For the final project in year 3 we had to
create a 2-minute CG animation. When I
started to think of ideas I was immediately
drawn to this poem and I knew that it
contained different characters, scenes and
would be challenging to animate and I was
drawn to the creative challenge. My
concept was to create a short animation
based on a World War 1 poem called
Dulce et Decorum est by Wilfred Owen. I
wanted strong visual imagery, stylised sets
and characters to create an emotional and
powerful short animation.
I was introduced to the poem
Dulce et Decorum est by
Wilfred Owen by my Granddad
who had lost his father in the
First World war and had studied
Wilfred Owen as part of the war
poets. He used to be able to
recite the poem and various bits
really stuck with me, the line
about the Gas boys Gas, how
frightening it must have been to
have been fumbling around
trying to get gas masks on etc.
In my sketches,
I used a lot of
the reference
photos I was
looking at and
what I had
taken from the
txt to try and
create a
visually
pleasing
concept and
piece
I tried two different methods of making a realistic
looking crater. One used sculpt tools in Maya and
came out well and is comparable to the early art
work and what I had envisaged. Upping the Polly
count would have given some more details and add
substance to the scene in creating the mud texture.

EARLY TEST
Whilst working on my story
board I started to experiment
with crater test as one of my
early drawings had a strong
appeal that I was trying to
recreate in these Maya models
I tried using vector rendering to
create and aesthetic that I had stuck
in my mind but couldnt quiet
achieve
I used many of the various analysis of Wilfred
Owens Dulce et Decorum Est in trying to
work out the appropriate emotional and
visual tone that was needed to achieve and
represent the poem as it deserves

Throughout the project, I did struggle to

hit the nail on the head with my story
board and there have been several
versions. It needed to show a clear image
of how the story would visual unfold
against the poem and that both the
Environment and Animation of character
represented this.
The poem was written by Wilfred Owen after his own contact
with the grim reality of war in the trenches on the front line in
France in 1916. No amount of knowledge, imagination or
training could have fully prepared him for this shock. His
letter home to soon turned from normal chit-chat to those of
anguish and he described his experience as being in seventh
hell.

This poem tries to give some insight into the psychological

change that took place in most soldiers on the front line in the
trenches, they believed that they were fighting for King and
country when they joined up but it became a hellish reality in
which they had to not only fight and kill fellow human beings
but to abandon a lot of the base morality and humanity when
dealing with the inevitable death of the man fighting alongside
them. This can be seen in the line the wagon that we flung
him in and that it is in fact an old lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori it is sweet and right to die for your country
not the glorious honour that was first believed.
These influence boards were my
jumping off point for my character
influence and design.

As I created each drawing I would

find new and informative pieces to
help with the creating a believable
aesthetics for each character.
Whilst I needed to ensure that I did
not lose focus on my sets, I have
come to the realisation that a
character is needed to bring the life
to the words and actions in the
poem and as such using a character
driven piece to tell the story.
The head design
was what I
finally landed on.
I wanted to use
older looking
heads as I felt it
represented what
the soldiers
would have
looked like.
This is my first character attempt
who was an attempt at creating a
low poly character
This is my first character I felt
that his head did not suit my
animation so I went and
remodelled it and some other
parts to create character that
suited my animation
I had to revamp
the original of the
characters face as
I did not like the
outcome of the
original attempts
Part of the rigging process for my second
character I used the tutorial videos that the
Uni had given me to create the rig and do
most of the steps of the rigging process
This is my second character
that I created as I thought
that the first character did
not suit the style of
animation and the aesthetic
of the animation I was
trying to make and had
pictures in my head
 I used tones of reference photos to paint a
strong image of world war one in my head
elements of each of these photos have
probably been adapted into my final
pieces as they helped paint such a vivid
image in my head

b
After creating my character, I moved on
to adding the correct accessories to him
like the helmet and bag that soldiers
war as standard issue and then on to the
gas mask which appears in the final half
of the poem and animation
ASSETS PROPS
These are some
assets I created to
add layers to my
scene some made it
into final piece overs
didnt
This was my first light test I did this as
in my research I found out that lanterns
where common in the trench and
wanted to see how I would go about
creating a believable lantern
This was some candle and lantern test I
did to create my lantern light source
After my pitch, I went into Maya and started
experiment with trench layouts and designs so
I could get a feel and I idea of my animation
and the environment I was going to stage it in
this helped me learn the limitations and ideas
of how I could go about creating my animation
This was my previz set that also
was the main inspiration for my
final set piece 2 and most of my
final animation from this Maya
experiment the seeds of my final
animation where born
This was an early version of my set that I
developed for the previz at this point I
wanted to set the last half of the animation
in an open battlefield
As well as doing some drawings of
characters I did a lot of reference gathering
to get a good idea of aesthetic look of
World War One uniform and the men that
fought in it. Half way through the project
my Mother found images of my great
grandad posing for similar picture to these!
This is a slightly extended
version of set one which is the
bridge between set one and two
I used a long set as I want to
give me more space to create
my character animations

This is my first set in my animation
I originally built m complete set as
one big piece then broke it into its
individual components for each
scene

In set 2 the biggest difficulty was
adding the lighting and creating
the atmosphere that I had
originally imagined for this part
of the animation I spent a lot of
times working on the flare and
the lantern light so they worked
with the scene to create light and
dark effects I wanted in my shot

SET SET
This set was originally going
to be an open field but after
watching an analysis of the
poem I realised I could set it
in the trench and as the
soldiers only had to outpace
the shells that where falling
behind them and at this point
in a real trench they would
have
These are some experience with lighting
playing with the light and dark in my scene
and the colours and effects the lights may
have
As I pictured my animation as taking place at night I had
to spend extra time working on creating good light
source which would both be believable and effectively
light my scene I did this with a single directional light
giving the scene the base light and a single area light in
the lantern creating the light from that.
As with any project there was much trial
and error and testing which need to be done
these images are a couple of the good and
the bad
 A lot of my animation
involved strong shadows
and darkness this I
sometimes was about
striking a good balance
between shadow and light
and getting highlights
where I need them I used
an ambient allusion and
many textures to get this
right

66 BETWEEN 6
After getting the lighting right I need to work
on the atmosphere of the scene I did this by
adding a fog effect and adding a displacement
map to the mud textures to create a look that
liked
These where some of the earliest
sketches that I started to do many of
the elements in these drawings have
made their way into my final piece