Set 2 – The Park

The second set I made, the park, presented a new range of problems to solve. I wanted to have several tiers of perspective, so that things could be happening in the foreground and background of the park. I also wanted it to exist in two different seasons, summer and late autumn/winter.

The tiered perspective was achieved by making a 2D background of a road of houses facing the park; in front of that, was a small “hill” on which a tiny bench and tiny plasticene figures could stand; in front of that, a tree which dwarfed the rest of the set would indicate where the foreground started and would be where the main action would happen. The roots of the tree worked nicely in breaking up the different tiers of perspective.

For the changing seasons, I used plasticene leaves that I made for the autumnal/winter shots and a bear tree. The leaves also helped set the perspective, as I placed much larger ones closer to the camera and smaller ones further away. For the summer shot, I took clippings of actual plants from my local park and stuck them in the tree. This worked well, but I had to shoot quickly before the leaves wilted.

The tree itself was made from a pesto jar and bits of cardboard which I then covered in plasticene and marked to look like wood.