Blog Link : http://akramsnm.weebly.com/digital-environment.html
Final Flim : https://drive.google.com/a/students.rave.ac.uk/folderview?id=0Bx_NwVCHkSTMflFGazZlV05qekkxZ1FvLUtjNXFIMU5EWE8zQjNtdkFzaEo2Y09laUptN28&usp=sharing
Final Flim : https://drive.google.com/a/students.rave.ac.uk/folderview?id=0Bx_NwVCHkSTMflFGazZlV05qekkxZ1FvLUtjNXFIMU5EWE8zQjNtdkFzaEo2Y09laUptN28&usp=sharing
Brief
In this unit I will be creating a short narrative 30-60second video which explores an environment with personalty. I will also investigate what type of character might live there. This unit will advance my skills, techniques and an understanding of digital environment building and design.
Digital environment as a job role
There are many places in the industry where creating digital environment is a key role. Below I have listed and researched some places where creating digital environments is a job role.
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- Advertisement
- Simulator
Timeline/planning
Before doing anything in this unit, I have created a plan that I will stick to. From pervious unit I have learnt how important planning is. Plan V1- that was my first plan. I have decided to change it because the rendering will take longer to do. My pervious unit in this course that I did was a simple walk cycle, which took over one week to render. Using that was a reference, this would take almost two weeks to render. Also, I had some feedback from Alex and Josh to think about the rendering time and how long it might take.
To keep my project organised I have created a checklist. In this checklist I have listed the assets that will be in my environment. As you can see in the above image the ones are done has a tick next to it. This will inform me on what I need to do next. I have also added a date column on what needs to be done and when. Since I took the screen screenshot on 23rd May, its showing what needs to be done by the end of today. There are two other column priority and export folder. I have created the priority folder because, I wanted to the high priority to finish first. High priority will tell the story of the person.
Environments concepts
To start me of I have created a brainstorm on what types of environment I can create. I will use this to come up with some ideas.
Idea 1: Create medieval London.
On these above scans, I have experimented with different types of environment that I can have. Then it zooms outs slowly into a bubble.
Idea 2: Floating city
This is one of my concept idea. This is a floating city that just hovers over the water. There's a jet engine under the uses that helps it float and keeps it balanced. When I came up with this idea I was thinking of Venice in Italy, It's interesting how the houses are just floating on the water.
Idea 3: Snowy environment
After thinking about my previous idea, I decided to come up with this idea. From personal experience using water in Maya is a headache. Since I do not enough time, rendering water will take ages to render. I only have two weeks to render. I have created the image above to visualize my scene.
For this idea I was thinking of creating a small environment that has train rail going across the city. In the final animation I would show there's someone in the city that plants a bomb and show the time is ticking. Then I would show the character leaving the city with the train. And the whole city explodes. The snowy environment was inspired by Games Of Thrones.
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Who might live there? Character concepts
To have personalty in my environment, I came up with some character who may live there. I wanted to make a unique character so I put random things together. I have highlighted the three ideas that I like - Idea 1,4 and 9. This way I can develop the city around that idea, instead of coming up with random idea which doesn't go with the environment.
I have pitched my three ideas to my peers and received some feedback on it.
- Idea 1: Is about this crazy scientist that lives in a floating city. He's one of the pioneers of the floating city. He has some other plans of his own and it will not be good for people living in the community. I will make him look like a villain by having a confidential document on his desk and also having his evil plan on the desk.
- Feedback: It's interesting, think about how are you going to make his room look like. You can research on clockmaker's and engineers room to see what you might have in the room. You need to feel the room with stuffs.
- Idea 4: White spirit comes down from the heaven to earth and steals stuff from peoples houses. I will show it by having white dust coming down using a stairs from the clouds. And then I will show it stealing by having floating white dust cloud taking it with it and goes up into the clouds.
- Feedback: Think about other ways of showing it stealing. Maybe show what it has in the clouds, what kind of stuffs it stole.
- Idea 9: its about a knight that loves the queen. It will be set in the medieval period. I will have lots pictures of the queen in his room to show he loves him. I will also have his armor in the room to show he's a knight.
- Feedback: What flaws might he have? How are you going to show love/connection between them? Instead of having pictures what if you use paintings? or you can his looking through the window or use a telescope to look at her?
visualisation
I have created this in Photoshop but I had rendered out the train in Maya. I have made it look like what I want my final film to look like. Maybe not exactly due to the snow. Snow would take ages to render.
I have used Photoshop to decorate my environment. I have added some textures to the walls and floor. I will use this as a reference when adding textures to my environment.
Research from books
I have used 3D Game Environment by Luke Ahearn and Digital Design to help me with my environment. I have used the same concept as the above picture where I have created a snowy mountain. I have also looked at fire for my FirePlace in my environment. I used this as a starting point and looked at how my fire might look like.
Primary Research
I create this moodboard using the pictures that I took with my camera. I'm looking at how I might make my rail tracks in my environment.
architecture concept
I have experimented with different media to come out with an idea. Since I will have buildings in my environment I did some drawing of it and tried to come up with a unique idea. I might not use all of it, but it will inspire me to come up with weird concepts.
I have created this 3D building from one of my concepts. I didn't like the final outcome so I don't think I will be using it.
Storyboard
This is a helicopter shot where you can barely see the face. Then he pulls out his phone and sets of the bomb and then flyies off with his helicopter. It's like a game mission.
Room idea - Mood board
Since I will be modelling a room, I thought about what kind of stuffs I can have at it. I have created the mood board above to inspire me to come up with a list of what I can have in the room. I want to make the room full of stuff and make it look its natural. I want it to have a mix of stuffs, like old and new things.
Below are some ideas of what I can have in the room.
Below are some ideas of what I can have in the room.
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3D Modeling - shelf
To create my 3D model I have drawn myself a reference that I can use when modeling. I have created this image in Photoshop using my graphic tablet. This was my first creating something from what I drew. When drawing this I have looked at my 3D Clock, to come up with a idea. My theme was medieval + futuristic, for this I gave it medieval look to make it look interesting.
When modeling in Maya I came across some problems like with the bevel tool. When I was using the bevel tool, it was creating unnecessary triangles in my model. For the bevel tool i had used 3 Segments 1cm width. Since I didn't save a different copy before beveling it, I had to remake the whole bookshelf again. I think from this, I have learnt my lesson and will save a different version of it. |
3D Modeling - Grandfather clock
Test 01
I proud of the outcome of this clock that I created. I have achieved what I was thinking in my head. For the chains in the clock I have used texture since I didn't want it to be high poly. I need low poly for my environment so my PC don't lag.
3D MODELING - Bottle
I have created a time lapsed video of me modeling a bottle that I will have in my environment. In this video you can see what I went through to create it. I also added texture to take bottle and also colour to the bottle.
3D MODELING - Train
3D Modeling- Bomb
This is a video of me modeling wire for the bomb. This took me a long time to find out how I will add the wires, I looked at many tutorials but they didn't help me. Then I remembered Alex showed something similar using the CV curve.
3D Modeling - Mac
3D modeling - Table
To create the legs of this table I have used Adobe illustrator to draw a patten then I have imported on Maya. And used the 'Bevel Plus' tool to crate poly out of it.
3D Modeling - Revolver Gun
3D Modeling - House
I wanted to create a simple building for my environment. Don't much time to waste time, also I have considered I need to duplicate the building to fill the scene.
3D Modeling - Lamp
3D Modeling - Fireplace
3D modeling - Other
I have created flashing red light fro my environment which will indicate there's something wrong.
This is a mask that I will have at the end of the animation where his in the helicopter and you can only see the mask.
Lighting Tests
For the burning wood I have used a displacement map, the outcome didn't come out as good. It's because I just slapped on didn't take it to Photoshop to edit it. I have noticed that displacement map takes very long to render. I don't know if I will have it in my final render. I may have it depending on the time I render.
Final
I think this animation is successful, it has everything that the brief asked for. After doing this unit now i'm very comfortable with my modeling skills.I have enjoyed the modeling part, but I have improved in my lighting skills. Before I had very little knowledge, this unit as forced me to sharpen my lighting skills. In this unit I have used mostly Area Light, I think that worked, since the light emitting from the object into the room. I have used depth of field in this animation to get the audience to focus on certain parts.
I have rendered it in 1080HD at 25 frames per second in Tiff. I have used Tiff format because the file will not be compressed, I will get best quality. After rendering the frames I took them to Adobe After Effects to put them in sequence and render them in .MOV file so I can upload it on YouTube.
I have rendered it in 1080HD at 25 frames per second in Tiff. I have used Tiff format because the file will not be compressed, I will get best quality. After rendering the frames I took them to Adobe After Effects to put them in sequence and render them in .MOV file so I can upload it on YouTube.