[Third Year Project] Pre-Production Progression Blog

[Higher quality images/renders can be found on the gallery section of this website.]

Final Animatic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTHvCNVBQJ0&feature=youtu.be

Final Storyboard:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1IfYxJ9mkLWVe3lFTOt_8KKQA8Vaghws1

Final Script:

https://011b4d97-3865-4a88-85a1-671de8b6df12.usrfiles.com/ugd/011b4d_26ada473f2f946e9b503f84ba64fb48f.pdf

Flashlight:

Reception:

Motion Tests:

Head Bob:

Updated script:

https://011b4d97-3865-4a88-85a1-671de8b6df12.usrfiles.com/ugd/011b4d_1830c21205c946e3a1ea7b8423b2a7f2.pdf

Updated Outline:

30 years ago, a grande submarine voyage disappeared seemingly out of the blue. A story seemingly lost throughout the decades, its location has recently sprung up in rumours. An impatient explorer wastes no time in learning the truth.

On a fateful night, he steals a submarine pod and quietly descends the dark murky depths. While ignoring the angry radio transmissions coming from the submarine pod owners, he sees a big shadow emerges in front of him, he found the lost submarine. He prepares to dock.

He enters the submarine and marvels at the lost sights. The decayed luxury and aesthetic is truly a sight to behold. Hidden between rusted pipes a radio begins to sound. To our explorer’s surprise an eerie yet charming voice welcomes him onboard. The radio voice, in a professional sounding manner, encourages our explorer to make his way through the submarine. Our explorer decides to follow, determined to learn the truth.

Our explorer follows the direction of the voice, along with cut-out guides along the way. The radio voice gets side tracked while giving a tour of the submarine, our explorer takes this opportunity to head through the restricted staff area and immediately notices blood smears. The radio voice notices our explorer sneaking around, thus begins to get angsty but tries to keep his professionalism, as if he’s still on shift. As our explorer heads deeper in the radio voice starts to sound visibly psychotic. Our explorer’s flashlight has run out so he decides to head towards the only lit room. It happens to be the captain’s quarters. He heads in and hears someone behind the desk, suddenly a shrivelled hand appears from behind the desk and sprays our explorer with gas. Our explorer falls and begins to blackout, all while the voice approaches closer. A creepy goodnight lullaby is sung until total blackout.

Updated Pitch:

Upon the rediscovery of a long-lost underwater voyage, an impatient explorer wastes no time in discovering the truth to its disappearance. Upon entering the submarine, he discovers, amongst the leaky pipes, decayed luxury and unsettling ambience, that the vessel is still home to one inhabitant.

Postcard Concept:

Entrance Concept:

Lounge Concept:

I decided to go for a round circular ceiling

Hallway Concepts:

Ceiling Concepts:

Support Iron Concept

Captain's Quarters:

Wall/Decoration concepts:

Final Chamber:

Blood Text Concept:

Pod Concept:

Concept models for the modular pieces

Crew Quarters:

Soda Concept:

My final soda brand will have a bright blue theme and will be called "Finnegan's All Blue". I wanted an old vintage sounding brand. Here you can see different names I came up with as well as different logos and bottle designs.

Scene Test: I put various different materials and played around with lighting:

I played around with volumetric lights to get a more realistic atmosphere.

Changes:

I decided to completely remove the clown theme because it added nothing to the story and didn’t really make sense being there. Instead of clown paint smeared everywhere I would have blood, debris and disorder. This would streamline my design workflow. By doing this I completely overhauled my story and my script. I decided to add a main character via a radio voice guide because it would’ve made the story more interesting and it gives the main character a reason to travel through the submarine. At first I was still conflicted between having the setting in a ship vs a submarine but I decided on submarine because being deep underwater is way more unnerving and the smaller cramped spaces makes everything feel more claustrophobic and atmospheric.

Cutout Concept:

The model in the cutout is a temporary place holder, these cutouts will act as a guide through the environment.

I will have a 1930s style cartoon mascot as the cutout:

Soda Signs Designs [Coca Cola likeness is temporary/Placeholder!]:

Here are some Art-Deco sign designs, the colours are also Art-Deco inspired. These will be hung around the environment and will feature my own designed vintage soda brand. Again, please note that the Coca Cola likeness is temporary and is acting as a placeholder until I finish designing my soda brand.

Developed Lounge Concept [Not finished, need to colour]:

I used a Maya blockout to help with these sketches

Lounge assets concept (WIP):

Two variations for the big lounge window panel:

Floor concept:

Emblem pattern sketch

Second script draft:

https://static.wixstatic.com/ugd/011b4d_a2ba18a040d7406c9e3c9771dff90f67.pdf

I've also been thinking of different objects that will help fill my environment, these objects will also act as "footsteps" of the previous passengers:

I need to consider how many objects to model/texture because I only have a limited time for this project

I want a to include a recurring soda brand in my environment because it'll feel more realistic, I made moodboards to show what I'm going for:

Really rough initial storyboard:

https://static.wixstatic.com/ugd/011b4d_e88e76112435454cb03bdb225f14c4e7.pdf

First Script:

https://static.wixstatic.com/ugd/011b4d_9f1e16fc2f904ed9b39d9e2e2b8a9c2e.pdf

Walls/Interior Concept:

Wallpaper pattern sketch

Moodboard for the final room/More architecture ideas:

I blocked out the layout in Maya in order to create a storyboard, I used my initial sketches as inspiration:

I have drawn up some initial sketches for my environment layout:

I included the Maya blockout layout on the right as well since I made a lot of changes to the sketch versions

Initial Environment Sketches :

I also done some research on vintage ship lounges and made a moodboard:

I wanted to go through with the vintage vibe so I did a bit more research and created another moodboard, I think adding these vintage posters and props around my set will give it more character. I also added some more environment reference images and textures:

Poster concept, I intend to create vintage looking posters to hang around the environment. Here is a concept I made using a poster from the internet:

The clown graffiti adds an interesting twist to these posters

Pipes texture concept:

Experimenting with an Art-Deco style paint job

Definitely the biggest challenge is deciding on the scale of the environment and how many props I'll include since I only have a limited time for this project. I also need to consider final render times which requires optimization of all my assets.

Floor idea test, I added lamps as debris and confetti for a bit more disorder. This requires much more work but it's a good starting point, I need to work on the overall layout of the floor and I need to decide on what kind of floor I'll use. (Right now it's either wood, metal or marble). I also need to work on the lighting.

Lamp in the first room compared to the final room - Test texture and render I did in Substance Painter to build on the idea of progression:

Props will get progressively more colourful/clown-like as you go through the environment

I want to do more of a prop story telling which is why I experimented with zooming into different objects, I plan on having a bunch of different posters and books/magazine covers which will explain the situation of the environment. I also want graffiti/blood writing smeared everywhere that conveys different messages. This would be similar to detective style games.

Quick Camera Movement Test (Initial walk is too quick):

I want to focus on the idea of progression. I want something to progress as you go through the environment. I was thinking that the environment would start off as a regular abandoned setting but a clown theme becomes more and more apparent. The environment gets progressively more clown-like which would give off a sinister and uneasy atmosphere.

Initial Pitch:

1) You dive down to investigate an abandoned “deco-punk” submarine/ship. You cautiously traverse its chambers but soon discover, amongst the leaky pipes and claustrophobic ambience, a colourful but sinister presence forming around you. You learn of the captain’s failure and descent towards a desperate madness. (44 words)

Initial Outline:

For the past 30 years, an elegant passenger submarine/ship, along with her celebrated captain, has disappeared without a trace. After her whereabouts were tracked down you decide to investigate on your own. You dive down towards the submarine/ship using your drop pod and discover a seemingly abandoned scene. As you traverse through the submarine/ship’s chambers you begin to notice the abundance of rust, leaky pipes and the ever-growing claustrophobic ambience. Magazine covers and newspaper articles of the celebrated captain can be found scattered and hung around, confirming it is indeed the missing submarine from 30 years ago. All seems fairly expected, given how many years have passed, but you suddenly notice an oddity. The chambers are progressively becoming an organised chaos of colourful, clown-like paints and props. You begin to see crazed graffiti on the walls and senseless scribbles on the captain’s portraits. You hear an eerie and sinister hum coming from ahead, so you progress to investigate. You reach a chamber which happens to be a dead end and find a weird figure sitting on rusted chair, as it turns around to face you it is revealed to be an antique dummy with a peculiar nozzle on its face. Suddenly you are sprayed with a colourful gas which causes you to lose sight and begin to black out. As you black out you hear a maddening laugh coming towards you.

I think Art Deco, Deco-Punk and industrial Art-Deco look really cool which is why I've decided to focus on it for this project.

Really cool Art-Deco pieces:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/K84ax

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/V9LEZ

These pieces inspired me to create my own black marble floor in Designer which would fit an Art-Deco environment:

I may end up using this in the final set, who knows?

Art Deco Interior Key Elements

More concise moodboards:

Notes

Initial moodboards after doing research:

For my final project I plan on creating an atmospheric environment camera walk through (as opposed to a story driven animation film). My environment will have a small story of course, which will drive the environment creation process, but it will be kept to a minimum so I can focus on the environment itself. I plan on using Substance Painter, Substance Designer and Maya for this project.

I've decided to do a closed off indoor environment, I'm thinking either a submarine or ship. I want to do something grungy so something like an abandoned and rusted setting. I also want to incorporate an idea of a contrast, this will make my environment pop.

I recently watched the Joker film and I think that incorporating clowns into my piece will be interesting, the colourful nature of clowns will also contrast the dull nature of an abandoned room and I think this will be fun to explore

I think for the time being I have decided on submarines and clowns, I also want to incorporate a 1930's Art Deco style into my piece, I had a try at this style for my last project but it didn't go well, despite that I want to try it again because I'm more knowledgeable on the subject and I'll be doing way more research into it. I also think it's a cool style, an abandoned Deco-punk submarine with clowns sounds unique.