Monday 25 January 2010

Progress.

Today was a productive day. The group sat down and basically finalized our idea with narrative and floor plan. Sam also used Maya to make a basic Model of our scene so we could give it to Matt to make the final Concept. We have all taken this file as it also helps up with scale for when we start our modeling.

We also decided who would be modeling what in our scene, and who would be fulfilling each role in our project, and created a timetable for the rest or term. I shall post these on the team blog at some point.

Thursday 21 January 2010

Concepts first wave.

So here are some intial concepts for our scene... these are very basic and first draughts. Presentations of my ideas for our enviroment.

This is a concept of a fountain for the courtyard of our scene. This was done before we decided on the Lady of the Lake theme.

This initial concept was done after we decided on our Lady of the Lake theme. We wanted a tiny island raised from water with a castle/fortress in ruins on top of it.

I have also looked at the initial concepts of some of the other team members so I will now be moving on to draw some concepts incorporating some of their ideas, i hopes of getting closer to developing a final concept for Matt to finish up. Then we can hopefully move on to Modeling.

Rochester Research.

Me and Lydia previously went to rochester to conduct research on Rochester Castle and Cathedral. The Research was quite enlightening and the images we took can be found on the team blog here.

We took some rubbings of seals and also took pictures of the stone walls to give us an idea for textures and bump mapping. This castle was also incredible beneficial towards the project as it is tattered and ruined.

Wednesday 20 January 2010

Progress.

At last our team was able to dodge freak snow storms and finally meet up to discuss our project. We have been able to contact each other via email and decide on a Medieval theme, although when we tried to progress onto concept it became too complex as we wanted to make sure everybody had an aspect in the environment that they wanted to see. This hopefully means we won't have too many creative differences.

We finally got a chance to discuss ideas, and expand upon our original theme. We have even decided on a narrative and style as well as gaining a new team member. Matt Vadis.

We have decided to create a Medieval Island with a fantasy theme based on the idea of King Arthur's Lady of the Lake. We have also decided to integrate 2d and 3d in the form of having a 2d animated character in a 3d environment.

Now we can move on to concepts and then to the final design.

Friday 15 January 2010

TEAM UP!

Okay so we now have a team, which consists of Hayley, Lydia, Sam and I.
Our group is going by the name Team Desperado.

I took the liberty of making the team blog which can be found here.

Monday 11 January 2010

The Brief.

This is the brief for the Digital Environments Project, followed by my thoughts and proposed ideas for the coming weeks.

PROJECT BRIEF

For this project you will be working in teams of four or five students. You will all be working towards a final collaborative short film but will have the opportunity to fulfil clear and separate roles within the team.

  • You will be working to create an animated environment.
  • You will be collaborating not only with the other animators in your team, but also with designers from the environment design course.
  • Their designs will form the starting point for your work.

This environment will be modelled in 3D, UV mapped, textured and lit based upon the research of materials and environments as initially designed or propsed by IDEAS students. This research will consist of practical site visits (such as the trip to Barcelona and alternative London based venues) and associated drawing and photography, as well as academic research via the web and the LRC.

This environment must demonstrate integral animation, it could be mechanical such as machinery, doors, windows, windmills etc, or it could be more organic, and atmospheric, such as the effects of wind on plants, weather conditions etc. It could be a much more long term animation to show the effect of years passing, rather than minutes. For those of you who feel that you are more character animators than computer visualisers you can focus upon contextualising the designed environment by populating it with characters using that environment, it may be that the environment is being used in an unintended or unexpected way that has evolved through public interaction with the space. (Was the South Bank designed for skateboarding or parkour?).

It may be easier for you to think about defining the way in which you will approach this project by choosing one of the themes listed below.

a) Changes over time (historic).

b) Changes in weather or lighting (climatic).

c) Changes in use of the environment (contextual).

Although you will be working as part of a team towards your final animation, you will also be required to provide evidence of your individual contribution to the project via a blogged design journal where you will document your personal research, experimentation, and acquiring of new skills.

Initial Thoughts.

I really like the brief, and i'm definitely excited to get started. Obviously making groups has been slightly troublesome as the snow has meant cancelled classes for a week now. However I like the idea of taking initial ideas and information about materials from a course more qualified to give such advise.

Environments has such a broad meaning, and my mind is already doing overtime thinking about films i've seen lately and thinking of how i can incorporate all the aspects into one idea. Hopefully this will become easier when we are put into our groups.

I think in this project there are 3 things i would like to contribute to; concept, modeling and texturing. These are 3 aspects that interest me a great deal and i would like to work on to further my abilities.

I guess thats it for now... more posts when I am settled in a group and know what I am working towards.

Hello Again

Hey Hey Hey,

So here we are again, this time with a new project based around Digital Environments. So this will be my personal blog for the project and I assume we will have a team blog as well. I imagine this blog however will be for posting my own personal development throughout the project, personal deadlines, achievements and growth in maya and so forth.

So welcome and I hope you enjoy.