Based on my previous idea of an office area, for my updated version I tried to think about unusual office accessories which one can find around such a place. Storming for ideas, I compiled a moodboard focusing around various simulations I could accomplish.
The final result was based around 4 different points of simulation: an hourglass and the sand grains, a glass case with burning fire inside of it, a shape that has attached (or magnetized) particles to its surface which circle around it in various paths, and swirls, and finally a backflow incense burner. Once I had a clearer goal in mind, I made a storyboard, from which an animatic was created.
As my story started to form a definite shape, and it was decided which models were to be used as a reference for modeling, I started to model those in Maya before they could be exported into Houdini. Given the previous goal of creating previs, I also searched for free or provided for students assets of other required things like desk, laptop, books, and a chair.
The fire case was inspired by work I did in Term 2 for the collaborative project. At the time I placed inside a pre-modeled big display case burning fire, as part of abstract and unusual museum pieces one can find in an Art Hall. Looking back at it, now that I’ve spent more time understanding and learning Houdini, I wanted to perfect the original work and bring more realness and quality to it. As an extra bit I thought of making, was a crystal (similar to the one from the picture above) and have the fire burning on top of it, with small licks spreading across the surface.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CGgCLfNJw1M/ – Swirling particles original idea
Now that I had my rough scene set up, I started placing the lighting and figuring out what camera movements I could use and apply. For better visualization, renders of a few frames were made.
Finally, I made my first previs version of movement around the scene and exploration of all the various accessories on the table.