Week VII : A New Direction!

--- 03/11/08 ---

A bit of an overhaul in the ideas tank, since my last post.

After trying to fight my way through a migraine over the weekend, which pretty much crippled an entire day's productivity, I came to an impasse in my work... it just didn't work.

I had the previous idea of the maple leaf in the puddle. Of course, making the puddle was a challenge in itself (It needed a nice ripple)... but merging the puddle into the path (Rather than a blob on top of it) and making a nice scene proved trickier than it first seemed. The angle of the path and the effects grew taxing... and what's worse, less 3D intensive. To be frank, I like making 3D objects. Making the dragonfly was excellent fun, and I wanted more complex structures, rather than relying on textures and lighting to pull the scene out (The path/rain would have required that). What's more, the idea of the leaf in the rain/puddle/mist... whatever... detracted from the idea of Autumn. Nothing just seemed to work. The vague ideas seemed nice enough, but in practise, fell flat on their faces.

The lecture was therefore about sitting down and trying to scheme a new idea. I was quite happy with the leaf as it was, and didn't want to discard it outright. In fact, sitting in a pool of water still seemed quite nice, and reflected Autumn nicely... all that was needed was the rest of it...

Autumn sun was a vital aspect. A rainy/misty day was out of the picture. It had to be calm in the summer sun. Going back the mood board for ideas, I caught sight of the cornfield and 'harvest'. That seemed much nicer and more 'Autumn-esque'. The immediate idea was therefore to have the leaf floating on top of water in a bucket. A traditional wooden pail, full of water. That image worked nicely, maybe with a farm-like scene in the background. Wheat worked beautifully. But it was not quite finished. A bucket was too... empty...

A scarecrow then came to mind. That would be fun... but wait... even better... a crow! A crow perched on the bucket, with a straw of wheat in its beak. A bird would be quite fun to do in 3DS Max... so why not? And heck, if I have enough time, maybe make a scarecrow... but that's more an after-project. The leaf has already been made, so no point wasting it just yet. I'm not in the position to waste such levels of time... yet...

So onwards to the new idea! Captain Pineapple... Away!