Stairs and grandfather clock

Okay another update on my 3D environment task. I now have a pretty grandfather clock and stair case in my scene. :3 here's some images of today's work

going to have to start texturing real soon and I still have a lot more to go in the room. 

details take time and I am a stickler for detail 

Concept Art

Okay one of our tasks is to crate pre-production work and visual effects.
This assignment we are doing a ship take of and landing, so far we have finished the concept work and are currently working on a pre-viz, but here is the work up to date.

Story Boards 

The first part was to crate story boards. I had and idea of what I was going to do it was a temple ship. This was going to be a big ship with a very grassy surrounding. I did a little bit of research into what it might look like. looking at some grassy environments 

  Then I did my concepts.

 It wasn't working for me at all though. It seemed clunky and awkward and I couldn't figure out how it was going to work. then I changed the idea, came up with this bubble type ship and more of an Icy surrounding. So back to more research.

I worked out a bunch of ideas but the angles were not dynamic enough, kind of flat and boring. I needed to make them more interesting so I choose two that I liked and decided to extend on it.

I drew some concepts based off the two that I liked and developed them changing the angle and trying to find something to work better a three of the angles did inspire me though.  

So I developed and changed them more, to come up with 3 I liked. 

These felt like they were right and that they were dynamic enough and interesting. I was happy and I liked them. 

Ship Concept

 I then from that started to develop my ship design. So I could adapt my story board off the design. 

I started with some research into some ships that I liked. I wanted a light ship, that looked interesting, had some kind of weapon on it and looked like it was a small transport ship. Something that also would suite the terrain of the windy icy mountains that were in my concepts. 

I took aspects from each of the ships that I liked, like the shape of the top left corner ship and the bubble ship, inspired me to do a jet. also the wings of the second top left inspired mine. I liked how all of them had different segments and  and layered parts it made it look interesting and dynamic. 

 This is the first design I came up with based on the things I liked off the ships. 

It looked good but, not interesting enough and really unbalanced in the wing which wouldn't suite the environment  and  on collaboration with my lecture he gave me some tips on the the design and how I could change it. 

This was his exceptional drawing. (which he signed) 

From his drawing I came up with this. 

It feels a lot more balanced now and more like a ship. and its a lot more dynamic.It also suited one of my shots perfectly. 

Environment Concept

From doing the ship design I went off to do the concept of the environment. Basing the concept off my original story frames and figuring out the light and changing the things I didn't like I went for a blue colour, it seemed to balance the Icy surrounding of my environment. 

  

Shot breakdown

The next step was to break down each shot and figure out what was needed for the scene and what I would have to make and develop. I talked it over with my lecturer and then this is what we came up with. 

Shot 1

4secs 100frames

Foreground

·         Atmospheric  fog (slight)

·         Fore ground matte painting on polygon (sculpted) slight displacement

Midground

·         Rigged ship

·         Atmospheric fog (volume)

·         Animated element (landing gear)

·         Base model and texture (needs more concept/reference photos)

·         Outcrops (matte painting on polygon (sculpted) slight displacement)

·         Sprite light flares

Background

·         Background plane (mountains)

·         Animated element

·         Cloud bank

·         Sky dome

Shot 2

2secs 50frames

Forground

·         Thruster  smoke

·         Thick fog bank

Midground

·         Textured Rigged ship

·         Animated propeller

·         Sprite light flares

background

·         Sky dome

 

Shot 3

2secs 50frames

Foreground

·         Fore ground matte painting on polygon (sculpted) slight displacement

Midground

·         Rigged textured ship

·         Atmospheric fog (volume)

·         Animated element (thrusters/ wings)

·          Sprite light flares

·         Thruster smoke

Background

·         Sky dome

·         Background plane (mountains)

·         Cloud bank. 

Other

I still wasn't happy with the first frame and how baron it looks. The scene didn't look right and I wanted to make it a bit more dynamic and awing, since it was an establishing shot so I redrew it. 

 It looks a lot more interesting and more dynamic now so I was finally happy. 

For a last note I wanted to rough up the idea for the building and this is what I developed. 

It looks a bit like an oil rig, I figured that the people the people that might be in the area are mining or searching for something in the caves. since it is such and isolated environment. So I made it more industrial and have make shift living quarters.

the next stage of this assignment will be doing the pre viz. Which I am working on currently. I will update you with it when I am done. 

Animatornerd 

over and out.      

clicky clock

This is the product of some of today's work on my 3D environment a clock. an old Victorian inspired clock. :)

3D environment

Here is to show you the 3D environment. I am doing a very Victorian style house. This is a part of my room, its not completed yet and I keep thinking of more and more things to put in it to make it more realistic. Can't wait to be able to texture it :D

It looks a bit bare now but going to add more personal things to it as well.

over and out
Animatornerd

animation story idea

FINALLY found my idea for my story, some of you out there have already heard my presentation about it. But here is the essential break down of my idea and some notes that I have made for a closer look. 

Style:

 CGI with elements of 2d

Stylised characters and environments

Bubby rounded environment and then a boxy environment (2 for different parts depending on the emotion of the character) 

Feel:

emotional, imaginative, thought provoking

environment changes with the characters emotions, reflecting her perception of the world

Meaning: 

The story that I am trying to show is about the transition from becoming from a child to an adult. To show how even though you develop you still take aspects with you as you grow. That it also okay to be and individual, someone will still find you.  

               

Character:

                Girl – young bubbly girl, bright colored outfit. Rainbow socks. 

her outfit develops through the animation, depending on how she feels 

Happy - bright miss matched clothing, rainbow socks 

Sad - dull plain clothing dull pallet black white

conclusion - a good blend of both (still wears rainbow socks???) 

                Monster – cute, big eyes round and bouncy, animal like, some suggestion to it being a toy?? 

fluffy???

More teddy like???

Or more pet like???

Synopsis:

The story concentrates on a girl and has a very bright and bubbly environment. The girl is not a typical girl though, she lives in her imagination. She has all these ideas about how the world works, what noises are and how things come into existence. But going to school she finds that nobody shares this idea. They all find her weird, crazy, liar. She get bullied and teased and eventually goes into this isolation.

Everything becomes a blur to her, black and white dull, very boxy. Full of sadness she can’t find a way to feel happy again. She is lost in this world of darkness and is alone. Walking through a crowd of people she falls over she has completely given up hope and cries. From the tear that falls, a monster appears, a cute cuddly monster. It touches her hand and smiles up to her. She picks it up and hugs it, the feeling of love and life comes back. The two become friends going everywhere together, they are best friends. They make these amazing worlds together.  Until one day a boy approaches, He is smiling, they laugh together and the boy beckons to follow him. She looks at the monster and then at the boy and decides to go with the boy and smiles. The monster smiles back at her as she moves away. The monster then lays there waiting for someone new.  

   

CRAZY

Every time I was on the train as a child I thought what if the same places existed at multiple points of time. What if I am seeing myself in the future. What if different points in time existed in the one place, we just couldn't see it, because we weren't looking the right way. As an adult I learned how is this possible, there is no science to prove this. I was a silly child.

But maybe as a child we do see things that people don't. Like the way you look into a babies eyes and they are so open to thoughts. I swear that every time they look at me they can see straight through me into my soul. 

Imagination is what makes a child so different from an adult, Because as an adult you are so moulded by the things around you that you don't really see them any more, I have seen that wall a hundred times. Plus you know all the factual information on everything that there is no room for theory.  You are told that these things exist and these don't. But who is to really say that something is not to exist. I am not saying this as a question to religion but more to question thought. Were is the original thought process, where does our imagination go when we are older and does having an imagination, make you weird or crazy. 

I have being told that living like a child makes you immature. Believing in things that people do not think to exist is crazy. Its the stuff that gets you sent away. But then such a big part of growing up is to watch things that people have created, monsters, magic and superheroes, to then be told these things don't exist. Who told you that they can't exist. What is wrong with believing in Batman. Maybe he will save me some day. He is just hiding right???? right????? RIGHT????? 

Okay back to focusing on the point at hand I suppose. 

My idea that I have being slowly progressing is getting there. I know for definite that I am going to be focusing on children, I don't know why. I think its just the admiration if only I could be young and naive again. What I want to focus on is how they think and looking into their imagination then showing there progression into life and reality. Basing off my ideas in my last blog I am going to take the boy and the girl character and develop them a bit more. I want to keep the essence of both the stories, but add a meeting to the beginning and to the end joining them together, in some way.

I am starting to some thumbnail sketches of the story, to just start structuring it a bit better get an idea of what I may want things to look like, but nothing final yet. This also brings me to the end of this blog entry too. 

so, 

till the next chapter 

over and out   

Progression of story - IDEA IDEA IDEAS

I like to believe everything in life can be fixed by the really simple and if you can't fix it to find a way to incorporate it to make it into something else. I would really like to draw away from the comedic things I do for most animations and start to look at a doing something with meaning. something that balances the good and the bad moments in life. A thing that evokes some thought. I want people to smile on the good moments and cry for the bad moments, but at the end feel a sought of conclusion.   

Here's is the current animation that has really made me think. 

It all starts with an idea, something that starts the thinking process. Maybe you saw something funny happen to someone. Maybe a moment in your life of some sought of significance. Everything starts up something.... creates some sense of meaning. 

I like to try to draw inspiration from real life. Create characters out of real people. I have always being fascinated  in people and their behaviours in real life situations. How people change in situations. Everyone has those really happy and fantastic moments and those really terrible moments. How do we deal with these moments, where do we find comfort? What is comfort?? 

Idea 1 

A girl, fractured broken. Her heart is breaking walking through crowds of people she always sees them as a blur, she seeks some kind of happiness, reaching grasping, crying falling. Then something reaches out. A small creature  a kind and caring creature, it too has a broken heart. But the two find some kind of happiness in other. Their hearts are as one. They become  friends, they laugh together, they play together and get older together. They grow apart they become distant in other lives, a slow gradual distance, they forget each other. Only to have the memories of their moments together. Those moments make them smile, those moments make them.  

Even now memories make us, they help us to develop a sense of self. Where did we really come from? Did we make ourselves or did the people around us mould us. Can I really change what I am?? travel back to the past. Mend the broken things. Would it make us better??? Is it going to change our future??

idea 2   

Its lost, no way to get it back, tears fall. He wants to get back, go back to the moment where he could fix it all. Creation of invention. "Time Machine". Back to the moment, he sees it the moment where he could fix everything, then he misses, its gone its happened, he can't change it.... He still has the emptiness. Its still there. He goes back again and again. Each time not being able to fix the past because it was meant to happen. That awful moment over and over again. It is taking over his future, its taking him with it. He is slowly dying from the pain of it. Till he eventually finds a moment. a moment well before. His mother standing, loving caring he runs to her hugs her, his tears fall and the pain melts away. He says good bye whispers I love you and then he leaves knowing his heart is fixed.  

This is just to give you an idea on what I am thinking about doing. All I really want to do for  it is to make it amazing really take people aback and get people to think and feel. After all animation is visual communication. I think its really important to get people to think and possibly from this assignment I can push  my potential and create something amazing.

Animator nerd OUT