Week 4- PAFS

For the fourth week into developing my concept for the environment and prop for Stardust, I took it digital. I find sketching out my ideas on procreate helpful to quickly navigate an idea of a layout because of the simple tools in the application by adding a grid then being able to draw straight perspective lines over it, giving me my horizon line and vanishing points as the perspective grid for a rough thumbnail sketch.

process of laying down the main elements on the perspective grid

I wanted to focus on getting those values in for the study in greyscale by paying attention to the layers in my background first as the darkest greys, followed by the midground in mid tones and finally the foreground as the main lightest highlights. This way the composition gave me a bit of clarity in terms of realism.

adding values to give depth to the composition

I started out the composition based on the rough sketch I made the week earlier on the tent tied to a large old banyan tree and drew that in first, followed by the drapes of the tent tied to it from the other end and two cushions as my foreground. The main feature, I later added was the bookcase study unit as a top floor structure elevated by wooden beams supporting it on two ends that connected it to the base of the tent floor by the an old staircase landing. After my sketch I painted in my values and this helped bring out the depth of the composition and shadows where needed, leaving the rest against a dark background.

the finished concept in grayscale

For the prop design, I based a few rough sketches on procreate from the references I gathered earlier on the images of compasses found in the books I looked through in the library which helped me make a rough of the profile view of the compass, while my main focus was the dial itself as the look of it had to be enchanted and tied to the main themes of magic. The first design was elegant by nature with a marble texture as an overlay on the dial and a spherical orb in its centre presumably spinning and lighting the symbol of direction to guide the viewer onward.

the first bronze design

The first rendition of this was more bronze and gold with high contrast, the second edit was desaturated and for the third I went with a light yellow to give a subtle gold and silver glow emitting from the orb.

the second gold and silver design

These were simply experiments and not the final design as I wanted to push the outcome further to deliver what was as believable a prop as possible with a simplified construction with a much more realistic and antique approach to the concept, that fit well within the world of the film.

the third with low contrast and a light glow