Another idea for my minor project would be to create a 'Secret lair' similarly to the project in year 1 - For a made-up goddess / princess / Head of something i.e Yubaba's Bathhouse in Spirited away, or the Goddess Aphrodite's bedroom in God of War. I was thinking of creating a character as a concept drawing and backstory, And aim to build a Digital Set for them as if for an animated film environment.
Ive made a few strips of paper with different combinations to come up with some ideas:
Desert dwelling Shaman
Ive made a few strips of paper with different combinations to come up with some ideas:
Hi Vicki,
ReplyDeleteSorry I didn't get the chance to catch up with again today to discuss your project ideas. What I wanted to say in response to your ideas here is that, right now, they don't seem as if they have that special 'final year' spark, which requires a bit more ambition and purpose. It does seem as if you're playing things a little bit too safe here, and also that the notion of 'create an environment' is feeling a bit lacklustre and purposeless.
I just want you to take a look at these two works created by students from the course in previous years - both are absolutely the environment pipeline, but more than just being exercises in making 'stuff', they represent a more speculative use of cgi in terms of bringing environments to life:
http://vimeo.com/19399252
http://vimeo.com/42918192
Here - 'CGI' is more than just a process, it's a means of unlocking an otherwise unavailable space or environment. I think, for 'digital set' projects to be properly ambitious and speculative, they often need just this kind of 'special purpose' or 'mission' to give them that final year quality. You might want to think about 'environment' in a less commercial or 'entertainment' based way, and think about alternate commissioning contexts - just as the two animations I've shown you have more of an educative element, maybe you might think too about how you could use your skills in CG to bring new life to something that is otherwise 'trapped' in 2 dimensions;
For example, take the famous drawings by Piranesi:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Piranesi9c.jpg
What might it be like to 'travel' beyond the picture frame and into this space - and using all the textural qualities of Piranesi's drawings to do so?
My general point is this: right now, all your environment ideas seem a bit 'what's the point?' - or rather 'I know I need to create a digital set for my minor project, so I guess I'll pick something' - for me, I think you should ask yourself a more interesting question: i.e. how can the design and execution of a digital set in Maya bring something exciting, dynamic and extraordinary to its subject? I think you need to look at spaces and places which, of themselves, are much more curious, more challenging, less 'cgi genre', and more speculative. How can you be more 'visionary' and therefore, in conceptual terms, a bit more 'final year project'?