Landscape Setting

In Wright's latter years he turned from portraiture, to landscape art, which proved to be very lucrative. So Joseph Wright ony did a series of lanscape art.

For this reason, there is a landscape picture in his laboratory. This is symbolic of his future career in art, and is a gateway to outside and nature.

Ultimately this will lead to the Tree outside with all the branches, linking to inventions and feats of engineering. Where the animation will end.

For now, the Bird and Scientist will leap into the landscape painting and transform it into a graphic portrait of the two characters in harmony.

Blakey!!!

I knew that I would use some British poetry, preferably from the Romantic period, for a voice over/ narrative. This would help push the animation along, and support any minor sound effects. So I narrowed them down to a choice between Yeats and Blake.

Trawling through my personal books and books from the local library, took a while.

But finally, as if by fate, I found the perfect poem on the internet:

A Poison Tree by William Blake

I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I water'd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright;
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine,

And into my garden stole
When the night had veil'd the pole:
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretch'd beneath the tree.

Uncanny! The poem's start 3rd and 4th verses, are exactly like my animation. Ending how, my animation ends, at the bottom of the tree.

Apparently it is all about the Tree of Knowledge and Good and Evil. Very dark...

Rig

Made a few quick sketches to show the style of the character and the double rig created.

Faces

The final part that needs to be done is the importing of a variety of images, both stills and movies for the facial expressions. I will probably do them in Flash and import them as mini movies onto the scientists head.

The facial expression would start off more illustrative style, but as the the animation progresses, his face becomes less expressive and more robotic.

Bellows

The last object the scientist interacts with was completed. It was actually modelled at the start of the project, but was left half done.

Inventory

Primary Objects
Quill Pen and Pot
Crystal Ball
Flute
Room

Secondary Objects
Mont Blanc Pen/ Mobile Phone
Computer System
MP3 Player

Furniture

Chair, Table, Bird Bowl, Cork, Bellows, Bird Cage, Parchment, Picture, Candle, Apple, Key, Stool,

Outside

Mechanical Tree, Basic Trees, Apple Flower, Shrubs, Bushes

9th June - Modern Objects

Original Macintosh

IPod

Mobile Phone