Richard Vosper-Carey

'The Oriental West' Stills

2012-02-17T00:20:00.002Z

A few high res still images from the minor project, as you can see the night time shots have the potential to be something very special - a project definitly worth going back to.

Street

Alley

Courtyard 01

Courtyard 02

Tutorial #01

2012-02-10T16:19:00.001Z

For my first tutorial of the project i approached it with a straight sense of direction, and a clear but concise proposal which can be seen in the post below. As i have approached the project with a previous concept, the basic idea is already in place, however some work around the idea of the piece, and some further development has been needed. To aid in the visual understanding of my project i have produced some influence maps which show a direction for the idea, the character, and the environment. Some interesting points on the project premise and some further ideas were raised, all of which will be taken into account ready for the next tutorial. This first tutorial has been of great value to the project as it has enabled me to further ground my idea, and allow me to move onto the concept stage.

As you can see the influence maps show a rather mixed message in terms of visual direction. There is still a ton of decisions to work out, such as the overall art direction, and the time period of the environment and character - all of which will be developed up on and figured out within the next few posts. On a side note, a similar concept to my idea can be seen below, a set of illustrations which display the world through a child's perspective. They all share a sense of naivety and creativity which i hope to create in my illustration.

Project Proposal

2012-02-07T01:43:00.000Z

Developing Ideas

2012-02-03T16:11:00.000Z

Since the briefing I'm not entirely sure which direction i should take this project. After the briefing and some discussions, its clear that a good style and quirky idea is the way forward, however i still find that an interior environment still is something I'm quite interested in producing. Whatever idea i decide to take forward for this project, either way i will be creating an interior environment. Ive been gathering some reference material for style and art direction. The sense of realism i would like to create lies some where between Pixar's Ratatouille, the recent CGI remake of Tintin, and the image below created by Juan Siquier.

Some other visual reference includes the Defective Detective, and The Lady and the Reaper animations. Both of which have had there fair share of influence on this course so far.

I also like the colour palette and low lighting in the 3D illustration by Michal Kwolek, and Carl Fredrikson's house in Pixar's Up.

Another idea for the project, inspired by the following image Barbershop Bear, by Miguel Alba Gutierrez, is to create a still image of a classic tattoo parlour. My only reservations with this idea is that, other than the composition of the image and the set design, there is not much creative design work as it will rely heavily on real life reference, similar to the living room in my transcription project (which i feel was successful). The realism of this piece would be fairly high, so thinking back to the briefing, with the idea that technical capability is taken for granted - this idea has no firm sense of style, as it would be a recreation of a real life scene.

However i do feel there is space for a very nice still image of an interior environment such as this one, as its period set, has a design element to it, and it not your everyday architectural image of interior housing.

This post has narrowed my project down to two very different but main ideas, both of which are the premise for a good project, but now its time to choose one.

Branding #02

2012-02-03T02:27:00.000Z

Ive re-designed the blog so its up to date with my new branding, im liking how its looking so far, although some changes are needed on the ident so it now matches with the new blog.

Branding #01

2012-02-01T14:34:00.003Z

Whilst in the progress of refining my idea for the project, i have been working on branding myself as a professional within the CG industry. To begin i started to re-design my logo/blog banner, theres not much variation in the design, but rather the text. Im pretty happy with my existing one so only a simple re-wording was needed. I then took it into After Effects to begin my showreel, so far i have created a simple ident.

Logo designs

Major Project: The end of CG arts & animation

2012-01-31T16:50:00.003Z

Before the briefing I prepared some initial thoughts and images that would guide the discussion for gathering an idea for this project. As this is the final project before heading out into the real world, my main focus was on developing work that would read well in a portfolio/show reel. So to my joy of reading the brief and discovering its intentions were to do just this - I was very pleased to find out I'm already heading in the right direction.

My main intention for this project is to create a still image that can be broken down into its key components for use in a show reel. As I will be creating a still image rather than an animation, this allows for an enhanced look into the detail of the image. More time can be effectively spent finalising a design, and mastering it in production - as the worry of render time for an animation will cease to exist.

There are three directions I can see this project heading in, all of which are based on a still image.

The first direction is to create a single image of a scene in an attempt to create the highest sense of realism possible. An idea which developed off of this, is to create a period set of interior images for an environment. Either from the same time period with different rooms, or the same room but from a different time period.

The second direction is to create a single image of either a fantasy based idea, or a one line joke. The fantasy image will head towards gathering a sense of realism, whereas the one line joke will cartoon based.

The third direction is to create 3D illustration based up on narrative. An idea which comes to mind is a concept I began over the summer before second year. The idea is based on a child perspective of the worst case scenario of what could happen to them if they dared to go to the toilet during the night.

After the briefing and some discussions about the project. It became clear that work which is solely based on realism goes un-noticed, with the technical ability taken for granted. Therefore an idea which is based on style and charisma seems to be the way forward for this project. I find myself leaning towards my third idea, as with around 15 weeks to produce the project, an idea based on narrative seems to be the correct path to take. I hope to create an image which when broken down to its key components, the detail and level of quality are all the same.

A similar project and some of its development can be seen in Fabricio Moraes work on 'Steamnocchio' found on CGSociety.

Within the next week I will finalise an idea and produce a proposal of the project in its most final form ready for the first tutorial, in which I hope to get the go ahead for the project. As well as this i will also be working on branding my work, and creating a sense of professionalism ready for the real world.

The Oriental West

2012-01-22T21:43:00.002Z

As this project has come to an end, a lot of work has been produced since my last blog post - the most important of all being the finished animation. It makes sense to post the animation and its making of up rather than a ton of seperate images that i have not perviously blogged. This has been a collaborative project between myself and Sam Hayes, working under the studio of GreenOctopus, which seems to have been about for years now. Overall the project has been tasking, but very enjoyable, and i believe this is shown within the animation and making of. The mammoth task of modelling and texturing the environment, with out a doubt has been the longest part of the project, however viewing the composited stills of the buildings come together really makes it seem worth while. Once production was complete, the task of compositing all the rendered cameras and editing the animation together begun. A part of the project which i feel i have learnt from, in the fact of adding post effects in After Effects, which has never been my strong point, and fixing any errors that may of occured. The part of the project i have learnt most from has to be the HDRI lighting, in combination with the modelling of the animation and the texturing. Also below there are some rendered stills of the animation without post effects such as heat distortion and sand fluids, and the design for the CD and case in which the project was handed in.

**Renders to come soon**

Production: A Generic Cactus

2011-12-12T15:53:00.001Z

Not the most interesting of props to produce, however it was a step up from the trough. Here we have your everyday, generic, low-res cactus. Its got simple geometry and only a 512 texture map, with some noticeable repetitions, however as it will be a background prop this will not be a problem. I nice high-res version is soon to come as this will be one of the focus shots in the animation. Also i have applied a base colour to the most recent generic house that i have produced.

Cactus: HDRI Lighitng, Basic Colour Map, Ambient Occlusion.

Cactus: Model

Cactus: WireFrame

Generic House: Base Colour

Production: Generic House Set Dress

2011-12-08T19:25:00.000Z

As we will begin to put together a master file this week, i thought it would be nice to test out a few of the props with a building and see how there working in coallition with each other, and as you can see with this quick test i think there working really well. Soon the world in which we will be creating will be puzzled together piece by piece.

Production: Generic House

2011-12-08T02:47:00.000Z

I spent the day modelling and laying out the UV's for this generic house. The base model is there, but there are still some minor details which need adding for variation. Such as; some corrugated iron panel's, extra fixings along the walls, and some props surrounding the building, all of which will be added when it comes to set dressing the scene. The Chinese style roof surprisingly took some time to model. As simple as it looks, working out a productive way to achieve such shape, proved to be more difficult than expected. Textures soon to come, once a decent HDRI lighting setup has been finalised, which whilst on the subject, i think i have finally aquired the correct HDR image for the animations environment. The image was taken during dusk in the desert, so the overall colour values and tone of the image may still be too cold, however a simple edit might be needed as this is the closest we can get to replicating the lighting within the correct environment. The image below is just a jpeg version for preview purposes, the one in which we shall be using is very high res and the propper HDRI format.

Generic House: model render.

Generic House: model wireframe.

Desert HDRI

A Little Update

2011-12-07T01:28:00.001Z

Ive spent the last couple of days mainly working on texturing the saloon bar, but have also modelled and began to texture some props for the environment as well. As the saloon bar is quite a central building within the environment, it needs to be worked on with slightly more detailing than other buildings. So far i have put down a basic colour for the building, i now need to go over it again adding variation to the textures, for example, different colourings on the wood, and dirt. In terms of props, i have modelled a trough, a barrel, and a lantern.

All of the props have a 512 texture map, with some high-res 1k texture maps for the close up props. The barrel is rendered with a simple colour map, and the trough with a colour, and normal map. The HDRI lighting is still just a rough mock-up for test renders, with a more refined lighting system on its way soon.

Barrel: HDRI lit, colour map, ambient occlusion.

Barrel: model render.

Barrel: model wireframe.

Lantern: model render.

Lantern: model wireframe.

Trough: HDRI lit, colour map, normal map, ambient occlusion.

Trough: model render.

Trough: model wireframe.

Some Visual Reference

2011-12-02T01:58:00.000Z

Ive recently watched Cowboys and Aliens, and Rango in aid of visual research, and found both films to be stunning - Rango more so than Cowboys and Aliens, but thats simply because its CG. Both films hold a great amount of visual reference, in terms of both art direction, and physical set dressing. Here's a few screen grabs of Cowboys and Aliens, displaying their extensive set design, which creates a great sense of reality within the classic western environment. I would have done the same for Rango, however the whole film is pretty much of great reference.

Pre-Viz: Overall Cut #02

2011-11-30T02:57:00.000Z

Not much of a change, just the added sound track, which aids in the understanding of the piece. The sound track is not final, nor is the cuts and video footage edited to the sound. Simply a soundtrack overlay of the previous pre-viz. As rough as the cut is, the sound track is working really well, and will serve as a template in which we can edit our footage to.

Production: Saloon Bar

2011-11-30T01:35:00.000Z

In the past week i have been working on a range of things needed for the project, however my main focus has been within the saloon bar model. A personal favourite building of mine, so i snagged that one and got on with modelling it. Below we have the near complete model (minor details needed), its pretty high-res in places where it is needed as there will be close up camera shots around this building. However, a lot of the detailing will be created within texturing, the roof being the prime example, the camera will never be anywhere near to roof, so a simple colour/normal map will be sufficient. The planes that lay behind the windows will be cloth and animated for the top middle, with the lower windows being a near see-through cloth, similar to the oriental walls within houses. To save this model falling victim to a perfect/straight/generic cg model, each plank of wood has been offset and curved slightly to replicate a higher sense of reality, and believability. With another minor detail being the slightly lowered decking planks near to door, allowing for degeneration of high traffic walking areas.

Saloon Bar: Render

Saloon Bar: WireFrame

R&D: Lighting and Texturing Test #01

2011-11-22T23:21:00.002Z

In the past week project work has been rather slack due to the hand in of our first draft for the dissertation. All went well on that side, however due to some focused time spent on the dissertation, it was lost on the minor project. Now its time to get back on track and push forward with production. Below we have the finished high-res generic shack with its first coat of textures. The shack has a basic block out colour map assigned to it, and the render is comprised of; HDRI lighting system, no bump/normal, no specular map, but it does have an ambient occlusion layer. Theres some pretty positive outcomes so far, so i can just imagine how good the final render will be, once it has another level of detail within the colour, and a normal/spec map to work in its favour. Some changes that will be made include, the shutters on the window, and the red texture (which is supposed to have a painted wood effect). I textured the base of the shack and the details within it via a UV map within Photoshop, and for the metal panels, i simply created a few tile-able textures, and applied them straight onto the object within Maya. Some variation still needed, but a positive start to the mammoth amount of modelling and texturing that lays before us.

High-Res Shack: HDRI Lighting, Basic Colour Map, Ambient Occlusion

High-Res Shack: UV's

Low-Res Shack: UV's

Generic Shack Tile-able Textures

We have also put together a rough timetable for production, which will be updated every week.

Pre-Viz: Overall Cut #01

2011-11-10T14:43:00.001Z

Using the camera movements that we already had in place, Sam rendered them out for a more readable pre-viz, which i then edited together for a rough overall cut. Even though its rendered its still pretty crude; as i adjusted the timing of each camera movement in PremierePro rather than re-rendering them in Maya. Some shots are still needed here and there, but its pretty hard to get them right as this is just a pre-viz file. The main point of this pre-viz version is was to work out the timing of the animation ready to hand over to Zack, who is working on our soundtrack. So he can match the sound to the shots, and then we can match our shots to his sound. With this pre-viz as reference, its pretty clear to me now where we need the sound to work for us, through out different parts of the environment. The next stage will be to send this over to Zack, with some notes on cues and timing, and work out the final shots of the animation.

R&D: Lighting and Texturing Test #01

2011-11-09T22:22:00.002Z

In discussion with Sam, we decided that we will definitely be rendering the animation in Mental Ray, and that we will either be lighting the environment using the Mental Ray Physical Sun & Sky, or using a HDR lighting setup. I created a basic wooden plank texture to use, and so far i have teseted out the HDR lighting which has pleasing results. In the image below the, i have used the high-res version of the shack produced for r&d, applied the simple wooden plank texture, and lit the scene using a HDR image and final gathering. The texture has no bump or spec, and personally i think the lighting is working really well. It will need some further tests to gather the right brightness and colour, but i think its on the way to something spectacular. I havnt been able to work out how to use a normal map with this lighting set-up as of yet, which i guess can not be done as there is not one source of directional light?? The next step will be to light the shack using the Mental Ray Physical Sun & Sky, more to come soon.

High-Res Shack: HDR Lighting

Production Begins!

2011-11-08T01:42:00.003Z

Its official, production for mine and Sam's collaboration has begun. A side from the pre-viz me and Sam have been working on i decided to spend the night modelling a generic shack that can be used numerous times within the environment (within variation), as well as a basic model for some texture experiments. This is the high-res version of the shack which will be close to the camera, with a low-res version on its way. I also spent the evening working out a nice showcase scene in which we can simply pop our models into for nice presentation.

Generic Shack - High Res: Render

Generic Shack - High Res: Wire Frame

Generic Shack - Low Res: Wire Frame

Pre-Viz: Alley Way #01

2011-11-07T11:46:00.003Z

A more refined set of camera moves, first produced by Sam. There still needs to be a load more refinement added to this set of camera movements. Plus some more extended cameras further down the alley way, just before the entrance to the courtyard.

Pre-Viz: The Street #02

2011-11-04T03:17:00.000Z

After a fair few different camera angles and playblasts, Ive put together another rough cut for the street part of our animation, i feel this cut is working much more in our favour compared to the previous one. As i think the long shots, slow the animation down and can be quite bland. With a series of short and medium length cuts, with camera angles/pans in all directions, i think portrays a much more easy on the eye animation. Editing the shots so they play in chronological order through out the environment, and so each camera cut is not too far away from the other within the environment world and space, adds extra perception to the environment and its space.

Pre-Viz Round Two

2011-11-03T16:34:00.000Z

Once we had the area marked out that we were going to build upon, it was then the tasking of modelling some rough, rather crude looking buildings to fill the space. After these were in place we have then begun to work out some rough camera moves. A rather long process as it is this stage where we are working out exactly what we will need to model and what camera shots will be used. Working on on a final rough edit of the piece now will save a ton of time in post production, so it will be a long few days of camera shots. Below are some initial camera shots with some rough editing.

Pre-Viz 02

Pre-Viz 03

Pre-Viz 04

Pre-Viz 05

Pre-Viz 06

Pre-Viz 07

Pre-Viz 08

Sound Track Reference

2011-11-02T14:20:00.000Z

A few reference videos for the sound track development. Each video features some sort of sound that i think would work great for our sound track to our animation.

The Butterfly Lovers

Fistful of Dollars

I Saw the Devil Trailer

Incubus - Aqueous Transmission

Another Thumbnail Street

2011-11-01T02:25:00.003Z

Just because i thinks it looks quite illustrative and interesting to see them together.

Street Thumbnail Illustration

Pre-Viz Begins

2011-11-01T01:25:00.000Z

Not quite as ellaborate as Sam's pre-viz, but its getting there. I began by laying down the ground plane, and working out the outline of the ground using the top view layout of the town i created as a guide. I then simply added in some cubes to act as buildings, and a rough cliff edge and rock. The next stage will be to work out the exact spacing of the environment, as well as minor changes. One to note being the size of the courtyard/square. I like the idea of the town being quite cramped, as when i think 'china town', a cramped ellaborate town comes to mind. This is why i think Sam's pre-viz of the alley way works very well. I'd like to represent this within the courtyard, but so it still feels like a busy open space. After the sizing of the town is in place, the interesting part of the pre-viz stage will begin - replacing cubes with more detailed buildings.

Pre-Viz 01

Thumbnail Street

2011-10-31T16:45:00.000Z

Using some of the thumbnail sketches i have previously done, i lined them up into a street and quickly painted over them. Although it has a very toon like style, it some what helps further show the world in which we will be creating.

Thumbnail Street Sketch

Thumbnail Street Paint

Sound Track Development #02

2011-10-27T16:31:00.000+01:00

In response to our art work and reference videos, this secondary sound test produced really starts to push in the same direction. Im really happy with this piece so far, so i look forward to whats coming next. Our next stage will be to produce a basic pre-vis of the town and match some camera shots to the sound test.

Sound Track Development #01

2011-10-27T13:05:00.007+01:00

Here's the initial sound test for our animation. Zack produced this before his briefing, using our blogs as a direction for the project. As you can hear its more arabic than chinese, so some more devlopment within finding the right sound will be needed. However a good starting point for the infusion of eastern and western sound.

Town Concept Art

2011-10-27T02:24:00.001+01:00

I wanted to do a quick concept to aid in the understanding of what our town will look like as a whole, initially this was supposed to be a couple of hours matte painting, but as i got into it i felt it had the potential to be resolved a bit further. This concept pretty much represents what the town will look like, with some minor changes sure to come. On a side note - some initial soundtrack has been developed, a post to come soon.

Town Concept

Concept WIP 01

Concept WIP 02

Concept WIP 03

Concept WIP 04

Concept WIP 05

Soundtrack Commission

2011-10-18T01:31:00.001+01:00

Knowing a few people who work within the art form of sound, i felt it was appropriate for my third year projects to commission an artist to work on sound, allowing me more time to work on visuals. Not only is this a move to save time, but also a move to up the quality of my work, as I'm not a keen sound track designer and know very little about putting one together. So, sending out a few messages to people i managed to get some positive replies. I simply linked them my blog as well as the GreenOctopus blog, with a few basic descriptive lines for the project, and away we go. The 'Briefing' will be held on this Wednesday, where i will further describe some ideas for the project, and from then on will be playing it by ear. Collaborative work can be a very powerful tool for us, as the project will now include ideas of other people towards the project allowing room for originality.

Zack and Jordan Huggett (Twinz) SoundCloud

Medicine Shop Thumbnails

2011-10-17T14:36:00.000+01:00

Thumbnailing the medicine shop has proven to be quite difficult as there is not any striking stereotype to work with (which is why the laundrette works quite well). However instead i have decided to play about with the shape of the buildings, and try to visualise the building set within its environment, as apposed to them free standing.

Medicine Shop Thumbnail Sketch

Medicine Shop Thumbnail Paint

Scrap Shop Thumbnails

2011-10-14T14:57:00.002+01:00

The thumbnail images for the scrap shop buildings. I have tried to develop the shape of the buildings, as apposed to the generic rectangular shaped buildings. I have also worked on the idea of them being stacked on top of each other, which i think so far is working well. I will now move onto thumbnail the medicine shop, and train yard, and then move onto the next stage of the project with some further refined concept art.

Scrap Shop Thumbnail Sketch

Scrap Shop Thumbnail Paint

Saloon Bar Thumbnails

2011-10-10T15:15:00.000+01:00

Here's the set of thumbnail sketches i have produced for the saloon bar design. As you can see there all pretty similar in a way as the classic western buildings shapes tend to be quite rectangular and generic. Alan suggested to take a look at various different pieces of machinery from the environments time zone and use the silhouettes of the machinery to extract some different shapes which can then be transcribed into a building shape. I technique i think i will use (to a certain extent), as we want the buildings to still be recognized instantly as classic western.

Saloon Bar Thumbnails Sketch

Saloon Bar ThumbnailsPaint

Laundrette Thumbnails

2011-10-06T00:41:00.001+01:00

As mentioned before me and Sam have split the design aspect of the project straight down the middle, there for leaving each of us with some specific buildings to design. I have began with the laundrette as i felt this was one of the most stereotypical and most mindful to draw. I have tried to design various different building shapes, and took note of the reoccurring themes. For this concept being the idea of the split level shop with a balcony and some walkways between them. With a page of thumbnails completed (which i intend to do for all buildings), i then took them into Photoshop for a quick paint over to add some depth, to allow for better understanding of the buildings.

Laundrette Thumnails Sketch

Laundrette Thumnails Paint

Megalomania

2011-10-04T22:46:00.001+01:00

Another video for its great use of camera movement, pacing, environment animation, and editing.

The Plan

2011-10-04T01:32:00.001+01:00

With the go ahead for our project, me and Sam decided it was time to move ahead with the project and work out exactly what we are aiming to create. So after some helpful talks with Phil and Alan, we have worked out what we need to produce and a direction to do so. Alan recommended we should watch Dangerous Days; the making of Blade Runner, for its look on set design as appose to concept design, and the thought process in which we will need to re-create. A very interesting watch as the documentary discusses the rise and falls of the films creating, certainly a watch for any Blade Runner fan.

In discussion with Phil he made us realise that creating the environment is one challenge which can certainly be accomplished, however presenting the work in which we create will be another. A great piece of work can certainly fall to a poor piece of work if presented in the wrong way, which is a path both me and Sam are not interested in taking. Below is a great example of how something rather dull had been turned into a thing of beauty through its presentation alone. The Chapel, an animation produced by LookCreative, is a HDR timelapse short of multiple different shots of an environment, which put together truly transform the derelict chapel into a piece of art. It is the pace, style of shot, and beauty of the animation which are inspiring, and is exactly what we are aiming to produce to present our environment.

With this in mind we are now aiming to produce 4 long shots of animation and around 5 short shots of animation within the environment. The long shots will be around 20 seconds in length, with the short shots being just 2-3 seconds in length. This accounts for about 1:40 of rendered animation, so with the intro and outro the animation will be around 2 minutes long. Each shot will move further into the environment allowing for an interesting view of the entire environment. The purpose of the long shorts are to show the more grand sections of the environment, and the short shots will be there to show detail shots of the environment.

Together we have begun to plan out the environment and work out our pipeline for the project. We have budgeted the next three for pre-production which will take us to the 5 week mark where we will then begin production of the piece. To begin to work out exactly what are environment will look like, Alan mentioned we should create a list of people who would be living in the environment which would in turn give us the buildings which we will need to design. A very helpful step as it allowed for quick development and an idea of how we should lay our environment out. After creating the list, we began work on sketching out the environment so we had a rough idea of size and position of buildings. Below is a re-worked sketch of the environment with a list of buildings within it.

Initial Environment Map

To make full use of our collaboration we decided to number the different buildings which will need to be designed, and go away and design them on our own. This will add extra creative flare to the project as the final design for the environment will be a fusion of both mine and Sam's design ideas. I will be designing the; medicine shop, laundrette, train station, scrap shop, and saloon bar. Sam will be designing the; temple, butchers hop, stables, convenience store, blacksmith workshop, and power source. We have set ourselves the next week to design the basic layout of the buildings including their props, which we will then take into more refined pieces of concept art the following weeks. Overall we are aiming to produce an elaborate design bible for the environment which will include refined concept paintings of the various key points of the environment; the main open street/entrance, the enclosed street, the train/depo yard, and the court yard. It will be an exciting design filled couple of weeks so keep an eye out, weekly posts will be updated as usual on GreenOctopus blog.

Chinese Architecture Reference Images

2011-09-28T15:15:00.009+01:00

As we are basing our project on creating an environment, it is key that the environment will be aesthetically correct for it to be recognizable. Even if we are merging the two opposite continents (eastern/western) and recreating and alternate world, accuracy is still key. Me and Sam found a great book in the library named 'Chinese Architecture' by Laurence G.Liu, which is rich with text and reference images, which we scanned in, orient corrected and compressed into a PDF for easy viewing.

Self Initiated Project - Final Idea

2011-09-28T15:00:00.000+01:00

For the last week of this project me and Sam have been working towards finalising an idea and script for our project. The idea has changed forwards and backwards through the week but im glad to say we are at the final idea now. Initially we intended to create a large scale oriental inspired western environment, this was fine and had been green lighted by Phil and Alan. We decided to add the element of the drone as a character in our animation exploring the environment, as apposed to having a camera fly through, which we felt would have been quite boring. However, after some further discussions with Phil, it was clear that the drone character took away from our initial ambition of creating an environment, and in turn made the project feel quite confusing, to us and the viewer. Would it be a narrative based project with a poor story and epic environment, or would it be a camera fly through with epic environments? So, we are now back to the beginning, with a basic and clear idea with what we want to produce for out minor project. Which put simply, will be a large scale environment with 5 or 6 camera fly throughs showing the environment.

Below we have the inital project proposal as presented to Alan on last fridays turorial, which environment wise still exists, however the character and camera will not.

Environment Thumbnails #01

2011-09-21T16:36:00.000+01:00

Here's a page of thumbnails for the environment of the animation, as you can see there are some reoccurring patterns which i guess will be pushed forward. Producing these thumbnails was a good way to get over ideas and release ideas out of the mind and onto paper. Most of these are sketches of inside the town, but what i would like to also do is get an idea of the town from a distance, some varied building shapes/detailing, the towns energy source, and some drone silhouettes.

Environment Thumnails #01

Fact To Fiction

2011-09-21T01:40:00.000+01:00

After a rather helpful talk with Alan, he pointed out to us that for every piece of Sci-Fi work, there needs to be a fact that lays underneath it, which is exactly what we needed. As our idea comprises the oriental east, with the gritty west, we needed something to give reason for this and our overall animation. How we did not see it before i do not know (as it matches our setting perfectly), the Chinese rail road workers of the 1860's will be the fact underlying out fiction.

Chinese Rail Road Workers Image 01

Chinese Rail Road Workers Image 02

With the knowledge that Chinese men emigrated to America to help build the 'Pacific Rail Road', this gives us the underlining fact which we can then turn into fiction with our industrial based oriental western environment. To further develop our idea, some extensive visual research will be needed to allow us to design accurate concept art, and an accurate environment to match the time. Below are some great images which show China around the late 1800's. As you can see their architecture has a set of rules which we must follow, and to our advantage they seemed to design there buildings in a rather constricted manor, with all there buildings being quite tight and close together. I can see these being transcribed into a wester environment very well.

Also on a side note, i found these images which better show the environment in which the town will be set in. There is also a great opportunity to use them as a plate in a matte painting within the pre-production stage of our animation.

Third Year Begins...

2011-09-20T00:17:00.002+01:00

Today was the official start of our third year, and with an idea in place for the 'Self Initiated Project' its full steam ahead. As mentiond before i am collaborating with Sam Hayes, with an initial idea of creating a short based on Frankenstein. However times have changed and we are now working towards creating an environment based animation with oriental, western, and sci-fi influences. So far together we have worked out an idea and have started to visualize it via influence maps, along with a branded company. The next step within the pipeline of creating our animation will be to put the pen on paper and create our world, but not forgeting a rather vital step within the pipeline, being to finalise a script.

Initial synopsis of our idea:

An oriental western environment with an added Sci-Fi element: The environment, being the main focus of the project, would be explored by a character rather than a camera fly through. The environment would comprise aesthetics of oriental countries such as China, Malaysia, Thailand etc. and their ancient architecture. This would then be placed in a classic western environment for its harsh dessert land. Within this setting there would be a deserted industrial town which would contain an exhausted power source. The character, being the secondary focus of the project, will be a mechanical drone on a search mission for an object within the town. The drone will be alien to the town, but will belong to the same world.

This will be further developed, with a presentation ready for our official proposal on Friday.

We'll Meet Again - World War II London

2011-09-07T19:55:00.011+01:00

Presenting World War II London. Heres the final outcome of a project which started out as my Transcription project. Im glad that i have gone back to finish the project as it feels good to come out the other end. Theres a ton more ideas which i would like to add to this but i believe its time to put it behind me and push forward with my dissertation and my minor project. Enjoy.

Green Octopus

2011-08-31T15:13:00.000+01:00

A side from finishing of my other project, work has officialy begun for mine and my co founder of Green Octopus Sam Hayes minor project. Together we will be working to complete a narrative based animation under the company of Green Octopus. Below is the first draft of our company logo, its pretty much there with some minor changes to come. As you can see were aiming for a more colourful and joyous company over the rather dark and drab cg aestetic that appears to be everywhere (my template being a prime example). It will be a tough 20 weeks, of which you an follow ours progress HERE. The blog is underconstruction so will soon look more impressive, enjoy :)

Transcription Continued - Exterior Set WIP 04

2011-08-19T12:23:00.001+01:00

Little sneak preview of whats to come. Its pretty much a finished still of the scene, however im looking into adding post effects such as smoke in the background, and some colour correction in areas.

Comp

Beauty Pass

Ambient Occlusion Pass

ZDepth Pass

Transcription Continued - Exterior Set WIP 03

2011-08-10T16:14:00.001+01:00

Its been a while since my last post, and a lot has happened since then. I recently moved into a flat in Bromley, and have undergone the laborious tasks of everything involved in moving. This meant i had to take a time out from finishing off my project, however am back on it. But it is proving quite difficult to finish without Internet :/ So far i have managed to work round this by taking trips to McDonald's and making use of their free wifi. Im very close to finishing this off now and plan on starting the rendering tonight provided everything goes okay. Everything is pretty much textured and ready for rendering, i just need to finish off all the bits and bobs that you find left behind at the end of a project. Im very pleased with the outcome so far, and think the overall tone and level on control with the exterior environment matches that of the interior living room that i handed in for the project. Assuming everything goes to plan the next couple of posts should include some final stills of the animation and the animation itself.

Exterior Set - Beauty + Ambient Occlusion: Near Finished Set

Exterior Set - Beauty + Ambient Occlusion: Main Building Close Up

Transcription Continued - Bus WIP 06

2011-07-30T00:14:00.000+01:00

Tiny update, just a bit more detailing within the texturing. Looking pretty good now, and should look some what more realistic with a bump map applied.

Bus Model: Teturing, Colour + Ambient Occlusion

Bus Model: Teture Detail, Colour + Ambient Occlusion

Transcription Continued - Bus WIP 05

2011-07-29T02:24:00.000+01:00

A textured bus. Well the first pass of texture anyway, some more passes of dirt will be needed. I'm really pleased with the outcome of the bus so far, however there have been some minor setbacks. Namely accidentaly saving over my colour working file PSD then having Photoshop crash on me :( I may have lost the ease of using layers and cannot take away from the texture, but I'm happy with it so its okish in the end. Below is the model with a colour map and some rather crude lighting. The next stage will be to finish the colour then apply some bump/normal maps.

Bus Model: Colour Map + Ambient Occlusion

Transcription Continued - Exterior Set WIP 02

2011-07-21T00:47:00.000+01:00

Me thinks this wall is a bit bare, any suggestions? Also i added in some more detailing on the ground texture to make the scene looked more destroyed. Overall i think the scene is working pretty well so far, some minor hitches that need to be fixed, but i think the scene is holding its detail well.

Exterior Set - Beauty + Ambient Occlusion: Ground texture

Transcription Continued - Exterior Set WIP 01

2011-07-20T23:13:00.000+01:00

Quick update on the exterior set, spent the majority of the day texturing the ground and rubble. The ground still needs more work, for example some cracks and destruction. The back ground buildings are pretty much textured, however some minor changes are still needed before placement. The next stage will be to finish off the ground texture, then i plan on texturing the left shop.

Exterior Set - Beauty + Ambient Occlusion: Ground/Rubble Texture

Transcription Continued - Living Room WIP 03

2011-07-20T01:41:00.001+01:00

Back to the interior living room, its pretty much finished now it just needs its finishing touches, for example some of the texturing needs work on the walls, the glass, and the wood. However I'm pretty darn happy with what i have managed to achieve so far. For the most part the transition in the room has been the massive hole in the ceiling, which now textured looks pretty good. I spent some time working on the ceiling texture, as previously was the worst part of the scene. To finish off the scene the environment needs to be far more dusty, textures need tweaking, and for some reason the lighting within the scene has been adjusted, even though i haven't added any more lights, weird. Im liking the recent progress of this project now, and for the most part to finish the project i need to adjust render settings, textures and post effects.

Living Room - Beauty + Ambient Occlusion + Ceiling/Rubble Texture.

Transcription Continued - Lighting WIP 02

2011-07-13T11:57:00.000+01:00

Moving along now, the exterior lighting is in place, but i realised the rim lights should be put in place after the textures have been applied. Ive also started to experiment with the sky and how it will affect the lighting of the scene.To add colour to the scene i have used two area lights with a redish tint, this will be used to show the glow of fire which might be animated to flicker. I think the sky is working, and serves for the overall colour pallet, although I'm now wondering how i should produce some movement in the clouds so the scene does not appear too static.

Exterior Lighting WIP set-up; ray trace shadows, Ambient Occlusion, colour area lights, bus rim light, sky.

Exterior Scene Set-up

Transcription Continued - Lighting WIP 01

2011-07-08T12:24:00.002+01:00

Now the scene is pretty much in place, with a high majority of the modelling done, i have now moved on to light the exterior part of the environment. As this is the first exterior environment that i have produced, it is also the first that i had a chance to light. Initially the plan was to render in mental ray and use the physical sun and portal lights, how ever this did not go to plan so i switched back to software renders and the basic 6 Maya lights. So far its pretty much been a trial and error run, with some good results and some bad. Thinking back to my concept art i produced during the transcription project, i knew how i wanted the scene to be, it was just a matter of producing it. Initially i started use and area light behind the camera at the far end of the scene, a spot light to act as the moon and a directional light for shadows and high lights. I was also using depth map shadows to match the interior shadows, but came across problems and realised the interior lighting in real life would differ from the exterior. In the end i decided to dispose of this lighting set up and start fresh, i done so by using a directional light in the four main directions, and used one of them for shadows. I also decided to use ray trace shadows which would allow for a higher sense of realism but are far more render expensive. The lighting set-up is not complete but it closer to what i would like to achieve, I now need to add in some colour and rim lights.

Concept Art.

Initial set-up; ambient, spot, directional light.

Final WIP set-up; directional lights, depth map shadows + Ambient Occlusion.

Final WIP set-up; directional lights, ray trace shadows + Ambient Occlusion.

Transcription Continued - Living Room WIP 02

2011-07-04T22:08:00.000+01:00

Moved back to the living room now, Ive dressed the scene with all the rubble and props, and have pretty much finished the hole in the ceiling. Perhaps some parts of the ceiling could be hanging down, but ill work on that in time. I believe the living room will be finished now after the texturing of the rubble, as the flickering light and dust particles will be added in post. Also don't worry about the rather uniform line of rubble as the buildings front wall will be in place. I'm pretty happy with the out come of the placement for the living room, as when the camera pans back, the viewer first will notice the crooked painting, followed by the flickering light, and then the knocked down chair and rubble. Which will then be followed by the destroyed window and exterior.

Transcription Continued - Bus WIP 04 / Set Dressing WIP 01

2011-07-04T01:11:00.001+01:00

Haven't updated the blog in a while, its been a busy few couple of weeks but Ive still been working on the transcription project. The majority of the set is now in place with all objects UV's laid out and ready to be textured, half of which have been done. I grew bored of texturing so decided to dress the set so i could set up the lighting ready for the bump and spec maps. I also went back to finish of the bus by destroying it and laying out the UV's, for the most part it was a case of breaking up the geometry and adjusting the vertices's, but i also had to model a few bus seats and a steering wheel to fill the bus interior, as well as this i also had to model the interior panels of the bus to fill the bus side panels.

Theres still a few things that need doing set dressing wise, for example the shop windows need props, some smashed glass, and some more bits and bobs around the foreground. I also need to fill in the space behind the windows else where, and add some more rubble around the bus and finish off the living room area. After completion of dressing the set i will then move onto light the scene finish texturing.

Transcription Continued - Right Buildings WIP 02

2011-06-21T16:16:00.000+01:00

Back to the right set of buildings now, Ive added in some more edges and wooden beams/struts, to make the overall building look more destroyed. The entire building is modelling wise is now complete with the UV's laid out, exported, and ready for texturing. It seems as though all I'm doing this project is laying out UV's, which as you all know is extremely fun :D As you can see most of the geometry added is within the edge of the destroyed side of the building, the basement windows, and the left side of destruction has been slightly adjusted to make sense. The next step will be to texture this building, and then move onto the left side of the street again.

Transcription Continued - Alien Ship WIP 02

2011-06-19T01:29:00.000+01:00

Not much of change on the ship but worth an update, i have now worked on the underneath part of the ship and have also started to add in some more detailing, it may look slightly odd at this minute in time, but hopefully as it further develops it will make more sense. Also i have finished the colour map for the left tall building with the addition of the integrated posters on the wall, a simple but effective task.

Transcription Continued - Alien Ship WIP 01

2011-06-17T16:29:00.000+01:00

Mixing up the production flow of this project now with the addition of the alien ship. Its in its early days but the basic shape is in. So far i have worked on the shape and topology of the top shell of the ship, and have roughed in the under side, its tail, and some boosters (that's right boosters). The idea for the ship for it to be based on the shape of the existing air craft the Zeppelin, but take influence from WWII submarines and bombs.

Transcription Continued - Left Buildings WIP 01

2011-06-17T00:22:00.000+01:00

Today i have been working on the textures for the tall building which will be on the left side of the street. This was quite an interesting process and this texture is by far the most detailed one that i have ever produced, and has been a joy to create. Texturing the front of the house was pretty generic, but working on the side of the house that would have been interior was quite fun. A majority of the textures have been Internet sourced, with a few of my own photos such as bricks and dirt. I'm still yet to create the bump and spec, but up on completion i think its time for some UFO modelling. Also i am yet to work on integrating the posters onto the wall.

Transcription Continued - Right Buildings WIP 01

2011-06-14T13:21:00.000+01:00

The basic model for the right set of buildings along the street are in place and have there UV's laid out ready for texturing. Some minor work is still needed along the top part of the building, some basement windows will be added along the bottom part of the buildings, and some destruction will be added to the whole on the left hand side of the building, but other than that this building is pretty much ready to be textured

Transcription Continued - Lamp Post

2011-06-13T14:00:00.000+01:00

Here's a basic model of a 1940's street lamp which will run down the paths of my street. The geometry is pretty basic and the UV's are now laid out so the model is ready to be textured. I plan on completing all the modelling needed for the scene and then will move onto the texturing stage.

Transcription Continued - Rocks!

2011-06-12T00:36:00.000+01:00

Little update on the project. Previously i had modelled a few items here and there to build a collection of rubble which i can add to. I have now created some rock using the good old fashioned rock gen. Which can be found HERE, you can create low or high poly rocks which depending on how you are going to texture them, can have there UV's laid out easily. These rocks will be used through out the scene as parts of rubble, which will sit along side purpose built objects to fit the scene.

Transcription Continued - Living Room WIP 01

2011-06-11T14:48:00.000+01:00

Moving on from the bus for the time being, i have started to re-work the living room. So far i have focused on creating the hole in the ceiling. I felt as though the ceiling previously was missing something, and was probably to worse part of the room, so now i have started to add a hole on the ceiling which would have been caused by the attack. I feel it also adds more dynamic to the room and should make it more interesting on the eye. This also means that i will be able to add in more rubble, and some dust particles.

To finish off the hole in the ceiling, i will add in some broken wires/cables, parts of wood and rubble hanging down from the ceiling, some planes with textured wall paper/plaster hanging around the edge of the hole to make the hole seem as though it has been torn through, and some cracks running along the ceiling. As well as this i will also need to add some basic geometry the room above, to make it seem more believable.

Transcription Continued - Bus WIP 03

2011-06-09T17:38:00.001+01:00

The basic shape for the bus is in place, now its a matter of filling in the holes and destroying the thing. Ive got some nice reference images to work to so it shouldn't be too difficult. Ill do so by using the split polygon tool to break away and bend pieces of the bus, then use the broken pieces as rubble around the bus on the floor. Also i need to model in a basic chassis and some head-lamps to finish off the model. Following on from a previous post on modelling destruction, Digital Tutors have a great tutorial HERE on Modeling Architectural Destruction in Maya, which is well worth a watch for anyone interesting in environment work.

Transcription Continued - Bus WIP 02

2011-06-06T14:50:00.000+01:00

Little update on the bus, i have now modelled the roof of the bus (which was a slight pain modelling the corners to cure and work), and have also started working out the rear end of the bus and its interior. Working out what is needed within the interior and what i can get away with will be of great help, as the final scene will be quite heavy on its poly count.

Transcription Continued - Bus WIP 01

2011-06-05T02:07:00.001+01:00

After a much needed break, Ive picked up where i left off on the transcription project. As it needs to be completed by the end of June, i feel as though i have a fair amount of time to finish it to a great standard. Ive started by working on the props within the scene and working out simple but effective ways of creating destruction. Tonight i have worked on the bus which will be placed within the scene, i plan on modelling the bus as a whole first, then going in and modelling the destruction of the bus afterwards. This allows me to work on my modelling skills, and also gives me some parts of geometry that i can use for rubble around the bus. The bus is pretty much complete, all that is left to finish the model will be to model the roof, wheels, and minor details.

Also i found some great videos HERE on creating destruction, hard surface modelling and texturing.

Models & Metaphors - Maya Tutorials

2011-06-01T04:47:00.001+01:00

Here is the majority of the maya tutorials set to us for the models & metaphors project, unfortunately i was unable to complete a select few of the tutorials, such as the match moving and the leg part of the high res character tutorials, all of which i shall complete in the near future. This units tutorials have been very interesting to learn as they included new skills, as well as strengthening some of prior knowledge. In particular the nCloth tutorials were of great help during my project as i needed to animate the loin cloth of my character, but i found the most interesting tutorial to be the static shot, as learning the process of match moving and lighting via render layers will be very helpful in future projects.

Match Moving - Static Shot

Environment Shadow Cast

Beauty Pass

Object Shadow Cast

Window Reflection

Orrery Reflection

Final Comp

High Res Character Modelling

Dynamics - Active/Passive Bodies, Soft Bodies, nCloth

Models & Metaphors - Finishing Up

2011-05-27T02:15:00.003+01:00

Here it is, the finishing up post of the Models & Metaphors project and our last project of the year. I say this is the finishing up project, but as I still have more work to do on this project as well as the Transcription project, more is yet to come. Overall this project has been a very joyful experience, I have bagged new skills and am feeling more confident overall in Maya now. From the go point of this project it was clear to me that I wanted to base it on a character and follow through the character creation pipeline. So I am happy that I managed to complete the pipeline for the first character of my own, although some minor improvements will need to be done. However, I am not so happy that I did not manage to complete the sting and see my character in all its glory. I think some more time management and delegations would have as I spent a majority of my five weeks working on the character as a posed to the whole animation. Below is the Making Of document and character turn around that i presented today, as well as some other bits and pieces that needed to be blogged.

Disc Cover

Models & Metaphors Making Of

Posed Character Ambient Occlusion Pass

Posed Character Colour Pass


Posed Character Comp

Character + Statue Ambient Occlusion Pass

Character + Statue Colour Pass


Character + Statue Comp

Im prettty happy with the final outcome of the above image, however some more development will be needed in preperation for the submission, for example a more white back ground, a more developed ground plane, and some nice positioning of the statues (with the possibility of adding in rocks and the odd clump of grass).

Models & Metaphors - Easter Island-esque Statue

2011-05-24T21:56:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post on the statue that my character will be worshiping. The geometry was simple to model, but is not perfect, there is some minor pinching on the right side, which is not noticeable at all once the texture and bump map has been applied. Initially the statue was just going to be purple and embossed, with a bump map applied, but as time went on i applied a colour map, and made the white part look as though it has been painted on the rock, which i think looks better. The statues will be placed around the environment similar to the heads that are on Easter Island.

Models & Metaphors - Character Production 04

2011-05-24T21:45:00.003+01:00

After completion of the modelling stage, i ran into a few problems within the skinning process. All of which are fixed now with great thanks to Shabs and Alan, and I'm happy to say that the skinning process is complete. I have also laid out the UV's so the model is ready to be textured, and then rigged ready for animation. This has been a far harder process than expected, but at the same time a very rewarding one, as i have learnt the ins and outs of creating a character.

Creating the joints and binding the character took a longer amount of time than anticipated, but the extra amount of time spent making sure the joints and geometry stretched properly was worth it. Whilst creating the joints i managed to miss one out and parent them together incorrectly so this meant i had to spend even more time correcting these problems, which if Alan wasn't there to help with, i would most probably still be doing now. I have also spent some time using nDynamics on the loin cloth to make the material move like cloth, below is a test shot of how it looks, which i am pretty happy with. Whilst binding the character i animated the joints so it was easy to see the deformation, sadly i managed to delete all the animation before play blasting the final binded character, however i do have a play blast of the process around half way through. Now its time to rig the character, and post some work on the 'Easter Island-esque' statue.

Models & Metaphors - Character Production 03

2011-05-18T03:06:00.000+01:00

Quite a large jump in the production stage of this character. Over the last couple of days i have been working to have the modelling stage of this character finished by tonight, however this has not happened as i have ran into problems on the way to its completion, but it is indeed very close. Some of the main problems that i faced included modelling the loin cloth, the shoulder topology, and stitching the torso and the legs together. But on a more positive side of the modelling process i have modelled the character accessories; such as the scepter and the wrist band, modelled the loin cloth which i shall animate with ncloth, and have began to model the mask.

The next stage of this character will be to finish of the modelling process by tomorrow, and then move on the add the joints and skin the character. This shouldn't be too difficult as the character is pretty simple, although i this will be the first time of skinning a character outside of the tutorials.

Models & Metaphors - Character Production 02

2011-05-16T16:17:00.000+01:00

Some nice development made recently. I have left the torso for now, and have been working primarily on the hands, feet, and legs. As you can see i have further developed the feet by adding in toe nails and some bumps above the toes to further shape them. I have also modelled some hands following the same principles as the feet so the fingers are squared like the toes. Adding in the nails proved to be quite time consuming, as i needed to work out the geometry flow and a way of making them feel placed on the fingers and toes, but i feel as though it was worth the time spent on them as they really help finish of the look of the hand. Its these minor details which are often forgotten that i will be adding to the character to make him feel more human and believable as a character. As well as this i have been modelling the groin area and working on the loin cloth, which still needs to be developed much more. I plan to be skinning the character tomorrow so hopefully the character will be finished in time.

Models & Metaphors - Character Production 01

2011-05-12T14:26:00.000+01:00

Production has begun! I'm quite happy with the progress of my character so far, as this is the first of my own characters which i am modelling it is proving to be a tad more difficult than i imagined. Also it does not help that im am using ortho sketches which do not line up. I boxed in the torso and then the arm, legs, and a mask to help gather a sense of scale and proportion, i then went in and done the same with the hands a feet.

From my designs it was clear that this character will be quite blocky and out of proportion. Modelling a torso is hard enough, but then modelling a torso which has squared edges and features on purpose has proven to be difficult, although i feel as though i have done quite well. Stage one of the torso modelling process was to gather shape and block in the features, then stage two was to re-work the topology of the character so the character will animate well. All that is left for modelling the torso will be to add in the belly button, and sculpt some minor changes.

As the uni network decided to go down as i was working on my torso, i was unable to recover it that night so i could carry on with the modelling progress. This was a minor set back as it meant i had to move on from that part of the character and work on something else. So by doing so i ended up with a near complete foot, i started off by blocking in the shape of the foot, then re-worked to topology and sculpted the shape of the toes to achieve the desired effect of square-ish character. Some additions to the foot will be needed, such as the toe nails, add some edge loops to aid in animation, but other than that the foot is near completion.

So far the modelling process of this character has been quite enjoyable, and a nice change from environment work. I look forward to finishing off the modelling stage, and then moving into laying out the UV's and the skinning process :/

Models & Metaphors - Character Development 05

2011-05-11T14:22:00.000+01:00

Here's a rough idea of what the colour scheme for the character will look like. Unfortunately i managed to save over my working PSD file for the colour scheme so i was unable to add in some shadows and high lights, however i don't think it looks too bad without. I have used three tones of purple for the character, the 'proper' purple which features on the logo will be used for the mask, cloth, and stick on the scepter, a light shade of purple for the skin, and a mid tone shade of purple for detailing such as the feathers, facial expressions, and the stone within the scepter. Then all the extra detailing such as the body markings will be in white. As you can see i have begun to experiment with the face by adding in markings made of the logo, more of this will be developed soon, as well as an expression sheet.

Models & Metaphors - Character Development 04

2011-05-10T17:57:00.000+01:00

I near enough have the final character now, all that is needed to be done is to work out exactly how the face will look and how i will connect the head to the body. I will now move onto work out the colour palette for the animation and character in Photoshop and will also finalise the idea. As you can see i decided to only add feather accessories to the character right wrist and the scepter. These will aid in adding depth to the character, as there will need to be some secondary animation on them, as well as the character cloth around his crotch. I'm not sure whether the cloth will be soft or rigid, but some experimentation will be needed.

Models & Metaphors - Character Development 03

2011-05-10T17:37:00.004+01:00

Now i had the base of the character in place it was time to design a face and shape for the mask, as well as apply some minor detailing to finish off the character. I have also decided on giving the character some sort of scepter to aid in the worship dance. Initially i was going to have the 'models & metaphors' logo painted on the mask like face paint, but since some discussion with Phil and Alan, i have now decided to takes features of the logo and apply them to the mask like face paint. This way the reveal of the logo is saved for the end of the animation. I quite like the idea of dressing the character in accessories such as fur and feathers, but i think i will only use feathers on the arm and scepter to try and keep the character as minimalistic as possible.

Models & Metaphors - Character Development 02

2011-05-10T17:20:00.002+01:00

After selecting a character to develop further, i then went onto turn the character as possible. I feel that by doing this it enhances my understanding of the character, and also shows the flaws within the character. After drawing the first turn around i felt that the character was too human and too rounded compared to how i initially visualised the character. I also wasn't happy with how the character was a human wearing a mask, as opposed to the mask being the head and the character, although i feel some more development will be needed to be done around the neck area as it looks a bit odd. But needless to say im far more happy with the second turn around, as it features the mask as a head and is only more rectangular.

Models & Metaphors - Character Development 01

2011-05-07T18:57:00.000+01:00

Here's some initial sketches of my tribal based character. The use of these sketches are to simply apply my thoughts onto paper and to help gather a sense of shape for the character. As these are early stages of the characters development I'm not yet sure what shapes i like, i.e. whether i like the skinny or round stomach and what type of mask shape i will use. After i have gathered how the body will look, i will then move onto design the face on the mask. More development soon...

Models & Metaphors - Influence Map

2011-05-06T19:33:00.000+01:00

Ive decided I'm going to take the character of the African tribal mask forward, but have a new more simplistic idea in the making. I decided to take this character forward as i feel it has the most potential and could make quite a nice ident. Ill post the new idea soon...but for now here's an influence map.

Toilet Tentacle Painting

2011-05-06T00:49:00.000+01:00

Some of you may remember this from the beginning of the year. Towards the end of the summer and before uni this year, i had the concept for this painting and thought it was worth having a go at doing. Over Easter i picked it up again for all of about 2 hours and made this progress. I focused on doing the hair and blocking in some rough colours, I'm still not entirely happy with the hair as i feel the brush strokes are a bit loose. Ill continue to paint this over the summer as a believe this will be a great painting when finished, as well as a possible idea for my major project.

Models & Metaphors - The Idea's

2011-05-05T13:12:00.001+01:00

So far all of the ideas that I have managed to come up with all seem to be quite random and out of context, with none of them having any sort of reasoning. When I started this project I knew that I would like to have seen my self modelling a simple character, with some sort of random animation advertising the channel. I have one idea in particular that I see myself taking forward, although I am struggling to make it happen.

Idea 01:

The puppet master. This was one of my initial responses to the soundscapes, and is the idea which I quite like. The premise of this idea is a tribal masked aboriginal type character laughing whilst controlling some 'Models & Metaphors' characters. This idea is within response to the 'Afro' soundscapes, as the music is quite tribal and there is an overwhelming laugh in the background. There are multiple variations to this character; such as the puppets on the end of the strings are smaller chunks of one larger puppet, where at the end of the animation they are combined through the use of camera movement. An example of this being in 'The Incredibles' and the underwater cave kronos where the name is written on the wall. Another variation of this idea was to have the tribal mask character sacrificing the 'Models & Metaphors' characters, and then after a large burst of purple flames the roles have been reversed, its now the 'Models and Metaphors' characters sacrificing the tribal masked character.

Idea 02:

A simple and random idea of a still camera and a gold fish in its bowl. The gold fish looks worried, and then out of its mouth comes a 'Models and Metaphor' logo. I like the simplicity and quirkiness of this idea.

Idea 03:

An apple tree, but instead of apples there are 'Models & Metaphors' logos. An apple drops from the tree and a squirrel scutters over take the apple. I quite like the simplicity of this idea, and its opportunity to look very clean and cartoon like.

Idea 04:

Russian dolls, a simple idea of some purple patterned Russian dolls popping out in a line moving towards the camera, and then on the end Russian doll, the 'Models & Metaphors' logo pops out.

Idea 05:

An camera pans down and alley way of some sort, moving left to right on a 2d axis, as the camera comes to the end of the dirty and cluttered alley way there is a, clean out of place bill board with the logo on it. I think this idea has opportunity for some nice environment work, as well a nice opportunity to experiment with was style and era the bill board at the end will look like. For example it could be something of an Asian influence, or could be something of an Medieval influence. Or the bill board could not be out of place at all and just have a flickering light.

Idea 06:

A worship to a 'Models & Metaphors' statue which will be perceived as a good like figure, and will be worshipped by a group of letters and numbers which make up the logo. Again this idea could be quite tribal and jungle themed.

Idea 07:

A valley of 'Models & Metaphors'. Everything will be themed to match the logo, and will be a very happy and positive place. The sun will be shining, there will be flying logos with rainbows and very nature based. I can imagine this idea being very camp and very kitsch, and quite similar to the work shown to us by our visiting lecturer from Picasso Pictures.

I think that's all of the more developed ideas, now its time to pick an idea and take it to the next stage. Any thoughts an opinions to which ones people could see working would be great.

Models & Metaphors - The Beginning

2011-05-04T21:29:00.000+01:00

Okay, so its time to kick off the new project titled 'Models & Metaphors', after a much needed and enjoyable break over Easter. I plan to stay more 'on top' of this project as it is only 5 weeks long. I started off okay during Transcription, i met the deadlines which i had set myself and worked to a timetable, although during the transition from pre-production to production around week 5, i slowly started to sail adrift. So far during this project I have been creating ideas and sketching a few of them down whilst listening to the given soundscapes. A majority of the ideas seem to be wacky and random enough for the given topic, but since the tutorial yesterday, it has become clear that I still need to spend some time further developing ideas and placing them into context.

Over Easter i had a brainstorming session with an old friend Adam Mcevoy, who currently runs a a skate team and his brand 'Drawing Boards' whom of which he does all the art work for. You can follow his blog here and view his website and online portfolio here. He has always had an inspiring style and view on the world, which tends to be quite wacky, so i felt he was the man for the job. There were many possibilities and ideas that came out of the session, some of which included; a tree with the given 'topic' apples, tribal dancing to a 'topic' god, 'topic' shaped buildings, a valley of 'topic' shaped flowers, the idea of love for example the number meeting the letter, and flying 'topics'. Some of them more bland than others, and some of which may have been done before. But i felt it was a nice way to get into the swing of the project and develop an idea.

Below are some pages from the sketchpad of some quick drawings that I have done whist developing ideas. So far im in favour of the top image as I feel as though there is something quite interesting to work with, but a lot more development will be needed to finalise an idea. I will shortly post some of my ideas with some context, and hopefully will have finalised one.

Tutorial Images

2011-04-11T13:11:00.001+01:00

Here's a rather mixed bag of tutorial images that I have managed to get done, I worked on the ones which I thought would relate to my project more over others, more interesting tutorials from each subject.I haven't managed to complete all tutorials but will do soon.

The tutorials that I enjoyed most included learning how to model appropriately for games. As I done games design at college and had some prior information on the subject, it was good to finally learn how it is actually done and where to apply detail to the areas needed. Other interesting tutorials which I believe I will get most use out of is the normal map and lighting tutorials. Learning how to normal map helped me out a great deal during the project as it meant I didn't have to labour a large section of time making sure the bump maps worked accurately, and on the side of the lighting tutorials, the mental ray sun/global illumination and portal lights were a hit and miss when it came to using them in my project. I followed the tutorials but applied them to what I had done, so maybe there a lesson learnt, finish the tutorials using the supplied scenes then apply to project work. I think the most fun tutorial worked on so far has to be the gold ball. There was a certain satisfaction in watching the mud drop off the ball once the tutorial was completed. As mentioned earlier, I will go back and complete the missing tutorials, apologies for that.

Transcription: Finishing Up

2011-04-11T11:06:00.001+01:00

Okay, so were now at the end of our Transcription project and i would say that there is still a lot to come. I'm not happy with the fact that i didn't manage to finish the animation in time for the final crit, but i would say that i am happy with the quality of work that i handed in. (even if it was a tad dark due to the projector and the frame rate was playing at 29fps rather than 25fps, as i exported it out from Premiere at the wrong frame rate, which is the reason for the juttering.) However i re-exported it when i got home and it now plays fine and here it is...

Due to the rushed end at the time of the crit i was unable to to talk through my animation and show my supporting art work and what else i did manage to finish in time. So in a way here it is...

This is the image that in a way drove my animation, it was the starting point in week 01, and i feel as though i have done it justice. I don't think that my concept art is too far away from my final renders. I then went on to create the exterior piece of concept art which i would love to one day finish the animation to match this image, but i think for a 10 week project - this was far too big.

Moving on from the interior animation that i managed to show, i also had modelled and textured the exterior building which this living room was inside, it is a shame that i never managed to show it.

As you can see i did manage to model the base environment as you see it in the image below, and it is this shot which i am now working towards finishing at. The bus and all the buildings are modelled and waiting to be textured, then it is just the task of adding in the rubble and re-working the animation to match.

Also at the time of the crit i didn't manage to render the 50 seconds of footage that i had as an ambient occlusion, which is a shame as i feel as though this pass really helps the image set the scene. However, below are some rendered still of the living rooms with the ambient occlusion pass.

And the making of and technical paper...

Transcription Making Of

Transcription Technical Paper

Transcription Work Update

2011-03-22T20:57:00.000Z

Its been a while since i have posted any progress updates within production so i felt it was necessary to do a post and get my work up. I am now out of the PreVis stage of production and am slowly modelling the buildings which will be within my environment. So far i have modelled a low poly building, which in fact has taken some time as this building will be re-used through out the environment. The model is 95% ready to be textured, and is successfully destroyed. The technique which i have used is to take minor chunks of brick and concrete out of the window ledges and put minor props such as the window railings and frames off kilter to create the illusion that the overall building has been destroyed, and the rest of the work will be done within the texture work.

To destroy the window ledges and take chunks of brick out of the the geometry i have put two edge loops running down the brick where i want the chunk to begin and end, i then used the split poly tool to sketch in the chunk and repeated it equally on the other side. I then deleted the face which will be the chunk missing, filled the hole and then used the split poly tool again the stitch the missing chunk together, and finished off by softening the edges and bevelling the edge of the chunk.

I have also modelled some basic rubble props which i will scatter around the scene and make piles of rubble out of, and have now moved on to model some more buildings which will fill the scene which is based on my concept art in the previous post. The buildings within my scenes will never be modelled any further than the front few faces, and will range in terms of detail depending on how close they will to the camera, for example the very first row of houses will be high res as they will be the closest to the camera, the middle set of buildings which will run down both sides of the road will be low res, and the final left side buildings will be high res as this is where the camera finishes it movement.

Whilst modelling the set for my environment i have also been thinking about the alien ship which will be in my scene, and the living room interior as this is where i plan to capture the attention of peoples emotion. So, rather than 'Google-ing' some random photographs of families during the war(which chances are wont match up), i have instead asked my Nan for some family photos of her and her parents (my great grandparents) during the war. This not only eliminates the task of having to look for photos, but also adds a more personal touch of nostalgia to the piece.

Goodnight Mister Tom

2011-03-18T13:23:00.002Z

Some one has kindly uploaded the entire film onto YouTube which has been to my advantage. At about 8:00 minutes onwards there are some great references to what the rubble and after mass during the Blitz would have looked like, as well as some nice reference to what an apartment block would have looked like. On a side note, I'm well into production now so i feel as though an update on my progress will be needed soon, as well as a rather large folder of reference imagery.

Doctor Who - The Empty Child

2011-03-17T00:05:00.000Z

Earlier on today Phil directed me to check out a Doctor Who episode named 'The Empty Child' for its rich use of lighting and attention to detail. As you can see in the clips below the lighting is set to create a warm homely feel which is exactly what i need within the first 20 seconds of my animation. The clips are also full of references for the 1940's family home during the Blitz, which indeed will be of some use to me when it comes to modelling and texturing my living room.

Camera Movement PreVis

2011-03-16T01:05:00.001Z

I have now hopefully finished the PreVis stage of this project, a stage which is fundamental to this project as i am laying down the foundation in which i shall work up from. It also allows me to fully realise the camera movement which aided by the soundtrack allows me to gather a sense of pace and timing. The camera movement has taken longer than predicted, but i felt it was necessary as the timing is key to creating the animation which i have set out to complete. The movement of the camera needs to match the timing of the soundtrack to create the correct sense of nostalgia and emotion. Creating this piece of camera movement has been a trial and error experience, but i am happy with the end result. I started of by creating a motion path in which i attached the camera to, but i found this process to be more hassle than it was worth, so i ended up by animating the camera by key framing the translate and rotate channels, which i then fine tuned with the use of the graph editor.

The animation will begin by fading in from black as the intro section of the music begins and the camera starts to move, there for the camera will never be static and will always have some sort of movement. The animation will end by the camera panning up to reveal the alien ships in the sky. As the camera pans up to reveal the ship, the shot will carry on panning up which will then reveal an alien ship dierctly above and behind the camera, so as the ship moves away the camera will follow it and fade to black. The sound track still needs a serious amount of work, the sound track will need to sound as if it is being played from the 1940's radio, it will need to be cut and looped to match the camera movement, and there will be some static noise added to the song. Aswell as this i will need to slowly lower the volume of the radio to match the distance of the camera and will also need to add in some atmospheric ambient noise, and a sound for the alien ship.

Tutorial: Week 05

2011-03-06T22:47:00.000Z

For this weeks tutorial i presented Alan the almost complete piece of exterior concept art which i had been working on, which you can see is now in its complete form below. I'm glad to say that the piece went down well with Alan, and it will work well as a basis in which i should base my production on. I will however have to add in some extra buildings which are not seen within the concept, these buildings will serve as a starting point for my animation and a means of closing off the 3D world and stitching the combination of a 2D matte painting of the cities background and 3D together. Since the tutorial i have started working on the previs for my animation as well as still thinking about the interior and alien ship concept art. A process which Alan suggests i finish whilst starting production, and i should then end up with 3 finished pieces of concept art; the alien ship, the interior environment, and the exterior environment. Now its time to move on into the realms of maya and produce my animation...

Exterior Enviornment Matte Painting

2011-03-02T23:53:00.002Z

I haven't been posting much work on the blog recently, but that does not mean i have not been doing it. After a rather long process i am pleased to say that i have finally finished my exterior concept piece. I'm not entirely happy with the piece but it is finished to a decent standard which now allows me to move on in this project. I decided to create a matte painting rather than a digital painting from scratch for many reasons, the two most important being; i have always wanted to create a successful matte painting, and i am aiming to create a realistic environment, so why not take realism and edit it in a way to suit me. Other reasons include, the addition of extra detailing, the ability to destroy a building, and a pre-set composition through the use of existing perspective lines within the photographs and Photoshops 'Free Transform' and edit 'Perspective' tool. Creating this piece has been a great learning curve and quite enjoyable to do.

Below is an influence map of images which i have used as reference and for a sense of direction, as well as a page of images which i have used to create the matte painting, some of which i photographed myself in London, and others which i have taken from the Internet. As well as this there is a development image which shows the work in progress of the painting and the process which i followed to produce the piece. I started by gathering a composition and perspective using various different buildings, i then painted over the buildings to make them look destroyed, and then added in extra detailing such as rubble and the electricity poles. Once i had created a working composition which was then edited to look destroyed i then repeated the process of painting in the dirt and destruction multiple times gather the extra detail. I then applied a sky and light source, multiple layers of highlights and shadows, and then finished off the painting with a final adjustment to the Hues/Saturation to apply a more cold feeling to the image.

Upon completion of the painting i then adjusted the painting colour scheme a few more times to create different looking images which show a slightly different mood in each of them, I'm not entirely sure which one works the best, but i think they all have there merits. I started off this piece with the intentions of creating a matte painting which would have a very loose painted layer which would add to the effect of the destruction, which i think i have achieved within this painting.

Research: Trip To London

2011-02-24T01:02:00.006Z

As i am creating an environment based on London during 'The Blitz' bombing during the 1940's, a high amount of attention to detail will be needed to produce an environment full of historical fact and nostalgia. I felt it necessary to take a trip to London where i visited 'The Imperial War Museum' (Linked Here), which was then followed by a round walk of London to capture a sense of building work. I did want to go on a texture hunt also, but the weather was not on my side that day.

Tutorial: Week 04

2011-02-23T20:27:00.001Z

This weeks tutorial has been helpful in understanding exactly what i can get away with and what i must produce to create a successful environment. A great load has been lifted off my mind as Alan explained to me a nice technique to create rubble, which i will need a lot of. The process is more straight forward compared to what i thought it would be, essentially i will need to create a plane which will represent the overall shape and volume of the pile, and apply a black Lambert to make sure know light will get through. Then its simply the process of creating a 'tool kit' of objects which i will then snap to the plane. So in fact i will only need to create a base set of objects which i can re texture and use multiple times, and only work to one layer of rubble. In terms of the alien ship, some further development will be needed but i would say that i am about 60% there with the design, its just a case of finalising the bottom part/detailing of the ship. From my initial concept it was clear that the top part and bottom part of the ship felt quite disconnected to some sort of support will be needed to look as though the two parts are attached. Alan directed me to look at Giger briefly (a road in which i tried to avoid, as we all know once you go Giger you cant go back), but perhaps it will be needed in this case as some sort of spinal/rib cage bone structure might be of use. As well as this it was made clear that i should work to follow the texture/shape of the whale (which has been done many times before), but instead make it my own. I did intend to have the concept stage finished by this tutorial, which did not happen so now its a case of speeding up with the designs and moving onto pre-vis/production, but overall a very helpful tutorial.

Alien Ship Concept #01

2011-02-17T03:43:00.001Z

Here's the first piece of concept art which was developed from my silhouettes, i feel as though i lost the direction that i wanted to take this piece as the silhouette which i was working for felt more refined and sharp. Also I'm not entirely sure whether it is 'alien' enough. I think it is okay for an initial concept but some further development will be needed. Will post up some development shots soon...

Alien Ship Silhouette's

2011-02-16T13:52:00.003Z

Last night and this morning i spent my time sketching up some silhouettes and further developing them in Alchemy. The use of Alchemy has really helped as it can randomly generate shapes and add a different twist to a design you are working on, which you may not have noticed whilst sketching. These silhouettes are pretty basic but are just there to show a direction i want to take the design for the alien ship. The next stage will be to pick a ship and further develop it in Photoshop, i would now like to have a large scale 'Mother-Ship' design, as well as some smaller 'Fighter-Ships'. I'm not entirely sure which designs are the strongest in showing an alien ship, and which designs to take forward into the next stage of there design, thoughts and feedback would be appreciated.

Tutorial: Week 03

2011-02-16T13:41:00.000Z

So its week three now, which in many ways described in the tutorial as the make or break week. As i still didn't have any creative work to show to Alan (which is now in process), the tutorial was more of a general conversation on how the project should run, and what i should be thinking about in order to create a successful animation. What is now clear to me is the fact that i need to have some sort of secondary animation within the background parts of the environment, for example dust and smoke effects which would be left behind within the rubble and debris. As well as this i would like to now have a fleet of alien ships rather than just the one, this will create a higher sense of power and a larger scale air attack (such as the blitz). Which means that i now have a nice opportunity to animate some of these ships attacking the environment and create some explosion of rocks and dust. This week is going to be incredibly busy, as i would like to have finished all pre-production work by next Tuesday and begin production within week 04.

Character Bio's

2011-02-15T14:49:00.002Z

In order to understand the environment which i will be creating, i should understand the characters which would have lived in the environment, which in my case will be the family who live in the house/apartment where my animation will begin. I have created a short bio for each character, as basic as it is this has been a great help in understanding how my room should look and what the overall 'tone' and 'feel' should be like.

Name: Harold Edwardson

Age: 42

Work: Newspaper Editor

Bio:

Harold is a well respected member of society, he works as a newspaper editor for the Daily Mail. He is a work-aholic but enjoys nothing more than coming home from work to play with his two children 'Emily' and 'Joshua' and then put them to bed.

Name: Victoria Edwardson

Age: 38

Work: House-Wife

Bio:

Victoria, wife of Harold Edwardson, is a stay at home wife. Whilst Edward works to bring money home for the family, it is up to Victoria to make sure the clothes are washed, the food is cooked, the dishes are cleaned, and she looks pretty.

Name: Joshua Edwardson

Age: 6

Work: Primary School

Bio:

Joshua is the first born child in the family. He goes to St Andrew's Primary School along with his younger sister Emily. Joshua will grow up to work in place with his father at the Daily Mail, but until then he wants to be a train driver.

Name: Emily Edwardson

Age: 4

Work: Primary School

Bio:

Emily is the youngest child in the family. She goes to St Andrew's Primary school with her older brother Joshua. Emily enjoys baking with her mother on the weekends, and often plays dress up in her mother's clothes with her teddy bear Joseph.

These simple character bio's have also given me some objects which i can place in the room to apply character, emotion and reason. For example Joshua could have a toy train, Emily will have a teddy bear, Victoria could have some sort of beauty product, and Harold could have a pipe or some other sort of gentlemen like apparatus.

Influence Map - WWII London

2011-02-15T12:38:00.001Z

This influence map shows the direction in which my environment will take, i plan to create an environment influenced by these photographs which will hopefully bring across a sense of nostalgia. These images were taken from a database supplied by the Imperial War Museum in London. Whilst browsing through it last Sunday i found some interesting photographs which were of use, but a shame i could not access the full res scans of them to pick out the finer detailing, a post on this coming soon...

Maya: Games Modelling Tutorials - Head Part 02

2011-02-11T16:04:00.001Z

The final head model for this weeks tutorials in games modelling. A definite time consuming tutorial, but a faster process compared to last weeks. Now its time to finish this weeks dynamics tutorials and get cracking with the project work.

Maya: Games Modelling Tutorials - Head Part 01

2011-02-10T00:36:00.001Z

Heres the first installment of our games modelling tutorials. A fairly simple tutorial as we are low poly modelling for games, but the art comes not from placing the geometry to aquire the shape needed, but instead knowing where and where not to add detail and how to keep the poly count as low as possible.

Weekly Timetable

2011-02-09T02:27:00.000Z

To stay on track with this project i have devised a weekly timetable split into four sections; Pre-Production, Production, Post-Production, and Additional Material. This project overall will be quite a mission, but as far as i can predict week's 4 - 9 will be quite intense. Creating a timetable has been an eye opener in the fact that there is allot of work to do, so hopefully this time table will aid in keeping on track. This time table is a simple week by week time table, at the start of each week i will create a more detailed day by day timetable listing exactly what will be needed by the end of the week.

Influence Map - Dieselpunk

2011-02-08T23:13:00.001Z

I have been thinking about my alien ship for a while now and have decided to design the ship in a Dieselpunk fashion. The definition of Dieselpunk is as follows; 'Dieselpunk is based on the aesthetics of the interbellum period through World War II (c. 1920-1945). The genre combines the artistic and genre influences of the period (including pulp magazines, serial films, film noir, art deco, and wartime pinups) with postmodern technology and sensibilities.' Before starting any thumbnails sketches for my alien ship concept, i felt it necessary to research into the ideas and key themes of Dieselpunk.