The Making of…

The City in the Sea

Contents
Introduction:
- Foreword

Pre-Production:
- Branding Development
- The Poem
- Research
- Sketches
- Concept Art
- Storyboards

Production:
- Modelling
- Texturing
- Lighting

Post-Production:
- Render Layers

-1-
Foreword
“This task required transcribing a piece of text, imagery or sound for
the purpose of creating a 3D environment, character or animation
based on the content. My immediate reaction was to aim for an
animation in a bid to develop and learn as many new skills as
possible throughout my pipeline; from pre-production to post-
production. These new skills I learned could then be applied to my
future projects. However, I had a reality check realising that it
wouldn’t be possible for me to complete a full animation with
characters and environments in a 10 week time period, instead
opting to create an animation based on an environment as this
would be my stronger area of choice, in oppose to a character based
animation. Thus the research commenced, eventually reaching a
point where I had many paths to go down, but ultimately choosing to
work on Edgar Allan Poe’s, ‘The City in the Sea’ for the creative
freedom and gothic style I could approach the project with. Thus the
pipeline began and the pages here-on-in document the whole
process from beginning to end…”

- Ethan Clements
CG Artist

-2-
Branding Development

Morethan.Art needed a rebranding to achieve

recognition and present my work in a professional and
organised manner. The methods I used included a
new logo, blog design and business cards to make
people aware of my work and to brand everything I
produce. I think this new clean cut, bold and
professional look will give a good impression and the
colour can be adapted to suit each piece of work I
produce if needed. Future developments could mean
further improvements to the brand…

-3-
The City in the Sea by Edgar Allan Poe
Lo! Death has reared himself a throne
In a strange city lying alone
Far down within the dim West,
Where the good and the bad and the worst
and the best
Have gone to their eternal rest.
There shrines and palaces and towers
(Time-eaten towers that tremble not!)
Resemble nothing that is ours.
Around, by lifting winds forgot,
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
No rays from the holy heaven come down
On the long night-time of that town;
But light from out the lurid sea
Streams up the turrets silently-
Gleams up the pinnacles far and free-
Up domes- up spires- up kingly halls-
Up fanes- up Babylon-like walls-
Up shadowy long-forgotten bowers
Of sculptured ivy and stone flowers-
Up many and many a marvelous shrine
Whose wreathed friezes intertwine
The viol, the violet, and the vine.
Resignedly beneath the sky The waves have now a redder glow-
The melancholy waters lie. The hours are breathing faint and low-
So blend the turrets and shadows there And when, amid no earthly moans,
That all seem pendulous in air, Down, down that town shall settle hence,
While from a proud tower in the town Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,
Death looks gigantically down. Shall do it reverence.
There open fanes and gaping graves
Yawn level with the luminous waves;
But not the riches there that lie
In each idol's diamond eye-
Not the gaily-jeweled dead
Tempt the waters from their bed;
For no ripples curl, alas!
Along that wilderness of glass-
No swellings tell that winds may be
Upon some far-off happier sea-
No heavings hint that winds have been
On seas less hideously serene.
But lo, a stir is in the air!
The wave- there is a movement there!
As if the towers had thrust aside,
In slightly sinking, the dull tide-
As if their tops had feebly given
A void within the filmy Heaven.
-4-
Research

The research stage for ‘The City in the Sea’

involved gathering reference images firstly
referring to the gothic revival architecture
that I’d need to replicate in my scenes and
then underwater reference images
concerning underwater lighting, sea
creatures and growths among other
elements. I also looked at interesting
camera angles, compositions and shots to
help create a filmic response to the text by
Edgar Allan Poe. I was then able to begin
devising some sketches of different camera
angles and scene elements that I would be
interested in using in my scene and
developing into concepts.

-5-
Sketches

-6-
Concept Art

My approach to concept art didn’t involve your

typical use of digital painting/matte painting your
concepts from scratch. Instead, I layered different
images together to create the mood and tone of the
type of animation I was aiming to achieve. This
technique also allowed me to have a clear idea of
the kind of detail I would need in the architecture of
the buildings and structures. From an early stage it
became obvious to me that I would use a green/blue
colour palette in order to further imply the idea that
the city was in the depths of the sea. The final
images I chose worked well in presenting the
different kinds of creepy and eerie compositions I
was looking at this stage in my reference images.

-7-
Storyboarding

Storyboarding was used to establish the cuts and shot

structure for production and editing. The storyboarding
process was an opportunity to pen the filmic camera
movements, compositions and shot types I would aim
to achieve in terms of cinematography. After looking at
so many various reference images, I had a fairly clear
idea of the camera movements I wanted to achieve,
mainly opting for slow pans or zooms to create an epic
feel to the piece. I was then able to identify the kind of
transitions I would be using, in this case there would
be no cross dissolves, just cutting a constant pace.

-8-
Storyboarding

-9-
Modelling

The modelling process began with the basic pre-vis

models, allowing myself to see a rough version of the
animation with the camera movements in, before I
took these basic models and added more detail and
geometry for the final models. A lot of gothic revival
architecture uses similar shapes in the buildings, so in
some cases I was able to duplicate the shapes and
adhere any of the changes I required. The modelling
process became more tedious as I got towards the
end, constantly finding myself cleaning up geometry
that wasn’t smoothing properly.

- 10 -
Modelling

- 11 -
Texturing

The texturing for this project was more of an

experimental process for me, finding a style I
liked and trying to push that throughout the
animation. I found this etching shader on the
internet for Autodesk Maya and quickly found that
despite it’s ability to produce some impressively
stylised renders, the shader was limited with its
capabilities and after much thought, I went
against the idea of keeping this shader. In the
end, I decided to use layered images in
Photoshop to produce textures based on my
UV’s.

- 12 -
Texturing

- 13 -
Lighting

- 14 -
Lighting

- 15 -
Render Layers

Ambient Occlusion

Final Render

Z Depth

- 16 -
Render Layers

Ambient Occlusion

Final Render

Z Depth

- 17 -
Render Layers

Ambient Occlusion

Final Render

Z Depth

- 18 -
Render Layers

Ambient Occlusion

Final Render

Z Depth

- 19 -