[Insert Some Whitty Xmas Related Title]

So slowly but surely I've been working away on both Shed interior and exterior, before I made any changed I re-sized some objects to fit with the characters size.



I then spent the better side of 4 hours 'cleaning' up the scene, deleting history, renaming poly's, and finally grouping everything into their own folders for easy access for the texture artists, I've also been plodding along with U.V unwrapping and am almost done.



I then wanted to see how the W.I.P exterior would fit with the interior, so I imported in the scene and rendered off this little peach, really shows it coming together.



Also I've been looking into displacements maps as a quicker form of modelling, although my Photoshop skills aren't anyway near as good as the pro's the render turned out quite good, I think if I was to start using displacements maps I would really have to plan out the scene and have an order to follow. The scene is extremely low poly.





I think displacement maps would work really well for fixing like dado rails, plug sockets, locks etc.

Shed Outside

For Kernel a fair few shots take place outside and as I'm modelling the Shed interior I'm also modelling the outside (which makes sense). I've been going off some designs Charlie made. Its been refreshing to get outside the model and start working on different aspects and making sure they all meet up.

Kernel

With Kernel I started working a few weeks before most. I started with modelling a few props and various items of interest. Things like shears, pegs, and the most beautiful scissor mirror, that was wrote out of the script, and will now be back logged :(. Since I've been with the project early on I've seen the story change and improve, but due to these changes I never started work on anything to big, just in case it wasn't needed. With modelling it seems like the more effort i put in the more i learn and get back, i use to model really quite high poly, most of which wasn't even needed, so I've manage to learn how to model 'properly'. Anywhoooo, here is some of the things I modelled, what seems years back:







The mask is quite interesting, its been really nice to work directly with the Director Olly to get it exactly how he wants, but you really do need a designer/artist to nail it first time round, but its all a learning curve. Hes some of the progress of just the mask to give you an idea of development:










The Final Version, I Hope.


Though there is still plenty of props etc to be modelled and unwrapped (I finally got RoadKill to work) I've started working on the shed, which is attached to the greenhouse, a major environment to the story. I've also used my own creativity to help 'fill' out the scene. Its still work in progress, the roof needs to be lowered but here is how the shed looks:

Fentil: Another Life

I'll start with Fentil. So for this project I'm modelling the environment which is relatively 'simple' as its made up of maybe 3 or 4 main factors. The action takes place on top of these blueish Tile Tops that are suspended off the ground by a lattice, these tile tops are in fact a sort of plant/tree and are meant to be the size of a half a house. The fit together like bubbles, here is how they look from a bird eye view:



The tile tops sits on top of a shrub land that is close to what you get in outback Australia but with alien plants and shrubs. In the background there is a mountain range that will be a matte painting. Given the size and proportion of the project we started looking at ways to 'cheat'. So for starters the tile tops are really low poly and will rely on good texture for a photorealistic look, the lattice's that are close to the camera will be high poly but for the ones out of focus or too far back will, most likely, be an alpha plain wrapped around a cylinder with just a lattice texture showing. Here was a very basic scene set up for a lightening test, you can see which lattices are high and low poly (ignore the stuff on top):



Since this will really rely on how good the textures are I thought I should at least give it a look. I'm not the best with Photoshop so some of the maps I used are really amateurish. So here is the latest work I've been doing, these Tile Tops have a dispalcement map, bump map and a specular map. I'm actually really pleased with the way they have turned out and where fairly quick on rendering, enjoy:

Where To Start......

Its been awhile. Well for starters I'm in my final year at university, which seems to have flown by. The 3rd year mostly consists of working on our Final Major Project (FMP), I never had an idea to pitch to start with so i opted to work on other peoples project as I felt it would give me a stronger/diverse showreel by the end of the year. So for starters here is my modelling showreel:



Everyone else (who actually had an idea) pitched them at the Maritime Museum and they all did an amazing job, and made me so much more enthusiastic to work on their projects. Out of the 25, 16 were chosen, and given my 'area' is 3D I started working on the two 3D films. Kernel, a film by Olly Skillman-Wilson, that explores the concept of knowledge is power. The story revolves around Leonard, an outcast of such, who is able to store knowledge (which has been banned) in plant bulbs, with the future intention of spreading the knowledge to those who are not part of the political machine. The second is Fentil: Another Life, a documentary by Dan Emmerson which is essentially Planet Dinosaur, set on an 'alien' moon in a completely different solar system, its wonderfully balanced between logical and alien. It follows a 'chase' scene between Platehead (prey) and Brighteye (predator). For both projects I am environment modelling, seeing as this is becoming a rather large post I will stop here and post seperatly for both projects.

For Olly - Dropbox out of space

Quick Art

Since we're a couple of games into the new football season and inspiration is high, I felt like doing some colourful bits of art.



Richard Swarbrick has made an awesome 2D animation called El Classico and more recently an advert for The Sun featuring Wayne Rooney's (ok) overhead goal. Individual frames of real footage had been coloured in to create this stylistic and simplistic looking animation that just seem to capture the essence of football and passion of the sport, and it did these use few coloures and brash strokes. Every since i was introduced to Richard Swarbrick's work a while back I have always wanted to emulate it, even if its just a few seconds of animation. So I thought I best get practicing, and here are a few quick paintings of Liverpool's Luis Suarez.

Cornish Rain, Summer Work And Nathan Fillion

So as summer rolled around and brought the rainy showers of boredom all over Cornwall, I had to find a way to keep myself entertained. What better way to pass the rainy days then with the shit hot television series Firefly (which had been recommended to me. After 14 episodes of top quality action, acting and story telling, I was eager to watch the next series and find out just what happens to these characters that I spent the better half of a week getting to know. But by the powers that be the show had been cancelled after just one measly series, which I can look back on now and laugh at how I reacted to this news. But at the time I was a deathly silence, the type of silence your parents gave you as a kid when you really fucked up and knew it.

On the back of this news I was eager not to give up on the series that had such great concept ideas, so I started to model my own version of a "Ship" based on the design on a dragonfly (since the ship in the series had been based off a firefly-hence the name)and I also modelled a relatively simple earth:



and off the back off watching JJ Abrams Star Trek, I added a tiny bit of lens flare.

As for the ship design I looked at films like Star Trek and Sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2007), but since these films all had pristene looking ships, I wanted to make mine look more 'homemade', cheap and a bit more brutish. Anywho, the ship is still a work in progress but i'm very happy with how its looking and when its finish I am going to combine it with the earth and have it fly towards the planet, in a sort of opening title sort of way. Here and some photos and a turn around - any feed back, any at all would be schweeeet.

2/3

So the final second year draws to a close and it's been an exciting one. As I sit here, cold beer in hand, thinking about the varied and fun tasks we have been set over the past year, I cant help but think "The more I learn, the more eager I am to do"

My last major project was the negotiated breif that i have been blogging about the past few weeks, and i'm happy to show off my final version.

With Depth of Field

Without

Depth Render


Chances are I'll set myself a few tasks to do over the summer to stop myself getting rusty, i may even do another Mudbox sculpt for a bit of fun. Anyways i'm off to enjoy the Cornish grey sun.

Quick Update

Here is the latest version of my 3D environment and also a table i have been modelling, I also modelled a coke can just to help with refferencing size. The table still has to be textured. At a later date I will upload a photo of the real table.

Magazine Design

Earlier this month I helped my sister with some magazine design. Here is the final version of the three A3 pages.

Update

Heres where I am at for the negotiated breif. I've started filling out the room with objects, but I'm going to relight the room, for a more dramtic effect and not have it so bright. I may also re-texture the floor.