Gills

WHY DO FISH HAVE GILLS?
The gills on a fish enable the animal to survive under water, without them, like humans they would not be able to live in water as they would not be able to breath. If it wasn't for the gills on a fish or if a fish's gills got severely damaged, the likelihood is they would drown.

HOW DO THEY WORK?
Gills have small rows and columns of specialised cells grouped together called the epithelium, this is one of the four basic types of animal tissue, the epithelium is thin tissue that forms the outer layer of a body's surface, however it also lines the alimentary canal (the passage food passes through from the mouth to the anus during digestion) and other hollow structures on the body.
Deoxygenated blood in the fish is supplied directly from the heart to the epithelium via arteries, and even smaller arterioles. As seawater is forced across the epithelium membranes, dissolved oxygen in the seawater is taken up by tiny blood vessels and veins, while the carbon dioxide is exchanged. The process begins when the fish gulps water through its mouth, the water enters the mouth and then passes through the filaments in the fish's gills. These filaments absorb the oxygen from the water and move it into the bloodstream. The fish's heart then pumps the oxygenated blood around the body, distributing oxygen all over as it goes round. At the same time carbon-dioxide in the blood passes through the gills and back out into the water.

WHAT DO THEY LOOK LIKE?
Gills have a car radiator-like appearance. Most fish have 4 gills on each side, consisting of a main bar-like structure that has numerous branches as that of a tree, and those branches consisting of even smaller branch-like structures. This arrangement of cells allows for a very large surface area when the gills are immersed in water.

https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=what%20is%20a%20epithelium

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/09/how-fish-gills-work/

https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=what%20is%20a%20alimentary%20canal

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=what+is+a+epithelium&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=728&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiPuvaNvrbJAhWBPxoKHTwTDMMQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=what+is+a+epithelium+in+fish&imgrc=bUv152fOZiqYSM%3A

http://www.dkfindout.com/uk/animals-and-nature/fish/how-fish-breathe/

Scales

I have decided to create a part human, part fish hybrid for my final hand-in, similar to a mermaid. For my prosthetic piece I was debating between attempting to make a piece that looks like scales for half of the face or whether to mould gills for the sides of the neck.

 I googled how other people may have carried out creating scales using a prosthetic on the face and found an image similar to the kind of appearance and texture I would want to achieve with my prosthetic below ...

 https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvld4J81cSiZuRpXkAnPsSt8N8lfNoZRLw41ziR15lQyC4eGmqBi-DJ9KFww4JksZ_HcADuJM3PGqx0HnxxeGeDd0V4NtvaNBeuxz0v151XZ6wJUCslKiyep2VcBznB6vnRbwgcuUlFcc/s1600/silurianwoman.JPG

After experimenting with the moulding clay I don't feel I will be able to achieve great results if I make a scaled prosthetic for the face, therefore I am going to move forward with the idea of making gills for the sides of the neck. This way I can use makeup to create a scaled effect on the side of the face and it gives me more of an opportunity to experiment with what kind of makeup look I would like on the face.

Hans Rudolf Giger

Hans Giger was a swiss surrealist artist and was most famous for his work combining humans and machines in a biomechanical manner. 
He was born in 1940 in Chur, Switzerland, and as he got older his interests led him to study architecture and industrial design in Zurich, before beginning a successful career in art and interior design from the mid-1960s onwards. 
In the beginning he worked with with ink and oil paintings until eventually he progressed  on to using airbrush, which helped portray his work in a "vivid, often disturbing style, characterised by dark sexuality and cyberpunk energy".

Giger created a painting called 'Necronom IV' which depicted a creature with 'a human torso and grotesquely phallic skull'. This was then seen by Ridley Scott, an english film and director who used it as the inspiration for his sci-fi horror film Alien. His designs also inspired 'the derelict spacecraft, the unfurling alien eggs, and the masked 'Space Jockey' gunner' also found in the film. The film's producer Gordon Carroll described Giger's work as "sick", but Ridley Scott later commented on the work and including it in his film, saying "I'd never been so certain about anything in all my life."

Images courtesy of google images.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=derelict+spacecraft+alien&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=684&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjnsY2wv7vJAhXFXBQKHbkbDnoQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=hans+giger&imgrc=h9CNsS_4F1UzzM%3A

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=derelict+spacecraft+alien&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=684&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjnsY2wv7vJAhXFXBQKHbkbDnoQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=masked+space+jockey+alien&imgrc=eRakflvY20Rc9M%3A

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=derelict+spacecraft+alien&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=684&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjnsY2wv7vJAhXFXBQKHbkbDnoQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=alien+eggs+from+alien&imgrc=CkeXEvCnLoRCdM%3A

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=derelict+spacecraft+alien&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=684&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjnsY2wv7vJAhXFXBQKHbkbDnoQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=3Oeuta5vEpjPpM%3A

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/may/13/hr-giger-dies-alien-artist

Jordu Schell

Jordu Schell is a famous American sculptor and concept artist who has been working in the television and film industry for over 20 years.

He began his career as a sculptor, making Halloween masks but soon progressed and ended up working on some well renowned films such as Predator 2, Edward Scissorhands, Avatar and Batman returns. He also designed aliens for the opening season of Babylon 5.

Schell mainly works using clay and other physical materials, preferring that to CGI or 2D drawings, which he has done aswell. 

      

Photos and information courtesy of en.m.wikipedia.org

Neville Page

Concept design is a form of illustration used to portray ideas for films, videos games, comic-books and animation before it is put in to the final product. 

Neville Page has had one of the most successful careers as a concept designer and has been a part of some amazing work. 

Born in Britain and moving to the United States with his family in 1970, he began his career in Hollywood as an actor in 1985, when he was seventeen years old. He graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts with an Associate of Arts in Theatre in 1989 and embarked on a professional acting career. Eventually he decided his acting career was not sufficient in allowing him to support his family and he ultimately decided on a career in art and design while attending the Art Centre College of Design, from which he graduated with honours in 1990, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design. 

Since then his role in the industry has influenced amazing works such as Planet  of the Apes (2001), The Chronicals of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (2006), X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand (both x-men sequels), Avatar, Star Trek and many, many more. 

In addition to all of this he has also done design work for car companies BMW and  Toyota. 

The list of his work goes on and on and he is still furthering his success today in his early fifties. Below are just a few images providing a small insight in to the world of Neville Page's creations. 

pictures courtesy of nevillepage.com

www.memory-alpha.wikia.com

www.creativeskillset.org

www.moviescopemag.com › Crew

Hybrids

In our session with Kat we looked at various forms of hybrid characters such as Angelina Jolie's 2014 part bird, part woman character - Maleficent and The famous Harry Potter character 'Voldemort' who appears to be part snake, part human. 

In order to gain some insight into how difficult it can be when trying to make prosthetics we watched a video about the making of the prosthetics for Voldemort and the struggles they had with trying to make his face snake-like as well as the whole thinking behind the character.

These sorts of issues are also things I will need to consider when planning out and developing my own hybrid, making sure they don't restrict any breathing etc.  One of my ideas was to create a bird/human hybrid, moulding a beak prosthetic for the nose and mouth, however after watching this video I am going have to rethink that idea. 

Studio Notes - Real Life Hybrids

- Hybrids are created by combining two or more different elements (e.g. 2x animals)

- Some hybrids appear in everyday life, such as a sphinx cat. Throughout history this breed of feline has been developed through both the natural combination of two different cat breeds as well as careful scientific experimentation.

- Completely artificially produced hybrids also exist, one example of this would be the 'Liger'. This is a combination of both a male lion and a female tigers genes, these species hold characteristics of both species, for example the Liger enjoys swimming which is a characteristic of tigers but they are also very sociable just like lions. Ligers are kept and bred in complete captivity as the tiger and lion do not share the same habitats and therefore would never meet to produce the hybrid offspring in wild conditions.