4. Development Log:
Week 7 – 21/10/19
. Create a blockout which can be used to get an idea of the diorama.
. Trace the blockout on Photoshop.
. Begin to start colouring diorama, using the screenprinting technique.
To begin the development of my diorama I made a blockout on Maya, so I can use this to get an visual idea for my diorama, in terms of the shapes I need to use. It is similar to the blockout I used for my problem solving, however I made it a lot larger, and I’ve added a few more details to it. Such as the bars on the water tower, bending in the horse post, and to make the scene look more animated, I added a few crates into the scene. I wasn’t sure if I should add the crates to my piece or not, as I wasn’t sure if it’d seem to animated for my piece, or if I would have the time for it. I left them in the blockout, if I wish to use them in my piece.
I started off by outlining the building and platform for my main outline, for I will hope to get rid of the outline by the time I finished with colouring. I decided to do the outline for my diorama from the inside out, so I intend to do the base of the diorama last. I left out the detail for the crates, since I was struggling not to overlap the lines.
Above is the finished result of outlining my main diorama. This will act as a base for when I do my screenprint colouring for my diorama – so I hope to get rid of the lines when it is officially done. I intend to do an additional piece which would focus solely on the water tower, as the water tower will be my main asset of focus for this diorama piece. I may end up creating the base diorama on a separate file, and then add the water tower on another separate file, before I put them together on the same piece.
I started doing the screenprint colouring on my diorama, starting with the building. I chose a main colour for the whole building, and once that was done, I found a slightly darker colour to do the walls that would be shaded. I kept the outline up for this part so I can roughly get the tidy line effect, as well as an idea for the shape.
I moved onto the windows, and did the same thing that I did for the building walls. I only did the outside of the window frames, for I haven’t decided on a colour to put inside the windows yet. Once I have finished colouring the whole diorama, I may come back to this section, to add any necessary accessories.
The final part of the building was to add the roof colour. This had four different colours, due to the design of the roof, so it was quite time consuming. This led to the completion of the building colouring.
Once I have finished the colouring, I took away the outline for it, resulting in what is above. It was a bit blotchy on the sides, so I tidied the lines up. It doesn’t look like much effort, but it does look quite effective.
The next part I added was the platform. It was an okay shape for the most it but, but there were tricky parts, such as the exposed piece of platform at the back, and the little part beside the crates. Unlike the building, the platform consisted of three different shades of the colour I chose for it, due to having three sides showing.
The posts were a bit more tricky to do, for they were smaller, and had a more unique shape to them. Like the platform, they had three shades of the colour I chose, as it had three parts exposed.
I moved onto the track for the next section, as this part was complicated, and it was very time consuming. I split the colouring for this part into two sections – the rails, and the sleepers. Much like the platform and posts, they were split into three shades, but because of the placement of each part, it was complicated to get each part. I may eventually come back to this section, to make sure it is as tidy as it could be.
Week 8 – 04/11/19
. Continue to use the screenprinting technique to colour my diorama
. Begin setting out the diorama for presentation
I decided to carry on using the screenprinting technique with the crates. I took a colour sample from my research to come up with the base colour for the crates, and then I went back and picked one lighter shade, and then picked a darker shade, in order too add toning and light to them. The creates on the foreground were quite easy to colour in, but because of the positioning of the crates in the background, it was a bit more difficult to get the colour in for them.
The next section I worked on was the final asset on the diorama, which was the water tower. This would be my main asset of focus when I present my diorama. The asset itself was of an awkward shape due to the detail I added in, so I had the outline up for when I coloured this in. I gave it a coat in the main colour, before selecting a lighter shade and a darker shade. I found added these shades was easy for most of the water tower, but the only part that was a struggle, was the supports on the tower legs, since it was a confusing shape, and difficult to pinpoint where was shaded and which was in the light. Despite this, I managed to add the right colours to the tower supports, and I am quite pleased with how the water tower ended up coming out.
To finish off the overall diorama, I have to add a base for all of the assets in the scene to sit upon. I went back to my research to colour pick a main colour I can use for the scene. I wanted to put my scenery in a Western desert, so I picked out a colour from my research based mostly on the cartoon Western. I chose out the main colour, a deep yellow/orange colour, and then I chose a lighter colour and darker colour to draw in the edges.
Looking back at the building, I thought it looked strange just to have window edges and the wall colour behind them. I decided to go back and added a simple block of colour inside, so it can either look like the inside of the builder, or they could be shutters on the windows.
To finish off my diorama, I decided to add a background colour so it could be shown off. I used a pale blue colour for the background, so it would appear in contrast with the colours I have been using for my diorama, which consisted mostly of hotter colours.
As my water tower would be the main asset that I would show off for my diorama, I decided to make a seperate Photoshop image, and trasnferred the files that contained all that I did for the water tower to that image. I then transformed the image, making it appear bigger than it has been made on the diorama. This would show off how the asset really looks, and then I can use this Photoshop file to help me with presenting the asset.
Above is how my presentation appears so far. I added in my diorama and the asset pieces onto a separate Photoshop file, and placed them side by side. I also added a background colour to help the pieces stick out. I quite like how it is presented, and I am quite proud of myself for how I managed to use the screenprinting technique to bring out this piece. I also like how it stands out, using perspective.
Sophie Level 3 Games Dev 2nd Year 