Interior Planet Layout

Tuesday May 29th, we had an in person meeting to discuss the interior layout design of a planet that Titan (a satellite probe character from our short film) enters and explores. We decided that his path of action would begin with him entering the atmosphere into a desolate desert environment with a basalt rock formation in the distance.

(Picture below was taken from a past Celestial animatic created by the Celestial team.)

From there, Titan enters a cave. Inside the cave Titan scans the area and soon reaches the edge where a waterfall is seen blocking the exit of the cave. As he moves through the waterfall he finds himself astounded by a forest basin flourished by trees, various plants, and rivers. 

(Picture below drawn by McKenna Phillips and illustrated by Daniel Lukas)

During our meeting we came up with an idea of having the basalt rock formations surround and encompass the forest. Having a desert landscape occur first when Titan enters the planet's atmosphere will create a contrast and wow factor for when Titan and the viewer seen the luscious plant life that thrives beyond the basalt mountains. The cave is the gateway for Titan to travel through the basalts. 

(Picture below was taken during Tuesday's meeting about the designing of the layout of the interior planet.)

(Picture below is a concept drawn by McKenna Phillips during Tuesday's meeting)

Today I painted a the interior planet's layout on Photoshop. On Friday May 31st, I plan to meet with the team again and go over the Nebula's environment layout. Our goal according to the summer's schedule was to have both environment laid out by Saturday June 1st. So far I'm happy to say that we have been good about staying on top of things. 

(Picture below is the layout of the interior planet I created on Photoshop.)

Let's Begin

 Here is Celestial's summer schedule and what we plan to accomplish.

I tried to write out in narrative form, Celestial, and see if I could make the story flow and read better. I preferred writing out the script instead of sending out the shot list. This will give the sketch artists the opportunity to create what they see versus narrowing there options with specific camera angles and movements. Our previous storyboards and animatic had many flat and uninteresting shots. I feel that taking this approach will give better results. I sent out an attached document in an email to all teammates. The document contained detailed descriptions of each scene along with reference photos. The reference photos will help visually demonstrate what's going on in that particular scene. I received great feedback and plan to finalize the story tonight so we can begin to storyboard. For the storyboard process we have a team that will sketch and layout the scenes, a clean-up team to fix the line work, and a value team. After storyboards are finish, myself and a few others from the team will create the animatic. I'd like to get the story patched up as soon as possible so the layout sketches can begin.

I tried to write out in narrative form, Celestial, and see if I could make the story flow and read better. I sent out an attached document in an email to all teammates. The document contained descriptions of each scene along with reference photos. I received great feedback and plan to finalize the story tonight so we can begin to storyboard. For the storyboard process we have a team that will sketch and layout the scenes, a clean-up team to fix the line work, and a value team. After storyboards are finish, myself and a few others from the team will create the animatic. 

According to the summer schedule, environment layouts need to also be finalized by this Saturday (June 1st). There'll be an in person meeting to work on the two environment design (Nebula and Planet) on Tuesday (May 28th) to work on design. 

In-between working on the storyline I'll also be trying to figure out concepts and how we will be going about creating the special effects for our story and how things will look.

Let the pre-production process begin! 

Hello!

My name is Ashley Jane and this'll be my first blog! 
I am currently enrolled in the University of Central Florida's Character Animation Program. Here I'm gaining experience in animation, visual effects, and computer graphics within the film industry. Right now I'm co-directing a short 3D animated sci-fi film called Celestial. I'm very excited to say that short will be released Spring 2014! 

When I'm not animating behind my computer screen, my other hobbies consist of (intergalactic space) traveling, sailing, drawing, digitally painting, reading, being outdoors, and watching a good film. This past summer I back packed Europe with a few of my friends. We visited England, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, and Switzerland. Each city and country held a different experience and I gained so much from the varies sceneries and cultures. 

This year most of my posts will revolve around Celestial. I plan on working on some extra animations and special effects as well. Being apart of film and the digital media world has been a passion of mine my whole life. Hope you get to learn a few things about myself and what I love doing most. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and I home you stay tuned! :)!