Saturday 27 February 2010

Lighting Test Moon

Ok so i wanted to try lighting the main scene but the file i got off same keeps crashing, so i tried the moonlight lighting on my scene so i can see what it will look like. I can control the colour by changing the temperature (The higher the number we go blue.. the lower the number we're orange/red), and the time of day by the intensity (the lower the number darker the scene, the higher the number the brighter the scene)

Temperature 12000, Intensity 0.5














This is great for a cloudy dark night scene.

Temperature 4000, intensity 1














This is a nice sand stormy morning look

Temperature 12000, Intensity 2














This is really nice blue, and the shadows are cast well over the mosaic

Temperature 12000, Intensity 8















This is like a sun burnout shot which could look nice as a transition between castle in the olden days, or like a ghostly feel, where we see arthur snapshots burn in and out.
















So here we are with a shadow and the beginning of the light for the fire















from the experimentation with the fire, i decided to see what the scene would look like with the moonlight and firelight combined, i'm loving how half the scene has been lit by the directional light, and the other by the volume light on the fire in orange.

Friday 26 February 2010

Fluid Fire

So meanwhile i was just looking for tutorials on how to light my scene in a fire way.
I need to think of the different way's fire moves..



Towards the end of this video we get fire on top of a dish/plinth. So i found the tutorial to have a little look at how it lights the scene whether it gives 'that' look.
Below are some shots of me creating the flame using dynamics>fluid effects>create 3d container, and then fiddled about with all sorts of settings.






















































So after tweaking settings i added a volume light to act as the light from the fire. I used a volume light and changed the light shape to a cylinder so i can control where the light hits in the room. also changed the light colour to an orange glow, the lihgt is placed where the fire is.

The photo below is just using the volume light with a low intensity.















Here by upping the volume light intensity we get to see the room, though not the stairs through the door.


















One thing i want to play with some more if i have the time is to maybe figure out how to animate the light so that it isn;t static when the fire is flickering. I am thinking maybe to set the light to an infinity and animating the light intensity to a flicker but this might look pretty tacky. Also the flame needs to be faster, and in the video at the top of this post there is a way to light the whole top of the fire plinth, this is by selecting both the 3d container and the fire plinth object, add/edit contents>emit from object















I was trying to play ith the flame here to make it less puffy looking. Not very successful.

Texturing the mosaic

With the mosaic floor i have positioned it into place, the centre longer bricks are actually higher so i had to figure out how to simply un-combine the bricks and lower that section so it fits.













Uv Snapshot of the mosaic


















To UV i just selected the top faces and used the planar map then using photoshop i painted on the layers keeping in mind to have the Clone Wars style/look/influence.

First attempt with the texture, bit too light for my liking.















So this darker version fits better, hoping it will look nice with the fire lighting.

















One of my worries is if i texture the other areas in this room without the modeled bricks will it kill the consistency? Though i had a little test with applying more brick and the room looked too busy in my opinion.

Monday 22 February 2010

Mosaic Floor

I thought instead of having the image of a mosaic why not try to make my own floor?
To do this i created a cube and used 'Chamfer Vertex' to create the curved corners.















So i duplicated the cube as seen below and made different sized blocks for variation, i thought to make this row into a circle using the bend deformer, although when i first tried this it just moved the line and didn't bend. So i had to combine the shapes together and delete history and it worked.














This is the mosaic floor when put in a circle which i think looks good apart from it needs to be subtle and needs to look organic which it doesn't. It's shape is too perfect and well formed for the used look i wanted.












Maybe i could control that with a bump map to take away the perfection of the cubes.

Sunday 21 February 2010

Rochester Photo

I had posted the photos me and Andi had taken on the main blog.
As there are so many i have just used the link to the main group blog.

http://tdenvironment.blogspot.com/2010/01/photos-of-rochester-towncastlecathedral.html

Thursday 11 February 2010

The concept into CG

Just to clarify these are the drawings by Matt which i first began to work from, however there wasn't enough detail or much or an introduction to our story through these drawings so i went on to make me own.
































My drawings inspired by the Rochester Cathedral ceiling, National Treasure for the lighting and the steps from Phantom of the Opera, Hayley has designed the boat so i've just drawn it in for scale purposes.





























So from the two images i drew for the dock I have coupled the sections of designs i think worked well after talking with the group. To get an idea of what i am looking for i have mocked up a model together in maya.

I have combined the centre plinth for light in the first drawing and its cropping of the platform b the walls either side. The sections from the second drawing i like the ceiling supports, and the way the arch to Andi's steps curves round as opposed to having a hall like the previous drawing. That then decides that the tapestry/prophecy is in the main room for Arthur to look at.

Modeling the room

Starting with what is sure to be in the scene is modeling the dock, pretty simple as i mirrored the steps and modeled them around to fit the oval platform.













The next stage was to model the fire plinth in the centre of the room, so when Arthur is out of the boat he knows to go light this and it will be our lighting for the room to see the art on the walls.
I thought it looked more tasteful to have steps up to the plinth and it keeps with the design for the rest of the castle, steps seem to be the thing.












I thought to then model the ceiling support, just to get a rough idea I quickly made a cave-like area around the dock to get a feel of the perspective i was getting. In my top view we can see the over all shape and to heighten the feel for perspective i made the columns narrower as we are further back. I liked the idea for having the ceiling support being more like the arches on Rochester Cathedral as it fits in with the design of arches around the castle. I had trouble thinking about how to do this but i have the idea that if i use the doorway arch and mirror it on top of itself i might get the look im gunning for.











The back wall and arch needed to be modeled in so i just duplicated the floor and deleted certain faces so i can have the wall fit the floor scale.













By adding edge loops and moving the vertices i was able to position my arch into place.












The next part was to just roughly add where the story is going to e told onto the walls. i liek the idea of it being inset and then the stone has been placed there to tell the story, mostly likely to be painted on and then i can control that the end part is rubbed out. Just to quickly add here that Andi had a nice thought that as we begin the story we have it like an old story book and then at the end the picture or Arthur with the sword turns into a painting and as we zoom out its then a section in the book.















Top View










Side View








Front View













Things i need to add to the model
- Patio with bend deformer for dock floor so model different sized of individual blocks, maybe the same with the wall?
- Ceiling support, duplicate arches mirror on top of one another rotate 90 soi get the Rochester idea look
Other bits
Test moon lighitng tutorial
Plot out pictures for story and styled design, then try out with painted textures.

Just to show i have thought of maybe adding ringed arches around placed half in the walls or the dock room, and to use these around the castle, maybe on Andi's stairway?

Duplicated Arches













Duplicated arches with bend deformer

Facebook

The following conversation is showing the development of ideas which have been discussed on facebook.

The project
Between Sam Mcguire, You, Andi Bennett, Matt Vadis and Lydia Fabian
http://www.facebook.com/lydia.fabian
Lydia Fabian January 22 at 11:05am Reply
heyy everyone.. hope you guys enjoyed exhibition yesterday and it was inspiring..just thought if you take a look at the group blog there are the rochester pics on there and i for some reason instead of drawing ruins on a mound .. went for a cliff coast kinda thing. check out my blog theres pics which show EXACTLY what i mean on therewhat do you guys think we should have done by monday? shall we all have our concepts together.. spend monday just going through making sure every ones happy and then matt can draw the final concept.. ?then i was thinking to run a quick maya mock up of placements for the floor plan so matt can get on with some boards of our camera movement around the environment.. does that sound cool? lyds
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Andi Bennett January 22 at 11:07am Reply
im down with that.
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Lydia Fabian January 22 at 11:09am Reply
ange shall we sort a little mock of what should be done by when..
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Lydia Fabian January 22 at 11:19am Reply
oh and matt i have sent you a link to be on the group blog, should be on your inbox for vadis95hayley iv re sent your invite so that should be on your inbox..
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Sam Mcguire January 22 at 11:22am Reply
im confused does this mean the ideas changed to a cliff now cos it means all my concepts are wasted
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Andi Bennett January 22 at 11:27am Reply
of course it doesn't. they are just concepts, we get together and discuss them and move on from there. everyone needs some concepts so we all know what we want to see and can can take ideas from each other.
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Andi Bennett January 22 at 11:28am Reply
and your concepts wouldn't be wasted anyways, you post them on your blog and it shows development of ideas.
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Hayley Allen January 22 at 11:32am
I dont think we should do it on a cliff, karens group are doing a cave coastline kind of thing.
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Andi Bennett January 22 at 11:56am Reply
okay, well its just an idea, i dont think we should stray away from it just because another group are doing something similar.I hate to be the bad guy here, but we are running out of time and i want to get started so we have plenty of time to make this project as professional looking as possible. So far we havn't made much progress at all, and im getting worried.
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Lydia Fabian January 22 at 12:01pm Reply
um.. guys.. does anyone feel that we're kind of fighting eachother about things.. i was just basically saying 'check out wht iv done tell me wt u think' cz i wanted your opinion.. i didnt mean for everyone to go off and change their ideas.also i'm under the impression that you and sam may think me and andi are being a bit gay about ideas, if as though we're taking control.. we don't want to take control as we want to be constructive as a group and your opinions count and are important. i first got this feeling when me n andi went off to rochester and you two stayed in class, which was the plan and then hayley wouldv liked us to stay.. which she wasn't very clear about.. as she said it was fine.please if there's any thing wrong or you're annoyed about just say. i don't think im the only one thinking like this..i want us to have a good time and just crack on .. also are you in on monday?xx
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Matt Vadis January 22 at 12:14pm Reply
Okay read the thread. I agree with Andi we should stick to the idea, if another group is doing something similar then we'll have to dominate them with our righteous badassness. Also it's not finalized yet so, if we can get all our ideas ready for mon (maybe with some variations on the theme) so we can pick one and have the final concept ready for wednesday then i think we should be good to go with the maya. reckon?
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Hayley Allen January 22 at 2:06pm
i said that about the first day coz all the other groups were together n got alot done n me n sam were like so..? we got alot done weds n had a clear idea n it now feels you are changing it when we arent around. im starting to do tutorials 4 animation and modelling at the same time, will try and get concept for mon altho i wanted mon to do them really.
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Lydia Fabian January 22 at 2:30pm Reply
shall we see what we can do over weekend and spend as long as we need on monday doing concepts? even if we just assign the modelling sections that are needed to one another then we can get on that. i think we'll be alright. just need to make a deadline chart thing cool with the getting on with tutorials.. found anything helpful? i've just been playing in photoshop with different textures and brushes for concept stuff.
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Andi Bennett January 22 at 4:49pm Reply
well im glad thats sorted, i dont think we have changed anything, well not intentionally, its gunna be alright guys, we just need to pull together monday with the designs and work our asses off.
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Hayley Allen January 25 at 10:44am
Hey guys sorry im nt in today, im going to scan in my concepts and add them to my blog in a sec so you can have a look. hope that was the kinda thing you wanted x x
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Andi Bennett January 25 at 10:49am Reply
thats cool hayley, we are all on our way in now, we will try and move towards the final concept, and incorporate ideas from everyones concepts.
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Hayley Allen January 29 at 6:28pm
Hey guys i was just wondering who is modelling the tree? i was thinking rather than the orbs flying round it could they be hanging from the tree a bit like forbidden fruit? the character could pull 1 off the tree or something? x x
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Lydia Fabian January 29 at 6:40pm Reply
hey.. since me matt n sam spoke to jared about our project he said we needed more of a purpose.. i made a messy blog post on the team blog if you want to see ways of giving it purpose. any questions shout me.xx
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Lydia Fabian January 29 at 6:41pm Reply
andi was meant to be doing tree.. and alex said it'd be asier to do a dead tree.. blaaahhh sam can fill you guys in
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Hayley Allen January 29 at 6:49pm
Im jst asking about the orbs coz was guna start that 2night. the tree could still be dead with the orbs hanging from it. and what do you mean by purpose?x x
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Lydia Fabian January 29 at 8:23pm Reply
iv been trying to think of what i mean by purpose.. jared said we need a purpose.something educational - something linking us with a potential client - advertisement promotion of an existing castle.. we could get floor plans and stuff n half the works done for us. not just a little story we've made up to lead us around the environment.one thing jared did like was that we start with looking at a 2d picture of the castle.. (character holds it up) then when we pull it down we see the ruined castle.. that was andis idea.. nice way to get us into the story.. i was tlaking to sam about ..you know that map thats in harry potter which shows where a character is walkig about.. liek we could have a map of this place?i wrote in the blog.. soemthing about maybe our character has something of a symbol (necklace, item, tattoo) which links with the castle.. and starts a reaction.im just trying to think of more of a purpose to our film.pfff i dont know.
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Lydia Fabian January 29 at 8:24pm Reply
*but do what you liek with the orbs.. need matt t talk to as he's doing the drawing.. id prefer them maybe sat on the tree or something.
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Sam Mcguire January 29 at 9:12pm Reply
hey just thought I would input something i like the idea of doing it for a client in some kinda informative manner. when I mentioned to jared that I'm doing a talk at my bros school he said use them for research and if they have an awesome idea we can use it, and have a way of justifying it. also by purpose jared means a reasoning behind our work not just creating something for no reason. I know what me and Lydia are saying sounds like we have to change a fair bit but it's from jareds feedback that we are saying it
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Andi Bennett January 29 at 9:57pm Reply
im down with it... we just need to get going as soon as.i have a horrible feeling that if we don't finalise now we will fall behind. Meanwhile, im terribly confused as to what im supposed to be modeling as everyone has kinda moved off of their own bits and i know the tree n fountain may not happen now. so lemme know what im supposed to be modeling and ill get on with it.
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Matt Vadis January 30 at 1:24pm Reply
I'm listening and will be thinking of ways to add narrative over the weekend. Sam if possible could you email Andi and Hayley what's been modelled so far, maybe they can get a rough idea of the shape it's taking. Also like Lydia said check out her team blog post to think more about purpose ideas and my picture of the layout; should give you a rough idea of the structure. Of course you can change the bits you don't like.We might have to change stuff, but i don't think that's important. Once we're clear about the narrative it'll all come together even if we do have less time cos it'll be a better idea, which is better than spending more time on a pants idea. Can't polish a turd.Also about the orbs, another idea was having them as glowing butterflies or fireflies but again, what they are depends on what the purpose of whole thing is so if you think of more ideas post em. I'm curious to hear what the kids have to say at Sam's thing, could give us what we need.
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Lydia Fabian January 30 at 3:29pm Reply
im putting confidence in sams talk too. im sure once we've got an idea we will easily crack on :)should be tlkn like this on the blog u know..
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Hayley Allen January 30 at 10:07pm
When is sams talk? What about the fountain being the fountain of youth, and the tree has part of its roots in the water so thats why its massive. The character could not be alone, s/he could having a dying friend in the boat, so they need the water to save them. if they are knights or something the one in the boat could have a stab wound in their side maybe? i dont know lol. and i think at the end of the project our chats could be copied to the blog. btw matt ive printed your concept i really liked it x x
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Sam Mcguire February 1 at 8:58am Reply
hey guys sorry but my talk has been delayed till next monday i dont know what you want to do but im still gunna do the talk also im gunna email what ive done so far out. so can i please have andi and hayleys email addresses.
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Andi Bennett February 1 at 9:30am Reply
andrew.robert.bennett@googlemail.com
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Hayley Allen February 1 at 10:31am
h.allen@rave.ac.uk
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Lydia Fabian February 1 at 10:43am Reply
check the team blog i put up something which might help to tell a story in a cool way. tell me what you think
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Sam Mcguire February 1 at 10:58am Reply
ive done some bloggy stuff as well
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Andi Bennett February 1 at 11:09am Reply
okay i read through the team blog, and i hate to be the party pooper here, but i think we are running out of time. The less time we have, the more dangerous it becomes to try anything ambitious. I love matts concept, and i think that will look stunning if we stick to it. As for a purpose, how about a little kid that turns up at the island with a picture of it in its glory days, he makes his way through the castle as discussed and maybe touches a statue or crypt of the lady in the lake and the whole place transforms into how it was in its glory days, we could even do some internal animation of rubble kinda rewinding back into place. i dunno just an idea.Ive looked at the models and they look pretty cool, are we all in on thursday or is anyone heading to barcelona?
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Lydia Fabian February 1 at 11:14am Reply
like the idea of the kid and then the whole castle transforms into its glory. i don't know how to model my part for this entrance.. i need matts or anyone's help?
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Andi Bennett February 1 at 11:14am Reply
what part are you doing?
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Lydia Fabian February 1 at 11:17am Reply
the dock entrance part.. shall everyone just say what they're modelling again.. as things have changed a little.xxx
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Andi Bennett February 1 at 11:20am Reply
well i'll take the archway stairs things, and whatever is decided for inside the castle, if its going to be a statue i think we should decide now as i really don't mind modeling a human, but its gunna take time.
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Sam Mcguire February 1 at 11:32am Reply
i can give you a hand if you want lydia. i am modelling the castle structure i can also look at the animation of bricks falling of you want seeing as its to do with the structure even if i just research it
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Andi Bennett February 1 at 11:33am Reply
yeah sounds good to me...it way be a case of filling in the holes modeled in the ruined model and animating them?
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Hayley Allen February 1 at 11:36am
Im modelling the boat and additional items, maybe skeletons, wall hangings etc. i wondered if someone could make a logo or crest i could use as a texture on my models? i was using a tree but if its changing thats fine. erm also on my blog i drew a concept of a statue holding a glowing orb or light i dont know if you want to use it x
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Andi Bennett February 1 at 11:39am Reply
yeah i like that idea.
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Matt Vadis February 1 at 11:43am Reply
okay so we're all sticking to the original plan. I'll be going Barcelona on thurs, so i'll make sure i put some images up on the blog maybe some mood pics, colour variations and stuff before i go. I'll be in on wednesday so we can finalize exactly what's gonna happen regarding the poxy narrative.Also i'd like to say you shouldn't feel like it has to be 2d characters in a 3d world cos that's what i'm interested in, see it more as an option that we have. I'm fine with doing it but if there's a better way of showing what we want to show then we should do that. I'll be staying online in case we need to talk about anything. Peace crackers
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Andi Bennett February 1 at 11:46am Reply
haha crackers... it's true.sounds good matt, im still pretty stoked about the 2d character. I think it will have a really nice contrast against the environment. I just want to make sure we get a move on so we all have a comfortable time getting this done.
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Matt Vadis February 1 at 11:47am Reply
oh yeah, Hayley whenever i try to watch your vids it says, the video is currently unavailable?
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Andi Bennett February 1 at 11:47am Reply
same for me
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Hayley Allen February 1 at 11:53am
Oh ok il have a look later see whats wrong. They are of water and a flag blowing
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Matt Vadis February 1 at 11:53am Reply
okay, i'm gonna Wiki lady in the lake
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Matt Vadis February 1 at 1:56pm Reply
I was looking at the some of the myths of the lady in the lake, i didn't know much about it, but apparently she's the person/thing/spirit who gave king arthur his legendary blade excalibur, sorry if you knew that. The stories about it seem a bit vague and open to interpretation.If that's the case why don't we have the main character as king arthur, who's come to this island in search of the sword. As he arrives on the island we could have Andi's idea of the comparison of how it looked according to rumour (which is why he has travelled there) and it's actual ruined image.In pictures of the myth it often shows the lady of the lake presenting the sword to Arthur from the water like in the link. Why don't we have a similar image of that but instead of the lake it's presented from water in the fountain at the top of castle.Alternatively it might be quite cool (and if you don't want to deal with water effects) to have Hayley's statue idea, but of the lady, embedded in the epic tree holding the sword out for Arthur to take.As far as the castle's purpose is concerned, it doesn't look well fortified in the way that other castles are because it was never intended to fend off invaders, which explains why it looks more decorative - it's purpose is to house the legendary sword so it's not conventional in that sense and we can get away with our uncastle-like-castle.On his way up to the top arthur could see a load of references to the King arthur legend, i'm not sure exactly what they are but, we could do some research into it. I like the idea of using sound to lure the person around the grounds, calling him up to the sword. I remember Andi saying Lydia created some cool ghost like voices using some music software? That might be an idea.I realise these are all the things that you guys were all thinking about anyway, like sword in the stone and stuff i'm just trying to bring it together. It's a bit cheesy but solid and would be happy to do it.However i am still having trouble thinking of a potential client for the project - is it a level for a game, educational, maybe we're designing an area/ride for a theme park? Get back to me.Man i just wrote an essay. Sorry.


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Andi Bennett February 1 at 2:01pm Reply
i like the idea... i like it alot, why are we thinking of potential clients?people don't make movies to please a client... they do it to entertain people, i think we should do it to tell this little king arthur extract.
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Matt Vadis February 1 at 2:09pm Reply
I understand what your saying but if we're telling a story just for it's own sake (or, you know, just to pass a unit) then nobody is going to care. The best way to entertain people is to know our audience and have an idea what we want to say to them.
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Sam Mcguire February 1 at 3:06pm Reply
how bout a client of say a museum but its to inform kids about englands most famous legend that way it doesn't have to be to serious we can also relate it to my talk thing next week. i like this direction as i originally wanted to use a myth anyway
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Andi Bennett February 1 at 3:08pm Reply
sounds good to me.
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Lydia Fabian February 1 at 4:15pm Reply
im with that.. that was a lot of reading i just did. cool so everyones happy doing this idea of showing a myth/legends of the past about king arthur? The audience would know this becuase of all the tell signs of the environement..maybe in the sky (like jason and the argonaughts) we have a blink of a face of him being watched.um. What did people think to the idea of illustrating little 2d scenes? maybe when king arthur is looking around the castle to get to the sword ?(btw love the idea of the lady being a statue holding out the sword)I'm feeling enthusiastic now because we're all talking about it and getting hyped which is awesome.im ready for some serious crack down onto this unit.I want to make something that looks pretty awesome,and sam yes totally right about making it liek a museum event to attract young audiences.i wasnt meaning to look for a client i just was trying to think up anything for a purpose as to why this environemtn exists and whats it all about..we have our story now..i like itmakes more sense than the tree and orbs.. though that was pretty cool.i checked out castles on my blog..if we're not fortified then we are like the Tudors who built coastal castle's more for intimidation against invaders but more so for comfort and wealth. Should this statue be the centre of the castle ruin.. or maybe as the environment is a ruin.. she's sort of tucked away where our character looks for her.or not lolGood work today though guys.. everyone has put up what they're thinking.I'm fine with the modelling of the dock area just haven't got any designs for it.. so i guess i'll crack on with looking to existing stuff.. if you guys see anything throw it my way through the blog
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Lydia Fabian February 1 at 4:21pm Reply
actually. from the drawing mat did.. i'm not thinking to include a little room. there's no purpose? unless any one can think of one.. how about just the stone plinths coming from the water (where the wooden dock platforms would've been) and then the stone steps winding up through the cliff edge (like a cave feel) then we start going up from there on the drawing.?
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Hayley Allen February 1 at 4:22pm
Im happy with this, it kinda feels like we have come full circle, as we said about that before. i thought drawn sections would be good from the point of view of arthur, as if he stil sees it in 2d, altho i dont wana give matt too much or if he would want help i will. shall i use a symbol of a sword on the flags etc? oh and ive modelled a basic sword, i can fancy it up tho to make it the one the statue is holding? x
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Andi Bennett February 1 at 4:29pm Reply
go team GO!everything sounds wonderful... im a little confused with the 2d scene idea...but im sure you'll explain at some point!sword sounds lovely hayley can't wait to see it!
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Andi Bennett February 1 at 4:31pm Reply
how about instead of a fountain, maybe a little pond or something. quite liking this image.https://www.brent.gov.uk/icimres.nsf/images/img-356/$file/8%20lady%20in%20the%20lake.jpg


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Matt Vadis February 1 at 5:10pm Reply
Sam, yeah i like the whole educate the kids about the myth in a museum thing too.Cool Hayley make the sword the stuff of legendLydia maybe we should get rid of the bit at the bottom. If we do we should make sure that there's something at the bottom that introduces us to the place, so it sort of hints at what's to come and establishes where we are.Andi yeah the fountain ideas are all yours, whatever your comfortable with modelling. If your going to put a statue in it it make sure it doesn't clash with the statue holding the sword if that's what we're doing.And I'll work on some overdue concept work.Sounds like we're all on the same page now and we can sort out the details on Wed so if you'll excuse me i'm gonna go froth at the mouth from brain damage.
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Hayley Allen February 1 at 5:45pm
Could we start with a storybook and the pictures come to life? a bit like they did in the old disney films and shrek? or would that be too obvious x
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Lydia Fabian February 1 at 6:09pm Reply
like the ice age link i posted?matt i was thinking of some stuff thats just easthetically pleasing :) .. so now i shall get on with thinking of how to introduce us to this place.. to set the scene a little.. even though thats already done with this little 2d intro idea if we go there
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Lydia Fabian February 1 at 6:10pm Reply
oh so are we all wanting to go in weds? how about thurs for the rest of us? or do we just need the one day?im thinking of what ticket i can get home you see :)xx
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Matt Vadis February 1 at 6:25pm Reply
Lydia yeah as long as it looks nice then we should be okay, don't worry about thinking of how to introduce the place, cos you're right that's what the 2d intro is for.What I was getting at was so that it's not just a path all the way to the top we should have something at the dock to spice up the boats entrance into the place. So the first thing you see are not stairs followed by more stairs. I don't know what to put there but you know what i mean right? or not. I need to think about it.
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Lydia Fabian February 1 at 7:33pm Reply
yes i need to think about it too..again.. is the group only meeting weds?
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Sam Mcguire February 1 at 7:42pm Reply
im in weds, thurs and are we in fri??

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Hayley Allen February 1 at 7:50pm
Ill be in thurs as well as weds, n sam no we arent x x
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Lydia Fabian February 1 at 9:12pm Reply
yes we have no lessons friday. *self directed study*
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Lydia Fabian February 2 at 1:59pm Reply
check the blog
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Matt Vadis February 2 at 2:33pm Reply
That panoramic thing in the link is awesome, like a better version of of google street view and a really good reference for us. Nice one for sending them the email by the wayPersonally my vote would be to carry on with the lady in the lake idea as we seem to be making progress with it now, but i shall follow the majority.

Friday 5 February 2010

Dock Designs

I have been stuck on what to do for this design but now i have talked it through with the group on what could make this a more interesting as a starting point to our story. So what's important to be shown in this area is that there is a place to tie the boat up, the philosophy/tapestry on the wall undecided whether about King Arthur or Excalibur, Maybe muddle both ideas. Then finally the entrance arch to the stairs that Andi is modelling.

Hayley thought of using the scenes from the film version of Phantom of the Opera and from the pictures she posted on the team blog i have chosen the ones i am most influenced by;











This is the best solution for the dock part, its nothing big and spectacular which is great, this entrance to the castle isn't meant for lots of travellers, this island is only for Arthur to claim the sword.











The team likes the idea of having a gate in the rock idea, this could look cool but it's not my main focus, maybe an added extra.











I like the width of this alley/corridor and the thin steps.














Maybe the part where the boat has the steps to get off onto the land, we have this arching roof above and the platform in the picture above will be where the steps are for the boat to moor in between.

Torches and lighting
When thinking how to introduce lighting into the room i could have Arthur walking around looking about with his torch or the castle could already be pre-lit. However if i want Arthur to pay attention to the tapestry as opposed to just walking through and up the stairs, i thought about using the idea of where you light the oil and the whole room is rigged up to carry the flame light around him and through to the next room and up the stairs of andi's. This will allow us to watch him investigate the pictures on the walls which bring us into the story and why he is here.































National Treasure shows what i mean by lighting, the way it unveils the room as the flames travel through which is shown about half way through that video clip.

I have tried to illustrate the way i can see this room coming together however i don't know whether to have the tapestry on the wall in the main bit or in the little corridor.















The plinth in the middle is lit by Arthur placing his torch inside then the flames travel down under the floor which is why its glowing, and then around the walls.















This drawing shows the idea like the Phantom of the Opera having the arches support the ceiling, i thought it looked cooler than just going from outside open cliff top to ceiling. We could go through the gate and see this. There are just torches on the wall, if the castle was pre-lit already it'd be simple to do, show the tapestry's either side about Arthur and straight up into andi's stairs heading into the castle.


Preliminary sketches















Mainly just working through how to position the room and why it would be positioned that way, what do i need to be as a main focus of the layout.















The idea that the dock was separate to the main castle, and we had to go up spiral steps to get onto the main dock platform.
















This sketch just shows how i meant Arthur gets into the dock area, the open top cliffs towering around him leading him to the room.