Crit Presentation - Secret Lairs

Crit Presentation - Secret Lairs - Volcanic Princess

Unfinished Secret Lair Render

My secret lair for the Volcanic Princess, it is unfinished and has its flaws but I think we can gain a general impression of what I had looked to accomplish in this task. I have altered my design three times in the duration of this project from a Throne room, Great hall and now a volcanic play pen. I managed to texture some elements in the scene but have skipped a few stages to achieve this look. Hopefully I can present this to reflect my work from this idea over the past two and a half weeks to appose the seven week duration.

Volcanic Princess Lair progress

More development of my maya scene, my attribute editor and outliner detailing my groups were complex due to a lack of tidiness, I was finding it hard to decipher the correct blinns and textures. Also the glow has been refined by the aid of Ayunie and Lisa, I have intensified the glow by tenfold and now I can notice it a whole lot more :)

Hero Prop Orthographics

My hero prop orthographics top side and front. A basic quick sketch illustrating my prop.

Hero Prop Concept Art

The Obelisk key is what the Volcanic Princess uses to activate her installation, upon placing it into the empty space provided, the key itself activates and glows from the middle to produce ambient lighting as the installation begins destroying her structures. Much like the buildings in her installation the Hero prop will be seen as a basic design, small handles for her to hold either side to equal the weight as she places it down.

Volcanic Princess - Secret Lair - Orthographics

Orthographic of my secret lair

Submission Disk Artwork - Volcanic Princess

Originally this artwork was going to push my project forward before receiving feedback in my second OGR. The dining room scene could be where the king, queen and princess feast, I didn't want to waste the time I spent on this art and I think it relates with my project and is suitable for a submission disc

Volcanic Princess Lair Lighting development

 Once I formed the Obsidian bars revolving round the lair, I began fiddling with the lighting.

 I begun to add lights equally around the lair highlighting the inner bars .

 I faced additional lights outward to catch the heat rising on the bars via to the exposure of the intense lava flow. In this image the bars appear to be quite bright, perhaps to overexposing them to the intensity of the area light, so i lowered this and added shades of light reds.

Im finding problems making my Lava blinns all glow together in a single render as it seems once i select one the other disappears once the render is complete. I need to fix this before I finish my modelling and extra point lights.

Volcanic Princess Lair Progress

Maya managed to crash again whilst i was forming the obsidian bar formations around my lair, these were the screenshots i managed to save before i lost my progress. There have been some changes since my concept art and I didn't realise how different my design would look. I decided to extend the lava flow to surround the volcanic installation, started to extrude in the bowl to add more lava as well.

Unfinished Concept Art - Volcanic Princess

The unfinished concept art for my lair, I'm having trouble with the lighting with this piece, I would like the lighting to come from only the lava instead of offscreen. But this artwork can give us a general impression of what I'm looking to head towards

Post OGR 2 Influence Map and revised concept

Following the feedback I gathered from my last OGR I have re-scripted my character biography, concept and hero prop. It was true that the previous idea was derived to create a depiction from the origins of the volcanic princess and not her actual lair. So re evaluating once more is crucial so that I go into Maya with a stronger concept.

I have decided to follow Phil's advice and incorporate a Playpen environment with an Obsidian texture, and contained within this space would be the toys of the Princess, she would this time be depicted as a spoilt little brat that would have temper tantrums and destroy her toys. Unbeknown to her that her destruction actually occurs on the surface world, almost like a voodoo effect. I hope to have a strong concept before this weeks end and jump into Maya and begin scripting the scene.

Online Greenlight Review (2), Secret Lairs

Online Greenlight Review 2

Volcanic Princess Environment Influence Maps Revised

I have begun to notice that my thumbnails detailing the environment of the secret lair of the Volcanic Princess are beginning to lack incentive and becoming more and more generic in presentation. After recieving my feedback after the initial OGR of this project I decided to revise the space of the lair and to find a new reference of information to fund my ideas from. After looking at Hepheastus and Pele I decided to continue with these Greek columns and detailed alcoves to base my designs from. And as for the Volcanic aspects of the design I looked at conceptual artwork and some game design. This is because the space I am looking to achieve is going to be something impossible in real-life standards, so to refer to media where in a sense we are the creators. My great fear of this project is replicating Lava correctly for my audience but after a brief chat with Simon and Jordan I believe I am more confident in proceeding ahead but to finialize a set perspective and composition I must implore the use of pipetting almost key design elements into my own work.

Post OGR Fire Deities Research

Post OGR Fire Deities Research .pdf

Secret Lairs OGR (1)

OGR SECRET LAIRS.pdf

Volcanic Princess Thumbnails 1-17

Character biography - The Volcanic Princess

The Volcanic Princess is a tale that has been fabled throughout the ages to inspire the light of a dying land. Her name was lost a long time ago but her title is renowned through the old world. It was said she was a innocent princess born to an overprotective King and Queen rulers of an immortal race, who saw their weakness in their creation. They begged a great sorcerer to craft a pendant of pure light to safeguard the good intentions of the land. Locked away from the horrors of the land the princess rarely was allowed to venture into the castle grounds, the threat of dark spirits and ill-doers were constant. The land began to decay into darkness until one day the King demanded the evacuation of his kingdom to the southern regions hoping to outrun the evil. On the convoy through the old mountain pass between the crossroads of dark and light, the front and back were separated. The King ordered his men to guard his Princess with their lives and told her to stay close to them as the light from her pendant would guide them to the correct path. Salvation was near but it was said that the Princess became influenced by the surrounding darkness and she became prone to her greatest fears. She chased a voice away from her company and was lost to the dark void of the mountain, the voices whispering her to journey to the end of the void. The Princess came to the end of the physical world, a gateway to another part of the mountain a gateway she did not realise once crossed would decide her fate for eternity. Forever entrapped within the mountain as it sprung to life, fire and ash skyrocketed to relieve the light from the dark and reality became distorted, a dream state. She became part of the mountain and its elements. The Volcanic Princess governs the space between the light and darkness of the old land and exists purely to balance the fate of all. 

Princess Influence Map

The second of my influence maps detailing the Princess to my secret lair, at this time I am still considering altering my character bio to create the overall portrayal of this space. I haven't decided if she is a cute and innocent girl and this is depicted in the environment or if she is a dark and sinister individual. My influence map reflects this statement, I used a range of keywords to explore accessories that may be props in this space and her actual nature. Perhaps she can manipulate her environment? I must decide soon.