Maya Modelling

Really enjoying this project so far. About a month back we had to take pictures for reference for modelling, and I chose my kitchen, as I thought it would be a great choice with the angle and the shapes on offer. (I will upload my photo when I find it!) And today I've began to model the kitchen units, washing machine and bin (obviously they aren't completed yet) First time modelling and I have to say I'm pleased with what I've done so far.
UPDATE

Here's my photo reference!

My loverly kitchen haha!

Flash Project Pre-Production

These are my character designs for my Flash project. From the get go when I read the brief and saw the theme was "My life at Falmouth", one thing popped to mind: pigeons! Few weeks ago I had a very funny encounter with pigeons, so I that's why they popped to mind. I'd also thought they would be fun to design and create in Flash, and possibly pose a challenge when animating them!

So above are my designs for the pigeons. I wanted a cartoony look to them, and to look like pigeons...but also not to, if you know what I mean haha. I think my favourite is the bottom right. Once coloured in greys and whites, it should look like a pigeon...but I like the fact that it isn't EXACTLY like one. Because I'm going to have two of them in my animation, I will differentiate them by subtle colour changes and possibly change the size of one slightly.

I have inked my two favourite designs (I know they aren't that great, still getting used to my tablet!) and shown colours which I will be using. Below them are my two set designs. I want them on a ledge talking whilst people walk beneath them. I think having the people adds more detail and I can also then add recorded voices and crowds.

These are my basic designs, and once I have chosen which pigeon design I want, I will then ink it again (but better) and add colour, which will then be my final design which I will use when I create them in Flash. Can't wait! :D

This is my turnaround! Decided to go with this design in the end as I thought it was overall a better design and is more of the look I wanted from the beginning. Next thing I'm going to do is ink the character (this time much better...hopefully!) and add colour. That will then be my final finished character, which I will then make in Flash!

This is my basic finished designs for my two pigeon characters. I didn't want to differentiate them to much, because I wanted to get the idea across that pigeons can look all the same haha. But obviously I had to change them slightly, so I decided just to have one slightly thinner and taller, and with a lighter coat. His hair is also different, as is his position of the eyes, as I made them a little closer.

I wanted the designs to have sort of a rough, somewhat childish style to them (as if they look hand drawn) and this is what I want, and will carry on into photoshop. Overall I'm pretty happy with the results. Of course I would have liked them to be slightly better in quality, but as I've stated, I'm still practising with my tablet, and trying to find the perfect set-up for me in photoshop, which I haven't quite managed yet! :)

This is just a rough idea on how my animation will look and what my background will be. I've decided to have them on a pipe near a roof of a building, and I've messily just displayed what sort of colours will be used and to mark out the window, tiled roof, brickwork etc. Still don't know whether or not I shall add passers-by underneath. Depends on how much time I'll have. I'd definitely try to add them if I can and if it goes well. I might decided later on that it may not be suitable or something. I'll add the final environment once I have done it, but I do know what I want for it.

Well, I've had a couple of fun days doing this! Can't wait to put it all into Flash and start animating!

Photoshop Sketch

My first ever drawing using a graphics tablet in Photoshop. I just wanted to draw a simple human figure, and as you can see from the screenshot, I began with a skeleton and then moved onto sketching the basic figure on a new layer. Once I done that, I started inking. This is all I've done so far, and will continue on it by adding more detail (such as the face) and adding colour, and will upload the finished drawing.

It is my first drawing using a tablet, so excuse the fact that it isn't the best drawing in the world. This is purely just getting used to the tablet. I do need time and practice, which I am doing at the moment. I spent most of today just doodling on Photoshop, and overall this one took about 10-15 minutes. I absolutely love drawing this way now, and will keep on drawing with my tablet and hopefully get better and better! :)

Maya Lighting

Experimenting with lighting and shadows in Maya. Found this very fun, and possibly a route I could venture towards. I learned and am now familiar with the different types of lighting, including spot lights, ambient lights and directional lights. Before this I was already aware of things like materials such as Blinn and Lambert. I also practised with the penumbras and drop offs with shadows, which determines how hard or soft you want the shadows to be .

There are two types of shadow in CGI
 - Shadow maps (very fast, more of a projection than a shadow, complicated)
 - Raytraced shadows (mental ray, easy, high render times)

The two images above just show how lighting affects the different materials assigned to the four objects. I am aware that there isn't any shadows (which I'm unsure why, because they should be there; will check back with that later!) bounce light or transparent shadows, unfortunately I just didn't have the time to include them. But overall, I very much look forward to more lighting in the future...very fun! :)

After Effects Smiley!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03R3dnUPQEc

New Wolf Flash Character

 

This is a revised version of the wolf I posted on here before. I've made quite a few changes, including giving him legs and a new tail. I gave him legs for the simple answer of making him easier to animate when he walks, and to overall make it look better when he does. As I had stated, I wasn't too happy with the original tail, so I've given him a new one. I'm still not fully happy, because I wanted it shaggy, to help differentiate him from a dog. The other subtle changes were that I changed the arm in the background so when he walks it can swing and look fairly realistic, and because of that I had to give it claws, because beforehand there wasn't any need to because the arm was hidden. I also made the head bigger to give him a more cuteness factor. Overall I definitely think it's better than the first, and I can see me giving him a few more changes in the future before I begin to animate him. I may make a very short animation with him in it, and include a few more characters.

Flash Wolf

Just fairly quickly made this wolf today in the spare time I had. He's fully symbolised and ready to animate, with movable arms, feet, head, nose, tail, eyes and both ears. I really enjoy creating cartoon style characters in Flash, especially ones with a cuteness factor, so I suppose you could see a character like this in a short childrens animation. He's not fully finished as I only had a little time to make him and I'm not fully happy with the tail. But I just thought I'd post him on here anyway.

This has to be one of my favourite game trailers. Absolutely stunning. I'm a fan of the games, and when I saw this I was litterally blown away. This is definitely something I would want to do in the future. What gets me especially is at the end when the two foes clash. It just gives me the chills. Love it! :D

Maya Leaf

 

This week I learned in Maya lighting and texturing, how to get materials and objects to react to light and shadows/shading and rendering. This leaf (from what I can remember) was created by using a nurbs plane and inserting three images of the leaf  (including one for bump mapping) where the colour and transparency is in the attribute layer. And then ticking the box in attribute editor called chromatic abberation. Obviously there is a lot more to it than that, but I was simply learning and still need to learn. And that is what I can remember at the moment off by heart! But overall I feel I did well and am very much getting the hang of Maya now, and will go over this again to really make it sink in. :)

Life Drawing 8

 

 

This was the same task last week, but instead we had a male model, so the lighting was slightly different due to the body, mainly around the muscles on the arms. Again, I found this enjoyable, and also easier because it wasn't now new to me. I'm fairly happy with it, especially since after all I'm still learning and practicing, and still adjusting to life drawing.

I HAVE A GRAPHICS TABLET! YAY!

Well, I FINALLY got myself a graphics tablet! :D Don't know how on earth I survived without one now haha! I just can't put it down. Since I got it I've been drawing constantly in Photoshop, Flash, Sketchbook, anything like that. I've already become used to it, and now it just feels very natural. Will be very much using it now for future projects and looking forward to doing so. Now if you'll excuse me, me and my graphics tablet have to get back to work! :)

Flash Characters

Just generally messing around on Flash and creating characters. Just made a couple of simple characters and thought I'd post them on here. Didn't take that long to make, and they're fairly simple. I'll make more soon with more detail and with bodies. I love Flash :D

Life Drawing 7

 

For this we used white chalk on black paper and highlight the light on the figure, without trying to draw the outline. I found this very enjoyable and somewhat easier for me, and I liked the fact that you had to look specifically for light and how much there was.

Adobe After Effects

This was my first assigned task in After Effects. Simply put, all we had to do was have two objects/pictures come into contact and bounce off each other. As with Flash, I've used After Effects for many years now but not to animate. Rather I used it to create lightning and other special effects, so it was sort of new to me. But I was familiar with the set-up and how it worked. And again as with Flash, I seem to get on with it very well and look forward to projects set using it.

(Sorry again that it's so long - only lasts around 4-5 seconds)

Lip Syncing

This was our first task in flash using lip syncing. I've sort of had experience with this before so it wasn't new to me. I've used Flash for many years now and really enjoy using it. I feel the project which will eventually be set using Flash will be no problem at all.

(sorry about the quality!)