There was not a task for us to complete, but this meant we would continue with our creature’s designs and start to work out how we want to pose and block out our shot of the creature. For this I took some of my composition research from my animation strategies project to help work out which spot in the old water mills would work best for my creature. For this I had to think about what emotion and purpose my creature gives off which intern is this very stoic feel so I decided to get a few rough screen shots from the down up in the vain of the opening to the lion king which in my opinion sold this sense of pride the best.I also did a few with the base lighting of the world and looked for some way for the creature to be at the center of the composition like the doorway and the hole in the roof where the light is coming through so it can easily draw attention to the creature. This is down to the rule of thirds which helps with balancing the scene to a degree which is what I am looking for in the end. I did find a good article from the site backstage where they do go over some more camera techniques like the blocking where they go in-depth to describe this process as “blocking can convey emotions, story beats, and mood beyond just where the person is standing.” These are useful in this potin because I am thinking about what each pose I have does communicate about the creature. I do think some underlighting within the water would work, which I think can be done by editing the texture and emissions on the water itself, but I do think I need to test this before moving any further. Though I am happy with my second pose where it gives you a good enough view of the world as well as the creature in the center with the main light source directly bouncing off it. I also like the depth of the piece with the foliage in the foreground helping push it further.
For my creature, the feedback was positive, and I still had to re do some of the fibers on the back of the legs as unfortunately they got erased (by accident). The main part of the feedback was to do a final pass at sharpening the stone skin of the creature by using the dynamic trim brush to smooth out and in turn shape any edge, so it does not look too blobby. This can also be said about the moss on the creature. I may take another pass at them in the meantime but by next Monday I should be at the texturing phase of the project, so I am on track for my deadline which is good to hear. Overall, I am pleased with how the creature is turning out though I am having some trouble when it comes to getting the us into substance and working as they should, but I am aware that this problem is an easy fix. The other thing which I am worried about would be the cracks in the body of my creature and how to get them to stand out that bit more. I do think that this problem could be fixed by testing out some of the texture on these spot to see if I can bring them out that way.
