FMP | VISUAL STYLE

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As this piece is located in the Victorian era - I will be using period images as reference - in particular, early photography and the very first films.
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I really like the quality of these prints, especially the bleached, blurred vignette that is so synonymous with the period.
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Motion references will be very early cinema - not only the aesthetic that happened as a consequence of the equipment, but also the style of montage storytelling pre-sound.
A favourite example is that of the abstract sequences of the surrealist film Un Chien Andalou by Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali



Another contextual reference (though more contemporary) is the work of the Brothers Quay, in particular the largely live-action Institute Benjementa, which adopts a similar abstract montage structure and also a similar dream-like quality

FMP | STRUCTURE

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The intro sequnce will comprise 2 parts, distinguished by seperate soundtracks

PART 1 | LIFE CYCLE
Will show images of mourning (two coffins side-by-side, one of which belongs to "Frau Woost" - the real life murder victim of Johann Christian Woyzeck) accompanied by a soothing, music-box lullaby (echoing the overall conceit of being alone surrounded by death - before we know it's just a cruel story)





PART 2 | RHYTHM OF LIFE
In part a reference to the era of the mechanism, in part reference to Tom Waits' rhythm driven music, a reference to the beating heart of humanity and also a device to derive tension and increase expectation - a rhythmic montage of mechanisms in the parlour room: Metronome, gramophone, grandfather clock, turning cogs in big close up, that ends with the needle dropping on the gramophone record, which begins to play Tom Waits' Children's Story.



Next, the camera will move amongst the many curious specimins in the display cabinets until the line "...there was a poor child", where the camera rests on the perfectly preserved upright corpse of a little boy in a bell jar.

FMP | 3D ANIMATION

JOJO IN THE STARS | Marc Craste
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GUINNESS: SECONDS FROM GREATNESS | Marc Craste
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AH | Supinfocom collective
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FMP | MATTE PAINTING

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A matte painting is a painted representation of a landscape, set, or distant location that allows filmmakers to create the illusion of an environment that would otherwise be too expensive to build or visit. Historically, matte painters and film technicians have used various techniques to combine a matte-painted image with live-action footage. At its best, depending on the skill levels of the artists and technicians, the effect is "seamless" and creates environments that would otherwise be impossible to film.
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The government warehouse in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) was painted on glass by Michael Pangrazio and combined with live-action footage of a government worker, pushing his cargo up the center aisle.
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I know that digital matte painting is used in the production of 3D animation but at this stage I'm not sure to what extent and in what capacity - how much is accurately modeled and textured and how much is matte painted - ? I guess it depends on how much lateral movement there will be and proximity to the camera.

I decided to jump in and do a few visual tests. I knew that I wanted to use locations where the architecture that would have been around in Victorian times is still in place and just remove all traces of time since - phone boxes, bus stops, street signs, etc. First I took some quick photos of various buildings around London; below is Burlington Arcade on Piccadilly and Admiralty Arch on The Mall - and 'painted' directly onto them in Photoshop.
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Original

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Matte painting

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Original

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Matte painting

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A notable expert in this field is David Luong.
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The process of introducing these images into 3D scenes is called camera mapping and involves 'projecting' the image onto basic geometric shapes that a camera can navigate, generating the illusion of 3D space. Grabbing a couple of images from iPhoto, I tested the technique.



It works fine on simple, flat planes but falls down when there is significant detail in the scene, like the hand rails. The test below in a tunnel is more successful because there are no extruding objects.



In terms of where to use this technique in the production process, I think it would be on flat planes in the middle distance - like buildings, or in a production situation when there is little or no camera movement. An extremely successful example of this is Morgenrot by Jeff Desom, which uses archive photographs of New York streets and buildings for mapping and composites 3D elements and adds shadow casting lights.


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In conclusion, it seems that because I want total freedom of movement around my Victorian collectors parlour room, I will need to model each object in the room - walls, floor, lights, fireplace, everything! Who said this was going to be easy...

FMP | ARTWORKING TEXTURE

I've planned that the intro sequence concludes with a gramophone needle dropping on to a record with Woyzeck on the label. This is my process:
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Start with a scan of an old 7" single

Remove the existing label

Replace with scanned old and stained piece of paper

Add another stained paper scan - tea on kitchen paper

Drop in title and 'composer' in period style font - Cleaver's Juvenia Heavy

Drop in cropped illustration by John Tenniel from the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Paint in some colour on a new layer

Create a fancy pattern in Illustrator and 'place' smart object into Photoshop

Apply Bevel layer style to decorative pattern

Paint in some dirt and add some detail text around edge

Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (-25 saturation) in front of all layers and paint in some dirty thumb marks and brush erase signs of wear

Add hand written names of Children's Story writers Waits and Brennan and album name

Fade the ink a bit at random

FMP | 3D MODELING

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Having previously modeled only the most basic of objects I've got a lot of learning to get through. Starting in the obvious place: tutorials and textbooks - big thick ones and lots of them!

I started the modeling with what will be the centre-piece to the intro sequence: a Victorian gramophone. Reference image for modeling:



After a lot of trial and error as to which tools are most effective in creating each of the individual components (as with any complex computer software, there are many different methods of achieving approximately the same outcome - some are quicker, some are more accurate) - I think I've managed something that looks like a gramophone...

Straight render - no texture + 2 fill lights


Modeling screenshot - see how many components (on right of picture) has gone into building the gramophone! The devil is in the detail!

Unfortunately I didn't document this construction process - safe to say: took ages, but loads of fun and really rewarding.

Texturing the record in 3D


A great thing about texture in 3D software is the ability to generate the illusion of bumps, raised areas, indentations on the surface of objects without having to model them. This is done in the material editor by applying a 'bump' map. Above is the 2D photoshop artwork I have made for the record. Below is a circular plane primitive in 3D with the Photoshop image applyed in the colour channel and with seperately created 'bump' image that tells the software where is raised and where is indented. This is done using greyscale: black is raised, white is indented, with all shades in between. So far, I've found that this effect works best with extreme contrast on the bump image.



'Bump' map for the record label texture and scratches

Decorating the gramophone panels -
Another contextual reference that I cannot resist is Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Not only is it Victorian but the narrative of a small child being plunged into an unfamiliar world has parallels with our Children's Story. I thought that this reference could be incorporated visually in some way, and I decided to use the iconic original illustrations by John Tenniel as decoration (one used on the gramophone record above) on the base panels of the gramophone - of which there are six, including the panel with the handle.



Here is a selection of other models that have been built in the same way as the gramophone, but awaiting texture...



Bell jar test. I think Bell jars will feature quite heavily in this piece, so I'm testing different glass materials and all the numerous adjustable parameters - espececially refraction and density.
I quite like the effect generated here when a light is placed inside the bell jar casting internal shadows.


Metronome - this will feature in the second montage sequence "rhythm of life"
Render

FMP | TEST VISUALS

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TEST