ATRG Internal Client - Lighting & Effects

This week I have been trying to finish my lighting and glow effects (etc.) for my ATRG project. I am currently finishing this before moving onto sorting out a few slow camera shots of each important area of the environment, to edit together for my advert in After Effects after rendering.

Here are some renders of progress of lighting and effects - firstly I tried glow shaders on my mental ray materials in 3ds max, but this for some reason decided to stop rendering properly, so I have now decided to render some objects separately using the matte/reflection/occlusion material so I can add effects in AE.

First few lights inserted - dark 

Screen with texture highlighted by omni light

More lights inserted -  feels lighter, but not too light?

Experimentation with glow shaders in 3ds max

More glow shader experimentation

Quick test of how using matte/reflection/occlusion material can  let me add glow effects after in AE - render times!

PNG render with alpha of glowing areas

PNG render with alpha of environment without glowing areas

Internal Client Project Progress- Texturing

This week I have been doing most of the texturing stage of the project, still sticking to my brief action plan I did before I started creating it, so far so good! :)

Anyway, I have just about done most of the texturing now, although it will not look finished until I add lighting and all of the glow effects for the LED textures. For now these just have self illumination within them, and the glow effects will highlight this much more.

Here are some quick renders I did to show the textures I have decided on for the interior space:

Bed with TV blind

Desk area - LED fabric computer, touch keyboard, etc.

Slide door and keypad from interior (and heated rug)

Entrance - slide door, keypad and metal floor

Touch fabric keypad for entry

TV blind on bed

Sofa area - LED cushions and curtains (and heated rug)

The truth is I guess in some ways I have cheated a lot within this stage, as I have used ALL UVW map modifiers on the objects, rather than unwrapping them. However, due to my choice of modern/futuristic style, I feel all the materials I needed to use did not require this process anyway,as a lot of the textures are either smooth, reflective plastics or easily map-able fabrics with bump maps.

Note I also need to still convert a video files for the texture on the LED TV blind on the bed, as this is currently a still image.

Internal Client - ATRG Visit & General Progress

ATRG Visit

Today I took part in one of the organised visits to the facilities of the Advanced Textiles Research Group within the Bonington building on campus. Although I ended up not choosing the facilities (present) brief, I thought this could be useful to understand the technology slightly better, as well as to physically observe the garments and yarns.

I took quite a few photographs whilst on the short visit, and here a few of the more relevant, interesting of these images:

Antenna embroidered onto t-shirt

Touch-buttons within fabric

Steel glove - good example of knitted texture

Heated fabric - heating within the yarn

Antenna stitched onto military fabric

LED chips integrated into yarn

LED chips integrated into yarn

The last two of this images are the ones that are the most relevant for my project, as I plan to advertise the potential of LED integration within yarns, for both decoration and display purposes. From observing the yarns in person, I noticed they are actually very thin, and the chips themselves were so small I couldn't even see them (literally the size of specs of dust). Therefore, I feel it would still be appropriate and accurate enough to use simpler fabric textures within my 3D design (diffuse & bump maps), rather than having to model a bulkier looking knitted product.

I also looked at the heated technology in some detail, as this is something I will focus on for the rugs/carpets within the interior space. I want to make it as a accurate as would be possible using the technology, so will probably make the texture of it have stripes of different coloured yarn where the heat would come from.

Similarly, I have a couple of touch sensitive fabric devices within my proposed advert, so looked at the potential touch fabrics we were shown, although this apparently has not currently 'kicked off' as much as the other technologies explored. I noticed this was a much thicker, more robust fabric than the other examples may have to be, so will try and show this within my 3D models and textures.


General Progress

Also, I have just about finished modelling the main parts of my interior space for the advert now, and will shortly start to texture these to the best of my ability, influenced by the images and findings from the ATRG visit, before lighting and camera placement/animation, etc.

Below are a few quick renders of the modelling so far, showing how I have slightly changed the layout since my first presentation. I may slightly increase the size of the room again, as it may still feel a little cramped when cameras are placed within the space.

Internal Client - Feature Design

As well as making the shape of interior space feel more futuristic or modern, it was also advised that I used a similar method when designing a ceiling for the room. Using one of the images within my previous moodboard for futuristic interior design, I found the idea for having oblong shaped holes within the ceiling revealing a material above. For my design, I think this could be effective to show a black surface - fabric? - with lights on it, as a form of both decoration and illumination, perhaps.

Example for infleunce - ceiling 'holes'/'panels'

Render showing ceiling design with this idea in place, so far.