Final Designs

Here are some final designs on squared paper based on the concepts in the previous posts.

New Concept work

Here are some new concept work I have done for the project. Most of it are concepts to final designs of the restaurant.

These restaurants, which are the close to the final designs are loosely based on an restaurant I found during research. I posted a picture of this restaurant in an earlier blog. I like how these arches make it look like a rocket taking off. It should look really good when fully modeled.

Here are some concepts for the counter stools. They use a lot of open scaffolding and metal work in googie architecture, so I decided to make the legs look like scaffolding.

Here is the counter. It has shelves not much else to say.

Here is the coloured version of the restaurant. I noticed that they use a lot of white and a lot of chrome. The other colours are just to brighten it up.

These are abandoned concepts for the restaurant. I felt that it was too simple and looked too much like a house. The sign however I liked very much.

Current Progress

Hi,

I would just like to take a minute to talk about the current progress the group and I personally are with this project. At the start the group in general really didn't have much idea where we were going. The option of being able to do anything really left us with nothing. I personally wanted to do something simple using fifties retro-futurism architecture, because I like it a lot and it would be not too challenging to model. I had ideas of fifties bars and bar fights but none were really registering with the rest of the group. We also had a group member leave at this point, so the group's moral was at an all time low. Whilst Harrison and Simon were away in Barcelona, I had the idea of the abandoned fifties restaurant. Using the London site visits as lighting research, I forged ahead with my idea. After meeting with Jared, he focused our ideas down to an abandoned fifties restaurant and in a day we came up with the pickle idea, which is explained in an earlier post. Research and rough designs have been and are being created now. Research has included fifties architecture and restaurants in particular, retro-futurism and animated shows and movies with a retro-futurism design element to them, like the Incredibles or Kim Possible. A rig was downloaded at some point and I practiced animating with it.

Currently now the storyboard has been finalised, which has been drawn by me, and has been turned into a rough animatic by Simon. Rough Models have been created by Harrison and research has been researched by all members. Currently, I am serving as storyboard artist, researcher and background designer.

Since the project is going slowly, the group decided to split the environment up into different sections, and each go off and finalise the design over the weekend. Soon, we should be able to start fully modelling and animating.

I believe that's where the group is so far, and I just hope we are able to finish it in time.

Daryl

New Research

Here some images I have obtained for Research. I got most from the internet by typing in counter's into google and some are from Ikea's website. Denny's restarant chain and Ed's Diner also proved useful as they have a fifties' motiff.

Site Visits

These are the two site visits I went on.

The first was to Dennis Sever's House. He decorated the house to look like it was occupied by a family in the 18th century. Photography was strictly prohibited, so just drawings I'm afraid, which was very difficult because by candlelight. Even though the decor wasn't too helpful to our fifties theme, the gloomy and spooky atmosphere and placement of shadows did create a barren spooky atmosphere which I believe would help with the abandoned restaurant idea. This plays of light and shadow was what I was concentrating on in these images.

Sir John Soane died in 1837 and allowed his home to be open as a museum. To say he was a bit of a pack rat is a bit of an understatement. Again the actual interior decor wasn't too useful, but the play of light, especially in the crypt area, did create a very spooky atmosphere which I think we could use. I have included my sketches as well as some postcards.

Production Schedule

Here is the current production schedule. It's up on the group blog too. Sorry it's a bit rough.

New Storyboards

Here are the new storyboards. The one where is his walking and excited goes after the map scene and the other's go behind the first camera pan.

New Storyboards

Here are the new storyboards. Upon viewing the first, it was felt that

a) it was too long and complicated to do all those first-person shots and

b) it was still focusing too much on the character and not on the environment.

Hence we came up with the idea of filming it as if the guy himself is filming it with a camera. This approach allowed us to accomplish simple camera pans and to use the tool of the person turning off the camera and re shooting from another point in the restaurant. This gives us full use of the environment and the only bits of the character that is seen is his arms.