Week Ten

This week I was working on lighting for our first scene. I first started to play with setting to see what I got. This wasn't working for me, so I went online to find a nice simple tutorial. And I did, the setup only had one light in it.

This was the render I did first with a purple glow. I liked it, but it was missing something. So I took the purple down and got this.

Still wasn't right. So I added an area light in and off to the side which I gave the purple glow to.

This turned out great. Though I had to re position my area light as it was giving too much brightness to one side. After I pulled it back, and set up my render properly. i did a batch render which I will be using for my show reel.

I am happy with the out come. My next step will be having my character in the scene to see how well she is lit.

I also had to do some minor details on the rigs as there were some skinning issues. This has all been sorted out. Had a slight tif with a teacher over the auto rig I used. I don't believe it is wise to say that because one thing works for you, it has to work for everyone. I had a problem so I fixed it on my own. 

I have also downloaded a free version of the 'pulldownit' plug in for Maya and will do some tests to make a crack in the ground for when the dragon falls. My teams is a tad skeptical about this method, but I talked with one of the lecturers and feel that this will be the best looking option.

Well that was my week so far.

Til next time...

Week Nine- Part B

This post is a tad delayed but it is from last week. I have compiled together all the scene we have so far to send off to audio.

There are some elements that need to be worked on, but at this point I would prefer my team to move on and not focus on the little things that need polishing. The more we have fleshed out the better it will be for us in the end. As then even I can do some polishing work if need be.

I'm looking forward to what Audio comes up with for this little scene.

Well Til next time.....

Week Nine-Part A

This week I have been focusing solely on textures. As I have many of them to do and not much time. I think my biggest struggle is getting the exact look I want. I have been looking at many types of reference but what I thought would be easy and pretty cool was they way they textured the characters in the game Kingdom Hearts.

To me it looks really cool, almost like they have covered up the seems with a darker colour giving off a sort of outlined look. So I did my own interpretation of this. As I am still learning and no where near Square Enix's quality....Yet.

So I have completed Jimmy, the Wizard but he just isn't complete without his staff. So this is what I have been trying to figure out. Mostly because his staff has a magic orb in it and, well that need to be extra special. I tried to find some tutorials on nice transparent texture but found nothing. 

What I really wanted to go for was a jelly looking shader. Something with depth yet you can see through it and it has a bubbly inner. 

Like Bob the Blob from Monsters vs Aliens.

Or something really cool like these images I found on Google images.

These really caught my eye, they remind me of pretty marbles. I guess you can say after all that, this is what I meant. I couldn't find something to do what I wanted. Then I remembered we could outsource some of our shaders, So to Creative Crash I went. I searched through all the pages of free shaders to find the one I loved. I actually downloaded several and tried them all out. I narrowed it down to 4 that I really liked.

This one was called Denfo_CyistalGlow

Blue_Glow

Gie_Shiny_Sagala

Red_Jade, I just made it blue as that is our theme for our Wizard.

I liked them all but my ultimate fave is the Gie_Shiny_Sagala, the way it glows and has that really cool transparent sections. Almost like ribbon wrapped around a bubble. I will have to show my team and see what they think, but I am happy with it.

Well This is what I have done so far, my next post will be about our first scene. 

Til next time...

Week Eight

So I have been very busy the last couple of weeks, Tis why I didn't post anything last week. I was basically given no choice but to take on rigging tasks so that my team could start animating. We are now 3 weeks behind and I'm not confident we will get a quality product in the end.

Since there was so much drama with the Advanced skeleton rig system I took it upon myself to find a new auto rig. I came across one on creative crash called Slap on Auto Rig. It was awesome, the face set up was simple and really fast to install. I managed to Rig 2 characters in under a week. This is what I did last week.

This week I have been working on textures, which is my actual job during production. I have been working on Jimmy, our Wizard character.

This is a render of his texture so far, Still have some items to finish. But I am pleased with the out come so far. I have also been finishing the final set. Which is the place the battle will be held. I was going to wait to do it, but I hope to get the boys to start Animating the next scene tomorrow. So I needed to finish it. I am happy with how it looks, and that's all that matters to me.

Take a look.

The bottom image is a test to make sure scale is all good. I was spot on this time round. These are not the final lighting renders just a test. Just as I haven't finished the textures on all trees.

The next thing  I wish to do is Tammy's textures. As her main scene is coming to a close (I hope) I would like to do some test renders.

We also managed to get all the cloth working nicely. I am looking forward to the final result, if we ever get there. Only 5 weeks til all animation comes to a stop. Here's hoping for the best.

Til next time....