Week 1 / Class 1

The first thing I did was create a rough outline of my production schedule for the quarter so I can start pacing myself for the next 10 weeks and stay on track to complete the project for the end of the quarter. As I completely understand these deadlines will shift, I am hoping that I can stay close to the goals I set for myself and not have to cut corners for any aspects of the project. I left the most time for lighting since that is the focus of my project and I expect to run into issues since multiple lights, emission, soft shadows ect. will greatly increase my render times. Since there will be a camera move and light animation, test renders will be very important in this project so there is no surprises when it comes time for the final renders.

With my production schedule roughed out and my references collected, I began blocking out the model for my street scene. I then started playing around with a couple different compositions that would help focus my scene on the pink neon sign which will be the focal point of my piece. With these different camera angles, my street scene would be much less busy compared to my references and provides an interesting view that a pedestrian wouldn't see (a point that Joe brought up when I initially pitched the idea of a city street). This close up camera view will also allow me to play around with light animation which I think will be an interesting finishing touch to the project.

Model so far (as a disclaimer, this is placeholder geometry while I sort out the composition and camera move for the piece):

Composition Ideas: