The idea.

So, after a bit of rest from the completion of Ctf Platform, I've decided to move on to a fresh, new project. I took some consideration in redoing the medical gurney from my demo reel (www.3dryan.com), and also went back and forth with other ideas in my head of what to do next. I chose to redo the gurney after some debate, but also wanted to put it into some context that makes more sense than what I did before. In the reel, it rotates on a round platform, with an abstract background behind it. This was fine for then, but one criticism that I got from it was that I should put it into a hospital setting to show how it would fit into the world around it, and not just treat it like "here's the object rotating, just for show, deal with it :p". So, I started brainstorming scenarios in which a run down, rusted out medical gurney could exist. I knew right off the bat that the environment would be an abandoned room, that it would have been left alone long enough to show some interesting wear and tear. I wanted to have a simple backstory that would explain how this could happen in a realistic, real world setting. Nothing sci-fi or fantasy oriented, but something more grounded in reality. I was looking at some reference photos of abandoned hospitals when I came across something that sparked an idea. One of the photos was that of a run down hopsital room that had the word "Chernobyl" in the file name. This reminded me of a time when my mom told me about the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, how when a soviet nuclear reactor blew up, it poured out tons of radiation into the atmosphere, thus infecting the surrounding area, which forced a permanent evacuation of the nearby residents of the town Pripyat. The vast majority of its people have not returned since, due to the massive amounts of radiation still found there. I would highly recommend reading about the incident, as it's highly fascinating to anyone who cares about history. It's some pretty sad stuff to boot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster

Anyway, the setting of Pripyat makes the perfect scenario in which the abandoned hospital room will exist. Thanks to the lethal radiation, it has been left alone to the point where nobody picked up the mess. This allows more freedom for prop work, as anything is fair game to be left behind.

Who, what, where, why, how, when? Those are questions that every artist should ask before making anything that is tied to some narrative, which is most things in art, i guess. I want this room to tell a story through construction. or deconstruction, I guess, in this case. Here's some reference photos that will give you an idea for the "feel" I want to achieve:

Here's the shot setup:

1) A finalized, introduction shot that pans in on the corner of the hospital room during the day. Only the ceiling and two wall sides will be visible. The camera movement will be slow and smooth of course. The shot will have the following props as well as the title of the piece:

a. the gurney
b. wall air conditioning unit (right wall)
c. window (right wall)
d. sink (far wall)
e. laying chair
f. medical lamp (think dentist office)
g. random debri on ground (this can be wood blocks, books, scrap paper, etc.

2) A still shot of the gurney, poster, medical light, window, and radiator, in shaded wireframe view.

3) A wipe to the same shot, but with a normal map view.

4) Same kind of wipe to a color, normal, and transparency map view

5) Color, transparency, normal and specular map view (finalized shot). This is a moving shot from left to right.


That's it! I want this to be a fairly simple project. As I said in my last post, quality over quantity of objects and areas. I'll be making updates on progress through each stage, so stay tuned.

And also.....I'm going to be making a left 4 dead survival mode map, which will take me a good half year to make. I'll probably be doing a little pre-vis on it while this hospital project is underway. It will probably be a solo project, but options are still open. A small map, like I said before. You know, something I'll actually fully finish. *rolls eyes*

More on that in the future....