Modelling - Day 6

Next, I will be focussing on the baby mobile for the crib. I think this is important as it is a small detail that will at to the reality of the scene. Obviously, I had to gather reference for this. 

I have not been looking forward to modelling this as I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to do it however I manipulated polygon cylinders and applied a white blinn to give the mobile a white plastic appearance as most mobiles are plastic. I then created a moon and a star and applied a similar texture to the towels. 

I would say that my project is coming along well and I am about half way in the process of the production of my nursery scene. Here are some shots of how it is looking so far:

Obviously there are still some things that needs to be done but I have also added trees into the 'garden'. I inserted trees using Maya's PaintEffects as oppose to projecting an image onto a flat plane as I feel it gives depth and adds to the realism. I have also created a simple garden fence to ensure that the background is believable. 

This took three minutes to render! This is why I am not a fan of paint effects.. But because it is in the background it doesn't effect the nursery too much and it definitely adds depth to the scene.

Modelling - Day 5

I have added more towels and modelled some decorative storage boxes. I have also downloaded and used a model of a bear and a model of Pikachu, these will be the only downloaded models, as well as my characters that I will be using in the production of my animation. The reason for this is that I do not think that my character modelling skills are strong enough and would jeopardise the quality of the final production and would fall short of the quality that I am aiming for. Ultimately, my goal is to pursue a career within 3D environments and am using this project as an opportunity to showcase these particular skills and not my character modelling skills.

This is a shot of the drawers, towels, storage boxes and toys. I have also added a skirting board which was incredibly simple.

I am really pleased with my progress and am constantly getting feedback from my peers and others for my work which has all been positive so far. I am feel like I am gaining a lot from this project, I am developing my skills and abilities as well as my confidence in my work of which is encouraging me to aim higher. 

I think that the small details are important when attempting to create a realistic environment. I have been closely studying rooms in my own house for example for the small details such as the skirting board, light switches and plug sockets. 

Next, I decided to model a bookcase and some books, the room looks slightly empty and it is a typical object that people have in their home. I created the bookcase from a polygon cube again using the edge loop tool and extruding the faces. I then created the book by using a polygon cube that I moulded into a rectangle and placed inside the cover which I made by using the polygon torus tool and manipulating it. I then created a shader by applying a texture and a bump map. I also created some letter blocks as an ornament to contribute to the ambience. 

The rendering time is at 38 seconds per frame at the moment. I would say that this isn't too bad at this stage considering the animation will only be a minute long however the scene is still not complete so I will have to be aware of this. 

Modelling - Day 4

Today I began with experimenting with how to construct the moses basket as I felt that the texture and bump maps would be difficult and important in order to get the moses basket looking realistic. Initially, I gathered some reference of what I was hoping to create.

This is a good example of the style I am hoping to produce. I constructed the initial shape from a polygon sphere and altered the shape and deleted some faces. I also found a wicker texture and applied it to a Blinn material as wicker can have a slightly 'shiny' quality. I also applied a bump map that I produced in Photoshop by editing the wicker original texture. This worked surprisingly well and this is result: 

I like to try and get the aspects that I am most concerned about addressed first otherwise I tend to spend my time worrying about how I am going to overcome these obstacles therefore I feel that this was a positive result. Obviously I need to continue to model the basket but the initial stages are there. I have also added some shelves too.

Next I am going to address the ornaments in the room such as towels, cuddly toys and other miscellaneous items. I want to create some towels to put on the shelf and have no idea how I am going to do it! Time to search for a tutorial again! 

I found this tutorial:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h4XWER9rJE 

It is perfect for what I want to create and I feel that it will produce better results than if I was to attempt to model the towels. 

I followed the steps of the tutorial and it worked well, I now need to produce a shader to use for the towels. I want to continue with the same level of realism therefore it is important that I ensure all aspects of the scene are of the highest quality I am able to achieve. 

I have learnt in particular from this project that when creating a shader, it is important to have good reference and good quality textures as well as being aware of the material you are attempting to produce. It is essential that you reproduce the qualities of the material with as much similarity as you can for example the reflectivity of an object. In this instance, a towel has thousands of tiny fibres that I need to replicate. 

Again, I searched for guidance on this as I was not sure how I would achieve this, I experimented with bump maps but was not achieving a good result. I came across this tutorial: 

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/towels_carpet_grass/towels_carpet_grass.htm

This was extremely helpful and after testing and experimenting with the different suggestions, I decided that I was pleased with the result. I used noise for a bump map and altered the diffuse. I produced a white version and a lilac version as I wanted different colour towels, this is the result: 

As you can see I have also put some grass outside, this was simple as I applied a realistic seamless grass texture to a polygon plane and increased the texture to simulate thousands of blades of grass, I think this method has worked well as the only previous experience I have had with creating grass has involved paint effects which results in a high poly count which slows down rendering time.

Modelling - Day 3

I am pleased with my progress so far and have already surprised myself with my abilities which has given me a boost. I particularly enjoy the process of creating a 3D environment as a concept can be produced to such a standard where sometimes i'm not even sure if they are produced using a 3D program. I decided to research 'photo-realistic 3d rooms' and came across some astounding results which inspired me to push myself to their level. 

These images were produced with the 3D software 3dsMax and the renderer V-Ray which has made me realise that perhaps using these softwares would have allowed me to achieve an even higher level of photo-realism and I do feel that I wish I had decided to use them. However, I do feel that at this time it would be a mistake for me to attempt to learn how to use 3dsMax and V-Ray to their full potential as well as produce my animation to my highest standard before the deadline. I find this disappointing but I will learn from this and in future in my spare time, I will learn how to use 3dsMax and V-Ray to discover what I am able to produce. 

Despite this, I am not going to let this effect the quality that I am aiming for. I decided to search for the best way to make curtains using ncloth and found many useful tutorials that showed me how to model curtains and how to use the cloth to make the curtains blow in the wind. Here is the tutorial I used: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hydJxYm4zJc

Once I had made the curtain I had to repeat the steps for each curtain as when I duplicated the curtain the ncloth attributes did not follow however by repeating the process I am confident about creating moving curtains with constraints. 

I am experimenting with shaders and textures for the curtains. I have made a shader that is slightly translucent however, I think that this would be more appropriate for perhaps a blind or netting. 

I have been thinking about how to produce a realistic wall shader and what better reference than the wall right next to me which is a matte magnolia colour therefore I decided to attempt to achieve this. I used the mia_material and altered the colour to magnolia and adjusted the settings such as the reflectivity to achieve a realistic wall. The bumps on the wall aren't visible from a distance, I did experiment with using a bump map but the results weren't great and felt that this was good enough. 

Modelling - Day 2

I am continuing working on my nursery scene, I have modelled the drawers using the 'insert edge loop' tool and the extrude tool to manipulate the cube. I have applied a white Blinn material as I am aiming for a white varnished wood appearance. Like this for example:

I modelled the drawers based on the drawers in my concept design. I have also modelling more of the crib, again I have modelled this based on my concept but also used different reference images such as the example above. This is the result so far:

I have also placed a round shape and created a 'mirror' shader and applied it. I was intrigued to see how

simple it would be and surprisingly it was pretty straightforward! Again, I searched how to create a 'mirror' material on Google and came across this forum with the answer http://simplymaya.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24087&highlight=Mirror+reflect

If so create a phong or blinn, change the colour to black, up the reflectivity to 1 and assign it to the object that you want, make sure that you have an environment for the mirror to reflect either by connecting an image to the reflected colour or by putting the object inside an environment and enabling raytracing, otherwise you wont get any reflections (since there wont be anything to reflect).

This produced the mirror material that I was hoping to achieve. I have also applied a chrome material to the frame of the crib and the handles to the drawers, this can be found under the mia_material preset. I am also experimenting with soft furnishing materials as I do not currently know how to achieve the appearance of fabric and am having difficulty obtaining information on how to create such shaders. 

I decided to look into creating a rug as I have previously created this rug seen in this scene:

But this increased the rendering time as I used fur therefore I wanted to use a different method as I want to keep the rendering time as low as I can without lowering the level of quality. I came across this tutorial and altered it to produce a rug with individuality. http://www.pixelophy.com/?p=1110

I am very pleased with this result as it simulates a woven rug texture which was the visual I was aiming for. I think that it fits in well with the floor as they are both the same level of 'realistic'. 

I have also been experimenting with creating a realistic glass shader however I have not yet achieved a result that I am happy with but am pleased with my progress so far. 

Modelling - Day 1

I have now completed the initial stages of my research and development and feel that I am now comfortable to begin modelling my scenes.

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.

Animatic

I have produced an animatic for my project as it allows you to be able to consider the timings of each shot and how the animation will flow. I have also included some sound effects to see their impact on the animation. Here is my Animatic:

Storyboard

Now I have completed my concept art and designs, I am able to put together a storyboard. Again I produced this storyboard using Corel Painter.

           The establishing shot will be a view of a crying baby from outside the nursery window.

The shot will zoom in to a close up of the crying baby.

The third shot will be again a shot from outside the nursery however, this shot will be through the view of a sniper scope - this is the point of view of the 'murderer'.

This shot is a continuation of the initial point of view, it shows an above shot, close up of the baby crying.

In this shot, the mother picks up the baby.

This is a shot of the mother holding the baby. It is a close up which does not show the mothers face. The baby stops crying.

This shot is again from the snipers perspective, it shows the aim moving around, attempting to focus on the mother.

This is a close up of the mother feeding and caring for the baby, this shot is to reinforce the idea that babies need their mothers to survive.

This is another shot from the snipers point of view. This is building the suspense as the viewer is not entirely sure of the unfolding events.

The mother places the baby back in its crib.

The baby is in the crib and appears to be happy then suddenly there is a gunshot noise.

This shot implies that the mother has been shot, blood appears to reinforce this idea.
 The baby begins crying again.

This shot and the next one, I have used to ensure that the audience has a clear understanding of the message I am attempting to portray.

This is a shot of an elephant that has been killed with it's baby next to it. This image should reinforce the message that I am attempting to put across. 

As WWF is a charity, they require donations to enable them to carry out the work that they do. Also, all of their adverts end with asking for donations therefore I felt that this was appropriate as it adds authenticity to my animation.