textures, characters and watering cans...

Friday

interesting lecture with Gareth who showed us a couple of companies who are either 1 or 2 people staff! Jokes indeed but i guess its proof that little timers can do it too. Both showreels demonstrated a high quality of work and whilst they're not perhaps where i wish to take my career, were very interesting to see in terms of what you can do. I spose the concept of garage companies is laughable but then do you really need a studio when so much can be done on your laptop?

heres a few links to their pages:

Shufti Animation has a total team of 1 working on various pieces for creature comforts and bbc, his background is with Aardman. Lots of odd character pieces here!

http://www.shufti.co.uk/index.htm

The Shift is a team of two working on compositing as well as animation pieces. They've won the CG challenge 2 times in succession for their fake trailers, very good showreel here!

http://www.the-shift.com/

I had a quick chat to Gareth about my essay and what i wanted to focus my discussion on which seemed A-OK so i wish to get cracking with this so that I can get feedback on drafts so that i can improve. It will help me to channel the essay more in order to fulfill the assessment criteria. Im gonna focus my essay on the lack of tax breaks for england and how it could potentially starve britian of its industry. It sounds pretty financial but im really interested in where this

walkabouts....

out and about, were set now on setting the scene in the beginnings of autumn....so i took a walk round chislehurst to get a few pictures which will be helpful for the environemnt design/colourings

the early stages of Autumn provide a mix of greens and oranges tones

i love the contrast of the leaves to the grass here, definitely want to include something like this in the environment.

great distressed qualities here, looks like old paper!

and then that very evening this fella turned up...

his name is wilf the woodland wanderer...i need no more gnome paraphernalia else my room will start looking like a shrine to the gnomes by Christmas! Hahaha!

However, there are some interesting textures used on this Gnome i'd like to incorporate in our project..

im liking this distressed look on his clothing, its like canvas bandages have been wrapped round him to give the indentations which give a depth/stone look to him.
also am LOVING the scratches on the watering can which again give a distressed, old, faded quality to the object. I think this will work brilliantly when combined with our environment which is set in Autumn.
weekend

made a start on the essay for Gareths Animation Business unit which Im pleased about as starting essays has to be the worst part but once you get going its ok. Will continue this and hopefully have a first rough draft ready to show for the formative session next week (?)

I also worked solidly on the characters as well as my thumbnails for the story. I have now completed a few design drawings that demonstrate the models flexibility as it was a question raised so obviously its needs to be demonstrated so everyones fully aware of what the characters should be able to do. I've sketched the characters from a few angles to get an idea for their model sheets which i aim to have complete over the next couple of days. Lady Gnomes model sheet is now complete so just the other 2 to go.

This week i think we need to focus on the storyboarding and environment, the characters are now bascially sorted which im pleased about. Texturing is going to require a lot of focus too so were certain how we wish to proceed when it comes to production. The colourings need to be locked down so that a colour script can be formed.

A couple of character poses of Lady to demonstrate her models capabilities as well as her character:

The many faces of Macho. Again lots of possibilities here in order to refine the design of character and pose him accordingly:

a few character poses of Macho which should demonstrate the 3d models capabilities in squash, stretch and muscles for his arms but retaining a fluid smooth quality:
The many drawings of Hero, its given me a good opportunity to really refine the design and test out all possibilities as well as pose him in order to get a better idea of his character and what the model should be able to do in 3d:
a few tests of the few favourites of Hero in 360 poses. I was also testing to see how the face should emerge from the gnome suit.

Character development. Below are a series of skethes for each chaeacter experimenting with ther look in 3d from different angles. I also refined how their faces should appear from their suits and the defining facial features. Hand designs are complete and (on Lady Gnomes page) a few example sketches of the models flexibility as i know this was a question asked by the group:

I think it was one of my first blogs that foolishly said i didnt want to digress from my original designs too much. I dont think these have, im abslutly chuffed with the look of them but you can see the progression and development of them. I think these designs hold much more interest and appeal than my initial ones used for the pitch.

Lady Gnomes model sheet complete :) after a discussion with Matt, were going for characters with 3 fingers instead of the realistic 4 fingers. Will get on with the rest of the model sheets this week.

For rough concept i think we can basically take all our character stuff and place onto photoshop pages and adjust accordingly, not a lot of work there but please make a start on your display pages as it does take some time to do!

Matts been doing some more texture tests which are starting to achieve some of the looks the piece needs, not quite there but then it was inevitable it would require lots of tests and tweaks. However, once we know the elements that construct our painted world, we'll be able to adjust and apply to all the objects/characters etc with ease. I've made a replacement watering can for you to continue your experiments with Matt, as I feel we cant get past the other models look to know if the textures are on the right lines or not. I shall give this file to you Monday to experiment with.

It was good to get back into Maya again...even if it wasnt for long! Model below is based on my prop concept art.

good old occlusion...