Rigging & Skinning

This was the part I was absolutely dreading, but I have now finished rigging and skinning! Took tons of screenshots as I did it, mainly so that I could keep track of what it was I was actually doing!!! After this I now need to weigh each bone then create four separate text files for the four characters and get texturing and then onto animation. :D

Entrance lobby!

So here's a picture of my entrance lobby, its completed but needs expanding and texturing, and the little things like till and bin put into it. There's going to be a doorway on the ground floor for Reginald to go through, as I really dont fancy him walking up stairs haha

The characters are nearly done at last!!!

Just found this...

As I was mooching around looking at how others rig and animate their characters, I found this short video of someone attempting lip sync. It's worked quite well and I'm feeling quite confident about doing it myself now.

Also, the style of modelling and animation is very close to the style I'm trying to attempt. Happy days!

Bench!

I have made a bench! I took a classic park bench and made it a bit more curvy and such.

Animatic

So here's my animatic, had to take pictures of it instead of scanning cause scanners on the blink!
Was going to put sound on but it took 45 mins to render as my laptop was on a slow-go... Windows pah!

Cash register!

Just finished a bog basic cash register for the reception area, it's all I need to help set the scene, so it won't become more detailed!

This is the model I based it off:

This was the basic one I started doing:

This is my finished till:

Bins!

Fascinating things, bins. So I've had a good old research about bins, got some lovely examples, and made my own, complete with rubbish in it. It's basic, but you know it's a bin!

So here's the ones I found on good old Google - 

This is a bit of a household bin really, nice though :P

Love these! Bit too detailed though...

Like the shape.. hate everything else about it!

Now this I like!! So I'm going to go for a square one of these :D

And here we are!

So up next on my asset list is a bench... gimme an hour!

Lamp

Made the over-head lamp for the main gallery now, it has a basic texture on it but will be properly done at a later date. Light will be placed in when the room is being put together. The shell of the room has been created and textured, so it's a case of putting stuff together. Also have a basic desk made too.

Here's the lamp:

Phew - Marathon modelling session

After spending about 6 and a half hours solid modelling, I must say I'm quite pleased with this result!!!

I was going to do more of Reg's body today, but decided to go the whole hog and create a basic head. So I found an amazing tutorial (which I lost the link to after computer decided it had had enough of using super brain power and died on me - thats windows for you) for creating a basic head.

I made a simple little texture just to put on it and then smoothed it all over and Reginald looks pretty dapper! I'm going to fatten him up over reading week as well as finish and connect his body before I go on holiday.

So, here's Reginald's head as it is at the moment:

This is what happens with too much caffeine and sugar haha! Now I'm going to sleep for about 12 hours!!!

Oh, and I plan on making some simple stairs tomorrow, may not use them but who knows!

Videos and inspiration

Having done my script, I need to think about how I want the animation to look.

I want a Pixar-style animation, but obviously they have teams working on their shorts and there's going to be just little me on this one, so don't expect the best 3D animation you have ever seen!!

Here I have found some styles of modelling I like, particularly the way the people have done the hair.

 

 Modelled by Marco Pazmiño

Modelled by Ongie Ongushi

I found those stills on CGArena.com, a very valuable place to get inspiration!

These videos I found while looking for an animation style. I like how basic and funny they are.

This first video is a compilation of Pixar Short Films.

I absolutely LOVE Pixar, and would love to make something as high quality as theirs one day.

This is the kind of hilarity I want in my film. I really like it because it reminds me of my cat when she comes into the bathroom.

This is just plain amazing, and a fantastic idea for an animation!

The level of detail on this animation is scary, but it's absolutely beautifully made.

This one is much more basic, but I'd like to make something to this standard.

So this is my inspiration and research so far :D

First render of gallery product :D

This is the first render of anything that I have made for my gallery, it's a little plant pot that will be in one of the rooms. I'm quite pleased with it as it's taken me about 15 minutes to make from scratch!

Walking test

This is a test I did of a simple walk through my kitchen to look at how we see when we move.

I haven't yet decided if it is a walk-through, so this is just a pre-planning play about :D

Good God

I've now decided after the terrible mark I got I am no longer using uni equipment. I now have my own HD camera which I shall be using for my work after the DV cam I got from media loans gave out really bad quality!!

I have two ideas, one which will be pretty basic and one that will require a lot of work, and I think I'll go for the second option now as I don't have room to go wrong and have a poor product at the end.

Aaagh!

Finished!! (A mini evaluation)

At last, I have finished!

I'm pleased that after the semester I've had, I've actually finished with something! It may not be the best I can do but I worked hard to finish with something at least.

The only thing I'm not overly pleased with is the quality of the video I shot on mini DV. I think perhaps now I would re-shoot that on a HD digital camcorder if I had more time, as the quality would be so much better, especially considering how much editing the video footage had to go through!

I am quite pleased with the 3D work I did for the beginning, especially as I had forgotten how to animate within Maya and so had to re-learn (which I did in less than an hour, thank god I'm a fast learner) and I think the 3D work looks quite good, especially as I integrated blue screen and conjoined two 3D animations into one and put video onto the television. I think the 3D work is the part of the final video I am most pleased with.

I didn't leave enough time for sound and so didn't put in the voices I had originally planned, but I think the soundtrack I purchased works better with the film then the voices would have.

Next time, when I have my idea... I'm sticking to it! More time = better product!

Update on Progress

White has been keyed out and replaced with a white background which will have the text scrolling over it soon.

Beginning titles, completed!!

Back again :D

So I've now finished editing the videos, and started to animate in After Effects. Got my title sequence on its way so all is looking good.

Here's a screen shot of the dream sequence. It took me a while to decide how to make it different from the rest of the video, as it's all in black and white,so I went for a silhouette approach which looks quite good.

Here's one of the videos ready for After Effects, it's the Chastity one:

Back on with it I go...

Some screenshots

Here are some screenshots of my work as it's now being put together (at long last!!!)

This is the video I shot being edited in Premiere:

This is the last piece of typography I made:

Now that every part is ready to be imported into After Effects and animated, it shouldn't take too long to key out the white and then replace the backgrounds with the animated typography.

The television is ready to be added into After Effects and the blue keyed out to be replaced with the flickering television screen I filmed.

It's finally getting there!

Happy New Year!

Can't believe it's been a month since my last post...

iMovie is not my friend it seems (never liked it anyway) and so I'm now exporting footage from premiere because it's a better quality and for the life of me I don't know why Apply changed iMovie to make it worse than it actually was!

Got the chastity typography done, just need to animate it when I get the video into After Effects, should be done by today fingers crossed!

Poor Mac doesn't know what's hit it, been working on my laptop which has better spec and now I'm back to using this and I think it's in shock.. either that or I'm not used to it's slowness!

Here are some of the typographies I have done so far:

(they all relate to Chastity)

 

That's all my Mac can handle at the moment, poor thing is going skitty!

Happy New Year everyone!