MoCap W2 24: Design Conceptualisation

This week for Motion Capture we have been tasked with coming up with design concepts in the form of at least 3 mood boards. I have developed my idea since last week and have decided to add more meaning to the components of my project.

My contextual ideas:

I am still sticking to my idea of the egg with the shell and the fluid, however I wanted the piece to be more emotive so I have given the materials some deeper meaning.

The Shell - The piece will begin with the dancer's mesh made up of some kind of ceramic or clay material. The dancer will twirl elegantly as if they are a work of art, a sculpture. Then about halfway through, the shell will burst apart like a broken china plate, and all the pieces will scatter along the floor. The broken shell suggests that the dancer's exterior was extremely fragile. It informs the audience that they were presenting a fake facade.

The Fluid - The shell breaks apart to reveal that the dancer is made of fluid on the inside. The fluid (the whites of the egg) flows within the transparent mesh of the dancer which acts like a volume. An orange/yellow heart will bob inside the fluid (the yolk of the egg). The dance becomes faster and more chaotic until eventually the pressure becomes too much and the dancer liquidates, splashing onto the floor in one big puddle at the end.

The whole project will be about how humans can be extremely fragile, and that when we are put ourselves under immense pressure, we tend to crumble. I have recently felt this way about the looming pressures of completing all my uni work and the high standards I put on myself, so I thought 'why not channel these feelings into my work...?'

Here are my design concept mood boards:

CHARACTER / SCULPTURE:

CHARACTER / FLUID:

CINEMA / LIGHTING:

My lighting choices were heavily inspired by one of my contextual research examples called "Run Forever" by Universal Everything. I think that it would be cool to start with a warm, yellow toned light while the dancer is a sculpture and then when the shell breaks to reveal the fluid, the lighting changes to a cool blue toned white with some water reflections.

TECHNIQUES / TOOLS:

Fluid: I either want to make body mesh into a container and run a fluid simulation using Bifrost or Houdini (not that I've ever used that before but I know it's good for fluid simulation) or just use nParticle and fill the body with particles that have a water-like movement.

Droplets and Bubbles: I can make these using MASH trails with particles.

Sculpture: I will create retarget the mocap data to an Autodesk character that is just fully solid white and add a matte texture map onto the mesh to emulate clay.

Shatter Effect: I think I saw that Maya has a shatter effect which I will investigate to break up the sculpture facade.

Ideation sketch for my design concept: