Blocking it In

With our concepts done, we're finally moving into working with some 3D software. Being stuck inside nearly all day does have its benefits, I spent a couple hours just looking at different styles seen in many various animated films/shorts. My goal is to get the "wonk" and distortion of the world to look fun and exaggerated, without making things look simply squished or stretched.

Here is a front and side sketch of the schoolhouse, for the sake of modeling. Many of the finer details aren't present in the sketch, but I wanted to test my hand at the stylized shape of the schoolhouse.

My groupmates Alan and Destiny then went about creating a block version of our floating island so we could have a physical place to start placing our assets over the next few weeks.

The centerpiece of the island will, of course, be the IRS schoolhouse. I've begun blocking it out in Maya, testing my style of wonk. Since the inside of the schoolhouse will be bigger than the exterior, I have a degree of artistic freedom with the proportions and not having to worry about realistic edges or shapes. At this time, we have yet to decide if the "bigger on the inside" TARDIS style is merely artistic representation of space, or magic doohickery of the reaper world (though this detail isn't too important to the finished product).

In addition, I began blocking out the toothy sign for the school. My goal is for it to be noticeable in the final film, but not something crazy or garish that would take away from the rest of the island set (or even the characters).

So far so good! I'm particularly excited to get the schoolhouse nearly done this coming weekend. While I want significant progress, I want to save the last 25% of my work until I receive some feedback from the others in my group.