A Nice Cup Of Tea

So I realise it has been a very long time since I last posted anything, I'm not promising I'll be putting it all up but I'll try. Anyway here is my submission for 'A Nice Cup Of Tea', had to rush the last few scenes but overall I'm fairly happy with it.

Seminar: Spine Rigged (clone love)

Rigged the spine, everything went fine, had one hickup where I added the controllers as bones in the skin, which baffled me for a while as I didn't realise I did it, but I sorted that pronto. Thought I would break away from the 360 degree view videos I have been putting up and instead rendered some clone loving. Enjoy.

Seminar: Leg Rigged with Bones

Buggered this up a little by misplacing the ankle, but here we are:

Seminar: Basic Man with Hands and Face

Todays seminar task. Mucked up the ears a little bit, oops.

3D World: January 2010 [P1]

Just a list of the companies that had work mentioned inside of the magazine and what I found out when I chased them up.

Air-CGI produce brilliant Visualisations, they create photo-realistic models (prominantly of cars) but integrate them perfectly with real captured footage, meaning if you didn't know any better then you wouldn't have a clue of the CGI's presence.

Moving Picture Company have a piece featured called Kerry LowLows 'Mouse', which I am sure you have all seen and would agree that the animation is ace. But there's more where that came from, they have a long list of animation and VFX clients, and as well as having produced amoungst the best TV Commercials I have seen they have also produced VFX for the following films:

• GI Joe. The Rise of Cobra
• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
  
• Night at the Museum 2
• Watchmen
• Narnia, Prince Caspian
• Sweeney Todd
• James Bond: Quantum of Solace
• 10,000 BC
• Angels and Demons
• Surrogates
• Dorian Gray

These are just the lastest, the list of films is massive and worth a look at. This company is huge and has branched into a lot of different areas regarding 3D. They are present in TV Broadcasting, Commercials, Films and Digital. They also have a 2D department.

Passion Pictures appear to be in a similar field to MPC, being quite prominant in commercials, not however breaking into film just yet. They are features for a piece called Coke Zero's Happy Kingdom, which I might add is brilliant, and is done by a man called Pete Candeland. When looking at the Passion Pictures Showreel I couldn't help but notice my absolute favourite advert, the latest from comparethemeerkat. I hope they turn this into a move, I love it. Oh, and the man responsible is Darren Walsh.

Tyson Ibele

Just looked up Tyson Ibele because of a plugin he did for max (building generator), and he is absolutely awesome. He's only a couple of years older than I am, and amazing with max. He does both visualisation and animation, and has been learning how to use 3D software since 2000. So maybe 9 years from now I'll be as awesome as he is. Here's some of his work:

Seminar: Basic Man Shape

The task from todays seminar.

Animation: Cup Fill

I'm still not hitting much luck. I think I have a mental block today because I just cant knack this. This video is meant to show a liquid pouring into a cup, but the liquid in the scene isn't so 'liquidy', it's more of a sludge. On the possitive side of things, the cup is successfully filled, the liquid raises as more enters the cup, and has rotation, possibly too much though. I used blobmesh in this one, but it hasn't worked out too well, as the liquid is actually blobby, I think it could work if i just reduced some parametres. I used a vortex to create the rotation and a uDeflector once more, this time combined with a 'collision' value from the paricle view. The particle system used was PF Source.

Animation: Water Bounce

I have tried to create a water bounce with super spray, uDeflector and a gravity system, however I don' feel I have achieved it. The particles are too many and the shape is consistantly circular, it looks fake. The bounce on the other hand looks ok. I have done some reading and apparantly a blobmesh may help towards realism.

Animation: Dynamic Water

First attempt at making dynamic water. I used reactor to create this.

'Up Above Down Below' Final Piece

Not so happy with this one, there's a lot more I wanted to do with it but didn't leave enough rendering time. The lighting could have been better, there could have been more in the scene, the speed needed to be regulated at the start and I didn't get to put in my big finish, which was to change the camera view at the end towards the earth to see it be blown up by the giant space invader.

Animation: Grass

Just modelled some grass and animated it. Used scatter to create the grass, then animated it with volume select and multiple wave modifiers to vary the movement.

Its the same piece of animation, only the second video has its speed reduced to x1/4 and had a light put into the scene.

Modelling: International Space Station

This is a piece I modelled for the visualisation project "Up Above Down Below", it's a slight adaptation of the International Space Station, the adaptation being I havn't put in the scaffolding around as it looked better without, and the textures are different.

It is available to download from TurboSquid HERE

Cinema: Avatar

"The world shown in Avatar is fleshed out in such detail and scope that you really feel like you're in a place that exists" - Dan Lemmon (FX supervisor, Weta Digital

After seeing the film twice in 3D I couldn't agree more. The environments in the film have such depth it does seem like you could step into any scene, whether it be the lush forests of Pandora or the futuristic human base camp.

However, as astonishing as the world of Pandora looks, the inhabitants blow that all away. The main race of humanoids that make up the film are called the Na'vi, and are the most complex characters ever created. They have multiple skin tissue layers, as well as tendon sheets to create realistic dynamic flesh, however the faces of the characters are even more complicated. Weta used HD cameras to capture their actors facial expressions, then using their in-house software created a map of muscle firings for expressions and converted it into motion data that could be applied to the Na'vi. They would then compare Na'vi expressions to the actor expressions and tweak whatever they needed to. Also worth mentioning, to create wrinkles in the skin of the Na'vi, instead of using traditional methods of adding them in a displacement map (allowing them to simply dissolve in and out) they were actually sculpted into the models, allowing for skin to squash together to form the wrinkle. The characters are full of little techniques such as this.

At A Glance:

• Large trees in the forests had up to 1.2 million polygons each.
• 1,852 total shots1,818 animated shots
• 900 crew at peak 
• Crew from 46 different countries, spread across 6 locations
• The larger shots of Pandora had more than 1,000 digital assets, excluding characters
• More than 1,900 digital assets were created
• Some of the larger shots had use between 5-50 billion polygons
• Around 10TB of data generated per day
• 483 unique plants, with geometry and texture modifications there are over 3,000 variations
• 53 unique Na'vi characters with over 100 variations
• 25 unique vehicles
• 21 unique creatures created, with texture modifications there are 68 variations
• 90 unique environments - 1,500 shot specific terrain pieces/elements to make these up
• 4,352 rendering machines 
• 34,816 CPU cores
• 104TB of RAM

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'Of Bots And Bananas' Final Piece

I'm fairly happy with this, there's a few things I would have liked to have done better, such as putting in a more noticable jolt of the shoulders in the walk cycle, and sound effects, but as a whole I'm happy with it.

Progress

So it's been a week and a bit of neglection for my blog, sorry this tends to happen around a month before hand in dates, anyway just a quick sum up of where I am with my projects, what they're going to be and why:

Up Above Down Below

Back to the beginning of modelling, Simon told me to change my idea slightly, unfortuantly that 'slight' change is where I had done all my modelling, so many wasted hours there.

The Idea - 'Space Elevator', the cart shoots into space, exploring planets and moons, but it also passes by thiins you might want to see in space but never experience, i.e. a black hole, comet close up, an exploding planet and a giant space invader.

Of Bots And Bananas

Modelling the robot, in a few days modelling the scenery. The robot is nothing spectacular as it doesn't have to be, for the time being I'm going to concentrate on the animation. The scenery consists of two mountains, with a rope bridge attacthing them.

The Idea - 'The Bridge', a robot falls from the sky and lands on a mountain side, he wants to get across to the other side so crosses a bridge, he sees a plank missing and steps over it only to slip on a banana peel, he falls continuesly hitting off of the mountain. When he lands it's back to the start of the animation, so it can loop.

Card Game

Designed second prototype, with all cards designed and a clear rule set. Still space for changes to be made if there needs to be any, currently play testing the game and have been for two weeks nearly.

The Idea - Each player has to save their victims and scores points for doing so, it's long winded to explain properly so feel free to find the rule set on here, it's tagged under 'Card Game'.

Card Game: Victim Themes

I've been doing a little research into bizzare and odd illnesses to create more interisting 'Victim' cards, here they are:

1. Dr. Strangelove Syndrome - Officially known as Alien Hand Syndrome, this bizarre neurological illness affects thousands of people. It is caused by damage to certain parts of the brain, and causes one of a person’s hands to act independently of the other and of its owner’s wishes. For example, the misbehaving hand may do the opposite of what the normal one is doing: if a person is trying to button a shirt with one hand, the other will follow along and undo the buttons. If one hand pulls up trousers, the other will pull them down. Sometimes the hand may become aggressive – pinching, slapping, or punching the patient. In at least one case, it tried to strangle its owner. Says neurologist Rachelle Doody, ‘Often a patient will sit on the hand, but eventually it gets loose and starts doing everything again.”

Refeference: DR. STRANGELOVE SYNDROME

 2. Latah - This disease is mainly found in adult women. The sufferer may lose control of their behavior; mimic the speech and actions of the people around them. They obey the commands given to them. For example if they are given a command to hit anybody they will obey it instantly. They actually don’t know what they are doing.

Reference: LATAH

3. Pica - This disease creates an urge to eat things other than food. Sufferers eat substances such as paper, clay, dirt, glue, coal, even feces and lint. Some Researchers believe that it is due to mineral deficiency, but others say real cause and cure is yet to find.

Reference: PICA  

4. Capgras Delusion - In this disease, the sufferer becomes convinced that a family member usually spouse has been replaced by an identical looking imposter. He or she refuses to sleep with the imposter. Some victims even second guess their own reflections in the mirror.

Reference: CAPGRAS DELUSION

5. Kleptomania - The sufferer of this disease is forced to steal things, from paper clips to toilet rolls. They steal anything even things with no value. In some cases they aren’t even ware that it is a theft. At the time of theft the patient feels pleasure or relief. The afflicted may be women in most cases. Evidences show that the abnormalities in the brain chemical serotonin may cause this disease.

Reference: KLEPTOMANIA

6. Werewolf Syndrome - Two year-old Abys DeJesus grew dark, hairy patches on her face. Doctors said she has a condition known as Human Werewolf Syndrome. The disease is called werewolf syndrome because people with it look like werewolves - except without the sharp teeth and claws. In Mexico, a large family of men had hair that covered their whole face and body. Two brothers were even offered a role in the X-Files TV series, but they turned the offer down.

Reference: WEREWOLF SYNDROME 

7. Blue Skin Disorder - A large family simply known as the "blue people" lived in the hills around Troublesome Creek in Kentucky until the 1960s. They were the blue Fugates. Most of them lived past the age of 80, with no serious illness - just blue skin. The trait was passed on from generation to generation. People with this condition have blue, plum, indigo or almost purple skin.

Reference: BLUE SKIN DISORDER 

8. Boanthropy - Boanthropy is an illness in which sufferers take to the belief that they are cattle. Some Christians consider the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar to have suffered from this disorder. "He was driven away from people and ate grass like cattle." (Daniel 4:33)

Reference: BOANTHROPY

9. Cotard Delusion - The Cotard delusion or Cotard's syndrome, also known as nihilistic or negation delusion, is a rare neuropsychiatric disorder in which a person holds a delusional belief that he or she is dead, does not exist, is putrefying or has lost his/her blood or internal organs. Rarely, it can include delusions of immortality.

Reference: COTARD DELUSION

10. Apotemnophilia - Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID), also known as Amputee Identity Disorder or Apotemnophilia is the overwhelming desire to amputate one or more healthy limbs or other parts of the body. Although it most commonly refers to people who wish to amputate limbs, BIID also applies to those who wish to alter their bodily integrity.

Reference: APOTEMNOPHILI

Seeing as I have 12 victim cards these alone will not be enough to use, also it may be a bit contraversial because these afterall are real illnesses.

If these arent ok to use then I can either make up diseases that are humerous, or find diseases that have been pandemics over the course of history.

Card Game: A&E

Over the past week or so I have been developing the A&E idea, it seems to be going well as participants are enjoying gameplay and are full of feedback. I know I havn't outlined what the game was in terms of rules on here yet, but it seems irrelevant to now as the game has changed slightly, however there have been some changes worth mentioning:

• The game is now played in rounds so that the players can have the game go on for as long as they want.
• The amount of 'DEADICAL' cards has decreased as it seemed very easy to kill of victims.
• The amount of medical cards needed to save a victim has increased per victim to make victory harder.

Rules and Setup:

1.  There are 3 decks, the Victim deck, the Game deck and the Discard deck.
   
2. At the start of each round each player draws 3 cards from the Victim deck face up so the other players can see them, and 3 cards from the Game deck face down (if a Deadical or Shuffle card is drawn at the start of the round it goes straight into the discard pile and the players keep drawing cards until they have 3 Medical ones, then the round can begin).
3. Each player can have a maximum of 5 cards at hand at one time (excluding victim cards), they can only draw a new card from the Game deck if they discard a card into the Discard deck. Players can hold the 5 cards they have until the end of the round.
4. A round is ended by either a player saving or losing all of their victim cards.
   

Scoring:

1. Players can both gain and lose points. To gain points the player must save a victim by holding all of the Medical cards that meet the 'save' conditions on the victim card. To lose points the player would draw or recieve a Deadical card that only has to meet one 'die' condition on the victim card.

Special Cards and Rules:

1. Shuffle Cards 'mess' the game up and provide different ways to play. They can be group (every player) or singular (the player that draws the card) orientated. If a player draws a group card then they must play the card as it will effect every player in the game. If a player draws a singular card then they can play it at any point of the round as it will only effect them and one other player.
2. Any player can revive a dead victim once per round unless that victim has been killed by a shuffle card. The victim also must have been the last one to have been killed or saved. A victim is revived by a player saving a new victim; the victim that is saved in turn stays a part of the players pile. If a victim is revived then the player regains the points they lost for the victims death and gains the points for saving both victims (the saved and revived).
3. Any player can 'refresh' their entire pile once in the game at the beginning of any round of their choice, however, it comes at a cost of 3 points.

Okay so that's it for rules so far, here's the list of 60 game cards:

12x Victim Cards

35x Medical Cards

8x Deadical cards

5x Shuffle Cards

Modelling: Lighting

Here's a few renders of a bit of my city scene at different lighting settings, I based it in London, varying it up by changing the time of year and day:

Should have uploaded these things a few days ago, unfortuantly the wireless device on my laptop has broken so it's been a bit of a delay. If any of you guys have vista and you download SP2 let me know if it breaks your wireless please? Cheers.

'Up Above Down Below' Concept

There's going to be 3 separate environments, an EARTH environment, SPACE and WATER.

In a nutshell here's what I have planned to happen:

The scene starts in the earth environment with a man boarding the rollercoaster, the camera then switches perspective form 3rd point to 1st allowing the audience to sit in the seat of the man, essentially to be him. The rollercoaster then kicks into gear going through both rural and urban areas, showing off the extremes of both, as it becomes more rural the track begins to travel up a mountain-side, and because it's at the depth of the rural environment it looses power, the rollercoaster is then launched up the track at a tremendous speed only to reveal that the track ends.

The cart is launched into space (second environment) and travels around various stars, planets and extra terrestrial lifeforms. As well as the journey on the track there will be cuts of environments and maybe the man, to show him astounded.

The cart will eventually lose power from being in space and begin to fall to a new planet that is coated in water. The cart falls onto a track on the water planet and begins to go round on it, it passes through corals and fish filled areas, but as the journey goes on the terrains and creatures became less familiar and more alien like, again with this there are cuts off the track to the environment and the astounded look on the mans face. After passing through this area the rollercoaster will stop in an alien station.

Elements and Theme:

• The rollercoaster will be a rocket cart with huge thrusters.
• When the cart looses power the thrusters boom with fire and launch the cart into space.
• There is no dominant theme, I want the clip to show variety in environments.
  
• The track is important, it will start off stable but as it travels through the environments there will be loops, corkscrews, jumps - just generally getting more exciting as it goes on.
  
• Im going to try and put in dominant features throughout, so in the urban areas there will be huge buildings, cracked roads, tramps etc. in the rural trees, mountains, rivers and wildlife. In space shooting stars, comets, floating chuncks of rock, black holes and on the water planet there will be corals, deep and shallow water, sunken ships, caves, flurries of fish and sea creatures etc.