Behind the Scenes: The Library and Sydney

As I've done before, I like to occasionally talk about the work being done to bring Now & Then to life, including set arrangement and the process of character creation. This time around, I wanted to touch on the school library and Sydney, the story's newest arrival. 

Originally, I hadn't thought to use the library for more than a couple of background scenes. The initial plan was for Sydney to be hiding out in one of the classrooms, sleeping on a gymnasium mat. But, once I used it for an establishing shot as Jack was moving through the building, I discovered that it was too good of a location to be throwaway. With some proper lighting and additional background scenery, it proved useful for adding to the array of sets.

A big thank you to Hooh for making this library map.

With such a highly-detailed map, I really didn't have much need for adding props and furniture. Outside of lighting, I did need to add scenery for outside the windows. Since the story's library was meant to be set inside a school, having two sets of windows provided a little problem. So that I could take shots facing outward, I needed to drop some exterior scenery.

Below is the right-side of the room, where a mixture of MakotoYuki90's Street map , a cloudy skyline and some lighting gives an illusion being located in the city. 

On the left-hand side, I've dropped in suteishi1374's school hallway, the same one from outside the infirmary, but with a little different lighting. 

Sydney

Adding a new character to the already-existing cast is a delicate balancing act. You have to determine their personalities and how they will mesh with the other characters. You also have to make them distinctive enough in appearance so that there's little confusion as to who is in dark or non-traditional shots. 

As you can see by the below image, there were a number of changes to Sydney (original on the left) before I finalized her. The original version looked a little too much like Anastacia from TK8000's Solvalley School and Sylvie Dreams' Arizona. Also, having dealt with clipping issues that long hair creates, I changed up how she kept her hair. 

- Kinderfeld