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

8th June - Musica

Music refernce had to be in there. I found a portrait, by Joseph Wright, of a couple (and a Bird?!) in which the man is holding a flute.

This is where I got the idea to have this 'old' object transform into a new "musical" instrument/ player.

7th June - Scanning stuff

Scanned a lot of stuff for blog (then deleted it all!).

This was actually the very first image I sketched in my note pad of what the character would looked like.

There have been a few changes, but the core look is still the same.

6th June - Flight Path

OK

After solving the bellows on the table problem. By literally throwing it away, I mapped out the overall flight path of the Bird in the room.

Kept the Bird's trajectory as it has always been.

Operating on the 'Rule of Thirds', which Steve likes. One of the main reasons why I got rid of the tree stump tranformation scene outside.

5th June - Xtra work

The Scientist's table is to over-crowded with objects, so I had to improvise.

To remove the bellows from the table, I animated a quick grab by the character, he then throws it at the Bird, it then lands on the floor, where it will stay for the duration.

This was essential to clear the way for the Bird to fly to the Crystal Ball.

4th June - Animated bird stuff

Started the bird scenes (realised these will be the hardest) not including all wing beats or cycles.
Plotted rough bird trajectory around room, so as to always have clear flight path.


Will I make it? Will have to speak to Steve tomo'.

I think the Tree will get the chop, for the looming deadline!

3rd June - Bird Scaling

Kevin helped me re-scale the bird character , so as not to suffer yesterdays importing problems.

GREAT SUCCESS

Started animating (??!!!!!) the bird. Especially tried to master the 'Phoenix rising' scene.

Latter half of the day, Kevin and I finished the bellows I had started a long time ago.

Fairly productive day, except some of the scenes I had animated yesterday, had to be tweaked to suit the bellows and bird, which were now part of the scenes.

AAAAggggggghhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

2nd June - Importing problems

Started to import character into the room environment. Had MAJOR teething problems as everything was not to scale. So I had to import the import the scene and scale to the scientist character...

Took a very long time...

Ditto for the bird.

1st June - Materials

Wahay!!!

Found some material I had left over from an interior design project. What I needed was still there... some red velvet that I had used to sew cushions for a series of bar stools.

In this case the velvet will be used as the jacket for the protagonist.

There was aslo some red-ish felt that I had considered, but it was a bit too bright.

Also have some green (favourite colour) velvet, which I will try to incorporate into the interior of the protagonist's laboratory.

31st May - Icons and Parchment

Created a set of pixelated logo's for the computer workstation and mp3 player brand. I intend to stick it discreetly on the computer, but on the screen of the mp3 player in a larger size.

Dug out some of my "homemade" parchment paper, which I had made a while ago. Also found some other paper stuff that may come in handy. Will probably scan them all in.

30th May - Good Day (Tree Stuff)

In Kevin's lecture about lighting and colour, I asked questions related to making candle light flicker, in Maya.

Ultimately would like to have that as a feature in the scientist's room, only if I have time which is running out.

Madeleine (Tree Expert), was kind enough to model a tree for me in Maya. I described what I would want it to look like. I wasn't sure about Madeleine's idea of the tree splitting into two parts at it's peak. Told her that it looked like a banana peeling.

Drew something more appropriate where the branches look like arms or horns.

For my other problem; Juliana showed Madeleine and I how to grow trees, bushes and flowers in Maya, it's a built-in feature. Although I won't use it as the main tree, I will use the feature for background scenery.
Will have to figure out how to make the tree roots grow from beneath the earth and follow a path. Not too sure if this can be added for the deadline.

While modelling the tree, Maddy suggested an apple to be added.

DING! [Light Bulb]

Told her,"that was always going to be my intention."

Madeleine also understood the idea about the 'Tree of Knowledge', the 'Apple' and how knowledge is considered evil. Impressive.

Rather chuffed that Maddy understood "it". Love that, when I communicate ideas with like-minds, without too much chit-chat [Bob Hoskins lied to me - talk is overated].

When Maddy came to the tree base, we decided to raise the roots and have them extend away from the stump, so they can be more visible.
Madeleine mentioned the significance of the three large roots at the tree's base.
Yggdrasil Roots in Norse Mythology and what it represents.

The latter half of the day consisted of me following Steve's 'Building a Bird in Maya' PDF reference tutorial.
I changed certain aspects of the design and rig, so as to resemble the bird being experimented on in the Joseph Wright painting.

29th May - Watch the birdie

Started modelling the Bird characters component parts in Maya.



The modelled Bird resembles the bird in the portrait.


Should have them ready for tomorrow.

Kello World

Blog created - check

An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump - Joseph Wright (1768)

NG Link