Storyboard and Production Process
Giorgia Menon
In order to have a better idea of the setting and actions that were going to play in the 2 minutes video, I took care of the storyboard. The movements are going to be very simple: the audience is simply going to be lifted up, first by floating in water and subsequently by a magical statue hand. We still need to properly take a look at the actual timing of all the actions, but we know that everything is going to be quite slow. Given the fact that the whole video is going to take place into a single place only, we need to time every little movement carefully so that the viewer doesn't get bored too easily.
I also thought to provide an external view of what is going to happen. However, talking about it with Saint, we figured that it might be better to include at least two "moving statues" on opposing sides of the scene so that the movement can be visible from all the POVs of the dome. This will not impact our workload too much, since we are going to use the same modelled 3D sketch of the statue that one of my groupmates already made in Blender and just readjust it a bit, to make it look like a different character.
These two different designs carved into the stone were made by me to be placed on the underwater walls that are present at the beginning of our sequence. I drew the compositions on Photoshop and merged them with already existing brick and wall textures from the Unreal Engine software. I tried using different wall patterns with the same drawing in order to achieve the best effect possible, but I think we are going to make the final decision once we place the water element on top of it. Just to be clear, the subjects of these drawings were originated by a bit of research with regards to the culture of the ancient Babylon, to keep the theme going throughout the whole video.
For this week, we also prepared a drafty and simple presentation, to show the rest of the class how much we progressed over the last week. I think this was a very nice way to "pressurize" us and to show our updates in front of classmates and professors, even new ones! Actually having to explain what the thought process is behind an idea and what the actual choices were toward a specific strategy can really help the group understand what the following steps might be and what the project is lacking. The constant confrontation made the whole assignment feel more professional and it gave us the motivation to push through the days and surpass our limits as a team.
Even though we made the first draft of presentation all together as a group, I volunteered to take care of the following versions after the first rehearsal. First of all, I love presentations because they allow my creativity to come through with new fonts and artistic styles, secondly, I wanted to take some "weight" off of the 3D guys' shoulders. I knew this was not really a priority, but I knew this little thing was not going to take any time away from my parts of the project and I knew it had to be taken care of. Moreover, I believe that the visual way that a team presents its work can be really important. Especially in a future a maybe more professional situation, the visuals present on the PowerPoint and the way that you express an idea can really make the difference in the perception of the idea and on the final win.
References:
Biblical Archaeology Society. (2020). Hanging Gardens of Babylon … in Assyrian Nineveh. [online] Available at: https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/hanging-gardens-of-babylon-in-assyrian-nineveh/.
Cooper, T. (2008). British Museum exhibition exposes modern tragedy of Babylon. [online] Pinterest. Available at: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/313000242834029765/ [Accessed 11 Feb. 2025].
Sinclair, D.A. (2018). The Mesopotamian Blues: musings on Sumerian colour values. [online] Blogspot.com. Available at: https://artisticlicenseorwhyitrustnoone.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-mesopotamian-blues_21.html [Accessed 3 Feb. 2025].