Models and Metaphors - Research - The Cog

Whilst looking around for research for this project, I was reminded of an old Honda advert which is used in a very smart way to market the car.
I am using this advert as research because I want to use a similar concept for my project but in a retro style. I want to use a more retro soundbed for my project and create something original but which is can relate to an E4 target audience.

Anyway, below is the advert and a short making of which demonstrates the amount of work and patience which was needed when producing this product.

Models and Metaphors - Idea Research

Paper Mario -

For research, I have been looking at 2D based games

In 2001, Intelligent Systems released Paper Mario into Europe onto the Nintendo 64. Paper Mario was a unique concept based on the role playing game genre, whilst still holding elements from the Mario series.

The basis of Paper Mario is that Bowser has stolen the Star Rod from Star Haven. It's upto the plumber to retrieve all of the the Star Spirits and defeat the evil Koopa King, bringing peace back to Star Haven.

I have chosen to use this game as research for my project because I really like the games concept. Paper Marios characters throughout the game are two dimensional, however the rest of the world is three dimensional, shown in the image below...

My Models and Metaphors idea which is based around the same concept in which Intelligent Systems used for Paper Mario is slightly different to what you can see throughout this post. I'm still trying to gather research for this idea, and at the moment I'm trying to keep it as a thought and not reveal too much.

Former Winners/Runners Up

Although I do not want this project/competition to be in anyway similar to any of the following competition winners and runners up, I thought that it would still be a good idea to take a look and see other students work.

The Winner of 2009 -

Recursive Culture -


Runner Up of 2009 -



Runner Up of 2009 -


This is only the top three of the competition contestants. Below are a few that were entered over the years, these few are ones which I found interesting.

I really liked this E sting for its relationship with film. Although It isn't the best visually, this E sting is very pleasing in terms of it being simple but at the same time clever and appealing to the audience.
I have chossen the E sting above because of its simplicity along with its pacing, which I think works well as an overall product.

TBC

Models and Metaphors

This post is to show the models and metaphors briefing. I have added this brief to my blog to help organise and remind me of the task in hand.

CG arts and animation offers a rich source of metaphoric language that captures a

sense of ‘future, fashion and the creative zeitgeist’. The illustration of concepts for

new and more established companies and institutions provides important

commissions for CG arts and animation. They all seek to establish their identities

through metaphoric references to their qualities, often linking aspects of ‘physical’

identification to a broader range of conceptual connotations.

This unit requires the development of a speculative and innovative approach to the

promotion of products, organisations and services. It encourages investigation into

the construction of brands and identities, and considers examples drawn from

contemporary practice, where the potential of digital interventions has made possible

the representation of conceptual ideas for advertising, promotion and marketing.

For this five week project you are asked to produce a commercial ‘sting’ for

submission to the current E4 ‘E sting’ 2011 competition. Details and competition

requirements can be found at: (http://www.e4.com/estings/index.html). The ‘sting’ will

need to fulfil the following course requirements also;

Assessable Components -

- The E Sting must contain a CG component.

- It must be 10 seconds in length (Competition Requirement).

- It must be based upon one of the competition audio ‘Sound Beds’

(Competition Requirement).

- The piece ‘must’ contain the ‘E4’ logo (Competition Requirement).

Submission -

- A completed 10 second E Sting in a suitable movie file format.

- An up to date blog detailing your progress throughout the project.

- A .PDF version of your blog submitted on disk

- Completion of all technical tutorials.

- A ‘making of’ book detailing the development of the creative & technical

aspects of the project

- Preparation for the submission of your competition entry.

More Maya Tutorials

Here are a couple of maya tutorials which I have uploaded for assessment.

Caustics -

Mia X Materials -

Wheel Motion Blur -

Plane Motion blur -

Technical Journal

Trench Duty - The Making Of

Trench_duty

Final Animation - Trench Duty

I must say that whilst doing this project I have had my ups and downs but all in all I am pleased with the final result. This isn't to say that I wouldn't go back to it in the future if I had the time because I know that I probably would, and I would change/do things differently the second time through.

Anyway this post isn't about what I'm going to do about it now, this post is just a little introduction and recap into what my animation is actually all about.

I choose to base my animation around the subject of war, and in particular, WW1. My original idea was based around Flanders Fields, but after brainstorming and trying to come up with a concept for this I quickly changed my mind. My new idea was based around a poem which was written by Siegfried Sassoon called "Trench Duty". I would take this idea and twist it to create the animation which is in the video below. Hope you enjoy.

Through the Wire

One of my favorite scenes which I had to work on throughout this project was the barbed wire scene. There is a line in the poem that states that soldiers crawl through the wire on their bellies. In my mind when I heard that all I wanted to do with this piece of animation was add cloth to it to make it look like rags and other materials had been caught up amongst it.

Next came the texturing of this scene which can be seen in the images below.

Main Lane - The Trench

This one of my scenes was the one that needed to have the most prep. In this scene I needed to create a flowing camera which floats through the trench, fitting together with any cuts or sounds which I will add in after production and whilst I am editing it all together.

The three stills above are from the same trench but from different angles. I did this so that the different layouts can be seen from over views

Textured Trench - above

This last little bit to the post is of a warning sigh written in ink by one of the soldiers to tell others to watch their footing whilst they are amongst the trench to avoid sinking to their death.

The Corner Dugout

At the start of the animation where the present fades into the past is where this scene fits into place. The same pocket watch which is on the desk is the same pocket watch which is on a dirty rag once this animation comes into action.

The final textured scene is in the image below.

Soldiers Weapons Scene

In this scene the camera pans over a muddy area were guns and other debris has been discarded throughout the scene.

All of these shots are from the same scene but each one is slightly further away from the other. It has moved left along the timeline. Thesee next images are the same but have been textured.

Pocket Watch on table Scene

This shot is my introduction shot and the shot that ends the final animation.

The two images above were placed on a modern table. The camera will zoom in on the pocket watch and transport the viewer back in time.

Final rendered images ready for the animation.

Dead Soldier Scene

This scene is at the very end of my animation were a man laysamongst the dirt of the battle holding out his hand. Resting in the palm of his hand is his pocket watch, this is how we transition from past to present at the end of the poem/animation.

The three images above are of The hand, Clock and Background plane which have had a UV applied to them ready to be textured.

Pre_visuals

So for my pre vis I only used maya to work out a scale and layout to what my animation will look like once it is full rendered and composed together.

Mainly in this pre vis for my animation I was working on the scale and layout of the trench along with some other adjustments which I would need once animating was underway.

Below is a quick test playblast which I rendered out to see what it would look like if the camera was to move throughout the trench in a calm movement. This is only a representation of a test, this will not be the final camera angle/shot which I will use in the final version of the animation.

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