ILSProductions

Behind the Scenes: School Infirmary

Added 2020-12-23 22:53:52 +0000 UTC

With so much of the second act for Now & Then needing to occur in a new "home" for Jack and the girls, I found a need to pull together a good, detailed location that would work well as a home base. I was fortunate to come across DWR's Infirmary map, which just needed a bit of lighting, props, and texture editing to make parts of the location accessible.

Below is a comparison shot. The original map is big and nicely detailed and is great on its own. My biggest initial issue were the curtains covering access to the beds. So, after some tweaking in RendererEditor (joan6694), I got something more in line with what I wanted to use. Drop in a fair bit of lighting to simulate sunlight through the back windows and we have a tangible living space.

Because so many shots look out through the back windows, I had to add some exterior backdrops, which would mostly be hidden behind the drapes. These include Pondscum's Danger Alley and Backstreet Fence from Irresponsible Slacker.

See below the original map and then the final with new furnishings and props to go with the backstreets exterior.

On top of the usual addition of props and lights was another unique challenge. The map featured a lot of flyers tacked up all over multiple bulletin boards (see below). This meant that I had to find a bunch of health-related posters and flyers to replace them. Considering the upswing in pandemic-related stuff that's been done over the last year, I was able to find a nice mix to give it a more realistic feel for the story.

Unlike most sets, where there are certain angles I don't dare take shots, the infirmary and the adjacent hallway are largely self-contained and allow for lengthy scenes to be done without changing out locations.

- Kinderfeld