The Mappa Mundi: Crit Presentation

The Mappa Mundi

Knight Model: Horse Edited

With some help from Alan I've gone back and added in more detail to my horse figure. It now looks more like something carved from wood where I've added in 'cut' strokes. I aim to have it completed by Friday so I can start laying out the UVs and texture it.

Pre Vis Update

Pre vis updates.

Pre Vis 3


Pre Vis 4


Pre Vis 5


I rather like number 4 out of all three. Though some sections I feel need a little more work

To be edited

Problems for future
• Rigging- Getting the correct rig
• Skinning
• Blend shapes (If I use them)

Thing still needed
• Buildings, one for hell and one for heaven
• Ring of fire
• Book
• Book stand
• Tree and Bushes (these can be duplicated and tweaked to look different)
• Servant? Basic silhouette outline.

Interview With Bill Lewis

It’s about time I wrote something up here based on my dissertation. Below are notes which Jackie took after I met up with Bill Lewis on Monday.

Bill Lewis is English artist, story-teller, poet and mythographer. He is a member of ‘The Medway Poets’ a group dedicated to stuckism artwork. A few weeks ago he did a lecture called 'Kissing the Minotaur' in the Pentagon. I couldn't attend this lecture and so Jackie suggested that I email him, to see if he'd be happy to send me some notes about what he was talking about. It turned out he didn’t have any notes and said he'd meet me at the university (as he lives localy) to talk about what I wanted to know. Below are the notes that Jackie took down from my meeting with him.

One of the things TV programmes like Dr Who do, is to give people a sense of being part of a family - you become emotionally involved and invest emotionally in the stories.

We live in a post-religious age - religion is replaced by other things such as football, pop music etc.

Our minds have a natural mechanism that makes us 'live' stories, making our lives into a drama.

Look up Joseph Campbell - developed the idea of the heroes journey. Believed that all stories and myths have the same themes and come from a collective memory.

Carl Jung - worked with Freud - but whereas freud thought that the unconscious mind was a dumping ground for things we did not want to deal with, Jung thought that there was a collective subconscious, with people sharing common images brought about by the fact that we all share common ancestry.

Jung said there were 3 ways of dealing with the shadow -

1)Deny the shadow belongs to you and say it belongs to someone else, so pass the blame to someone else. Then you become the shadow.

2)Deny the shadow exists, then the shadow becomes all-powerful.

3)Embrace the shadow, then you can control it.

Need to be able to read visual imagery in film and tv, as a way of being able to read modern myths - use of light, shadow, placing of characters etc.

The ancient Greeks knew that if a truth is too close to you, then you can't see it. Things need to be further away to be able to see them.

The only way to deal with logic is through metaphor, as logic cannot explain everything.

Rene Descartes - 'The Father of Modern Philosophy'

Myths, poetry and art are the only ways to portray the truth.

Many of our myths are left over from more ancient ideas - so for example, 25 Dec is celebrated as Christmas, when originally in North-western Europe we had a midwinter festival called Yule, when Odin was a gift-giving spirit that was worshipped.

The Bible is a collection of myths, written by different people at different times. Many of the stories tie in with ancient Greek myths.

All myths are true in a way that facts cannot be. Myths are useful because they inform us on a spiritual level.

Some ideas that we take for granted these days, such as Heaven and Hell, could have been misinterpreted and lost in translation from the Norse or Viking ideas for the places where normal people went - downwards to Hel...not a bad place, just where everyone that wasn't a hero went (became what we know as Hell). Heroes went to Valhalla which was upwards.

Pre Vis: Version 2

Changed the camera angles. It now looks like the camera's looking down on a board game. However need to edit the angles a little bit. I'm also aware that the pre-vis clips are the wrong side. Didn't realize until it came to exporting. Also included the voice over and a rough soundtrack. Sound effects will be added in later, with reference back to my animatic and the sound of crows.

Knight Model: Update

Almost finished. Just some small touches now such as an eye for the horse. Other than that here's the first rough draft of my chess piece. Also added in an image background to try and make it stand out.

Knight Chess Piece: Model

Figured it was time for an update. I have been modelling my knights in Maya since the end of last week. The above screen shot is my first attempt at a rough model of my knight. However I was told to consider adding in detail after getting the basic shape. Below is the up to date version of my figurine.

Voice Over

Managed to get a voice over for my animation. Below is two different versions of my script, both by Max Howarth

Version 1



Version 2

Knight Chess Piece Turnaround:Final

Finally finished my knight chess piece character. Above without the stand (knew I forgot something important) and below with the stand. Now onto modelling in Maya :D

@ Phil

An edited version with some corrections recomended by Jackie

The Mappa Mundi is a map created in 13th century which depicts the world as it was imagined in those days. Not only does the map represent the world but it also represents life and death and how they are connected to each other. After a terrible battle, the spirit of a knight rises from the ground onto his horse. Upon his horse he prepares his journey towards Judgment Day. As he passes onwards he glances back at his servant who calls to him ‘passe avant’, pass on. The knight continues towards the realm of St Peter to be judged. The book of St Peter holds all the names of those who are blessed and who will spend eternal life in heaven. If the Knight’s name does not appear in the book he will descend to hell.

Concept Update 2

Went back and re edited this one to look, I'm hoping like my world should. The base for my chess piece will be made from wood. Figures such as props (trees and buildings) will also be made from wood with inked on details. The ground will also have details inked on as well.





Also. as recommended by Phil I looked at Michele De Lucchi's wooden models for inspiration.

@Phil

Hi Phil

Below is a rough draft of a script I'm preparing to send to a voice over to see how much they would charge me. Could you read through it and recommend either something else I could put in or what I could improve upon.

The Mappa Mundi is a map created in 13th century which depicts the world. Not only does the map represent the world but it also represents life and death and how they are connected to each other. After a terrible battle, the spirit of a knight rises from the ground onto his horse. Upon his horse he prepares his journey towards Judgment Day. As he passes onwards he glances back at his servant who calls to him ‘pasaval’, pass on. The knight continues towards the realm of St Peter to be judged. The book of St Peter holds all the names who are blessed and who will spend eternal life in heaven. If the Knight’s name does not appear in the book he will descend to hell.

Concept Update

Been revamping my concept art as well as working on my Knight character. I've taken elements from tapestries in terms of buildings and tree leaves etc to get the elements I need. The middle one depeicting heaven needs to have the texture I overlaid ontop toned down. It looked less obvious on my laptop screen.

Character Design: Knight Chess Piece Update

Changed the knight's back a little as suggested by Jackie. I'm hoping it now looks like the knight and horse are one rather than two separate elements.

Character Design

After talking to Alan he said I needed to push my character further. I n eeded to make the knight and horse look like one 'piece' as well as if they'd been carved into a piece of wood,metal or stone. To help me get a btter idea of how to make them looked carved I've combined them together. i've also tried to keep their limbs out of perportion.



After getting some feed back, it was recomended that I make the horses legs longer. This was to loose the look of the horse bowing down and that the knight will be dismounting. The second round of feedback also agreed that the legs needed to be just a little longer as well as having the head smaller to make the horse look proud.



I was also told to take a look at 'Noggin the Nog' for style influence. The show from 1959 was created by Oliver Postgate. Postgate also created animations such as Ivor the Engine, Bagpuss and the Clangers. The show Noggin the Nog has a strong use of the style I need, characters and props looking like they are one (like my chess piece).

Mappa Mundi: Judgment Day Pre-Vis

Some scenes are a lot faster than I thought. The battle field scene is a little too quick for my liking. I tried to stick to my animatic timing but discovered that it was still a little bit quick.

Character Turnarounds

Here are the turnarounds for my knight and his horse. both will be in silhouette and are designed to represent chess pieces. Had a little trouble trying to draw them in the turnarounds. I keep wanting to revert back to drawing them in proportion.

Knight and horse sketches

As recommended above are examples of 3D board games which will help me push my animation into a ore 3D space.

Below are images I've sketched out of the knight and his horse for my character. Out of the horse designs (influenced by the images on the influence map at the bottom) I think for the horse I lean towards either 1,3 or 5. I did have a little trouble with these for it was hard to draw them 'out of proportion'.

Jackie also sent me an email recommending the documentary below. It has a wonderful map scene towards the end.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/p00jjjyz/