“A toy-based sequence delivering a message of cultural unity and harmony through through music and dance.”

This is what we have been tasked to create over the next semester. We being Ripieno, a team of two 2D artists, two 3D artists, a tech artist, and a composer. We have been given by the pre-production team an outline of events that should occur, but everything else – from the selection of the cultures through establishment of the guiding narrative is on us. We are excited for the challenge!

Step one was accepting that, given our ambitious goals for the animation and our desire for an accessible experience, 360 video, rather than an immersive VR experience, was the best way to deliver our final product. The difference is small but crucial: one allows the viewer to walk around in the space, the other creates a more carefully crafted frame. It is the debate of freedom of viewer vs. control, and we are attempting the latter. This will also give us some leeway as we explore the potential of film in 360, which in and of itself is a new tool.

Step two was picking cultures. We narrowed down the options for which dance styles we could achievably find consultants and dancers. Once six cultures had been identified, we looked into the pros and cons of animating each style, in order to communicate to the concept artists what should be taken into account for character design. The more we discussed this, the more we realized that our development timeline will only reveal itself once we have a chance to test the technology to which we have access.

Therefore, as we continue to develop concept art and contact troupes for the music and choreography, our 3D and tech artists will be experimenting on the effort and time it will take to go from creating 3D models through to the final 360 video.