Update on Animated Short - Environment Development

The past couple of days were spent putting together all the assets and beginning to layout the film.

Although I thought all assets were built to scale, they were not. I forgot to make sure that after exporting the assets and importing them into Maya that they were the right heights. Most assets were simply to make to scale. Those who had SSS in their shaders required adjusted. The most difficult to scale were the character rigs, but that is on its way.

The lighting is a draft, as is the layout. I have used a script called Debris Maker to create rocks, crystals, and other environmental assets that will fill in the emptiness of the scene.

First layout composition


Layout with some shaders and highlights (post-resize)


Positioning of objects, picking a camera angle, shaders (pre-resize)


With scale readjustment: SSS in flower petals is not accurate

Final Film - Finalizing Models and Working on Shaders

I spent my time during the holidays working on textures, shaders, and character rigs.

The Arnold aiStandard or SSS shaders will be layered using Maya's Layered Shader. For the aiStandard, I noted that tweaking the opacity setting in the shader's parameters was required if I wanted to add a gloss over a matted paint layer on metal. A map could be used to add rust or dust, or any other added details. For the SSS in the plant, I followed the tutorial found on Arnold's support suggested to me by a coworker.

Here are some quick renders I saved during the time I worked.



It's a work in progress and there are still many things that require fixing and polishing. There are no textures on the characters as of yet, and I will need to make time to do some, though time is ticking and I need to move onto other steps and assure I do the best I can in all the different areas of the film!

Alas, An Update on the Film!

There have been a lot of changes, and there will continue to be a lot of changes. I need to make sure that I can meet the final deadline, and I truly believe I will (I BETTER>:C).

 I'll put things here in the order that they were created (from oldest to newest).

Here are some layout shots that were done near the end of November. I find the layout stage really easy and really ugly.

So, we can see that a base model has been set for the environment, characters, and props. The light shaft lies right above the flower and isn't in the shot.

Here I explored how to create an "organic" looking flower. I'm still unsure about some of this but that's how it is with everything and me, so it'll do for now. 

Started with a sphere, sliced, turbosmooth (above all modifiers), tweaked low base mesh of sphere, added FFD modifier above all. I ended up using a free flower head that was quite beautiful (from here) but kept the mid level leaves I created (below head but at top of stem... (confusing)) and the two bottom leaves I created. 

Began texturing. *spazzes*

I love texturing. Reaching a realistic look is quite challenging though results can be quite beautiful if done right. I will aspire to do so. 

Mmm, checker pattern.

SHADERS!!! <3 And no, I didn't add the stem texture from above. I lied about the order, I actually played with shaders and lighting before doing the texture... And the refined stem/leaves model.

Arnold renderer, you make anything look great. *spazzes again*

She had her proportions changed slightly. Her hands encountered some difficulty when being rigged. I designed them badly so they don't work well. Her shoulders as well. :(

This is the new Vladimir. A robot, whut? He's supposed to be a robot so he could mesh better with the other character. Problem is, they still look like they're from completely different worlds. I'll have to see what I can do about that.

-_-

SO MANY THINGS TO FIX.

fin.

Zbrush Model 02

A zbrush model done for class. 27K polys at low res.

Sunnnnnnnnn

ALMOST SUMMER!
Olaf would be happy. (:
Made from scratch! Except for the books, flower pattern, and the BG in the render, haha.

SSS Render

Hello elephants. How do you do?

Wabooses...

3ds Max hair and fur and Vray fur.

Rendering Project

This one took a bit longer than the others but I believe the results made it worth it!

Commercial Product Render

Model provided by teacher. Applied textures and rendered in Vray.

Plate on a Table

Assignment for lighting and rendering class. Used 3ds max and Vray; models are from here.

M-O from Wall-E

This is my friend M-O from Wall-E (© Disney) whom I modeled in 3ds max and textured and rendered with VRay. He's a good friend. I learned sooooooo much from this project.