Unit 2: Secret Lairs Final Crit

Secret Lair Final Crit 13.12.13

Secret Lairs: Avian Dictator Final Render

Secret Lairs: Illustrated Character Biography

Illustrated Character Biography: Avian Dictator

Secret Lair: Hero Prop & Scene Final Concept Art

Hero Prop final concept: Statue Head



Scene final concept: Temple

Avian Dictator Secret Lair Progress

Progress on my Temple scene, originally went for a boxed area but found this limited my space too much.

I modeled the beams to be more curved which opened up more space for me. I also removed some of the pillars as it felt too cluttered. Modeled the statue head and added it into the scene. The bird skulls are currently being modeled on the side whilst I UV map and get the textures down.

Secret Lair: Orthographic Views [Thumbnails 32-41]

Decided to make the Statue Head the Hero Prop for my scene. This is currently getting modeled, although I'm not entirely sure how well this is going to work.

I also decided to make orthographic views for other props in my scene to help me model.

Secret Lair: Avian Dictator development

To be perfectly honest, I've slightly been dreading this. Mainly because I've been worried how on earth I'll be able to incorporate dictatorship without being ridiculously generic.

Where dictatorship is involved you tend to see very strict, open halls with banners sprawled everywhere with the emblem of the nation - a trope I nearly fell into before I spoke to Jordan this Monday. 

We discussed that I would need to incorporate these ideas without getting caught up in the typicalities of the trope - and also involve the avian aspect as well. 

So instead of creating an environment for humans with an bird-like touch, I went opposite. 

Below I painted the environment I suspect my avian dictator to live in (the location of the lair being in an underground cavern in which the giant tree's roots created/made a path to...which is currently being developed)

I tried to incorporate uniformality in the form of the identical birdhouses, and the source of power/leadership being focused at the tree in the center. 

No.1 is the original without any colour filters and messing around with the hue and saturation like in 2&3. 

After deciding on the type of environment my character will possibly be based in, I was able to design him a bit easier:

Seeing as their living in a woodland I decided on a more tribal/elder-look for my character. 

I will have thumbnails of the secret lair and hero prop ready for later. I would love to hear your views on this take of my avian dictator!

Secret Lair Thumbnails 5-31

Collection of thumbnails from pre-OGR and after.

These I messed around with the hue and saturation for different highlights, however this design has had lots of changes since.

Secret Lair: Temple block out

I had a quick play around in Maya today to try and get to grips with how I want things placed. Will probably work with the placement of the outer pillars more. I also collected a few screenshots of different perspectives to do some overlays to get more of an idea of how I want this shot as well as the lighting.

Secret Lair: Pillar base model

Secret Lair OGR 20/11/2013

Secret Lair OGR 20/11/2013 by Gemma Titchmarsh

Secret Lair: Avian Dictator Development 2

After speaking to Jordan regarding my previous idea, I realised that it brought a lot of limitations to what I'd be able to do for a Secret Lair. After discussing it a bit more his advice was to focus completely on the avian aspect, with a dictator touch to it.

My first thought for the type of bird was a crow, and as Jordan said as well they do look very malicious which was perfect.

To add the "dictator" touch to it we also discussed what could be used. They wouldn't be able to have banners but the use of red leaves or torn cloth from humans would be more than acceptable to use.

The idea of the secret lair for the leader of the murder is either its nest or the inside of the a tree. Here I want to use the characteristics of the crow (which is hoarding shiny things) and relate it to what the Nazis did during WWII by hoarding art work, so the between avian and dictator will still be apparent.

Secret Lair Research

I've compiled together some references for my character's secret lair, focusing on bird environments: