Brief

This is the brief that has been given to us and that we will be looking back at it. We have spoken to our lecturer and he has given the go ahead to move the setting to the air, but otherwise we will be following this brief.

The Brief

Introduction

Just before 8 on the morning of December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan; Congress approved his declaration with just one dissenting vote. Three days later, Japanese allies Germany and Italy also declared war on the United States, and again Congress reciprocated. More than two years into the conflict, America had finally joined World War II.

Your Brief

In teams of three or four, using 3D Studio Max, you are to produce an animation to show how the attack on Pearl Harbour unfolded. You are to produce an informative documentary style video which accurately depicts the attack with reference to thorough research which must also be documented as part of the module.

The Setting Idea

Our story is of the events of Pearl Harbor will be set in a alternate reality where rather then give up on airships with the destruction of the Hindenburg instead they continued until the nations built up their new air fleets and bases.

If you've seen the movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow then you now the sort of world I'm talking about.

Airships

Airships

In the real time line the 'Golden Age', of airships started in the 1900 with the coming of the Zeppelin. However people where looking into making working airships for years beforehand.

Countries had their own airship plans and made attempts to make works ones. Most of course had issues and where unsafe.

Airships came into there own during the First World War (WW1), when the Germans uses then to bomb towns and cities including London. They were also used to drop bombs on boat convoys. These where the precursors for the Blitz and the idea behind the 'Total War'.

The end of the Airship age came to an end with the Hindenburg which caught fire and was destroyed on 6th of May 1937. This lead to the decline of the Airships, before this it was believed that passenger flights from Europe to America would only be a few years away and the Empire State Building in New York was built with a airship dock as part of it. 

In recent years with the rising cost of things Hybrid-airships have began to appear mixing heavier-then-air and lighter-than-air technology. This is the sort of thing we want to go for with our designs. 

Planes mood-boards

 These are two secondary mood-boards for the planes which are the models I am going to be doing. I plan on keeping the planes that where used and then adding extra bits to it. 



The mood-board above is the one for the American planes, I want the plane to look big and heavy, with a Art-deco feel to it.  

This mood-board is for the Japanese planes, which will have the oriental look and possibly a double propeller that will form the red sun of the japanese flag.

Story-board draft

This is the first draft of the story-board for our animation I'll probably be posting another one later on. The spellings are wrong in places but then I'm Dyslexic so that's what happens without spellchecker. The ending has several points when it can stop so that area will probably be changed as will other bits- an air fight might be included.

'Tora! Tora! Tora!' and 'Pearl Harbor'

Having looked at both the films 'Tora! Tora! Tora!' and 'Pearl Harbor' I have decided to note the differences so to have a clearer idea as how we could do our animation.

Tora! Tora! Tora!

- It was created to show the actual events.
- It uses real footage taken at the time along with the films own.
- Real planes and explosions where used.
- The damage coursed was realistic because they actual did it.
- The scenes where realistic in detail, though they where underacted.
- It was slow on action and had basic effects because it was an early film.
- Almost like a history lesson or re-enactment rather then entertainment.
- Both sides shown.

Pearl Harbor

- Fast action.
- Impressive effects.
- Made to bring out emotional responses, not to be actuate in facts.
- A story not facts, so more to entertain.
- CGI planes and effects so damage is exaggerated.
- More character based with 'Hero shots' and details designed to tug at your heart strings.
- One sided; shows the Americans.

The Idea and Mood-Boards Part 2

The Idea: rather then doing a 're-enactment' of the events of Pearl Harbor as a group we have decided to move the the events of the attack on Pearl Harbor and moving them into a new environment. So we plan to keep the events of what happened and change the setting to a fantasy one with the Airships and Floating islands.

Pearl Harbor:

Again made from found images from the web this mood board is for the floating island that is will be Pearl Harbor.

Battleship:

A collection of images of flying Battleship for the American side.

Carriers:

Found images for the flying carries for the Japanese fleet.

Planes:

Images for both the American and Japanese planes.

The Attack:

Images for an air battle that could be used for the attack scene.

Mood-boards Part 1

Before doing a proper storyboard or designing models its an idea to do mood boards to get inspiration. I have done several for this reason starting with the planes, ships and the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The images used I found on the web,  they are a collection actual photos of the ships, planes and events Pearl Harbor and other images based on them.

The Attack:

I looked up photographs from the attack and scene shots of the movie for the attack.

 The American Fleet and Aircraft:

Most of the ships that were in the harbor were Battleships as such the ship images are those of the Battleship 44  'California'. There were several types of plane at the airbase however the most common was the P40 Warhawks these are the ones that I looked up.

 

The Japanese Fleet and Aircraft:

For the Japanese Carriers I looked for the images of three of the ships that took part in the attack, the Akagi, the Kaga and the Hiryu. The planes are the three types used in the attack the Aichi 3A2 Val Type 99, the Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero Model 11 and the Nakajima B5N2 Kate Type 97 Model 12. 

Pearl Harbor (2001)

While not completely accurate on all events Pearl Harbor the film has some wonderful camera shots, and show just how unaware America was to being attack, having the sudden and devastating attack interrupt at tranquil moment. This is a great source of ideas for our own animation with the shots and perspectives.

Below are links to the attack seen.

Part 1:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5JEa48jhpY

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ricr4eIfETk

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm5wbHn4S_w

Tora! Tora! Tora! (Research)

Released in 1970 this movie was all about the attack on Pearl Harbour and was released in both Japan and America it was directed by Richard Fleischer and according to wikipedia the casted was deliberately chosen not to be recognised box-office stars so as to put more attention on the story.

The title came from one of the Japanese code words used in the attack, it indicated that 'complete surprise' had been achieved. The word Tora literally means 'Tiger' however in this case it was the combination of the words Totsugeki Raigeki  which apparently means "lightning attack".

For the Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgX1WBf2SjE
For a full synopsis of the film go to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066473/synopsis

The ships and planes used in Pearl Harbor

A site with a list (possibly full list) of the ships and planes used in Pearl Harbor on both sides:

http://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/pearlharbor/history/pearlharbor_facts.html

Another good feature is the Attack Map which goes through the attack step by step.

Project Beginnings

So we have started a new project to begin the new university year, creating a 3D virtual environment in 3ds Max and animating it. The project is going to be based on the events of the Bombing of Pearl Harbour. I say based because at the moment we have yet to come up with any ideas as of what we will be doing, these will be developed in the next few weeks and I put them up when they are done.
This project is a group project so not all the work I will be mentioning on this blog will be on here, but worry not I'll be putting links to the rest of the groups blogs as well as our group blogs.
Hopefully very soon I will be posting research, ideas and sketches of both model designs and storyboards. I will also be join through demos of techniques I will be using.