Tried to make mock ups for the set by making quick Matte paintings and lining them up to see how it would play out. Originally I wanted to do it one set, but I might have two in the same file, from different angels as I am struggling to get the scene to work consistently enough with the camera. So I might make this set the front view set and another a side one, unless I can find a way to make the set consistent with the Matte paintings.

Finished laying out the UV's for everything that will be in my animation, I tried to lay them out as flat as possible, but because I'm still struggling to tell if the UV's on the Grid are working I will also be testing out different textures and UV layouts to see if the cuts in the UV's will be a problem when applying the final texture, so for example on the bottom two finch models I have varied their UV layout to see how it will be affected when applying on the final texture, as well as how I can apply shading and style to them.

Started modelling the set, and experimenting first with how it might layout and how the Matte painting could fit in as well. I wanted to keep the Maya set small and make it bigger through the Matte paintings and limiting how much I would have to model. But when I make the paintings and add the lighting I will be adjusting the set, but with this I just wanted to use it to see how it could layout and how I will have to UV it later. 

Finally I designed the mouth and tongue for the Finch and duplicated the head to fit on the separate models. I have kept all of the duplicated on one file, so I can make adjustments more easier and rigging as well. The next step I need to move onto now is rigging and testing it out in a Pre-Viz, but so far I am happy with its designs and how the mouth has turned out.

Like the Saddle back I made the open mouth tortoise using a duplicate of the original to see how it would compare to the animated one, side by side. Again I will be trying with this one to pair up the closing mouth and the stretched neck, as well as its expressions as this tortoise has a wider variety of expressions than the Saddle Back, so I need to find a way to express them either in Maya or using Adobe Illustrator.

Manged to model the mouth and the eyes for my main tortoise character. I wanted it to look as believable as possible, even though a lot of it is going to be filmed from a side angel. The character will be eating  leaves from the trees and stretching its neck in different directions, so the next thing i need to do is rig the neck to move in different directions in sync to the mouth opening and closing, but overall so far I like the design and I think the realistic shape and the style of the tortoise blend in well.