Week 1 - Concept Development

SCAD x Powerhouse Collaboration

Written by: Payton Schade

This Project is a 10-week collaboration between SCAD and Powerhouse Effects. We were assigned to a team that we called SKREP; aka the green team. Our Team consists of Samuval Sukumaran, Kristoff Monori, Elise Halet, Rebecca Lau, and myself.

Ideas

When our group met we began discussing ideas we decided we wanted to do something that was dark yet still fun and we also wanted to do something where we would all be able to apply our individual skill sets. As we discussed in class we began to lean towards the idea of a woman who begins to morph into a cyberpunk bird person.

Story and Concept

As we continued to narrow down our idea and story concept we chose to create a story about a girl who is in the woods as it is becoming night and transforming into her cursed self, a bird woman. Our own take on the werewolf legend however we wanted to add a futuristic twist to it by making the feathers metal. As the video continues the audience will see the change that the woman goes through as metal feathers being to emerge from her face and her back.

Inspiration

As we developed our idea we were inspired by tv shows, movies, games, and music videos. We began to develop references for what we wanted our wings to look like as well as what we wanted our character to look like as it's developing into a bird.

Meet the Actress

This is our actress that will be playing the bird woman. Her name is Gilda Chestney and she is a Senior Performing Arts major here at SCAD, as well as my roommate.

GildaChestney

Location and Setting the Scene

The location that we decided on is Skidaway Island, State Park. In the park, there is an old abandoned shack that we think would be a perfect location for our birdwoman to stumble upon. We plan to shoot at or around dusk to amplify the creepy feeling we wish to give to the mood of the film. At the site, we will also be shooting our reference photos for lighting and color as well as our own HDRIs.

Storyboard

This is a quick visual we put together of the storyboard and how we plan on telling the story through a limited number of shots.

Our story starts with a shot of an empty forest giving very a ominous feeling to our audience and then it cuts to the feet of our actress walking through the forest where you can hear the ground slowly crunching beneath her feet. We then cut to a shot of behind the woman where she looks over her shoulder behind her checking her surroundings. The scene then cuts to a close-up of the face showing the slices taken from her face where the feathers have appeared. Then it cuts to a wide shot of the body where the wings begin to appear from her back.

Previsualization and Concept Art

Close-up shot:

As we began the previsualization and concept art phase of our idea. I was assigned the take on coming up with what the feathers would look like as they emerge from the face. To begin this process, I first drew up a sketch of what I wanted the face to look like as the feathers emerge from the skin. From there I took the photo reference I had of our actress and began a test comp using photoshop and nuke to begin to further develop what the feathers will look like as they begin to emerge from the skin.

I organized these images in the order that I created them starting with the sketch and then moving to my first concept from that idea showing the metal feathers fully underneath the skin. After sending my progress to my team members we decided that it would be better if the metal feathers began to cut through the skin and appear above it that way the tear in the face looks like it was caused by the metal feather.

To obtain this effect in our final shot we plan on 3d tracking the face in Keen and then either applying the effect through a DMP I will create or through a 3d model or a combination of the two; it depends on how the final shot comes out and which gives a more realistic effect which we will test through trial and error.

Wide shot:

For our wide shot, Elise designed the concept art for how we want the actress to look when the camera cuts to the wings appearing behind her. Along with how it will look as the camera pans to her with her wings open.

Texture references

Kristof, who will be doing look dev and texturing of the wings gathered some reference photos for the wing's texture. We want the wings to be made of metal and we were also thinking about having them look like they are beginning to rust.

Tracking

Sam will be in charge of the facial and body tracking of our actress. He will be tracking using Keen for which he created an experimental track on himself to show the 3d capabilities of Keen tools.

Techniques & tools

Below is a layout of the possible ideas and plans we have for completing the effects we want to achieve on our shot:

Shoot Plans:

• To go green screen

• On-site HDRIs

• Afternoon (preferably overcast)

• Skidaway state park

• Camera equipment : Canon 5D Mark III or IV

Modeling/Rigging Plans:

• Feather modeling in Maya

• Wing rigging in Maya

• Face gore modeled in Zbrush

Look Development/Lighting Plans:

• Texturing in Substance Painter

• Lighting in Maya

• Rendering in Arnold

• Procedural textures in Houdini?

Compositing Plans:

• Face track with Keen

• 3D camera tracking in nuke

• Blood FX in Houdini?

Software & Plugins:

• Maya

• Substance Painter

• Houdini

• Shotgrid

• Zbrush

• Nuke

• After Effects

• Arnold Render

• Green screen

• Canon 5D III

• LED Panel

• Color Plate

• Chrome Ball

Schedule:

Below is an estimated schedule for when we would like to have things completed to be able to finish on time:

Week 1:

Idea Planning - Collecting reference material - Pre visualization - Location scouting

Week 2:

Filming with the actress - Modelling feathers/wings

Week 3:

Face tracking with keen - Look development - Rigging

Week 4:

Tracking continues - Texturing the feathers/wings - Lighting

Week 5:

Test Compositing - Animation

Week 6:

Compositing - Fixes - Feedback Changes

Week 7:

FX - Compositing - Adjustments

Week 8:

Audio - Editing - Test Render

Week 9:

Final Tweaks - Final Rendering

Week 10:

Celebration!