Environment Design - Sky

Ollie and I have decided that he will focus on thinking about ways in which the ocean can be animated, and I will look more into possible ways to create the sky. Even at this early stage, we know we don't want to be making things too complicated or time consuming, so I have not only thought about ways to create the sky in Maya, but I have also thought about the possibility of using after effects. The Software we use will depends on weather or not we decide to go with a 2D or 3D sky. (This is something we will need to talk about during the interim critique, in order to get feedback and ideas off others.)

This is one of the most useful tutorials I came across when carrying out some research on what would be the best direction to go in. This basic sun and sky set up could potentially be really effective because it doesn't look too over the top, and different aspects such as the red - blue ratio, sun size and intensity can all be altered to gain the desired ambiance.

Pros and Cons 

There are obviously good and bad things about everything no matter how good it might look. Although theoretically this effect may save some time during the animation process and it could potentially look effective, there is the issue of rendering time. We would need to make sure we stay on top of things during our production so we have enough time for everything to render. There would also be the possibility of needing to use more than one machine for the rendering process, as this may split the work load.

The possibility of using other software

After further discussions with my pier, and considering the fact that we are already incorporating some small 2D animation for the robot's thoughts, I have put some thought into the possibility of creating 2D sky and clouds in After Effects. There is the possibility of this having a slightly a slightly better aesthetic for this particular animation, and it could be quite refreshing to spend some time working outside of Maya. 

Pros and Cons

There is the obvious factor that if we were to go down this route, it will look a lot more stylised and less realistic than the previous idea, so it just depends what we decide will work best. This may also take less time to render and could save us some time, and having it slightly more stylised may look better and more individual. (Again, this is something we want to get advice on, from tutors and other piers during our crit)