Subway station WIP and coke can

Haven't posted in a little while. Been busy job hunting for normal jobs and animation related jobs while also getting stuff ready for my holiday soon.

Showing this quick work in progress shot of the station.

And also got a bit distracted for an hour or two and made a coke can. Its fairly high poly for something of this nature. Its more suited for maybe a product advert and too high poly for little objects in a scene.

I might actually use it in the scene just for a bit of colour, but it will obviously be quite small. I might lower the poly count on it as it won't be the focus. The text is french or italian I'm not sure.

Project #1

I have started working on a scene based on an underground train station (Haven't yet decided if it's british, european or metro)

It's primarily a self set task for composition and texturing but also incorporating lighting as a learning task and staying completely away from final gather and lighting from scratch without cheats. Because it will eventually be rendered out as a still, I have the freedom to increase the quality of the textures, models, shaders and lights for the final output without having to worry about massive rendering times for a whole film.

I have put together a concept in maya, using 4 lights so far (I can see this sky rocketing if I'm not careful).
The idea behind the lighting is the warm yellow is coming from the surface and the cool blue from the underground area. The colours themselves compliment each other being opposite on the colour wheel.

During my 3rd year project I very briefly used light linking, a powerful tool to choose what objects receive light. I plan to use this more often to get things how I want them. In this example I used it for creating rim spotlights pointed at the post.

Quick note: The geometry is purely for blocking out. This will be redone

End of Film self evaluation

(Warning: Long read)

Firstly I would like to say that this project has been a huge learning curve for many aspects of the film and taught me alot.
Many of these lessons are techincal, artistic and some pure personality.

I have learnt a lot from the film, making several mistakes throughout the creation process and some mistakes still plain show in the final film. But I don't mind that.
It shows what I have done in this year and no its not perfect but I am still proud it's my work.

Secondly, I have involved the use of some new software in the case of mudbox while also learning new skills and techniques in photoshop, after effects and obviously Maya.
Mudbox was of great use to me during the process, my only regret is that i used it even more, however for what i used it for, it did speed up my workflow and create better results.

I shall try and be super critical of myself to layout what I have to improve upon.

I started the project with a very motivated mindset and wanting to get straight into the 'fun' things such as modeling the environment and objects. However I needed a clearer concept than just *a diner*

Amy and Hollie's concept work did assist me in the creative process and helped me visualise my idea better (I only wish i had taken advantage of there skills more) .
With a clearer idea, I did start work on the modeling possibly a bit to prematurely as other specifics needed to be sorted out such as story, layout and visual style.

I quickly chose to make this film purely realistic as i wanted to demonstrate my abilities as a modeler and texture artist. After much more pre production of the film I decided to have several characters in the diner to add a human element and bring it to life more.
I had amy create some quick moodboards of one of the characters and these were good but my failing was not following it up and keeping in contact. I think i might not of been as passionate as i originally was about including the characters.

I was progressing through production at a steady rate but still a little way off scheldue. I became alot more confident with texturing and shader work, becoming comfortable with bump maps, specular maps etc.
The use of Mental Ray for rendering saved me some rendering time as models didn't have to look fully smooth as models, they could simply be smooth previewed just before rending.

Midway through the project i started using mudbox for some of the texturing including the booths and stools. It has a great familiar interface which really streamlines the pipeline between it at maya and i also discovered how simple it was to go back and forth from photoshop with the paint layers.

Unfortunately at a certain point I had to abandon the characters for lack of time and designs. I think if i had of worked on the characters more, the overall quality of the film would have suffered greatly in the time.

Rendering became a much larger task then I anticipated, in the space of a couple of hours and some tinkering, the render time jumped from 8 mins a frame to almost 20!!
This was bad news, However by this point there was very little time to change and despite the rendering times, i was confident with the current look and knew post production could give it that extra little something.

Towards the end of the project i became a little bit demotivated. I simply wanted this to be out of the way with as the problems were just causing headaches. These problems were generally from using the studio computers.
I managed to gain motivation from a magic fairy and nearing the deadline I got stuck in and worked damn hard on it.

I was apprehensive about using mudbox at first as when i first tried Zbrush it seemed extremely daunting. However I enjoyed mudbox as i learnt with every tool and pallet

As i already have said, I have become a lot more confident with shaders and texturing.

Regrets:

I do often think it could have been a 2 man project as i lacked concept, visual style and character designs.

I regret not going to physically see tutors that often for extremely valuble feedback on the production.

I regret my lighting method, which created huge render times and made it nearly impossible to fine tune individual frames.

I do NOT regret dropping the characters based on my final output, But had this of been a more than 1 man film i think the characters should have been there.

I regret not working in a group because I like the structure. Everyone has a different job or 2. Although working on my own did mean I didn't have to contend with design/style clashes and i had control of the whole film myself.


Some last notes:

I am proud of the film. There are lots of aspects i would change in it still, which makes me hesitant to show parts of as a showreel.

I will post the film on my blog soon. I am having some horrible problems uploading it to youtube and vimeo as it makes the video extremely dark so i will try fix it asap.

Post production work

Finished the rendering, and basically finished it. These are some thoughts and screen shots from the post production process.

The whole composition is quite large to render out of after effects with the additions of the vignettes, colour correcting and credits. The black vignette was added to give it a more cinematic filmy look. I have increased the contrast and raised the brightness slightly as it was a little dark. There is also blurry vignette to also enhance the frame. Unfortunately I am missing a background for the outside. I didn't have enough time to do this so just created a slightly yellow tinted plane underneath the diner images to show the outside as bright and letting the sun in.

I edited the sound in Adobe Soundbooth. Using the track I had (Jingle Jangle), various fades and delays and reverbs to achieve the moody music towards the end. The camera flash sound was found on a royalty free sounds website. I faded the music out towards the end for the credits to a familiar but still slightly moody tune that is played through the film.

Micro Update

Getting the last few frames rendered now. Only 9 split between 3 machines so shouldn't be bad. Then going home and finish the final edit.

After Effects work

Currently working on post production work. Nearly all frames have been rendered fully, Some however are still going overnight in the studio. (I shall pick them up in the morning and slot them into my After Effects file.

I have added the blurry and black vignette, the camera flashes, adjusted the contrast and brightness slightly. I have also done a bit of painting in areas i have problems. Such as the knife area had a random light patch, which i painted over and keyframed to disappear with the opacity.

It is very subtle in still shots but very noticeable when it flashes on screen during the camera movement. So I painted it out, which I might have to do for a few more sections. The top one shows the mistake, towards the center below the knife, while the bottom image shows it painted out simply using clone tool in photoshop (Haven't worked out how to use clone in after effects yet)

Rendering

Rendering this year has proved a huge challenge compared to last years.
 The main factors that affect it are:

• A bigger project
• Higher resolution textures
• Use of Final Gather (greatly increased render times)
• 1 Long shot.

This time last year, for the train sections i was looking at approximately 5-8 minutes a frame, and the imp between 5-8 again. This years work is taking roughly 20 minutes a frame. The main reason for the use of final gather, but it has achieved the look I want. However, if given the time again i would definitely work out how to light properly to decrease render times.

I am currently nearly finished rendering my whole project out of maya. I have been in the studios full days and longer since monday trying my best to make them handle my project and they seem to of been okay. Hopefully by the morning it shall all be finished, and I'm looking at an all nighter thursday for compositing and editing. Just have to remember to post some updates and screenshots and possibly a few effects as i go along.

I look to be on target for the hand in on friday all going well. I am pleased that it is rendering out (although slow). At this stage I have had very little time to test my shots in movement, so I have had to wing it and I am fairly happy with the result. Post production should make it sparkle though with some colour correction and effects and the sound will really bring it to life.

Some Lighting Changes

I thought I was ready to render today, However after a couple of test shots, I realised the environment is too dark. So I have added lights to the ceiling. But not too strong. Just there to be subtle and I think it looks nicer than before, but I'm not completely sure.

 The light with just a glow.

Actual light source, using area light.