Story Reworked...

This week was pretty crazy, and in some ways very unproductive; much to my disgust. Me and jono spent some time with Gareth Munden on the animatic, and from his advice started to rethink about shot composition and the way we would incorporated that into the general flow of the story. For example, how the camera could tell the story rather then the character alone.

So after a long session with Gareth and some deliberation amongst ourselves me and jono spent some considerable time thinking about what was essentila to not only the story, but what we personally wanted to take away from the film. Our desire for a good visual piece drove us change the "gag reel" style piece we had originally intended to produce.
We ended up dismissing alot of small gags and trimming the fat in some places we didnt really want to but ended up with a slightly bland but working story line.

The main change in the story was the "transition" stage and the way we aimed to show a clear and understandable change in environment and character wardrobe in one shot without loosing the audience along the way. This was proving to be hard to produce, but with Gareth Mundens help, jono and myself came up with a shot that was closest to what we wanted but still had room for some creative cameras (shots of the transition idea are shown above).

The new story we realised need to be supported with some "revised" environments that meant that the character and camera could be animated effectively and smoothly. So we spent some time editing the map layouts, specifically the interior of the temple etc. The Jungle also changed due to the introduction of the film which meant that the layout had to be altered.

All in all, the story didnt sway much from the orignial line, however with the a few parts taken out the story flowed nicely, albeit not particularly funny or comic, but nevertheless interesting to watch. The filmic language we realise will however end up playing a massive part in the overall style of the film; our main influence for style being the Indiana Jones Films.

Schedule Rework...

Today, me and Jono sat down to attempt the tedious task of restructuring the schedule to fit the tasks pending completion. lol. It took alot of time and there wasnt much to shimmy around. The worry we have is the ease of cushioning the work load onto the last term and for some of the group members i believe the temptation will be difficult to resist. However, judging by the comunication of our group i am confident that we can keep an eye on each other and have a good level of ecouragement to boast motivation.

UV's

Straight after the character was finalised and approved by Jono, i decided to spend a night and get the UVing done to a resonable level so when texturing comes around i have one less thing to worr about. More so, i wanted to concentrate on the one thing at that time in order to ensure the quality was higher.

Final Model (Untextured)

This was some final renders of the model finished and ready for texturing.

Modeling Snapshots

Not many issues arose during the modeling process and it went smoothly most of the way. The hair was a bit of a stress to do, but the body as a whole was simple and just needed a bit of observation to get it right. Below are a few other snapshots i took during modeling.

Modelling the head

The head was one of the first things i attempted, and although the designs looked amazing on paper (well done Ben, nice work mate), they didnt quite add up in 3D. As you can see below, however with a little artistic license me and Jono decided on a few adjustments in the chin and the jaw shape.

(When compared to the final model of the head, you can see the design change clearly)

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(First attempt at mapping the basic shape of the face)

Modeling technique

The technique i adopted for the model was to keep it low poly and simple. This way, i could get the main detail in and use the proxy smooth to average everything out. this meant that the model had to look very square and primitive. Ive used an example below, the low poly shows just how primitive, and the smoothed shows the results after proxy smooth has been applied.

High Poly Foot
(The model, although looking slightly to rounded, still holds the character needed for this model)
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Low Poly Foot
(Notice how the toes are virtually just cubes)

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First step to the character modeling....

As any modeler knows, specially when it comes to modeling characters, that the referance images used must be high resolution and very accurate; whether that be a photograph or a drawing. However, the drawings produced by Ben were somewhat lacking in those areas. Never the less, it didn't slow down the already lagging process and i started modeling as best i could with the reference i had. I spent some time initially editing and the model sheet in order to have both side and front of the head matching in all the important places (eyes, mouth nose eyes etc) and did the same with the body. As u can see below, the drawings also featured the character with his arm down by his side, which also needed to be adjust; i did this in photo shop also.

[PLEASE NOTE THE 5 DRAWINGS BELOW IN THIS POST ARE CREDITED TO BEN GRIFFIN]

...we're still alive!

OK, first post in a while, which i hope emphasizes how much work has been going on?! Never the less, the proof lays ahead. the past month has been crazy. both Jono and myself have spent a lot of time trying to finalize the 3D visual of the main character in both his PJ's and Explorer persona. Although finishing slightly earlier then Jono, we have both worked well together by helping with modeling and technical issues (which may i add, have been minimal).
furthermore, concerns about the story have rose and Jono and myself once again, intend to spend a fair amount of time working on the 3D animatic (blockout) to try and get a better understanding and flow to the story.