Wednesday 7 October 2015

Online Greenlight Review: Invisible Cities

1 comment:

  1. OGR 08/10/2015

    Hi Eleanor,

    I've enjoyed looking at a number of 'Octavia' OGRs today, and some of the references etc. I've recommended students look at will be just as pertinent to you, so I'm including here links to the OGRs of your fellow Octavians:

    http://manishadusilacaanimation.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/ogr-online-greenlight-review-invisible.html
    http://wardsanimation.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/ogr-invisibla-cities.html

    The challenge with Octavia is to deal with it as something 'city-sized', as opposed to 'town-sized'. If you imagine this city practically - as slung between two sides of a ravine, a) the ravine would have to HUGE and b) the supports for the city would be huge too! In terms of getting your head around the scale issue, it might help you to think of the city in the context of the Grand Canyon:

    http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/44/91644-004-E89D6DE9.jpg

    Octavia - if it was truly city-sized - wouldn't be hanging between the sides of the canyon like a chandelier - it would actually run the length of the canyon (like the filling in an up-ended sandwich!) - so Octavia would actually be 'long and narrow' and extending all the way along the ravine. Like most cities, you'd probably see the most important buildings (Government/Royalty/Rulers/Tyrant) towards the centre of the city, with the rest of it spreading out along the length of the ravine in both directions.

    In terms of your early thumbs for your various structures, you're going to need to get into a bit more design in terms of figuring out the whys and wherefores of the 'bigger buildings'. As suggested at the briefing, the 'interior' painting should absolutely be of some significant part of the city (as opposed to the interior of a domestic space).

    It might be helpful to think of the structures of Octavia as being modular - so bigger things made out of smaller things:

    https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7232/7262064172_1dfd0d8f95.jpg
    http://installationmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/4modular-house-1200x759.jpg

    In terms of additional design elements, you might want to think about the practicalities of protection and irrigation and water supply - for example - if your city is sort of 'blocking the ravine' then all the buildings at the top would get wet when it rained, while all the smaller buildings hanging below would be more protected; that said, perhaps crops are being grown on top of the city (because they would have sunlight and water) and maybe systems would ensure water was collected and distributed downwards? The other thing logically, would be that for most people in the city, the world would be in darkness, as they would be at the bottom of the ravine, as opposed to at the top - perhaps there's a class system in place that reflects this, but maybe you're poorer if you're at the top, because your home is always being wrecked by the weather...

    Anyway lots to think about - especially when you starting thinking in a city-sized way - and that's when it gets properly interesting.

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