Playground Area.

Below are the stages I went through to complete my playground area.

I began modelling the fencing, I evenly distributed the fence posts to give a nice big area which would allow me to complete the playground.

I wanted a crooked fence so I decided to use three pieces of fencing in between each post and went around moving them in different directions, some I broke which gives the effect they have been destroyed. I am happy with the fencing.

I modelled the swings frame first to give me a good sizing before I modelled the chains and the seats.

It is difficult to see on this picture but my next step was to model the chains. I connected them altogether on one side and only half on the other, this is because I wanted one of the swings to be broken.

I added seats to the chains, this was so I could see how the broken chain would lay on the ground.

I was happy with the outcome of the swing set, referring to my storyboards and animatics I felt it looked as I saw it in the beginning stages of the project.

I added the swing set and the fencing together which gave me an idea of spacing for the other items in the playground. I positioned the swing set pretty much in the centre of the playground because I thought it would be the main thing to look at.

The seesaw is rather basic but I think it is quite effective and I think it will work well when the entire playground has been modelled.

The bench was pretty straight forward and easy to model but I am happy with the outcome.

I found the bins slightly tricky because the wooden planks were difficult to get in the correct places, however I am happy with the outcome.

I have nearly completed modelling all the items in the playground area. The only think left is the ground. I had a look at different playgrounds and noticed that not all the surfaces are on the same level. Underneath the swing set, the seesaw, the benches and even the pathway seem to be indented due to people treading there, so I thought it would be a good idea to do this in my playground to make it look more realistic.

This process was a long and challenging one because it was easy to catch the areas which needed to be higher but I managed it in the end and I am happy with the results.

Construction.

I am happy with my animatic, my sound and I felt ready to jump into Maya to stat modelling, my research gave me the understanding of the style I was looking for and my storyboards and animatics gave me the knowledge of where I wanted everything to be placed. For my second pass animatic I had started modelling my fencing and playground area so I think this would be a good place to start, especially as the playground is central and the camera sees it quite a lot. I decided to select pictures to show the processes I went through.

Ending.

I have decided to create an explosion using Aftereffects to finish the piece nicely, I thought this would be good after the camera has looked around the city and it would be a nice way to dive into the credits.

Below is a test explosion I have done.

I am quite happy with the look of this test explosion but it is extremely fast, this will need slowing down.

Below is another test explosion which is longer, this will give me an idea of whether to stick to this ending or just use a fade out into the credits.

Unfortunately I am not happy with this, to me it just looks out of place. I am glad I tested it otherwise I would have been worried about the ending. This means I will just fade into the credits.

Further Animatics.

It was time to think about sound, I decided to use my previous animatics to give some indication of what sound I was looking for. I have decided to just go for music and not have any background noise throughout, this is because I want to give the effect the city is deserted and therefore there would not be any background noise needed. The sound track I decided to go for is The Ride Of The Valkyries From Apocalypse Now, I thought this would fit nicely but wanted to try it before I committed.

Below is my first pass animatic with indication of sound I will b using.

I am happy with the way this turned out but only for an animatic, I will spend more time on sound once my final piece is ready but will definitely use the same sound track.