Digital Environments/Visual Studies Project

As written in the project brief document on Moodle:


For this project you will be working in teams of four or five students. You will all be working towards a final collaborative short film but will have the opportunity to fulfil clear and separate roles within the team.

• You will be working to create an animated environment.
• You will be collaborating not only with the other animators in your team, but also with designers from the environment design course.
• Their designs will form the starting point for your work.

This environment will be modelled in 3D, UV mapped, textured and lit based upon the research of materials and environments as initially designed or propsed by IDEAS students. This research will consist of practical site visits (such as the trip to Barcelona and alternative London based venues) and associated drawing and photography, as well as academic research via the web and the LRC.

This environment must demonstrate integral animation, it could be mechanical such as machinery, doors, windows, windmills etc, or it could be more organic, and atmospheric, such as the effects of wind on plants, weather conditions etc. It could be a much more long term animation to show the effect of years passing, rather than minutes. For those of you who feel that you are more character animators than computer visualisers you can focus upon contextualising the designed environment by populating it with characters using that environment, it may be that the environment is being used in an unintended or unexpected way that has evolved through public interaction with the space. (Was the South Bank designed for skateboarding or parkour?).

It may be easier for you to think about defining the way in which you will approach this project by choosing one of the themes listed below.

a) Changes over time (historic).
b) Changes in weather or lighting (climatic).
c) Changes in use of the environment (contextual).

Although you will be working as part of a team towards your final animation, you will also be required to provide evidence of your individual contribution to the project via a blogged design journal where you will document your personal research, experimentation, and acquiring of new skills.



I've joined a group of very talented students to take on this task. Mel, Carlos, Rory and Joe are my team mates for this project. I'm really excited and happy to be with such a cool team, and cannot wait to get started on this!