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Houses and exteriors: from sketches to final sets - The Orphanage park


The Orphanage set: The Gate construction

Before I started constructing the Gates, I thought I've got lucky when found piece of metal grill to use for doors. It was only when I was finishing the gates modell, that I understood that I actually need bent and battered, distorted, sad-looking grid doors.










The Orphanage set - the curved terrain on a literally curved base



I had to make quite a large number of trees for the park. Here they are.






3D model in the animatic functions in a certain way, but when executed in reality, surface of the curved set looked terribly flat; it was the first set superstructure that I've built and it was (now I know) too straightforward and to neatly done; I used this two halves in a number of sets later on, they were damaged and I had to undertake serious repairs. This particular set had only benefited from scars of such repairs. But it came too early in the shooting and I couldn't predict what could be done, or at least faked, at the time. The only way to use that "naturally evolved" bumpier terrain that was later available, and to achieve better effect would be to re-shoot these shots at the end of the shooting. And even if reshooting like that would be justifiable, it wouldn't be really possible: everything else on the set - the gate, trees, lamps, benches, walkway, internal lighting and cables, and both Orphanage models - all of that suffered some degree of damage through use on other shots, or even if it was just storage handling. I did what I only could: I've sprinkled the terrain with some sawdust and particles, seeds, etc. And I could only hope for the CGI mist to hide the bad things.





For the shot with car lights approaching the Gate, I've constructed a rig of a sort to hold two pocket lamps. I believed I can't miss with that concept, but I was wrong: pocket lamps have a "signature", something like a prescription-glasses look, concentric circles with sickle shape inside when in focus, and just rings of light when blurred. It wasn't working as it should, it looked messy on the rough surface. The shots were useless. I had to envision and scratchbuild a completely new light source, so I took a table lamp and directed it through two metal pipes. That was heavy and cumbersome, but I got it to work OK. And OK was just good enough. However, it took time and effort and prolonged the shooting for a while.

	That didn't look good...


Next in line was to shoot bigger (middle) model in snow. I begun with normal shots, because the last one was risky. It was to be an aerial shot. Or perhaps two, if I can make it work. To achieve that, I tilted the terrain, and the Orphanage for more than 45 degrees. But the Orphanage model is quite heavy, in spite of the light materials used. Also, it's comprised of three loose segments, so I had to support it with wooden stick going from the roof through floor and ground level, and as well through the terrain all the way to the studio floor. But, before all that, I needed a Christmass to be white.









It was pretty cramped around the construction; the "studio" most definitely wasn't big enough for my sets, despite carefull planning and measuring. It's because real-life studio had to accomodate all that stuff that 3D studio equivalent doesn't have to: storage shelves, computer corner, all the momentarilly unused rigs and constructions and construction parts, screens and hardsheets of all sorts, paint cans, tools, repro-materials, props not-yet-used, props that can be used again, etc. Computer lighting also doesn't have tripods. That left hardly any space to move around. And it was only the first set...