Blocking out

Each of us was required to produce three 3D blockouts of various shots within the piece.  This was required to make sure that the lighting and in the CG footage matched that of the lighting in the live action.  The lighting and shadowing is going to be an important factor in determining how effectively our swamp monster blends in with the rest of the scene. 

This is the manhole shot, which the swamp monster will emerge from.  I modelled a hole that the swamp monster will come out of.  When we place this manhole in the live action, it will just be a matter of masking out the grey lambert shaded polygon area.

The next two shots were trickier to model, because I had to create a 3D representation of a 2D image that was identical in perspective, but would also balance the light accurately.  Drawing a 2D image of a live action reference is relatively easy, as you can capture the levels of perspective easily, through techniques such as foreshortening and light.  However, to recreate a 2D image through 3D modelling is harder, because you need to create models that have one side much shorter than the other but also needs to capture the light properly.

Here are the screenshots of my attempts at recreating two shots.

In this shot, it was particularly hard to model the ground so it looks flat but is still accurate in relation to the perspective in the live footage.

I showed these to my team mate, Matt, who is in charge of lighting, and he said they should be fine to work with.