The Primary Hazard

  The development of the scales generated enthusiasm. The task today was making the coral/organism that would chase after our fish. Originally the plan was to use coral, but there were a few scenes that involved the coral reaching out. Doing some research there was some similarity to the tendrils of sea anemones. Which are a lot more flexible.

  First tests however resulted in a few errors from the way the joints were placed down. These took some time to rectify and were a little annoying.

  Initial attempts at a cleaner model involved joints at every lateral edge, but I discarded this as a control group would have 30 different joints to manage.

  To cut down the number of joints, instead of one joint per lateral edge I looked into one joint for every two lateral edges, which halved the original number.

  Each joint has three controls: X, Y and Twist. One bends the joint forwards, another sideways and the twist helps with curling. It is very flexible with little deformation. Hopefully it is simple enough to be used en masse. And it should also be useful for wrapping around things.

  The final parameter I added was a length control. Unlike the others, this one control affects the entire skeleton, which could really help with any scenes of the construct launching itself at our hapless fish. 

  The coral wasn't entirely forgotten about. I have developed a fairly sound method of reproducing the branches of a tree, which are very similar to branched coral. The plan is to work in a blendshape that will have the coral branches growing from their individual points of origin. 

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.