@ Alan

Hey Alan just a quick question - Where do I find that CG community website that we all signed up to yesterday?

Thank you in advance.

Maya Lesson Quadruped Rigging

Cockroach Studies

Dissected the Cockroach for a design

I realised that most of my designs are quite far from the cockroach anatomy, so I want to bring it back a little. I have also got a little inspired by the cockroach walk cycle, it has made me want to create a more precise creature.

So I took an image of the bottom of the cockroach and decided on the areas that I liked, from this image you can see that I like the abdomen, shell, and legs - I don't really like the head too much, I fell like it's a little too 'cute'. However I will work on manipulating the head to work with the whole frame.

Some Silhouettes from the beginning of the day

For me the silhouette generations are losing there abilities, so next I want to try something new.

Cockroach walk cycle at 1000fps

I just found this absolute gem on youtube of a cockroach walking filmed at 1000fps.

From what I have noticed on the video is the front legs have the power, the middle legs to the guidance, and the back legs are used for a little extra force and to lift that large abdomen/shell.

A couple more bug silhouettes

I just watched Feng zhu's Episode 50 - Bug Silhouettes and it got me inspired to do a few more. I wanted to make these silhouettes a bit more dramatic than the other that I have done so I attempted to do them in perspective.

I think for my next task I will come away from silhouettes and creature some studies of the cockroach. This is because I can see my design fading and away from the original source.

Giant Isopods reference sheet

 

 

I had been surfing through the internet and stumbled across this beautiful creature of the Isopod family called Bathynomus giganteus. What I love about his creature is the alien nature of the face and creepiness of the legs - A BEAUTIFUL creature!

 

 

Working into the new number 11

 I wasn't too keen on this one but it is lot different from the other stuff that I have been drawing which for me is a bonus because my other stuff is a little generic for me. I see this a character in a game rather than a movie. I like to think of this a positive move forward.

Working on number 5

As I wrote in the last post, number 5 was my favourite but it still needed work. The hands/pinsers for example weren't working correctly for me. So after sorting them out, I went into grey scale and I am so glad that I did because I think this is very successful for me! As you can see I also work into some colour, mainly on the shell to give it a glossy pop!

I think it is safe to say, hopefully without sounding to 'cocky', but I love this piece of work!

Number 11 variations

From the last post, number 11 seemed to get the vote, so I went along with that for todays task. These are the variations:

I found that if I just did little changes and moved on I would have a lot to choose from and I would see were I went to far or didn't go far enough in the process. For me number 5 was the most cockroach looking design. I ask Alex from her opinion and she agreed with number 5 and also liked 11 but she also picked up on that the silhouettes look like they were almost in spider form and looking down, which wasn't my intentions.


So overall, I am very happy with these designs, onto the next lot.

Speed Silhouettes

Here is my speed characterised creature silhouettes - 

Deadly Designs 01

 

 

My first thought was to start with some designs that had the characteristic of being but as I was sketching I realized that the design were become more of a deadly nature. It doesn't really matter that I went down this root instead of the Strong root because either way the creature has to be deadly. What has made these creatures look deadly is the sharp edges, so for the strong designs, I will be looking to sketch at more square like silhouettes.

As you can see from the designs, I have gone into slight detail - Some would say this was too early, but I was really itching to so what they would look like and what I could create. I really like these designs and I think that they could both belong in the movie together with two different roles to play.

Silhouette creations

There wan't a lot of thought that went into these silhouettes, I just wanted to get some ideas down that were floated around in my head. What I noticed with these silhouettes is that they are rather blocky, which is fine at this stage but it is something that I will work on as the silhouettes come flooding. I happy with the amount of variations in these sheets because it opens up the doors to new possiblitlies.

For the next couple of hours I am going to focus my silhouette creations on a certain characteristic that I believe the creature could have.

For example have some new silhouettes that show Strength, speed, flight and a deadly nature. This is just a few right now but we will see were it will go. I want to get these silhouettes created very quickly because I have a long way until I have caught up with were I should be.

Post nuclear war scene

 I painted my interpretation of the post nuclear mutated alien cockroach invested war zone,  just to get myself in the mind set of the location.

About the cockroach

General facts

Cockroaches can measure over one inch in length

Tropical species are known to be larger

Six legs

Two antennae

Wings - However most species do not fly

Emit unpleasant odors

Produce sound - Madagascar hissing cockroach

Cockroaches are nocturnal - if seen during the day, it is a sign that the cockroach has been pushed out due to overcrowding.

An example of a large specie of cockroach is Gromphadorrhina Portentosa - (Madagascar hissing cockroach)

Cockroaches live off anything they can find although they prefer sweets, meat and starch.

Cockroaches can live on just water for months

Cockroaches prefer to feed on decaying organic matter and inanimate, starchy foods.

The largest wingspan specie is the Megaloblatta Longipennis - 18cms

Largest specie is the Marcopanesthia Rhinocerus - weighs 50 grams

Longest specie is the Blaberus Giganteus - 4 inches

Extinct large species Carboniferous Archimylacris

and the Permian Apthoroblattina

Natural predators - Toads, Frogs, Beetles, Geckos, Iguanas - Parasitic wasp species lay their eggs inside the egg cases of cockroaches - the hatchlings feed upon nearby cockroach eggs


Cockroaches eyes contain more than a thousand lenses allowing them to see multiple things at once

However they are incapable of registering red light.

Their antennae, also known as feelers, are responsible for their sense of smell

Two small hairs on their abdomens - called cerci act as sensors - advantage over predators, as they are senseitive to slight air movements

Salivary glands and esophagus are used to assist digestion

Most of the nervous system is located in the head - however the brain is situated near the stomach

Cockroaches produce egg cases known as oothecae which contains many eggs

Some species carry the oothecae, some drop them

A newly born roach is called a Nymth - they are small but they enlarge through the intake of air and they harden within four hours

Nymths are greyish-brown in colour and darken with every progressive molt.

Mudbox lesson

Our task for this lesson was to take the basic mesh and add the details of the correct anatomy.

Starship Troopers - Big Bug Movie number 1

As a start to my new project proposal, I took a look at IMDB's "list of killer bug movies" - http://www.imdb.com/list/D8zjkPNidV8/ - and I watched the first one on their which was Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers.

I watched the film so that I could understand how they integrated the insects with the humans in one movie and also how the insects look and move. This movie was very rich in insects, I believe I saw five different types in the whole movie, each with a different purpose - The infantry bugs, the artillary bugs, The toxic flame thrower bugs, The smart brain bug and it's servants. Each bug is very districtive from each other and beautifully designed.

Behind the scenes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvsbQyGxsDs

This behind the scenes shows that they animated the creatures with a robotic version of the insect, which for me has allowed the bugs to move sumwhat mechanical but I think it still works in a way that it gives them unnatural movements.

The next movie on the list is Starship Troopers 2

New Project Proposal

Chris Rogers, you have been commissioned by Paramount Pictures to design a creature for the following movie with an age range of 18 and up. This is a high budget movie that will involve live action footage integrated with CG and VFX. The synopsis of the movie is this:

Thirty years ago an alien species called the ___________, a large specie that resembles the cockroaches found on earth. After many years of fighting, the human race found themselves fighting a losing battle, their only hope was to release every nuclear bomb on the earth to destroy the alien race. However the nuclear bomb didn't kill the cockroaches but instead made them mutate; they became bigger, stronger and more deadly and they feed on the surviving humans. There is only 2% of the human population left on earth and they live underground to escape the nuclear gas cloud and the patrolling cockroaches. There are two distinctive types of the mutated cockroach - the patrolling/soldier cockroach and the queen cockroach which is constantly laying eggs. The humans eventually win the war between both races by killing the queen.

Your job is design one of the patrolling mutated cockroaches, it must have the ability to kill, walk at some speed and be heavily defencive.

Steve Wright

I got a Postcard from my friend Jeff, it was a satellite picture of the entire earth and on the back he wrote, wish you were here.

Curiosity killed the cat, but for awhile, I was a suspect.

I used to be a narrator for bad mimes.

I was walking alone in a forest and tree fell right in front of my and I didn't hear it...... any questions?

Why is the alphabet in that order.... is it because of that song?

I like to tease my plants when I water them, I water them with ice cubes

Peter Kay's funny song lyrics

 

 

This is an amazing piece of comedy which I could easily use as a part of my project, or at least as inspiration.

 

But even if I don't use this - Please enjoy it!

One Liners

I wanted to use a one liner gag from a comedy that I have grown up watching so that it has a connection to me. I have started by looking at comedians like Stewart Francis, Tim Vine, Milton Jones, Lee Mack and Peter Kay. These are some of my favourites:

Stewart Francis -

• I went into a library and asked the librarian if she had a book called "how to handle rejection without killing........ do you have it?"

• I always wondered, "why does a Frisbee seem bigger the closer it gets...... then it hit me"

 

Lee Mack

• "I got told by the doctors that I was infertile and that I couldn't have children, three weeks later my girlfriend was pregnant! who's the daddy!.........."

• I was in Dixons today and a woman came up to me and said, "hey your that mad bloke off the telly", I said "Yep that's me!", She said, "No your that mad bloke, OFF the telly"

Milton Jones

• I used to believe that sticks and stone could break my bones but words could never hurt me..... Until I fell into a printing press.

• If your being interrogated by the police and it is being recorded, every now and then you should clap and go AOW!

• I tell you what is a dangerous insect - Hepatitis B

• I tell you what is a dangerous sea to swim in - Hepatitis C

Peter Kay

• What do Mexican's put under their carpet - Underlay

• My wife said to me the other day, "you don't take me anywhere expencive anymore", I said "Get your coat on, we're going out" She said, "where we going?"... "The Petrol Station"

• A woman went to the doctors with a piece of lettice sticking out of her knickers, the doctor said, "that looks nasty", she said "It's the tip of the Iceberg"

• A fella says to his wife, "Why don't you tell me when you orgasm", She said " I don't like ringing you when your at work"

Another joke that could be interesting

For me, this is very easy to imagine the scene with a very funny ending.


A man approached the window of a movie theater with a chicken on his shoulder and asked for two tickets.
"Who's the other ticket for?" the ticket girl asked.
"For my pet chicken." He said, pointing to the bird.
"I'm sorry," the girl tells him, "but we don't allow animals in the theater."
The man walked around the corner of the building, and stuffed the chicken into his pants. He returned to the ticket window and bought a ticket, entered the theater, and sat down.
The chicken started to get too hot, so the man, figuring it was okay because it was dark to unzipped his pants and let the chicken stick its head out.
The woman seated next to him looked down in horror. She nudged her friend Amanda and whispered, "Amanda! This man next to me just unzipped his pants!"
Amanda replied, "Oh, don't worry about it. Just ignore him. If you've seen one, you've seen them all."
The woman whispered back, "I know, I know, but this one's eating my popcorn!"

The Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman

I want to start my research by looking up some iconic jokes. What came to mind was the Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman jokes that are knocking around.

This is some of the jokes that I found that could be interesting to do:

 1

A Scotsman, an Irishman, and an Englishman are each sentenced to a year in solitary confinement; before being locked away, each is to be granted a year's supply of whatever he wants to help him get through the long, long spell alone.

• The Scotsman asks for a year's supply of whisky; it's given to him and he's locked away.
• The Irishman asks for a year's supply of Guinness so he's locked up with several thousand bottles of it.
• The Englishman asks for a year's supply of cigarettes and he's given a pile of cartons and the cell door is shut on him.

One year later, the doors are all unlocked.

• The Scotsman staggers out and shouts, 'I'm free!' and then keels over dead from alcohol poisoning.
• The Irishman is dragged out into the light, whereupon he promptly dies of liver failure.
• When the door to the Englishman's cell is opened, everybody watches eagerly to see what sort of a wreck the man has made of himself.
  
  To their surprise, he walks right out the door, sidles up to the first person he sees, and asks, 'I say you wouldn't happen to have a match, would you?'

2

 An Englishman, a Welshman and an Irishman were at the fair and about to go on the helter-skelter when an old witch steps in front of them. 

'This is a magic ride,' she says. 'You will land in whatever you shout out on the way down.'
'I'm game for this,' says Dai, the Welshman, and slides down the helter-skelter shouting 'GOLD!' at the top of his voice.  Sure enough, when he hit the bottom he found himself surrounded by thousands of pounds worth of gold coins. 

William, the Englishman, goes next and shouts 'SILVER!' at the top of his voice.  At the bottom he lands in more silver coinage than he can carry. 

Patrick, the Irishman, goes last and, launching himself from the top of the slide shouts 'WEEEEEEE!' 

3

An Englishman, a Scotsman and an Irishman are driving through the desert when their car breaks down. So they have to get out.

The Englishman takes a bottle of wine with him, the Scotsman takes an umbrella and the Irishman takes a car door.

On the way they meet this old bastard. He says to the Englishman "I know why you've got the wine so you can have a drink when your thirsty", He says to the Scotsman "I know why you've got the umbrella to keep the sun off you", "but" he says to the Irishman "Why have you got the car door?" and the Irishman replies "If I get hot I can wind the window down!"




The beauty of using this kind of joke is that I get to create a simple yet iconic character for each nation, which I guess could be the same model just with a twist on each one. 

Back to square one for the final time... I Promise!

I had another tutorial with Alan today and we had to set some things straight with what I wanted to do. 

So to cut a long story short, I have changed my idea with a lot of much need advice from Alan, which I am very grateful for. 

Any who, the new idea is to create either a short animation or a series of image that show a comical situation. 

Bow I could go plenty of ways with this, but some ways that Alan has already advise is, a small audio track from a comedy stand up or show, a piece of music, a joke, a view on a political problem or a scene in a book.

I instantly wanted to go through all the comedy DVDs that I own so get some inspiration. I have found some lines from my favourite comedy Lee Evans, which I will post up on a later post.

When I find either a piece of audio or joke I want my version to have a different build up to the punch line to make it hopefully more comical. 

I have also been advised by Alan, if I can express the joke clearly in a silent form it will make the project a lot more successful, which is a nice goal to aim for.

Initial sketches of cthylla

So heres a quick start on the visual look, for me this is just a warm up to see what it could look like. So far I am happy with these sketches but at the moment I am miles away from actually designing as can be seen in these.

What these sketches have shown me though, is that this mash up of creatures doesn't and shouldn't look like a mash up. I certainly don't want this creature to look like a cut and paste design. So other ways I want to experiment, for example is the use of the tenticles; It seems obvious that they dangle from the face like a Davey Jones character or dangle from the bottom like number 3 on page 1. But I want to use each part properly and to the creatures advantage.


This would mean I first need to decide what this creature is - Character for a game or movie? Most feared animal under the sea or above... or he could possibly be the much lower down the food chain which opens up plenty of possibilities.

Cthylla research

 

I have choosen to do the Cthylla from the descriptions of the H.P Lovecraft monsters.

 

 

 

Cthylla (nickname: the Secret Daughter of Cthulhu) is a fictional character, a Great Old One from the pantheon of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Originally from Xoth, she currently resides in Yhe , where she is guarded by Cthulhu's minions, so she will be able to give birth to Great Cthulhu again when he is destroyed in the distant future. Cthylla's physical appearance is that of a giant, black-ringed, red bodied, six-eyed octopus with small wings; like her father, she is able to alter her body proportions at will, though, so her wings can be enlarged until they enabled her to fly. While she normally has eight arms like any other octopus, she is able to grow or retract additional ones at will (she has been known to sport as many as twelve arms). Each arm is equipped with dozens of razor sharp claws, each about five inches in length. She is essential for Cthulhu's plans, and is thus constantly guarded by countless Yuggs , Yuggya and Deep Ones. In 1980, an attempt was made by the Wilmarth Foundation to assassinate her by bombing the reef she resided in. The attack failed and provoked a deadly retaliatory strike by Cthulhu, who responded by unleashing a devastating hurricane against the port city of Arkham in Massachusetts, where Miskatonic University, home base of the foundation, is located. Cthulhu's hurricane devastated the city and almost completely destroyed the campus, killing hundred of people in the process. While Cthylla is actually the creation of Brian Lumley, who mentioned her in his novel The Transition Of Titus Crow, he never described what she actually looked liked in that story. It was Tina L. Jens who gave Cthylla her description as a giant winged octopus in her story In His Daughter's Darkling Womb.

(http://www.physicsdaily.com/physics/Cthylla

 

 

(http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?193022-HP-Lovecraft-Bestiary)

"Cthylla - Appears as a huge winged octopus-like creature with six eyes."

 

 

(http://x.datchan.org/sanctuary/g/res/3026.html)

 

 

 

 

 

What is the plan with this creature

 

I will start by obtaining as many species of octupus, winged animals and crabs to then use as a mash up of the lot. I will study all their anatomies and movements and incorporate these into the design. After the design process is finished, I will model the character and then pose it into a freeze-frame event.

A new Idea

The time ideas weren't working for me, mainly because I had no source or context to work from. So I have been advised that I should find a short story, poem or image that has a description a character which I will then interpret myself.

In the last hour or so, I have been looking at the descriptions of H.P Lovecraft monsters that are present in his books.

The descriptions that have intrigued me so far are:

Nctosa & Nctolhu - Twin daughters of Cthulhu, imprisoned on Jupiter. They appear as huge shell-endowed beings, with eight segmented limbs and six long arms ending with claws, vaguely resembling their "step-sister" Cthylla.

Ammutseba - A dark, cloudy mass with tentacles which absorbs falling stars.

Bokrug - Appears as a gigantic water lizard.

Chaugnar Faugn - A bipedal elephant with a mouth on the end of its trunk.

Cthylla - Appears as a huge winged octopus-like creature with six eyes.

Cyäegha - Appears as a gigantic black mass of tentacles with a single green eye at the centre.

The Dweller in the Gulf - Appears as a huge, eyeless, black, soft-shelled tortoise with a triangular head and two whip-like tails, and suckers on the end of each tail.

Ei'lor - A plant-like, parasitic horror dwelling on a jungle planet revolving around the green star Yifne and the dead star known as Baalblo (perhaps a white dwarf, a neutron star or another kind of stellar remnant).

Glaaki - Appears as a giant three-eyed slug with metallic spines, and tiny, pyramid-like feet underneath.

Gol-goroth - Appears as a gigantic, black, toad-like creature with an impossibly malevolent glare, or a tentacled, scaled, bat-winged entity.

Groth-Golka - A monstrous bird-like fiend with sharp teeth, dwelling beneath Antarctica, vaguely resembling an extinct Pterosaur.

Lod - A levitating, sinuous, glowing creature.

Kaalut - Likely a gigantic, larva-like horror. It dwells on the distant ammonia planet of K'gil'mnon.

Mnomquah - A very large and eyeless lizard creature with a "crown" of feelers.

Ob'mbu - A giraffe-like reptilian monster.

Rhan-Tegoth - A three-eyed, gilled, proboscidian monster with a globular torso, six long, sinuous limbs ending in black paws with crab-like claws, and covered in what appears to be hair, but is actually tiny tentacles.

Zoth-Ommog - A gigantic entity with a cone-shaped body, a reptilian head, a beard of tentacles, and starfish-like arms.



After deciding what character to create, I want to make it from the anatomy upwards by finding the core animals and anatomy and fitting the puzzle together. I want this character to work realistically as possible, which leads me to think that this project now might not be looking for a games cahracter but instead a experiment to see if this made up creature could live, walk and eat. But that remains to be seen.



The next step from me is to decide on which one to do and then research on others adaptations it.

If you are reading this post, and you have a prefered character from the list above then please comment below.

A new direction

After a talk with Alan yesterday, he made me realise that is it almost pointless to be pumping out endless silhouettes when I don't even have direction. All I have is a word, Time, but what I need to add to that is culture, history, visual aids and some extra to words to add to time so that I can grab interesting parts from each subject at pull it all together to create something awesome.

 

So what I have been up to is looking at how different cultures perceive time. I have found some interesting things that I never really perceived myself. For example there is many ways a person can view time, we are all seperated into two different groups - Polychrons and Monochrons. Polychrons don't live there life by a scheduled plan, they do more than one thing at a time getting everthing done without worrying about deadlines on their timeline. Monchrons live there lives in the opposite way, there live by a structure plan and will not move onto a new subject if the one isnt finished.

 

I then started to look at the cultures as a whole, and what I found out was America and Japan live by a very fast timeline. All Americas are working fast to look for that 'American Dream', whereas Japan live fast as if run by time. The japenese tend to feel less rushed than the americans because of their effecient lifestyles, they also have a low tolerance for delay, Yuko Mito author of "Corporate Culture as Strong Diving Force for Punctuality - Another Just in Time" used this as an example - “In most European railway systems, a ‘delay’ is defined as ‘10-15 minutes behind schedule.’ In other words, for example, ‘14 minutes behind schedule’ is still counted as ‘on time.’ This is how European railway companies are able to obtain high punctuality. On the other hand, the definition of ‘delay’ in Japan is more severe; only trains with less than a minute’s delay is defined as ‘on time.’”

 

I also found cultures on the opposite scale that had no perception of time what so ever, the Piraha Tribe, a small natice tribe of the Amazon Rainforest, their language is limited by just whistling and humming, there is no numbers or letters and nor past or future tenses.

 

 

 

At this point I wanted to add a couple of words to Time to obtain a wider range of research and ideas. So I took a deeper look at Time and how we can see it visually. Time is calculated by lunar activity and adding the Sun and the Moon to time as a concept is an exciting idea for me.

 

I wanted to incorperate one of the cultures that I had already researched, so I picked Japan. I then took a look at Japanese culture and mythology.

 

I looked at the sun goddess, Ama-Terasu, she is a beautiful goddess made by the tear of Izangi's lefteye. I also looked at her brother, The moon god, Tsukuyomi, made by the tear of the right eye of Izangi. Ama-terasu and Tsukuyomi have been made to never meet again and that is why the sun is seen in the day and the moon is seen at night.

 

 

Ama-terasu

 

 

 

 

Tsukuyomi

 

 

 

 

What I want to do is incorperate Japanese art into the final character.

 

So my final equation at the end of all this is - Time + Sun/Moon + Japanese culture + Japanese Mythology + Japanese Art = Pure Awesomeness!!!!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some more mirrored silhouettes

Silk Silhouette Development

I have spent today playing around with the Silk Interactive Generative Art software and I have found it amazing. My two ideas for the time character was that it could be made of metal or it could be a spirit, so this programme helped create some spirit style characters.

These are some that I came up with:

I then started to work with some of them in photoshop.

I worked into this to flesh it out a bit and played around with he overall shape. I really like this character, he looks like a boss that is covered in ghostly armour plating.

I now wanted to play around the colour, just to see what I could get out of the character.

 

 I find these all amazing characters and a beautiful foundation for my character, I'm going to keep playing around with this system for awhile, because I think it is working nicely. I'm also excited about how I would go about modelling this, it could be interesting.

Silhouette development

Today I decided to play around with the silhouettes that I had already made in Alchemy. I had some feedback on them that they were too bulky and gorilla-like. I haven't yet decided what size this character will be but my heart keeps pulling me the the big bulky machine character because my interpretation of time is that is it large, vast and dangerous so I would like incorperate that.

However I will still look at different sizes just incase that this character is hiden in a future small structured silhouette.

What I have been doing, is shrinking, oulling, taking, cut and pasting the Alchemy designs together to create something new that has some form of structure that I could work off. I then developed the shapes I got to create even more ideas that could work. Here is the first lot.

This image shows the Silhouette that I pulled the shapes from and then the newly created silhouettes. I looked at this silhouette from a far and found it very pleasing, especially the middle section and what appears to be shoulders. I cut this area out and moulded it to create the first silhouette. I then added and extra silhouette to it to create arms for the character, however this one I didn't like because the large shoulders looked weird.With the third silhouette I am trying to intergrate some mechanical elements into it and the fourth one I went a little further. I started to realise that I had gone to far away from the original silhouette which is what I liked in the first place so I inverted and started to use it as a texture. The silhouettes that have been created here look far too soldier like for my taste and I still really prefer the original silhouette. 

I really like the first original silhouette, mainly because of the head like structure at the top so I used that. I also combined it to the second structure. This one was more exciting because the final silhouettes look like they are from a time period or culture which for me make them more real. They started to look like samurai.

These are may favourites for the day, the silhouette that I started with looked like a structure engolfed by large wings and it looked awesome! So I spent some time trying to get the characters structure out of the wings so that it can be seen. I then intergrated some mechanical time parts to make it look like it is a machine or part machine that runs like clockwork. The lower image is my favourite, I know it is a bulky fellow but thats because of the wings.

Metaphors of time

I have found a site that has given me some multiples metaphors surrounding time. I was advised by Alan to take a look at some to enhance my research and direction for the characters.

For example I found this:

"Time Is a Storm
Time is a storm in which we are all lost. Only inside the convolutions of the storm itself shall we find our directions."
(William Carlos Williams, Introduction, Selected Essays)

Now this is interesting because it gives me a field to work with. I can see Time as a storm which leads to chaos and distruction. So from this it would be an evil character with some form of essence that makes it impossible to escape. I can always interpret the "Only inside the convolutions of the storm itself  shall we find out directions" as a form of weakness that time can have; a way out.

Another interesting one is:

Time Is a Prison
Initially, I was unaware that time, so boundless at first blush, was a prison.
(Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory)

This again would lead me to think of an evil character but maybe not even a character, maybe a structure - depending on how it can go.

"Time Is a TeacherTime is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils."

This metaphor reminds me of an erosion, or a slow killing as time passes.

There are other metaphors that I could work with but these are my favourites at the moment.

http://grammar.about.com/od/rhetoricstyle/a/x.htm

Silhouette Figures

These are a collage of silhouettes created from clock mechanisms. I quite like these ones, I'm seeing a Giger style character developing here.

Alchemy Shape Testing

I have spent the last couple of hours doing a psychologist's ink test through the beauty of Alchemy. This is the first time I have used Alchemy and it has been amazing for letting my mind juices flow. 

So this is what I have come up with. 

I really like these forms, but what I see straight away is a big huge monster. However I will be developing these in photoshop by using greyscale, scale modifying and combinations of more than one of them. 

I also see some smaller shapes in some of them, which I will be using to my advantage.