Inspiring Artz

week 10

2014-04-30T21:30:00.000-07:00

Overview

WaterI have changed the water and am really happy with it, I used a noise bump map and turned the reflect/refract down and then overlapped this with a light green layer underneath. This really does make the scene a whole lot better.

I was thinking it would be cool having something splash into it , or maybe come out of it so that it was a little more interesting.

I have started looking at different camera angles to get the most impact out of my scene .I have found that I prefer a lot of the lower angles as you get a greater sense of power and height from the composition.

1st ideas -

Low angle best ?

Water needs to be an alternative colour ?

Splash scene?

Pics to think about

Week 9 .... Testers

2014-04-21T15:00:00.000-07:00

Final Testers

Testing of the door opening . this has worked well could do with some ease in and ease out motion which i will try to develop with future tests.

Test 2.

Test 3.

These were created so to see exackly what the motion would look like in a final piece.

week 8.... texturing

2014-04-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

Overview

My Scene is now fully textured, I did this by using mental ray materials and photometric lights, by combining the two it gave me quite a nice grainy effect in which shadows and reflections are everywhere, it looks just how I planned.

My favourite part it the glass machine, I would like it to open, so I will have to think about how to animate it, weather each piece of glass will come down or just disappear like a star trek transporter. the options for that are quite wide.

Im also incredibly happy with the reflections on the floor.

Water

This water was created using the standard water material on 3ds max, to be honest im not happy enough with it at the moment and this WILL need to change in order for this scene to be successful.

1st ideas -

Alternative ways to create water ?

Darker room ?

Pics to think about

Week 5

2014-03-27T11:30:00.000-07:00

Overview
I have started the process of creating my structure which will be my lab , it will include a door coming down from the top left, stairs which link it to the bottom, which will lead it to a machine and a pool of water. After researching photo of these labs always seem to have.

The water is going to have to look realistic, so I will need to use bump maps as well as reflection and refraction maps in order to reach that level of expectancy. If this isn't right the scene wont look right and it will be a complete fail.
That is so important to the project.

1st ideas -

How to produce realistic water ?

need to start seeing some actual outcome.

Pics to think about

week 4

2014-03-17T04:00:00.000-07:00

Overview
I am gathering rough sketches for a possible layout so that I can see what the possible outcome will look like and will have an actual picture to work from, by doing this now will make it easier in the coming weeks to actually produce this.

I am toying with the fact to either have a character moving or just items in the room , as the animating isn't my strong point, I think it would be more sensible to just stick with items in the room. An alternative technique could be .....

Motion capture is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, and medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robotics. In filmmaking and video game development, it refers to recording actions of human actors, and using that information to animate digital character models in 2D or 3D computer animation

Avatarhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wK1Ixr-UmM

Motion capture at g-force

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSlOZJJffDk

- in this clip the over exagguration is key.

Advantages

Motion capture offers several advantages over traditional computer animation of a 3D model:

More rapid, even real time results can be obtained. In entertainment applications this can reduce the costs of keyframe-based animation. For example: Hand Over.

The amount of work does not vary with the complexity or length of the performance to the same degree as when using traditional techniques. This allows many tests to be done with different styles or deliveries.

Complex movement and realistic physical interactions such as secondary motions, weight and exchange of forces can be easily recreated in a physically accurate manner.

The amount of animation data that can be produced within a given time is extremely large when compared to traditional animation techniques. This contributes to both cost effectiveness and meeting production deadlines.

Potential for free software and third party solutions reducing its costs.

Disadvantages

Specific hardware and special programs are required to obtain and process the data.

The cost of the software, equipment and personnel required can potentially be prohibitive for small productions.

The capture system may have specific requirements for the space it is operated in, depending on camera field of view or magnetic distortion.

When problems occur, it is easier to reshoot the scene rather than trying to manipulate the data. Only a few systems allow real time viewing of the data to decide if the take needs to be redone.

The initial results are limited to what can be performed within the capture volume without extra editing of the data.

Movement that does not follow the laws of physics generally cannot be captured.

Traditional animation techniques, such as added emphasis on anticipation and follow through, secondary motion or manipulating the shape of the character, as with squash and stretch animation techniques, must be added later.

If the computer model has different proportions from the capture subject, artifacts may occur. For example, if a cartoon character has large, over-sized hands, these may intersect the character's body if the human performer is not careful with their physical motion.

1st ideas -

Possibly animate a character ?

Just items moving ?

pentagon shaped machine?

like the square floor! this would catch the light well. (ecspecially if using photometric lights).

Week 3

2014-03-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

Overview

The idea of having my scene as a lab looks a lot more creative that a mythological scene and seems to be more realistic under the time scale. I am now looking at colour schemes so I create a quick chart page to get all my ideas down.

So I would like to keep a lot of the colours very pastelly.

Areas to research - I have identified that I should explore into the cryogenic labs as these are more aesthetically pleasing to look at and hold a lot more interesting objects, which I could possibly build into my own.

ideas -

Definatly use greys, reds, blacks....

possibly a chamber/machine?

composition ?

Lights in use? colour?

Pics to think about

Week 1

2014-02-24T15:00:00.000-08:00

Overview

I start to think about what I actually wanted in my design, so I noted down all of my ideas. the common themes were that I needed to create something a little less standard, boring and a bit more imaginative, this said my two ideas are either to create a sci-fi sort of dark damp and different scene or one of phantasy , with clouds and complete imagination.

Show reel - I picked to look at both of these because my show reel is missing this sort of work, so by creating this it will fit the niche. This should benefit me by attracting a greater area of future employers, as they will be able to see that I can create a wider range of work.

1st ideas -

Maybe a lab scene ?

possible a mythological setting ?

Use of clouds?

Dark, Damp and Unusual?

Pics to think about

2014-02-10T04:14:00.002-08:00

research and development into the industry

Overview of an environment artist

As an environment artist, it is your job to provide the level designer with the content needed to create and populate the world, e.g. the environment. Environment artists can be tasked with creating a wide range of objects from architecture to machinery to ground clutter to vegetation and more. This generally involves creating models to be used as static meshes along with the textures and perhaps the materials to be applied to those meshes.

What it takes?

The philisohical answer.....in a nutshell, is that any environment artist worth a lick can model in 3D. Buildings, props, trees, ect. are all very easy to recreate. To further illustrate my point is that most artists with any type of intelligence and no experience can get up and running in most 3D software packages in 3 to 4 weeks. Back in the good old days, most companies were willing to train on the job due to the lack of talent in the industry. That is your best case scenario in learning exactly what it takes to be an environment artist.

Samsung

Responsibility

Create high quality 3d (environment) assets to be used in the project demos and final product.

Design and supervise the art pipeline with the team (animators, technical artists, developers...) for best efficiency and quality.

Guide other artists, propose feature requests and provide feedback to ensure the final product quality.

Requirements

Vast experience as professional 3d artist in video games or movies.

A demonstrated ability to produce compelling environments in any style, with best respect of the technical constraints.

Proficiency in 3dsMax, ZBrush, Adobe Photoshop. Experience with lightmap tools and Unity is a plus.

Strong understanding of the 3d art pipeline (lightmap, exports, scripting, animation) and lighting techniques.

Pictures or document to demonstrate work, artistic background and skills (drawings, high-poly samples, low-poly samples with technical info, texture samples, lighting samples...).

New positions

A new position for an Experienced Environment Artist has opened up in my client's awesome Studio in Warwick. This position involves creating 2D (and possibly 3D) Environment Art, primarily for iOS and Android platforms.

Requirements for the role:

• A passion for games and creating environments for mobile
• Ability to create unique and original environments.
• Proactively assist in defining art pipelines and best practices against industry benchmarks.

Skills and Experience:

• Excellent 2D background, ideally including some pixel work.
• Use of Photoshop and Illustrator.
• Willing to work with Engineers to work within the technical limitations of the platform.
• Self Organised and willing to participate in team meetings.

Outline of consumer needs

From the research I can see that the consumer needs an environment artist to be functional in a number of different 3d packages, they must have a knowledge of adobe software such as Photoshop and illustrator. Texturing is also a must , this is something I feel I will havto improve on in order to reach this goal.

Existing Show reels

Show reel 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMTHOZAYThI

show reel 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5LbyDfnPeM

Show reel 3 - http://vimeo.com/6819737

justiforcation of choices made

The reason i have chosen to create an animation with a character based on motion and movement is because it will allow me to show off the environment that its in , the best way to do this is to make it interact with its surroundings.

I have chosen to create this is 3ds max because as specified in job roles, 3d software should be used and the applicant should be fluent. The footage will then be edited using Photoshop and important points of the environment created solely in z brush.

Research into proposed techniques
Motion captureMotion capture is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, and medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robotics. In filmmaking and video game development, it refers to recording actions of human actors, and using that information to animate digital character models in 2D or 3D computer animation

Avatarhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wK1Ixr-UmM

Motion capture at g-force

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSlOZJJffDk

- in this clip the over exagguration is key.

Advantages

Motion capture offers several advantages over traditional computer animation of a 3D model:

More rapid, even real time results can be obtained. In entertainment applications this can reduce the costs of keyframe-based animation. For example: Hand Over.

The amount of work does not vary with the complexity or length of the performance to the same degree as when using traditional techniques. This allows many tests to be done with different styles or deliveries.

Complex movement and realistic physical interactions such as secondary motions, weight and exchange of forces can be easily recreated in a physically accurate manner.

The amount of animation data that can be produced within a given time is extremely large when compared to traditional animation techniques. This contributes to both cost effectiveness and meeting production deadlines.

Potential for free software and third party solutions reducing its costs.

Disadvantages

Specific hardware and special programs are required to obtain and process the data.

The cost of the software, equipment and personnel required can potentially be prohibitive for small productions.

The capture system may have specific requirements for the space it is operated in, depending on camera field of view or magnetic distortion.

When problems occur, it is easier to reshoot the scene rather than trying to manipulate the data. Only a few systems allow real time viewing of the data to decide if the take needs to be redone.

The initial results are limited to what can be performed within the capture volume without extra editing of the data.

Movement that does not follow the laws of physics generally cannot be captured.

Traditional animation techniques, such as added emphasis on anticipation and follow through, secondary motion or manipulating the shape of the character, as with squash and stretch animation techniques, must be added later.

If the computer model has different proportions from the capture subject, artifacts may occur. For example, if a cartoon character has large, over-sized hands, these may intersect the character's body if the human performer is not careful with their physical motion.

final

Initial Thoughts

He attempts to stand and falls against the window to see the amazing view.

he starts to run , and then jumps over machinery(his strength is growing)

As he gets to the end of the hall way he realises its a dead end.

He jumps smashes through the wall and lands on the balcony.

See the year 2999.

storyboards and Rough Concepts

StoryBoards

Rough Concepts

MoodBoard

Supporting Inspirational Reference material

Labs
Aliens 2

These are very generic cryogenic machines, created in this classic film to look futuristic. id say these look a little flimsy not solid enough for what i am actually after.

2014-02-10T03:28:00.001-08:00

2014-02-10T01:40:00.001-08:00

Overview of an environment artist

What it takes?

Samsung

Responsibility

Create high quality 3d (environment) assets to be used in the project demos and final product.

Design and supervise the art pipeline with the team (animators, technical artists, developers...) for best efficiency and quality.

Guide other artists, propose feature requests and provide feedback to ensure the final product quality.

Requirements

Vast experience as professional 3d artist in video games or movies.

A demonstrated ability to produce compelling environments in any style, with best respect of the technical constraints.

Proficiency in 3dsMax, ZBrush, Adobe Photoshop. Experience with lightmap tools and Unity is a plus.

Strong understanding of the 3d art pipeline (lightmap, exports, scripting, animation) and lighting techniques.

Pictures or document to demonstrate work, artistic background and skills (drawings, high-poly samples, low-poly samples with technical info, texture samples, lighting samples...).

New positions

Week 8 The Final Journal Entry - Extended

2012-05-23T20:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RvT1KDAVwmc#!

Above is a link to the final major project after being exported into the following setting as requested in the brief.

Video Format: - QuickTime H.264 codec, 720x576
resolution, 25fps and 80% quality.
Audio Format: - AAC, Stereo (L,R), 44.1kHz

Our Final Product called “The Mexican Stand off” When finalised worked well, I think we chose the idea because it was simple and we wanted to just get a grasp of techniques and an understanding of the software’s, without doubt it allowed us time to experiment as my weekly journals show, but it was still about ending up with an effective piece. I think overall it worked, but I think it could have been improved by more time spent on the animating side, by incorporating more movement into the animation, although when the Human cowboy shoots the animation, and the animation falls to the ground, I believe this is when the video becomes more effective.

I created the Model by using Z-spheres and sculpting it on z-brush, it worked very well. I don’t think I would have created a better model should I have used box modelling, perhaps instead of selecting the polygons and adding materials that way we could have researched into UV mapping, this could of allowed us to get more detail in, although our final video was tinted brown, so a lot of the colours were lost anyway therefore there may not have been much benefit.

The Video footage we shot as a group, By all being there it allowed us all to have an input and have different points of view to which shots look better. We filmed it using a Sony Hand Cam, which we fixed to a Tri-pod, this gave us firm control of camera angles and disposed of shaky hands, this gave it a more professional look. Because we had an action plan and an external actor the filming process couldn’t have gone any smoother, Shots were filmed first time, and only the rain stopped filming for a short interval, once this had passed we were able to finish the shoot under an hour.

The Animating of the animation was produced by Karl although I did have an input in it and completed one of the poses myself. The process was created by applying an animation layer to the skin and then using key framing to record the poses. This was the best way to create this, but I do think more research into movement could have happened and we could have put more time into this, saying this I was very happy with the outcome of all the animation and how it fit to the music track.

The editing happened as a group, I think we were all very confident about this part as we could all use Final Cut/Premier pro very well, We cut the video footage down from about 30 minutes of film down to a 55 second clip, only taking the significant parts we needed, we cut using the razor tool. We layered the animation footage over the top and used the Chroma key to take away the blue background so only the animation was left, all that was left to do was to move it into place on both the time line and the video footage. This process was very effective and I know there couldn’t have been a process which would have produced the results any better.

My aims at the start of the year were quite basic in terms of goals, I wanted to learn the techniques and tips to use “the software” by which I meant 3ds Max and I can say I feel confident when I use it, I have leant from how to box model to the basics of follow through and how to add skins to models and edit envelopes. This will allow me to use this as a stepping stone, so I have a knowledge of which I can work on when I create models in my own time. The progression projects gave me the motivation to learn how to use Z-brush, so that I can create more detailed sculptures and use them in 3ds Max.

Particular Modules have helped me more than others such as the 3d Animation, I enjoyed this so I found it easier to produce more and more work for the weekly tasks, Week 2- Basic modelling was the start of me really getting to know 3ds Max and I didn’t feel lost in the software any more. Also Drawing for Animation was an important part of my progression over the year, especially when I learnt about the muscles and there locations which at the time I didn’t expect it would come in useful, but when I used z-brush to create my model I had to get his form accurate, I did this by using the muscles as references.

When I wrote my personal my personal professional development strategy, I think I was focused in heading in the direction of drawing for animation, my aims have altered and after looking into the industry, VFX Artists could be another possible option which I would like to look into. With this in mind I tried to take a bigger interest to incorporating Z-brush into my work.

So with software in mind we knew as wrote in an article named how to break into the VFX for films, we would have to incorporate “ZBrush and 3D Studio Max”, so on the character we took great care in using this and also sculptris. 3ds max was used for the whole of the animating and as the projects go on we get more confident with software which our target area needs.

We also looked at popular techniques used in the Animation Industry, and moving away from the VFX industry, weather forecasts and many adverts to date have been blue screened

References

Ehow.com (1999) How to Break into VFX for Film and TV | eHow.com. [online] Available at: http://www.ehow.com/how_2305219_break-vfx-film-tv.html [Accessed: 23 May 2012].

Week 7 Journal Entry

2012-05-17T16:30:00.000-07:00

This week was alway going to be the week when it all came together, it did but not without a little problem.When we recieved the mapped model from Charlie somehow the skin had unattached itself from the bones , the envelopes had been lost. we had one of two choices, re-do the envelopes or re-do the materials.

We decided between us that the easiest solution was to just re-colour it. So I started on that why Karl made a start with the presentation.

I again used a Multires, just because this would have took sooo much longer if I hadnt of because of the amouth of faces there were.Then i selected the majority of a part using the element selection tool in the edit poly column under modify, and if there were any stray faces i missed , i selected them seperatly with the Polygon tool, once this was all selected I just used the material editor , picked the material, and dragged and dropped it on to the highlighted surface. this was a relativly easy task and took me around about an hour to finish.

Once I had completed the materials, I passed it over to Karl to make it move.

So once we had the Walk cycle/Animation layer back onto him, it was ready to animate!

It was a good job we made the origional grey copies of the movements because we were able to try them Chroma key'ed into the video footage, and from that we realised that we would havto put the model against a blue background as when we tryed it with a black background we got a black haze around the figure, we changed the background colour by going to the rendering option, then environment and to background colour.

Karls Movements on 3ds max...

This series of movements is very effective and portrays the animation being shot very well.

Again just a simple movement as the clip will only last for a couple of seconds, so we pefered him to move a little rather than just stand their like a still photo.

The long shot was created using a camera at medium length, so when scaled down in size on Premier Pro it didnt lose any detail or Quality.

The over the shoulder shot was pretty simple, just placing a freehand camera behind the model on 3ds max..

once we had these shot it was a fairly simple task of using the Chroma key and inserting them into the video footage on Premier Pro.

Week 6 Journal Entry

2012-05-10T08:41:00.007-07:00

This was the last week of any of the modules, Blue screening went really well in video audio, i managed to get Duncun onto the still image background perfectly.
Again this practice will come in very usefull when we are editing the animation onto the video footage on Premier pro.

The aim this week was to get the walk cycle sorted so it stands properly, we drag down the foot arrows down so that the body is stretched, it looks ok but still doesnt work right.

Karl uses the curve editor to change the whole look of this cycle, and this is what we got on attempt 2. He takes off alot of the swing and rotation from the pelvis.

This is the second attempt at a side view so that its easier to see its movement. the leg has come out of place in this though so will havto have anouther look over the envelopes.

Note: At this point Charlie has started Mapping the origional 3ds model using, We decided the easiest way to do this is to go to Editable mesh, the select by vertex and select an area and unattach it so its a seperate poly. then we will be able to add differant materials to each bit.

So at this point I will be Collecting all of our work together to put into a Presentation, as I've produced all I need to for now, Karl is practacing the movements of the cowboy , while the main target of the week sits with Charlie to get the mapping onto the cowboy.

Below are a couple of test animations that Karl created , just to see how they looked....

This video above works very well, may haveto think about flipping the video footage so that this can be shot on this side, maybe needs abit more speed , but this is quite successful.

This week Visually hasnt been as productive but it has come to the point which i said in my firsts weeks journal , the little things have took alot of time and patience.

We are still on target to finish this , Slightly early if anything which would allow us to make a few minor changes to the finished product.

Week 5 Journal Entry

2012-05-03T15:30:00.000-07:00

Audio and Visual was a huge week for us this week as we needed to know how to add an effect onto video footage . Using the chorma Key under the video effects in keying. I was able to take away the matt plain background and insert the bullet and smoke effect so it looks good. This will withouth doubt help me with the gun shots in our mexican stand off.

This Week I wanted re-material my model to add anouther option for the group to use, I took the origional model back into Z-brush, and used a range of Texture brush's untill i got to this point below.I wanted the model to look more rugged and not as clean as the other model... I did this by creating darker patch's on the knees of the jeans and using earthy colours.

My next step was to get the model from Z-brush to 3ds max, So I exported the model as an object file and imported it in, this gave me the model without mapping. from here I inserted a CATrig and moved the bones untill they sat it a correct place were they would sit inside the scin (model).

When I get to this point, where i can still see bones sticking out from inside the skin, i havto do some touching up and just keep playing around with the structure untill it sits in properly.

The envelopes was the stage of the model which really threw me off to be honest.Didnt quite get this at first untill i seeked help from a tutor, when explained it made complete sense, red and yellow effect which parts of the model move by bone and blue is hardly effected.This on its own took me probably the best part of 8 hours to complete.

Also a problem occured when doing this, the model had far too many polygons as i had sub-divided in Z-brush in order to get greater detail, so the way i had to deal with this was to just ad a MULTIres to each piece of the skin and decrease all polygons to about 10% of the origional amount, this didnt effect the detail in the slightest, i then just attached all the pieces of the skin in edit poly.

In the motion menu I added a walk cycle to the model and it came out rather wierd. Me and Karl will havto take a good look at this next week.

Our Plans have changed very slightly next week because the model isnt walking correctly, so we will havto get on with that before we can start to make the movements to the film.

Week 4 Journal Entry

2012-04-27T19:38:00.000-07:00

In video and Audio this week we looked at the sin city effect which can be applyed in Final Cut/Premier Pro. We have been thinking we might want to tint the colours brown so its almost sepia, so this could be used to give it that slightly more unique look.

So my main aim this week was to create a MORE realistic 3d model , and after about 8-9 hours straight of playing around and trying to keep to my Photoshop picture, i get the result i was looking for....

I researched into the use of Z-spheres in order to expand on my first model, tutorials like the one below was a huge help as it showed step by step and i was able to pick up quite easily techniques and short keys.

This video has been linked from You-tube and is not my own.

I used Z-sphere's to build a Human body shape and moved them into the wanted position, once I was happy i changed the Z-spheres into a Polmesh3d, this allowed me to then edit the Poly, allowing me to subdivide to get more details into the model and sculp onto it with the brush's.

I then added colour to the model while still being in Z-brush, this was relatively easy in comparison to the sculpting part, although it was important to take time to get a clean finish, several layers were applied to the shirt in order to see the chest coming through.

Because i completed the model a few days in advance, i will have a few days extra next week in which i will be able to mess around with materials and just experiment.

This Week also We Finished the Filming of the live action part of the video. We organised an actor to come in which was a plus because there was no messing around and scenes were performed instantly. Karl edited the film to the music very well, and this looks to be the final cut.

This was acted out on campus as specified in the brief, we were very happy with the background shots, also the actor was given the props to use, and i think they look very good. Only thing i would point out is the blue guns, these wont matter though when the film is tinted brown to give it a western feel.

Note: Charlie starts to create a Opening title screen in 3ds max, his idea is to have saloon doors opening to the the film title of "The Mexican Standoff" and it will zoom in and through the text into the rolling video.

This week has been the most productive yet , getting all of the filming out of the way and having the animated charecter 75% complete, each member of the group is producing good quility work which without doubt should it carry on will create the video we visualised at week 1.

The plan for next week is to all be happy with the model, Import it into 3ds max and get a CATrig inside it, so we can start making it move.Karl needs to research into Cowboys being shot and even just work cycles, and charlie should have finished his title scene with the intent to start the mapping for the model.

Week 3 Journal Entry

2012-04-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

This week i found both Graphics and design and 3d animation very usefull towards our project.
In Graphics and design i had to create a costume which wasnt generic, so instead of using cow hide as they would have done , I use tiger skin for it. When designing my charecter it will be important that he looks like nobody else, so i should make plenty of sketch's like these.

In 3D animation we created simple box models, although i usually use z-brush it was good to try an alternative technique and it wasnt that much harder.

This week it was my task to design the charecter , so i drew a quick sketch of what i wanted it to look like (proportion wise) and scanned it in, then finually edited the materials on Photoshop. this was a quick but effective way of producing a visual first model.

I like the red top but possibly make it look more western by making it checkered?

After i had created this first sketch, i was eager to keep attemting to get a 3d model, i had never really used Z-brush before but wanted to attempt using it, I have previous experience sculpting and this helped me.I came up with this sheriff,but it wasnt anything like what i had in mind , also it was too animated to insert into a real life video.This model would have been perfect if we were creating for a younger age range.

This work will keep developing as i go along and from it we should gain out main animated charecter. I should add the above was a test to see what i could create on the software.

Again this week its been quite productive, I didnt get that realistic look which i wanted in my 3d model, so Im personally going to haveto put some time into that, in terms of group work, we have worked out what each person needs to produce in order for the presentation to be a sucess so everybody knows what there doing. This is what we broke it down to.....

Lance - Storyboards (Rough & Final Digital)
Concept Art
Test Animations...
Karl - Shooting Script
Weekly Action Plan
Location Research And Risk Assessment

Charlie - Research Into Special Effects (Examples of industry effects - Review of video and animation techniques)
Research Genre and get examples of concept art for Western movies.
Create a Mood Board (see the Graphics Design module on Xstream)

We realised that we have alot of work todo this coming week in order to stay to the action plan, so i think all of us are going to knuckle down and get this done.

Week 2 Journal Entry

2012-04-12T19:14:00.000-07:00

This week Basic modelling in 3d graphics was a huge help, it helped me to understand 3ds max a little better and at the same time gave us options of what we could inset into our video footage.

I created this sink using basic shapes and modify tools like the taper option, Also i added material to the sink using the material editor and inserting an image. I also took it into my own hands to learn the particle flow system , this could become usefull if we go to add parts to the background.

This week we all had enough time to think of which idea we preferred if any, and all of us came to the same conclusion that the mexican stand off sketch would push us enough, but at the same time be within our skills to produce. I think it is important to note that this decision was made by all three of us because we all knew we could make it work.

CHOSE TO GO WITH MEXICAN STAND OFF......
This Week i decided to research into possible scenes in which cowboys used to have a stand off in.These three below are very generic places.

This town scene would be good to create on 3ds but then their would be not alot of real life in this sketch.

The bar/saloon scene could also work, but it would take alot of time to create.

The rural area looks better , because it would complement the atmosphere of the music.

At this point iIknow im limited to options due the fact that in first year we are limited to only filming on campus, so with this in mind , i think the rural scene is a better option, because the campus has some quite intresting bits on forest etc.

we now know that we are going to move forward in the rural direction, so we should explore the vacinity to find possible places that we could film in.

22/4/2012
Karl managed to find a range of places which could possibly be suitable for our filming, and after collaberation between us all we agree to use this woodland scene found on campus.

This woodland scene is quite atmospheric, and would add to the tension of the sketch.

Our Idea changed at this point at we wasnt shore untill this point from which direction the charecters would come in from, but actually seeing the area we were filming in, i was able to visualise everthing. The project is so far on track, will need to ensure the filming is done ASAP so that we can get on with the animation sides of things.

Im happy with how the group got on this week, each gradually having more individual parts to play but still being extremly productive.

Week 1 Journal Entry

2012-04-05T18:00:00.000-07:00

Out of the three modules this week i think the most usefull material i learned was to create concept charecters like this using a mixture of human and animal, i woulnt havto use human but its a flawless technique. I shoud defonatly think about using this when making the animations.

As a group we Discussed several ideas, One Idea we liked was a sketch in which a guy sees a button and doesnt know weather to push it or not, so up would pop a devil and an angel either side of his head, and they would try and convince him wether to do it. in the end he would push the button and the place explodes.

i wanted to see how easy it was to create an explosion should we go with this idea so created a quick explosion on 3ds max using the particle Flow feature and then adding an effect over the top, Background is created by simply changing the environment and adding a bmp file. I was happy with this effect considering it was a first attempt

Anouther idea we had was a mexican stand off, between a person and an animation, for this we would havto look into Cowboy films and Spagetti westerns.

As a personal Spagetti Western fan, I automatically jump to this scene, probably the greatest stand off in a Western film, we would havto use this as a basis to our video , scenary, music and acting is all a must to pull off a sketch like this.

We now need to move to the next step and Decide which of these favored two we can move on with and start testing and Researching further.

this week the communication between the group was good , each person said what they thought even if it wasnt the same as anybody elses views, this meant that we had ideas that all of us baught into, if we want our idea to suceed we need everyone working in syncronisation.We need to Ensure that each member of the group has something todo in the coming week.

Our plans havn't changed at this point as were just starting to get the ideas flowing and sticking to the action plan, on target so far.

I think the Group has worked well this week, I notice we all quite simular and if we are intrested in what we are doing, were motivated, so we will just havto watch that we dont slack a little as we get to a little less intresting and more time consuming bit.

CHECK OUT ZBrush Concept Charecters ON SIDE BAR.....

2012-03-20T21:37:00.003-07:00

Check out my ZBrush Concept Charecters!!!!.................

Created on ZBrush by Lance Bishop

Z- brush sculpture

2012-03-12T10:52:00.003-07:00

Created on ZBrush, Modelled in 3ds Max by Lance Bishop.

Created and Rendered into colour on .ZBrush.
by Lance Bishop.

Green human like creature , that i created on zbrush .....

2012-02-17T02:19:00.000-08:00

Check out My Semester 2 work - 3D animation!!

Animation Sink

2012-02-09T05:42:00.001-08:00

After Looking into manipulating shaped on 3ds max, I designed and rendered this Sink,
I created this short animation to present it.

CHECK OUT MY MUMMIFIED MINOTAUR ON SIDE BAR.......

2012-01-22T13:22:00.000-08:00

CHECK OUT MY 10 WEEK PROJECT ON SIDE BAR.....

2012-01-22T11:06:00.000-08:00

2011-11-21T07:41:00.000-08:00

Science fiction is a genre of fiction that looks realistic enough to be true, although it encorporates futuristic events and happenings that would only be plausable in this the future. for example :

foir this reserch into the science fiction genre , i look into the SyFy channels programs.