, the two brothers are left all alone with no one to take care of them but Winry and her grandmother. Meanwhile Ed and Al find another alchemist and are train by her (to use both body and mind).
After a long time of learning they try to practice a forbidden part of alchemy: human transmutation. They use all the necessary ingredients they think it's equivalent right to bring back their mother back to life, but instead Al is sucked by the transmutation circle, Edward loses his left leg and wakes up with their mother in front of them, but instead of her, he finds a grotesque malformed presence. The next moment, at Winry's home, her grandmother opens the house door to find a suit of armor (that was actually Al) holding Ed without his limbs. Moments later, a military man named Roy Mustang comes at their house and offers the two brothers the opportunity to join the army as state alchemists, giving them the opportunity to learn more about this science and access to hidden information. Edward pays Winry and Pinako (her grandmother) to make him automail limbs so he can later go to register himself as a state alchemist to learn more and to get his limbs and his brother's body back to normal.

The second episode of the Brotherhood series is called The First Day. It starts with the Elric brothers on a train to Lior, speaking about a task to meet the prophet Cornello and see if he had the Philosopher Stone with him, but right after we are being shown the past of the two brothers, and most of the episode is a character origin flashback. It shows them when they were younger practicing alchemy from their father's books, and their mother impressed by their doing. She dies right after a couple of days, with no one to take care of them but their two neighbors. Edward comes with the idea of bringing their mother back to life, so he studies more alchemy with his brother, until he finds the supposing right transmutation requirements to revive Trisha. They set a transmutation circle, put all the materials a human body is composed of, and they add a drop of blood from each other as 'soul data'.
What they've added was not enough, so the transmutation circle sucks Alphonse into it and a leg of Edward along. In the meantime Edward is having an epiphany, finding himself in front of a black gate with a disembodied figure known as 'the universe', 'one' and 'you'. He then shows Edward "The Truth", as he wanted, the gate opens and a shadowy figure takes Edward trough it, filling his mind with useful information, the truth of everything, but is pulled out right before learning the secret behind perfect human transmutation. Edwards asks to be taken through the gate again but he is denied by the disembodied figure, telling him that he already paid for the first ride trough the gate and that was his left leg.
Ed then wakes up from his epiphany, with Al gone, but with his mother brought back to life. However, it was not really their mother, but a grotesque malformed humanoid that was supposed to be her but was not. Using whatever information he acquired during his ride through the gate, Edward brings down a suit of armor, draws a transmutation circle inside it using his blood, and offering his right hand in exchange for his brother's soul back.
Taken at their neighbors house, they are both visited by Mustang who surprised and impressed at the same time by their actions, invite them to join the military as state alchemists. Years later, after Edward was given a mechanic new arm and leg, he managed to do alchemy without transmutation circles, and passed the exam at Central becoming a true state alchemist and he was given the title of Fullmetal.

In the sixth episode of the series of 2004, called The Alchemy Exam the Elric brothers arrive to Central (the main city in Amestris) and are taken to the house of Shou Tucker by Roy Mustang so they can live there several days while they will be using Tucker's library to study for the exam. They learn that Tucker is also known as The Sewing-Life Alchemist and that managed to create a talking chimera in the past but died right after it was created. While at the mansion, they befriend Tucker's daughter Nina and their dog Alexander. Later Maes Hughes invites them to his house to celebrate Edwards birthday, while there, Mrs. Hughes goes into labor and in an attempt to help her, Ed finds out by fluke he can perform alchemy without the help of a transmutation circle.
Later after the Elric brothers pass the exams for the state alchemy credentials; Roy forces Al to drop out so that their taboo is never revealed to the public. Edward however passes his interview and his practical part of the exam by using transmutation without the help of a circle, saving the other participants that were in danger.
In the seventh episode, Night of the Chimera's Cry, Edward receives his credentials and his state alchemist pocket watch (a watch that augments an alchemist's abilities) from Roy Mustang. He spends a couple of more days at Tucker's home, where he finds out from Shou that his wife left him before he got his own alchemist credentials, when they were poor. Now he has to do a research every year to keep his credentials and his status, his last year's project wasn't impressive enough and now he has to do a better one in order to remain a state alchemist. But Edward finds out from Hughes that Tucker's wife died right before she got to Central, this cause suspicion and only made Ed investigate this matter even more. After a while when a general by the name of Basque Gran who is in charge of Tucker, find out about Ed's investigations, he orders him to leave the residence, Shou being his responsibility and that he won't allow anyone around him. This again made Fullmetal even more suspicious, so he infiltrated Tucker's home later at night to see what was going on. He saw Show's new creation, a talking chimera, but Edward realizes that the former chimera that died was actually his wife and the one that was just created moments ago was actually Nina and Alexander. Tucker defends himself by saying that he was progressing in the name of science and that Edward is just like him, making a reference to the human transmutation he tried when he was little but is almost beaten to death by him for saying that.
They are then discovered by Brasque Gran and his men, Edward accusing Shou for his act. The general says he will take Tucker to trial and hide the chimera, commanding the Elrics not to tell any one about what he saw. Fullmetal enraged by Gran's attempt to cover everything up sets Nina free, but she runs off around the city finding a man by the name of Scar who tries to untransmute Nina and Alexander but he ends up killing the chimera. The remains are then found by the Elrics with no sign of Scar.

In the Brotherhood version of these two episodes is called An Alchemist's Anguish and is the fourth one in the series. Gran wanders around Central when he encounters Scar but he is then murdered by him, causing a serious case of loose serial killer for the state to handle. Back from Lior, the Elric brothers are sent to Shou Tucker by Roy Mustang, as a favor so they can use his library. While they were on their way there, Edwards finds out that Tucker created a talking chimera in the past but it only said that it wanted to die, so it refused to eat until it got its wish. At Tucker's mansion, Shou finds out about the Elric's case and they quickly befriend him along with Nina and their dog Alexander. Later Edward finds out about Shou's case how he has to prepare himself for an assessment to keep his credentials, and he finds a new talking chimera but he realizes that the chimera is actually a combination of Nina and Alexander. While Tucker waits for the authorities to come and arrest him, he is visited by Scar who kills him and the chimera.

These were examples of certain episodes of each series. In the series of 2004, the animators from Bones were more in charge of the story so they managed it in a way to appeal for the TV audience, they did a very good job and managed to do what some anime series barely succeed in managing and that is, telling a story. At first they seem as if they are trying to beat everything around the bush just to extend the episodes but this is organized very well not only that it takes the Manga story lightly, but it also makes it more gore and keeps the audience attracted, keeping them in a cliff hanger until the next episode.

Brotherhood however is rushing to get the story done. Arakawa states that she spend more time on creating the story for the second series especially using inspirations from the real alchemy's philosophy and real life stories from different people and scenarios. With all this work, she does not really succeed to make her series as appealing as her previous one, but rather more childish. The reason why they rush the episodes in Brotherhood is because they want to leave enough space for the actual cliff hanging episodes from the end, but even this one is not managed very well. The first impression always matters, but only the series of 2004 takes note of this and manages it very well to keep the audience attracted and provide a satisfying ending as well. An example of rushing the story is seen in the content of episodes of Brotherhood as well as their placing them in the series. The character origin flash back episode called "Mother…" is the third one in the series and is dedicated to the Elric brothers' childhood and their motives for where they are now. In Brotherhood, this takes place in the second episode "The First Day" and it shows everything, how they found out about alchemy, how they progressed with it, the way they tried to bring their mother back to life, the epiphany about The Truth, why Al is in a suit of armor, how Ed can perform alchemy without a circle and he already got to central and passed the exam. With all these events compressed together in a single episode, there is no room for pure admiration and cliff hangers. The series of 2004 however systemizes all these events in various story arcs, giving you enough time to enjoy the story and find its conspiracies giving you an impression of "so that's what actually happened". Here for example, Edward does not recall seeing The Truth, does not recall how exactly he bound Al's soul to the suit of armor and he finds out that he can use alchemy without a circle by a fluke later in the series before he passes the exam. How he actually managed to do that, how he bound Al and what actually happened with their failed attempt to revive their mother are all solved one by one later during the series so it can fit the climax.

Manga stories are known to be black and white. Of course Arakawa provided character designs and different color details for the animators at Bones but even these seem to be slightly altered by them, or maybe not at all. Graphic speaking, the two series have noticeable changes but we are not 100% sure if in the series of 2004 the animators altered the graphic details in their favor, or if those were the actual designs at that time and got improved in the new series with Arakawa's indications. Most characters look the same in both series but the one that has a large modification is Edward, the only thing is that he looks younger in Brotherhood. The backgrounds and environment in general looks interesting but sometimes it has moments as if it was simply created by a Photoshop novice.

Like mentioned before, the series of 2004 has more impact and it has more emotional value than its sibling where Brotherhood rushes everything. For example the death of Maes Hughes is unexpected and more emotional than the one in Brotherhood where is barely emphasized. There are multiple scenes with such example, like the events in Lior: Cornello actually fools Rose with a horrific mutation claiming to be her boyfriend but in Brotherhood he is not showed at all; Gran actually makes an anti-hero manifestation in the first series and his death leaves a small impact no matter negative or positive, but in Brotherhood he is seen for the first time in the third episode and killed on sight, not leaving us enough background of him; at Tucker's home Edward is shocked with he hears that he is compared to Shou, very sad for Nina-Alexander, he actually attempts to split them back to their original form or even revive them after he sees them dead, in Brotherhood he simply walks away from Tucker's home and he is killed with his chimera in him home –there are countless examples.

Brotherhood loses its effectiveness to an objective audience, but it's constant for a regular anima fan base. Not only the rush of episodes and its content loses its charm compare to its sibling series but it's also the way they handle the effects. The series of 2004 allowed itself to show more gore scenes where Brotherhood kind of censors them. The last and unpleasant element that makes the first series the winner is its sense of handling the audience emotions. For example in Lior when Edward explains to Rose about his beliefs, she is outraged, while in Brotherhood she turns into a comic chibi not understanding what he tells her; also when Cornello orders her to shoot Edward and she confuses Al with his brother this triggers another chibi comic moment. All these are not well placed, especially in between climactic scenes leaving the audience not sure how to feel about what he is shown. Brotherhood may keep its place in the fan's hearts but the first series will always be an exceptional anime who really caught the heart of western audience.

Invention of Love

The invention of Love is an animated short film used as a graduation project at Saint-Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts by the class of Lyudmila Lazareva, Galina Kovalskaya and published by HHG Film Company. It was written and directed by Andrey Shushkov practicly doing the production design, the animation, the editing and compositing all by himself with support from Ekaterina Dementyeva and music and sound by Polina Sizova, Anton Melnikov and Anna Gudkova.

The animated short starts with a scene showing a messy workshop and the main character on a chair, sighing and listening to music. We are taken immediately to the next scene where the inventor is riding a mechanical horse and meets a lady. She is impressed by his invention and they both take a ride on it stopping at a nearby tree where they kiss.

Soon after, they get married and decide to leave to another town. The bride was saying farewell to her relatives as her groom was packing their luggage into blimp and they soon took off to a city where presuming it is the inventor's home.

The next day or soon after they've arrived, the two lovers are shown in the inventor's workshop, where the wife was taking care of a flower she brought with her and the husband minding an invention of his. The wife was prepares to get out of the house, and they both kiss until later. As she walks along downtown, she's uncomforted with all the smog and the waste all the mechanical vehicles, machinery and factories were producing. She meets a dog along the way that she tries to pet but find out that he's actually mechanic, walks by a plant store where all the plants are mechanic, all this makes her feel bad and she decides to go to a nearby park for some fresh air but only to find more fake life such as artificial trees and even a mechanical butterfly.

Meanwhile her flower at home dies; the inventor notices and believes it is better if he would replace it, throwing the original down the window and placing an immortal mechanical one instead of the old one. When the wife arrives home, she gasps and quickly goes outside to find her flower, as she does she tries to blow away the dust off of it, but she coughs. In the next scene her husband is at the hospital receiving news that his love has died.

Upset, he then destroys his inventions in his workshop, looks at her lover's flower and makes a hard decision. He brings back his wife to life, as an artificial human, with a mechanical hearth and everything. Although he succeeded, and she looks as if she would be alive, it's not herself anymore. The inventor looks sad at her flower he preserved, and the animation lets out an open ending.

The animation is organized very well and acceptable for a team with so few people, but of course because of the lack of man power, the film can't reach a great achievement such as in visual quality but they made a very good job making it unnoticeable. Example: The animation has only two colors in every scene, black for the environment and characters and another color representing the sky and the light, depending where the scene takes place. If the production team was bigger then they would've bothered with adding more graphic features, but they haven't and this is what makes the visuals of this animation so interesting.

Like most of the short animations, Invention of Love lacks voices. Usually when creating an animation, the producers take care of the voice actors first to organize the lines and see if they can come up with any improvisations then they do the actual recordings and after that the animators try to animate the characters gestures, expressions and lip sync according to the recorded lines of the voice actors. This takes a lot of work, so for a graduation project, this is very often avoided or replaced with narration. In the invention of love, the actual actions of the characters and the background music help telling us the story. The graphics are amazing, a psaligraphic (cut out) stop motion style improved with CGI showing a steampunk theme not only helps as an eye candy but it is also fits very well with the story and the moral, replacing real life with artificial one, trying to bring love back not alive but artificial.

The prologue of the film is speculated to actually be a scene from the end, a part of the epilog judging by the messed up workshop the character is in, there aren't really much details to prove if it is actually a part from the epilog but this is how some films start in order to keep the watcher interested. For a semi-muted animation, the girl's illness is very well made evident quite from the start when she coughs at the steam released by the mechanical horse, and this is shown on different parts along the film.

The music is a very good narrator, the film starting with the main character listening to a piece of music that continues to all the way to the scene where he kisses his future wife, giving the illusion of a flash back, of a memory. When they take off, the music gets more adventurous and by the time they reach the city, it changes to one that would fit the admiring emotion of the audience and especially with the kissing part of the scene. The soundtrack from the blimp ride is the most enthusiastic one so far and it would've been a done better if it would've been extended all the way where they fly trough the city, with even a more allegro-positive line to increase the enthusiasm, the current one is good and it matches very well the kissing part, but this is only a matter of seconds comparing to all the ride through the city. The music in the workshop matches the environment of a small family but it stop after the wife gets out of the house and wanders around the city. The silence the scenes of her hours spend in the city matches her small negative mood / surprises she's experiencing.

The part where she would die was expected, and her husband rage, tarring down his workshop is simply expressive as well how he brings her back to life. All this part is silent and it lets an open ending. This scene could've been improved if the scene where he would reconstruct her back to life was done in a more dramatic and slower way with fitting soundtrack and a sad one at the end when her love was alive but not literally.

Despite its small features that could've been replaced with better ones, Invention of Love is a really successful animation that appeals to many kinds of audience. no matter the fantasy theme, is still a story of love, love conquers all.

Miscellaneous

Spon Street Model
January 2011
While i was an architecture student at Coventry, we had to do site analysis of Spon Street from Coventry, a very old area of the city. Each group of students had a set of houses to make models of and then placed on a model of the site. This was my assigned building.


Acting masks
July 2011
Acting masks made of clay and painted over each with a fitting color, orange for the happy one, blue for the sad one.


Wall of ideas
August 2010
While i was in high school, still studying architecture, i was having a lot of artistic ideeas but could not really express them at that moment because of the lack of time and because i was suppose to concentrate more on the work at hand. My professors wouldn't really take notice of any developed work of my artistic ideeas.
I could not thorw them away and forget them, so in order to remember them, i set them to 'haunt' me - instead of putting them in an ideea note book or something, i just sticked them on the wall over my study.


Wall of Ideas 2
May 2011
My second wall of ideas while i was studying at Coventry. I must admit, one of the sticky notes left a small unvisible but nasty mark on the wall and i had to pay for the repaint. I'm not doing another Wall of Ideas ever agian...in another place but my home.
I still carry an idea note book with me, but when i am at home, it's more interesting to have all these ideas in front of you so you can meditate upon them.

Architecture

Leathercrafter workshop
January 2011
A3
An USP of an workshop i had to do at Coventry University for Spon Street.


Rugby Community Center
May 2011
A3
An USP of a community center that was suppose to be done in Rugby UK.


Old well by ~existtraiesc on deviantART
December 2009
A2
One of my architectural project in the last year of highschool, a covered old well. Since it was symetric there was no point on making the perspective using multiple vanishing points.


Traditional Interior by ~existtraiesc on deviantART
May 2010
A2
Interiour design of a romanian traditional home, old lamp and a vacuum.

Still life

Sphere, pyramid, vase
May 2006
A4
My first still life drawing.


Old pressing iron, cube, vase
October 2007
A3
Still life.


Statue head and cylinder
November 2007
A3
Still life.


Box glass and vase
December 2007
A3
We stopped applying shades with B pencils and experimented with water colors.


Apples and vases
March 2008
A3
My best painting i did in 10th grade, received a mark of 9.60 on it.


Office lamp
September 2009
A3
Observational drawing.


Geometric shapes and bottle by ~existtraiesc on deviantART
December 2009
A2


Glass bell,mortar,asian plant by ~existtraiesc on deviantART
March 2010
A2
My very last observational drawing in high school. It was more of an evaluation work, than a simple exercise. The Mortar inside the glass bell was made of metal making a reflection contrast that was pretty tricky to capture. The chinese lantern plant was pretty old, and even tough it had mutliple details, this actually made it quite easy to capture.

Storyboard - The Pure and The Tainted

August 2011
A3

The ideea for this storyboard came to me years ago when i first heard a song of Blue Stahli with the same title : www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW7tg0yqfEY&feature=youtu.be
I searched it some more and found a pre-released version of this song called Pour Elle : www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygnDEzXc11o&feature=youtu.be

It reminded me of some audio/musical stories our music teacher showed me when i was in gymnasium. Pour Elle gave me this great graphic idea for this storyboard where the piano could represent 'the Pure' (the boy) and the raw electric guitar can represent 'the Tainted'(the man)

Description: Cosmic forces manifest into a humanoid shape on a hard to reach stone on Earth. The shape signals out to any nearby human to come at it. The signal reaches both a boy (the Pure) and a man (the Tainted) and they both run to her as fast as possible.When they arrive, they see that the signal was sent by a woman, not human but celestial. She asks for assistance and knowledge, and who can achieve to impress/reach her in time, would share his life with her.
The boy promises her all the beauty this world has to offer. The man offers her all the luxury his world has to offer. All these offerings seemed to physical for her and she refused both of them.The boy then offered her all the hidden knowledge of his world...


...The man offered her true protection and sacrifice and that in fact he would climb right at her to proove it. The woman was interested but did not respond. The boy felt ignored and stopped promising her anything anymore, kneeled and started to meditate. As the man was climbing towards his desire, he was attaked by an eagle. Even though the boy was appearing as if he was doing nothing, and the man was bruting around with an eagle, the celestial woman was watching both of them with interest..


...Suddenly, a glowing shape just came next to her. It was the boy, he used his hidden knowledge to ascend into a Pure spirit and reach her. But right after, the man reached her too, with the eagle's wing stitched to himself, he comited a crime and became Tainted only to keep his promise.

The woman could not be with anyone, as neither came on time, and she was summoned back by the celestial forces. The Pure, now ascended, could not walk the earth anymore , so he was called to heavens. While the Tainted, after comiting a crime of mutilating himself and another life, signed his way to hell. Nothing was found near the stone after that night but the souless body of the Pure boy.

Storyboard - Routine

August 2011
A3
Routine - Depart with disgust , rejoice at reunion
Is a small storyboard about a very small animation that should represent the reoutine of our lives in a 'mechanic' way.
The main character should represent an avarage individual, the book on his head shuffling represents the life chapter he is going trough, the clock spinning around represents the time spend and the 4 branches are part of the life chapter: the green house represents the location, the open book represents his occupation (studend), the light blue people are his social circles and the dark blue humanoid is his superiour.
The main character grows bored and old as the life chapter is beeing shuffled until it is finished and he throws it away in disgust with all its branches.
He picks up the next life chapter(as an employee) with excitement, hoping this one will be great. The same routine, different branches. He still grows bored and old, but as he completes this chapter, instead of engaging onto the next one, he browses trough his archive and engages in "Reunion Mode" with his former chapters.

Storyboard - Legend of the March Trinket

August 2011
A3
This storyboard is inspired by one of the legend of a tradition called Martisor(romanian)/Marteniza(bulgarian) (or also known as The March Trinket) celebrated in eastern Europe mainly in Bulgaria and Romania and other countries. There are different versions about the origin of the March Trinket, and this storyboard represent the version about the Fairy Mother of Winter and the Fairy Mother of Spring.

Description: The end of winter was drawing near and its Fairy Mother was using all her powers to keep the season still. Meanwhile the Fairy Mother of Spring was wandering close by melting what snow she could, surprised that the Winter was still there. Until she spotted a small snowdrop surounded by some thorns, she tried to move the thorns away to give the little snowdrop some room.


...This small flower is the messenger of spring, and when it is spotted, it usually signals the end of winter. As the Fairy Mother of Spring was trying to free the snowdrop, the Fairy of Winter sensed it's presence and tried to blow away her threat with a blizzard.
The Fairy of Spring ignored the thorns and threw her hands reight trough them so she can protect the snowdrop from the blizzard. Wounded from the thorn's spikes, her blood fell upon the snowdrop's pedals, stopping the blizzard and banishing the Fairy Winter away along with her season.

Storyboard - Forbidden fruit

August 2011
A3

A storyboard of an animation i was thinking a couple of years ago. It is slightly inspired from christianity when God created the world.
The storyboard is about a divine force that arrives to a habitable planet and he pushes evolution and development on it...


...He starts by spreading seeds over a site that cause vegetation to grow immediatly and he purifies the nearby river to...


...create animals by spreading the water into the air. Each drop forms an animal and when they are fully formed they get frozen in time.
Ht then takes a small drop of water from the purified rived, creates a human out from a chunk of earth and places the water drop on his head, waking the human to life.


...The god retires from the scene as the human cracks open his earthen shell, sending a gust of sand into the air and throwing the debris around him. From each debris, a new human is born and the gust of sand gives 'time' to each living thing unfreezing them and allowing them to move.



...The humans were freshly created were exploring and admiring the world. Meenwhile over the river, behind one of the forests created by the god, was a magmatic site, a lifeless plain where only a single seed left by the creating god managed to get there.
The seed buried itself into the grond and tried to do its purpose, to develop into a tree.
An infernal presence under the ground senses the seed, takes hold of it, infects it and helps it grow faster into a 'possesed/infected' spikey willow filled with fruits.


...It sends a seducing smell that is senced by the nearby human. The woman takes a bite of a fruit and the act is sensed immediatly by her god.


...The woman was now 'introduced' to evil, and her god could not let his creation be corrupted, so he punished her by banishing her underground and destroyed the three to prevent other humans from getting infected.
The woman stood ages underground and slowly evolved into a seed herself. This again tempted the infernal pressence from underground, and they merged together so they can both reach the surface. With his help, the woman evolved into a tree, and as she grew she was begging her god for forgiveness and to allow her to walk on earth once more.


...The god gathered a gust of sand from around the world, into his hands, sucking all the time in the world, slowing it just so it can give it to the three-woman. He gave her time to reach him for the skies, and if she would, the god would forgive her and allow her into his heavens.
The woman grew high as fast as she could but she was distracted by the world around her, she was surprised how much the world changed since she was underground.
She didn't make it on time to the skyes and the god had to give back the borrowed time to the world.


...
Denied by her god, the woman falls into depression, her color starts to change, and her branches start to 'wheep'.
A small family finds her and try to take her down to use her wood to build a house, but she kills them with her roots, and quickly goes underground with them.
From the ground plank start to come out and to assemble themselves into a house.
The ending is open for alternatives such as: the house is alive and haunted
or from the woman is reborn in flesh and gets out of the house
or the house is acting like a carnivorous plant, luring people inside, killing them, and using them to grow bigger and beautiful.

Character Design 2 (Mac)

Mac - character design
August 2011
A3
I was doodling this character for quite a long time so i though i should give him more glory this time. He's kind of a representation of how i used to be in highschool...actually, how i Wish i was in high school.
In order to cancel the ideea that he's my inner ego, i named him Mac and made him taller.


Mac - special poses
August 2011
A3


Mac - facial expressions
August 2011
A3


Mac - development
August 2011
A3
Trying different facials, how would he look like exactly.


Mac - development 2
August 2011
A3
Just like with Anca, i also tried different hairstyles on him and different outfits.


Mac - close up
August 2011
A3
A more detailed view of Mac. A boring character, i gave him a fitting special pose.

Character Designs

Cartoon-ish facial expressions
August 2011
A3


Witch
August 2011
A4
Sketches of poses of a witch character.


Anca - character design
August 2011
A3
Anca is actually an ex colleague from high school that i really admired. She studyend Plastic Arts first year but then transferred to us to Architecture & Design.
This is a design of an animated version of her.


Anca - special poses
August 2011
A3
Special poses that would represent Anca.


Anca - facial expressions
August 2011
A3


Anca - development
August 2011
A3
Before actually designing her, i tought that it won't be right to actually cartoonize the real Anca, so i tried different faces and how should she look like.


Anca - develoment2
August 2011
A3
After i decided how should she look like overall, i tryed different hairstyles to see which fits, and different outfits that would represent her.



Anca - close up
August 2011
A3
A close up of Anca on a special pose.

Portraits & sketches 2

Yoyo
April 2011
A5
While i was in Barcelona with my class and finished sketching our assigned buildings i had some free time spend for one of my characters.


Minions
April 2011
A5


Teenager
June 2011
A5


Smoking lady
June 2011
A5
Most of my characters have different traits but none really have extravagant physical traits, so i thought about trying out a charicaturesque portrait but at the same time keeping it stready not to fall to the grotesque side. An inspiration for such an exercise came from the Red Queen of Alice in Wonderland.


Buisness man portrait
July 2011
A5
Even tough it doesn't look like one, this character is kind of inspired by hipsters when they recently became more and more 'mainstream'.


Buisness man
July 2011
A5
A full pose of the previous portrait of buisness man.


Bleeding blind
July 2011
A5
A blindfolded character with bleeding eyes that is happy about it. This can be a refference to the type of people that preffer not to see the truth, and remain happy in their world of illusions. Another thing that inspired this ideea is that some people that face The End they do anything to feel good just before they seice to exist.

Life Drawing 2

Nude 2
February 2011
A3
As an architect student, i didn't had enough free time to attend to the life drawing sessions but i always managed to attend enough of them to show my tutors that i've been attending them. It wasn't part of an assignment but they took notice of this extracurricular activity.


Nude 2.2
February 2011
A3
Second pose of second muse. She was using the same positions as the last muse, the good thing is that i could redo and exercise certain proportions i felt i did wrong on the last session. The bad thing is that there was not much a difference, so i focused on the head as well to show that it's actually another person.


Nude 2.3
February 2011
A3
Third pose of second muse.


Nude 2.4 by ~existtraiesc on deviantART
February 2011
A2
At this session the muse had 2 long timed poses, giving me the advantage of drawing on bigger formats.


Nude 2.5 by ~existtraiesc on deviantART
February 2011
A2
The last long timed pose of the session.


Nude 3
May 2011
A3
Exam sessions were close and we were suppose to prepaire our last projects - i was too tired but couldn't afford to miss the last session of life drawing of that year. The muse stood as long as the other ones before but i could not afford to spend too much time at this session either, so i coped with it by doing all the poses on a single A3 paper.