Group evaluation.
I think what went well for us as a group was that all of us had something to show. And we have communicated via email about what we had done. Diogo had some really good layout work for us to work with and at the end of our meeting we each got a copy of his work, so that we can work with it.

Another thing that worked well as a group is that we had a feedback session at the end (communication factor) of the meeting, so that we all know what we need to have done by next week.

Here are the notes I took for the group. I thought it prudent for somebody to take the minutes/notes of what is discussed that way we can remember what we talked about. See below.

We also allowed each of group member to voice their opinion and what could be improved.

26^th January group discussion.

Diogo showed his work.

Diogo will give us his research and designs for reference.

Rocks and vegetation- for rocks the the vine will be making things decompose so that's where a lot of the rocks will come from.

Diogo had the idea of camera coming over mountain, so the market place is in a valley.

Buildings.

Buildings will have balconies that may have mini statues on them (kind of like small gargoyles).

Who is going to make the outpost buildings by the temple?- Kofi should be able to do this

Temple.

We have columns on outside. Structure on inside.

Once modelling done, start on texturing. Will use textures collected by himself.

No need to go high detail for interior of temple as we'll fade out at the end.

Statues.

- 4 statues, these will act as columns at the entrance.

- Stairs coming down from the temple, a large step with a statue on it (have an appropriate statue design for this), I was worried about it copying Troy

- Design some statues that will act as columns.

Vine.

Fairly dominant, to show strength, but not everywhere. So story wise the curse could have just taken over, but villagers ran away in fear.

Black Smith.

Established where Clym's black Smith should be. It's scale, in comparison to the established size of a human in our scene and a door frame of one of the buildings.

Swords and armour on front section of black smith and a curved building (semi-circle) at the back where the black smith would to fit in with the structure.

Black Smith originally designed to be opened plan, but doesn't fit in with the building style of environment. Stairs need to be scaled down as they are very chunky.

Black smith currently looks too important, it stands out too much. Diogo submitted the idea of the building originally meant for something else. Too free standing needs to fit in and be attached to the surrounding buildings.

Clym is happy to re-design the black smith

Camera.

Depending on camera work, we'll have to have poorer buildings on the outside. Also a courtyard with arches.

We have decided to go for individual shots instead of one long one. As we are going for individual shots we don't have to go for a really detailed matte painting we can just do a sky, and impressionistic mountains.

Camera angle of looking up at the building and in the background the mountain. Looking oppressive. Do print screens of the scene and work out the storyboard- this is to save time.

We'll then add notes in photoshop.

For next week.

Everyone should have started modelling and be well under way with their allocated tasks.

Today-

Finalised the layout of the scene in 3D. Went over designs & produced camera path storyboard.

Things to look up.

Batman- poison ivy.

During the set up of the camera, in Diogos' maya scene, Fahran and I had two different ideas for how the camera would behave. My idea was for the camera to be the character, so the camera would go through the scene but the aim is to have a horror genre to it. So for example, the audience would hear a plank of wood fall over (or something like that), and then the camera would quickly turn round to see what knocked it over. This way adding some variety to the camera and then have the camera appear somewhat cautious.

Fahrans idea was for the environment to be the character, so there wouldn't be any quick camera movements that kind of thing.

Fahran explained that my idea would break the flow of the camera movement. In the end, I made it clear that I didn't agree with this and Fahran opened it up to the group and the group didn't mind either way. I think, upon reflection, I'm glad I'm glad I left it with the fact that I disagreed and that was it, because we didn't waste much time and we got a storyboard idea finished with some great camera angles.

I've now had the idea of animating the camera in the style I wanted, that way I have a visual example of what I have in mind. This can also contribute to what I have done in this project.

If it does break the flow and it looks better with Fahrans' idea then I'll be happy with that. I do agree this would break the camera flow, but that was the idea, allowing it to have something different and more interesting. I do realise this idea needs more development and I'm happy for changes to be made.

Practicality wise.

I'll model my sculptures entirely in zbrush, as apposed to box-modelling in Maya and then export in to zbrush. I'll then retopologise the mesh in Zbrush. And then I'll create normal maps in Maya.