Final Project Proposal

Michael Morua
Final Project Proposal

I am not quite set yet on what I want to do for my final project. Ultimately, I feel like I’ll start to figure out what direction I want to go we build upon our lessons from each class. I am still relatively new to Maya so the more I learn and becoming comfortable with the different skill sets will help me narrow down my project. As of now I have two ideas for my final, one still pretty vague and the other a bit more detailed. My first idea is kind of like a continuation of our first assignment. I want to create a creature, or creatures, and have them interact with their environment, which will be set on a fairly alien world. I still need to work out a story for this but I would like to introduce these little, simple creatures who go about their day in a jungle like setting, and end the scene with the introduction of a larger creature who strikes fear in the other.
Another idea is to create a story about a ghost in a haunted house. I had the idea of using a ncloth to be a sheet draped over an invisible presence and have it interact with the house or possibly neighborhood. I have the image of doing a scene where the ghost goes through a wall but once the sheet hits it, the sheet collides and falls to the ground. I’ll have to develop a story for it but the character and setting are almost figured out.
My other idea is to incorporate a ancient stories and myths. I recently saw the movie The 4th Encounter or The 4th kind (I forgot what it was called), but it dealt with aliens and the ancient Sumerian belief in ancient astronauts. I kind or what to model out this story and depict aliens coming to earth and interacting with ancient man, or cave men. I’d model planets, spaceships and an area with caves. I think it might be a lot but it be cool to plan this all out.
I’ll need to do more research on what’s been done already or works in
similar vein cause I haven’t seen many example yet.

Update
After thinking about what I want to do for my final project, I’ve decided to go with my ancient alien idea. I plan to use the Sumerian story of ancient astronauts visiting earth and create an animation that helps introduce the story. Currently I have 3 scenes planned out to make my animation work.
The first scene will show the solar system with all the planets and an additional alien planet, Planet X, that will have a more elongated orbit. I want to animate the planets’ orbits around the sun and have a voice over explaining Planet X. This will then lead to a space ship coming from Planet X heading for Earth. This scene should be fairly easy as the only materials I’d have are spheres with different shaders to make them look likes their planet counter parts. I’d also probably use a dome filled with stars as a backdrop to help create the feeling of the vastness of space.
The second scene would be a more close up shot of the spaceship traveling from its planet to earth. This scene would focus more on the ship and I would need to create a very metallic looking craft.
The third scene would depict life on earth through the eyes of the men on earth, most likely cavemen. This scene would be the most difficult as I would try to create a prehistoric earth. I envision a desert or jungle or possibly a combination of both environments as my main set. There would also be a cave nearby which the cavemen would retreat to once the spaceship comes in to view and lands near it.

A very quick summary on the Sumerian gods theory