Little Gloaming: Potions! - "Not everyone can afford a shop with walls..and stuff"

Potions Cart.

I drew this out of boredom, and realized it fits perfectly in my scene as not everyone can afford to buy a real shop, with walls and stuff. This will be a fun way of adding more and more things for me to model!

Btw...everything will be a bit more rustic looking, I draw too clean....I will show this in the modeling hopefully.

Little Gloaming: My Little Gloaming is coming to life...

Full concept.

After getting an idea of shapes and designs for the individual buildings, I need to work on the village as a whole.

This impression is lacking the clutter I need, but I like the enclosed look, I need to fill it with all sorts of rubbish and things. Getting the perspective right was joyous...I spent hours trying to work out why 2, 3 and 4 way perspective didn't work, when it was pointed out to me that it was basic one point I needed...yay me for over complicating things, I blame product design....but ah well, here it is...


Now it really needs all of the fog, duskiness...cobwebs, cracks...glowing lights, spiders, candles, falling embers, smoking chimneys etc etc!

Little Gloaming: More Concept...and more to come!

Photoshop Fun.

Ok, been as my project is 50% conceptualizing, as I'm purely modeling, texturing and lighting...I've been focused 100% on that. I'm hoping to block out my overall idea in Maya to give me an idea of flow and camera pretty soon. I'm also in the process of making my very long asset list! So here come the updates...

Playing with textured colour...like the metal.



General messings in photoshop...not liking the gloomy look as much as I thought :(

Little Gloaming: Mog and Broom...Little Gloaming's Finest Broom Makers.

Mog and Broom.

Here is the first visualisation of the broomstick store. I will need to draw this at another angle to illustrate the runway to the building (how else would you enter a broomstick store?!)...

I had a play around with building shapes, I considered adding a moving windmill part to it made from brooms as this would have been simple to animate, and have given the building some movement. I haven't ruled this idea out, but think it will need a bit more thought, especially in terms of modeling and construction.

The lanterns in this building are a bit more crucial as they will illuminate the landing platform, which would be dangerous to land on in the dark!

Little Gloaming: Margie's Cauldron's...One of the oldest stores in Little Gloaming,

Margie's Cauldrons.

I decided the best way to get my ideas onto paper, was to focus on each building individually to make it as imaginative as possible and give it my time. The village will also benefit from this way of construction, been as I want every building to be unique, only fitting together through the use of bridges, stairs, alleyways etc. The whole feel is very higgledy-piggledy and bodged together.

First off, I have my initial idea for the cauldron shop. I took the theme from the circularity of a cauldron, and after a bit of doodling it took the form of an old brick kiln! To give it some character I curved the lines, and with the addition of the smoking chimneys the building is beginning to feel like its coming to life.

Lanterns are a big part of my design, as they will be the main light source in my piece, I need to make sure they illuminate the focal points of the design whilst complimenting the environment as a whole.

I have added features that can be added through the use of textures. The blast in the roof is obviously an old potion brewing disaster; these little features will hopefully add some personality to my ideas.

PS: Sorry for the quality...

Little Gloaming: Playing with ideas..

Sketchbook Doodles.

1 - General props
2 - Food ideas for the food store...playing with hybrid vegetables...it'd be a bit boring if wizards only ate spuds.
3 - Playing with the "street" idea...buildings all over. (tiny 1 inch sketch, sorry for quality problems)

Very crude, basic vision of my village.

Basic Design

This is a very simple thumbnail I blew up and played with in photoshop. I have decided its a nice concept, but I'm after a bit more life out of the buildings individually. However, I do like the relationships between the buildings. Its lacking the cluttered look I'm after, so I have moved away from this style a little, which I'll show in my next post. The colour is just a brief colouring job in photoshop, this isn't the final concept at all.

The Village People

Gloamings

Ok...bizarre post, but I'm not just creating a village, I'm creating an environment, and it has to feel real. This village needs to be inhabited by people...to whom I will refer to as my "Gloamings" :D

I won't be using characters in my piece, but felt it necessary to consider them, to aid better design.

The concept of these people so far:

Magical Folk
Traditional Attire - Cloaks
Odd names!
Short and fiesty
Olde Worlde

Concept

Ok, I have had one picture in the pipeline for a while (I'll upload asap), but after a lot of thought, I need to make this project more me. I have had the sketch pad out all day, and have been putting together some shapes for each building I have listed. Its coming along great, and I have basically been sketching out some bits and bobs so I can focus individually on each building.

These buildings/features include:

• Wand Shop
• Broomstick Store
• Cauldron Shop
• Stationary Store (quills, etc)
• Food Store
• Sweet Shop
• Book Store
• Rundown Shops
• Art Gallery
• Stairways
• Bridges
• Random Doors
• Tunnels

These ideas are brimming out of my brain, so the next few posts should be frantic scribbles!

The general atmosphere:

• Lit lanterns.
• The time of day when the sun starts to set and it smells like night time, all the windows look really warm and cosy inside, with glowing light.
• Embers floating through the air.
• Smoke chugging out of the chimneys.
• Slight fog/mist, but nothing eerie.
• Higeldy-Pigeldy buildings all fighting for space. (Like when plants fight for sunlight!)
• Alleyways, bridges and stairs appearing from all over, joining anything and everything.

Semester A - Time Management

Time Management

This is how I plan to spend my time doing the pre-production side of my modelling and design.

Ahem...

Hello and welcome to the construction of Little Gloaming!

This blog is going to follow the journey of my third year project for my BA Hons in Animation. I have chosen to specialize in environmental design and modeling to create a mise-en-scene. I will thoroughly design my little village with concept and architectural drawings, which I will then take into maya to model and texture. I hope to create an immersive and fully atmospheric part of this village as a focus on environmental design. This will be created with the use of particles and lighting alongside the modeling techniques I will need to employ.