Living Area Sketches & also Place Design Inspiration

Hi guys,

I wanted to show upload the prop sketches I've done so far, and then show you some of the things I've been thinking about as we work on designing our Arctic hut.

Part 1: A couple sheets of sketches. First, here's a sampler of chairs.

I got pretty excited about the quirky driftwood-looking chairs you get when you search for "rustic chair" but when I talked to the rest of the class about it, we decided that a simpler blocky armchair is more practical for our animated short. I'm kind of partial to the love handles in the top center. Still, let's put that lamp pattern on something.

Here are a couple drawings of the stove/living room area of the cabin and the adjoining walls:

Mark saw these and said that the stove looks like ice cream, which may or may not be the effect we're going for. Not pictured: pile of firewood? 

Rafters: I was imagining some kind of rafter system that we could hang stuff from, but now I'm thinking it would get in the way of our overhead shots. How about wide support beams where the roof faces join, to give a little realistic structure during upward shots.

Part 2: Thoughts about designing places

When we think of a cabin or a kitchen or a lamp, we all have totally different things in mind that come from our own experience, which is one of the coolest things about working with a team (and probably the cause of a lot of artistic conflicts). For me, I've been picturing some of the places I got to know in Hawaii, and trying to imagine the snowy Arctic version of them.

Here's a place where I lived in some pretty small quarters. Everything's low to the ground and close together.

You can see the structure of this cabin a little better in this way. I like the way those shelves take advantage of the support studs. The window is actually sloped on top to parallel the ceiling.




And here is another little house: the WWOOFer cabin at Everyone Grows Farm in Ninole, HI. This place seemed like a huge room at the time, compared to my cabin! Fortunately for lamp lady, you can fit a lot of stuff inside a small living space.

So I'm interested in what gives an environment its personality. What makes the WWOOFer cabin distinct and endearing? What can you infer about the people who live there from just looking at this hut? What objects in the scene make it seem real?

Here are some things I notice:

• The unusual cabin shape, with no two windows matching-->DIY house
• The hand-painted turtles on the front porch
• Tropical plants encroaching on house

• This death trap rope swing.

• Organic-shaped and crumbling concrete ramp
• The amazing jerry-rigged barbell
• Used gas canisters, and I love that they have the Bert and Ernie effect going on with: one's short and round and the other is tall and thin.

I wish I had some better pictures of the inside of this place, but here's the dining area and you can almost see the counter area, which has a ton of dry food stored on the shelves.

Notice the boxes of tea piled on top of the cabinet.

See that gas burner with the gas can connected under the counter? Maybe lamp lady has one of those.

A couple of things I've been thinking of for small parts of the house:

This is the owner's kitchen in a bed and breakfast where I worked. I really like the rounded shelves on the end and the piles of tupperware containers. There's a nice mix of kitchen appliances (drying rack?) and personal nicknacks. Noticed there's a lip that comes up from the counter with an outlet. And I like the textures here.

Re those weird windows in one of my drawings: here's what I was thinking of. I like how it's like the essence of a window but made with bamboo which grows there and it's zen and surprising. I thought maybe the Arctic version of this is made with gnarled sticks of wood. 

Orrr we could just make a window with a couple rectangles like efficient people. I have to remind myself that SIMPLER IS BETTER. We have a lot of things to model and not much time.

Have you guys found any good furniture or place references? What's your mental reference material? Anything rustic-backwoods-meets-batty-old-lady?

Can't wait to see all the stuff that Yasemin and Katie and everyone have been drawing. Let's try to get drawings of all the props and furniture more or less confirmed today.  

Thanks for indulging my extra long post.  Got a little excited about environment design...