British Museum (Sword focus)

I went to the British Museum a few weeks ago to gain a further insight into colours and objects from the time period. A selection of photos that took my interest for the group are to follow, yet these were specifically aimed towards my Excalibur design. The sowrd I have now is quite basic, so I will use these images to enhance it.

Firstly, this is the top of a bishop's staff from the Medieval ages. I love how intricate and ornate it it, and it gives a sense of high stature. The gold colour is definitely something I will use for Excalibur.
I also found this sword very interesting. It says in its description that the symbols on the sword have an unknown meaning, and I would like to use this in my work too. I think this will give the sword a bit of mystery or depth of meaning, so I can use this design in a creative way.

Close up of the symbols:

King Arthur Seal

I drew this based on the seal of King Arthur, which I thought I could add a frame to in order to make it a proper seal for our castle. This could therefore be used as a texture on my flag and wall hangings, and also the style could be used for Lydia's story of King Arthur on the wall of her dock.The next stage for this is to add the frame and also make the style of the piece similar to the clone wars style by colouring it in and using more of a paintbrush edge.

Modelling Two

Gate and squarer boat models:

We want fire to trail around the room, and after experimenting with Maya I managed to achieve this result. I feel that when Andi and Sam have finished the main room I will be able to add the trail successfully, but I need to know the path it will take.

Modelling :)

Here are the models that I have started to populate the environment. As we are telling the story of how King Arthur receives Excalibur from the Lady in the Lake, I decided the first thing to model was the sword. The second image shows my original sword which is very basic and could just be used as a prop littering the floor for example, where as the first I have added to to make it more akin to Excalibur. I will research more into the sword for the different looks people have given it in the past and how I can utilise their ideas to make mine better.

I also modelled an axe to populate the environment, it could be used by the character to cut something in the environment or be held by a knight in armour to make them look more dangerous.

Arthur is going to enter the Island on a small wooden boat, and this is my first model for it. I am going to try and make the back end squarer and maybe add some sort of scripture to the boat to make it seem more prestigious. There will also be a lamp on the boat which I will attempt to model along with candles for the environment next.

Finally, my torch is based on the one the Phantom of the Opera is holding (see group blog), and will be an effective way to keep focus as Arthur can point it to whatever he sees in the room and we will lead the audience around the environment this way. The flame was made using the Particle effects, so I will experiment with this more to make sure the flame looks right when moving and maintains the shape that we want it to.

Animation tests

I am going to be focused on the animation for our piece, for example the weather conditions and moving objects within the scene. I created this Flag using Maya nCloth, it took a while as Maya crashed and was very flow when the flag started moving. The first shows no wind or air pressure, so the flag just drops, which could be good for summery conditions.

The second one here shows the flag going crazy after applying a bit of pressure and wind. I am going to experiement more with this to get the right level for the different conditions, and try to make the flag rougher and it not a clean rectangular shape to show age and history. I am confident I can apply this to wall hangings within the Castle too.

I have also been looking at different water effects, the first here is using an animated texture. Im not completely convinced after comparing it to Softbodies, which I think would look better with better lighting and colouring. However, this may be better for the Star Wars Clone Wars style that we want to achieve, so I will ask my group about this at a later date when I have experimented some more.

Further Concepts

After our group discussion last week, here are my further concept art pieces:
Concept of the castle on an island: Closer up of the Boat:

Another view of a Castle on an Island, this time showing it is aged and nearly destroyed:

A Statue among the rubble, holding what could be a light or a prize for anyone who dare visit the Island:

Possible Floor Plan, showing the main features we discussed:

Group Discussions

Today we had our first full group meeting, since my initial post Sam and Matt have joined the group. We have decided to include 2d characters in our 3d environment, which lead us to a sort of Lady of the Lake, so a sort of ghostly presence within the layout.

We are creating a Medieval environment with a slight fantasy theme to it so that it does not have to be specific to one sect of the time. I will be using the Knights Templar for inspiration, yet not sticking precisely to them.

The overall idea for our environment now is a castle on a small island surrounded by water. The castle is partly in ruins giving a idea of the overall structure yet with bits fallen apart. We are undecided on whether it will be raining or bright sunshine yet this can be decided during the concept stage.

We are also going to look into the artistic style of Star Wars The Clone Wars, where the CG almost looks painted, as this will fit in with the 2D characters that will populate the environment.

I will now continue to change my Concept Art to reflect the new ideas.