Ravine: Further Refined Soundscape

   Some further work has been made on the soundscape for the animation, with the principal elements modified being the sound of water as it interacts with the character. As well as some refining of a few other sounds and the way the music is used within the sequence.

Refinement of the Ravine

  Furrther progress has been made with the ravine by adding some ruggedness to the ledges. Some crags and points have been added but the next phase of building will be priority. Textures such as a bump map will definitely useful from here on out to give the ravine a rockiness to it. The next stage so far will be to do something about how level the ravine floor is. Perhaps have it rise near the ends.

  There could be some more pushing back of the upper ledges. With the bulk done, work can progress with the rocky outcroppings because with the time at hand, we can't risk spending too much time on the tiny details as there is still plenty to do. Plants and rocks are needed for one.

  Perhaps the area around the ravine is also extended. To get the effect these were displaced chunks of rock, the lines of the ground around the ledges were altered to make a more defined incline as well as some raising of polygons on the ledges to form more defined overhangs.

  In terms of scale there is still plenty of space, most of the action however might be away from the ends of the ravine. This has yet to take into account how much space will be used by rocky outcroppings. Which will be the next phase after adjusting the height of the ravine at each end.

Refining the Ravine Itself

 As was suggested, depth was added to the volume and the ravine opening was opened up further. The next step will be to add ledges and make the rock more jagged. But so far I believe we are making steps in the right direction. Also ends to the ravine are needed as it would be surrounded by the seabed in the final production.

    The sphere represents our fish. As can be seen this ravine is definitely very large, which should give plenty of time for the fish to travel upwards. It was suggested that there could be a sharp turn to encourage the fish to swim up but that proved slightly difficult without tearing the lower sections of the ravine which would make moving the camera more difficult.

  

  Some defenition was added to the ridge to make the mouth look sharp. But further polygons will be needed to give the ledges a degree of jaggedness. Which should be easily doable.

  To add ease to contruction and animation the ravine has been into three sections that can be switched on and off depending on on what angle we need to look at. One for the left-hand side, one for the right-hand side and one for the floor. It also makes seeing the floor in wireframe view easier. In theory these can all be stitched up for the final model. So there would be a construction layer and a polygon layer with a definable transition. Currently the joins between the rock and the ground appear rather artificial when smoothed out.

  The join could  certainlydo with some unevenness to it anyway as it currently all joins on the same level which does appear rather unrealistic.

Ravine: Modelling the Ravine

  Progress as been made with the ravine, the main location for the events in the narrative animation. This went though a couple of iterations during tonight's development as it initially got very complex, This was solved by going back ot basics with the original shape. In order to give the camera and the fish room to move about without a sense of claustrophobia and an ever-present opening above, I looked into giving space underneath the opening for light and room.

  There is still a little more work to do with this. The ravine floor could be deeper and the mouth could be modified to be less smooth. But the important part for now is the bowels of the ravine, as that will be where the second fish spends most of its time.

   The concept art I am working from included rocky outcrops, another thing that could be added to give us room to work. It would also give a platform for plant life as the thing about a ravine is it is a very steep drop to the bottom and there might be little place for plants to settle and grow. Developing this will be my next step. The other thought was closing off the ends, especially as that is what the ravine does on the surface, and right now it seems a little inconsistent that where the crack is closing, the tunnel is just as wide as it is in the middle of the crack.

  To get a sense of scale, some of the blocked out plants of the last version of the model were brought in and set down. The fish will be smaller than these so the camera could find itself very close to the walls But wit ha lit of space to move.

  Below are stills of the ravine's first version. Less bulging but more confined. The design above could be considered a more theatrical space compared to this one. Although at the same time maybe it also looks a little like a cave with a hole in the top.

Project Animatic: Versions One and Two

 After a few delays over the past week, today was the day to which sound was added to our project's animatic. The outcome we are putting forward with our online greenlight. As the animatic shows, alongside other posts, our project now has a working title: Ravine. The above animatic is what we are currently considering our greenlight animation.

  Below is the first sound-added version presented in a group discussion. The animation itself was constructed from our storyboard by Vlad and Eva.

First Script idea

Fish Freedom project version one

  So here we have an initial script idea based on our current storyboard. If we go by the rule of thumb that one page is equivalent to one minute, then fortunately we are so far in line with the two-minute mark. But that final mark in the final presentation also depends on how we pace ourselves in the animation itself. Which we can discover when making the animatic and pre-vis.

Another Storyboard Revision

  Over the weekend I have attempted to drum up a new storyboard for the narrative project currently underway. The reason the storyboard is now somewhat different is because it was felt that the last idea didn't feel entirely complete an idea.

There was some discussion over how expressive we should be making our fish. I feel I can work with primarily the eyes however when version 4.1 was discussed I was told that the fish was too expressive. Th the purpose of version 4.2 was to pare down the emotion so that the real emotional focus is in the eyes and perhaps the body language.

  I had worked late on version 4.1 which is why it is lacking in text and posessing a few arrangement anomalies, both of which were resolved for storyboard version 4.2

Storyboard Refinement: Two Fish Version Two

  After consulting with the group on the last version of the storyboard, we felt that the fish was too clumsy and the first one's story was a long adventure of him haplessly crashing into things. I looked back on what I had done and decided to rework the second half was well as move around some of the cuts of when the two narratives would switch.

  The sequence in the middle where both fish struggle to shake off the stuff that sticks on them. Is it good or bad that they are the same? Is it too repetitive or does it hint that both fish are heading down the same disastrous path?

Narrative Project: Storyboard Idea

    We had some story ideas being passed around within the group so I looked into bringing the story we had into some coherence though the use of storyboarding. This is only a very basic idea; before a final storyboard can be submitted the story will need some refinement before we can solidify things like visual atmosphere or characters.

    Some of the panels could be tweaked, this is only a basic version and the ending might also need some work. The important thing was knitting together the story ideas we had into something coherent

All the flashback frames have been edged in blue to differentiate them from the present-day frames mainly for identification purposes. The technique is to see how smoothly the flashback  sequences fit into the overall story architecture.

Briefing Day And Initial Ideas

    The brief has been set and a long journey has begun. For our project our narrative will contain the elements of being set in (or perhaps around or reflecting) the bottom of the sea, it will be a parallel narrative and the theme we will be exploring is freedom.

    Some initial ideas have been tossed around, initially we might keep away form the obvious confinement metaphors such as cages or containers, but lack of freedom isn't just physical confinement. We considered what sorts of non-physical freedom we can have and also talked about the idea that too much freedom (or perhaps certain forms of it) could be dangerous for the individual. We also talked about if it would be worth keeping the story open. As to what happens in our story though we are still working on that. But while initially we talked mermaids and The Little Mermaid, we might move away from that as the project progresses. Instead of mermaids we could look at fish for our underwater characters, as animating a mermaid involves rigging up a tail and fins as well as a human torso.