I am going to begin with the nursery scene as it is the focal point of the animation. I am going to aim for a realistic environment which I believe will challenge and develop my skills as well as produce the aesthetic that I desire. I have decided to use Maya as it is the program that I am most comfortable with, I have also previously had a small encounter with Mental Ray and wish to explore this renderer further as I believe that it will help me be able to produce the quality I desire.
One important aspect I have to keep in mind is the rendering time of each frame. From previous experience I have learnt that I need to ensure I have enough time to render and edit my animation as these are aspects that are important. To ensure that I do, I have to be careful of how long each frame is taking to render which depends on the content of the scene for example the poly count, a high poly count results in a longer rendering time therefore I need to find the right balance of a high quality scene with a realistic rendering time. I think that this is important as especially within industry, you must work to a strict deadline where there is no room for excuses.
I began by creating a room and modelling the crib, I used a polygon cube for the room and deleted the top face and have used the edge loop tool to make holes for the windows. I am modelling the crib using polygon cylinders, spheres and cubes. I am going to model the components separately, duplicate them and combine them for more accuracy. Previously, I have been unable to achieve a 'realistic' flooring in Maya therefore I decided to use this oppurtunity to learn how to do so. I do not know much regarding producing shaders and correctly using bump maps and textures, I have attempted before but do not feel comfortable with my skills so I am going to pay particular attention to this during the production of my animation.
I have also placed a 'physical sun and sky' into my scene which can be found under the render settings, I am using this lighting as I like the realistic lighting that it produces and I think it works well with Mental Ray.
I had decided to begin with texturing the floor and decided on a wooden flooring. I researched into how to make a wood shader specific to mental ray. I found the Autodesk website was particularly helpful and used the section for glossy wooden flooring and produced this flooring.
Using the mia_material and applying these settings :
A typical wooden floor could use refl_gloss of 0.5, refl_samples of 16, reflectivity of 0.75, a nice wood texture for diffuse, perhaps a slight bump map (try the no_diffuse_bump checkbox if bumpiness should appear only in the lacquer layer).
http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/2009help/mr/shaders/architectural/arch_mtl.html
I am extremely pleased with this result as it is exactly the style that I was aiming for and it has also made me feel more positive about my skills and is pushing me to aim a little higher as this shows that I am able to achieve what I aim for.
I continued modelling the crib and have began to model the drawers. I like to work a bit all over the place, starting several things at a time as I find it holds my attention more working on several things at once, luckily I don't think that it effects my focus, if anything it improves it.
So, after my first day of modelling, this is what I have achieved. I am not going to rush this scene as I think attention to detail is important, also I want my work to be of high quality and to learn during the production process therefore I think it is important I take my time but give myself enough time for animation, rendering and editing.
No comments:
Post a Comment