The flexibility of 3D computer graphics makes them an attractive option for developing images for transmedia narratives. Let’s imagine that we were developing a story in which our protagonist was conducting an investigation in a set of mysterious events. Our initial idea was to have her check out a dojo in the Far East. However, as we develop the story further, we decide that our character now needs to check out a condemned building in London.
As shown with this pair of images, I was able to change the setting without having to redraw the entire scene while retaining all of the features – poses, expressions, lighting, and so on – of my character. The amount of time involved – less than 15 minutes.
The flexibility afforded by CG images can significantly enhance the capabilities of the transmedia creators who have little or no budgets. Starting with a blank screen, the scenes shown in these two images took a total of about four hours to craft, with most of that time devoted to creating the character and finding a look that I was satisfied with. Changing the settings from Asia to London was a simple matter of dropping a couple of pre-built models into the scene. I could just as easily have created settings on another planet (or a different galaxy, for that matter).
The latest generation of CG software can make the job of creating transmedia stories faster, easier, and less expensive. While they won’t replace photographs and hand-drawn images in all situations, they are another tool that transmedia creators should give serious consideration to.