Massey/Weta Master of Design Blog - Chris Sutton - 2021

 20 April - 27 April: Script writing and treatment redo Glitch Techs Pilot A short Pilot I found for the Nickelodeon show "Glitch techs", a good example of a recent short pilot sequences used to sell the show. The 57 second video is a bit adjusted to deal with some copyright issues, but it goes into the simple version of what the show is about, colorful quirky characters using cool tech to fight video game monsters.  This is also a good look at an ideal end component for the project. Having a short animated sequence to show off (with music) would be a good sub-piece or even center-piece. The thing to keep in mind is that the video was made by a studio and being a solo worker on the project might mean I don't have the time to dedicate to making a minute long animation along with all the other design work. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PUGA_wRAY0 Script writing I have done a quick script write up just to get an idea of what some basic character interactions might l...

 Large Animals, Quickly deciding on project aspects and 3D concept references April 5 - April 19 Overview Now that I have settled on an animation style, I can focus my technical reference study more and move onto other parts of the project. For starters, looking more into historical and modern poaching/hunting of large animals would be a good way of fleshing out the giant creatures that are meant to inhabit this fictional world. How do they interact with humans? How have humans hunted animals bigger than them in the past? How does the dead of large animals affect the environment and the ecosystems they inhabit? Additional, I am looking into good 3D reference for the project. While there are no hard and fast rules about what I am looking at for these references, I'm generally after media that is aimed at teens to young adults. Animal Species to look into Wildlife Elephants Whales Bison Otters Seaspiracy - Netflix Doco A Netflix documentary released this year that aims to "expos...

Defining the story, Building the imagery  Mar 29 - 4 April  Overview Story Changes  I was thinking about Paul's feedback on my proposal, about the fact the Colossi felt a bit like a gimmick. I started looking into ways to make the Giant Creatures a central focus of the story. After some quick moodboarding, I came across old whaling pictures. After a bit more thought and exploration I decided it might be an interesting route to go down and it would help give some context for the industrial revolution the main country in the story is going through. I have also reduced the amount of main characters from 7 to 5, as I didn't feel like I could get all of them working with different personalities and functions within the story, without having a lot of overlap. Moodboarding I have been making a series of mood boards for the project. Some as an overview, some focused on locations and at least per main character. This wasn't to try sort out what the aspects in question might look l...