Preproduction: Fall Quarter 3/4
- gracieszymanski04
- Oct 13
- 5 min read
Updated: Nov 4
Details work from class eleven to class fifteen (checkpoint class) of the Fall Quarter at SCAD. Blog posts arranged from newest to oldest.
Project Drive:
Project Shot List: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Y1-DKGdcjgM3FcTvOirFuHcpqTPOWDmjmlm5wzcjg6w/edit?usp=sharing
Other Group Member Blogs:
Hannah Kim | |
Benji Hopkins | |
Olivia Wesling | |
Sydney Relkin | |
Charlie Ragland | |
Mia Esparragoza |
To do:
Continue texturing the cocoon
Continue doing fabric sims for the cocoon
Do an initial magical rabbit test
Film our green screen test shoot!
10/27/25
Each team member has been working hard on their own sections of the project and here is our most up to date cut with everyone's progress:
10/22/25
In preparation for our shoot soon, I went ahead and organized our greenscreen shot list for the shoot day on November 8th. We still need to get our hands on a few things before the shoot day:
Camera slider
Treadmill
Figure out food for the day
Check in with production design
10/18/25
Today was our first official fundraiser for the project! Hannah and I were able to host a party and ask for donations at the door. From this party, we were able to raise $350 for the project! This funding will go directly into our production design as well as any money needed to supply food for our on-set shoot days!
10/16/25
Today, I had a meeting with our gaffer. I went over the project with her and told her the importance of matching the green screen lighting to our Unreal forest environment. She is excited to be on board on the project with us! Her name is a Elli Baker and she's a film student here at SCAD.
I then also had a meeting with our production designer today. She went over her ideas for the snow floor that we need, as well as the cocoon and possible vines. She made a great presentation for us and was able to give us a rough estimate of the cost. Right now we are looking at about $500 which is why our fundraising in the coming weeks will be so important.
Our production designer needed the floor dimensions of the XR stage so I went ahead and emailed Xristos and was able to get the whole floor plan of the stage:
He also let me know that there are 4 x 4 platforms at the stage as well. This will be the size of our snow ground that we will use.
10/12/25
I focused today, on working on the cocoon shots. I created a camera that we will actually be using for the shot and then started refining the initial test simulations that I previously did. I found that I had a couple options when handling this simulation.
Option one would be having the cocoon burst and have it appear harder so that pieces of it pop out.
The second option would be to have the surface appear more goopy in substance like this second option.
I think after hearing feedback and seeing them side by side, I'd like to have the cocoon appear more goopy and soft rather than hard and like an egg shell.
I not only did some simulation tests with the cocoon but then I also started working on the texturing of the cocoon in substance. Unfortunately, I started running into some UV issues. Through my smoothing process of the cocoon when I took the maya model into houdini, the UVs became very wonky.
I used the UV project node in Houdini to reproject UVs onto the cocoon but upon bringing it into substance, I had some issues with oddly stretched textures towards the back of the cocoon. This normally would not be an issue but the problem is that you'll see the back of the cocoon in one of the shots so it needs to look good.
I then took the model back in houdini again and still used the UV project node but, I played around with its placement and projection type to finally land on these UVs.
The only problem that I'll run into in substance is that I cannot use generators with this type of UVs as it does not accurately convey the shape of the cocoon. Therefore I will be having to hand draw any occlusion or generators such as gradients onto the texture.
After working on some layering in substance, here is my current texturing of the cocoon:
I want to now go in an draw more of the veins of the cocoon and get the folds to be more prominent. I also want to push the colors to make it look more emissive looking and actually add some emission layers as well.
Another thought I had for the cocoon is to add some more leaves almost cradling the cocoon. A great reference I thought of for this was a cauliflower patch!
I want to make the cocoon look like it has grown from the ground like a cauliflower. It will also contribute to the idea that she is a spring fairy and so like a plant that blooms in the spring, she is growing from the ground. In addition, I think it will look good to have some there dead cocoons around the "blooming" one, to show that this process has happened before. I looked online for some assets i could use for these leaves and found these models on CG Trader that I will be texturing and using for the cup around the cocoon.
10/9/25
Today, I was able to do a first makeup test for the shoot. Since I was just playing around with a possible look, I did the makeup test on myself for this first attempt. I wanted to focus on a heavy pink blush for the fairy, not only to incorporate some pink in her face but also because when people get cold, the face gets very pink, especially the nose. I also wanted to incorporate a lot of shimmering gold into the look to connect the fairy to the gold moonlight she follow. The last big thing I wanted to test was white eyelashes. I want the fairy to look other worldly or stylized and I loved the way the white eyelashes contribute to that look. Here is the test:
Here are some of the references I was using for this test, all from Pinterest.com:
From this makeup test I learned a few things for moving forward. First, I'd like to get a different gold shimmer eye shadow or flake as though it appeared strong on my face in person, it did not translate very well to camera which is the most important part. I also want to get a brighter white eye liner to line her water line and make her eyes pop even more. Lastly, I want to experiment with glittery mascara on top of the white mascara. Here's a few products I researched that I'll be purchasing for future makeup tests:
Furthermore, I reached out to Annie (our actress) about using her foundation and concealer as the base and she said yes! We decided she is going to come in with her base concealer and foundation done so that we can focus on the embellishments. For reference, she uses Dior forever glow in shade 0.5 neutral for foundation and she uses Dior Skin Correct in 1 Warm.
Comments