Sad Little Robot

Made a VFX shot using some new software. Took some footage, and stabilized it, tracked it, and composited in a robot that I had lying around. Programs I used were Blender, PFTrack, After Effects, Houdini, and Nuke.

First successful time doing something like this. Definitely more to come. Hopefully a breakdown video shortly!

Characters and Explosions!

Been working on a project for Computer Animation 2. Was tasked to model a 3D character. So I decided to do a futuristic soldier. Here's the result. Hopefully I will be able to texture this in Mari sometime soon!

Also been working on that toon-shaded explosion. Here's an update!

Rotunda Update

Coming at you with the latest version of my Rotunda for Computer Animation 1. Things are going really well, but I still have a lot to do. I have just begun the texturing phase, and thankfully it is going pretty well. I am not a huge fan of unwrapping objects in Maya, but with a combination of a couple other programs, I am able to do a good enough job.

 

What is still left to do is: finish the elephant and his habitat, add in some more detail to a few of the walls, and insert a bunch of miscellaneous objects to make the scene look a little busier than it does right now. The elephant will be a challenge, since it will be my first time modeling and exporting something in Zbrush. I might also have to creatively change what he is standing on, because I do not have enough time to make a photoreal desert environment, like what is in the reference.

 

The project is due in a week, so stay tuned!

 

3D Environment Update

I have been working a lot of the Rotunda for my 3D environment, and thought it was about time to show my progress.

There are a couple parts near the top of the dome that I am not liking, but if I have some extra time, I can go back and fix those later. The desks on the ground floor of the Rotunda also look a bit weird, but thankfully that is just due to the fish-eye effect I am using so that you can see the entire scene in one image.

The next things that I am going to be working on is 1) finally getting that elephant made, 2) working on the rest of the objects on the ground floor, and 3) begin texturing. I feel like the project is going well so far, I just have tp push it into high-gear so that I can get the project fully done before the deadline at the beginning of April!

 

3D Environment Scene Update

For my environment for Computer Animation 1, I am modeling the rotunda of the National History Museum in Washington D.C..



 

So far, here is my progress on this scene. Keep tuned for more!

 

New Cell Phone Model

After a long break, I thought it was about time to post again on this blog. So, without further ado, here is my first project in Computer Animation 1: my cell phone!

 

(Click for full size image)

And here is the wireframe for the phone

Design For Media City Final

The time has come, and here is the final render of my city that I have been working on for the past four and a half weeks. I finished the lighting and did a lot of post-processing to add those final touches. Couldn't have done it with the help of my teachers and classmates! Without further ado, here it is!

 



(Click for larger image)

 

I want to continue this project on my own, making more details and fixing issues. But I think that this is a good stopping point for this project now that we are at the end of the semester!

A City Is Born

Major update on the cityscape project that I am working on for my Design for Media class. I have finished modeling everything (with the exceptions of a few last minute details if the need arises) and have begun on the texturing. I have already textured the forest, but tweaks might still need to be done before it is complete.



 

 

The forest might need a bit of tweaking to get the edges around the city looking right, but for the most part I like where it is going.

 



 

The last image here marks the beginning of the texturing phase. As you can see, only the one building in the middle actually has some color. The plan is that by next week at this time, all the buildings in the city will be textured like this. We will see how that goes...

 

The City Is Taking Shape

We have now reached the halfway point of this project, and I have made great strides on my project. I have constructed a complete terrain for my landscape to reside in, and have finished all the roads and city blocks. I still want to add some trees and bushes to give the terrain some life, but that will happen a little bit later down the road (no pun intended).

 

I am also about halfway done with the buildings! I still have a lot of the smaller buildings and residential areas to complete (as well as older buildings, abandoned ones, etc.) , but that will all happen this week. After all this modeling is completed, the material and texturing stage comes next!

It's going to be a sprint to the finish, and honestly I don't know how it will turn out. No matter what happens though, I was able to learn a lot about managing a massive scene with tons of data! Here's hoping the result will reflect the work I put into it.

CityScape Update

Work begins on my cityscape. In the grand scope of things, only a small portion is done, but the foundations have been laid and things are only going to go faster from here on out!

 

 

 

 



(Click for high-res images)

I almost have these few city blocks finished (with the modeling that is), and then I will go into overdrive to get the rest of the city modeled. I want to spend most of my time on this part because it is going to be the tallest part of the skyline and the focal point of the city. These buildings will be the most detailed in the city.

Cityscape Preparation

Concept

The movie project has finally been completed and we are quickly moving into the next project! This project is whatever we want it to be! So, I am going to be ambitious and do a massive 3D scene of an entire city. This will be a very detailed scene complete with cars, people, light posts, everything. I have never tackled something this big, and thought it was about time to do so!

 

I am going to try and make it as realistic as possible, and as massive as possible in these short 5 weeks. Here are some images that I am going to use to keep my city as real as possible. I am not going to make an existing city, but make an entirely new one with buildings that are not actually in existence.

 


source website

 


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source website

 

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Schedule

For the schedule, this is about how things will look. It will be a fluid process (since I have never done something in 3d to this scale before), so these dates are not set in stone, but I want to try to stick to these dates as best I can.

 

November 27th: City Design and Layout Completed
December 6th: Texturing and Materials Finished
December 13th: Rendering and Final Compositing

Last Week Panic!

This marks the beginning of the last week of the project. Things are getting stressful, but I am confident that we will finish everything in time. The shooting is going well, and the fire is going..... alright. There are a lot of issues with the explosions that we have to resolve, and here's hoping we will find a way to fix them!



As you can see, the final explosion is almost complete! I didn't render out all the frames just yet, but I will here in the next day or two.

There are just a few things left to add: debris coming out of the building and some small trails of smoke shooting out in all directions (that will be Will's addition I believe).

All that's left to fix is baking the final detail and fixing the shadow issues (and the background issues which I didn't have until just now...

We are almost done, and this is going to be an awesome result!

Explosion Update

 

William, Kevin, and I worked a lot on the explosion shot for Project Yoakam and got some good results.

 



 

Still have a long way to go, but for a preliminary shot things are going well. The final render will be about 3x more detailed than this one is.



 

Another shot we will be working on is the greenscreen shot with the puppet and Wallace. Going to add some smoke and fire into the shot to make it look more realistic! See more over at the CG/Post director's blog here!

Stay tuned for more! The final deadline is November 8th, so the fun begins now!!

Design For Media Project Proposal

Welcome!

My project brief will be short and sweet. Basically, I want to do a project that encompasses all realms of the cinematic arts. Photo, 2D, 3D, VFX, cinematic studies; everything! My idea is to have a character, object, or whatever be doing something interesting (vague enough huh?). But during this video, the character/object will transform from 3D, to 2D, to pictures of characters/objects, to a cinematic video of him/it, and then to a VFX shot (not in that order) where he will take off with a jet pack. Who knows. The sky is the limit! Here is some inspiration I found and would love to incorporate these ideas. I want this project to be a big collaboration as well. So everyone's artistic talent will be put to use in every aspect of the creation project!









Since I want this to be a big collaborative project, I am not going to appoint myself as Director, and I am not nominating anyone for Art Director or Head of Editorial. I want this project to be something that touches everybody! I want to see people who are truly inspired to step up and show what they are made of.

Enjoy!

Lights to Night [Project Completed]

It's done! Presenting Lightbulbs over a Landscape. Not much to say about it except that I am pretty pleased with the result. It's a little slower that I would have liked, but it's just a massive file-size. What do you think?

On The Final Leg

Work continues on the menagerie project. More concepting has been done, and much progress has been made!

 



 

I have decided on light bulbs to be my objects. My concept is to have a field of lights in an actual grassy field. Like these:

 






 

There will be thousands of lights! The point of it is that these lights are not ordinary lights, but super efficient lights, and with the scene from nature, I think they will work together nicely.

 



 



Next week will be the final post and me inserting my light bulbs into the scene. It will be the finish product. So stay tuned!