Update and Research

It's been a while and a hectic week with organisation and planning happening for both this project and the Final Major Project next year. I've been looking at camera angles and scenery in both the Assassin Creed games and also in similar hero style films and TV shows. I've broken this project down into two main matte painting, an eagle view from above of the entire city, and a street view. Perhaps a few smaller paintings will be required, but I'm hoping the bulk of the green screen shots can be composited into these scenes. One thing for certain, is that the images will need to be big high resolution paintings, allowing me the scope to zoom in. I am also considering the need for lots of extras, as the town sequences are always busy, and the idea of a crowd parting for this battle to commence is appealing.

The fight sequence should happen in the same sort of environment that is within the games to connect the two concepts together. I have been looking at images from both high level and street level to get an idea of the sort of scenery I will require.

I really like the idea of the sandstone buildings with wooden stalls and hanging flags, though it may be difficult to source some of these images it is the sort of look I am going with. I also plan to play quite a bit with light, the contact lighting in my previous project worked really well, and I am keen to attempt to use it again. Setting this sequence at sunset will allow me to pull in the oranges and yellows which will contract the greens and whites of the salad cream bottle very nicely.

The leap at the beginning of the story board is a major factor, and getting that looking right is very important. I've already carried out tests using the slow motion and I am confident that I can get the effect, but I've been giving it a lot of thought as to how this needs to be framed and edited together. Obviously my actor will not be jumping off anything incredibly high (most likely a table) and so I really need to get a sense of height.

This Batman/OnStar commercial uses a similar idea to what I intend, fast cuts from different angles making it seem that he is falling a great distance. I particularly want a shot from under my actor as he jumps, however, I am not entirely sure how safe this will be in the studio. All I can do is bare all this in mind and get as much footage as I can on the day.

It is safe to say however that one of my matte paintings is well underway and the second in planning stages and looking hopeful. I'll keep you posted.

Interestingly, on my travels through cyber space, I discovered live action filming for Assassin's Creed.

It's definitely interesting to see!