Hectic is the word to describe my life at the moment, juggling is still going between 3 parts of my life, which is great to gain experience. However, time is scarce and every time I have is to work on any respective work. However, regarding the university project as I was called again to work my commission I have decided to carry on and finish the character model which is pretty much done and just needs minor details such as hair and the hat.
On my last tutorial with Alan, he also helped work on the animatic, something that I have been struggling with. being more of a choreography/ dancing project, He suggested me to use footage and then edit it onto the animatic, so I could relate the footage with any proposed shots, then I would only have to draw over the actions and substitute the footage with my boards. As soon as the character modelling is done, I will work on the animatic non-stop to resolve that part of the pipeline.
Lately, my life has been very hectic, juggling university work, my money job, and a newly acquired commission, therefore my lack of posts regarding university work. Although the little activity on here, the university work, has been going ( not as fast as I have wished) but it is going.
One of the great news, is that I have been commissioned to do a design project, unfortunately details can not be shared, it has been a good experience, that is allowing me to know new software, acquiring better design skills with a high standard of quality.
With this commission, something was revealed to me, that i would need to improve the access to my website featuring my work. So i decided to buy a domain for my website, and make the url link more user friendly.
so to visit my website you will only have to type:
Whilst working the storyboards, I began to feel unwell last week, therefore to keep at work as time is always your enemy i decided to work on the first bits of production. by starting to model the character, i opted for a less tiring task while feeling unwell.
So here is the character so far!
In this project, I want to step up in terms of modelling skills therefore while modelling this character have been extra mindful about topology and edge flows.
Now that im feeling better I will move onto finishing the rest of the storyboard while working on the Olivier 3D model.
Lately, At Atom Pancakes I have been with my fingers in many pies, as we trying to finalise production and set everything to render. As I said I have mentioned in charge of some more scenes to animate, painting the background matte paintings and testing dynamics such as smoke and fire.
Animation
Butler Scene
Firstly, I tweaked the butler scene on the laughing jumps, I have made them just so they are more subtle and are a movement around the chest area rather than the pelvis.
On this scene, I just have to animate the props, such as the tray, the ice cube and the drink mesh. Apart from that, it is ready for rendering.
I am also animating other scenes, at the moment they are at the blocking out stages. but they will be finished as soon as possible.
Prepare Scene
Progress 1
Progress 2
Also I have blocked the investigation scene, but it is not uploaded yet.
Test Dynamics
I have been playing around with dynamics, in order to get a smoke effect for the burning paper. after fiddling around I came to something that seems to be the right track. further tweaks will be on the particle size, colour, turbulence and conserve attributes.
Matte Paintings
As I said I have been working on the matte paintings for the interior and exterior environment. I have tried to conserve the painterly style.
Outside Matte Painting
Interior Night Matte Painting
Interior Day Matte Painting
Note that this not Moon or Sun on the Matte Paintings, it is because I have created them separately, in which I will render and animate in AE.
It is all for now, more updates coming soon... Stay Tuned
So I carried on modelling the Hero character, and I am pretty much done with blocking out the body. it has been an interesting experience, and quite different from what I am used to.
So here is the latest progress on the character, and so far the turnarounds didnt let me down.
With the body blocked out, I just have to block out the face and then I am ready to sculpt the details in as well as adding the clothes and props.
Only having 2 weeks of Work Placement, I decided to do some extra work and get some experience in modelling. I am modelling the Robot Pirates Characters, because they seem really fun to do. My aim is to create a base mesh in Maya, and then sculpt any details in Zbrush, and lastly re-mesh it in Maya.
This blog is lacking in Maya work at the moment, so here it comes the update on the character, I began with the Hero. and already he is offering a different type of challenging when modelling a character. As i am modelling in parts instead of a whole mesh. Therefore I have to be thoughtful when putting everything together. it has been fun!
I dont want to rush through, the modelling, as this is a learning experience. when done i will give a try at sculpting it in Zbrush. to get the best out of the model. :)
I found that something was looking weird in the model so I retouched the mesh, by accentuating the curve on the upper leg as well as the part that it connect with the hips.
I am getting closer and closer of finishing the set modelling, here is a quick update from the previously posted Rue D'Auseil model. I have added the lodge house, the wall and some stairs and lamps here and there. What is left is a quick close up model of the door opened and the interior set.
Texture Maps
For the texture maps, I did another few for the buildings.
Throughout the day I have been modelling and texturing the last scenario for my animation, the Rue D' Auseil. I used the same style for the street and I plan to finish it tomorrow.
I will update tomorrow with the final model, and I will begin to sort out things for the final presentation.
Lately, I have rampaging through set modelling and texturing. and I forgot how time consuming it can be. Like everything else, and as John Lasseter once said, " In CG nothing comes for free". so I have to model everything in the scene, and then texture it.
Today, I have moved onto modelling the Rue D'Auseil, and texture it. Before I post that here is a quick update on the the staircase environment and texture.
I am not superstitious person, but i just hit the 666th post, so I decided to move the post numbers forward and create a quick post related to my viol. As I mentioned before, the viol is like a 3th character for my animation, because it is through it that most of the action will take place. Though being so busy with the rest almost forgot about texturing it. So here is the final render of the textured viol.
Also I will add, some test renders and the texture map.
Finally, I will be doing a turnaround for the viol as well because it also plays an important role in the overall animation.
The last few days continued to be all over the place, I don't mean this in a bad way though. Set modelling/ texturing environments/ some animation and rendering have taken place.
I finally set my mind that it will be impossible to finish the animation in the upcoming days, so I am taking a different strategy, instead of rushing all the way until the end. I will try to polish the work that I have so far , in terms of set modelling, props etc. And generate less but better animation within my knowledge. (Indeed, I will be teaching myself throughout the holidays. Animator's Survival Kit all the way).
I'm taking this strategy not to show that I will produce less work for the last few days of this project, but to have a solid pre-production/ production on this project, that will be in a final animation stage in a very close future. Therefore finished.
I want quality work throughout the overall project, and instead of rushing any set design, or texturing now.
But I guess is enough of "blah blah", and let's share some of the things I have been concentrating lately. As I said texturing as taken a lot of time s I have a few texture environments to show to show the amount of texturing I will add also the texture maps.
The Attic Hallway
Erich Zann Room
Although the room looks similar to the young man's one, I used even more printing shapes, heavy bold lines I was able to gather from my hand-made prints. and deliberately made them in direction to the window, indeed they will unconsciously lead the viewer to a side of the screen.
Lodge House Outside
For this lodge house exterior, I emphasised again on the shapes, more irregular shapes carrying the creepiness of the environment, if you realise, the shapes here are also consciously placed in an order, they all directed to the window. A closer shot of the window is shown when the Young man sees the mysterious sight, therefore I want to directed the viewer to is reaction. and as if the black bold shapes are after the Young Man.
Continuing on the theory side, my next environment was the void, I had an interesting concept in mind, though I didn't know if it would work, I wanted to create a mechanism, in which it would create random shapes, therefore motion inside the void.
Here is how it turned out:
To note is the absence of any type of lighting, and that the animation of the void circles, are in some cases too fast. but it shows the mechanism working. It consists of 4 plates with different shapes carved on them, that when rotate create even more unexpected shapes, for the background I painted a mystical background, which at the moment seems already infinite. For the atmosphere I will add lights pulsing as the same speed than plates movement, there fore create even more motion and atmosphere.
Finally as promised are the maps of the textures, I will just upload the colour ones, but all the maps had similar bump map also.
Erich Zann Room Details
Erich Zann Room
Attic Hallway
Lodge House Exterior
Void
Oops, this turned out to be a longer post than expected, I should have advised in the beginning.
