For the start of this project we had to generate possible ideas we would like to explore as a low poly world, to do this we started with a few ‘what if?’ questions. For this task mine were: what if we lived in the sky? what if we were small? what if there was a hidden ruin? what if we went deep underwater? or what if we lived underground? I was split between the what if questions of if we were small or if we lived underwater so I decided to gather images on both (as separate boards) to see which idea I would want to bring forward.
For this image board I went with the idea of having small objects to us being seen in a different perspective, like that of an ant roaming around. I went with the imagery of garden designs specifically with a gnome and fairy theme as I felt it would help to add to the idea of things being unusually massive because of the perspective, as well as this I found that in most garden decorations they include small houses and spaces playing of the idea of tiny beings living with small signs and pathways like a tiny community. Small ideas I had whilst making this were small pathways leading to a tiny house, glowing mushrooms adding to the mythical imagery, small fairy’s (small glowing orbs for simplicity when creating the world) floating and flowers which grow around the house like ivy or huge flowers above.
For this image board I went of the idea of living or having a focus of being underwater. Whilst wanting to include different marine animals like fish I also felt the piece would need a focal point, for this I looked at sunken ships parts decomposed due to age. Ideas I had whilst going through this were parts of the ship being misplaced such as being scattered around the ground or stuck to parts of the surrounding area, sharks circling the ship with small fish grouping as well as mysterious glowing lights suggesting a sign of ‘life’.
Going forward I decided to go with the idea of being underwater with the sunken ship as I felt there would be more ideas for moving sections like the fish, the perspective being able to be taken different ways such as inside the ship or following a loose bit of wood which leads to the ship. I liked the colour combinations as well and felt the idea of mysterious ‘lights’ around the ship (not the main light filtering in from the sunlight) had the potential to add a bit of story to the world making it feel more alive other than the marine life already present.
Using the imagery and ideas I had came up with I then created 6 quick thumbnail ideas for what the low poly world would be like. For each of these I included different aspects of the inspiration board such as different ship parts being shown like parts of sails or flags or an anchor hanging down. Looking over the thumbnails I particularly liked the 5th thumbnail as it had a monumental feel to the sunken ship as the focal point with the cliffs to the side curving to lead the eye towards the ship, as well as this I also liked the inclusion of the fish circling around the top of the ship further adding to the focus of it.
In developing the 5th thumbnail for it to be used as the 3-D scene I decided to not only show the side view which was used in the thumbnail but also an overhead view so it would be easier to make into 3-D. Using reference images of different old styled ships I created a design which has a simple yet interesting silhouette. For this plan idea whilst I am going to include fish swirling around the top area of the remains of the ship, I wanted to mainly focus on showing the layout so it is easily readable to be made into the 3-D scene.