UVing the main chamber.…how boring!!

Once the modelling was complete I used an evening to tidy the entire set, and get it ready to be UVied. Jono and I took a little while that same evening to consolidate the other parts of the interior environment in the interest of keeping the sets organised and up to date.

Once the files had been merged and we had finalised the sets model, I took a copy and started to create the UV maps for the chamber. Albeit a tedious task, creating UV maps isn’t to taxing (probably half the reason for its tedious nature) when dealing with static, generic objects. However, it seemed the amount I had to UV was going to take me days. In totally it has taken me the entire week (Monday to Friday) to completely UV the consolidated file we set up. Although not my initial goal was to only do the chamber, I had to take on the rest of the file and and UV Jono’s section due a set back on his end of things.

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UV map examples

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Screen Grabs of UV's

Jungle Lighting Tests

Today Jenny, Jono and myself sat down with the intention of pinning down a lighting style for the jungle set. I sat in as a tech for this and operated the mouse. The lighting Jono and Jenny took much consideration over and together the 3 of us figured out how we could get a nicely lit, convincing scene with a low render time. Maya Software was our only option and due to the busy nature of the set the render times we’re expected to be high. However, much to our surprise it was only taking a minimum of 2 minutes and maximum of 3.

First attempt!! one ambient and a spot light...how primitive!

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The floor was to dark so we changed that and added shadows to the spot light we had and then added another one as a fill light.

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Added some environment fog...

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We seriously lowered the ambient to place emphasis on the spot light and give the jungle a more enclose feeling.

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Finally we placed some spot lights in the back of the set to light up some areas and give some depth to the scene.

Statue Modeling

For the last two days I've been working on the Statues that rest either side of the altar. The original designs i produced were interesting and matched the style. I have my concerns however that after seeing the 3D visualization of the designs, i don't feel it fits very well into the environment. I hold confidence however that once textured the models will blend together and create an interesting scene that without being to distracting. The second statue was a variation of the first statue. The only reason i thought this was necessary was to save some time, plus it kept the consistency between the two models. I then changed the second model to match the initial design. Other then some hanging moss and vines the models are complete ready to be UV-ed.

This is the end result of the first model
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This is a screen grab to show how the statues compare in 3D next to their respective designs
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This a screen grab of the two statues in the environment; the image gives a good understanding of spacing and scale, and fits the original design nicely.

Altar Modeling

The Altar was a model i started to attempt back in January, but decided to step back and plan before i just spontaneously modeled just anything. Then it seemed not necessary to work on assets at that time. Friday 18th i spent the day on it and modeled it in a total of 6-8hours. I was not only impressed with the time it took but more so the outcome. Although not being the highest poly model, it holds a lot of vital detail and once the normals are sorted out the model will have a more pleasant visual appearance.

Although not totally UV-ed yet, the model is almost ready for texturing and has been placed in the environment and fits nicely as you can see in the images below. The final touches to this set will include dressing the set with plants and clutter such as rock etc.

This was a stage where i was testing the differant arrangements of the stones under the altar.
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Here is a few examples of the Altar after the cracks had been modeled
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This was the finished article without a texture, and all parented to the control curve at the base, which later hold the animation controls for the buttons and knobs.
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This was a quick screen grab of the Altar in the environment.

Render Timings

With the deadline in mind, i took some time today to consider the possible render times of each frame for differant lighting and rendering techniques. Although not an experienced lighter, i decided to take three basic techniques that were easy to set up in Maya and note the times it takes to render them. In total we have anywhere up to 5000 frames in the film and whilst understanding that some frames could take anything up to 8mins to render, i started to pull my hair out.

A provisional look at some Maya Software render options, i noticed that i would be looking at a maximum of 1 minute per frame, due to the shadows only relying on depth maps rather then Ray tracing etc. However the renders had an albeit crisp, but very CG side look about them and seemed to be missing, for lack of a better word, substance and depth (Fig.1)

(Fig.1)

The final Gather pass that i did (Fig.2) looked pretty good, although in my opinion wouldn't be much good unless we used object lighting, due to the environment being enclosed (still need to do some tests for that). Never the less, i thought i should consider the option for time management and get a rough, intial, idea of how long that may take. The quality, i felt wasnt what we wanted, however, without textures in the scene and it being only one light, its difficult to judge. Personally, this type of rendering is a big no no!! The Final Gather renders took an average of 2 minutes per frame.

(Fig.2)

Another test i did with a new technique i found out from Jenny, was Sun and Sky simulation; a mental ray node that uses a directional light and preset settings, utalising a combination of final gather ray tracing and possibly abient occlusion to simulate an exterior atmosphere. Although refinement would be needed, the below render (Fig.3) gives an idea of quality and style. One which i think is a potential for our jungle environment lighting. However a much more ambient style of lighting is going to be needed for the inside of the temple. The Physical Sun and Sky renders took an average of 3 minutes per frame; when noting thats without textures, i'm not to optimistic that we'll have enough time to render these frames, but we'll see.

(Fig.3)

Animatic

This week Jono and myself made a point of sitting down and finalizing the animatic for the sake of Dans schedule and the general flow and understanding of the edit for the group. We spent considerable time looking at camera angles, and the allowed for the camera to dolly in and out, and track and bank etc. We really wanted to take an approach where the camera could contribute a large amount to the action and excitement instead of just relying on the music and pace. Although in my opinion, the edit could have a much more choppy style, with faster cuts etc, the edit works well. A copy of this has been sent to our Score artist and our sound designer to experiment with sound and music. When these return we will have a much better idea of the feel of the final short.

Direction

With the Dissertation out of the way and the easter break hanging over us, we have had a lot of time to catch up on what we missed or left behind during February. I would say we have comfortably caught up, however with a lot things hanging over our heads. Modelling according to our intial schedule showed that it should have been completed and texturing well underway. Therefore, Jon and myself have deemed in important that we have all the modelling done by the end of this week. Although slightly ambitious, the concept is doable and we have all hands on deck with a "seemingly" eager crew this term.

The Schedule for this term looks as follows:

This shows a very basic version and all our group members have been encouraged to create and comunicate their own personal schedule. This will take pressure away from Jono and Myself so far that we can concentrate on meeting our own personal deadlines.

Shot Composites

After the story was reworked, me and Jono had carried on with our dissertation, during which we revisited the film regularly and decided on some provisional shot compositions etc. The shots below were just a few that had changed at the start of the animatic and the transition shot itself. Below is also a locator for where the transition will occur (this sketch was the first thing we drew when coming up with the idea for this transition.

Final Chamber Layout

Birds eye view of the final model layout

Start of Chamber Modelling

Once we had established the new story and the schedule was organised, we had a group meeting to make sure that everyone knew what they were doing. We dicussed what everone wanted and tried to distribute some work to fit it best.

With my intention of entering the industry as a 3D artist, i took on a strong modelling role and decided to attack the temple chamber. The modelling started off slow due to insufficient concept designs, but with alittle of my own creativity i worked with what i had (the birdseye view shots) and created the style that will most probably control the entire look of the interior of the temple.