Week 14 - Video Presentation

In this blog post I've uploaded the final video presentation for Advanced 3D.

Video. 1. Advanced 3D Final Video Presentation

Week 14 - The Final Cinematic

Finally the cinematic pass for my environment in Advanced 3D is complete. I took notes from previous cinematic feedback like at Alpha when I was given notes to take the camera to higher angles rather than have the whole cinematic at a rats eye view. Here's the final Cinematic.

Video. 1. Final Cinematic

Week 14 - Final Week

This week I've been going over a few textures in the environment. Below are a few screen shots of the environment in it's current state. I feel not much will change now probably make minor changes before calling final and rendering out the cinematic.

Figure. 1. Screen Shot of Environment 

 Figure. 2. Screen Shot of Environment 

Figure. 3. Screen Shot of Environment

I'm really happy with the progress that has been made with the environment and I'm proud of the the almost final product. I think I have paid homage and close respect to the original concept piece I chose at the beginning of the project.

Figure Reference

Figure. 1. Screen Shot of Environment 

Figure. 2. Screen Shot of Environment 

Figure. 3. Screen Shot of Environment 

Week 13

With independent studies out the way, all focus is now on getting all the textures finished and have the scene done. A lot of work has been done this week with all the figures below showing the work done this week.

 Figure. 1. Jpeg of Bar Sign Texture

 Figure. 2. Jpeg of Ceiling Texture

 Figure. 3. Jpeg of A Picture Frame Variation Texture

Figure. 4. Jpeg of A Picture Frame Variation Texture

Textures that I was struggling with last week like the wooden floor texture and the brick texture were finally getting to a stage I was happy with. Once all these textures were imported into UDK and applied to the assets the scene was finally starting to take shape and look a lot like the concept art I choose from the start of the module. Adding bump maps to my hand painted textures added the extra pop of depth to the environment that was needed.  

Figure Reference

 Figure. 1. Jpeg of Bar Sign Texture

 Figure. 2. Jpeg of Ceiling Texture

Figure. 3. Jpeg of A Picture Frame Variation Texture

Figure. 4. Jpeg of A Picture Frame Variation Texture

Week 12

Less work was done for this project again than expected due to other workload with modules like independent studies. I did work on the wooden floor texture and practice getting the right look. After several attempts made I still wasn't happy with the results I was getting due to the texture not looking up to scratch. This will need more work over the coming weeks as this texture and the brick texture are the most repeated textures in the whole scene compared to all the other assets.

 Figure. 1. Jpeg of Wall Texture

Figure. 2. Jpeg of Floor Texture

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Update

I did start work on the texture for the tourist shop asset. Here in the figure below you can see I've added postal stamps covering any space left.

Figure. 3. Jpeg of Tourist Building Texture

Figure Reference

Figure. 1. Jpeg of Wall Texture

Figure. 2. Jpeg of Floor Texture

Figure. 3. Jpeg of Tourist Building Texture

Week 11

Progress this week lacked commitment due to dissertation work being done instead. This meant that the textures were going to be delayed in my plan for the module.

Week 10

This week I did find time while working on other modules like for example my dissertation work. I began reworking over a  few of the base textures that I started for the Alpha deadline. I began doing this a couple of weeks ago however a few smaller assets I didn't get round to. I continued this further with some of the other assets like the fast food bucket and cup. Painting over and adding shading to the assets textures would add depth into the scene and detail to the asset. The figures below show some of the asset texture sheets that were done this week. These will be developed further over the next few weeks.    

 Figure. 1. Jpeg of Happy Meal Box Texture

 Figure. 2. Jpeg of KFC Bucket Texture

Figure. 3 Jpeg of KFC Cup Texture

Figure Reference

Figure. 1. Jpeg of Happy Meal Box Texture

Figure. 2. Jpeg of KFC Bucket Texture

Figure. 3 Jpeg of KFC Cup Texture

Week 9 - Beginning to hand paint textures

Starting last week and continuing this week I've been practising hand painting the textures for the assets in my environment. This is the first time I've properly had to create hand painted textures for a scene. I started with watching tutorial videos from the internet showing a step by step process. Here's one of the videos I watched. The video relates with hand painting brick textures. While watching the video I followed the steps and ended up with this result. More work is needed of course.

Figure. 1. Picture Frame Texture

I began with the picture frames in the scene where they would be used as windows and have curtains in side them. I started with a base image from the web and used that to help me plot the key dark and light areas when painting. The figure below shows a screen shot of my first attempt of painting the picture frame.This will not be used and is no where near the quality I want it to be at.

Figure. 2. Happy Meal Box Texture

Still practising I started with other assets like the happy meal box. This asset is high up in the scene and I started to paint in the shadowing around the model and began to give the model a sense of 3D by high lighting key areas. 

Firgure. 3. Brick Wall Texture

Video References

corderocraft. 2012. Tutorial: Hand painting tileable brick texture in photoshop. [online]. [30th March 2014]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cjgZA_YKCg

   

Week 8 - Alpha Deadline

Week 8 marked the Alpha landmark in the module, this meant all assets had to be in place in the scene and to be all textured to an extent. Also a new cinematic pass should be created improving upon the last on we presented in week 3. My deadline for getting all the assets done was week 6 and I achieved that, however like wrote in my last blog post I did spend a lot of the time last week reworking the UV mapping on all the assets and having to start all over again with the textures. The whole process of going over the UV mapping had to be done and I'm glad to have sorted it out even if it put me a week behind from texturing but this has aloud me to improve the textures. When showing my work to Jon the textures being very basic to the point that they are just one colour in some areas. I do need to move on with the textures quickly. Comments on my last cinematic were that it was really short. In my newer version the cinematic lasts around 55 seconds. However the feedback covered on Monday recommended me that I should cover a high up perspective instead of just giving the audience a rats point of view. I also need to work on the camera movement as my camera angles and the movement looked like the camera was drunk.

Week 7 - Week before Alpha

With 1 week till Alpha started to begin finalising Assets and mock textures for the deadline. By the end of week 6 I had finished all the assets I needed for the scene and I had also pretty much finished all the key UV sets for all the assets too. I did want to go over them again as some bigger assets were sharing space with a lot of assets and some smaller assets had a whole UV set just to themselves. This I am changing to the point where all the big assets like the KFC box and happy meal box now have a separate UV set. Also by the end of week 6 I did apply basic colour textures to all the assets, however for the alpha deadline I do want increase the detail with the textures too. Here's how the scene is looking so far.

Figure. 1. UDK Scene Screen Shot

Figure. 2. UDK Scene Screen Shot

For Alpha I will also need an updated version of my cinematic to present. I did find a website from a past lecturer from CGMA Dave Wilson. I have never had to render a cinematic in UDK before and this webpage contains step by step videos on the process.  http://ubudave.weebly.com/udk-creating-a-video-sequence.html. 

For the last cinematic pass I used the camera system in Maya, this was because the block out I presented was all done in Maya. Working on the camera set up in UDK I'm finding it a lot more complicated than the camera system in Maya. In the end I did figure out how to use the camera tools, however I  have struggled trying to render the scene out. Instead I played the camera animation in my view port and I used Fraps to record the footage. I don't intend to use fraps for the final cinematic. I took notes from my last presentation about my first cinematic. I was told it was short and it needed to be in the length of 1 minute to a minute and a half. My cinematic now fits that time bracket and I've still kept the rat point of view with the camera angles.

Week 6 - Reading Week

Week 6 was a reading week and meant that no lectures were taking place for any modules. This gave us time to catch up on work that we may have been dragging behind on. Last week I had started placing already made assets into the UDK editor and this was to continue this week. With our Alpha deadline in Week 7 this would mean after reaching that landmark no more assets should be added to the scene. As this blog post stands there are a few more assets needing to be made however the scene is starting to take shape in the UDK editor and walking around in the scene in UDK I feel that all the sizes for the assets fit fine and gives you the view of a rat's perspective. For reaching the Alpha deadline I'll also need to add basic textures for all the assets, which I have been UVing as I go along making them.

Website References

Wilson, D. Dave Wilson 3D Artist. [Online]. [Accessed 4th March 2014]. Available from: http://ubudave.weebly.com/udk-creating-a-video-sequence.html

Week 5 - Changes to my Flow chart

Over the week I've been carrying on creating and working on my assets for my scene. As it's the start of week 5 and looking back to my original work flow chart this week would be the last week of working on my assets. At this moment in time I won't be able to achieve that goal. However I have changed the structure of my work flow chart to work like this, see in figure 1.

Figure. 1. Work Flow Chart Updated

I have moved the final week of model creation to week 6 instead of week 5, this is because in week 6 it's a reading week and I'll have more time to get on with my work. I've been getting on with a lot of the assets 

Week 4 - Building the Assets

The day after the presentation last Tuesday I started to begin building the proper assets for my scene. I started with the telephone booth (milk carton), picture frames and I began modelling the Oven building that's centre of my scene. I have been going back to my block out scene and changing round a few buildings like the fast food store. Other adjustments to the block out was the sizing. When importing the whole block out into UDK I noticed the size was a little off with the whole scene. I simply increased the size in UDK and then took note of the size change and copied those figures into the Maya scene. With these adjustments made I'm happy with the scale of the scene and I think it captures that 'worms eye view' feeling like your a rat in this world.

For the Dynamic effects in this scene I've been looking into cloth effects I could use. On a few of the buildings I have covers attached. These could use the cloth effects and adding to the realism and make the scene more interesting.

Video. 1. Unreal Development Kit Cloth Basics Tutorial Part 1

In the video above it gives a tutorial 

Video Reference

Video. 1. raven67854. 2009. Unreal Development Kit Cloth Basics Tutorial Part 1. [Online]. [11th Feb 2014]. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwXsHvlVryE 

Week 3 - Presentation

On the Tuesday of week 3 I presented the concept piece to the class that I wished to create for this module, In the presentation we have to present the research we undertook to build build from our chosen concept piece. A lot of the research images I showed in the presentation, I've already showed in my blog apart the mood board images in figure 1 which contains screen shots from the Studio Ghibli film Arrietty.

Figure. 1. Arrietty Film Screen Shots

Figure. 2. Arrietty Film Screen Shots

For the presentation a workflow had to be made to show a brief plan of how you expect the term to roll out. In the workflow plan I tried to key the select points in the process of the production and planned out how many weeks I would spend on each stage in the production.

Figure. 3. Workflow Chart

In the workflow chart I've tried to pin down all the key stages starting with the concept research back in week 1 and moving through landmark goals like this presentation and next the Alpha deadline in week 7. This is the second draft of my workflow chart and I plan to keep check of this everyday and modify the chart when needed throughout the rest of the module. At the minute I am keeping to my workflow plan with me beginning to start modelling assets for my scene and I also would like to note that in my plan so far I have down that I will start UV Mapping the assets in week 5. What I'm doing at the minute is UV map the assets as I'm making them. So this would need to possibly be adjusted in my workflow plan. 

Picture Reference 

Figure. 1. Arrietty Film Screen Shots http://www.dvdactive.com/reviews/dvd/secret-world-of-arrietty-the.html [Accessed 03.02.2014]

Figure. 2. Arrietty Film Screen Shots http://www.animationmagazine.net/features/arrietty-a-tale-twice-borrowed/ [Accessed 03.02.2014]

Figure. 3. Workflow Chart

Week 3 - Building the Block Out

Nearing the end of last week I began creating a block out of my scene in Maya using the main concept piece and combining other research materials to help expand the scene. At first I found it difficult trying to plan the layout of of the scene. In my research images of the city environment in the film it's big and vast, that was what I wanted to stay away from when blocking out my scene. I wanted my scene to take place in a closed off area. At first when planning I started out with a T junction design and I was trying to compact the scene as much as possible. In the end I closed off the T junction and went with the path going more of a right angle.  

Figure. 1. Block Out Environment Maya 2014

Expanding from from the original concept I've taken elements/segments from my research images I've already collected and new ones I'm finding constantly and trying to bring these into the scene I'm developing. In the scene I've added a fast food store where I'll have the store made from wasted fast food packaging. Recently while researching I came across these images of actual fast food shops. One of the buildings is in LA and the other is in Amsterdam, they are both from the same food chain but their designs are completely different.

Figure. 2. KFC Building LA

Figure. 3. KFC Building Amsterdam

To me there shapes and design resembled of their product packaging from that particular fast food chain, in figure 3 above the store looks like it's made from a chicken bucket. This helped me in developing the fast food building by expanding from that and adding other fast food packaging for example a kids meal box and a fizzy pop cup and straw. Next door to the fast food joint I'll have a posh restaurant. From one of the screen shots I captured from the film I found a building with draws coming from the upper floors. I decided to use the draws as a balcony where the rats can eat and dine from outside in the restaurant. While expanding the scene I'm always thinking about how a rat would live in the world and how they would use every day objects.
The other key landmark in my scene is the cafe which will be located in the centre of the scene. The main body of the cafe is made from a cooker and have the lower level of the building look like a traditional cafe with chairs and tables. The original idea of this building came from one of the research images from the actual film. As you can see in figure 4 behind the close up characters the building made from an oven, In the model I'll stick to a very similar design and look to this reference.

Figure. 4. Flushed Away Movie Still

Image Reference

Figure. 1. Block Out Environment Maya 2014

Figure. 2. KFC Building LA http://www.laweekly.com/publicspectacle/architecture/?topic=2369089&page=2 [Accessed 03.02.14]

Figure. 3. KFC Building Amsterdam http://www.flickr.com/photos/harry_nl/2374266321/ [Accessed 03.02.14]

Figure. 4. Flushed Away [Movie Still] [Accessed 22.01.14]

Week 2 - Screenshots from the film Flushed Away

In my previous blog post I mentioned I bought the DVD from the film 'Flushed Away' to take screenshots from which I could use to build up my scene. Of course when I was taking the screenshots I was focusing on the background buildings and taking note of what objects are part of the buildings. Figures 4 and 5 show different variation of buildings used in the film that I could incorporate into my scene possibly in the background. I did notice however that some of the buildings in the screenshots are not as detailed as the buildings in the concepts art. Figures 2 and 6 I made not of for having lots of little trinkets and items in them that I could use and display around the buildings possibly.

Fig. 1. Flushed Away Movie Still

Fig. 2. Flushed Away Movie Still

Fig. 3. Flushed Away Movie Still

Fig. 4. Flushed Away Movie Still

Fig. 5. Flushed Away Movie Still

Fig. 6. Flushed Away Movie Still

Fig. 7. Flushed Away Movie Still

Fig. 8. Flushed Away Movie Still

Fig. 9. Flushed Away Movie Still

These movie stills are only a select few, I want to watch the film a couple more times to see if there was anything I missed to include. Other films That I'm using as reference are studio Ghibli's film Arrietty. Arrietty is based on the book 'The Borrowers' and the main characters live in a tiny house made from unwanted human objects and other items the characters have borrowed from the humans.

When looking at how I'm going to be texturing the objects in the scene I'm probably going to be using hand painted textures for all the objects, that or a mix between real photos taken by me and hand painted textures. When getting a closer look at the figures above the objects and textures are stylized but have real detail like the objects would have.   

Image Reference

Fig. 1. Flushed Away [Movie Still]. [Accessed 22nd Jan 2014]

Fig. 2. Flushed Away [Movie Still]. [Accessed 22nd Jan 2014]

Fig. 3. Flushed Away [Movie Still]. [Accessed 22nd Jan 2014]

Fig. 4. Flushed Away [Movie Still]. [Accessed 22nd Jan 2014]

Fig. 5. Flushed Away [Movie Still]. [Accessed 22nd Jan 2014]

Fig. 6. Flushed Away [Movie Still]. [Accessed 22nd Jan 2014]

Fig. 7. Flushed Away [Movie Still]. [Accessed 22nd Jan 2014]

Fig. 8. Flushed Away [Movie Still]. [Accessed 22nd Jan 2014]

Fig. 9. Flushed Away [Movie Still]. [Accessed 22nd Jan 2014]

Week 1 - Building from my Chosen Concept Art

After spending majority of the week finding the perfect concept to work from I decided to go with the piece of concept art from Aardman Animation's 'Flushed Away'. What attracted me to this particular concept was the amount of detail in the environment. In the concept it gives great detail in how a small rat community would build their own city in the London sewers. When discussing the idea of this concept art with my teacher Jon we couldn't help but notice something new every time we looked at the image. Pretty much everything is made from our waste like bottles, nails and forks.

Fig. 1. Flushed Away Concept Art

However in this concept we can only see one side of the environment, I will use other pieces of concept from the film to help build from my chosen art work. In figure 2 this is another piece of concept art from the same film but this image takes place on a pillar and like the other the houses are made from human wasted objects. To help extend my chosen concept piece further by taking elements from figure 2 and placing them into the background and in other areas.  

Fig. 2. Flushed Away Concept Art

Other art from the film I can use to help develop my scene is figure 3, this piece of concept art is different from the other two concepts as the building looks industry made and constructed from various objects. That being noted there are still objects in the scene that I can use as inspiration. I could incorporate figure 3 into the background of my scene or have it facing the opposite way to main concept piece. 

Fig. 3. Flushed Away Concept Art

When I knew that I would be developing a scene from the art work Flushed Away, first thing I did was buy the film on DVD and start to screenshot images from the film to help build reference for my scene. Figure 4 is not a frame from the film that I took a screenshot from, but the buildings in the background could be great research.  

Fig. 4. Flushed Away [Film Still]

Image Reference

Fig. 1. Flushed Away [Concept Art] http://chvacher.deviantart.com/art/Flushed-Away-Concept-art-291934492 [Accessed 21.01.14]

Fig. 2. Flushed Away [Concept Art] http://www.articlesandtexticles.co.uk/2006/10/31/concept-art-for-flushed-away/ [Accessed 21.01.14]

Fig. 3. Flushed Away [Concept Art] http://www.articlesandtexticles.co.uk/2006/10/31/concept-art-for-flushed-away/ [Accessed 21.01.14]

Fig. 4. Flushed Away [Film Still] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flushed_Away [Accessed 21.01.14]

Week 1 - Researching Concept Art

Before starting this module I was planning on creating a character model based on a piece of concept and have the character stand within a small environment that' related. After the first lesson and starting to properly research all the concept art I began focusing on more environment art rather than character. I began researching art from games I remember having interesting level design, the first that came to my head was the game 'Epic Mickey'. The game was set in a world of forgotten creations form the Disney company. abandoned Theme park rides, cartoon characters and toys filled the environment giving the game a derelict atmosphere.

Fig. 1 Epic Mickey

Fig. 2 Epic Mickey 

Moving away from video game concept art I next looked at traditional paintings of city streets within them small shops and cafes. Every painting had a unique style to each with some capturing the streets as true to life as possible and others exaggerated surreal buildings.

Fig. 3 Street Scenery Painting

Fig. 4 Urban Cityscapes

When researching I did come across some concept art from films. 2 films that interested me the most was concept from Dream works Animation 'Puss in Boots' the game and art from Aardman Animation's 'Flushed Away'. 

Fig. 5 Puss In Boots - the Game

Fig. 6 Flushed Away 

Out of these two it was the second one from the film 'Flushed Away' that really got my interest.The movie evolves around rats in the sewers of London and the rats themselves have their own mini London built from our rubbish. I loved all the little hidden gems within the piece from a milk carton as a telephone box and the spine of a book as a pub sign is really imaginative. 

Reference

Fig. 1. Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two. (2012). [Concept Art]. Available from: http://pixartimes.com/2012/08/15/watch-disneys-epic-mickey-2-characters-featurette/ [Accessed 20.01.14]

Fig. 2.  Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two. (2012). [Concept Art] http://www.superpunch.net/2011/03/epic-mickey-art.html [Accessed 20.01.14]

Fig. 3. Artist Unkwon, Street Scenery [Painting] http://www.daydaypaint.com/street-scenery-c-94.html?page=3&sort=20a [Accessed 21.01.14]

Fig. 4. Afremov, Leonid (2009) Urban Cityscapes [Painting] http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/leonid-afremov [Accessed 21.01.14]

Fig. 5. Puss in Boots - the Game [Concept Art] http://www.behance.net/gallery/Puss-in-Boots-the-Game/10925163 [Accessed 21.01.14]

Fig. 6. Flushed Away [Concept Art] http://chvacher.deviantart.com/art/Flushed-Away-Concept-art-291934492 [Accessed 21.01.14]