Photography

Through my connections at uni I was introduced to many talented photographers who also attend my university which made it easier to network with. There was one photographer who usually shoots fashion photography but has a keen interest in branching out to other realms of the photography world. This photographers name in Ben Renshaw and after a brief discussion about his work we agreed that he would make a great director of photography for my project due to his excitement and passion for branching out and approaching a different part of photography, one that he has visited before but felt like he wanted more, so it was time for an initial meeting!

I whipped up a mood board as a starting aesthetic direction using found images from Google just to get Ben onto the artistic path that was my project.

As you can see here there is a uniform visual connection between the images in the form of colour and content. I started the meeting off by presenting this mood board along with a brief description of what i was looking for in the photography, and that was: imagine if humans haven't been around to maintain the world so nature has just started to re-claim its property back. but also an emphasis on damage to building and because of the plot to my animation I wanted to get some reference to damage on a bigger scale than just a few bricks falling off a wall. 

Ben then asked me if I wanted texture shots, as he knew that I was working with CGI and had an understanding of the process, this was very re-assuring as he understood what I needed so would know how to take the texture shots without barrelling or warping which will make it much easier to use.

There was also an emphasis on how I wanted to see the decay of paint and other decorative nuances so when I come to re-texturing my set due to the leap ahead in time I will know how to texture everything in a convincing way.

He also mentioned how he wanted to start exploring into video as well so I gave him the opportunity to quench that thirst as I needed some very subtle footage of how light plays on buildings and nature which will inform my practice when I come to light my scenes with a more accurate referenced result.

The next step is to collect the reference images and texture shots once Ben is finished with his shoot on location around Leeds at some abandoned buildings and back in his home town where he previously found a very appropriate spot for some reference footage. Ultimately Ben will be setting the visual direction for my project to solidify the accuracy of my shaders and lighting.