I'm interested in doing some work on the winkee village, maybe build a house and some props. Has anyone done any sketches or made any design suggestions? I have a lot of references on Storybook style architecture Yes, there really was such a style. It was popular in the US in the years between WWI and WWII. In fact, the Hollywood sign was originally built to advertise a development of storybook style homes named 'Hollywoodland'. I'd like to do some sketches and post some photos, if they'd help.

I'd also like to point anyone interested in doing props in the direction of Art Nouveau furniture.The Art Nouveau movement greatly influenced the storybook style, and the two styles compliment each other nicely. Again, I can post some pictures & sketches. A google or ebay search for art nouveau will turn up a lot, but storybook style references can be harder to come by.

I just thought that if there was a common direction with some design suggestions, it might be easier to get people to participate.

I'm including a couple of samples, so you can decide if you want me to post the references.

Art Nouveau First:

I love art nouveau. Everything looks like it was made by elves... I realize that art nouveau might be a little too intricate for our purposes though.Although most of the designs are symmetrical, so only half the model really needs to be built... And of course, sweeper would come in very handy... Anyway, here's some pics:





Now, Storybook style homes come in a wide variety, from realistic (Think tudor-style) to downright cartoony. (Like the kind of houses the smurfs lived in, if you remember the smurfs...) The examples I picked fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. The one on the top right is the spadena house, it's a rather famous example. On the bottom is a place I only just found out about while looking for examples to send to you. It's called 'Chaplin Court' and it was commissioned by Charlie Chaplin. I've found more pictures, too. I think it looks almost perfect for the winkee village, personally. I would eliminate the bricks, and add more stone. Like rubble stone foundations for the buildings.





Like I said, if I were going to design the winkee village myself, I'd go with the Chaplin court look, with more stone. But I have a lot more references for other storybook styles, so I've got to have something that suits the Art Directors' and Bob's vision of what the winkee village should look like, and I'll gladly submit original design sketches, plans, and elevations for a few of the buildings if that'll help.

Hi lazlo
I love the reference ,It is exactly the direction Id like to see happen /In the past Ive had entire villages built from one modular design and all the houses set at various angles with streets akimbo
heres a still from one of my movies to give you the idea.Id love to see you start off on one of the houses.From your reference material.
BobT

Man, the Hash servers must be jam packed full of quotes by you Bob! Nice references, I'm liking the direction the village is heading.

This director is every where ,I love this team, including you.
BT

Nice references, Lazlo!
Superb inspiration, Bob!

Wow! - I agree - that is a gorgeous set Bob, and great references Lazlo

hmmmm...group hug...(hey! who's hand is on my butt?)

does it feel directed.........by the way I liked your yoop we have to talk
BT

Great! My people will PM your people...(isn't that how they say it in Lalaland?).



Ummm...I'm such a dork. I'll send you an email.

Those are great refs. That's the style that I see for the houses.

Sorry Nancy, my hand slipped.

Thanks, everybody, I'm glad you liked my reference pics. I've got a front elevation sketch for a cute little storybook cottage that I just finished. I started it before you got back to me, Bob, and I had started a shingled roof, and after I read your reply, I switched to thatch. Although, I was thinking about it, and it might be better to use thatch on the rooves in the rural(farming) areas, and shingles in the urban (town proper) areas.

Anyway, here is the sketch, let me know what you think.

I LOVE IT.

Lazlo
Great sketch, Ive crudly suggested some more distortion and inverted forms.love this one you did /Also I tossed back one of the designs you posted I particulalrly liked for its interesting shapes .Lets get a mixture of roofs etc, As I said in my email the set should be a little rural and a little towny .Paul forward also has some wonderful trees hes got going to add the foliage.You might think about a proxy layout first then build on that. Something real simple to get the layout down.For our little section in the film early on, perhaps 6 houses maybe just 2 actually built at at different angles and scales and a field or two .Dont forget to feature Moms little cottage.If I have time today Ill try to do a map view just to kick it off.Im in dopey meetings about a feature today so it could take me a while.

BobT

Heres a quick Map view sketch of what the little village may consist of. It really is taken from the path woot takes in the animatic, plus the little river is where the scarecrows song takes place.Hope it helps.
BT

Thanks, Bob, that map was exactly what I was looking for! I had thought we'd need a bigger section for some reason, so I'm glad you cleared that up.

Should I dive right into proxies, or should I throw together a few sketches of some individual buildings for approval first? I suppose I could work on both at the same time, too. I could lay out the proxy town and experiment with the rough shapes of the buildings, and work out details for the buildings in sketches.

I trust your sense of design, why not rough out the town and we can build from there.
BobT

I happened to watch some of Pinnochio tonight with my kids, and the style seems very familiar. I love the style. The taller peaks in the roof lines will give it quite a distinct appearance also. I am so loving watching all of this come together. I will hopefully get some more time under my belt using Hash to possibly help with this project, I hope.

There's likely going to be a point where everyone, no matter what the skill level, is going to be needed around here. I'm trying to lay down a common design guide for the village right now, so the models are going to be simple. But before this thing is finished, there's tons of geometry that'll need to be modeled, so even apprentices will be neccesary to do some of the smaller details.

By the way, there was a storybook style apartment complex around the corner from Disney studios in the 30's that likely inspired their background artists.

In fact, there's tons of storybook style homes in California, many in the Hollywood/LA area. Think about that the next time you watch Shrek 2...

Here are some views of the first proxy house. I've got it sitting on Woot's Mom's lot. I blew up the map, and I'm using it as a placement guide. Bob, if you had something else in mind for Woot's mom's house, I'll move it to another lot, just let me know.

I do like the looks of the village, please keep us posted as you go along and as with DMerchen if you or anyone else needs some help with the smaller stuff Im available, Im just a hobbiest but have been using A:M sense the 8.5 version so I at least know my way around a litttle, I don,t have the "balls" to take on a project by my self but Im here to help if ever it becomes needed.

Michael

Mom place is great. keeping them simple makes the design stage easier .I can see a few tweeks Id like but I dont want to interfear with you at this stage, stop your momentum, The only thing I might add is You might want to keep the color down just use default greys so we just see the overall design we can art direct it later We will get Jim involved at that stage also I really like your work.
I am a great believer in blocking it all out then moving in to refine as we get deeper into the set.The pinoccio reference is a good one some of those houses are still there I was on the lot for years and a friend of mine and I would go paint at lunch they appear in several of our paintings. them was de good ol days.Very smart of you the blow upthe map view.and yes I encourage any one to get involved, please do so the more the merrier.There lots to do.Contact Lazlo directly if he needs help he can instruct you .
Bob T

This is looking fantastic! :-)

Frank Silas

Thanks for the PM Bob, I tried to reply but I kept getting locked ...
Ill try later, if nothing got through....

Michael

Here's the proxy farm house, I name it from parts of mom's house.

[attachmentid=12505]

Just great!
BT

Hey Lazlo, that's coming on great. I'm posting a hedge which you might use/modify. It's got poses to make it in to different shapes. I've also got a fence and gate model over 2mb and a windmill at 5mb.....though you might not need the latter in a town.

Thanks, Bob. I should have another one tomorrow...

Thanks, Ken, I should be able to find a place for the bush. Can you post a pic of the windmill and the fence?


Michael,

Take these two files. In the MacGregor.zip you'll find the parts of the farmhouse model moved to a different lot in the choreography.

In the MacGregorRefs.zip you'll find two pages of pictures. On the first one you'll find two homes that were built by an architect named "One Nail MacGregor". Use both images on that page as your reference guide, as you assemble and remodel the parts into a proxy version of that house. Don't forget to tweak the model generously to make it different from the others. Think of it as a wax model that got left out in the sun for too long...

Don't delete the decals, just delete the stamps for each decal, that way you still have the decals in the model and cam re-stamp them where you want.

Feel free to make that covered porch on the side a bit bigger. Look at the little porch on mom's house for reference, and if you want, I'll send you the little porch railing geometry I made for mom's.

You can also get creative with the chimney if you want, and where you put it is up to you.

Lazlo

Lazlo, you can see pics of those things in the middle link of my signature...

Got it Lazlo.....Downloaded the zips and copied your instructions, Ill work on it tonight......
Looking great there too.

Thanks,
Michael

Ken, I'm not sure. Honestly, they are great models, but they are a bit too realistic. In a place with no square corners, no straight lines, no right angles, they'll stick out like sore thumbs. I doo need a fence, though, and we can stick a windmill off in the distance behind the farmhouse (as long as Bob is okay with it). If you want, you can try melting them both a little with the magnet tool, you might get something that would fit better, or if you feel ambitious I could give you a couple of references to model from.

There's also the possibility of sticking your windmill model as-is in the far distance (but still fairly visible). It would have to be far enough away to establish that it's not a winkee windmill. But this would require approval.

I for one would love to see you model a winkee-style windmill for the farm,( as long as Bob ok's it of course).

I found some perfect references for Winkee architecture that I'll post when I can scan them. The guys from Hash might even recognize the place!

Here they are:[attachmentid=12543]

I was thinking that. I put them up on my website. You can do what you want with them if you do use them.....

http://homepage.eircom.net/~kenheslip/Two%20props/Fence.zip
http://homepage.eircom.net/~kenheslip/Two%...ps/Windmill.zip

I was trying to think of a way to save some time on this scene. Maybe if you texture a house first and then modify it, it would be better. All the houses will have the same tiles/brickwork etc. Otherwise, you're going to have to texture every house seperately. Or maybe you've already decalled with no image?....

Well, these models aren't even close to being finished. They're really as far as they can get from finished as they can be. I just slapped a temporary window and door decal on there So I wouldn't have to spend time modeling windows and doors yet.

I probably will try to decal as much as I can through the modeling process, though. That's usually what I do. I'll probably use temporary grey proxy textures as placeholders. You can see, I'm trying to make the whole thing as modular as possible, that way, I can do a lot of modeling, and apprentices ( I just like the word) can do assembly. There'll be a lot of stuff to model in town too. So anybody who wants to model, no matter how little (or how much), is going to get to. But we've got to make sure everything goes together as best as it can. But we're all going to trade, too. If someone makes a nice lantern, anyone else can stick that one on the building they're working on, for instance. There will likely be a few standard pieces of lumber that will get passed around, too.

I'm going to try melting your fence to use for the cow pasture. I should be able to get something that'll work. I'll probably find a place for that spider web you made, too. I'll try melting the windmill, too, but I can't guarantee I'll be able to use it.

Lazlo,

Well here is what Ive got so far, Im having a hard time getting your melty look, you got that down great !....\but anyways here is a pic of two seperate houses, the one on the right, I was just playing around, the one one the left I was tryin on, if these are suppose to be proxy models It "might" not matter, just something to populate the scene for blocking purposes, any changes tweaks , let me know, or as you mentioned using you models to piece together so the town has the same style /look ?...
It was real fun attempting this......thanks
Also, the project file you posted did not have the images/decal with it,so I could use them.

Michael

I really like the one on the right. I love the way the dormer looks in the middle like that. The one on the left looks a little close to the farmhouse, but we can put it on the other end of town for now. Sorry about the decals.
Did you use the pieces I posted, or did you model your own?

Anyway, you can see I am thinking about modularity, to save time. I just wish there was some way you could 'look over my shoulder' while I'm modeling. It would really help. I've got some desktop video capture software, I guess I'll have to see if I can work something out with that.

Do you want me to mark the picture you posted to reccomend changes for you to make, or do you want me to fix up the models? I' d rather mark the pics for you. It'd save me time, and it'd be a learning experience for you.

You're doing great so far.

Lazlo,

Your right about looking over ones shoulder, its how I learn rhe best and fastest...
I modeled my own, while tring to mimic how your splinage flowed, even with that I still had a time , it seem like it would be simple.....LOL,
yes Im guessing this village/town is suppose to be one of those communities that the houses all look similar in ways, the 1950s USA had those type of communities where houses where near cookie cuts of each other.
Yes by all means make notes of where they can be tweaked adjusted etc...and I can work on that, also, if your needing a bunch of then Id use the peices that these where made of mod them a little but keep the same basic looks and "try to churm them out....................these houses, they are proxy models, correct? so not to much detail?
Also the farmhouse, is it one of the models you did?

Michael,

Ill be gone all day tomorrow so i wont be able to check the forum, Ill check back in a few hours though and throughout the rest of the day, the wife is sick, but the kids have gone to their Grandparents....

Mike,

I want you to try this: take the pieces I sent you, and assemble a house that looks like the one on the right in the picture you posted. Feel free to tweak the geometry so that it looks unique. You can also assemble another one too, if you want.

What I'm planning on is trying to get away with re-using as much as we can, to save time and energy. The houses should all share common design themes, but at the same time each one should be unique.

So try to use as much of what I give you as you can, but get creative with it. That should be the easiest way to get what we need, 8 houses that look enough alike that they could all have been designed by the same winkee architect, but different enough that they don't look like carbon copies.

I like the houses that you made, but it'll probably be easier for you to reassemble them out of the parts I sent than for you or me to melt the ones you made.

Also, these are just quick proxy models, so, yeah, we don't need too much detail. But at the same time, we're trying to work out what the final models will look like. So expect that much of what you put in to these proxy models is going to be there in the final model, just with more detail.

I'm including the decals that I used, too, so you can use them. Don't change the materials on the pieces I sent, everything should be greyscale tones until we get to the texturing stage.

I hope it doesn't sound like I'm scolding you. I appreciate having the help, and there will be a lot of opportunities for you to get creative. There should also be plenty of things to learn. I'm going to play around with my desktop capture program after christmas, to see if I can give detailed instructions that way.

Lazlo,

Sounds great, the main goal here for me is to be as helpful as possiable, not slow things down, Ive downloaded the new zip, and copied the instructions,
Personally, I kind of like to save what "little" creativity I have for personal projects, I know that sounds selfish....LOL......
I am a little confused about the decals, but that may go away once I see what they are.

Thanks,
more later,

Michael

Edit

Lazlo , Here are some I put together quickly, these are houses with 2 sections connected to the main house, Look them over for your taste, they may have to many window, need more than 1 door? windows wrong size? I can also make some with 1 section off the main house, didnt do much tweaking, just a spline here or there.

Michael

Picture of the houses,
Also some have the out section angled which may or may not fit the look needed for the town, just let me know.....

Michael

Mike, I like the two on the far left. They're both great. So now we've got 5 proxy houses. (I'm almost finished with the 5th one).

I'm going to give some thought as to what we should do with the other 3 over the weekend. (I think I've got two of them figured out.)

I'm also going to be setting something up with Dave about that meeting software. He said we'll be able to share the desktop, so you'll be able to watch me in A:M. I gotta see what that software costs though. If it's too much, I'll just have to capture video of the desktop and send it to you. Wow. I just checked. It's $50 a month. I'll have to just record my desktop and save it as a swf for now.

Thanks for the help so far.

I'll be back on monday.

This might be of help:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/878451

Lazlo,

Im thinking that what Ill do is quickly (as possiable for me) piece together houses and send them to you and then you make choose the ones you think fit the best and scrap the rest...If I yhink too much on how Im piecing them together ,Id never get anywhere....
If Im ever heading way off course, please let me know, I know you will....smile.
Also if there are any additional parts/pieces or decals you might want me to use send them, probably best you make them as to keep the style.

Ooo, that is expensive for live confer?
By all means record your desktop, what you do should be very very helpful to me and other on the forum.

Ill check out the link Ken posted too, thanks Ken....

Have a great one !!

Michael

Another batch, pic n choose or scratch........

Michael

They look wonderful michael you might try scaleing them so the hieght and width are different on the houses
BobT

I knew there was something I was forgettin....LOL
The wonderful look is due to Lazlo's modeling & style, Im just changing the arrangment here and there, kinda like Lego's, well not really........

Michael

I can see the smoke coming out of the chimney's already. Nice work.

Ok adjusted the demensions here and there and a few other tweaks, well fixin some mistakes I made actually..........
these are basically the first two sets of houses re sized, I started to loose my perspective so let me know if it needs more or less or whatever....

Michael

set one.



Set two.

They look great nice job! Is Lazlo going to place them on the plan?
We are getting close to needing a proxy set to animate on.

BT

They do look great Mike. We're going to use four of them. I have a few things to take care of around the house today and tomorrow, but I'll have the proxy village ready on friday.Since you've got enough nice designs, Mike, half the village is going to be your houses.

I just have one more building that I want to put in there, and it'll look like two buildings together, so that plus my other two plus four of yours, Mike, and we've got our proxy village!

I'd started making terrain for the village using the terrain plugin in V11, but I think it'll come out better if the terrain is hand modeled.

Sounds cool.......thanks Lazlo and Bob...Wow and your that close to using the proxy ! that's exciting in itself......

Michael

lazlo do you know where I can get that terrain plug in ?
BT