Tomb Raider Film: Enemy Idea

Mayan Sketches

Coming soon...

90s Animation Inspiration! Retro!!!

Out and About Inspiration

These photographs were taken over the last few days, I found them quite interesting while around Burton-On-Trent and Derbyshire


Firstly, this hat was seen in Claire's Accessories. I thought it was similar to the hat I had drawn for my Michael Clark character for the adventure story, and especially with the snake skin it is a little bit different and makes his character more unique. It could also feature in his back story that it was the first deadly snake he encountered and he uses it has his good luck charm. Or something along those lines.

I started looking into different lighting effects. This blue light was actually in Morrisons toilets but hey it is very effective. It could be used to a Holy or ghostly affect, as it is quite overpowering and eerie. This could be achieved using a false light like this (artificial light) maybe left by people that have previously explored the dig site, or the light could change for an ancient Mayan figure to appear.

The last two are also light related images. The one above appeared when sequins were placed in the sun. I think it looks really effective and could be placed around a water source or near the King for a shimmering light coming from the lights rays. The light ray could be placed to give off this sort of effect from the jewels or the silver shells on the King.

The image below was from a the lights in a nightclub called Mosh in Derby. I liked the colours of the light rays and shows how light can be manipulated for certain effects just by its colour. The shafts of light could also be used in our film for natural light from the outside world through cracks in the pyramid's architecture.

Adventure Character Design Sketches

For the adventure story I wanted a character that resonates with a modern audience. I looked at photographs from Justin Timberlake's first album Justified and thought he was the perfect character. He is cool and stylish, but not quite squeaky clean or perfect. His nose for example is not straight and in my character this could be from a fight in the past, a bit like Indiana Jones and his scar on his chin.


Like Indiana Jones, I would like the character to have a hat that is symbolic of him as a person, and I think this style is a modern day version that our audience will have knowledge of. I used the stripes around the hem ideally as black and yellow as a warning symbol showing the element of danger in the story and his line of work.

He does not have long hair as this would take time to animate, and I know from my experiences working on Pirates of the Produce Aisle that overweight characters cause more trouble. Furthermore he would need to be slim in order to carry out the adventure. I wanted to create a modern Archetypal character and I think I have succeeded.

However, the leather jacket harks back to James Dean and the lad about town image I wanted to convey. He is rough around the edges and wants to make himself out to be 'hard' or a threat to his surroundings. I thought this iconic image would help him do that.

I called the character Michael Clark, as this is a 'normal' kind of name to suit the everyman quality I want the audience to interact with. I think this suits the character.

I did draw a female character as an alternative to Michael, for a variety of ideas but also to maybe have a female love interest if the story went that far. I also thought she could be another adventurer after the same prize as Michael.

I wanted the character to be blonde to differ from Lara Croft and also Michael's colouring.

She also wears a leopard print top as some form of camouflage ( a bit like Michael's hat) and this also links them to the nature/animal environment. They could also move like animals in some scenes as inspiration in order to get the King prize that they crave.

She is attractive in order to be a femme fetale figure, leading Michael astray or down the wrong dangerous path. I have no name for her so far however.

UPDATE: I called her Prada for the time being as I want her to seem quite expensive and seductive. She is flirtatious with Michael and even though she can 'rough it' wearing jungle wear, she can easily turn on the charm.

I thought there could be a flashback showing her either hiring Michael to get a treasure from the Mayan pyramid, or of encounters they have had in the past where she had double crossed him and he is catching up with her. She could have stolen a key or map from him and is using that to get to the prize first.

Bus Character Design Sketches

I thought I would do some sketching for the bus characters.

I know from personal experience that school children on a bus are very annoying so I started thinking how I could make it different. I thought if the school goer was a mid teenager and quite attactive this would break with convention and suprise the audience. Obviously this is only a rough sketch and it is likely to become a group of young annoying children.

I then thought about the lead character. I wanted him to be a normal everyday 'bloke' so that the audience goes on the journey with him and finds some of themselves in him. In this way he is indistinguishable, he has no outstanding features and had plain (probably cream and brown) clothing so that we as the audience can put our own image onto him.

I thought as a plot point throughout the film he could be waiting to get to a destination, but he has to travel the whole length of the journey so quite a way to get there. In this time he is dozing off and constantly trying to sleep. He keeps being interrupted by the school children and a screaming baby and a chav playing loud music.

For this, he looks quite annoyed and grumpy. He has tired eyes due to lack of sleep. He would probably be between 25 and 30 and feel like he is too old to still be taking the bus, but could be a mature student or someone working class that cannot afford a car. His clothes are also plain to emphasise this.

First Adventure Storyboard

After my research into the Mayan history and also the shot from Family Guy here is the first storyboard for the introduction to the Mayan pyramid.

It begins with an establishing shot showing the jungle skyline and the camera zooms into the area where our adventurer is exploring.

There is then a wide shot of him running through the jungle and the camera tracks him so it is as though the audience is joining him and running alongside.

He then comes to a halt because bushes are stopping him progressing, so it cuts to an extreme close up to gauge his reaction, and a point of view to show him attempt to move the bushes out the way.

However, he hears a noise as he is about to do so, which is to indicate that he is being followed and also the tone of the film that it is going to be a bit eerie and jumpy. Finally the POV returns to move the bushes aside like a curtain. The shot then changes to another mid-extreme long shot showing the pyramid top above the canopy, increasing tension and the wonder of what is about to come...

Family Guy Shot

Just taken from series 8 episode 19.

I really like the way they pull back the leaves to reveal the temple behind it, this could be used in our adventure film to reveal the pyramid location. It could also be done in a POV with just one hand of the hero opening the leaves like a curtain reveal.

I will storyboard this tomorrow.

Art Of Tomb Raider

These images are from my favourite art book of all time, The Art of Tomb Raider. I only took photographs of the pages as not to damage them as the book is very expensive, but you can still see the images I was looking at.

I mainly focused on Tomb Raider Underworld as there is a Mayan section in that game that I thought the art work would be interesting to see, although I have taken images of some of the original Lara Croft designs as clothing designs to help my own character design for the Adventure piece.

Wacky Races! Car Designs

Britney Spears Concert Pictures