Shambles texture experimentation

So I've experimented with the textures in unreal and we didn't get the exact same effect in our assignment cause the lighting we used was to be a night time kind of lighting instead of day time.

Here is some of my experimentation on the textures.

Going all Shambles!

So the world project neaded allot of fixing and re-unwrapping. Previously allot of the assets were poorly unwrapped and flipped showing a red instead of blue color. So I had to go through the map fixing it all up and adding in some custom assets.

I also ended up redoing all the textures and replacing some of the textures to differentiate it.

Some extra large pillars to act as part of the scenery

Shambles model.

Modelling Shambles wasn't difficult but there were come pieces parts of him that seemed out of proportion. Seeing he was a robot it gave me the freedom to make a couple of mistakes and a bit of experimenting.

I didn't use proper model sheets to model him. Instead I used posed drawings in different angles to get an understanding of the overall look. Some pieces were added and cut to make it look more intricate in the modelling stage. I feel I maybe should have followed the reference exactly but the model felt too plane. While keeping the main overall concept I added my own piece of detail.

When modelling the back I had to change a bit of the back seeing it would have made animating problamatic when tryna bend the characters torso sideways. I simply got rid of the pistons on the side of the torso.

Animation and rigging weakness.

To be honest I was never really good at animating or even rigging and skinning. All I've ever known is just how to push and pull vertices and even my knowledge on unwrapping is limited but I somehow manage to pull through with unwrapping.

Doing some Acting on camera to use as a reference for my uni animation exercise.

I understand how to play with the graph editor for animation but I'm only limited in what I can do for animation.

But when modelling when ever modelling organic assets I make sure I understand how the mesh will deform while modelling. Whenever modelling I will also make sure I consider how it animates.

Here is a hand mesh and I have a specific topology for the creases under the fingers. All maintaining quads.

Every time I model I think about how it would animate or deform.

Vlog 8

Keep in mind the audio seems to play up.

Mazda animation (directors cut)

So I did a directors cut for my first assignment and I can truly say I am proud having only done this in 10 weeks. In the future I'l have to consider time management and make sure I'm working smart not hard.

Failed packshot

Video: https://vimeo.com/133260949

I wasn't able to bring the packshot animation to its full potential so I'm going to start working on a directors cut this week to fix up what I don't like.

The rain was way too fake and the motion blur was way off.

I believe what slowed me down was a ;acl of knowledge about compositing and renderpasses. The render times also did chunck up allot of my time and but I could of been researching while I was batch rendering. Though near the end of the project it was like I let my foot off the gass a little and so I guess this is what happened. Or maybe my scope was too large but the only way to challenge myself was with a larger scope. Knowing my failures I now know what I have a lack of knowledge of. For me there was a lack of knowledge on many things but I feel I could've submitted a better animation if only I didn't let my foot of the gas a little.

Maybe I got tired? I dunno but I know that I can still make this better.

week 6: after effects experimentation

yay! its week 6. ^_^
Having a little trouble adding the motion blur to the animation in after effects. Frankly I'm going to need to buy a license for some plugin to get rid of the plugins watermark so instead I'm going to try using Nuke for post processing at uni. I don't have Nuke at home nor do I have the time to install it seeing its due by the end of the week and I still have some more frames left to render.

playblast

Just a playblast. Not really concerned about the low bitrate.

packshot dev

So I came across this when I was experimenting with the render passes. Looking at this I think I want to have a lower saturation in the animation. For now I'm just building the front cover for the mockup game.

other passes

motion vector

depth pass

render pass 2

With a bit of changes and compromising I've managed to cut the render time by 50 minutes. Just hoping my motion vector pass will suffice for the changes.

AO pass

render time optimization

So I've organised a couple of render passes but the problem is that the colour render layer I've done takes a full 2 hours and 2 minutes for a single frame and the 5 second animation is due next week. Gonna have to look into cutting down a couple of things.

Vlog 7: render passes

Its my first time using render passes for mentalray and applying my knowledge about it, Allot of my research came from digital tutors and I'm having to go through multiple courses just so I can get my head around it. I feel I may have only scrapped the surface of linear workflow and render passes but this is the best I can do so far.

Style Frames

Style Frames
https://www.artstation.com/p/VJRk8
Some style frames for my short 5 second animation. I'm gonna have 2 seconds for each style frame.

-Maya
-Mental Ray
-Photoshop

vlog 6: rigged vehicle

A basic rig of my vehicle. Doesn't have a steering function but there will be no as it wont be doing any sharp turning.

Lighting solution

What was happening in this test render was that the directional light was shining through the bridge support pieces and so the shadows were very sharp. To stop this I added a large plane over the whole scene to cast a shadow over the whole scene. I'll next be adding in bridge lights.

With the plane over the top of the scene casting a shadow it gives me this render result. I may add in some custom interior lighting for the scene.

some more lighting

2 different lighting settings and I can't decided which one I want to use. I'll probably do something in post.

reference for lighting and rain particles

vlog 5: linear lighting so far

So this is what I've done with the linear lighting so far. Getting there but still needs some work.

Vlog 4: linear lighting inexperience

Being a noob with linear lighting workflow. First time using this method with Mental ray.

Day 18 Milestone! - Linear Lighting

It's actually my first time ever coming across the term linear lighting and putting it into practice. I'll definitely be using this method allot more in the future.

The lighting is good but its too noisy and I feel there are too many reflections. Here are a couple of my renders. Seeing I'm using linear lighting I'm having to screenshot my renders instead of exporting the images.

highway scene and sleeping late issue

So I built this highway/freeway wich was inspired by the 'tullamarine freeway' bridge.

Issue I'm facing is that I'm going to bed realy late working on this and its a habit I need to get rid of. It's not good for my health and workflow.

Skipped step

I think I should start building my highway before I get any deeper into particles or lighting or rendering. I feel I may have skipped a very important step and that was building the highway. I don't mind I've already set up the shaders but the lighting was all testing for display purposes.

ndynamics rain

So much fun with the particles. Its like I'm at the car wash.

Night time lighting

I want to render this car in a night time scene. This video breakdown has inspired me as to how I can approach a night time lighting.

I first saw this video when I was a kid in highschool and it was when I first saw this video that I said to myself "I want to make something like this!" I'm still not there yet XD.

But yeah I'll focus on having a more of a night time lighting effect in post process. Personally thankful for multi pass rendering :)

Lighting

Problem I'm facing with my render is that there is no shadow underneath the car.

Lighting

Just figuring out the lighting before placing it on a highway. I want to achieve night time lighting which I believe I'll achieve in post process. In real life the car material is not so reflective and has more of a matte effect.

Also I don't like how I have a greybase for the body. I want a darker base.

Teaser Render

Just working on some basic lighting. I'm going to do 3 point lighting for this.

Vlog 3: Mentalray render bug

Coming across an issue I had with the rendering. I personally blame the substance shader for doing this to me. Maybe I shouldn't use it in the future and just go Manuel.

Mazda Furai

Modelling cars is my forte so it didn't take me long to model this. I still wanted to challenge myself so I chose this vehicle for its unique shapes.
I spent 2 weeks modelling this vehicle. The bulk of the work was done in 1 week and then I let my foot off the gas in the second week. I'm pretty much up to the lighting and rendering stage. Some parts will be unwrapped for texturing but not all of it. I didn't model the whole vehicle I just made sure it looked very much like the mazda furai.