Production Schedules Continued...

FIRSTLY.....THE ORDER IS TOP TO BOTTOM!!!


The top is the original start production schedule that was intended for the final outcome.

As the project progressed, we were beginning to realise that things were taking longer to do than other parts. At the start we had to drop the animatic and storyboards as we jumped straight into the project from the outset as we had already set ourselves alot to do in the time we had. Once the corridor modelling was complete Spencer began texturing it. This was when the effort and time constraints started. The texturing was taking longer than anticapated and we started to think if we could get stuff done for rave on air. So we set ourselves the goal of getting the forst two environments modelled and textured and redered out for rave on air. But this failed and we were running out of time to even get the first corridor done for rave on air and we decided to drop the production of the third room and just concentrate on the two rooms.
The corridor was nearly done for rave on air but as it was too little and no composition we decided not to hand anything in for rave on air and just concentrate on the main deadline on the 19th june. The production of the main room went well but again the texturing took 2 weeks to complete and this was alot longer than originally anticipated and reduced the amount of rendering and compositing time available to us but never the less we got it done on time.

The production plan worked well but we had to drop a few things along the way but this comes part and parcell of animation work in general and realisticly, but we have produced a film that we are both happy and proud of and feel that we have achieved alot.

Production Schedules

Another render shot

This is something that has been dramatically improved with the use of after effects. The original shot is a still of the environment and all the text animation has been created in after effects as well as the tv monitor look to it. This was the first after effects edit that I did and completed and it took me a matter of half hour. The other shot below took a day or 2 to finish off completely but Im perfectly happy with both shots.

Render Shots

This is the scene that I am particularly proud of in the final film. I think that from what the scene looked like before the After effects editing and to what it looks like now you can see a vast visual improvement. This just shows me how much a difference after effects makes when it is done well. And for my first attempt with the programme I dont think ive done too bad. It was a bit fiddly and tricky with creating the particles and getting the right scale and speed as they are meant to be floating in the air but I got there in the end and feel that what I have produced has been done well in the time I had to do it.

The above image is the occlusion layer and this is also the first time I have used an occlusion layer in a project. This too makes so much difference in the final outcome as it really brings out the colours to give a better visual look to a scene.

Both of these things have been new to me this term and are definately something i will work on in the near future especially after effects practice.

Render problems....AGAIN!!

Yes again we have had render problems, it must be a curse. But alas we have been more lucky with the footage that we have actually got rendered. The main problem being with the character. The corridor scenes worked fine with the character in it and rendered off perfectly, however the problems seemed to occur in the beefy room. With the character in the scene the renders didnt work at all on the render farm and kept on failing. However when the character was removed the scenes worked fine and we had to use stills in the end for the beefy room. However the renders worked perfectly when rendered to the local drive but were taking far too long and with the time we had left to finish the project off, we were simply not going to get it done. However we had enough footage of the animated character in the corridor to get away with it.
I am dissappointed with this because I had done alot of work with the character in the beefy room and to have it all dropped for hand in is a shame but im not going to give up, Im gonna go back and render it out and make the film again for showreel purposes.
The thing that i am pleased with is my after effects work. Rather than the stills being motionless, I created moving title sequences on the screen as if it was a computer. This makes the scene more real and less dull so in a way all my animation work has been a success. I feel that my animation and after effects knowledge and skills have developed far on this project and Im happy with what I have produced. I know it can be better but this will come with experience and practice.

NO NAILGUN :.(

The nail gun was the first prop that I modelled on the project but we've had to drop it from our film. The main reason being the textures were playing up in the maya scene and I tried to fix it but with everything else to do for the film I had little time to fix it properly. So I left it out as it will be noticable in the scenes and wont make it look as good. I am a little disappointed that its not been included but its something that I could address if i were to go back and make changes to the film.

online stuff

Its been a while, and now its time for the ending update...

Ive posted some links that I used for research on my project. The dead space videos are the main research videos on youtube that I used to base my ideas on and modelling. I really liked the edits on both of them and the eerie soundtracks that are played on both of them.

The After Effects link showed me how to create some of the effects I made in the final video. I've never used the software until a week and a half ago and I think ive made progress with the use of the software and understanding of it. I feel what I have created is to a good standard and the only way is forward from here with my knowledge of the programme

test render of the shot

Here's a test render for the scene Ive ben working on. It proves that he's not walking and staring into a wall hahaha

todays progress

Im almost there with camera shots 1 and 2 for the beefy room. This is pretty much near the finished animation but I need to go back and adjust one or two things after seeing this playblast but im happy with what I've done. This whole little animation will be split between 2 camera shots so it saves doing more animating than needed. I feel more confident with my animation skills after working on the two scenes Ive done so far like playing with the graph editor to get a nice flow, secondary animation and key frames in particular the hips and shoulders to give it more character.

a little touch of heat

I thought It would be a nice little effect to have a damaged floor grating on fire near the door. I thought that the room looked a little bare in this half and so I thought for a while what I can add. So i thought of this and there's still room for more so ill need to go away and think about what I can add :D

example render shot

Here's an example of the camera 2 shot with the character looking out into the lounge. This was in the early stages of the animation so the pose will look different to this picture (I.e. better and not as gay) Its not looking too bad as you can get a real feel for the character with this shot

This is the non-X Files version

Its a little slow at the moment so i need to play about with the speed and duration but its not too bad for an afternoon's work. It only really took me about 2 hours or so to do, its not finished yet but it will be soon enough. Only another few more shots to go ^_^

Bit of X files hahahaha

This is the stage i'm upto at the moment with the animating. When the playblast came out this is what I got X Files all over haha

more animating

This is just a simple block out of camera 1 shot. The wall infront is glass so hes not just walking to a door or wall lol ITS GLASS!! that overlooks the room. It then cuts to camera 2 which is outside looking into the 'control room'.

one more thing

added a glass roof this morning.....nuff said

The above images are what the scene looks like at the moment. I've included ambient and area lights with low intensity. Maybe a little too dark but its trial and error now but its what I've settled on at the moment. I've changed the main wall lights to a more realistic colour and you can just about see the boxes under the stairs. I've added some tables in the opposite corner (top image) as it was looking bare. A light in the 'control room' over-looking the scene has been added so you can see inside it but thats all for now.......Looking goooooooood!!

more lights

Another feature that I added were some big wall lights. After creating the table lights I felt the need to create some more and I sat for ages thinking how I can include some model lights and where to put them. It then came to me that they tend to be in the walls on space stations and there were some faces in the curved part of the roof and I thought I'd try and utilise that. I extruded three alternatively and got the above model. I then added some cylinders and added a glow texture to them. I tried the above colour first (bluish) and thought it looked good but then it came to mind that I don't particularly want it to turn into a night club hahaha (space rave!). Nahhh so I changed the colours about and its changed from this image since.

more work on the lounge

I began the day working on the lounge room. I thought it was a little far too bare at the moment so I went in there and added some more stuff. Main thing to note is the table under the walkway to the left of the image. Although you cant see them, there were some crates where the table now is and ive just moved them to the left just out of shot. And yes you cant see the table clearly thats beacause at the time I made some lights, as you can see. I also wanted to try the lighting outfor it because I was in the mind frame. I tried all sorts, blues, greens and yellowy browns and This image is near enough what I've settled on for now.

good enough for now

This is the finished walk for scene 1. It may need tweaking later on but its good for now and a start. Now just need to work on the other scenes haha then put some final tweaks together. The only thing that can be said about this is the speed but thats easily modified. Its a bit quicker than the previous post but well see.

shoulder pad test

This is a test playblast for the animation on the shoulder pad. Its a secondary animation to the shot

corridor scene 1 test blast

Since Monday, I've spent my time animating the character for the first shot. It's only a simple walk cycle but that's all its meant to be. I still need to sort out the hands and decide whether to include the gun or not because i need to sort out the textures for it. It's a little slow the walk cycle but it can easily be sped up.

more trials

Still mucking about and getting to grips with the rigg and created another pose. I feel confident enough now to start animating so watch this space!

our character

This is the cahracter that we will be using for our project. I found this on a website that i shall post a link to later and also mention who made the rigg. This is perfect for our project and environment. Its a typical space character, looks similar to Master Chief from Halo, and will work well for what we want to achieve. I have played around with the rigg briefly and its fairly simple to use. The corridor scene is near enough ready to texture so I can begin animating in the next few days :D

adding some detail

spent yesterday modelling what you can see in the images above for the lounge room. It looks kinda basic at the moment but its alot of progress made from the room being empty at the start of the day. Now that I've started adding objects I can start to bulk it out while keeping any eye on the pollygon count. Its coming along and will be ready to texture soon :D

the lounge area

After creating a block out of the lounge room I created a window in the wall looking out to the room. In the next post you will be able to see where it is placed but this is where one of our camera shots will be. The block to the left is our character reference which I have used to determine the height and ratio of the environment to our character.

more props

I then quickly modelled a broken tv to go in the corridor. There's nothing really fancy about this apart from the inclusion of a smashed screen. This makes it look worn and fits with the enviornment we are going for.

oops posted without text lol

I didnt want to make the gun exactly like my reference because I wanted to make it lok futuristic. Therefore I added the neon-like glow to some parts which just gives a little extra to the object. The audience arent going to see that much of it as it will be quite smallish so I've not paid attention to great detail but added the glowing textures to make it look fancy.

nail gun with textures

ok time for some business...

So theres only a little research gone up for now but ill be adding more as the project goes on. For now ill post up some images of modelling and some texturing so far.

The first thing that I modelled was a nail gun. This gives our character a weapon and some sort of defense lol I didnt quite fancy the character to have a massive plasma rifle or just a hand gun but I wanted to go for the engineer feel to the character and so I thought a nail gun was suitable because in reality it is a handy-man's tool and can hurt if you get shot by one haha.

The image directly below was the reference that I used for modelling.

The image directly below is my finished model without textures.

This is an example of the exterior to our environment, although we wont be creating this, it just gives us an idea of the bigger environment that ours will be fitting into. This is also the colour scheme that we are going for. Spencer and I like the rusty/red colour and we think it is the perfect colour tint for our environment.

more research

The top image comes from the film 'Aliens' and is another example corridor. It just gives us a real-life version of the environment rather than a virtual one from that of Dead Space. Pretty similar in comparison although I do like the red light given off on one side that signifies danger. Another idea for our project.

The bottom image is from the Aliens vs Predator game and is a start for an idea for our lounge room. I really like the amount of detail that has been put in it and the lighting. But its probably a bit too light for the environment we are going for.

research, research, research...

The main source of my inspiration for this project comes from the dead space game. It's why I suggested the idea in the first place and it also builds on our mansion project, where we created an older aged enivronment whereas this is futuristic, make sense?

I have uploaded these images because of the lighting. It gives such a creepy feeling to it and its exactly what we want for our environment. Also for the details of what a space station interior looks like and to give us a sense of direction of what we want to achieve. The above image is of a corridor and this is one of the rooms we will be designing in our project. This gives us a basic understanding of what we want to be creating and something to stem and build our ideas from.

Time for an update...

havent updated for ages, oops!

Anyway, so far so good! working with Spencer is always a good thing and were on schedule to complete our project for Rave On Air. We've pretty much modelled the corridor part of the environment and I've started modelling the lounge room today. I shall be uploading research, and progress so far in the next hour or so

1st update...

Spent the last week planning the project with Spence and we've come up with a good sound idea of what we are doing for the project and how we are gonna go about it. I've spoken to Jared about our intentions and the ideal outcome and we've been given the green light to go ahead and get on with the project. In the mean time I've modelled a nail gun for our character, just need to add some texture now but that won't take long at all. Then on to modelling the other props. Progress will be uploaded soon...

Also, spent some of today producing a production plan for us and its a reasonable schedule and Spence and I are perfectly capable of sticking to it and having a successful outcome.

Early doors...

After being given the brief, I decided that I wanted to do number 3 on the brief choices which is to design my own film. I chatted to Spencer about the project this term and we both wanted to do the same brief option and decided to work together on the project.

Our initial idea is to create a space station environment similar to that of Dead Space. Initially we plan to have an environment with some animation involved, preferabley a character and there will be some features of the environment that will be animated