Week Fourteen

Where to begin...

This week was one heck of a stress filled one for myself. I was in complete panic mode when I turn up to uni only to be informed five minutes prior to class starting that my group wasn't coming in. I was left with very little to do as I had all these plans to sort out what we needed to render. And I wanted to get started on that. This did not happen. Instead I got laughed at by our 'technical support' for assuming my team would do work. (which they do) I also got a lot of negative feedback from him about our characters and how I have textured them. I could go on all day...but I won't.

Sooo.... I decided to work on the lighting and textures (yey) again this week. I have two of three sets perfectly lit and ready to roll. I also have all set textures complete and almost all character textures finished. I should have them all done by the end of week fifteen.

I also did some render tests with Tammy (our lovely elf) in the lit scene to see how well the skin shader works out. And I like the results. My curiosity has paid off, and well so has all my Google searching. 

Take a look.

I rendered a close up first to see how the textures look before doing a full view of the scene. I was told that she looks dead in the skin area, I don't agree. I think she has nice porcelain skin, Which goes with her red locks. 

The set was being a pain in the butt as you can see the trunk sticking out of the leafy section on the trees. This is just a minor problem which I am 90% sure I have fixed. I shall find out once I start rendering tomorrow. Drazen has given me all of Tammy's intro scenes to render which is great as that is almost 20 secs of our animation. Even if we don't get it all done we will at least have a cute animation of a girl fishing and then running off after crazy birds. 

Set 2 is only shown for maybe 3 secs but it is my fave. I wanted to make a really cool fantasy fairy tale looking environment and I believe I have created one. I am hoping to put some awesome sun rays through the trees into it, Just not sure if it will be with Maya or After Effects. I'll figure it out over the next couple of days.

I was told by a fellow student that there should be a bump map on the trees, this was a good point but my group and I feel that it would take away from the simplicity of the sets and textures. The only thing that has any for of Bump/Normals is the dragon. As he needs to look scaly and such. I also managed to place the dragons textures onto a skin shader and it looks great. He has nice sub surface scattering instead of a flat Lambert. 

I will have more on him later. Today we worked on what the matte painting will look like behind our scene. I was happy with just simple mountains, but Drazen said we need a tad more detail. This is no problem for me, also we decided last minute on a slight colour change. It's still in the works abut here is what we have come up with so far.

This is the painting that was created by Ed Deasey, I didn't want him to do anything elaborate as he is a busy man. But it's a solid base for me to work off.

We are thinking a nice orange tint towards the top of the mountains would be nice. More sunset looking. With a few more details we will have an awesome comp. 

We will also be using a MEL script which turns a camera into a depth of field rig (made by Stuart Charlton) to get a more natural look to our scenes. this will also make blending the back drops easier.

Well only 2 weeks left of production and things are looking up. I'm trying to maintain a positive attitude and be a supportive member and leader for my team. Though I know I never want to be in charge again. Too much responsibility for one such as myself.

Til next time...

Week Thirteen

So this week was a big one. We all rushed around trying to get all our shots fleshed out for the draft submission. I will say I was beginning to think we wouldn't make it. But we did. I have made some rough 2D effects that will be replaced when it comes to render time. I am pretty tired, but overall pleased with the outcome so far. Even with my not so amazing animations. The boys will be able to clean up the shots that I have done for the final render. So yes this was all that got done this week.

Oh and we did have trouble with some shots not loading textures without crashing and the fire had to be changed as the simulator was lock (for some stupid unknown reason)

https://vimeo.com/77326620

Hope you enjoy

Til next time...

Week Twelve

This week I have been spending time picking up slack of my team mates. Of course I am not very happy about this as the only job they had to do was animate while I do everything else. So I have have had to dive into the world of animation (which I personally don't enjoy) to get some of the smaller (missed) shots done. 

The final draft of this production is due next Sunday and I feel that this may not get done, I have tried so hard to keep everyone happy and motivated. But this is hard when I am the one who suffers from it. If something doesn't get done I stress and if I speak up I get abused by my team mates. I do not believe this is how it is in the industry, and if it is I don't want any part of it. I am tired and getting ready to just give up. the only thing keeping me going is the fact that I only have 4-5 weeks left. That's the plus side in all this horror.

I also got an email from the audio group stating that all but one of them have up and quit. What am I supposed to do about this? I have almost reached my limit. If worst comes to worst I shall ask Stuart Charlton to create a simple tune on his electric drums for us which he had done for my title montage in the first year. It may even sound better in the end.

So on top of all my texturing, lighting, effects and rendering I have animation to do in one week. Here is hoping it all works out. I know next time I do a project I will work on my own. it was what I wanted in the beginning but I felt I would give a group another shot. Boy was I wrong haha. 

Well wish me luck, I am going to need it.

Til next time....

Week Eleven

This week has been a tad slow on my part, mainly because I have been working on my show reel. Getting some nice renders ready for when I have my mock interview at uni. 

I did however manage to finish Tammy's textures and she looks great. I don't think there is anything I would do different. Though I was a tad bummed that I couldn't figure out how to make her lashes move with the eye blinks. But this was OK as I managed to fix it with a nice dark texture around her eyes to make it more noticeable when blinking.

This is the full colored render for the turn around.

Then I did a contour render of the same render.

Though I may look into finding a way to make the poly's low while still maintaining my smooth preview. Just as you can't really see the detail.

And here is a link to what it looks like so far. 

https://vimeo.com/76388278

It may not be relevant to my final production but it is something that I do need to work on, plus I like to think of it as render tests for the final movie.

Til next time......