nCloth

Ok well they guys looked at the test and well pleased with what i was able to do i knew a lil bit about it already, so that helped. But in polished off our patient goes wacky so the guys wanted to see if that could be done and the duvet would go crazy, basicly wheather or not i had a flook or it could actually be used in the final stuff, i think this may just knock there socks off. It spacks out a lil but not much. I also tried adjusting the thickness off the colision so it didnt look like the duvet was floating invisible and there was a barrier.

nCloth Initial

Ok well from my task from Edgley, i have looked at a few basic tutorials on it and have used those to come up with this test, havent shown the others yet but from what i understand on nCloth it may be easier to model the duvet around the character then have the nCloth working or that there is a way of baking the nCloth so it is ready to do its thing instead of floating, dropping down then render it and it will be sorted, but there is plenty of time to look into it and perfect it!

Tasks

Look at cable more, Grigs tests for smoke etc on Splay and nCloth for bed!

That crazy polisher, look at him go!

Initial test of the polisher and how it could work, the objects were build in maya in seperate layers then put into after effects and using masking to subtract from the dirty floor to the clean one. There are obvious mistakes with it, but atleast we know we can achieve something in the final film! May try feathering it so it doesnt look so bold but more subtle!

Something from the weekend... and today

Well did a concept for Spaly in a whole different direction to what Phil has got, but hey thats what concept is for different styles working together to mold an amzing film that will blast your socks from your lil toes and will be so amazing that dogs would understand what is going on and weep in its emulsive story. So, here it is have a cuppa and let me know how you feel.

Formative and other work

Well today was formative day, it went ok in terms of work done for me it wasnt much havent been performing to well recently, but im gona pull my finger out. Im kinda stuck on what i can do i want to do tests like dust and stuff but ther just isnt enough computers, but in terms of work done i think the tutor was happy didnt have any negative so i guess carry on with what i have been doing! Essays are starting to come closer and whilst i have started them my head isnt in to them to much yet and weekends are useful for them. I am also thinking about the degree sho its on my shoulders and i want it to be as great as it can be!

Finals?

Well, they are finally modelled to a standard the team are pleased with Phil greatly helped with this, which was needed as it his film and if his not happy Im not happy and that is the same with Dan. The tweaking is the most important and it is good to rest looking back at the feet for the characters they were so flat and needed more height in them and look like the drawings Phil had done. The others chipped in from time to time to give their opinions so cheers for the support guys, appreciated.

More Modelling

After the success of Squ i went out on to model Splay and boid once again Phil was spoilt for choice on design the image below shows that! I had an idea for the feet, but with discussions with everyone they changed dramaticly. Using a Lattice to deform the character is very useful instead of trying to move every vertice. I think the majority of the team are happy with the models for now, may need a bit of tweaking though.

Clouds

Well these were tests i tried out by tinkering slightly with some of the tools you can create some nice clouds, but these still need tinkering with, this is the first time i have really played with fluid containers so maybe there is some success with more time to develop. well here are the images of them boi!

The progression of Squ

Well in the earlier post i said i modelled Squ it took a while to create but i think we are happy with it for now. I used Phils character model sheets from his blog and adapted them slightly, i took into consideration what he believed the shape should be which was a muffin top. So this shows images below of how Squ came to be.

Havent put much on recently but a lot has happened over the past few days...

I am now one of the class reps for the end of year degree show, which basicly means sorting it out in past years it hasnt been so successful with getting people in from the industry, this is hopefully something that will change this year. Got a lot of ideas about how to do it so hopefully they will work.

Essays and dissertation have also been getting a bit more time in them and im thinkin of what to write for them, my dissertation is pretty sound which is good.

With Splay and PO i have been doing various tasks and looking at other shorts mainly burning safari and oktopodi and the makings off to see how they have created ther work. some of the team members are saying dont look at it we wont be that good. Well your already shooting your self in the foot, you may as well try your hardest and try, whats the point of quitting now. Im definatly not gona quit and im gona make it my goal to try and get the films to look as good as we can through render passes and compositing, I believe we can do it, if gobelins can do it why cant we? What makes them so different to us if its workstations and power then we are just gona have to make sure we have enough time for rendering.

Ok in terms of work i have been looking at clouds for splay, they are kinda working but nothing i am happy with yet and it is my role to model Squ, Splay and boid. Its gona be hard a lot is on my shoulders i have been working on it today and with the aid of Edfley, Alec and Phil we have created a design the team are happy with at the moment.

Plug Test

Well, done a cheeky modelling test looking at ales modelling and Edgleys drawing my initial test came up of the image below, its ok for now. Reckon it will need to be changed or for alec to modify a lil bit. But i am happy with it and will put it in the scene hiding if they wont let me, will set the transparency to zero. Yeah how you like that.

Drawer, Vase and Get Well!

Well did some testing of unwrapping uvs and below is the image of what they look like i got a nice template to see it there is any stretching of the uv's. There is a little bit but not that you can notice so thats all good. Also tested out the colour and bump to create a wood effect that worked quite well for an initial test.

UV unwrapping and Texturing

Well, last night just got turned upside down i thought i knew alot about unwrapping uvs, well i kinda did, but now im gona be fricking awesome. I decided to do a lot of research in to it and found a lot of shortcuts that i didnt know about, i got like 2 pages of notes so they are a bit long to put on here, but have a copy on my laptop on paper and in my head so i dont think they will be going anywhere shortly. Also got a nice image which will show if there is any stretch a chequer texture is good but doesnt always give the same detail a real uv image has!

Im excite!

Reflections

Well it was also my job today to look into reflections a bit so i did it this is mostly done in maya... well all in maya really so yeah followed a tutorial at first to create a glass shader, which then aided me into reflections on the wall etc. These are only drafts and still need work to them, but i followed the guidelines of my mates to create faded/noisy blurs in the reflections i tried and this is what i got so far.

Dust Test 2

Knowing a bit more about test ihave given it another go this one contains three emitters in after effects, i found some useful stuff in it aloowing textures to be used for the particles, this is much better then my initial test, it wont be used like this for the final film i dont think as it doesnt cover the camera but it is a start to understand how to use it.

Anybody? No? Dust!

Well today have partly been playing around with the cable to make it less elastic and bouncy and react more if it was a real cable for a polisher, at the mo is not going to well. But i have faith that i will find out how to do it.
I have also been looking into dust for SPLAY when the building falls down, this was the first test i have tried and it is pretty good quite rough and in your face at the moment but yeah this is good.

Cable Test

I found a useful tutorial on youtube about creating a cable so i tried it out and here is my test, their are some limitations and weaknesses with it... One being it goes through the floor when using gravity, this can be overcome by animating it yourself which isnt to bad and even i can do it! I may try some overways of doing it but for now it is all good.

Rendering Research

Well as you all know i have been looking at a website for a short called Gypsy, they posted some work on rendering layers and showed what the final outcome was.

Now i know how to do diffuse, shadow, specular and oclusion, but SSS was something new to me which i have done additional research on and in another post. I put this image in to photoshop and tried to recreate their look. My image is below and i feel i have got fairly close to what they have done and i think the team would be pleased if we got near to this level.

Sub Surface Scatter Test

From what i have researched on the internet this is basicly the process to show clows through materials for example sunlight thrugh the ear, looking at some tutorials on the internet i have tried to recreate it. I feel mine looks a bit like Jelly at the moment but this pass could be something we want to look in to later on. Will keep having a go at it but will see what happens. The first shows a diffuse and SSS pass, below is the SSS on its own.

Bed Concept

Did a kind of final concept for the bed taking into account some of Edgleys points. It may be used for the real thing im not to sure but it is definatly i canditate to be used.

UP

Wow, just got in from seeing UP in 3D it was amazing from start to finish it was funny, exciting but also very emotional, with a tear in my eye. I wont spoil it for those who havent seen it, but three things really caught my attention and what i want to look into for this year or discuss with my work mates, they are:
SSS
clouds
acceptance

I want to understand more about rendering and making our characters more lifelike SSS is the stuff that allows light to go through objects for example through a persons ear it makes it glow or a light bulb in your mouth, they used it alot for Fredrickson (Sp?) and it was something i enjoyed. Something for Polished Off.

The clouds looked great especially at the beginning with a thunderstorm which then aloud some great use of light. The clouds arent what we are looking for in Splay but they are great to refrence.

Acceptance, instead of spoiling the film will talk to the guys on Monday about it.

Film analysis

Yesterday we had a lecture about analysing films, which for me was very useful because i never really looked at my work and thought 'what do i want the viewer to think when seeing this shot' etc. I didnt realise how much you can break down a film and understand exactly what the director was thinking.

I have learnt new terminology such as Mis En Scene, which i will definatly think about in future projects i am doing and films that i am watching, instead of just watching a film for fun and think 'ohhh that looks nice' i can now start to think and understand why they have shot the film like that.

Inspiration

Some of my earlier work had straight lines with some curves and blocks of colours, over the summer i looked into new ways of drawing and styles i hadnt tried before. I came across an illustrator who had a great technique and it reminds me of some colour scripts, his name is Michael Robertson he has his own blog which is really nice. I have adapted this style and created my own way of drawing and i am pleased with what i am achieving at the moment. I have also learned techniques off my peers, which has been useful for the start of this term and hopefully continue this throughout the year and beyond.

More Concept

Well just some more random ideas for objects that could go in the room. None of these are finals, but are considerations. There is only so many variations you can do of taps and signs but yeah. Currently working on the bed now gona try and get a final concept going, kind of like a model shhet but will see how it goes!

Discussion, Meetings and Drawings

Well, this week has started off with a great lecture telling us aout storytelling and what that envolves from beats to acts. He used polished off and splay as refrence, which helped our group a bit.

In the afternoon the tutors came to each film and spoke to us about the films, its always nice to get some one not in our team help evolve the films and give us pointers on what can be changed and what is working. Dan and Phil rethinked their ideas a little bit, but these were only minor changes.

The rest of us have been concepting i tried doing another for splay but i just couldnt get the same mood and atmosphere as some of the rest of the team. Dan also needs more help in the concept department as objects and props are still being finalised. So, i today have just done some research and have started working in photoshop, which is going well. Learning techniques of my peers and through my own trial and error my style has improved. I tried to add new colours but Edgley had none of it, its fair enough he has a clear understanding of what he wants. So, income the pastel colours which in the long run will be more effective than having random colours all over the place.

So, for the rest of this week im just going to concept objects and hopefully we will have some final ones that i can then produce. But we will have to wait and see.

Concept Research

Basicly to show an indepth way of creating concept art through photoshop, it shows some great tips and techniques from those in the industry that know what they are doing.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/boss-fight-project-offset/57242

Video Games | Project Offset | Boss Fight Photoshop Walkthrough

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Animatic Research

Nice animatic from a company i have been following they have a really useful website showing a making of, so from pre to post production. The animatic is pretty detailled but it does the job of showing us what is happening and why an animatic is useful which is showing timing for animation and getting the sense of what the shot will be.

http://gypsycartoon.com/

Alot has gone On!

After my initial challenge of doing a concept for Splay i gave it another go today and the team were pleased, looking back at it in printed form it looks like its in a horror film or something, this is not the look we are going for. So, some of the others are working on different colours etc.

I also have done another concept for Splay nothing special but a few items and a style that mey be worthy, but if Dan Edgley has anything to do with it, it probably wont. I also looked into tiles and different colours that may work, to add a bit more warmth into the film.

A Good Day!

After my tutorial with Phil about using photoshop i felt more comfortable using it and have created two more images, Edgley helped out with the colouring it is his story so he knows what he is looking for. I am happy with how the day has come along and this new style of work i am doing with my drawing skills and my computer skills.

The two images show a side view of the janitor (Jed) walking in the hallway just about to go in to the patients (Ed) working name) room. The other is a quick concept of the life support machine that i had from yesterday.

Hope i can keep up the work and progress further, tried doing some for Splay but it just didnt work, i think i need to rethink for that project how i would do a concept.

Concept

Well, i did some concept yesterday whilst waiting for my laptop and this morning i have been able to put it into photoshop and add some colour to it, the team was pleased and shocked by my awesome skills!