This was a combined project for Creative Image Design and Digital and Analogue Tech. We started by looking at the UCC Photographic archive which are stored in the UCC Library. We were allowed take inspiration, reference or use the photos to create 2 pieces of media; a 1440px x 2560px digital painting using a 3d model we created in Blender, and a 3:1 video with audio that we created ourselves.

I started by taking my reference image and making a few sketches on what I wanted the image to look like.

I wanted to create a 3D model of St. Olivier Plunkett’s head, however after some advice from my lecturer I decided to create a 3D model of the box his head is displayed in, which you can see down below

I then brought this into Photoshop and using my own custom brushes, painted over the 3D model to bring depth and make it look realistic. I painted in grayscale and added colour by using blending modes, such as hue and colour.

I started by researching St. Oliver Plunkett, his life, and mainly, his death. He was hung, drawn and quartered as the last victim of the Popish Plot in 1681, and his remains were left in two tin boxes in the courtyard of St Giles in the Fields church. He was later exhumed, and his head was placed in an ornate box in St. Peter’s church in Drogheda, Dublin, where he remains to this day.

I took inspiration from this and decided to make a video based on his dying breath, as he was being hung, with a set of rosary beads swinging beside him, as he was hung for his belief in Roman Catholicism. 

I drew the assets in Photoshop, making sure to save them as a .psd file to bring into After Effects to create the animation. The audio is created by me breathing heavily and disjointedly, just pitched down to sound more masculine.