Storyboards For Animating The Guildhall

 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 follows this blog post.