Deano Parker

Animation Project - Optimizing Colouring Process

2012-02-27T13:40:00.001-08:00

I just figured out a way I can optimize my speed of colouring my 3ds Max scenes. Before, I created a new material for every colour I wanted to use and then just copied the settings. But now I can use just one material for all my colours!

If I change my production script to Mentalray, I can use a map called 'Multi/Sub' which allows me to use up to 20 different colours and assign each of them an ID. I can then select the objects I want and give it the ID number I want.

This is a lot faster and more efficient than the process I was using more :)

Animation Project - Target Audience

2012-02-27T08:39:00.000-08:00

Since the very beginning of this project I have always imagined my superhero to be drawn like a manga character. It is my own preference for cartoons and it was what I naturally leaned towards.
So I have always regarded manga/anime fans as my target audience and I think it is important that I include them somewhere in my design process.

I believe the most important part of my 3D lair is the alien like structure that my superhero is going to gather his power from. I knew that I wanted to base the structure off the Yugoslavian monuments I posted earlier in the week, so I asked some manga readers which photo is their favorite.

I am a member of the anime society so I naturally asked their Facebook group and managed to get a couple of responses.

I am also a member of a manga website called Mangafox and I posted a thread on the forum. Again I managed to get a couple of responses.

What my target audience thinks is extremely important to me so I am going to take everything they have suggested into consideration when designing my alien structure.

Animation Project - Adding a little colour

2012-02-24T03:29:00.001-08:00

I decided to skip forward a few steps and throw together some Ink n Paint materials for my first room. I will not be using these materials in my final render but it was good to see if the cell shading effect will actually work. I still need to refine the settings for the material as the contoured lines look a little sketchy. But the direction I want to take is now foreseeable.

For a little fun -

3D Modelling - MassFX Breaking A Wall

2012-02-23T11:51:00.001-08:00

I was wondering how I can make a wall appear to shatter against another object. I decided to experiment a little bit and draw out all the break points using the line tool.

In Wireframe view you can see all the individual objects, but when rendered it appears to be a complete wall. Only when I use the MassFX modifier and smash a sphere into the wall that it breaks into pieces.

I rendered a quick animation to demonstrate. I know that the break points are not exactly realistic, maybe this is something I will try and achieve at a later date.

Animation Project - Drafting Room Two Machinery

2012-02-23T11:02:00.001-08:00

Animation Project - Elevator Animation Test

2012-02-23T06:59:00.000-08:00

So I am moving onto the next step in my lair and I created a quick elevator to demonstrate my direction. I have done a preliminary animation to see if the it looks fluid enough. I am happy that this works and willing to move forward.

Animation Project - Plant Creation

2012-02-23T05:05:00.000-08:00

In my sketch of my first room I put a plant above the bed. I knew that it was too complicated for me to attempt to model whilst I was creating my room, so I decided to set aside some time to do the plant by itself. I will merge the plant with my model of the bedroom at a later date.

Animation Project - Modelling The First Room

2012-02-22T12:31:00.000-08:00

Animation Project - Imagination

2012-02-21T15:39:00.000-08:00

http://www.theuncommonlife.com

http://www.thinksimpleactsimple.com

Animation Project - Building Around Something

2012-02-21T15:11:00.000-08:00

I think that this is a great example of how you can build around a structure or monument. In the tv show/movie series Stargate, the government has built an entire military station and laboratory around a Stargate device.

My character has built a home and a laboratory around an ancient alien-like structure that admits a special energy. My superhero extracts this energy from the structure and then uses it for his super power.

Animation Project - Ancient Structures

2012-02-21T11:19:00.000-08:00

I started my search for inspiration at the NTU library. My friend wanted to look for books regarding Mayan architecture and following his lead I was able to find a book on the ancient east. A few pages really jumped out at me. I scanned the pages that I found most inspiring -

Cover of the book

I love the Japanese interiors. They have some sort of organic feel, particularly with the paper walls.

The archway in the bottom left corner.

The two walkways in the bottom left.

Both images.

Looking through this book reminded me of a few things I have seen in the past. I use to enjoy watching the documentary series ‘Ancient Aliens’ where they spoke a lot about ancient architecture that was supposedly helped built by aliens. The reasoning behind this theory is because the building are far too advanced for the tools they had at that time period and the some of the structures seem out of context. Much like the Stonehenge in the United Kingdom, no one knows how or why they got there. I think that this is a great approach to the narrative and context of my 3D lair. Perhaps my superhero has discovered some ancient structure built by aliens and he was able to source his power from it.

One of my favorite mysterious structures is the Yonaguni Monument. Which is a huge rock formation found underwater near the Ryukyu islands in Japan.

Images sourced from -http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/02files/Yonaguni_Monument_001.html

We are not certain whether the rocks found in Yonaguni are natural rock formations or man-made. Furthermore the monument has been estimated to be at least 10,000 years old making it near impossible for it to be man-made (primitive tools would not be able to create it)

This brings me to another set of structures, this time from Yugoslavia. These structures was purely created for visual impact and to show strength of the Socialist Republic. However these monuments are now completely abandoned and without context, leaving them looking almost alien like.

Photography by http://www.jankempenaers.info/

Animation Project - Ideas developing

2012-02-19T08:30:00.002-08:00

Green Lantern is able to create literally anything he can imagine through the power of his ring. These constructs are tangible objects he can bring into reality. His power is controlled by his willpower and his ability to imagine.

Chain and shield construct

Snake and laser construct

Machine gun construct

It's this power of imagination that I want my super hero to have. The reason why I have chosen this kind of ability is because of my interest in lucid dreaming. For the past 3 or 4 years I have been practicing taking control of my dreams and use them as some sort of virtual reality. When lucid dreaming it is important that you retain a good imagination otherwise your dreams will be dull and boring. Being able to imagine a fire breathing dragon will allow you to dream of it a lot more vividly.

I would like my superhero to have the ability to manipulate reality and create anything he imagines. To use this power he needs to be able to stay focused and retain the image that he is creating.

Visual Essay - Bradford Museum

2012-02-16T08:31:00.000-08:00

Although I struggled to navigate Bradford museum due to the onslaught of children, I did manage to find a few interesting things I could discuss in my Visual Essay.
One of the most notable finds was a Weegee Photgraphy book at the museums bookshop called 'Naked City'. This book is about the set of photographs that he took of the streets of New York during the late 1930's to mid 1940's. These photographs mainly shown graphic imagery of crime scenes. This photography is very similar to how Film Noir looks and feels. Weegee took photos of the very thing that most noir films was based off.
Luckily enough Jools then mentioned that the noir film 'The Naked City' was heavily based on the photographs he has taken. I was also told about a interactive movie website called Sufferrosa which is also in the noir genre.

Now I have three practitioners to discuss in my essay and all three are linked by the genre noir
- Rockstar Gaming/ L.A Noire
- Weegee
- Suferrosa

I can compare

Rockstar Gaming/L.A Noire
- Other open world games
- Story driven games (Alan Wake)

Weegee
- Notable noir films
- Photographers around the same time
- Photographer behind L.A Noire

Suferrosa
- Neo noir films

I think I have a good foundation here to work with :)

3D Modelling - First and Last

2012-02-15T14:10:00.002-08:00

My first and last attempt at character modelling.

HOW I FELT

3D Modelling - MassFX Modifier

2012-02-14T14:29:00.001-08:00

So today I discovered the MassFX Modifier which allowed me to apply physics to objects. I played around with the settings and made some quick renders.

And this is how I felt

Super Bicycles!

2012-02-11T07:43:00.000-08:00

Just an awesome image I found on the interwebz. I am not too sure about the source.

Animation - Perspective Doll House.

2012-02-11T05:35:00.000-08:00

I had an idea to keep the perspective of my animation reminiscent of old side scrolling games. That way I can keep my model nicely controlled and simple to navigate with the camera. The images above is an example of the kind of effect I want to achieve. Each box can then be its own little environment for me to affect as I please. I spoke to one of my peers about this idea and they said it reminded them of doll houses. Where the front wall is taken off and you can see all the rooms from the same perspective. It's this effect that think I am going to roll with, given that the animation lecturer allows it.

A few images of doll houses sourced from Google Images -

Interaction Finished

2012-02-09T10:34:00.000-08:00

It's all about Superheros now!

Image found -

http://hovsec.deviantart.com

3D Modelling - Glass Material

2012-02-05T12:24:00.000-08:00

Method 1 and 2

Method 2

Method 1

Method 2

Method 1

Well today I discovered two ways of making a glass material in 3ds Max. As you can see from my renders above Method 1 is great for flat glass, while Method 2 works better with curved glass. The material editor seems to be the most complicated part of the software, I am only just learning how to do tiny parts of it.

3D Modelling - Defeated

2012-02-05T07:19:00.000-08:00

Every time I try and model this shape it always messes up somehow. I am going to give up for the moment and work on something a little easier!
As you can see from the image above, the faces are not working right. I have no idea how to fix this issue as everything looks normal in the wire frame.

3D Modelling - Trial and error

2012-02-04T16:55:00.000-08:00

I tried to mimic a sword I found online using the line and extrude tools. Unfortunately I made a mistake during the process of extruding my shape, leaving all the vertices in an awkward and unworkable position. At least for my level of knowledge of 3DS Max.
The image above is how far I got with the model. I only wish I could of taken it further! Although, I think I know where I went wrong and I am going to try again :D It's all about trial and error.

Interaction - Comparison

2012-02-04T01:38:00.000-08:00

As you can see I have tried to follow my chosen wire frames as closely as possible. Somethings have been altered slightly for effiecienty. For example, in my wireframe for my portfolio page there is two rows of thumbnails. I do not have enough presentable work to fill two rows and the website looks a lot more clean with just one. In my orignal homepage design I added a blog feed, unfortunatly I am unable to find a suitable way to embed my blog without it ruining the design of the website
.
Overall I thing I achieved my original plan as closely as possible.

3D Modeling -Trident Updated

2012-02-02T15:56:00.001-08:00

My friend made some suggestions on the head of my trident. So I quickly made some adjustments :) I scaled down the arrow heads slightly and then pushed in the outer spikes. I think it looks a lot better now!

3D Modelling - Trident

2012-02-02T15:25:00.000-08:00

Tonight I decided to start playing with the line tool in 3DS Max. I quickly drew a trident shape and then altered the coordinates for each point to make the shape perfect. It took a while trying to get all the measurements the same, but I am glad I didn't give up :) Unfortunately you cannot see the engraved pattern in the trident head in the image above.

3D Modelling - Expansion

2012-02-02T12:27:00.001-08:00

Expanded on the house I built yesterday.