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.

Character Design - Elephant

Here is the character design for my elephant character. I wanted to keep the character looking as realistic as possible so that it links in aesthetically with the rest of the animation. 

I gathered lots of references of Elephants and produced the character designs below:

Character Design - Mother

The character of the mother is also important concerning the story and the audience. I am going to ensure that the face of the mother is not seen by using specific camera angles. The reasoning behind this is again so that the audience are able to empathise, by not giving the mother a face, I feel that the audience could view the mother character as being their own mother which again would heighten the impact of the events in the story. I researched images of 'mother characters' so that I could find a generic 'mother symbol'. From doing so I noticed small consistencies within these images such as fuller figure women and women with pinafores on, these seem to be universal symbols of a mother figure.

Character Design - Baby

The baby is an important character in my animation. I want the audience to be able to relate to and empathise with the baby so that the impact of the story will have more effect. To ensure this, I think that the baby should be as 'neutral' as possible, I do not want to give the baby an identity so the audience are able to place themselves within the character. As I do not have a baby or know anyone who does, I again had to conduct this research using google to ensure that when I design my character it is accurate.
There are many things to consider such as proportion therefore I used some images as reference and produced these character designs again using Corel Painter.

The character looks generic with no reference to gender as I want all audiences to be able to identify.