3D Production

With a new year come new subjects. In this blog, I will be recording my progress through the subject of 3D Production, as it will make it easier for me to show the steps taken through my work.

The first thing I needed to do for this project was to come up with what I would be creating in the 3D programme, Maya. For the first semester at least, I will be planning out my 3D project, learning the appropriate skills so that I can create it in semester 2.

Initially, I looked through the series of magazines I have, '3D Artist', so as to gain potential inspiration. The main problem I found surfacing was the fact that the majority of the work in the magazine was done using other 3D packages, so it has led me to become rather confused as to what Maya is actually capable of. I did however manage to come up with a few ideas for the project.

I've always wanted to be able to make organic organisms in 3D, namely things like trees. So my initial environment I knew had to involve some trees. I also like the idea of including water in my environment, as I feel it would be a good challenge and add a new item to my list of objects that I know how to create. Thusly, I came up with a swamp scenario. I am also a huge fan of science fiction and fantasy, so have also been considering having a crashed ship of some form in the swamp. This would let me combine natural objects with mechanical ones, giving me a more varied environment and thus a larger bank of knowledge.

So the first thing I did was to go straight to Google and look up tree tutorials for Maya, to which I found a nice simple one that I had a go at.

http://kakes3d.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/modeling-a-tree-in-maya/

I began with a cylinder and a curve line.

Using the extrude tool, setting the divisions and tapering.

 Using the curve tool to create the branches.

Following the same steps as the trunk, I modelled the branches.

I then textured the tree using cylindrical mapping.

I then went on to model leaves, which I then UV textured and formed into clusters.

 I then placed the clusters around the branches to finish the tree.

I made a very quick mock-up of an initial idea for my environment:

The idea is for the scene to show a ship that has crash-landed in a jungle/wood/swamp, severing trees and creating a trail of destruction behind it. I plan for this to have a painted background, done in Photoshop and textured onto the back 'boards'. From this I can see that I should make a modelling list as to what I'll need to learn:

1. Trees (and stumps)
2. Ground (and river banks)
3. Water
4. Mechanical objects i.e. the space ship.

I feel I should concentrate on the ground next as that will most likely be a very key skill that should prove useful in the future.

With a sudden realisation, I noticed that my scene that I had mocked up was strangely familiar . . . The scene in Star Wars where Luke crashes his X-Wing fighter into the swamp planet of Dagobah and meets Yoda. Well, damn . . . Back to the drawing board methinks!

So, starting from scratch, I went back to doing research. My initial thoughts were to look at ancient cultures and thus, I went straight to Google images for a bit of inspiration. One of the images I found whilst searching was this:

A small Buddhist shrine. This got me thinking how much I love oriental and in particular, Japanese, architecture. Immediately I knew what to search for: Japanese temples and shrines. I unearthed the
following images that I find to be so inspiring:

Japanese Temples:

 Japanese Shrines

At the same time, I know that I don't want just an environment with a Japanese temple in it. I want something with even more interest, more flair. I also want to continue the idea of using trees in my environment, especially after have completed a tutorial on how to do them, so I looked into both Japanese trees and bizarre tree formations. I found that there were 3 main types of tree to be found in Japan: Bonsai, Cherry Blossom and Maple.

Bonsai Tree

Cherry Blossom Tree

Maple Tree

 












































I like the twisted, sporadic trunk and branches of these trees, combined with the delicate flowers and leaves. I still wanted to go for something even more 'out there', so continued to look at bizarre trees and found the following:

I thought this was a fantastic image:

A restaurant in Japan, built on top of a tree

I also liked the idea of using rock formations in my environment and thus did a bit of research which revealed some very interesting images:

The Devil's Tower

The Giant's Causeway

I like the idea of using these rock formations as the base for my environment, whilst having a temple (inspired by the Japanese ones) and some Japanese trees . Of course, I still want this to be a fantasy image.

I am quite pleased with the concept work so far, though I feel they are becoming very samey and thus, it is time to move on. I'd like this to have a far more fantasy, even science fiction aspect to it, so more research is necessary.

I have decided to look at mechanics and steam punk imagery to add a more fantasy element to my environment. I have also decided that I really like the idea of my environment having a water wheel in it, so researched them also:

 Steam-Punk:

Steam Punk Lincoln - I really like the pipes and pressure meter

Steam Punk mouse skull - I am drawn to the combination of natural and man-made materials here

Steam Punk eye brooch - I like the intricacy that steam-punk items show, combined with the brassy colours.

Steam Punk watch - I like the mechanics of this piece, along with the use of leather which complements the brass.

Steam Punk dragon - I love the use of pipes, cogs and lights to create a familiar creature.

The next stage is to continue sketching ideas, now utilising the research I have just conducted.

I realised how much I loved the film Howl's Moving Castle, and how much I liked the design of the castle itself. A ramshackle construction that looks almost steam-punkesque; perfect for inspiration for my steam-punk temple.

From one of my other subjects, 'Digital Visualisation', I had designed a flying machine. I wanted to use this idea for my environment, as though the person who would reside in the temple is an inventor.

Obviously I won't be using the gargantuan behemoth in my environment, rather, one of the smaller flyers. From that I came up with this environment:

 

From here I have plenty that I can take on to learn in Maya. The flyer itself should be enough of a challenge. 

Changing my mind . . . again.

I have decided that I am not going to use the flyer in my environment after all, for the sole reason that I want to be more inventive than using the same idea for 2 different projects. So, back to the drawing board again. I feel I've strayed too far from my original source of inspiration; that of Japanese architecture, shrines and trees. Though I still want to carry on with the steam punk idea, a bit of a rethink is needed.

I remember seeing statues of Japanese lions in my searching and thought they'd be a good port of call for inspiration.

I decided that I'd want to keep the lion a bit more subliminal, but take reference from the steam punk dragon art work posted earlier in the topic. 

 

I decided to continue on with my other idea of having a steam-punk temple with a water-wheel, but this time, I used the lion statues as a theme of the temple. The 'tower' of the building has 4 lion faces on it, on each side, with the eyes as lights. My plan is to refine this idea, mainly focusing on composition.


I still want to concentrate on the rock formation that the temple resides upon, so went back to my original source of rock formations and thus came up with this:

Rather pleased with this design, I feel I could happily use this as my image to model from. However, I want something more outlandish, I want a more interesting scene with a better rock formation, so, back to researching!

My researching uncovered the following inspiring images:

 

Using the above images as reference, combined with my temple design, I came up with this:

 

I decided for this, that I'd use the reference image of the rock shaped vaguely like a skull and change the skull to one of the Japanese lion statues, giving the rock formation a foreboding appearance. I also was very keen on the stalagmites/stalactites from one of the images, so decided to incorporate that into my design, along with the strange rock formation with the holes in it, reminiscent of a bee hive. Though I had to abandon the water wheel idea for this, the temple itself can still be steam-punky enough to coincide with my original idea. I think I will continue on with this idea and see what I can do with it.

I decided that I'd really like to attempt a majoritaly modular environment, and so, went back to the simple temple on the rocks idea and drew out a technical drawing of the temple, from the front:

From this drawing, I went on to mock up the scene in Maya, using basic shapes and going back to my less extravagant idea of having more simple rocks, to get an idea as to how the environment would vaguely look.

After this, I went on to do a more detailed mockup of the water-wheel attached to the side of the steam-punk temple, focussing on the gears as I had never made them before, so I used a tutorial I found: http://en.9jcg.com/comm_pages/blog_content-art-114.htm
I found many useful tips and methods in this tutorial, such as being able to extrude multiple faces in different directions.

It took me 3-4 hours to complete the water-wheel. I found it fairly simple to make while very pleasing to the eye. I feel practising to make this will make it a lot easier to make it in the next semester.

I knew that I wanted my environment to involve modular components, so I looked at the tutorial and advice we were given by our lecturer and used it to create parts for the temple.

I decided to model a wall, window and corner part and texture them.

I also decided to try out a different style of texture for my environment, opting for a more cartoony - black-edged texture.

 

Pleased with my efforts, I went on to attempt modelling and texturing rocks, as well as mocking-up the bridge scenario in my environment.

I couldn't quite figure out how to texture the ropes on the bridge, though I had figured out that to model them, I would only have to follow the tutorial for making trees, but not use the tapering tool. I even tried to use the cylindrical mapping tool, but the UV was incomprehensible.

An attempt at water was next on the to-do list, so I began with a simple plane and used a deformer on it to make it wavy. At the same time, I also wanted to try rendering out a scene using lighting, so, using my bridge scenario and my recently made rough ocean I came up with this:

I was somewhat disappointed by the outcome of this, as the ocean didn't look like, well, an ocean. I still haven't really figured out how to add a texture to an object without it becoming blurry and pixelated. I want to know how to sort this as it seriously detracts from my rendered image.


I feel fairly comfortable going on to my final piece in semester 2, what with the amount of knowledge I now have under my belt. I think it'll also be relatively easy to figure out the problems I still have whilst I'm making my final environment.


 


Work in progress... More to come...

Non-Uni Work

Well, that's me done uni for the summer. First year: Complete!
So, finally the chance to get down to my own dastardly works!

First off, here is a lovely little link to the blog of someone I greatly admire, Mr Pink, who revamped the old Tyranid Screamer Killer Carnifex from Warhammer 40,000. I'm putting this link here as Mr Pink is running a prize draw where he will convert a model for the lucky winner and one of the criteria to entering this draw was to put a link to one of the articles on his blog:

http://modernsynthesist.blogspot.ca/2011/05/screamer-killer-rides-again.html

I shall return with more, but for now, 'A tout le monde, a tout mes amis, je vous aime, je dois partir'




And return I haved! No that isn't a word, but it sounds good to me!

Well I have my first year grades back:

Dynamic Communication: B
Visual Literacy: B+
Audio: C+
Life Drawing: C+
Animation: B+

Fairly successful I'd say for my first year.

So, with that done and out the way, what am I working on this summer?

Well, I have a number of things that I'm up to:
1. A 2-man project with the eventual aim to create a game for the Android phone.
2. A 'getting loose' project, as recommended by one of my university lecturers.
3. Plenty of Warhammer!

 So, first off, the 2-man project I am a member of is between myself and my friend Paul Harris. We're keeping this project quite hush-hush, so I can't give away too many details. A basic outline of the story is that a famous action film actor is mutanied against by his film crew and rival actor who 'lose' him on the way to the set of a new film. Stranded, the actor must fight to survive and seeks vengeance against those who did this to him. He decides to use the only weapons available to him: the planet's animals...

Here is a small taster of the artwork (my part of the project).

This is Clive, feel sorry for him, it's about all you can do. Poor little shmuck.

Back in the saddle. Did I say saddle? I meant reigns.

Well, I'm nearing the end of semester 2 of my first year of the computer arts course, so I thought my blog deserved some attention. This semester seems to have been a lot more work than the first, though it does keep me busy and working - a good thing methinks! Animation was dropped in semester 2 to be replaced with life drawing, though it will return next year. Visual Literacy, Dynamic Communication and Audio are still going. Of course I can't post anything of the audio up, so it's just Vis Lit, Dynamic Comm and a smidgen of life drawing. So, without further ado....

Dynamic Communication 


This project began way back in January, where our brief was given:

Narrative interface. Create an interactive multimedia interface and graphic content to tell an original story sequence in a non-linear media environment.

A bit cryptic? Well I thought so! However, with a bit of explanation from our excellent lecturer, Ryan, it became more apparent as to what this project was all about. Basically, what we were going to be making was a sort of web-comic that would have potential multiple outcomes or scenarios within. To do this, we would use a combination of Photoshop and Flash.

To begin, I thought up a number of possible storylines that I might want to follow in the form of a mind-map. Not my cup of tea in the way of generating ideas, but it's always good to try and push yourself out your comfort zone (something I am not that adept at doing!).

With this, I generated 6 ideas:
1- A goblin bounty hunter framed for a crime.
2- A unit of soldiers stranded on a dark island.
3- Sorcerers seeking souls (alliteration! :D).
4- Infectious butterflies wreak havoc in the wild west.
5- A village is subjected to violent hauntings.
6- A human experiment that has otherworldly powers is condemned by society.

From here, I cut down the ideas to just 4 and began to produce concepts for them:

1. Goblin Bounty Hunter
2. Stranded Soldiers

Research for goblins, bounty hunters and futuristic soldiers.

Goblin bounty-hunter and futuristic soldier concepts.

3. Wild-West Butterflies
4. Outcast God

Research for butterflies and fictional pandemics.

Wild-west butterflies and outcast God concepts.

I decided that for a project that was going to require a lot of work, like this one, I should pick the concept that I felt flowed from my hand most easily. To me, this immediately ruled out the 'Stranded Soldiers' and 'Outcast God'. The reason for this is that I found it difficult to concept futuristic soldier designs without them looking too similar to already existing designs and for the 'Outcast God', I found that ideas for concepts were thin on the ground - not good for such an extensive project. Thus, it came down to goblins or butterflies. With a bit more research into the idea of a butterfly disease, I struck metaphorical gold. As it turns out, the disease Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) was exactly what I was looking for. Children who suffer from this horrific disease are commonly termed 'butterfly children' due to the sheer fragility of their skin that flays off with even minor frictional contact. This, to me, left the goblin bounty hunter high and dry! This is also the point at which I came upon the name of my story, 'The Butterfly Children', again, in homage to those who suffer from this disease.

However, my original idea had been to make a comical horror story, but when I became aware that my project was going to be based on EB, I realised that I didn't want to make a funny story any more. Just a tale of horror, to represent the lives of those afflicted with the dreadful disease.

With this in mind, I went on to decide on where my story would be set and ended up with Victorian England, London, in a chemist shop, and began the research:

Research for Victorian costume and scenery.

I also had to decide on a style that I wanted my story to be done in and thus did some more research:

Research for story style.

Over time, I was also developing the actual story and characters. The final story became:

Dr Elijah Bayard and his son, John Bayard, live in and work in a chemist shop in Victorian England, London. Elijah is a renowned chemist, while John is an avid butterfly collector. It is when butterfly and chemical meets that things go wrong. London is delved into a horrific pandemic and it's only hope is this father and son who started it all by accident.

With my story in mind, I went on to develop character designs, also trying to concentrate on style:

Concepts for Dr Elijah Bayard.

Final Design of Dr Elijah Bayard.

Concepts for John Bayard.

Final Design of John Bayard.

I also concepted as to what the infection process would look like:

Concepts of the Infection Process.

As well as concepting the chemist shop environment where the majority of the action was to take place:

Concept of Chemist Shop

With all the concepts under my belt, I then had to decide on how long this story had to be. Our lecturer Ryan had said it was to be a few minutes experience, thus, i storyboarded for about 30 images (40ish in total, including the alternate paths within the story). I had an idea has to what I wanted to happen in the story, and so I drew up this story board, complete with optional paths:

The Storyboard.

The black boxes and lines are linear story, the blue follow Johns side of the story, while the red follow Elijahs story.

From here I went on to slog through, hand drawing, scanning and then painting in Photoshop, all the images for the story. Here is a selection of my favourite images, some hand drawn, some complete and painted:

Title Page.

Instructions Page.

The first encounter.

John escaspes!

Hand drawn Elijah punching Infecetd.

Elijah gives an Infected 'The Ol' One-Two'!

Elijah is set upon by the Infected!

John Hides.

John is not alone...

John runs for his life!

Infected-eye view chasing John.

Elijah gives the Infected a nasty uppercut!

The end... Or is it?

The final thing to be done was to use Flash and its Actionscripting capabilities to allow the series of images to work like a proper web-comic and also allow for the non-linear story to work as intended.

Actionscripting done.... project completed.... let's hope for a good grade....


On reflection of this project, I feel that I should have spent more time concepting the initial designs. I feel this because I'm sure I may have come up with different and possibly even better designs for my characters. Though I am happy with the final outcome, I just feel that it could have been perhaps more polished, and a bit better designed. This has helped me to learn that for a project like this, as much work needs to be put into the research and concepting as into the final piece. I'm glad that I've realised this and will not continue to blunder on making the same mistake. 



Also for this semester, we had to write an essay. Here is the question, my short overview and my full essay:

How has interactivity and the nature of new media platforms affected approaches to media content production? 

Is YouTube the Hydra or the Hercules of new media platforms?

In this essay I will discuss: the availability of YouTube; as to whether it is an educator or a time waster; does it spread love or hate; and is it a friend or foe of the music industry. Using references, I aim to come to a personal conclusion on these matters, whilst delving into the topic’s contents.

The social media giant that is YouTube only raised its, then juvenile, head back in February 2005 and yet it is hard to think of a time when it did not exist, at least for the younger generation of today. In its beginnings it was nought but a site for uploading humorous videos of comical blunders and sharing them to the general public, and though that may still be a fairly large usage of it today, it has grown far many more heads. There is a major reasoning behind YouTube’s popularity and success: it’s available to just about anyone. These days it is extremely rare to come across a household that does not contain a computer of some sort and of course, connection to the internet. But it’s not only computers that YouTube is available on; mobile phones too now bear the all-too-easy ability to surf the web. But is this really a problem?

‘According to a digital ethnography study conducted by a Kansas State University working group led by Professor Michael Wesch, more than 150,000 videos are uploaded to YouTube every day. Many of these videos were created by teens (YouTube policy forbids users under the age of 13), and while the vast majority of youth-created videos are relatively innocuous, a few more incendiary uploads have raised considerable concern.’ (McBride 2008)

It is clear then, that YouTube is indeed popular and yet potentially dangerous. As the above statement proclaims, most uploaded videos are but innocent tom-foolery, however, there are those other videos clearly aimed to hurt and humiliate. This is, at its most basic form, cyber-bullying, which as everyone knows, is a dangerous thing. Many would think that cyber-bullying would take part between teenagers, however, this is not necessarily the case; racism and other hate crimes are aimed at anyone and can affect anyone. The seriousness of this is reflected by this statement:

‘Education Secretary Alan Johnson… has slammed the video-sharing website YouTube, which carried a film of a teacher having his trousers pulled down in class, and said such humiliating stunts were driving people from the profession… "Without the online approval which appeals to the innate insecurities of the bully, such sinister activities would have much less attraction."’ (Anon. 2007)

And yet still, it is a website with what could be deemed as good intentions. Though plagued with ridiculing videos, it also bears thousands of educational ones too. There are many uploads for people to learn new skills, such as playing guitar, decorating cakes, painting models etc. It has been appraised by many as a haven of knowledge that, being so readily available, is truly a hero amongst the social media websites.

‘For thousands of teachers, YouTube.com is more than a modern day video store -- it's a chance to redefine traditional education by engaging students in a format more tailored to the Modern Age… Education is a component of the site that continues to grow, said a spokeswoman for YouTube. The site is home to a number of student projects, instructional videos and professional development clips.’ (Cardine 2008)

Schools, universities and other educational facilities certainly would see benefit from embracing YouTube then, giving them the opportunity to connect with students who have grown up in the ‘technological age’.

The other major part of YouTube is its ever-swelling music collection. Something which many use on a daily basis, without thinking about the consequences of it. Again, just because of the ease at which one can access YouTube, just about any song by any artist can be found and listened to and it doesn’t cost you a penny to do so.

‘If you’re looking for the best source of free music in the world, look no further than YouTube. Good for you, but for artists maybe not so much… on a structural level, the site’s success with music could have a big, negative side effect. YouTube’s strength as a free music source might be hurting music subscriptions and, by extension, artists by offering users a free place to hear just about any song they want.’ (Buskirk 2011)

This could pose a serious threat for musicians everywhere then, causing them to lose out on what’s rightfully theirs. You’d complain if you did a job and didn’t get paid, yet others got enjoyment out of it, so why do it to them? The simple answer is because we can. It’s all too easy. However, it seems strange that musicians still go on, bringing out new albums and songs, if they’re losing out a great deal, so there must be another side to the story that we don’t see.

‘Alan Lastufka: I am a musician. I am also a YouTuber. I upload and monetize all of my music and music videos on YouTube…  In less than two years’ time, my record label sold over $1,000,000 of music using YouTube as our ONLY source of promotion. No radio, no music blogs, no nation-wide tours and no marketing department.’ (Lastufka 2011)

So according to Mr Lastufka, YouTube would seem to in fact be a good thing for the music industry. If anything, his argument seems to entirely disprove the one from ‘wired.com’, promoting instead that YouTube is good for both artist and listener alike.

So where does this leave the social media giant? Is it indeed a hero, seeking to educate and entertain, or is it a multi-headed monstrosity that spreads hate, lies and hurt? I have come to the conclusion that YouTube is indeed a hero of our time, based upon the research that I have conducted. Though it may be the source for a lot of damaging things, its main purpose and intentions these days is to help, not hinder. It is as anything: a weapon in the wrong hands; a tool of aid in the right ones.

So, that's all for Dynamic Communication! Think I'll go have a lie down....