#8 - More Moodboards + Started Prop Blockouts

This week I started compiling together more references on my Production Pinterest board. 

I know from past projects, that gathering a lot of reference imagery for very specific assets is incredibly valuable.

As can be seen on the Pinterest board, I have broken down my references into the following categories:

• Bridge,
• Building,
• Clouds,
• Distant Scenery,
• Foliage,
• Landscape,
• Props,
• Rivers,
• Rocks,
• Trees,
• Windmills

Afterwards, I went and set up a canvas on PureRef, which is an excellent tool for collecting reference together in one easily visible place. I downloaded my reference into organised folders, which were then very easy to drag and drop into PureRef, normalize the scale, and arrange.

The result is this:

Looking at breakdowns of similar projects, the value of quality reference is rarely understated.

Having all of this visual reference to hand, in a format that I can pan around, organise, and zoom into as it becomes relevant will almost certainly prove itself well worth the time spent gathering it.

The key benefit to having good reference is in highlighting details and ideas you otherwise may not have thought about if drawing entirely from memory.

Also this week, I started with a couple of blockouts for smaller props in the scene, specifically the Weathervane and Post box for the house:

The shape of the cat is not an exact match, so I feel I may need to work on this further before doing the work to turn it into a finalised asset. Getting that right is going to be important, as despite it's small size, it is still a very prominent, eye-catching feature of the house.

I am quite happy with the shape and silhouette of the post box at the moment, although I feel I could probably push some of the details and shapes to be more interesting. For example, the two metal elements on the flap could be bigger, and the post attaching it to the ground could be made less perfectly straight. I am hoping that the sculpted details and the texture will help a lot in this regard.

With the rest of the week, I hope to have more blockouts done for the following objects:

• Stone Wall Kit/Wood Fence Kit
• Bridge
• Rocks
• Trees
• Windmills

As well, I need to decide what object or structure I want to have looming in the far background. My initial thought was just some kind of fantasy tower, but this seems a little generic/uninspired. For now, the mountain itself is good enough, so I'll figure this out at a later date.