Working on 3D Backgrounds

After figuring out what we wanted the backgrounds to look like, we decided that it would be a really good idea to create rough models of them that would greatly benefit us, and in particularly me, to use once we started painting. Creating 3D backgrounds meant that I could further work and develop the shot types and camera angles as I was able to move in a 3D space freely enabling me to visualize the shot a lot more clearly and quickly compared to doing them by hand or in 2D. It also allowed me to include and manipulate lighting which was also very important to get right as a lot of the scenes and backgrounds were very atmospheric in order to help create different tones and moods throughout the film as it doesn't have a straightforward narrative. That also meant that I could receive Sophie's and Carol's input on different types of angles we wanted to use which helped with the overall result.

I didn't want to spend too much time modelling everything as there were quite a lot of locations but also I was only using them as a guide. Thus why I decided to keep them quite low poly and focus more on the lighting instead as that was the most important part to get correct. I did come across some challenges when doing the lighting in order to make it look like a different time of day. Firstly I tried using the skydome light for shots where it is set in bright daylight as it helps to light objects from all sides. However, using the skydome light meant I was restricted to create shadow and mood lighting as I wasn't able to control that. This is why I decided to use the physical skylight instead. It worked a lot better because I was able to control how light or how dark the light is and I also able to create darker and lighter shadows which really helped to set the time of the setting.

I am pretty happy with the way the models turned out and even though I would have really liked them to be more detailed, I, unfortunately, did not have the time for that and it was also unnecessary.