LAB II - The Creation of Sira

LAB II - The Creation of Sira

"The world of Sira is a very expansive world with fourteen countries. But how did it come to be? Each country with their expansive, rich histories and mysteries hidden from the rest of the world, are united through this story of creation. A legend passed down through each era to date." - Voldris' guide to Sira

Lab II is a project in which small teams come together to create a production of something small. Each team were required to plan their project, document progress and production meetings, keep timesheets, and finish the work to a high degree of polish before uploading it to a portfolio. For our small duo, - Sam and I - we had decided to produce a comic retelling the story of creation for a fantasy world called Sira. 

For the project, the goal was to overall explore the use of storytelling through environments and not only the characters depicted within the design. This could also mark the start of a longer series if we so wish to continue the comic’s story as a duo.

Concepts

Like most things, the concept had started with an idea and a story. With some brainstorming and a few days of editing, Sam and I had written a simplistic story of creation.

So while Sam had been converting the story into a comic script, I had gotten to work in making conceptual sketches for each of the deities depicted within the story.

Sam had helped create this deity while I had created the puppet.

Rigging and Puppets

The puppets were a very useful tool to emulate a stained glass style and feel for the project. Very easy to pose and move with the thought that if we were feeling up for it, we could add some animation to some of the panels, however, using the puppets also had come with its own complications. For example, some of the sketches for poses that we had planned for had to be altered due to the limitations of each puppet. 

Text

After a long few days of consistent rendering, it was time to add in some text. We had a few options of texts however had chosen the middle font for the comic. It compliments the style that we had been trying to replicate.

Render

We had attempted to go for a stained glass form of style. Rendering for the glass took one of the longest, trying to make it seem as if the light was filtering through. 

One of the last things we had to do was to fill in the white blanks in the canvas. There was a mini conflict between the decision of going brighter or darker with the background however, after second opinions, we had decided to try a minor sandstone colour.

Final Words

Working with Sam has been a pleasure and our progress had been running smoothly thus far. A few hiccups here and there however overall we have been quite an efficient team with the respective roles that we play in the process of getting it done.

When one needs help, it’s rather easy for the other to quickly pick up the task and bring new ideas to the table. Overall, I do believe we work rather well as a duo and look forward to working with him in other projects in future if that turns out to be an option for us in future.