Visualisation more models....

Here are my models of the desk lamp and sketchbook so far (no final textures, etc.) :

Visualisation - still life progress :)

I have been doing a little bit of work so far since breaking up for Christmas, trying to eventually have modelled the majority (if not all) of my 6+ still life objects before returning to uni.

The first two I have modelled so far are what I consider to be the easiest shapes within my composition idea; the pencil and the Cocacola glass. Although these are not finished or totally polished models yet, I feel I am happy with their shapes and appearance so far, and will experiment more with textures when all my models are ready.

Pencil photograph above, 3d model below

Glass photograph left, 3d model right

I have also just gathered my chosen items together and arranged them in some compositions I like, and looked at whether I would want to include my lamp as an actual modelled item, or just use it to research source light. I have decided that I think my work will look more effective with the actual lamp there, and can help me with making lighting look more realistic.

Here are a few photos I took (quite similar!) to show ideas of what I might like to achieve in this project:

(Composition where light is not shown, but suggested by reflections/shadows)

(Front on composition with light)

(Composition from an angle with light, to show corner of desk)

I plan to model a couple more of these objects over the Christmas period, probably the lamp first due to its more simple shapes.

More soon..... :)

Fantasy Olympics Rationale + Animation!

For this project, my task was to produce a 30 second animation using Adobe After Effects, to promote a new, futuristic sport at a fantasy Olympic games. This firstly involved quite a bit of character and concept design, before gradually learning the skills needed to create my animation within the new software.


To start with, I came up with a few ideas for my animation’s concept, then chose to use the sport of uphill skiing, using rocket skis to make it more of a ‘futuristic sport’ as the brief asks. I then sketched out some design ideas for my penguin character, before merging aspects of a few of these ideas together to create my final character design.


To be able to use and animate my character in After Effects, I had to scan it in to Photoshop (as I find this easier to use than Illustrator) and separate the different parts of the character into different layers, so they could be animated separately. I also scanned in drawings I had produced of the different layers of my environment design (sky, mountains, snow, etc.) and edited them to fit the cartoon style of my character.


I then imported these aspects into After Effects as files and compositions and then placed them in 3D space in front of my main cameras. I also blurred the parts further away and very close to the camera to give an impression of depth of field. I also created a couple of particle effects – CC particle world and CC snow – which helped me create the fire coming from the rocket packs and a snow effect over the whole scene. Once all created and imported into my main composition, I followed my storyboard and animated my character, assets and cameras, before adding lights and sound before rendering for more effect.


Throughout this project, I found the concept of creating a 2D character in a sort of 3D environment or space quite hard to get my head around, which is why I ended up producing quite a flat, but layered background for my animation instead. I also found the software itself rather frustrating to use at first, until I got used to all of the toolbars and functions that I needed to produce my work.


I feel, to say how unconfident I was with this project as it progressed, that I have done quite well in producing a decent quality piece of animation with a piece of software that was totally new to me. I have found in this project that I find 2D animation much harder to make look effective, but do find it easier to produce character design in 2D than 3D so far. As far as the 3D pipeline goes within relation to this project, I still feel I would prefer to work in 3D and not particularly in the field of character animation. I also feel I would prefer to use software such as After Effects more for compositing and visual effects purposes rather than animation.

Visualisation research.

I haven't looked at my visualisation project for the past couple of weeks due to cancelled lesson and being ill last week, so have decided to get back to grips with it before my seminar tomorrow, so I can make a decision on what to do over the Christmas break before the hand-in.

I have firstly looked at a few traditional still life artists, and here are some that I particularly liked:

Firstly, I really liked the still life work os American artist Kevin Frank, especially 'Moon Rock'; the piece I have inserted below. I think the pale colours compared to the contrasting bold red book in the centre is particularly striking.  I also really like the composition in this image, where I think the main, larger objects obey the rule of thirds, leading the audience's eye to these parts first. I think the objects within the piece all link together well too, which is an aspect I would like to bring to my work, rather than just being randomly placed or a typical 'fruit bowl' still life piece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Moon Rock' by Kevin Frank

I have also looked briefly at the work of William Michael Harnett, and Irish-American painter from the 19th century. I particularly find the composition of his work the most inspiring, as many of them are placed on tables (like a lot of still life paintings) but also feature objects stacked on top of each other, often not very neatly.  The piece I have featured here is called 'Music and Literature' which also sticks to a strict theme, a lot like Kevin Franks image. When this is combined with the interesting use of composition, I feel this is an effective way of telling a story through still life imagery, rather than painting objects that have been placed purposely just to be painted.

'Music and Literature' by William M Harnett

I have also looked at this website which shows examples 3D still life work which I found pretty interesting: http://www.templates.com/blog/still-life-art-impressive-masterpieces-3d/  Although a lot of this work is created within 3ds max, as well as Maya. I would like to see myself produce work anywhere near this standard, as I think some of them are extremely good in terms of photo-realism/visualisation skills. I especially liked this piece by Cheyne Hessler, due to the strong contrast and the impact of the realism in both objects and background:

'Still Life' by Cheyne Hessler (CG society member)

When thinking about possible themes for my own work, in response to these influences, I am thinking of using things inside my room to show my interests and give an impression of a story behind the items. Below are a few objects I have quickly photographed to help with possible ideas for my compositions.

Busy doing AE project - update of ideas/progress

A quick update on what I am doing at this moment on the After Effects project on my way to the deadline on Friday!

So here are a few screen shots of the animation I have added and edited this morning/afternoon so far. This mainly involves my idea of the penguin flying into space on his rocket skis, as the planets move to form the olympics rings shape...

Planets forming the olympic rings shape in front of penguin

Planets then start to "glow" before transformation.

Transformation has now occured, due to decreasing opacity of the glowing planets, and increasing the opacity of the olympic rings.

After this has occured in my animation, I plan for the penguin character to increase its rocket power further (animate my CC particle composition within my project) before flying gently through the centre black ring. I may also include a couple more closeups within this sequence to show expressions a little more. (I am hoping this will bring me up to somewhere around 30 seconds, as it is currently only about 20! :( )

I have also added another particle system to my project since I last posted screenshots - this is a snow particle system. I think this adds more dimension and interest to my piece in general, as well as obviously fitting in well with my winter olympic theme!






Will post more when it is done!