Research – Finished pretty much – Carried out primarily and secondary, internet, as well as going to places to cover the brief
Majority completed as of 11/11/2010
Initial Idea – Ye Olde London. Prior / just before the start of the Black Death Plague.
Idea finalised, rat navigating through a street in london dodging various obstacles, rats eye POV. Crossover to a character POV when rat dies / goes out of shot.
Completed as of 11/11/2010
Environmental thought – Refine how the environment is going to look, how it's going to feel, how the character sounds / music / feel / atmosphere is going to look and feel.
Initial Sketches – Draw poses of the character / rat, as well as the street / building with all objects / thought out angles / shots– Carried out via drawing tablet. – To be completed by 20/11/2010
Basic model - Maya
Refined Model – Maya
Rigging - Maya
Texture – Maya <- All of which given a time scale of 4-5 weeks.
Floor patterns from that era too, apparently (confirmed) some places in London still have these floors.
Greater example of the irregular built floors, a common build design from houses / designs from the era.
History suggests (confirmed) that particular streets of that era were actually so close that you could virtually shake your neighbours hands, straight from the comfort of your own window.
Great texture for us to replicate.
Lovely stone wall.
Here upwards photographs taken by both Lily and Sarah.
Like the houses in rochester (taken by lily and sarah) The main thing to note about these buildings is that they all have floors protruding from the first. So, coming out of the map, being unbalanced.
Archway - Door. Patterns from that particular era.
Following pictures taken by Oly Walters.
So, whilst I went to the zoo with Gerome, Oly and Dominique, Lily and Sarah went too.... Rochester! Why? You'll soon find out. Later on during the day Oly went to the London museum, to gather more information / Research.
Era – Prior to the Black Death / renaissance. London
Point of View (POV) of the character. As sprung from the initial idea of a character running through a collapsing building (initial concept.) Basic idea below:
It seems, after much discussion, that we are going to have a rat (cause of the black death) roam this particular street in London. Rats point of view. This rat is going to roaming, dodging obstacles such as people throwing their waste of out windows, shrieks from nearby people, or even feet trying to stamp on it, as well as waste on that actual floor itself. That’s the basic concept.
Couple images of the sort of theme / look we're basing on from a STARTING point:
At this point this needs to be further developed and looked at, through the use of a storyboard / animatic which is our next step; after research of course.
To elaborate: This is set prior to the Black Death Era in Britain. People are poor, hygiene is ridiculously bad, clothes are pretty much rags and drapery, unwashed. Rich people did not really reside in London at this period in time.
Are we doing this prior to? Or during? Or as it started?
The Black Death can appear in 3 forms, each one more deadly than the previous form.
The bubonic plague...
...was the most common form of Black Death. The symptoms were enlarged and inflamed lymph nodes, pretty much in the most awkward places: the crotch, armpit, and the neck. The term 'bubonic' refers to the ‘characteristic bubo or enlarged lymphatic gland’. People infected with the disease suffered from headaches, nausea, aching joints, fever of 101-105 degrees (Fahrenheit) vomiting and a general feeling of illness. Symptoms generally took around 4 days average to show themselves.
The pneumonic plague...
...was the second most commonly seen form of the Black Death. ‘The pneumonic and the septicaemia plague were probably seen less then the bubonic plague because the victims often died before they could reach other places’
The death rate for the pneumonic plague was 90-95% (if treated today the mortality rate would be 5-10%). This plague infected the lungs. Symptoms included saliva mixed with blood and mucus. When the disease progresses, the ‘sputum’ (all the crap I just previously explained) became water-like and bright red.
The septicemic plague was the most rare form of all. The mortality was close to 100% (even today there is no treatment.) To put it simply, this disease ‘keels mofos’.
‘The plague reached London in autumn 1348. According to the contemporary Robert of Avesbury. London, as the country's largest city, had all the concomitant problems of overcrowding and poor sanitation. The Thames was a polluted mess and cesspits within the city were a constant source of contamination.
Attempts to alleviate the sanitation problem were not helped by the Black Death itself. In 1349, the King remonstrated with the town council about the state of the streets. The council replied that it could do nothing on account of the fact that all of its street cleaners had died of the plague.' <- lolz
“A special warning has to be made about early epidemics of the "plague", for example in Greek or Roman history or in the Bible - these are usually not well enough documented to make any definite statement about the nature of the disease; the usage of the name stems from the early modern time, when the plague was the only disease known to cause massively killing epidemics."
Many scientists believe that there was an outbreak of bubonic plague in the 6th century, starting in Africa and moving to Constantinople and the rest of the Byzantine Empire.
Most scientists believe that the Black Death in the 14th century was an outbreak of bubonic plague. However, other theories have now been advanced, suggesting that the Black Death may have been an outbreak of some other disease, possibly a hemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola, or anthrax.
The Great Plague of 1665 in London is also generally believed to have been an outbreak of bubonic plague.
After a localised outbreak in Provence in southern France in 1720-1721, Europe suffered no more such attacks of plague, though the disease remained virulent in other regions, killing upwards of ten million in India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries according to some estimates.
The last rat-borne epidemic in the United States occurred in Los Angeles, California in 1924-1925.”
So that’s that sorted.
(INSERT REST OF THE STUFF I NEED TO TYPE UP)
Questions to be answered next group meeting. – Monday 15th November.
Colour - Self explanatory. Why are the colours we're using there in the first place? After discussion the overall feel of this is going to be moody. So darkish, cold to a degree, messy etc. This can obviously be conveyed by using dark colour colours or less saturated colours to show age / deterioration.
What relevance do they have to the scene?
What effects do they have on the environment, as well as the mood and atmosphere of the environment?
How will colour help us to convey specific mood changes / atmospheric effects as well as how it could be used to indirectly link symbolism.
How awesome is the final project going to be?
We will be sort of replicating a real place so it should have a feel of the place we're going to replicate.
How will that actually affect our final outcome?
How well is this going to be pulled off?
What is the final finished detail of the project going to be?
What is appropriate animation? Simply put, necessary animation. Why animate anything that the camera is not going to see? Why make a bird do a back flip followed by a running jump if the original intention was for it to just fly away? Random? Yes, but there are contexts for these things. It's all appropriate if it fits with what is required.
What is the purpose of light?
Both literally and how it affects an environment / mood of a character / environment. How can we use light to correctly convey various viewpoints of the audience?
How can we use light to portray a sense of isolation / suspense / power / beauty / lolage?
John Snow Facts
Dr John Snow (1813-1858, yes, out of our period of time but read on) was a famous physician of his time. He was also recognised as a leader in the development of anaesthesia! Well in Britain obviously. It is also said as well that he is one of the founders of epidemiology.
“Epidemiology is the study of patterns of health and illness and associated factors at the population level” – Source: www.google.com/define:
Due to his studies in toxicology, John Snow developed an interest in anaesthesia and cholera, which led to a theory on the spread of the cholera poison in water. It seems he was correct, and because of this, a pub was named after him.
This all happened around 1838 – quite a few hundred years after the black death incident, however, the city streets were still relatively bad, imagine how bad they must’ve been prior to the plague? We can use this as an incentive to correctly design our street based on factual evidence.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=64sDijuQIvUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=clothing+in+london+1350&source=bl&ots=Eo2JLusTtX&sig=qz4ii8R1cdXwXdZtwCGDpL3jYu4&hl=en&ei=5uzaTOagJ4yEhQfPkqHQAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&sqi=2&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=clothing%20in%20london%201350&f=false <- a handy little website which pretty much shows 80% of a book they’re selling. No idea why.
Anyway, from there it was pretty easy to get a glimpse / insight to clothing of that era, and to put it simply, one word:
Fable.
Drapery, cloaks, rags, is pretty much what it is. People also carried their own cutlery so we could actually show cutlery on trouser legs and so forth.
Due to the fact that fable is pretty much a very good insight for us (same sort of era)
“A good concept should be a basic idea, imbued with a great atmosphere.” – The making of Fable 2
Everyone should watch these two videos as they’re quite informative + touch on aspects we also need to touch on.
WE SHOULD TOTALLY MAKE A DOCUMENTARY VIDEO TOO! TICKS ASSESSMENT CRITERIA 1-4 INSTANTLY!
Music – We also need to think about music, and sounds. How do we want the atmosphere to be? Bear in mind, we have to compose this ourselves (not a problem, me and gerome can do it) but at some point after during the production Id like to take you guys to mehhuuse and make the music. You all have fable, you all know what sort of sounds would be good, so fill me in :D
<- the strings in this particular one are quick, staccato - in common old cartoons are used to illustrate movement of a small animal, or light steps from big animals / characters, OR to illustrate a chase scene. Basically anything fast paced too. :P
We should also look at things like warnings to the other londoners, things like threats, as in heads on poles and things like that, even if we dont use it, we always have it there to say we looked further into the era then just what a street looks like.
Lily, is there any chance you can save all the images onto a memory stick as my Internet has decided to stop working so until I get sent a new router I'm doomed to Internet cafes. I can then steal them off you at uni. I'm trying to find history books on the black death and looking brought old history textbooks.
What I did find out is that gates were a sign of wealth and they were used to protect manor houses. Old London did not have gates, especially in the areas full of poverty, because there was nothing worth protecting.
I don't know whether we still want the gates in our environment but it would make it historically incorrect.
Deon I did post up the pics, they are just riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight at the bottom cos facebook is GAY! and wont let you group stuff together
I have that pic too Dom....somewhere...man I need to sort this laptop out lol (ps. I just got to bowerstone in Fable3...aaaaah memories of the market :P)
The foul conditions was as true of Bristol as it was of any other medieval town, if not more so because of its size and importance. People had a tendency to empty their chamberpots out of their windows into the street. Many houses owned their own pigs, which were supposed to be grazed outside the city walls, but were often allowed to roam the streets in search of food. Most townsfolk drew their water from the river, which was also used for industrial purposes by the local brewers, who were heavily regulated to prevent their fouling the water.
Taken from the BBC site. I'm gathering this is the sort of conditions we're going for? And also, taken from one of the books I borrowed from the library:
It was not an urban disease but it flourished in urban conditions; it was transmitted by rats, living in the straw and thatch of medieval dwellings, as as by close respiratory proximity.' p89
TEAM ALPHA SUPER AWESOME MEGA COOL DYNAMITE WOLF or other combinations
Project Brief
For this project you will be working in teams of four of five students. You will all be working towards a final collaborative short film but will have the opportunity to fulfil clear and separate roles within the team.
- You will be working to create an animated environment
- You will be collaborating with the other animators in your team, but research, and your drawn responses to that research.
- Your research will form the starting point for your work.
This environment will be modelled in 3D, UV mapped, textured, and lit based upon the research of materials, architectural and aesthetic motifs, in order to create a visually consistent and coherent digital environment that will contain animated elements as well as providing an arena to support animation and interaction by characters.
Your environments by virtue of their virtuality are unreal, they will be designed from a starting point of real world research and drawing. You will be expected to provide visual and contextual evidence to support the development of your designs. This research will consist of practical site visits such as the drawing trips to London based venues and associated drawing and photography, as well as academic research via the web and the LRC.
This environment must demonstrate integral animation, it could be mechanical such as machinery, doors, windows, windmills etc, or it could be more organic, and atmospheric, such as the effects of wind on plants, weather conditions, etc. It could be a much more long term animation to show the effect of years passing, rather than minutes. For those of you who can focus upon contextualising the designed environment by populating it with characters using that environment, it may be that the environment is being used in an unintended or unexpected way that has evolved through public interaction with the space.
Animations
- Changes over time
- Changes in weather or lighting
- Changes in use of the environment
Visual Aesthetic
- A historical period
- An artistic movement
- A geographic or cultural idiom
Blogged design journal is needed.
Things to focus on
-Understand how lighting and colour affect the appearance and mood of an environment.
-Reflection upon, and analysis of, individual performance in a group context.
- Analysis and replication of a real environment of implementation of a designed environment using 3D visualisation software.
-Build a computer generated environment, using modelling texturing, lighting and character interaction to a consistent visual aesthetic.
-Contribute successfully to a collaborative visual aesthetic.
Assessment criteria
- Evidence of the identification and analysis of the aspects of colour, shape and light that contribute to the successful simulation of a particular environment.
Colour - Self explanatory. Why are the colours we're using there in the first place? What relevance do they have to the scene. What effects do they have on the environment, as well as the mood and atmosphere of the environment. How will colour help us to convey specific mood changes / atmospheric effects as well as how it could be used to indirectly link symbolism.
- Evidence of reflection on the student’s personal contribution to the project.
GUYS. SPECIFICALLY AS THIS SAYS. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTION. MAKE SURE EVERYONE IS AWARE OF WHAT THEY CONTRIBUTE TOWARDS THE GROUP AS IT WILL CONTRIBUTE TOWARDS YOUR FINAL GRADE. BEING SAID, DO NOT TRY TO STEAL OR CLAIM SHARED IDEAS AS ONES OWN. THIS IS AN ASSESSMENT CRITERIA!
- The degree to which the CGI environment represents a successful replication of a real environment or implantation of a designed environment.
How awesome is the final project going to be? We will be sort of replicating a real place so it should have a feel of the place we're going to replicate. How will that actually affect our final outcome? How well is this going to be pulled off? What is the final finished detail of the project going to be?
- The consistency of the styling of the environment.
How correct is the environment that we're making? Remember, no mindfucks. Make sure that all this stuff has / currently exists, or is at the VERY least extremely feasible to create. How well does this fit into the theme of what we're doing?
- The degree to which the lighting of the environment is appropriate.
What is the purpose of light? Both literally and how it affects an environment / mood of a character / environment. How can we use light to correctly convey various viewpoints of the audience? How can we use light to portray a sense of isolation / suspense / power / beauty?
- The degree to which the environment is used to successfully demonstrate appropriate animation.
What is appropriate animation? Simply put, neccessary animation. Why animate anything that the camera is not going to see? Why make a bird do a backflip followed by a running jump if the original intention was for it to just fly away? Random? Yes, but there are contexts for these things. It's all appropriate if it fits with what is required.
Those are some of the best ones ive found so far, I'll post a few more when my internet likes me. I can email people the images I found the other day if they want me to, just let me know :)
Sorry, I realised I linked the same video twice. Failure = going straight to grandma's house, success = straying off the path and finding their own wolves
Ruby's 'success' ending in The Path. This occurs if you head off the path and encounter the 'wolf'. These videos were all taken after collecting all 34 items; I'm assuming it's a bug that they say '0/3' at the end for items collected / rooms unlocked (in fact each character has between 7 and 12 ite
Thankyou for the fable 3 post. I get what you mean and I like the idea. This may sous stupid but dickens world in Chatham could also be a possible trip. It has loads of old English houses and old English atmosphere.
Ruby's 'failure' ending in The Path. This occurs if you head directly to Grandma's house without leaving the path (or leave the path, later return to it, and go to Grandma's house).
The Path is basically a group of sisters who individually have to visit grandma's house. However, it's up to the player on whether you want to send them straight to the house or to wonder and get 'lost'. The game suggests you do the latter. It's generally about all girls reaching puberty and womanhood while also losing innocence. For those that knows a bit behind 'Little Red Riding Hood' one of the meanings suggested behind the story for 'don't stray off the path' is basically promiscuity and the dangerous wolf represents men. I just found it interesting.
There is one rule in the game. And it needs to be broken. There is one goal. And when you attain it, you die. Six sisters live in an apartment in the city. One by one their mother sends them on an errand to their grandmother, who is sick and bedridden.
