Environment // Quick Music Box Research

Environment // Cityscape so far

Environment // Process and Progress

Factory // Lay out planning

Factory // New possible alternatives for the colour adjustment? 

(it seems the characters would need to be lit up more on the whole)

Archway Scene // Current Breakdown

Narrative // Rendered Stills

Over the last few days we have been extremely busy trying to bring all our work together, here are some rendered stills of a couple of the scenes.

Environment // Opening Screen playblast

Environment // Tower Fillers

Environment // Tower Test

The last clip was how I originally positioned it (with the components more logically nesting into each other) but it seemed to lack dynamism, so I went for a slightly more radical elevation.

Environment // Ending Archway

Environment // More Cogs!

Playing around with some more cogs. Now I know how to get them working, I'm starting to work on more intricate designs to fit our world. Lots of fun!

Environment // Cog test in Maya

I followed an online tutorial which Charlie found to make a cog quickly and easily. Our animation will have lots of different styles and sizes of cogs which I'm quite looking forward to making. I've made these as a quick test to see how they look.

Environment // Building Production Art

Environment // Props

Some sketches I put together for props, cogs and things in the background! 

Environment // Concepts #2

Just as a reminder, we are planning on having the tint of the short change as the story progresses. At the beginning, the overall colour could be as follow: a cold blue ― a dull, military, toxic green or even just black and white values.

The factory shifting into a cityscape:

Environment // Thumbnails

Some thumbnails for environment ideas. Quick sketches first and then a more worked-on version at the end. Will work on these further.

Environment // Concepts #1

Thumbnails and Reference images

These are a few character ideas I'd had. Because they are toys I liked the idea of using simple shapes. I see them as made from wood, quite elegant with painted faces. Their clothes would be very bland at the beginning of the story, but as the characters change, I imagined their outfits more flowing and colourful and made from fabric, rather than painted onto the body of the toy as they are at the start.

Quick environment sketch to show the inside of the factory. Needs more work.

 For a bit of research and something to springboard from, I gathered some images together of how I imagined the style and look of aspects of the animation. I went with a Russian theme as this is something the group have dipped in and out of throughout our discussions. 

Russian costume, once the characters have transformed during their dance. I see this kind of style with patterns which could be mirrored in the environment once the mood of the story changes.

Some quick reference material for factories. These show both men and women at work, what they would have worn and the working conditions they would have been subject to. Lots of monotonous lines of machinery, lots of repetition.

A quick look at some Russian architecture for when the couple are dancing. The buildings and scenery would change and grow as their love builds. Again, I've gone with the theme as the colours and style would all complement each other. I like the shapes of these buildings, which would tie in nicely with the cogs and twirl of the female character's dress as she is dancing.

These images are Russian designs again which I thought could work well in transitions, or in the costumes or music box design. The image middle-right is a Bird of Freedom which I thought also links to the story nicely, though I can't easily see how we could include it in the animation.