Through my animatic and story design, it is clear that there are essential elements necessary to be added in order to complete the story. In addition to this, it is also essential in order to portray the Kuleshov Effect style of contextualised content intercut with the character. These include@

• Symbology of couple imagery:
  • A couple of bullfinch birds at the start of the animation.
  • Decor around the house to show history of marriage, personality and the bond of love.
• Wall hanging frame contents:
  • Husband and wife together.
  • Just Grace- for her memorial area.
  • Other decorative wall hangings.
• Repeated imagery of Grace’s favourite flower:
  • Wallpaper.
  • Umbrella/ other props.

Unfortunately, with time constraints, I could only produce a few of these extra narrative elements, therefore, the decor around the house was extremely limited as well as the flower imagery.

Wallpaper

I implemented Photoshop ‘fill pattern’ tool to create a repeatable pattern using forget-me-not flowers on the walls. I created the image in figure 1 first, then filled the appropriate wall texture size, according to the size of the UV.

The way that I made the rough wall appearance is by placing an online wall texture underneath the pattern. Then, I adapted their hue, saturation, brightness and contrast, until I felt that the two images fit appropriately together. See figures 2 and 3.

The images below, figures 4 to 10 include all of the experimentation I made in how the texture should look. I first used figure 2 wall texture in these images, and then found the dislike for the dark edges around the duplicated areas of the wall.

Figure 11 is how my chosen texture from these worked out. As you can see, the pattern is too large.

Then, I decreased the size of the flower pattern texture to make figures 12 and 13. I used figure 3 wall texture which turned out better. Figure 13 was used in the final animation.

Birds

I used Bullfinch birds due to the colour difference in male and female birds. I intend these colours to show their gender in order for the birds to more closely represent Graham and Grace.

I had an issue with the UV after I made the texture in Substance Painter. The UV seemed to move/ distort, which I only realised once I had completed the texture in SP. At this point I have made the UV cleanly in Maya and exported the correct model with this UV. Therefore, I could not find the problem. To solve this, I exported the model from SP with the textures and used the weird UV, since I did not want to restart on the texturing process if not necessary.

Then, in Substance Painter, I simple changed the base colour layer to create the brown shaded bird feathers. As well as changing some colour modes in order to make the whole texture more appropriate to each layer. With this method, i did not have to create the bird texture twice.

I also added a cobweb onto the window since the camera would be passing through it. A small detail to set the tone for the scenery.

Wall hanging frame contents:

At first this image looked quite dark in the render. So, I added a quickly lightened it in using image settings. However, I preferred the appearance of the portrait when I added a light into the scene to shine onto this area. I use the same drawing of Grace for the couple portrait, with them both there. To make these portraits look authentic, I added certain effects such as a vignette, an orange overlay and a gain filter. For the other decorative frames, I used my family’s art. Most were paintings made by my late great-grandmother. And one was made by my late grandmother.