Once we got a better idea of how our story was going to work with the help of our early storyboards, both mine and Lyndsey’s can be seen this in this post. We tried to refine the idea and try to make the storyline more clear from our regular feedback from lecturers. Lyndsey’s final storyboard was the basis for our 3D pre-vis seen below:
The last scene from storyboard where the sprites decorate the forest would also be included.
I was anxious to get the 3D pre vis started so we would have something to show and work from early on. We assigned each other a few scenes that we would be working on for the project. I was assigned the very first shot as well as shots 5 + 6 of the close up of two sprites attacking each other, then turning to look at the camera. These were my final pre-vis playblasts for these shots:
I modelled the pre-vis assets for both the environment as well as the characters for everyone to be able to use for their own shots. I was really surprised to find myself completing my shots for the pre-vis so quickly as I was worried about my skill in animating in 3D but it was more intuitive to me than 2D. I think my familiarity with the software also really helped in creating the assets and using the interface to quickly make my parts of the pre-vis.
When I was creating the pre-vis, I found this video really helpful in managing my expectations for how a 3D pre-vis should look, and it really helped my confidence in getting started on producing my pre-vis shots. The fact that the assets and character models were so simple in their shapes and the rough animation demystified the process.
This was our final 3D pre-vis with everyone’s scenes included:
We went back and forth quite a few times after receiving feedback from lecturers on improving the clarity of what’s happening in the scenes. I still think the clarity of the story is a bit murky and It was hard to convey in the pre-vis but the sprites are meant to work together and get along once they realise after the candle is knocked down, the weapons from the two sides/tribes actually when combined generate light. Giving them common ground and a reason to end their war and replace the candle with crystals made from their weapons.