Week 1

Overview

I start to think about what I actually wanted in my design, so I noted down all of my ideas. the common themes were that I needed to create something a little less standard, boring and a bit more imaginative, this said my two ideas are either to create a sci-fi sort of dark damp and different scene or one of phantasy , with clouds and complete imagination.

Show reel - I picked to look at both of these because my show reel is missing this sort of work, so by creating this it will fit the niche. This should benefit me by attracting a greater area of future employers, as they will be able to see that I can create a wider range of work.

1st ideas -


Maybe a lab scene ?

possible a mythological setting ?

Use of clouds?

Dark, Damp and Unusual?

Pics to think about

 
 
 

final

research and development into the industry

Overview of an environment artist

As an environment artist, it is your job to provide the level designer with the content needed to create and populate the world, e.g. the environment. Environment artists can be tasked with creating a wide range of objects from architecture to machinery to ground clutter to vegetation and more. This generally involves creating models to be used as static meshes along with the textures and perhaps the materials to be applied to those meshes.

What it takes?

The philisohical answer.....in a nutshell, is that any environment artist worth a lick can model in 3D. Buildings, props, trees, ect. are all very easy to recreate. To further illustrate my point is that most artists with any type of intelligence and no experience can get up and running in most 3D software packages in 3 to 4 weeks. Back in the good old days, most companies were willing to train on the job due to the lack of talent in the industry. That is your best case scenario in learning exactly what it takes to be an environment artist.

Samsung

Responsibility

Create high quality 3d (environment) assets to be used in the project demos and final product.

Design and supervise the art pipeline with the team (animators, technical artists, developers...) for best efficiency and quality.

Guide other artists, propose feature requests and provide feedback to ensure the final product quality.

Requirements

Vast experience as professional 3d artist in video games or movies.

A demonstrated ability to produce compelling environments in any style, with best respect of the technical constraints.

Proficiency in 3dsMax, ZBrush, Adobe Photoshop.  Experience with lightmap tools and Unity is a plus.

Strong understanding of the 3d art pipeline (lightmap, exports, scripting, animation) and lighting techniques.

Pictures or document to demonstrate work, artistic background and skills (drawings, high-poly samples, low-poly samples with technical info, texture samples, lighting samples...).

New positions

A new position for an Experienced Environment Artist has opened up in my client's awesome Studio in Warwick. This position involves creating 2D (and possibly 3D) Environment Art, primarily for iOS and Android platforms.

Requirements for the role: 

• A passion for games and creating environments for mobile
• Ability to create unique and original environments.
• Proactively assist in defining art pipelines and best practices against industry benchmarks.

Skills and Experience: 

• Excellent 2D background, ideally including some pixel work.
• Use of Photoshop and Illustrator.
• Willing to work with Engineers to work within the technical limitations of the platform.
• Self Organised and willing to participate in team meetings.

Outline of consumer needs 

From the research I can see that the consumer needs an environment artist to be functional in a number of different 3d packages, they must have a knowledge of adobe software such as Photoshop and illustrator. Texturing is also a must , this is something I feel I will havto improve on in order to reach this goal.

Existing Show reels

Show reel 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMTHOZAYThI

show reel 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5LbyDfnPeM

Show reel 3 - http://vimeo.com/6819737

justiforcation of choices made

The reason i have chosen to create an animation with a character based on motion and movement is because it will allow me to show off the environment that its in , the best way to do this is to make it interact with its surroundings.

I have chosen to create this is 3ds max because as specified in  job roles, 3d software should be used and the applicant should be fluent. The footage will then be edited using Photoshop and important points of the environment created solely in z brush.



Research into proposed techniques
Motion captureMotion capture is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, and medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robotics. In filmmaking and video game development, it refers to recording actions of human actors, and using that information to animate digital character models in 2D or 3D computer animation

Avatarhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wK1Ixr-UmM

Motion capture at g-force

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSlOZJJffDk

- in this clip the over exagguration is key.


Advantages

Motion capture offers several advantages over traditional computer animation of a 3D model:

More rapid, even real time results can be obtained. In entertainment applications this can reduce the costs of keyframe-based animation. For example: Hand Over.

The amount of work does not vary with the complexity or length of the performance to the same degree as when using traditional techniques. This allows many tests to be done with different styles or deliveries.

Complex movement and realistic physical interactions such as secondary motions, weight and exchange of forces can be easily recreated in a physically accurate manner.

The amount of animation data that can be produced within a given time is extremely large when compared to traditional animation techniques. This contributes to both cost effectiveness and meeting production deadlines.

Potential for free software and third party solutions reducing its costs.

Disadvantages

Specific hardware and special programs are required to obtain and process the data.

The cost of the software, equipment and personnel required can potentially be prohibitive for small productions.

The capture system may have specific requirements for the space it is operated in, depending on camera field of view or magnetic distortion.

When problems occur, it is easier to reshoot the scene rather than trying to manipulate the data. Only a few systems allow real time viewing of the data to decide if the take needs to be redone.

The initial results are limited to what can be performed within the capture volume without extra editing of the data.

Movement that does not follow the laws of physics generally cannot be captured.

Traditional animation techniques, such as added emphasis on anticipation and follow through, secondary motion or manipulating the shape of the character, as with squash and stretch animation techniques, must be added later.

If the computer model has different proportions from the capture subject, artifacts may occur. For example, if a cartoon character has large, over-sized hands, these may intersect the character's body if the human performer is not careful with their physical motion.

final

Initial Thoughts


He attempts to stand and falls against the window to see the amazing view.

he starts to run , and then jumps over machinery(his strength is growing)

As he gets to the end of the hall way he realises its a dead end.

He jumps smashes through the wall and lands on the balcony.

See the year 2999.

storyboards and Rough Concepts

StoryBoards

Rough Concepts


MoodBoard


Supporting Inspirational Reference material

Labs
Aliens 2

These are very generic cryogenic machines, created in this classic film to look futuristic. id say these look a little flimsy not solid enough for what i am actually after.

'

Overview of an environment artist

As an environment artist, it is your job to provide the level designer with the content needed to create and populate the world, e.g. the environment. Environment artists can be tasked with creating a wide range of objects from architecture to machinery to ground clutter to vegetation and more. This generally involves creating models to be used as static meshes along with the textures and perhaps the materials to be applied to those meshes.

What it takes?

The philisohical answer.....in a nutshell, is that any environment artist worth a lick can model in 3D. Buildings, props, trees, ect. are all very easy to recreate. To further illustrate my point is that most artists with any type of intelligence and no experience can get up and running in most 3D software packages in 3 to 4 weeks. Back in the good old days, most companies were willing to train on the job due to the lack of talent in the industry. That is your best case scenario in learning exactly what it takes to be an environment artist.

Samsung

Responsibility

Create high quality 3d (environment) assets to be used in the project demos and final product.

Design and supervise the art pipeline with the team (animators, technical artists, developers...) for best efficiency and quality.

Guide other artists, propose feature requests and provide feedback to ensure the final product quality.

 

Requirements

Vast experience as professional 3d artist in video games or movies.

A demonstrated ability to produce compelling environments in any style, with best respect of the technical constraints.

Proficiency in 3dsMax, ZBrush, Adobe Photoshop.  Experience with lightmap tools and Unity is a plus.

Strong understanding of the 3d art pipeline (lightmap, exports, scripting, animation) and lighting techniques.

Pictures or document to demonstrate work, artistic background and skills (drawings, high-poly samples, low-poly samples with technical info, texture samples, lighting samples...).

New positions

A new position for an Experienced Environment Artist has opened up in my client's awesome Studio in Warwick. This position involves creating 2D (and possibly 3D) Environment Art, primarily for iOS and Android platforms.

Requirements for the role: 

• A passion for games and creating environments for mobile
• Ability to create unique and original environments.
• Proactively assist in defining art pipelines and best practices against industry benchmarks.

Skills and Experience: 

• Excellent 2D background, ideally including some pixel work.
• Use of Photoshop and Illustrator.
• Willing to work with Engineers to work within the technical limitations of the platform.
• Self Organised and willing to participate in team meetings.

Outline of consumer needs 

From the research I can see that the consumer needs an environment artist to be functional in a number of different 3d packages, they must have a knowledge of adobe software such as Photoshop and illustrator. Texturing is also a must , this is something I feel I will havto improve on in order to reach this goal.

Week 8 The Final Journal Entry - Extended

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RvT1KDAVwmc#!

Above is a link to the final major project after being exported into the following setting as requested in the brief.

Video Format: - QuickTime H.264 codec, 720x576
resolution, 25fps and 80% quality.
Audio Format: - AAC, Stereo (L,R), 44.1kHz

Our Final Product called “The Mexican Stand off” When finalised worked well, I think we chose the idea because it was simple and we wanted to just get a grasp of techniques and  an understanding of the software’s, without doubt it allowed us time to experiment as my weekly journals show, but it was still about ending up with an effective piece. I think overall it worked, but I think it could have been improved by more time spent on the animating side, by incorporating more movement into the animation, although when the Human cowboy shoots the animation, and the animation falls to the ground, I believe this is when the video becomes more effective.

I created the Model by using Z-spheres and sculpting it on z-brush, it worked very well. I don’t think I would have created a better model should I have used box modelling, perhaps instead of selecting the polygons and adding materials that way we could have researched into UV mapping, this could of allowed us to get more detail in, although our final video was tinted brown, so a lot of the colours were lost anyway therefore there may not have been much benefit.

The Video footage we shot as a group, By all being there it allowed us all to have an input and have different points of view to which shots look better. We filmed it using a Sony Hand Cam, which we fixed to a Tri-pod, this gave us firm control of camera angles and disposed of shaky hands, this gave it a more professional look. Because we had an action plan and an external actor the filming process couldn’t have gone any smoother, Shots were filmed first time, and only the rain stopped filming for a short interval, once this had passed we were able to finish the shoot under an hour.

The Animating of the animation was produced by Karl although I did have an input in it and completed one of the poses myself. The process was created by applying an animation layer to the skin and then using key framing to record the poses. This was the best way to create this, but I do think more research into movement could have happened and we could have put more time into this, saying this I was very happy with the outcome of all the animation and how it fit to the music track.

The editing happened as a group, I think we were all very confident about this part as we could all use Final Cut/Premier pro very well, We cut the video footage down from about 30 minutes of film down to a 55 second clip, only taking the significant parts we needed, we cut using the razor tool. We layered the animation footage over the top and used the Chroma key to take away the blue background so only the animation was left, all that was left to do was to move it into place on both the time line and the video footage. This process was very effective and I know there couldn’t have been a process which would have produced the results any better.


My aims at the start of the year were quite basic in terms of goals, I wanted to learn the techniques and tips to use “the software” by which I meant 3ds Max and I can say I feel confident when I use it, I have leant from how to box model to the basics of follow through and how to add skins to models and edit envelopes. This will allow me to use this as a stepping stone, so I have a knowledge of which I can work on when I create models in my own time. The progression projects gave me the motivation to learn how to use Z-brush, so that I can create more detailed sculptures and use them in 3ds Max.

Particular Modules have helped me more than others such as the 3d Animation, I enjoyed this so I found it easier to produce more and more work for the weekly tasks, Week 2- Basic modelling was the start of me really getting to know 3ds Max and I didn’t feel lost in the software any more. Also Drawing for Animation was an important part of my progression over the year, especially when I learnt about the muscles and there locations which at the time I didn’t expect it would come in useful, but when I used z-brush to create my model I had to get his form accurate, I did this by using the muscles as references.

When I wrote my personal my personal professional development strategy, I think I was focused in heading in the direction of drawing for animation, my aims have altered and after looking into the industry, VFX Artists could be another possible option which I would like to look into. With this in mind I tried to take a bigger interest to incorporating Z-brush into my work.

So with software in mind we knew as wrote in an article named how to break into the VFX for films, we would have to incorporate “ZBrush and 3D Studio Max”, so on the character we took great care in using this and also sculptris. 3ds max was used for the whole of the animating and as the projects go on we get more confident with software which our target area needs.

We also looked at popular techniques used in the Animation Industry, and moving away from the VFX industry, weather forecasts and many adverts to date have been blue screened


References

Ehow.com (1999) How to Break into VFX for Film and TV | eHow.com. [online] Available at: http://www.ehow.com/how_2305219_break-vfx-film-tv.html [Accessed: 23 May 2012].

Week 7 Journal Entry

This week was alway going to be the week when it all came together, it did but not without a little problem.When we recieved the mapped model from Charlie somehow the skin had unattached itself from the bones , the envelopes had been lost. we had one of two choices, re-do the envelopes or re-do the materials.

We decided between us that the easiest solution was to just re-colour it. So I started on that why Karl made a start with the presentation.



I again used a Multires, just because this would have took sooo much longer if I hadnt of because of the amouth of faces there were.Then i selected the majority of a part using the element selection tool in the edit poly column under modify, and if there were any stray faces i missed , i selected them seperatly with the Polygon tool, once this was all selected I just used the material editor , picked the material, and dragged and dropped it on to the highlighted surface. this was a relativly easy task and took me around about an hour to finish.


Once I had completed the materials, I passed it over to Karl to make it move.

So once we had the Walk cycle/Animation layer back onto him, it was ready to animate!

It was a good job we made the origional grey copies of the movements because we were able to try them Chroma key'ed into the video footage, and from that we realised that we would havto put the model against a blue background as when we tryed it with a black background we got a black haze around the figure, we changed the background colour by going to the rendering option, then environment and to background colour.

Karls Movements on 3ds max...

This series of movements is very effective and portrays the animation being shot very well.

Again just a simple movement as the clip will only last for a couple of seconds, so we pefered him to move a little rather than just stand their like a still photo.

The long shot was created using a camera at medium length, so when scaled down in size on Premier Pro it didnt lose any detail or Quality.

The over the shoulder shot was pretty simple, just placing a freehand camera behind the model on 3ds max..

once we had these shot it was a fairly simple task of using the Chroma key and inserting them into the video footage on Premier Pro.

Week 6 Journal Entry

This was the last week of any of the modules, Blue screening went really well in video audio, i managed to get Duncun onto the still image background perfectly.
Again this practice will come in very usefull when we are editing the animation onto the video footage on Premier pro.

The aim this week was to get the walk cycle sorted so it stands properly, we drag down the foot arrows down so that the body is stretched, it looks ok but still doesnt work right.

Karl uses the curve editor to change the whole look of this cycle, and this is what we got on attempt 2. He takes off alot of the swing and rotation from the pelvis.




This is the second attempt at a side view so that  its easier to see its movement. the leg has come out of place in this though so will havto have anouther look over the envelopes.

Note: At this point Charlie has started Mapping the origional 3ds model using, We decided the easiest way to do this is to go to Editable mesh, the select by vertex and select an area and unattach it so its a seperate poly. then we will be able to add differant materials to each bit.

So at this point I will be Collecting all of our work together to put into a Presentation, as I've produced all I need to for now, Karl is practacing the movements of the cowboy , while the main target of the week sits with Charlie to get the mapping onto the cowboy.

Below are a couple of test animations that Karl created , just to see how they looked....


This video above works very well, may haveto think about flipping the video footage so that this can be shot on this side, maybe needs abit more speed , but this is quite successful.



This week Visually hasnt been as productive but it has come to the point which i said in my firsts weeks journal , the little things have took alot of time and patience.

We are still on target to finish this , Slightly early if anything which would allow us to make a few minor changes to the finished product.