0907440 - Book for the Shop

Here is one of the book that I have made for the Guildhall shop. 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith, who made her home in Finchingfield and whose works are intended to be stocked at the Guildhall.

Three views of the book.

0907440 - Working on the Rafters

Although another group member has made the roof as it will be seen from the outside, as a part of my building the bulk of the building itself I have been working on the rafters. The rafters are not a complex model, simply made with Box Standard Primitives, although there is a lot of work and detail involved in order to get the Guildhall's system of beams into an accurate representation. It is currently still a work in progress that will be finished once the roof itself is imported into the scene. Additionally there are still some beams that need to be added throughout the Guildhall along the walls.

Pre-Rafters Render

Working on the Rafters in Max

Adjustments to the placements of various beams need to be made as the framework becomes more complex.

Adding Rafters and Making Adjustments

0901877 - Script To Go With Storyboards

Hello everyone and welcome to the Finchingfield Guildhall short renovation clip. We hope to demonstrate to you how the renovations have been implemented and how the Guildhall will now be used in order to entertain and educate people young and old on the only secular building available to the public.

Over many seasons, the building work has finally been completed, so let’s take a look inside!

Here we have the entrance to the guildhall and the shop. Firstly, you can see that we have easily accessible toilets which have been positioned near the entrance/exit for practicality. Right, into the shop. The shop is used by the whole community, including school children not just from the local areas but from other boroughs as well. We have stocked lots of inexpensive merchandise such as pencils, rubbers and notepads with the Guildhall logo on them to remind the purchasers of their visit to this historic building. The shop also stocks pieces of work from famous novelists such as Dodie Smith, the mastermind behind “101 Dalmatians” and Norman Lewis who wrote “Naples 44”. A watercolour collection by Arthur Legge will also be available in the shop too.

Now we are moving from the shop to the Museum area. Arthur Legge’s daughter, Phyllis, designed a map of Finchingfield and the original was given to the Guildhall. This has been printed on the modern lino which covers the floor in the temporary exhibition area of the Museum. This area joins the shop to the Museum and the space will be used in the future so that local groups and societies can give educational talks and displays to the public.  

In the main museum area, the various items will be displayed in a series of glass tables with interactive touch-screen technology. This will promote learning by displaying the objects in their best possible light and help explain the history behind this ancient building. The technology used in the glass tables is inspired by the Darwin Centre in the Natural History Museum and the aim of using this technology is to make it easier to change the content of the displays more frequently, therefore making the museum a fun, family-friendly, interesting place to visit and learn from. There are also speakers situated throughout the museum area which will play recordings about the history of Finchingfield, particularly about what the village used to be like when there was a more agricultural-based economy. This would be interesting for the older generation so they can reminisce on the “good old days” and for the younger generation to gain an idea on what life was like before they were even thought of!

Moving on to the library, there is a massive stock containing a variety of different books which will interest anyone who visits. The idea is to create a cosy room, with fireplaces to give a warm and welcoming atmosphere and sofas in order to encourage parents and children to read together in a quiet environment. Also in the library, there is a photocopier as there is not one available locally and it has been requested and greatly welcomed by the village occupants and computers with fast broadband access.

That’s it for the ground floor, moving up onto the first floor.

Here we have more toilets and baby changing facilities to meet the needs of visitors.

Now, in the guild room, it has been restored to the original Guildhall layout and it can be utilised in many different ways and for various different uses. When the building was new, around 1470AD, it was used by the Guild of the Holy Trinity for religious purposes and as a school. The idea is to continue using this building in a multitude of different ways so that it can not only meet the needs of the Finchingfield community, but also the needs of other boroughs and nearby villages as well so they too can benefit from this unique building and its histories.

Right, time for the kitchen. The kitchen is where all meals and drinks are carefully prepared for consumption by the visitors of the Guildhall. Prices are very reasonable and money will be used to help improve the Guildhall even further.

Well that’s the new Guildhall! We hope you enjoyed our renovation clip!  

0901877 - Storyboards to Demonstrate Animation

 These are the storyboards which the group will follow in order to animate the Guildhall.

Firstly, the clip starts showing the "old" Guildhall building before it has been renovated. It will be shown in the Summer so it makes it easier for the person looking at the video to see the detail in the exterior. There will be sounds in the background to indicate that it is Summer, for example birds singing.

Depending on the amount of time we will have, the original idea was to have a clock appear in the middle of the screen showing the seasons. The background scenery will change from Summer to Autumn (Orange sky, orange/brown trees and leaves on the floor) and then to Winter, where a slice modifier will be applied and the new building will be revealed. The reason why we felt that the season changing was important was because not only does it symbolise that the renovation works are being taken place, but it also gives us an excuse to show off other animation techniques. For example, we have created fireplaces with working flames and smoke. However, these will not be lit during the Summer periods. Also, we felt that the Guildhall could be used more in the Winter months as it is a warm place for the community to visit and explore. We are hoping to create a snow effect too and the lights will be illuminated inside the building to give a welcoming feeling.

A silhouette will be walking down the path and as it approches the doorway, the camera pans round to focus on it. The video will be based on a human eye's account of the renovations that have taken place.

The next couple of drawings show the silhouette's movement throughout the building. It may or may not be used in the final clip. It really depends on the effect that we are tryiong to create. As a minimum, it is a guide to us as developers to plan where the path will be set for the silhouette.

4a through to 4h shows how each of the components can be animated in order to show how the Guildhall works and how the public will be able to interact with it. Due to time contstraints, we may only be able to use the same silhouette feature. In an ideal world, we would have created individual people models and used them instead to show off some of our other techniques. However, our main focus is getting the building itself finished on time.

At the end of the tour, the silhouette will approack the exit and a "Fade To Black" screen transition will be applied. Scrolling credits will complete the clip, along with our group SID numbers and thanks to the Guildhall society for letting us tour the building and gain valuable firsthand experiences. There will be a voice over throughout to explain what each part of the Guildhall does and how it will be utilised.

We aim to use Windows Movie Maker to add transitions and add the voice over. The voice over may have to be edited using software such as Audacity to ensure that it fits in with the clip. The aim is to get the clip to last no longer than 5 minutes because it will simply take too long to finish rendering. 

Script will follow shortly...

0901877 - Sketches of components to be used in the Guildhall

I was given the task of making sketches for example items that will be included in the final building. The purpose of these sketches was to determine what modifiers and techniques will be needed in order to make the models. The idea was also to demonstrate how certain components can be animated.

0901877 Group Meeting 5 Agenda and Report

Meeting on: 25/11/2011 in Room 303C

Expected Attendees:

0901877

0907803

0907440

Agenda:

In the previous group meeting, we decided that it would be appropriate to reduce the number of group meetings in order to create focus on the actual project. If any group members have had any issues, then they have been relayed back to the team leader who has sorted them out accordingly. However, at the end of this week (Week 9) a group meeting has been arranged to discuss the following:

• How well the work is going so far. 
• How much work is left to be done on the models so that we can begin the animation process. 
• Do we need to make any adaptations to the Gantt chart created at the beginning of the project? 

Due to the group leader being put under pressure for the other component to this module, an enquiry has been put into place with the  student advisor in order to grant an extension and will be discussed with her on 02/12/2011. This is because it will have a distinct unfair disadvantage on the rest of the group's mark as I have had to restart that particular component again. 

If any members have any issues, please do not hesitate to contact me. 

Thanks.

Meeting on: 25/11/2011 in Room 303C

Attendees:

0901877

0907803

0907440

During the meeting, we agreed that although we will meet our target deadline, the other component to the module would suffer as a result so we all agreed that an extension would be the most appropriate course of action, seeing as this is our final year and every mark counts.

UPDATED: 02/12/2011

We have made adaptations to the Gantt chart and instead of having group meetings, we will meet up whenever we need help with aspects of the Guildhall and to put the whole project together. The image below shows the new Gantt chart which will be followed:

0907440 - Pictures

Finchingfield Guildhall holds a watercolour collection by Arthur Legge. These pictures have been made available on the Guildhall's Facebook page. For our group project I have taken them and added them to the museum. A sample of three is shown at the end of this post. I don't actually know if the paintings are intended to be displayed in the restored Guildhall, although I do know that they are looking into making copies available in the shop. I thought this would be a nice touch to add however. The objects here are simply a Box that I have modelled into a picture frame with the paintings themselves positioned on Planes.

0907440 - Glazed Walkway

This is the glazed walkway that the renovated Guildhall will have. The model is many of many objects but is most just Box Standard Primitives fitted together to make the wooden framework. The windows were made by another group member for the main building and just re-used for this section by myself. The brick wall still needs some extension to it as well as being topped off with coping stones.

0907440 - Further work on the Guildhall

Here follows an update on the progress of the Guildhall modelling. Based on the additional plans that have been provided, there is also a loft that needs to be included in the model. This is in the early stage of being added. The current focus of this aspect of the project is putting all the inside walls into place and properly aligning the doorways. Further study of the plans has shown that some additional doors will need to be added to the model. The existing doorways are also being extended in height. Spaces for the windows still need to be put into the walls. This will require careful matching up between the floor plan and the exterior plan.

The three main layers going into place.