During my time i travelled to Berlin i visited Sehsucht a motion design based studio Where i met the senior producer Christopher Lenz. Who was kind enough to allow to me to visit and to talk to me about the studio and the work it has been producing he mentioned that they blend visual storytelling with technical innovation to produce captivating creative content.
Sehsucht was founded by Martin Woelke and Ole Peters in the year 2000, starting up with a focus on motion-design with the studio situated in Hamburg. Throughout the first decade the visual driven label has developed into multiple disciplines and positioned on a top level creating visual storytelling in the advertising industry.
The studio that i visited in Berlin started up in 2009, and the two work slightly separate with each other as they generally divide the work with the Berlin studio creating more creatively made graphics based work using after effects and cinema 4D and the studio situated in Hamburg creating more high end corporate style adverts with CGI effects using programmes such as Nuke.
Some of the Hamburg studio work:
The work produced in the hamburg studio creates most of the CGI high vfx quality work as they use programmes such as NUKE to create these. The work is very impressive and is often made for recognisable clients such as audi etc.
Client: Audi AG; Falco Münch
Agency: Razorfish
PRODUCTION: Stink GmbH
Executive Producer: Martina Lülsdorf, Julian Holland
Producer: Isabel Kast
DIRECTOR: Stephan Wever
DOP: Cezary Zacharewicz
CONCEPT & DESIGN: Sehsucht, Stink
The making of videos show just how much work and visual techniques have gone into these impressive and realistic 3D elements:
When talking to Christopher about the work they produce and what goes on within the studio he spoke about how they mostly work within 3D and sometimes do sets however this is very rarely, he also said that they very early work with live footage and it all mostly digital work that they use and produce. This shows how their style and client base is mostly focused on digital and 3D work.
He also spoke about how they make their own storyboards as they have a team of people who have various skills and so they are often able to produce all their work from within their own team embers but they do sometime get freelancers in.
Character design made by sehsucht
He also explained how they will often test things out in real life before they animate and make something in 3D. For example with their paper world animation (although this was made in the Hamburg Studio, they would actually make things out of paper and see how they would move or fold etc to then have a better knowledge of how to animate it.
This is something i found helps with creating motion within my own work, as an example of this, when i was animation the stag in my silhouette animation i couldn't seem to get the movement and timing of the legs right when i was animating the stags legs to look like it was walking however when i used references to real stags walking and using other videos of walking stags as a trace reference in my work this made the motions look more realistic.
(what i think about the appearance and layout of the studio, and compare it to what he said about hamburg studio and size difference more people working in the hamburg one.
Some of the pieces made in the berlin studio:
as i mentioned before Christopher said that the work they make in the berlin studio is more graphic based and focused on the creative approaches and methods to creative a narrative or the piece of work as opposed to so much CGI techniques. (however the do also do some CGI work themselves).
After one year of working on Sennheiser’s interactive Reshaping Excellence campaign, released the final stage launch on November 3rd 2015. Phase two of the project witnesses the completion of the monument to sound—a vast interactive sound-sculpture created over the past six weeks by over one million people worldwide. It is a supersensory odyssey that presents the formation of the monument in all its monolithic glory, and finally reveals it as the foundation of Orpheus; a personal sound experience unlike any other.
I also found out that a lot of their clients and work they have been producing recently has been moving more towards interactive work for clients that an audience can become immersed in, by using the likes of oculus rift and and playstation VR. This he said has altered how they make the work they have been producing as they have to consider making full environments that the viewer can look round instead of like if it was just a video, being able to cut to a new scene. One way he mentioned working round this problem is by adding objects to block some of the view so that they are not having to render giant landscapes just because it would be in the viewers sights.
But this directional pull of demand for work shows an interesting course that the industry seems to be taking within the world of digital motion and may be something i will have to consider in my career path at some point.
This is the none interactive version of a piece of work they made showing the video of one of the pieces they have made as an interactive world for the audience using the oculus rift:
(made in the Berlin studio)
SEHSUCHT uses Cinema 4D and the Unreal engine to create one of the first-ever interactive VR music videos.
Virtual reality is a hot topic in 2016. Various hardware manufacturers are introducing headsets that let enthusiasts immerse themselves in 3D worlds. The games industry in particular is creating products specifically for use with head-mounted displays that give players the feeling of being part of the world in which they are playing.
Berlin, Germany-based, animation studio SEHSUCHT is at the forefront with its first VR project: For its single ‘Reminder’, the band Moderat had director Mate Steinforth produce a VR video that takes the viewer on a spectacular trip through a gloomy, sinister world.
What is unique about this project is that the interactive VR video runs with the Unreal engine, which means that head tracking by headsets such as Oculus Rift is supported. The viewer can move freely in 360° throughout their journey through the surreal, bleak gray landscape while experiencing the virtual world with their own eyes. The story is about two humanoid beings who have to mine crystals in back-breaking work that they then present to a divine being as an offering.
The song’s lyrics and the visual interpretation are a perfect amalgamation.
Rachel Goodyear is an illustrator who has exhibited her work in the uk and internationally. Her style of work is fine art and she specialises in drawing. She studied fine art at university and graduated in 2000. I attended a seminar in which she was discussing her journey as an artist and her style of work and the path that she has taken within the industry.
She is self employed and says that she spends half of her time in the studio working on her pieces and half the time talking to curators and exhibitionists to get her work displayed and seen and other artists for guidance. She mention that her style of work has largely been using the media of pencil and paper as opposed to computers and that she did do mostly sculpture when she was studying fine art however over the years found that the media she loved the most was just pencil and paper and so this was what she was most passionate and true about when she was creating work.
She spoke about how she has a studio in the islington mill in salford which has been good for her as it has a huge artistic community, and so is a good breeding ground for inspiration and potential collaboration. She said that the community is not all just illustrators there are graphic designers and photographers etc and so there is a really good mix of art its that she is surrounded by. This could be something i could consider if i was going into freelance work as having a studio to go to motivates you more to actually get work done as opposed to working from home and then puting it off a lot and then the fact that you would be surrounded by other artists is a good foot in swell within the creative industry (collaborations etc) and could broader the circle of potential clients and job opportunities etc.
She said it is important to have a personal space for her to work in that she can plaster with her other pieces of work and her inspirations so that she is surrounded by inspiration and motivation to work permanently. This is something that i have found helps with my work as when i am conscious about passing through my environment i find things all the time that actually inspire the project i am working on and to help me things of things to add, just in my day to day life.
She also mentioned how whenever she had chance to she would immerse herself in her work which i think is a good point to keep in mind as she mentioned how when she was working her part time job in the cinema she would draw on cinema tickets little doodles etc whenever she had chance to and then she would take these home and evolve them by spending more time on a drawing that was inspired by these quick small doodles.
She said that her style of work is defined more as fine art as she likes to show a fragment of a narrative, but that is it and the rest is left for the audience to fill in the gaps. Her main style of work she does not include a background and so the viewer is left with just a rather surreal images of various characters doing often quite bazaar or intriguing things and then that is all the viewer can take from it. A fragment of a situation, a small section of the larger story but still so intriguing is that small piece of information that there is lots of room left for the imagination to wonder from it.
she says that her work shows beauty swell a sadistic nature and is often playful but also sinister, so shows a very mixed range of emotions present in her work making it strong and appealing, and each of these emotions kind of balance each other out.
In 2009 - 2011 her work started to get more professional as she was working with gallerists who do all the job searching for her and so this gave her more time to focus on creating pieces and not worrying about find places to exhibit her work. And the gallerist who specialises in this job was able to find her much more work than she would on her own. So her career started to take off.
This shows the balance between doing things yourself and hiring others to help even the work load for you as within the motion design industry many designers often will hire freelancers to help with a project with various aspects of the project be it storyboards to show a client or even to help with parts of the animation itself.
She spoke about the positive outcomes she experienced from paying to attend an artists residency in Germany in a beautiful mountain environment. She said that environment she stayed in was set up so that you would meet the other artists staying there and that because it was out of the way and in a beautiful landscape it was a very inspiring place to develop new ideas and pieces of work within. She said whilst she was here she started to push herself with regards t her style of working and her comfort zone and started to make pieces that showed a bit more narrative than she usually does and created scenes of animals within an environment with numerous characters so that the fragmentation narrative that she usually shows became lots of fragments together meaning that the story of her work was building.
This was one of the pieces she made while in the residency:
and more of an in depth narrative can be seen is this piece swell with regards to how the canvases are placed together and how all the characters interact with each other and the environment that has been drawn around the characters.
This piece was inspired by looking out into the scenery that the residency was surrounded by and she was imagining the inhabitants of the area.
after this piece she started breaking her own personal rules more and breaking boundaries within her style as she started experimenting with using backgrounds more but trying to make the narrative more elusive like she used to in her work. This is something i should push myself to do within my own work swell as staying in the comfort zone can make artists lazy or not allow them to truly discover their creative potential.
She then went on to talk about the animation she has incorporated into her practise. She said that this has become an important part of her work swell since she started doing this as she makes looping gif animations of her drawings and she says that it is like a fragment of an event or motion narrative locked in time forever.
She said that with her animations she played with the idea of layering things up and it made her think more about how she displayed her work and making installations instead of just hanging frames up on a wall. She used projections of her animations onto still drawings to college work together.
I should also consider how to display my own work for my final exhibition and could also look into using projector and even collaging pieces of my own work in unique ways that engage an audience instead of just having a video on a screen hanging on a wall.
Another piece of inspiring advice she gave in her talk was that sometimes it can be very difficult to make yourself come up with an idea and that as an artist there is pressure to make yourself do this sometimes. She said ways to help with creative block can be to walk away and then come back to the work later after you have cleared your mind or to just doodle absent mindedly and try and create something from that but also to immerse yourself with inspirations such as other artists work. Or even just writing something quickly without thinking and making something based on that, she also said that she keeps a dream book that she always writes in and refferes to as inspiration every now and then.
To stay focused and motivated within the creative industry she says that an artists does also need to keep a sense of playfulness about their work and to not worry about making mistakes every now and then and letting some of their work not look so perfect all the time, as these mistakes can push yourself to new boundaries and let you learn from your journey as the work style progresses or goes back to an older style etc. (just going through the motions will not be the most powerful work you will make and this will be present within the work you make, passionate work radiates the passion that was put into it).
Some of her most recent work showing how the work has progressed and changed, you can she how she has used college techniques and background presence but still retains that fragmented narrative style:
For this project i am expected to show a professional level of personal organisation and to own and direct my learning through a maximum of two self directed design projects (or one large one), which may include personal projects, national and international design competitions, live commission work, teamwork with peers, or students studying other disciplines (at HE level) or collaboration with external agencies.
I will need to create a proposal for my idea in which will be 500 words describing what it is i have chosen as my theme for my project and where i reflect on the journey of my practical work in a professional and critical manner.
My idea for this project as a starting point is to potentially explore the theme of 'Mother Nature' and the beauty of landscapes and to explore the wonders of the earth similar to how planet earth documentaries show this wonder and marvel and inspire viewers to appreciate the magic of mother nature. I could consider personifying mother nature also whilst still showing the beauty of what 'she' is capable of.
The end goal or purpose to this idea could be to encourage viewers to perhaps think more about caring for or appreciating the nature around us.
This footage shows some beautiful Icelandic landscapes that i could use as reference to or inspiration for my piece. Flying over Iceland (Part. II) from Yannick Calonge on Vimeo.
I should consider styles for the animation of the landscapes, this video shows a brief example of a potential style idea as the shapes and colours are different and interesting. I could consider using different colours from normal to create a feeling of magic and ender:
This is a short piece by IDNworld was a Tailor-made animation for IdN 15th Anniversary. It shows another potential route i could consider with the creation of landscapes as it is an abstract metaphor of landscapes and environments made using typography. I should consider all route or direction to go with this idea which include using not necessarily straight forward depictions of landscapes:
After watching this piece i have decided to maybe explore the idea of showing the effects humans have on the environment and showing a "dieting" world with the landscapes showing this effect perhaps.
I love this piece created by passion animation studios for the wildlife conservation festival in 2016.
looking at other art forms expressing the issues of human impact on the environment:
(i could consider making an animation to a poem or using a poem or short piece of writing as inspiration to broaden my inspirational resources)
Kenneth Cassar I hear the funeral bells ringing It's the death of Mother Earth A mother who loved us dearly But we treated her like dirt
She gave us all her self Her land, her sea, her sky But we decided to murder her Without a reason why
We've killed her living creatures Polluted her wide seas We did not care for nature We filled her with disease
Some day will come in future We'll end killing ourselves Cause death of Earth means death of us For us the funeral bells! Issues relating to the environment to the present date that are happening that i could bring into and inspire my work around: Dakota Access Pipeline
The Dakota Access Pipeline is a 1,885km crude oil delivery pipeline running from Bakken, North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois.
If completed, it will transport as many as 570,000 barrels of oil per day.
However, the construction of the line has been delayed by protesters calling themselves “Water Protectors”, and organising under the banner #NoDAPL (No Dakota Access Pipeline).
They argue that the construction of this pipeline infringes on Native American land, and has the potential to damage the water supply of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.
The tribe has previously tried to sue the US Army Corps of Engineers, who are involved in the construction of the pipeline, as they allege the pipeline threatens their environmental and economic well-being and would damage and destroy sites of historic, religious and cultural significance.
It would travel twice underneath the Missouri River, which the Lakota and Dakota people of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation depend on for drinking water, along with 17 million other people throughout the country.
Prayer ties on a fence at Rosebud camp.
Environmental organization Honor the Earth begins a five-day “spirit ride” to raise awareness about the dangers of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Pictured at far right: Lorna Hanes.
This would be a good subject to use my project on as it is a present day issue with a largely relevant underlying message that is also a very touching subject that shows the foundations of the harmful impact people are having on the world fueled by the desire and greed for money.
I was to choose this as my subject i would also consider looking into native american art styles and culture references to relate to the subject issues.
Just like music plays an important role in Native American culture, art has a very special place as well. The use of art has been used as a form of expression in the Native American way of life for hundreds, even thousands of years. Most art was created as a symbol, such as a bear, walrus, eagle, or people. The materials to make this artwork varied from rocks, feathers, cloth, clay, and fabric.
Native American creativity is boundless
and sacred. Artistic expression has been
a way to worship the gods. Art for
art's sake is not part of the Indian
psyche. Their artistic designs have
beauty and care motivated by their love
for nature. Native Americans created many shapes and geometric designs for their art and these were repeated and became representative symbols that transcended tribal language barriers. Native art designs became a language in themselves, a form of communication. The harmony and oneness sensed in their art is real, and it provides serenity to those who experience it. We hope you enjoy our collection of Native American artwork, which is beautiful and expressive of all Native American art.
Southwestern Indian Sand Paintings
The Navajo are known for their beautiful sand paintings, which are created from images stored in
the collective memories of their traditional healers. These memories have been passed down many generations from previous healers who were charged with making sand paintings for ceremonial healing purposes. The Navajo have created this ceremonial native art to heal the sick for hundreds of
years. Sand paintings are used during healing ceremonies as a means to communicate with the Spirits
who are thought to have power to cure illnesses.
(this could be an interesting and unique way to do my animation, through the appearance of sand paintings)
An idea for a futuristic world of what could be. The aftermath of the negative impact of humans on the world. (humans being foreign to the world as they are destroying it (like a pathogen inside its host, feeding off the earth until it dies for their own survival).
Artist Chet Zar has noted that thinking about apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic scenarios fuels his imagination.
Animation by Steve cuts showing the effect that man has on the environment in a comical way but the also showing a wasteland future of what will become if we carry on this way:
The Indians viewed the white man's attitude to nature as the polar opposite of the Indian. The white man seemed hell-bent on destroying not just the Indians, but the whole natural order, felling forests, clearing land, killing animals for sport.
Seealth, chief of the Squamish, 1854, as reported by Henry Smith in the Seattle Sunday Star, 1887.
Chief Seattle of the Squamish tribe of the Pacific Northwest USA's speech of 1854.
The old Indian still sits upon the earth instead of propping himself up and away from its life-giving forces. For him, to sit or lie upon the ground is to be able to think more deeply and to feel more keenly; he can see more clearly into the mysteries of life and come closer in kinship to other lives about him.
Kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky and water was a real and active principle. For the animal and bird world there existed a brotherly feeling that kept the Lakotas safe among them and so close did some of the Lakotas come to their feathered and furred friends that in true brotherhood they spoke a common tongue.
The old Lakota was wise. He knew that man's heart away from nature becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans, too. So he kept his youth close to its softening influence - Chief Luther Standing Bear, Land of the Spotted Eagle, Houghton Mifflin, Boston & New York, 1933. Idea for animation:
Model characters of animals and show them dying and struggling, show some covered in tar and trying to pull out of it)
Show shadow characters of people looming in the distance
show rivers running black (reference to the DAPL) and trees falling down (reference to palm oil destroying amazon rainforest)
show references to urban structures also decayed
show toxic gas in the air (animals suffocating)
show
Base on the idea of how native americans must have seen the westernised people that invaded and destroyed their land as almost alien or monstrous. this can be how i portray these figures in my animation.
Native american predictions from the Hopi tribe that i could use within my work:
4. “The land will be crossed by snakes of iron” (The creation of railways).
5. “The land shall be criss-crossed by a giant spider’s web” (potential of chemtrails).
6. “The land shall be criss-crossed with rivers of stone that make pictures in the sun” (Highways and roads).
7. “You will hear of the sea turning black, and many living things dying because of it” (The 2010 Gulf Oil Spill).
consider how native americans would view the people that destroy the environment (alien, can't comprehend the insanity)
compare how western society cares for elders etc compared to native American and comparisons in life style etc
verbal history of information with indians not written down and how this can make things get lost (symbolise how the tribes are also dwindling)
Wipe out life style and history origins of culture by slowly changing generations assimilated into western culture.
totem poles (research)
last of the Mohicans (films
Current issues for Research references to inspire topics i will use within my piece:
Toxic air and killing of animals reference:
US Airways Flight 1549 encountered multiple bird strikes and both engines failed as a result.To prevent similar incidents, workers from the United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services and the city's Parks and Recreation Department and Environmental Protection Departments captured and gassed 1,235 Canada geese at 17 locations across New York in June and July 2009.The Agriculture Department undertook another goose control measure by coating 1,739 eggs with corn oil, which kills developing goslings by depriving them of air.
Chemtrails (toxic air):
The chemtrail conspiracy theory is the unproven belief that long-lasting trails, so-called "chemtrails", are left in the sky by high-flying aircraft and that they consist of chemical or biological agents deliberately sprayed for sinister purposes undisclosed to the general public.
Palm oil (toxic air and deforestation):
At 66 million tons annually, palm oil is the most commonly produced vegetable oil. Its low world market price and properties that lend themselves to processed foods have led the food industry to use it in half of all supermarket products as well as household and beauty products.
The warm, humid climate of the tropics offers perfect growth conditions for oil palms. Day after day, huge tracts of rainforest in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa are being bulldozed or torched to make room for more plantations, releasing vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. As a consequence, Indonesia – the world’s largest producer of palm oil – temporarily surpassed the United States in terms of greenhouse gas emissions in 2015. With their CO2 and methane emissions, palm oil-based biofuels actually have three times the climate impact of traditional fossil fuels.
Palm oil is not only bad for the climate: As their forest habitat is cleared, endangered species such as the orangutan, Borneo elephant and Sumatran tiger are being pushed closer to extinction.
Half of the top ten prescription drugs in the U.S. are of animal, plant, or microorganism origin. Our debt to the biosphere is even more dramatically revealed when we look at cancer medications: a remarkable three-quarters of anti-cancer drugs spring from the web of life.
Nearly 90% of human diseases known to medical science can be treated with prescription drugs derived from nature. The benefits to humanity of nature-derived medicines are incalculable in terms of longevity, relief of suffering, and increase in the quality of life. And think of the hundreds of thousands of jobs provided to those that discover, grow, harvest, process, and market these medicinals.
Music for atmosphere build up ideas:
One of my ideas for my animation is to have a forest burning down. This tutorial could be useful if i decide to do this:
Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people.
We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the dew in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man all belong to the same family.
The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each glossy reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father.
The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give the rivers the kindness that you would give any brother.
If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life that it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also received his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow flowers.
Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.
This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
One thing we know: our God is also your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.
Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted with talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone! And what is to say goodbye to the swift pony and then hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.
When the last red man has vanished with this wilderness, and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirit of my people left?
We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother's heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it, as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children, and love it, as God loves us.
As we are part of the land, you too are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you.
One thing we know - there is only one God. No man, be he Red man or White man, can be apart. We ARE all brothers after all."
Stylised world inspiration, taking the advice of steve swansburough, i decided that using an abstract artistic style would be most beneficial for my project idea as my skills with c4d are not high enough to create super realistic looking world or environments and so one way so as not to highlight this weakness is to created a stylistic approach of creating the elements i will use to build up the environments and elements use in my animation. This piece that Chris Moran at the neighbourhood suggested i watch when looking at what i and been working on so far with my project is a nice aesthetic that is a good reference to use when continuing building my animation. I like the foggy and simplistic environments and use of shapes within the elements used. I also like the simplistic palet of the piece and think that these qualities together make a very interesting and beautiful piece that i will be using to refer back to for inspiration while making my own work.
Forest Scenes Building:
screen grabs of rendered shots for forest aesthetics
Following script, Every mist in the dark forest:
script:
image si used as references ideas:
I wanted originally to try and create a fire in the forest like in this image but when trailing this myself i felt i could make a more impressive effect by making the trees particulate away as a more symbolic reference.
i liked the shape of these forest trees and decided to try and model some similar:
laying out the trees and altering lighting and environment to get a visual that i like.
once i had made the forest for this scene i then started to model the wolf which is to go inside the forest to show the effect that destroying the forests has on the wildlife.
The lay out and look was a stylised version of the redwood forests in american (native american regions).
I model this wolf from a cube and extruded various segments and moved polygon points to make up the shape of the wolf.
Once i had the basic shape of the wold i used the sub division tool to make it more curved and organically shaped.
i then moved the wolf model over into the forest scene i had made previously and coloured the model
I keep the textures of the wolf basic as the environment and colours i have used in this scene are quite stylised and i didn't feel like the wolf needed to be very detailed in this respect.
After this i then started experimenting with showing the forest become destroyed and found that having the trees explode (or fragment) away was the more suitable option to suggestively display the destruction of the forest. After some trial and error i found that the explode tool worked best after tweaking some of the settings to get the effect i liked best.
this is how i got this deformer to look after altering the directions and gravity etc of the deformer properties.
I also used the bend tool to create the movement of the tree before the explosion so that it looked more natural and fluid and less static.
i then cloned this tree and randomised it so that there were numerous trees all eating in the same way and etherfore the forest trees simultaneously bend and explode together.
(side view of the trees turning into particles and moving direction)
View from underneath the dissolving trees.
once i had set up the skeleton and the weights for the bones i could then start animating the wolf. I did this by selecting my position of time on the keyframe then moving all the bones into the first walk cycle pose. After this i would then key frame the actions and move to a point along the timeline further on and then move the bones to the next walk cycle pose. One i had made one walk cycle i just copied and pasted the keyframes to make it walk as long as i needed it too.
Reference to movements:
All Together:
i used an online tutorial to figure out how to get the water to dip when i moved my boat model across it :
i then added a displacement to make the water look as though it was rippling, and then i experimented with environment lighting.
I decided that boat needed to look bigger like oil rig boats often are and so the oil spill will not look as out of place, and the impact looks bigger.
I wanted the scene to look a bit less pleasant environment wise and a bit more sad to match the tone of the message.
This scene also needs an oil trail following it and oil dripping when the camera moves underwater.
To model the whale i used a reference picture of a whale to get the idea of the shape i needed to make and then i used n- side splines and placed them inside a loft and extruded them at various parts of the whale and scaled them to different sizes depending on the size of each section of the whales body.
i then started to try animating the whale in a similar manner to how i animated the wolf.
I placed the whale inside this environment to have it interact with and relate to the oil that will leak from the boat:
For the lighting underwater i used a disk that i placed animated noise over to create the rippling light effect and made the disk invisible to the camera using a compositing tag:
Next i modelled some trees:
And also made the tree sap by using spheres with the meatball deformer and the cloner and i just increased the number of counts in the cloner tool so make the sap drip.
so i started off with a small number of cloner counts and then animated the counts to make the sap drip. I also animate a sphere at the end of the counts so that the drip looked bigger at the end as though the weight of the drip was making it spill.
I then textures the sap and the tree and added a physical sky to alter the colour of the environment and i also added some landscapes in the background. I chose these yellow orange and brown tones for this environment to keep it simple as the content is fairly simplistic but also to relate to the sap its self.
Making the world that the animation refers back to at numerous points with the river that flows through the environment connecting to the oil fracking derelict.
My animation will start with a shot looking into the horizon showing pretty blue water and an appealing environment with nice lighting.
I kept the lay out for this world again simple but closely to the look and landscapes of native american landscapes i have been looking at and made mood boards for in my sketch book. I created warm glowing colours and had a sunny glow to show that at this point the world is a peaceful happy place (before the impact of man).
the shot then pans over to a butterfly on a tree and i have animated the petals on the flower i have modelling so that it slowly opens to symbolise life and a flourishing environment.
i added hair simulation to the butterfly to give it a bit more realism whilst still maintaining the styalistic appearance due to the quality of the hairs.
I used the same tree that i modelled to use in the tree sap scene however i used the hair simulator to add leaves onto so that the trees also seem more full of life.
in the part of the environment where the horses are shown and the water starts to run black with oil i have made the fog harsher and more grey so as to reflect the change in mood once the camera pans over to this part.
i also modeled a fracking machine and some oil tankers to represent the polluting influence that man and man made machines have on the environment (there is no depiction of humans but due to the man made nature of the objects it symbolises man)
i photoshopped this picture to get a sense of how i want the last scene of my animation to look. (as i want the animation to end how it started but showing how the impact of humans has worn the environment and creatures out).
from this angle i can have the fracking machines in the background which could have more of an impact for the final shot.
Final Outcome:
There are still some small alterations i am going to make on this piece ready for my show as i want it to be perfect such as the particles on the flower at the end and some small glitches i can see in this piece i also what to add a title sequence animation to really make it seem impressive. However i am very happy with my outcome i feel like it addresses my brief well and has the emotional impact intended on my audience.
I also found out that a lot of their clients and work they have been producing recently has been moving more towards interactive work for clients that an audience can become immersed in, by using the likes of oculus rift and and playstation VR. This he said has altered how they make the work they have been producing as they have to consider making full environments that the viewer can look round instead of like if it was just a video, being able to cut to a new scene. One way he mentioned working round this problem is by adding objects to block some of the view so that they are not having to render giant landscapes just because it would be in the viewers sights. 
