conclusion

so here is the final thing, like i mentioned before unfortunately i have had to tak screen shots of my render in the render view window because of technical difficulties.
here are some images of the final textured model.



















i am pretty happy with how it came out but there is obviously room for improvement. the main areas being, making my own shaders for the paint on the van, i can do this by researching and practicing. another way i could improve on this is to model the full interior of the van, for this project all i modelled is what was going to be on show in the shot i was working from, but i would like to develop this further and attempt to model the full inside of the vehicle, i think this would be useful as well as quite fun and interesting. next up is to try and find out why it didnt render properlly, im not quite sure how i'd do this but i suppose i could ask on some forum goers, or what i was thinking of was sending it to my friends dad who's a bit of a whizz on Maya to take a look, but he's in canada so it's a bit hard to get hold of him at the moment.

but on the plus side i think i've done alright. for hand in i have two main pieces of work. the original team orientated animatic that i created at MGV productions in Soho, and then my 3D modelled camper van referenced from the animatic artwork included textures etc needed for the shot in question. These two pieces of work i hope show that i can do more than just one thing, but i mainly enjoy the modeling side of animation. I found this project interesting and useful, whether it was working in London within a creative team to create something for a client or trying to model something i'd never tried before and apply realistic quite complicated textures to it.

i think if i had more time i'd like to model the whole thing again. i know what i did right and wrong and i think the 2nd time round would be a lot smoother process and ultimately let me create something that i am even more proud of.

camera, lighting and rendering

yeah ran into some problems with this
set up the camera in the right place fine, simple lighting to show off the van nicely, and to show of the two main textures (the paint and the chrome wheels. this was all fine.

but when i came to rendering this happened



its bloody see through. i looked through all my settings and they were all fine, i even got some other people to look at for me, there was no explaination! so frustrating.
the most confusing thing is that when i opened render window it looked fine, it looked the way i wanted it to, no see through-ness. so unfortunately instead of handing in nice well rendered images i have had to take screen shots of the render view which is so disappointing.
i think this is really the only real problem ive had on the second half of my project.

interior and texture

so this was the last session i spent on this model. it was a fairly long day trying to figure out how to do the textures etc. lots of forum etc.

also i haven't posted here for a while just because ive been collecting the footage i want to use on my show reel and been doing contextual studies and E&E.

anyway, i feel like ive completed this model, for now. I may bring it up when i have more time to devote to it and complete the whole model including a full interior.
the interior wasnt too hard to create, the angle i'm using shows the back of the interior, which is a bed with a cover on it, the steering wheel and top of the seats.

to create the bed, all i did was create a cube, match the vertexes with the vans using vertex snapping, beveled the edges, this gave me the simple base for the bed.
the douvet is just a plane and i curved the edges off to make it look solid by using soft select tool i plumped up the plane to make it look fluffy and plumped up.
the steering wheel was the most simple thing i think ive ever made in Maya, its just a doughnut thinned out. the seats are beveled then smoothed shaped cubes.

heres the low res douvet



this image applies more to the last post i made but i thought id include it in here.



now that i have made everything i need to mirror and connect the geometry to make the complete model.




Texturing!

when it came to texturing i wanted to try something i'd never done. I wanted to create metalic car paint with what are known as candy flakes (small reflective pieces that make the car sparkle. i stuck to the original red colour but then i expected the colour to slightly change due to the texture.
to create this i went on a few forums trying to find advice or instructions, unfortunately some were quite hard and certain parts weren't working the way i wanted them to so i had to download a shader to sort top off what i had already created. I know this is slightly cheating and i do plan on creating my own shader for this paint effect. I think it came out quite nicely.

i UV mapped the douvet i used a stock image of a checked pattern and i think i came out quite well, and thought it was a nice touch though not a big part of the shot it just helped it seem a bit more believable. the rest of the interior was pretty simple, mainly just straight materials from Maya just tweaked to give the effect and look i wanted.

Next was to do the badge of the car and the wheels. I UV mapped the tyres and added a rough texture to the tyres to make them look a bit used and not so clean cut. The badge and the rims on the van, i wanted to create the look of chrome, for this i searched forums on how i would go about doing it. Turns out its pretty simple. i followed a tutorial, and within about 10-15 minutes i had chrome!

http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design/tutorials/maya/texturing-building-a-chrome-shader-maya-tutorial/42_Chrome_Shader.html

now all i have to do was place everything correctly, set up lighting and render out the images.

modeling part 3

the next step in my model was to create the grill, lights (front and back) and the rear of the van.

to create the lights i went about it a bit like the windows but only moved it in slightly, just to give the van a bit of diversity when it came to shape.
so once i had done that i selected the faces that i would need to use as the lights, added an anisotropic material, changed the colour and changed the opacity. i then placed a plane behind so you cant see inside the van.

to create the grill i used the split polygon tool to divide the grill area leaving a circular space for the badge. i selected the right faces and moved them inwards to create the grill on the front of the van.

though the rear isnt shown i really fancied creating some details just to keep myself happy.
so i made some back lights for the van. made from cylinders, a lot like the wheels, i used the soft select tool to make protruding rear glass then using the extrude tool on the outer faces to create the metal housing for them.
i then created a boot for the van, using the split polygon i created the shape of the boot door, then manipulated it so there is a dip in the bodywork along where the boot would seal. Then added a two hinges where the boot would open.




unfortunately the only screen shot i took for this was the one above.

next step is to do the visible interior and start the texturing.

modelling continued...

...next step on my model is to make the wheel arches.
not too sure how i was going to do this so i just tried something out, sometimes trial and error is the best way.
i started by deleting some of the faces in the area where i am going to be putting the wheels. then using the split polygon tool i added more vetexes and went about moving them and creating a round wheel arch. then by selecting the vetexes on the edge of the arch i pulled them out beacuse the arches on cars usual come out further than the rest of the body to hide the majority of the top of the tyres.
i have also started the windows in this picture. I selcted the faces where the windows would sit then moved them inwards just to set them in a bit, then lowered the opacity not so much they are totally see through but enough to still give a glare from lights.



luckily this worked, next step was the wheels. I started by creating a cylinder selecting the faces round the edge of the cylinder and extruded them to act as the tyres on the wheels.




then selected the middle vertex and using soft select pulled it out. Soft select allows you to select a vertex then it has a drop off level which means it will not full effect the area around the vertex but will still move them slightly. this means i can get a nice rounded bulge on my hub caps of my van.
i want them to resemble the wheels that are usually on a Nissan Figaro

similar to these ones



so after i had made the arches for the wheels i then duplicated the wheel and put them in place.

next up is the grill and the lights.

modelling

first day of modelling my camper van
so far so good, but i think its going to get harder.

I started up with a cuboid added subdivions, set up an image plane and started work.
firstly i did the side angle of the van following the image plane. After this i obviously switched to front view and started to model that angle.
This never really is enough, so i went in closer and started fiddling with vertex to create a slightly more round edge to it. But not too smoooth because on some of the slightly older cars i've seen the angles were nowhere near as smooth as they are today.

a handy tool for this is the Bevel tool which allows you to select an edge then it will split into two along the edge creating a face in between which acts a type of smoothing effect. This can be manipulated to however many divisions and faces you want depending on how smooth your object to be. I'm probably only going to use one or two on this model just because i don't want it to be too smooth it looks like an egg with doors.








to make the mirror i extruded the face that's in the right place then used split polygon tool to create more divisions so i can model it to the right shape.

next will be the wheel arches and the wheels

development

after speak ing to one of my tutors, we discussed the idea of carrying on with project and developing it further.
The options i have thought about are animating a scene from the animatic or modelling something that is in the scenes.

I think i want to do the modelling, i dont mind animating but i know its not one of my strongest points especially seeing as ive been focusing on more cinematography, modelling and texturing this year.
So i have decided that i am going to attempt to model the camper van in the advert. I aim to have the outside and the inside parts that are visible in the shot its used in modelled by the end of term for submission.
The reason why i will not be modeling the inside is because im modelling for a certain shot. the shot being this one



It's not a terrible amount of work but along with my animatic i think it would be quite a good diverse submission, proving that i can do some of everything.

this is the only image of the van so might be quite hard so i'm going to do my best and use other images a loose reference material.







this should be quite challenging but quite fun at the same time

next step

i cant wait to have the finished project so i can watch it with sound.
i'm happy with what ive done, but i still have quite a bit of my term left so i think its only right to develop this project a little further.

once i have the final animatic back i will try and do something that could contribute to the project further, maybe some animating of a scene or maybe some modelling.

3rd day

so today all i needed to was to finish tweaking parts of the after effects work, the problem i'm having when working for this company is that they only want me to work on their machines and where i could have finished this in 2 or 3 days, ive had to spread it over a couple of weeks due to me having to attend college for other projects etc.

all i really had to do today was to add little touches i wanted to make to the project, things that wouldn't be major changes but nice additions for example i have added particles to the kettle and the cups of tea for the steam, and when it cuts to the mans face i have given him a twinkle in his eye. cant go wrong with a bit of chessey advertising.

this probably took me about 2 hours or so to have them all rendered out ready to be put into final cut pro to be put together to create the final animatic.

heres some images of editing in final cut







using the the rough track i had been given the other day i could edit within the track and edit along to the song used ('greatest day'- Take That)...which already has driven me to insanity.

i found some of this quite challenging. there are quite a few important shots in this ad, whether its to help keep up the continuity of the story line, or whether its to create and show emotion, so that the audience can relate or empathise with the storyline or characters. i had to cut down less important shots to get the full effect for the other more important ones. this wasnt just hard but a bit disheartening because by doing so some of the animation i had done was now not able to fit into the 30 second ad. a big drain on the time was also used on the 'pack shot'. this is used in almost all adverts, its the final shot of the product usually with a voice over explaining the product. The advertising guidelines i was told by the other employees suggest you need roughly 3 seconds for the pack shot. though this doesn't sound like a lot of time when you consider the piece only being 30 seconds long, that's 10% on just one last shot, which doesn't really help tell the story.


so it's done, i've finished editing!

i asked for some input from the other guys at work, they all gathered round, the pressure was on. Luckily though they all liked it, especially Mark, the boss. He was very happy with what i had achieved and is ready to submit it to Hovis after the sound department had finished with it.

I think it was a combination of me wanting to impress, taking my time, constantly asking for advice from other employees but further more the whole atmosphere and sense of a team that really helped me produce this piece.
It's nothing ground breaking or original, but it does exactly what was needed and delivers the message across and will hopefully help if Hovis choose to use it to create their final advertisement.
It's quite exciting thinking something i have worked on could possibly be used to create a real television commercial.
Mark said he was pleased and quite surprised that i could just come along and produce something that they could actually use, and was happy that i completed in 3 days, not even full days either.

at the moment i am pretty chuffed

2nd day of work!

i fell really good after my first day of working at MGV, and i fell more confident within myself and in my skills.
they said they were pleased with what i have done and so i want to continue the project and get it done to the standard they are looking for.

my second day was just as good as the first.

i carried on with the project and it is now almost finished...well the after effects part of it anyway.
now being more confident i went in and i really got stuck in, taking some of the images back into photoshop to cut up and duplicate layers so that i could animate them the way i wanted. for example the part when the man shakes the woman to wake up, i had to duplicate the layer so i could then animate the shake in the covers.
i think i added some quite nice little touches, the woman moving in bed behind the man preparing breakfast, the water pouring out of the water bottle, these are all little touches i thought would help when bringing these images to life.



it took a while doing some of the movements, to get them right and in time. i was given a rough sound mix for the project so at least now i had the beginning waves crashing and the final product description at the end, i now know where the first and last shots have to be and how much time i have in between.

i've pretty much finished my work on the after effects part of the project. next time i work ill need to finish off the last couple of shots, tidy it all up then start editing it down ready for the sound design man to work his magic.

today was a good day got alot done.

photos

ive tried to resize them so they fit but its not work so if you want to see the full image then click on the desired image and you should be redirected to it.

first day

in this post i will talk about my first day at MGV Productions
i found the offices quite easily, they buzzed me in and i ventured upstairs to where i will be working for the next week or so.

here are a couple of photos from my first day







so i went in and they set me a task pretty much straight away, they had recently got a job from Hovis and they needed someone to do it. I had a look at the script and the storyboard. My job will be to make the final animatic that will be submitted for approval from Hovis, James the 2D artist had already knocked up some quite nice bits of art from the storyboards. These were photoshop files i could easily go in and manipulate them.

they were very nice and set me up in my own office. its a bit of a shame i am only using after effects and finalcut pro on the set up they gave me, i'd really like to have tried to max it out.



after settling down with all the right equipment and briefs etc i started work. I will be using After effects for all my image manipulations, animation and effects.
i wasnt able to get an image of the storyboard to put on here unfortunately, and had to do the images of my work progress on my phone as i didn't want to clog up their space with screen shots and things.



later in the day i asked where i should go to smoke....





...not to shabby


due to having other college commitments e.g. contextual studies, E & E i will only be able to go in to work twice a week, but hopefully i will be able to get it done in time.


so i started the first shot, this took a while, i needed to get back into the swing of after effects. This shot acts as the establishing shot of the advert. I high angle establishing shot of the ocean and the water splashing up on the cliff side. i masked off the cliff side so the when i animated the water layer then it wouldn't over lap and look strange.
to add a little bit of finesse i decided to use the particle playground section of after effects, i used this to create some water particles to splash of the rocks.

here's an image of some of the particle business





this all took me a while, from getting there, to setting up meeting everyone, 'doing' lunch and actually getting some work done it was the end of my first day at work.

i really enjoyed myself, i like the whole idea of it, working in one of the most creative parts of the country, you can almost sense it as you walk down the street. I like that i am working for an actual company and producing a product for one of their clients...it's all very official.

research

so i'm starting at MGV in a couple of days so I decided to just do a bit of research into the company and ive looked at some other animatics online.

if you want to check out the website here it is http://www.mgv.co.uk
this company have been around for a long time, just over 20 years and they've worked on projects for some really high profile clients...i hope they dont expect too much!

ive looked at some pretty good animatics but the ones that really interest me are the ones i found for the band Gorillaz, they are a supergroup but instead of being shown as themselves the musicians decided to represent themselves as made up cartoon characters.


i think these animatics are really well done, and after you compare them to the actual music video you can see that theyve really stuck true to the initial animatic. The use of simplistic movements in the majority of the band shots is balanced really well with the quite in depth animated areas of the rapper character and i think theyve done a good job of making it simple when it needs to be and then more complicated when its needed, when things need to be more precise.

heres the animatic and the music video to their most famous song 'Clint Eastwood'

animatic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPC0n_ml4kc&feature=PlayList&p=E8618D727B7F142F&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=2


final video




sorry the animatic has disabled embedding of the video.

next update i should be a working man

options

I got in contact with my friend in 3rd year and also the owner of an animatic production company in soho.
my friend in 3rd year wasnt too sure whether he would be able to give me any work on his final film.
but luckily i met the boss of an animatic production company based in Soho at a party over Christmas. We have stayed in contact since then through email and he'd mentioned me coming in for work experience. i contacted him and explained the outline of this unit and he's more than happy to have me down to see what i'm made of.
The company is MGV, they are based in Soho on Frith Street, cant wait to actually start doing work for this unit.

I think i'm mainly going to be using after effects to produce the work for them which should be fine seeing as i know a thing or two about that package, but im just gonna have to wait and see.

I start next week

final term!

so this is the first post of my last term in my second year of my course...confused?...good

this terms unit is titled 'Industry Exercises 3'
to sum up the brief in fewer words, i need to create a piece of work which is technically broadcast ready. The other requirements of the brief are, i need to work as part of a team, and i also need to work for someone else. this part comes in 3 different ways, either help out on a 3rd year animation team with there final film, work for an outside employer or create idents for the Ravensbourne exhibition called 'rave live'.

So far i have decided i either want to work on a 3rd year film or try and get work for an outside employer.

it's time to get in contact with some people.