The document provides details on the pre-production for a 3D animated horror project. Locations will be modeled in Maya based on real locations seen in films. Equipment needed includes Maya, After Effects, and modeling software. Most work will be done at the college, though rendering and compositing will be done at home. No live-action filming is required as all assets will be 3D modeled. Plans are outlined for modeling characters, environments, props, and recording audio assets. Camera, file, and visual planning details are also provided. Storyboards describe scenes of a character investigating an abandoned building and encountering a threatening figure.

1. Pre-Production
Matthew Evans

2. Pre-production Assessment

3. Locations
• With my project being created fully from 3D assets, I don’t plan to use any real-life locations for the
creation of my product. However, I will be creating fictional locations and environments within Maya to be
the setting for my story. I will model and texture the fictional locations within Maya and possibly base
them off of real-life locations that I have seen in films such as: Beacon, Little Falls, New Paltz and Pawling
which can be seen in the film: ’A Quiet Place’. I will use tools such as good street view to view these
locations and use them for inspiration on my own fictional locations.

4. Equipment
• With my project being created in a fully 3D environment I wont need much practical equipment. For
example I wont need any cameras or camera rigs as all the camera animation I create for the project will
be animated within Maya. This means I will only need access to a computer with Maya installed for the
majority of my project. I have access to my home pc which I have already installed Maya along with other
programs that I may use in this project. I’m currently working on getting Maya installed on my school Mac
so that I can carry on with modelling within college. If this isn’t possible ill try to do as much of the
modelling as I can at home in my own time then to do as much of everything else within college.
• Other than Maya, I plan to use Adobe After Effects, Element 3D within After Effects, mud box or Zbrush for
sculpting and texturing as well as a few other pieces of software and plugins. I’ll just need to make sure
that I have these installed on my PC to ensure its available to me. I think I will just use my home PC for this
as I can use After Effects and hopefully Maya within college but I can use my own time to use anything else
that may not be on these Mac’s such as the After Effects Plugins.

5. Facilities
• I plan to do the majority of my project within college. However, this all depends on if the software that I
need for my project is available to me or not on the college Mac’s. Anything that I am unable to do in
college I will just do at home on my own PC.
• I plan to do all my 3D modelling on Maya within college as well as sculpting and texturing using possibly
Zbrush although I have not yet decided on this. The modelling will take the most time for this project
which is why I have chosen to do it within college as I will have 15 hours in a week to do purely modeling
and to just spend as much time as I can creating and adding detail to my assets to create the best quality
assets I can in the time that I have. Sculpting will also take a little while, so I want to try get this done in
college also.
• I plan to do most of the rendering at home as I will be able to do renders overnight on my home PC. I’ll
most likely use Element 3D for rendering as it’s an After Effects plugin that I am familiar with. I’ll also do
most of the compositing and editing/post-effects at home as I have a wider range of plugins available to
me at home which I could use to increase the quality of my final product.

6. Personnel + Props/Costume/etc
• I wont need any of the things listed above as my project will be created using fully 3D assets meaning none
of my project will be in the real world. This means that props/costumes and people that I use within my
project will be modelled and textured by myself.
• I plan to do some sketches at some point in the immediate future if I have enough time. I want to do these
sketches to layout my ideas for my characters as well as the costumes they will be wearing. My current
idea is to have the main character, that the film follows, wearing an overall with black boots. This is a very
general rough idea of how the character would look in my mind, but this is subject to change. I don’t think
that my film will have any other characters besides the antagonist, but they won't be wearing clothes as
my current idea is to make the antagonist some kind of alien species.
• I also hope to do some sketches of the building that I want the story to take place within as well as the
layout idea for the building. My current plan is to have an ordinary office looking building from the
outside, where the story will begin, but then as soon as the character enters the building, it appears much
larger than it did from the outside (inspiration from the Tardis in Doctor Who). The layout of the building
will be maze like to create a feeling of helplessness and isolation whilst watching.

7. 3D Asset List
• Forest Ground Plane: I will use a normal plane scaled up to the size of my forest, I will then use sculpting to
create variation in the height and terrain of the landscape that the rest of my horror environment will be
placed upon.
• Grass: To create the grass to add to my ground plane, I will need to use a plane that is modelled to be
really tall and thin like a singular grass blade, I will then use proportion editing with scaling and rotation to
create the top of the blade thinner than the bottom of the blade. I will then duplicate the blade and
slightly alter the shape and repeat this process until I have aa collection of grass. I will then do this a
couple of times util I have varying collections.
• Trees: I will use Blender’s free plugin called MTree which will allow me to use their premade tree models
and alter them to create the tree style that I want for this project. I will create multiple different trees to
use throughout the forest to ensure no trees are obviously repeated.
• Bunker Door: I will model this asset using a cube that is scale on the X axis to create a thin door like that. I
will then create two gaps in the door, one for the light to pass through and one for the vents. I will model
the door handle using a two cylinders that will be extruded and curved to join together.
• Door Vents: I used planes to create a flat, long metal plate using Y scale to make the plane longer, I then
duplicate this multiple times and placed them all in the vent gap, rotated them slightly to create the vent.
• Door Light: I will use a plane to cover the top gap of the door, I will place the plane behind the door and
set the object texture to emission, this way it looks like light is shining from behind the door. This will save
me time as I don’t have to create small rooms behind the doors.

8. 3D Asset List
• Tiled Floor: the tiled floor will just be a flat plane scaled to fit between the walls with a texture from
PolyHaven placed on the plane, this will look like a tiled floor without me having to create individual times,
saving me time in modelling and rendering.
• Plastered Walls: the walls will just be a plane with a plaster texture from PolyHaven applied to the plane.
The texture will use a bump, normal and displacement map to create the illusion that some parts of the
plastered wall have been broken, looking like some parts of the wall are thicker than other parts.
• Electricity Wires: To model the wires I will use Bezier curves to create a thin tube that will look like wires. I
will then apply a simple one colour texture (Black, Blue, Red, Green) and run them along the walls of the
bunker.
• Filament Lights: I will use a cube scaled on the Y axis to make it longer. Two cylinders for the lights, scaled
on the Y axis to make them longer and place them under the cube. I will then place the object on the roof
and give the light cylinders an emission texture, so it looks like there emitting the light in the scene. I will
then use spotlights and place them inside the filament lights to cast the light in the final render.
• Gas Pipe: The gas pipe will be a cylinder scaled on the y axis to make a long pipe; I will then apply a rusty
metal texture to the pipe.
• Gas Pipe Coupling: I will use a cylinder scaled down on the X axis to make it thinner. I will use insets to
create a gap in the middle of the pipe coupling. I will then give this the same texture as the gas pipe.

9. Audio List
• Ambient Noise: I will go into a local public woods near where I live to setup a recording. I will leave my
phone propped up nearby to record some ambient noise that the trees and wildlife creates.
• Footstep Noises: I will record close to the ground while walking through the tall grass in my local woods, I
will then need to boost the level of the audio most likely when editing the audio as this recording may be
quiet. Because of this I will need to find a really quiet area to record this sound and I need to make sure
not to make any other sounds while recording.
• Footstep Foley Alternative: If I cannot get a good recording of the footsteps, I will research how to create
the sound I want using foley. I have seen a few ideas around creating the sound with foley, one involves
using seeds and rolling something over them, creating a slight crunch sound, this could be an option.
• Owl toot: this is something that imp not too sure on how I will acquire at the moment but I'm sure I will
figure something out.
• Footsteps on Tiles: I can record this myself as there is a public space near where I live that has tiles, I can
record the footstep audio from this location.
• Banging on Door: I can record this myself if I can find a metal door that is similar to the one I plan to make
in 3D.
• Twigs snapping: This is something that I need but I think I will get by accident; I’d imagine that I will get
these sounds for the footstep in the woodland's audio.

10. 3D File Setup Settings
• 24 FPS: I will use this frame rate as it is considered the standard for television and films. It creates a
cinematic feel to the video so there is really no need to use anything other than this frame rate unless you
have a specific idea and reason for doing so.
• 1920x1080: I will be using this resolution as it will provide a HD image but also not take too long to render.
Towards the end of production, I will use double renders from After Effects to Media encoder to upscale
the video from 1080p to 2k resolution, this will trick the YouTube codec into keeping the 1080p that it was
rendered in, rather than being compressed by the YouTube codec.
3D Camera Settings
• Focal Length: I have been doing some research into focal lengths of cameras. Because I'm planning to
create this project like its being recorded from the 1st person view, I need to try and replicate the human
eye in the digital camera settings. From my research, I have discovered that a focal length between 40mm-
50mm should help to achieve this effect. I will lay around with the focal length until I find something that
feels right for this project.
• Type of Camera: I will use a perspective 3D digital camera type to further try and replicate the human
eyesight.
• Noise: I am going to apply noise to the camera during animation to try and replicate the shakiness of
human hands whilst scared. I will alter the noise scale and strength until I find settings that represent the
right amount of wobbling that I would expect the character to have. This will help to make the animation
feel so much more realistic.

11. Visual Planning

12. Storyboarding
The first sequence of my project will start with the main character, that the film follows, outside of an abandoned
building that as been reported to the investigation company that they work for. This scene should set the atmosphere
for the rest of the short film but setting an eerie, dark tone. I This will then be followed up by. The main character
approaching a large door with a bright light appearing from within, luring the character inside.
I hope to get this part of the project done but it is towards the end of my production schedule as it is not necessary to
the project. I would love to be able to have time to get this done to further elevate an elaborate on my story, but this
may not be the case due to time restraints.

13. Storyboarding
Once the main character has entered the building, that they were sent to investigate, the bright light seeping from
around the doors becomes overwhelming then seemingly disappears to reveal a long series of dark, extensive
corridors. The character walks down these corridors and it begins to feel almost maze-like making the character feel
helpless and isolated. The character begins to hear movement around them and objects falling creating loud sounds in
the distance. The character decides to head towards the noise to take notes on their discoveries. An immensely loud
bang sounds behind the main character as a locker hits the ground. The character turns to see a tall, thin figure lurking
in the dark. The character turns back and runs down the long corridors but sees the figure every time they think
they're coming to an exit, causing them to run the other way.

14. Storyboarding
The character eventual sees the bright light marking the exit that luminated the door at the beginning of the story.
They make a final sprint towards the light and charges out the door, stumbling down the steps and falling onto the land
outside. The character hurries to their feet to escape the horror they have just endured.

15. Shot List 1

16. Shot List
• Shot Number: 1
• Shot Type: POV/1st Person
• Estimated Duration: 2-3 minutes
• Description/Notes: Shot starts in an unknown area of a woodlands, the audience follows the character as they gage
where they are and the environment that surrounds them. The character starts to look around looking for any sign
of human activity. The character begins walking down the hill they were upon and passes through the grass and
trees. The character then steps on branches that have fallen down from the trees above them, causing them to
quickly glance around, scared of the sudden sound of the twig snapping. The character then continues walking in
the same direction, on edge and always looking around at their surroundings. The character then notices a red
light in the distance, laminating the sky. The character is curious of the cause of the red light in the sky and decided
to move towards the red light. The character then hears a loud owl toot in the distance, again making the character
panic with fear. The character continues on their path towards the red light in the sky and after walking through
the surrounding environment, they notice a small structure in the ground ahead. They continue towards the red
light, luminating the sky above the structure. Upon reaching the structure, the character can identify it as bunker
doors. The character then enters the bunker and descends down the stairs. Once they had reached the bottom of
the stairs, they navigate through the bunker until they find a room at the end of the bunker, populated by large
iron doors. All of a sudden, a loud bang can be heard from the other side of one of the iron doors.

17. Shot List Alternative

18. Shot List (Outside+Inside Sequence)
Shot Number Shot Type Est Duration Description/notes (e.g. camera movement, specific
directions for performers, etc)
1 1st Person 15s Main character looking around the forest, looking side to side
2 Bird’s Eye
Extreme
Long Shot
5s-10s Camera moves from above the main characters head, getting
higher and higher showing the viewer the surrounding
environment and creating a feeling of isolation.
3 1st Person 1m+ Shows the main character walking towards the bunker. Still
looking around to view environment. They will then walk up to
the door and walk inside. It will stay in 1st person in this same
shot for the majority of the time that the character is inside as
the audience will see what the main character sees, through the
lens of the camera that the main character is recording the
investigation on.

19. Shot List (Antagonist Sequence)
Shot Number Shot Type Est Duration Description/notes (e.g. camera movement, specific
directions for performers, etc)
4 1st Person 5s Quick view of the antagonist following the character through the
corridors.
5 1st Person 10s Main character looks behind them to see if something was
following them but doesn’t see anything. Stays looking
backwards for a little bit to check they don’t reemerge. They
then continue to walk down the corridor and enter a room that a
bright light is leaking rom behind a door.
6 Wide
angle
5s-10s A view from a security camera in the corner of the room,
showing the audience the room in its entirety. The viewer may
be able to see the antagonists red eyes briefly in the opposite
corner of the room.
7 1st Person 5s Quick view from the antagonist, showing them watching the
main character from the corner of the room, covered in shadows.

20. Shot List (Escape Sequence)
Shot Number Shot Type Est Duration Description/notes (e.g. camera movement, specific
directions for performers, etc)
8 Medium
close up
5s Metal storage unit falling over from the corner that the
antagonist is in, creating a loud bang.
9 1st Person 10s-15s The main character points the camera to the dark corner of the
room, exposing the antagonist in the light of the camera causing
the main character to sprint out of the room through the door
she had just entered through.
10 Long shot 5s Shot showing the antagonist following the main character down
the corridor towards the light leaking in from the outside world.
11 1st Person 5s-10s The main character running towards the light from outside which
continuously grows brighter as the character gets closer and
closer.
12 1st Person >5s The antagonist reaching and swiping at the main character, but
just missing, as they get closer to the door

21. Shot List (Escape Sequence Continued)
Shot Number Shot Type Est Duration Description/notes (e.g. camera movement, specific
directions for performers, etc)
13 Medium
close up
5s-10s Camera outside the front door of the house, quickly follows the
main character who barges through the door and falls don the
stairs landing on the outside grass.
14 Long shot 10s Camera positioned on the main characters car, showing the main
character running towards the car. The lights within the house all
shut off towards the end of this shot causing everything to be
turn to darkness, finishing off the project, leaving the audience
on a cliff hanger as they wonder if the main character made it
out safely.

22. Colour Schemes
.
Forest Sequence
Bunker Sequence

23. Organisational Planning

24. Hardware
• Home PC – to continue work outside of college to allow myself as much time as possible to complete the
project to the highest standard I can within the time restraint. Will also allow me access to plugins and
software that I may be unable to get access to within college.
• College Mac – to work within college using Maya and After Effects. Allows me to use my time within
college to model all my assets as well as composite as modelling will take a large amount of time within
this project. This will allow me to spend a large amount of time detailing and developing my characters,
environments and all my assets to the highest quality I can.
• Microphone – will be used for any sound design that I incorporate into this project should I have time to
create the sounds myself. This will allow me to further elevate the quality of my project as a sound design
should make it that bit more immersive for the audience.

25. Software
• Maya – this will be the software I use most, both at home and within college. It will be used to model all
the assets that I create for this project including characters, buildings, environments and more. It will also
be used to animate the assets to create the story for this project.
• After Effects – I will most likely be using this software a lot to throughout this project. I will definitely be
using it to composite all my assets together to create the final video, but I may also be using it to render
the 3D assets using a plugin for After Effects called Element 3D. I will also be using After Effects during
post-production to add effects and colour grading to the project as well as using it to edit the final cut.
• Premier Pro – this will be used for sound editing as well as adding the sound to the final cut of the project.
• Substance Painter/Zbrush – I am currently undecided on which of these programs I will be using but they
will be used for sculpting to add extra detail to my 3D assets as well as texturing to make the plain 3D
assets modelled in Maya come to life if I don’t texture in Element 3D.
• Blender – Alternative 3D modelling software incase Maya is unavailable to me at college.

26. Production Schedule

27. Week 1
Thursday-Sunday (Home)
If I have finished modeling the inside of the building during
college, I will move onto modelling my characters during the
weekend. I will attempt to create simple drafts for the antagonist
over this period of time to create a final product in the follow
week. Finish reflection diary for week 1.
Monday (College)
On the first day of production, I hope to start modeling the building
layout that the story takes place within. I will aim to model a maze-
like building by simply using plains to create a rough model for the
layout of my building.
Tuesday (College)
I will try to finish off the basic inside layout for the main building
on the second day. This will involve adding ceilings, floors and
lights to the environment I will have created on the first day, which
will be purely walls.
Wednesday (College)
On Wednesday I hope to finish off anything to do with the inside of
the building to move onto character modeling in the 2nd week. I
will also write up my reflection diary for the past 3 days.

28. Week 2
Thursday-Sunday (Home)
Over the time that I am at home, I will render anything that I have
completed during the week at college as well as possibly creating
a few more prop assets to distribute around the building. Finish
reflection diary for week 2.
Monday (College)
I hope to either finish drafts of the antagonist or finish the final
version of the antagonist by this point. If I have finished the
antagonist model, I will start to texture and sculpt this asset.
Tuesday (College)
By this point, I want to have finished the antagonist modeling and
texturing as I will not be spending more time on it past this point.
Wednesday (College)
I will model and texture some props to use around the office type
building the majority of the story will take place in to make it feel
more alive. Write up reflection diary for the last 3 days.

29. Week 3
Thursday-Sunday (Home)
Whilst at home over the weekend, I will continue to add more
detail to all my assets if I have completed everything prior to this
point. Finish reflection diary for week 3.
Monday (College)
I will start to composite assets into the building that I have created
in previous weeks once rendering is completed. I will also start to
animate the antagonist and the camera movement, representing
the main character/explorer of the story.
Tuesday (College)
I will continue to animate assets to make sure the movement feels
realistic. I will also use remaining time to model additional props I
feel may add to the quality of the final cut.
Wednesday (College)
If I have finished animation and compositing, I will see about
adding extra detail to the building to try make it feel as if it was
actually abandoned. This may be in the form of leaves and cracks
that may have seeped into the building. Start week 3 reflection
diary for the past 3 days.

30. Week 4
Thursday-Sunday (Home)
Render story explanation sequence if it is completed over the
weekend. If I don’t manage to finish this in time, it will be cut
from the final cut of the film. Finish off reflection diary and d
extra detail if extra time is available.
Monday (College)
If everything prior to this point is done and I haven’t got any
delays, I will attempt to create a brief explanation to the story
sequence outside of the building. This will involve modelling,
texturing and detailing the front off the building and creating a
garden type environment out front of the building.
Tuesday (College)
Continue to create the explanation sequence if everything else is
done. Once finished, start to edit the final cut of the short film and
add post effects.
Wednesday (College)
Continue with post effects and editing of the final cut. Write up
reflection diary for the past 3 days.

31. Contingency Planning
• PC Crashing – Make sure to save as often as possible to ensure I don’t lose a lot of work. Also try to split
renders up, allowing the computer time between render to cool down, lowering the chances of it crashing
and me losing work/progress.
• Running out of time – I have planned things such as creating some effects in After Effects rather than Maya
if I start to run short on time. This way I will be able to create the effects faster, but they will be of aa lesser
quality. I can also cut scenes from the final cut as well as re use assets to try save myself some time but
hopefully I will plan well enough to ensure that this won't happen to result in a high-quality final product.
• Unable to create an asset – as I don’t have that much experience within Maya, I may find some assets
challenging to make and may take more time than I had planned for, if this is the case, I will need to see if
there is an alternative to the asset I wanted to use or if it's something really important to the story like the
antagonist, I may just have to download an asset, although this would not be ideal.
• Sofware unavailable – if a certain software is unavailable, I have considered alternatives. For example, if I
am unable to get Maya at college which would be worst case scenario, there are other 3D modelling
software programs that I could use such as Blender. Blender is free for everyone so it should be more
accessible.

32. Contingency Planning
• Not being able to complete everything – if I have taken on too much for this project, I have planned the
project in an order of priority so that if I don’t have enough time towards the end of the project to
complete everything, I will still have a good piece so that I have something I'm happy with handing in, and
it shouldn’t cause any negative effect on my outcome from the project.
• Struggling for ideas to improve work – I have contacted other 3D artists for tips and tricks about 3D
environment art, I hope that this way I can always think of ways that can elevate my work to the next level,
whether that be, improving textures, improving grass models or other 3D assets. Hopefully this will
prevent me from wasting time during the production stage of this project.

33. Health and Safety
Potential Issue How will the issue be
avoided?
Headache Make sure to take regular breaks away from
the computer.
Eye strain Take regular breaks away from the computer
and do something else, allowing your eyes time
to rest.
Back ache Take regular breaks to move around, try to sit
with good posture as often as possible.
Electrical Risks Make sure to restart the computer after a
while to allow it time to cool down as 3D
software is very intensive.
Trip Hazards Ensure there are not objects/cables out that
may be tripped on.
Fire Hazard Allow good ventilation around the computer
and don’t place flammable objects air vents in
the computer.