example of research

Here are some of my research pages for my personal.  

pre production

I haven't been very good at keeping this blog up to date, sorry about that. Any who here are some of the things I've been up to for pre-production. This project ends in a weeks’ time, then its production which is what I rather do. I should then hopefully update more often on what I am working on at the time.

Right now that's out the way; I'm going to explain what my projects are:

My first personal project is a weather particle system, where I'm going to create an environment and change the weather using particles and fluid in multiple software. The image below is a brainstorm I've done to help decide what kind of environment. After some research I decided on doing a volcano as it can have any kind of weather pattern and look natural, but it also has the added effect of doing an eruption.

My second project is a little easier but still complicated as I've never done any match-moving before. So my idea was to have someone walk around a populated area and change the arm of said person to robotic limb. The image below explains in more detail of my project. 

For my final project is a collaborative project with other classmates. The picture underneath is my brief I was given by the director/project leader. I am to do all the effects for the demon character, and to help with anything else.

This last picture is to show what software I am going to use for my projects.

OK so thats it for now will upload a little more pre-production before I start uploading production stuff. 

Getting back on track

Okay so it pre-production time again, and I'm going to try and upload every other day with either new effect tests I've tried out or design work etc..

Character finally done!

After being a week late here is my character I did for my Mudbox project. I am happy with the outcome except for the whole head, never been good at modelling hair or texturing a head, but i am getting better. I had problems getting my model in to Mudbox, so only one or two parts where actually modified in Mudbox, the rest was done in 3ds Max. I looked at quite a few tutorials to try and make things better, but didn’t quite find any good ones.  

Been a while!

It's been awhile since I last updated my blog. I've been quite busy recently doing light/composition project, as well as a Mudbox character project. The lighting project is a redo from second year, the lighting itself was simple enough as I kind of knew how to do lighting in 3DS Max. However I don't know a thing about how to do compositions, I couldn't go to any of the lectures as I they were on at the same time of Mudbox. So this is where the internet came in handy I found some tutorials although not all them helped but I was able to get enough info to do this project. I'll look into composition properly when this project is over. After the 5th I'll upload my final character :D, any-who here are some stills of my composition piece.

Awesome

Here is a clip I found on you tube to show the awesomeness of Vue :D

Vue

For my project I am trying to learn a few programs that will be helpful to me, one of them is Vue 9 which I have recently installed and had a quick go, trying to see how hard it'll be to learn. After about 15mins it seems quite an easy program to use the interface is similar to other programs I've used; this program makes texturing environments easy, as well as the lighting, it’s awesome. However I don't think my computer can handle it as well as I hoped, it lags a bit, but don't know if that's to do with the installation (will have to look in to it). So I've quickly done a little desert which only took under 10 minutes (need to get rid of the watermark).

I'll be uploaded any new environments I tried out on this program. :) 

Glass

Today I've been working on how to do glass shatter as well as other things in Maya, and the glass itself is really easy, the only problem I'm having is the rendering I can't seem to get it right. Here are some still images of what it looks like after the ball has crashed in to it, hopefully soon I'll be uploading the clip to it...

New clips

Here are some clips of tutorials I've followed to do with ncloth and simple particles. I found quite a good site for anyone who wants to do dynamic kind of things with Maya: http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/Maya/Effects/1

New project

I have now started doing some pre-production for my major project. I am working on a friend's project as a collaboration which I'll be doing VFX things for his film, which I'm looking forward to doing. I am also doing personal project of putting my character from second year in a live action clip, just so I can learn a bit about compositing. I'll also be doing a scenery piece with the weather changing from one mood to another. I will try uploading as much as I can with whatever I'm doing :)

These images are from my environment project, I was trying to go for a Chinese themed bridge with some wind effecting the lanterns, however I had trouble with that. I don't like the final outcome, I want to redo all the textures and lighting, which I will do in my spare time.

Coming Soon

The third year has started with an environment project, which was to be done in Maya which I haven't used before, but managed alright with a few hiccups. I will be uploading the outcome of this project real soon. 

second year work

Here is some of my particle stuff I did for my second year. Some particles like the rain and leaves were easy enough just needed a little bit of tweaking to get right, however the others such as the lava lamp and tornado I had a little trouble with to get it right, managed it in the end though. All of these are done in 3ds Max, anyone who is interested in doing these kinds of thing I would recommend getting a book called ‘Deconstructing the Elements with 3ds Max’, it's where I learnt how to do most my particle stuff.

Here are a few stills of the circuit and a failed attempt to put lightning with the tornado.

Finally opened my blog XD

FINALLY, I have now entered the realm of blogging. I am going to try and keep this blog as up to date as possible; I will upload videos of my work, as well as still images of my pre-production and final work. If I find any good tutorials or tips I'll post them as well. So keep turned:-D