Toying with the concept of lockdown and being trapped within the confines of our own homes, I decided this week to explore the various different ways in which you can characterise and personify a building. As this film intends to be fully 3D animated, it begs the question of how I will create facial expressions and also bodily movements in order to sell the 12 principles of animation.
The image above shows the ‘The Square Head’, which presents a habitable sculpture which is also used as a library. This posed several different aesthetic considerations for me when going forward with my designs, which are:
How can you creatively interpret a habitat?
How can you personify a habitat?
Below I explored my initial moldboard with several images from the interest which sparked my interest aesthetically but also explored strongly with shape and colour from various places across the world. My particular interest in the below moldboard is accentuated in how Pixar personified their character for the film ‘Cars.’ By employing the physical shape of the car, they created expression by implementing the eyes within the front window and using a ‘screen’ to create eyelids and eyebrows, which convey emotional expressivity. For the cars, they have created mouths within the front of the vehicle instead of using the cars ‘hood,’ so to speak.
Applying this concept, I have created some initial ideas as to how a house will appear and interact as a ‘living’ object. While later on, I will potentially make some closer ideas about how eyes can be used within the space of classically presented windows and also how upper facial expressivity will be conveyed. For the time being, I have looked at mouth movements, which can be represented by the door opening and closing, to achieve mimesis. While this may cause a lack of emotive expression, I feel it will fit well within the confines of aesthetic personification in this context.
Regarding location-based designs, I wanted to try and explore how I could encapsulate specific stereotypes associated with locations and find a balance between architectural and characteristic traits. Below is the painting “Two Gentlemen Out Hunting” by Henry Barraud, which seems to capture the stereotypical English gentleman aesthetic I was trying to translate within a more ‘modern’ building to try and match the accents portrayed in my documentary into the character design.
Reflecting this, the below drawing indicates a building with a classic ‘monocle’ and a roof which somewhat resembles a top hat. I also wanted to try to draw parallels between English gentlemen smoking ‘pipes’ and the use of chimney smoke. However, while this concept leaves a lot of space for visual exploration, I feel it adds to a conversation about the animated documentary not being correctly represented. This play on stereotypical behaviours could add to a conversation that helps generalise and strip down the personas of the individual to an extent. I also feel that colonial historical links with the English gentry feel inappropriate in the space of this subjective documentary space.
Considering the modern architecture associated with cityscapes, with the below concept art, I wanted to explore how the skyscraper-type character would walk and interact, as both architecturally and visually, they are typically very stiff. I took heavy inspiration from 432 park-avenue in new york, as it is very tall but very skinny in structure which I thought would be interesting to toy around with. It is also rather iconic within the new york skyline, which sets its modern-day presence.
In order to see how this would work in 3D space, I wanted to create a rough 3D model to try and work out how the leg placement and overall body structure would work within Maya. I also wanted to start the initial rendering exploration and test the look of Arnold’s AI toon shader to create a more primary, simple aesthetic which adds a simplicity that is reminiscent of children’s animations.
Next Week’s Goals:
Going into next week, I would like to explore the various FX I may need when creating the animation, such as clouds and smoke, in order to explore Maya Bifrost systems, as well as find an aesthetic match.