After Effects Title Sequence

I think I have mentioned this before but I wanted to create an after effects sequence that has the feel of production quality material, but I unfortunately ran out of time at the end of the module, my main idea was to paint in PS layers the images that are about and have them independently moving in the image to give a kind of overview of what will happen in the 1 min video but in the first 5 seconds of it, this method is done in the Spartacus' end credits and I know I have mentioned Spartacus before but it is totally one of my favourite shows of all time and also one of the few things I can actually clearly remember to use AE in their end and start sequences. If I had more time I would have really liked to have done this but will be exploring it further next projects as well as painting the images myself instead of using stills that have been cut out of images which is what Spartacus does and what I decided to do as a last resort but what I again found out that I didnt have enough time to do.

I decided to combine two posts together and include this video that someone has made as a fan version of the AE end sequence to Spartacus as I couldnt find anywhere the actual ending. This is generally what I have been talking about for all these posts and the kind of thing I want to be making soon.

Webinar CGHub

This post is about a webinar which is basically a seminar online which I attended because I signed up to it from CGHub, I am really happy i found these because they are very insightful into the industry of creating artwork for games and there are some really great professionals out there that are featured in these. I am also glad that I was lucky enough the recieve a place in the event as CGHub is quite a well known and prestegious website and features some of the best digital artists of our time. 

This is the first of three webinars that I have attended but I will only discuss this one as I found it the most interesting, the webinar was with Scott Robertson, an artist who has been working in the industry for 20+ years and who has some great tips and tricks and also a huge amount of insight into the creative industry. He talked for an hour to us about how he creates his work and what he has done over the years and how he has been seen to be successful, he also talks about how the industry has changed over the years and how nothing was the same when he was first starting out.

The notes I took from the webinar put in to bullet points are:

• He uses Modo for quick modelling
• Creates 3D models and then paints over them
• Think about the physical elements while you are designing
• Trial and error is a big part of designing
• Try manage time well to get the most things done
• Tests of work
• The secret is finding what you think is the best and then working with that aspect
• Create an extensive visual memory bank
• Get experience
• Explore, research,photograph.
• Studies of what you are interested in
• Be curious about your study and want to learn more about it
• Read,travel,visit museums and events
• Exchange ideas, get experience
• Nothing sticks until you do it (kinetic learner) so do it!
• The work is finished when you are out of time
• Realise the process and the time frame
• Put things together that are not meant to go and you might find something new
• Play with variables to create new concepts 
• Own a database of references/ownmade work
• Paint over objects using tools to replicate the texture
• Render Photoreal objects
• Observation drawing against all different materials
• Physics of reflectivity 
• Observation coupled with the physics of how things work
• Stay relevant
• Adopt new tools as they come
• Creative process - how to design the object - creative solutions
• Sometimes facebook and twitter are useful

And that is all of the notes I took on the webinar, I think there are quite a lot because I found it to be very useful and insightful. I will be using all of the advice I picked up from the webinar as much as I can. Below are a few of the screenshots I took of the webinar being registered for me to attend.

Green Screen Filming Day 3 + Quick Storyboard

Our individual day of filming I thought I would take a few images from to show it went, we stayed in Uni for about 6 hours or more and did a lot of work, this was good for me as I had a feeling of satisfaction for spending a whole day working out of my own time when I could have done a bit of footage and then gone home early. I felt that other people thought my video was a little ambitious and that agin made me feel good because it felt like other people were confirming the thought that I am trying harder than normal which I thought that I was doing.

Now to storyboarding, on the day that I showed up on I came prepared, I made a quick storyboard on the morning just to solidify the ideas and camera shots I had in my head. I learnt from watching a quick clip from the Gnomon workshop how important storyboards are to creating a good story, even if I didnt spend much time making the storyboard (Which I think they implied that you should) I still think that I have learned that always coming prepared with a clear idea in your head and at least something on paper is the best way to do things if you dont have an overall large amount of time to work with.

http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/415/Conceptual-Storyboarding:Storytelling-and-Struggle#.UTnM7nO6zIo

Creating Aspects In Maya

While I was working on my interior I thought about extra elements that I could add that we weren't taught that might complement my finished scene, I did indeed add a fog layer based on the things I learned in this tutorial but decided in the end to keep it turned off when rendering out the scene from the cameras because I could add it in AE if I actually wanted, it was good to know how to create certain elements in both programs especially when they are totally different platforms to each other and think it was a good exercise to go out and find work that I could apply to my own work from first hand sources of people who are in or are trying to get into the Maya modelling industry.


http://www.3dworldmag.com/2011/06/24/create-a-ground-fog-effect-in-maya/

504 Rough Cut Video Sequence

Here is my rough cut 1 min video without any effects or green screening at all. It was really good practise to use this as reference because it helped with all the shots and camera angles and putting them together, I will be doing this in the future.



I remember this video from a few months back when we had our entire perspective ruined of TV shows and series, this was done by taking away the magic of every series around by showing the way everything good today is created, I think this is relevant to my video in the way that I now know how to create these illusions (not particularly well) and can see behind and spot the seams of every show out there right now. I can say that I used this to create my own work in the way that we both used the same methods of production, the difference is that they have a huge production team working on these projects at the same time and that more man power = more work and at a better standard, I have also learned that the more time or man hours spent working on an individual shot definitely make it a lot better of a finished result and will incorporate this into my own work when I start adding the layers of visual effects into my scene.


Stargate Studios Virtual Backlot Reel 2012 from Stargate Studios on Vimeo.

Destiny Game Post

This I came across when browsing the web at home for interesting things and it struck me as a good idea to do a VFX post about this as I really liked the initial concepts for the game as well as the way the concept art has been after effects'd to move slowly and give an impression of a 3D image. This is one of the highest profile and budget games that will have come out this year and think that missing this as a post would be a mistake, I also think that if this is one of the biggest games then it will have one of the best production teams when it comes to concept art and video development, therefore looking at the work produced by this team will be good practise because it is the best work out there and they always say you learn fastest by learning from the best.



I really want to produce this kind of work in my next module so I will be reposting about this in the future and elaborating and contextualising it to the next project.

I really wanted to make some after effects work like this but because I found this towards the end of this module I couldnt do any more concept art as it is quite time consuming if you want it to be any good plus I was way past that point in the module anyway, I will be looking at this type of work early on in the next module as I know how to use AE already this time and it will be good practise to do.

504 Ship Exterior Model

And here is the result of modelling based on the sketches of a ship design I did, I think it turned out quite well and I also recorded the process of making this so I will be blogging about this again later. The looming protector like look of the ship is what I like about this best, also the paint effects on the ship I enjoyed making because if you set up your PS file properly and have all the correct layers in the correct places then it is very easy and theraputic to make and in the end made it look quite cool and beat up.

Here is the UV map of the ship that I did for the model. I am happy with how it looks as it looks more complicated to other people than it actually is to me, it was a little tricky to do as with this model I made using lots of different pieces of geometry instead of one big piece, this added a few challenges as well as making some aspects of the modelling process easier. The harder things to do was to match up the UV map with the model because it was hard to tell where some lines were going under other pieces of geometry but on the other hand made some things a little easier like actually modelling the ship and because it was in different pieces when it was made it was a lot easier to organise and re organise if the needs be.

And here we have a few screenshots of the interior of the ship, I did learn a really interesting thing when it ame to modelling in Maya and also in any rendering geometry program, that you can not include more than 8 lights in any scene at any one time, this made my whole piece more confusing to create as there was supposed to be many lights in there probably about 20+ but I did do a few creative things to solve this problem, I 1 learned how to make 1 light only effect a certain number of objects, this would help make it look like a number of things were glowing independently when they arent, 2 I learned how to use render view to look at my image instead of using the high quality preview to look at my work and finish it in there. I think this has made my workflow better overall and am happy for running into this problem as it has made me a better practitioner in the end.

Linked In

Linked In is a website where creative professionals connect and socialise to get to know new people better and maybe get a job out of it or work together because of it. We were all advised to create a linked in account to be able to connect online and find new people to maybe one day work with, I found the interface system while browsing on the site to be a little hard to do, also the community on the site seemed to be a little closed off and because of this put me off the site as a whole a little bit. I will continue to try use the site but think that traditional business cards and meeting people face to face may have a bigger impact when it comes to presenting your work and marketing yourself out in the world. Also the fact that it is hard to be able to share your portfolio with other users makes it a little less desirable for me as a creative as all of my work is presentable through images and video, links only go so far when they are a tiny blue strip of writing at the bottom of your profile.