What follows is the lyrics of "When the Sky is Falling" for use in constructing the universe Justin will inhabit.
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You were sent to me, fallen from the sky.
A manifest of destiny, electric fields of light,
and theres something about the way
only you can hear me say 'hey.'
They're coming after me
Trying to take me by the hide
But no one can find me
When I'm lost in your eyes
Then you tell me you're here to stay
That you'll make everything okay
Like when the sky is falling
On a rainy morning
I'll be standing by the side of the road singing
Come pick me up take me with you.
Come pick me up take me with yo-ou.
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So the world I place my protagonist in should have elements that relate to the lyrics of the song. At the same time the world should be simple to keep both the focus of the viewer on the character and to reserve the majority of my time for my focus, character animation.The lyrics of the song suggest two pieces that fit to make a whole which brings about the focus on duality that I already wanted to express in the video.
Upon meeting with Justin to discuss the look of the piece, we came up with an outer space theme. The lyrics suggested it with "electric fields of light" and it allowed a minimalist environment which decreased the amount of modeling necessary. Our initial concept was that Justin would sit on a disc in space with a road running around it to pick up on "I'll be standing by the side of the road." Justin would wander within the disc, walking and sitting in the rain singing and asteroids/meteors would fall to the disc representing "you" fallen from the sky. We began discussing the idea that instead of objects fallen from the sky that come together, perhaps the disc Justin is standing on opens up to become a whole world by the end of the song. It seemed a bit complicated but was the beginning of an idea and brought about imagery from Le Petit Prince by Antonie de Saint-Exupery, a story I would love to use as inspiration.
As luck would have it, it was the NJ Turnpike that would spur me on to my next inspiration. On one of my many trips up and down the NJ Turnpike, as I was stumbling through one of the rest stops I came upon a quarter machine selling puzzle balls and bought one without giving it much thought--just as something to pass the time in the car. Months later I thought of integrating the puzzle ball into my thesis. What better image is there in the 3d world to suggest completeness aside from a sphere? (Unfortunately I lost the puzzle ball so I had to pick another one up on the next trip down the NJPike, which, fortunately, came pretty quickly)
If Justin begins by standing on one piece of this puzzle ball and it comes together through the song, then by the end he inhabits an entire planet. However, he has very little personal connection to the pieces, they are slightly too large to become the "you" that he sings about. Using one of cinema's great conventions, and one used often in music videos, that of intercutting between two narratives, this problem could be solved.
One of the best features of using a virtual world is limitless space and scale. Some of my earliest explorations into the 3d world were of worlds inside each other, and its a great way to take advantage of the medium as well as a great justification for doing the video in 3d as opposed to live action.
Lets say that in one of the two parallel narratives Justin finds pieces to a puzzle and begins to put them together, while in the other he is on a small planet that slowly comes together. At the end of the piece the camera could pull out from Justin on the planet singing to a larger version of himself who is putting together the very planet that he was standing on. This would pull the two narratives together nicely.
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