Animation Strategies (Week 4)

Group PowerPoint

This week in class our lectures were going to watch over everyone’s pre-recorded presentations and give us feedback on where they think we could improve on our work individually and as a group. This was a really enjoyable and relaxing morning as it was just filled with seeing all the different groups presentations and seeing the different art styles and inspirations everyone is working with. It seemed like everyone, for it only being early in the semester, was on track with what work we had to have done up until this point and had a rough idea of what final environment they wanted to create.

In our presentations we had to include concept sketches, a composition and a colour palette, all which we both as a group and separately had gathered through research. I had drawn up some concept sketches including the temple with a tree entwined within it, a crystal and had shown how the temple looked in two different colour palettes of day and night. Other concept sketches included my different assets, just so everyone had an idea of what I wanted the models in my world to look like.

These concept sketches were supported with the other sections Henry wanted us to include in our group presentations such as visual references supporting our groups and individual items and we also included our Gantt charts showing the list of assets we were going to make for our world and a coloured chart of who was going to make the assets and why. In our group we have a total of five team members so for each of our sections, we made sure to include what we as individuals were going to create for our world and how we were going to help build the entire fairy’s realm as a group.

This presentation being online was way less nerve racking than I am used to when presenting in front of the entire class, so I was eager to be able to take the time and have a relaxed breath, really being able to articulate to my class and lectures what my role was going to include in our group project. I started off presenting my initial thought process when it came to how I imaged the group environment and my own personal theme and had told the class my immediate inspiration which was folklore and how for my part of the island, I would love to combine a magical mixture of Irish fairy’s folklore and an autumnal colour palette. I supported my vision and was able to show the class what I had in mind my gathering photos of different surroundings and mythical fairies who represented the style.

Then for my next couple of slides I had a similar template to show the class what assets I had chosen to make including the mushroom house, well, spiders web, log bench and picnic table for both the use within my own environment and the environment of everyone within my group. I included within my slides some photo references of what style I wanted to create my assets in and included some of the quick concepts which I drew up to show. I talked about why I had gone for the items which I did, talking about reasons why I wanted to have a go at making them myself, how I think they would work for my own environment and kind of a brief summary on the textures I will be using when I complete my models.

My next couple of slides where showing how I may go about blocking out my island and talked about how fairies would move between island, going into detail about how we all discussed to make this decision and how next for us will be working at a steady pace to complete our models.

In my presentation I hope I showed how I was really enthusiastic for the following weeks to come and in starting to create my models in Maya and starting to develop my environment. I made sure to speak up about my role within the team and what ideas I had thought of so far and also how I felt about everyone’s work.

Watching our groups presentation and knowing that both the entire class and the lectures where viewing our work was a real nerve-racking thing to experience, but lucky enough everyone in the class was really supportive of one another and were all encouraging of the work we had done too far. Even our lectures had liked the concepts which we had so far and were happy for us to continue down the route which we were going, just with the helping hand of some tips that they had to share.

One of the concerns Henry had shared about our world was the lack of narrative when it came to how to fairies came to their environment and how they interacted with their surroundings. At this point of our environment, we were unsure of the background and the history which our fairy realm had started from and agreed that we needed to make a start in discussing this within our group. A few of the ideas which had been considered were to have our fairy world just be a long historical line of fairies who had lived there for centuries and built the world up from scratch and hoped that future generations enjoyed. This idea was a good idea when it came to giving us the freedom in creating a world from scratch, as it was up to us to basically begin the fairies story, create their history and tell the story of how they are settled where they are at today. Having the fairies living in their environment for centuries meant we could develop more into the temple and tree in the heart of their island and the crystal that is held within it, giving us the freedom to talk about were the crystal had come from and in a more creative light, allowing us to go as extreme or little we wanted to incorporate the true fairy tales that made up this island.

The other idea and one that was little more “realistic” but maybe lacked the imagine we were looking for, was the idea to intertwine the theme of fairies and humans and have the world which the fairies are living in today, to be once oriented by humans who have since moved on. This idea for the history of the environment was one that would have made the past a little more structured, as everyone knew how humans got here today and then the rest could have been added onto with a story of the humans forgetting about the place and the fairies who also live within earth, finding the space a re-habituating it. A part of this story which seemed a little more exciting however was the fact that the assets include in the world would nearly have to be a mix of common human items that we all know to see, but with a twist when the fairies came to stay.

Henry however was right in saying that before we really dive into creating our environment and everything within, it would be best to have at least a basic understanding of where our fairies came from and why they decided to create a world for themselves.

The next advice we had gotten was how we were going to carry this assessment as both individuals and as a group and how we were going to work together making sure that all of our islands are not too separated and are able to be presented with a connection between each one. How we were going to connect our islands together was both going to mean how well combined the work of five individuals worked together and also how we were going to connect six floating islands in the sky together. This has been something we has a group were keeping in mind to how we were going to keep our islands within the same vibe and also how the fairies were going to transport themselves across each island.

Now although fairies are known for having wings so it could just be as easy as saying the fairies flew to each separate island, it would be a bit boring to not at least include some more dimension to the island and create a fun way to connect the islands together. Andrada from the start had loved the idea of floating islands and when she had pitched her idea to everyone there was no real discussion, as every took to the idea.

In relation to connecting the island Andrada also had the idea to connect each island using steppingstones or bridges and immediately everyone in the group accepted this as a good idea for our environment. We hadn’t discussed this within our presentation as it wasn’t fully finalised within the group, but after the presentation when we were all given our feedback, we were able to explain about the ideas which we had to connect all the island together and that the most likely outcome would be a mix between bridges and steppingstones.

We also were advised to think about what type of floating island we were going to have and to give a thought on were about the islands would be positioned in the sky or near to the ground. Henry had suggested thinking about if the islands were going to be closer to the ground so that we could have water reflecting below our environment or if there were going to be positioned higher and instead have mostly sky below with either a clear view, clouds or fog.

These were our ideas of the final output of our environment that I hadn’t got round to thinking a better to think and although for our group presentation we had done really well and were heading in the right direction for our world. Today’s lesson and the comments from our lectures had made me realised that before I start trying to think of my island or at least my island concept as a finished idea. It would be good to take on board their comments and go back to the idea stage, drawing up some more concepts and trying to tie together all the loose ends of our environment, so that we end up with a well thought out and made final piece.

In the afternoon and for the rest of the day I was going to spend my time between starting to look into and trying to make the models that I needed for my island and to also start thinking a bit more about my environment’s history and surroundings, creating some concepts and researching to support my ideas.

My mushroom house is going to be the first asset that I am going to attempt to create just because I think it will take the most time and has the most separate components that make up the one asset. I am also going to jump back and forth between all the other assets when I feel the need to, as modelling can sometimes be a stressful process and it would be good to take a break from one asset, but to still use my time wisely by working on another.

In the concept that I had drawn the items which my mushroom house is going to include is an acorn for the bottom, a mushroom head for the top, some windows, a door, and in textures making sure the acorn has a rougher exterior compared the bumpy, but smoother mushroom head. Then for the well I am going to create a simple stone rounded well, with a wooden top, but add something a little different by allowing the well to be supported with miniature twisting trees. I think this will give a nice touch and difference to the well and would work well with the forest fairies.

As for my other assets such as the spider web, log and picnic table I will generally be more basic in my design when making and will then be something that I may add more to later to give a bit more substance and style.