Saturday 27 February 2010

LightingTests

Hey i've just gotten round to seeing how my lighting will work in the main castle scene.. though whenever i open the file same gave me my Maya just dies.. i'll have to do it when we're in college on monday. Which is a little poo maybe.

Things left to do:
Finish Texturing - i'm pretty much done now.
Lighting - Maya crashes so.. wait til monday, although i have played with the lighting in the dock cave now
Storyboarding - clear this up properly
Animatic - Rough block of what we want to happen - even if we can't achieve it, show what we would have done with more time
Animating - see how Matts going on that, Hayley animated her sections? CAMERA - animate movements
Render - as layers?

Here's some lighting in the room, i hadn't textured the walls here.
I just quickly ran through a fluid fire tutorial to get a look of whats going on.

















More of a cinematic shot.
















Ok so i've been on about this moonlighting tutorial, this is the effect if give, just stuck a shadow on so can play with that to get some really nice looks, I think this shows off the mosaic floor really nicely so maybe worth putting that around the fountain as Andi has done something similar for his actual fountain so it'll pull together. I'm wondering if the rest of this room looks bland though in comparison. So i'm going to apply some bump maps to see what i can get.




































Here is the fire and the moonlight light on together.






















Maybe nice contrast with the colours here, light dark?


Monday 22 February 2010

Hey I've just been reading the latest posts, I am getting there with my bits, but could do with a final castle to put the animation onto. Would it be possible to email Matt the blocked out bits so he can add his animation to it, especially if he wants to sort out the shots. We can always add extra camera shots to show off our detail in our environments if necessary. Didn't Andi have the shot list too? It could be helpful to be posted on here so that we have something to work from.

Also Sam are we keeping a ramp down to the central area or are there going to be stairs? I will model the balcony area if necessary (if you have not already done so) so that I can fit in my models for the fire to work. Also Andi please please hurry up with the statue area so I know where to fit water around. If you could do this by the weekend can we meet to exchange files and I can add animation to them by monday.

Hope you are all ok xx
heyy matt read the post on blog.. i think we've all finished our sections but just adding detail so we have the block version if not the finished..

Sam has the file with mine included. Andi hasn't yet modeled his statue or fountain i think.. sooo.. maybe if you're in you could be asking Alex about camera moves as he gave us a cool tutorial earlier this term


I say we maybe for the 2d. yes blockout animatic would be good to show what we wanted to do.

i have been saying to the group that we have needed to each draw out shots we wanted and come together and work them out. So just a 2d animatic and storyboards of the scene..

I think showing our intentions is the best we can do now for the story?

Sunday 21 February 2010

2 weeks left

How's it going everyone. I Thought I'd give you an update as to where I stand at the moment with the work. I've found a way of animating 2D over 3D using Toon Boom, but I need videos of the environment in Maya to work over with the shots that we like, without them the 2D will not look well placed in the environment and will look out of sync with the 3D camera moves.

I can tell you now that realistically, with 2 weeks left and trying to work on Steve's unit at the same time, the 2D animation will not be complete in time for the deadline. It will look like a choppy animatic/pencil-test at best with no colour. Not the best organization on my part and also I would need you guys to hurry out a final model of the castle as soon as possible so we can do a rough render of the camera fly through for me to work over, which I don't think is fair on you lot and will result in a pants version of what we originally planned.

If we're going to carry on with the idea we will have to cut the amount of shots with 2D down to those that are completely necessary, like the intro, outro and some small bits inbetween (i.e. lighting the fire). Alternatively to compensate for the reduced 2D I wouldn't mind working on the camera moves in Maya, that's something that I want to learn anyway. I think we should discuss how to salvage the idea. How are things going with rest of you?

Tuesday 16 February 2010

Update

This is my newer boat shape that looks more like my earlier concept, what do the rest of the team reckon is this better? Also what would you like at the front to hold the torch, is it going to be quite ornate or would you prefer something simple for it to be held in?
I am currently working on the water around the island, I have used an Ocean Shader and been playing around with it as well as using Softbodies. The videos will be uploaded later for you to see. I am having a bit of trouble with the reflectivity, so I will ask Alex for help on Thursday, and also try adding a few lights to see what happens.


Water Environment from Hayley Allen on Vimeo.



Otherwise, I have slightly altered Lydia's model for the fire in the main room. I have made it gold following the style of the decoration on objects in the British Museum, an also this is why there are pearls at the top.


The symbol is one that was common at the time, and I added a bit more gold as I felt it looked better this way. I have both saved, so please tell me which you all prefer. I am going to add water to the centre and give it a reflective oil like shader to make it look more realistic.





Monday 15 February 2010

Hey Hayley that's awesome with the fire!
keep it up!

I'm working on lighting tuts for moonlight so will keep you posted :)

Fire Update

Ok, so after receiving the overall environment I have worked on adding the fire to it. I did this by basically creating a cube, extruding it over and over and then using Dynamics to create the fir emitter. This is still in development, obviously the extruded parts will be hidden on a different layer so that only the fire will be seen. I can model some kind of trough for the fire or leave it plain depending what the group would like. Also it gives some idea of the light given from the flam, I can make them more intense in order for a brighter light if necessary, or even if you would just like the flame to be higher. The video below shows the movement of the flame going around the water. This can be faster and slower, but I did not want to make it too fast so that it does not look unnatural and also so that we can get a decent couple of shots of it moving round the room and Arthur reacting to it.
Hope this ok guys and what you wanted :)


Fire Test 001 CVA Environment from Hayley Allen on Vimeo.

'Screamy Window'

I was just looking through the news and found this, apparently a ghostly figure of a girl was seen in a photo taken at Gwrych Castle which is in ruins. I thought this was quite interesting seeing as what we are doing.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2853270/A-pale-young-woman-appears-at-the-window-of-a-ruined-castle-in-a-photo-said-to-show-a-ghost.html

The castle is supposed to be one of the most haunted, so I looked into the Castle on its website. I found these pages the most interesting:

http://www.gwrychtrust.co.uk/html/lady_emily_s_tower.html

http://www.gwrychtrust.co.uk/html/exterior_tour.html

I like the shape of the castle as it has the round tower shaped like ours, and also shows consistency with the shape of the windows. The next link is of particular interest to us and could be useful for creating the rubble within the castle as we are showing ours in disrepair.

http://www.gwrychtrust.co.uk/html/work_begins.html

Furthermore, with the castle being haunted, we could use this for our project to indicate that someone or something is watching Arthur. This could be subtle, with a shadow movement or crazy flickering of a candle for example.

http://www.gwrychtrust.co.uk/html/ghostly_gwrych.html

Thursday 11 February 2010

King Arthur Logo

I drew this based on the seal of King Arthur, which I thought I could add a frame to in order to make it a proper seal for our castle. This could therefore be used as a texture on my flag and wall hangings, and also the style could be used for Lydia's story of King Arthur on the wall of her dock.
The next stage for this is to add the frame and also make the style of the piece similar to the clone wars style by colouring it in and using more of a paintbrush edge.

Barcelona Pictures

Some images from Barcelona that might help with the theme:








Facebook Chat

The following is our group conversations on facebook, showing how our ideas have changed and what we have said about different ideas:

The project
Between Sam Mcguire, You, Andi Bennett, Matt Vadis and Lydia Fabian

Lydia Fabian January 22 at 11:05am Reply
heyy everyone.. hope you guys enjoyed exhibition yesterday and it was inspiring..just thought if you take a look at the group blog there are the rochester pics on there and i for some reason instead of drawing ruins on a mound .. went for a cliff coast kinda thing. check out my blog theres pics which show EXACTLY what i mean on therewhat do you guys think we should have done by monday? shall we all have our concepts together.. spend monday just going through making sure every ones happy and then matt can draw the final concept.. ?then i was thinking to run a quick maya mock up of placements for the floor plan so matt can get on with some boards of our camera movement around the environment.. does that sound cool? lyds

Andi Bennett January 22 at 11:07am Reply
im down with that.

Lydia Fabian January 22 at 11:09am Reply
ange shall we sort a little mock of what should be done by when..

Lydia Fabian January 22 at 11:19am Reply
oh and matt i have sent you a link to be on the group blog, should be on your inbox for vadis95hayley iv re sent your invite so that should be on your inbox..

Sam Mcguire January 22 at 11:22am Reply
im confused does this mean the ideas changed to a cliff now cos it means all my concepts are wasted

Andi Bennett January 22 at 11:27am Reply
of course it doesn't. they are just concepts, we get together and discuss them and move on from there. everyone needs some concepts so we all know what we want to see and can can take ideas from each other.

Andi Bennett January 22 at 11:28am Reply
and your concepts wouldn't be wasted anyways, you post them on your blog and it shows development of ideas.

Hayley Allen January 22 at 11:32am
I dont think we should do it on a cliff, karens group are doing a cave coastline kind of thing.
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Andi Bennett January 22 at 11:56am Reply
okay, well its just an idea, i dont think we should stray away from it just because another group are doing something similar.I hate to be the bad guy here, but we are running out of time and i want to get started so we have plenty of time to make this project as professional looking as possible. So far we havn't made much progress at all, and im getting worried.

Lydia Fabian January 22 at 12:01pm Reply
um.. guys.. does anyone feel that we're kind of fighting eachother about things.. i was just basically saying 'check out wht iv done tell me wt u think' cz i wanted your opinion.. i didnt mean for everyone to go off and change their ideas.also i'm under the impression that you and sam may think me and andi are being a bit gay about ideas, if as though we're taking control.. we don't want to take control as we want to be constructive as a group and your opinions count and are important. i first got this feeling when me n andi went off to rochester and you two stayed in class, which was the plan and then hayley wouldv liked us to stay.. which she wasn't very clear about.. as she said it was fine.please if there's any thing wrong or you're annoyed about just say. i don't think im the only one thinking like this..i want us to have a good time and just crack on .. also are you in on monday?xx

Matt Vadis January 22 at 12:14pm Reply
Okay read the thread. I agree with Andi we should stick to the idea, if another group is doing something similar then we'll have to dominate them with our righteous badassness. Also it's not finalized yet so, if we can get all our ideas ready for mon (maybe with some variations on the theme) so we can pick one and have the final concept ready for wednesday then i think we should be good to go with the maya. reckon?

Hayley Allen January 22 at 2:06pm
i said that about the first day coz all the other groups were together n got alot done n me n sam were like so..? we got alot done weds n had a clear idea n it now feels you are changing it when we arent around. im starting to do tutorials 4 animation and modelling at the same time, will try and get concept for mon altho i wanted mon to do them really.
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Lydia Fabian January 22 at 2:30pm Reply
shall we see what we can do over weekend and spend as long as we need on monday doing concepts? even if we just assign the modelling sections that are needed to one another then we can get on that. i think we'll be alright. just need to make a deadline chart thing cool with the getting on with tutorials.. found anything helpful? i've just been playing in photoshop with different textures and brushes for concept stuff.

Andi Bennett January 22 at 4:49pm Reply
well im glad thats sorted, i dont think we have changed anything, well not intentionally, its gunna be alright guys, we just need to pull together monday with the designs and work our asses off.

Hayley Allen January 25 at 10:44am
Hey guys sorry im nt in today, im going to scan in my concepts and add them to my blog in a sec so you can have a look. hope that was the kinda thing you wanted x x
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Andi Bennett January 25 at 10:49am Reply
thats cool hayley, we are all on our way in now, we will try and move towards the final concept, and incorporate ideas from everyones concepts.

Hayley Allen January 29 at 6:28pm
Hey guys i was just wondering who is modelling the tree? i was thinking rather than the orbs flying round it could they be hanging from the tree a bit like forbidden fruit? the character could pull 1 off the tree or something? x x
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Lydia Fabian January 29 at 6:40pm Reply
hey.. since me matt n sam spoke to jared about our project he said we needed more of a purpose.. i made a messy blog post on the team blog if you want to see ways of giving it purpose. any questions shout me.xx

Lydia Fabian January 29 at 6:41pm Reply
andi was meant to be doing tree.. and alex said it'd be asier to do a dead tree.. blaaahhh sam can fill you guys in

Hayley Allen January 29 at 6:49pm
Im jst asking about the orbs coz was guna start that 2night. the tree could still be dead with the orbs hanging from it. and what do you mean by purpose?x x
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Lydia Fabian January 29 at 8:23pm Reply
iv been trying to think of what i mean by purpose.. jared said we need a purpose.something educational - something linking us with a potential client - advertisement promotion of an existing castle.. we could get floor plans and stuff n half the works done for us. not just a little story we've made up to lead us around the environment.one thing jared did like was that we start with looking at a 2d picture of the castle.. (character holds it up) then when we pull it down we see the ruined castle.. that was andis idea.. nice way to get us into the story.. i was tlaking to sam about ..you know that map thats in harry potter which shows where a character is walkig about.. liek we could have a map of this place?i wrote in the blog.. soemthing about maybe our character has something of a symbol (necklace, item, tattoo) which links with the castle.. and starts a reaction.im just trying to think of more of a purpose to our film.pfff i dont know.

Lydia Fabian January 29 at 8:24pm Reply
*but do what you liek with the orbs.. need matt t talk to as he's doing the drawing.. id prefer them maybe sat on the tree or something.

Sam Mcguire January 29 at 9:12pm Reply
hey just thought I would input something i like the idea of doing it for a client in some kinda informative manner. when I mentioned to jared that I'm doing a talk at my bros school he said use them for research and if they have an awesome idea we can use it, and have a way of justifying it. also by purpose jared means a reasoning behind our work not just creating something for no reason. I know what me and Lydia are saying sounds like we have to change a fair bit but it's from jareds feedback that we are saying it
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Andi Bennett January 29 at 9:57pm Reply
im down with it... we just need to get going as soon as.i have a horrible feeling that if we don't finalise now we will fall behind. Meanwhile, im terribly confused as to what im supposed to be modeling as everyone has kinda moved off of their own bits and i know the tree n fountain may not happen now. so lemme know what im supposed to be modeling and ill get on with it.

Matt Vadis January 30 at 1:24pm Reply
I'm listening and will be thinking of ways to add narrative over the weekend. Sam if possible could you email Andi and Hayley what's been modelled so far, maybe they can get a rough idea of the shape it's taking. Also like Lydia said check out her team blog post to think more about purpose ideas and my picture of the layout; should give you a rough idea of the structure. Of course you can change the bits you don't like.We might have to change stuff, but i don't think that's important. Once we're clear about the narrative it'll all come together even if we do have less time cos it'll be a better idea, which is better than spending more time on a pants idea. Can't polish a turd.Also about the orbs, another idea was having them as glowing butterflies or fireflies but again, what they are depends on what the purpose of whole thing is so if you think of more ideas post em. I'm curious to hear what the kids have to say at Sam's thing, could give us what we need.

Lydia Fabian January 30 at 3:29pm Reply
im putting confidence in sams talk too. im sure once we've got an idea we will easily crack on :)should be tlkn like this on the blog u know..

Hayley Allen January 30 at 10:07pm
When is sams talk? What about the fountain being the fountain of youth, and the tree has part of its roots in the water so thats why its massive. The character could not be alone, s/he could having a dying friend in the boat, so they need the water to save them. if they are knights or something the one in the boat could have a stab wound in their side maybe? i dont know lol. and i think at the end of the project our chats could be copied to the blog. btw matt ive printed your concept i really liked it x x
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Sam Mcguire February 1 at 8:58am Reply
hey guys sorry but my talk has been delayed till next monday i dont know what you want to do but im still gunna do the talk also im gunna email what ive done so far out. so can i please have andi and hayleys email addresses.

Andi Bennett February 1 at 9:30am Reply
andrew.robert.bennett@googlemail.com

Hayley Allen February 1 at 10:31am
h.allen@rave.ac.uk
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Lydia Fabian February 1 at 10:43am Reply
check the team blog i put up something which might help to tell a story in a cool way. tell me what you think

Sam Mcguire February 1 at 10:58am Reply
ive done some bloggy stuff as well

Andi Bennett February 1 at 11:09am Reply
okay i read through the team blog, and i hate to be the party pooper here, but i think we are running out of time. The less time we have, the more dangerous it becomes to try anything ambitious. I love matts concept, and i think that will look stunning if we stick to it. As for a purpose, how about a little kid that turns up at the island with a picture of it in its glory days, he makes his way through the castle as discussed and maybe touches a statue or crypt of the lady in the lake and the whole place transforms into how it was in its glory days, we could even do some internal animation of rubble kinda rewinding back into place. i dunno just an idea.Ive looked at the models and they look pretty cool, are we all in on thursday or is anyone heading to barcelona?

Lydia Fabian February 1 at 11:14am Reply
like the idea of the kid and then the whole castle transforms into its glory. i don't know how to model my part for this entrance.. i need matts or anyone's help?

Andi Bennett February 1 at 11:14am Reply
what part are you doing?

Lydia Fabian February 1 at 11:17am Reply
the dock entrance part.. shall everyone just say what they're modelling again.. as things have changed a little.xxx

Andi Bennett February 1 at 11:20am Reply
well i'll take the archway stairs things, and whatever is decided for inside the castle, if its going to be a statue i think we should decide now as i really don't mind modeling a human, but its gunna take time.

Sam Mcguire February 1 at 11:32am Reply
i can give you a hand if you want lydia. i am modelling the castle structure i can also look at the animation of bricks falling of you want seeing as its to do with the structure even if i just research it

Andi Bennett February 1 at 11:33am Reply
yeah sounds good to me...it way be a case of filling in the holes modeled in the ruined model and animating them?

Hayley Allen February 1 at 11:36am
Im modelling the boat and additional items, maybe skeletons, wall hangings etc. i wondered if someone could make a logo or crest i could use as a texture on my models? i was using a tree but if its changing thats fine. erm also on my blog i drew a concept of a statue holding a glowing orb or light i dont know if you want to use it x
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Andi Bennett February 1 at 11:39am Reply
yeah i like that idea.

Matt Vadis February 1 at 11:43am Reply
okay so we're all sticking to the original plan. I'll be going Barcelona on thurs, so i'll make sure i put some images up on the blog maybe some mood pics, colour variations and stuff before i go. I'll be in on wednesday so we can finalize exactly what's gonna happen regarding the poxy narrative.Also i'd like to say you shouldn't feel like it has to be 2d characters in a 3d world cos that's what i'm interested in, see it more as an option that we have. I'm fine with doing it but if there's a better way of showing what we want to show then we should do that. I'll be staying online in case we need to talk about anything. Peace crackers

Andi Bennett February 1 at 11:46am Reply
haha crackers... it's true.sounds good matt, im still pretty stoked about the 2d character. I think it will have a really nice contrast against the environment. I just want to make sure we get a move on so we all have a comfortable time getting this done.

Matt Vadis February 1 at 11:47am Reply
oh yeah, Hayley whenever i try to watch your vids it says, the video is currently unavailable?

Andi Bennett February 1 at 11:47am Reply
same for me

Hayley Allen February 1 at 11:53am
Oh ok il have a look later see whats wrong. They are of water and a flag blowing
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Matt Vadis February 1 at 11:53am Reply
okay, i'm gonna Wiki lady in the lake

Matt Vadis February 1 at 1:56pm Reply
I was looking at the some of the myths of the lady in the lake, i didn't know much about it, but apparently she's the person/thing/spirit who gave king arthur his legendary blade excalibur, sorry if you knew that. The stories about it seem a bit vague and open to interpretation.If that's the case why don't we have the main character as king arthur, who's come to this island in search of the sword. As he arrives on the island we could have Andi's idea of the comparison of how it looked according to rumour (which is why he has travelled there) and it's actual ruined image.In pictures of the myth it often shows the lady of the lake presenting the sword to Arthur from the water like in the link. Why don't we have a similar image of that but instead of the lake it's presented from water in the fountain at the top of castle.Alternatively it might be quite cool (and if you don't want to deal with water effects) to have Hayley's statue idea, but of the lady, embedded in the epic tree holding the sword out for Arthur to take.As far as the castle's purpose is concerned, it doesn't look well fortified in the way that other castles are because it was never intended to fend off invaders, which explains why it looks more decorative - it's purpose is to house the legendary sword so it's not conventional in that sense and we can get away with our uncastle-like-castle.On his way up to the top arthur could see a load of references to the King arthur legend, i'm not sure exactly what they are but, we could do some research into it. I like the idea of using sound to lure the person around the grounds, calling him up to the sword. I remember Andi saying Lydia created some cool ghost like voices using some music software? That might be an idea.I realise these are all the things that you guys were all thinking about anyway, like sword in the stone and stuff i'm just trying to bring it together. It's a bit cheesy but solid and would be happy to do it.However i am still having trouble thinking of a potential client for the project - is it a level for a game, educational, maybe we're designing an area/ride for a theme park? Get back to me.Man i just wrote an essay. Sorry.


upload.wikimedia.org
upload.wikimedia.org


Andi Bennett February 1 at 2:01pm Reply
i like the idea... i like it alot, why are we thinking of potential clients?people don't make movies to please a client... they do it to entertain people, i think we should do it to tell this little king arthur extract.

Matt Vadis February 1 at 2:09pm Reply
I understand what your saying but if we're telling a story just for it's own sake (or, you know, just to pass a unit) then nobody is going to care. The best way to entertain people is to know our audience and have an idea what we want to say to them.

Sam Mcguire February 1 at 3:06pm Reply
how bout a client of say a museum but its to inform kids about englands most famous legend that way it doesn't have to be to serious we can also relate it to my talk thing next week. i like this direction as i originally wanted to use a myth anyway

Andi Bennett February 1 at 3:08pm Reply
sounds good to me.

Lydia Fabian February 1 at 4:15pm Reply
im with that.. that was a lot of reading i just did. cool so everyones happy doing this idea of showing a myth/legends of the past about king arthur? The audience would know this becuase of all the tell signs of the environement..maybe in the sky (like jason and the argonaughts) we have a blink of a face of him being watched.um. What did people think to the idea of illustrating little 2d scenes? maybe when king arthur is looking around the castle to get to the sword ?(btw love the idea of the lady being a statue holding out the sword)I'm feeling enthusiastic now because we're all talking about it and getting hyped which is awesome.im ready for some serious crack down onto this unit.I want to make something that looks pretty awesome,and sam yes totally right about making it liek a museum event to attract young audiences.i wasnt meaning to look for a client i just was trying to think up anything for a purpose as to why this environemtn exists and whats it all about..we have our story now..i like itmakes more sense than the tree and orbs.. though that was pretty cool.i checked out castles on my blog..if we're not fortified then we are like the Tudors who built coastal castle's more for intimidation against invaders but more so for comfort and wealth. Should this statue be the centre of the castle ruin.. or maybe as the environment is a ruin.. she's sort of tucked away where our character looks for her.or not lolGood work today though guys.. everyone has put up what they're thinking.I'm fine with the modelling of the dock area just haven't got any designs for it.. so i guess i'll crack on with looking to existing stuff.. if you guys see anything throw it my way through the blog

Lydia Fabian February 1 at 4:21pm Reply
actually. from the drawing mat did.. i'm not thinking to include a little room. there's no purpose? unless any one can think of one.. how about just the stone plinths coming from the water (where the wooden dock platforms would've been) and then the stone steps winding up through the cliff edge (like a cave feel) then we start going up from there on the drawing.?

Hayley Allen February 1 at 4:22pm
Im happy with this, it kinda feels like we have come full circle, as we said about that before. i thought drawn sections would be good from the point of view of arthur, as if he stil sees it in 2d, altho i dont wana give matt too much or if he would want help i will. shall i use a symbol of a sword on the flags etc? oh and ive modelled a basic sword, i can fancy it up tho to make it the one the statue is holding? x
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Andi Bennett February 1 at 4:29pm Reply
go team GO!everything sounds wonderful... im a little confused with the 2d scene idea...but im sure you'll explain at some point!sword sounds lovely hayley can't wait to see it!

Andi Bennett February 1 at 4:31pm Reply
how about instead of a fountain, maybe a little pond or something. quite liking this image.https://www.brent.gov.uk/icimres.nsf/images/img-356/$file/8%20lady%20in%20the%20lake.jpg


www.brent.gov.uk
www.brent.gov.uk


Matt Vadis February 1 at 5:10pm Reply
Sam, yeah i like the whole educate the kids about the myth in a museum thing too.Cool Hayley make the sword the stuff of legendLydia maybe we should get rid of the bit at the bottom. If we do we should make sure that there's something at the bottom that introduces us to the place, so it sort of hints at what's to come and establishes where we are.Andi yeah the fountain ideas are all yours, whatever your comfortable with modelling. If your going to put a statue in it it make sure it doesn't clash with the statue holding the sword if that's what we're doing.And I'll work on some overdue concept work.Sounds like we're all on the same page now and we can sort out the details on Wed so if you'll excuse me i'm gonna go froth at the mouth from brain damage.

Hayley Allen February 1 at 5:45pm
Could we start with a storybook and the pictures come to life? a bit like they did in the old disney films and shrek? or would that be too obvious x
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Lydia Fabian February 1 at 6:09pm Reply
like the ice age link i posted?matt i was thinking of some stuff thats just easthetically pleasing :) .. so now i shall get on with thinking of how to introduce us to this place.. to set the scene a little.. even though thats already done with this little 2d intro idea if we go there

Lydia Fabian February 1 at 6:10pm Reply
oh so are we all wanting to go in weds? how about thurs for the rest of us? or do we just need the one day?im thinking of what ticket i can get home you see :)xx

Matt Vadis February 1 at 6:25pm Reply
Lydia yeah as long as it looks nice then we should be okay, don't worry about thinking of how to introduce the place, cos you're right that's what the 2d intro is for.What I was getting at was so that it's not just a path all the way to the top we should have something at the dock to spice up the boats entrance into the place. So the first thing you see are not stairs followed by more stairs. I don't know what to put there but you know what i mean right? or not. I need to think about it.

Lydia Fabian February 1 at 7:33pm Reply
yes i need to think about it too..again.. is the group only meeting weds?

Sam Mcguire February 1 at 7:42pm Reply
im in weds, thurs and are we in fri??

Hayley Allen February 1 at 7:50pm
Ill be in thurs as well as weds, n sam no we arent x x
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Lydia Fabian February 1 at 9:12pm Reply
yes we have no lessons friday. *self directed study*

Lydia Fabian February 2 at 1:59pm Reply
check the blog

Matt Vadis February 2 at 2:33pm Reply
That panoramic thing in the link is awesome, like a better version of of google street view and a really good reference for us. Nice one for sending them the email by the wayPersonally my vote would be to carry on with the lady in the lake idea as we seem to be making progress with it now, but i shall follow the majority.

Wednesday 10 February 2010

Flame breakthrough!!!!

I could not find any tutorials about creating a flame trail across so I had a bit of a play on Maya and this is my first breakthrough. Obviously the intensity of the flame can be changed when in the environment, but I feel confident that I can make it work when Sam and Andi have finished their modelling of the central room. :)

Gate Modelling

Based on the Phantom of the Opera gate, I have modelled this for the entrance into the dock section of the Castle. The image below shows it in the water with my boat. I can make it bigger if necessary
The gate will be set into rocks, but I will see how Sam has started this tomorrow. The texture may also be changed in order to fit with our Clone Wars style, as I used a shader from Creative Crash.


Lady of the Lake

This picture I found through searching for Lady of the Lake in Google images. Hope this helps with the statue Andi!

Colour Swatch

Here's a colour swatch I got off kuler.com which most the group seems like. This is just a starting point for the textures

 



Tuesday 9 February 2010

hey hayley how about if we cant think of anything then just don't do a shot showing the inside of the boat? and if we do then if it is from above just raise the boat up out of the water? or just replace it with a piccy?

British Museum

I visited the British Museum today as I thought it would be good for myself as well as the group to see real life Medieval objects and statues etc. These are some of the images, I will post more on my own blog.
This first image is not Medieval, yet I liked the way that the statue was standing at the top of the stairs, I thought we could use it as a camera shot as she is quite foreboding here and you have no choice but to walk up to her. Medieval Info:
Afew wall hangings telling stories. These are aimed at Lydia who may like them to tell the story of King Arthur using their style.









This piece is the King's Pavement. I liked the circular design of the earthware and thought it would be good to surround the statue at the top of the castle.






These wall hangings were of particular interest as parts of the images are missing. Lydia wanted to achieve this effect as if we are going to fill in the gaps. It also shows that it can be done using tiles or stone bricks rather than using Maya cloth.












This was the handle to a Bishop's staff. I really like this as it is so ornamental and decorative and shows the power and stature of the man who would have held it. I am going to use this for my Sword design to make it more ornate and prestigious.








Another sword, this time with the Knights costume (do we still want armour?). The symbols on the sword have an unknown meaning, which I could use in my own sword design.




















Possible wall texture:









The next two images show different pots. The first is early Medieval yet the second is from a much later period. I thought the oversized pot could be lit by Arthur when it is placed in the centre of the dock area. Obviously the fire will flow from it so there would be channels attached, yet the examples show how grand it could look and the type of colours we could use to texture it.

























Again this statue is not from the Medieval period, yet I liked the feminity of the character and thought she could be used for the Lady of the Lake. Her arm to one side could be where the sword it drawn from, and she looks very protective so it would suit the treasure she is holding.












I took this photograph to show a possible camera shot of the audience and Arthur looking up at the statue. This perceives her to have a high place and makes her look powerful.










Again another Medieval statue. I really liked the lighting in this one and the way that the shadow falls against the wall. Again she looks powerful and the robes once again cast interesting shadow.









I did like this chest, which was in the same cabinet as the statue above. I would like to have a go at modelling this, as it could be for Arthur to interact with. There could be Medieval money inside to show the wealth and the lost treasure of the island, or something more sinister like a skull that would scare him.









The shield could be another way of telling the Arthur story, or he could pick one up to protect himself from the unknown dangers that may be waiting for him...









Finally, this kind of ties in with our original idea of the fountain, yet I thought this could be an interesting plynth for the Lady of the Lake statue to stand on. Arthur will have to negotiate this aswell to reach his goal so does he jump across it? Does he stand in the water? Or neither?





Hope these help, I will put the rest on asap.
















Boat Problems

Hey guys I just added my newer boat model to my Softbodies water, I think it looks quite good but Ive got a problem with the water going through the boat. I tried making them active and passive bodies but it did not work and I am unsure how to rectify it.


Any help would be appreciated!!

Saturday 6 February 2010

Collapsing wall tests


Maya Dynamics Test from Samuel McGuire on Vimeo.

Just playing with mayas dynamics to create a falling Wall, although im not sure if we will still be able to include it i had fun creating the effect

Friday 5 February 2010

Statue?


Also guys I was just looking through my pictures from London and I thought this could be used for inspiration of the Lady statue holding the sword, its a similar style, not too complex, and I kind of like the dark hooded figure. Obviously it would need to be changed into a female, but i do like the framing around it to. It seems a stong powerful piece. The photograph was taken from outside of the London Dungeon.

Dock Designs

I've explained whats going in more thoroughly in my personal blog.

Here are two designs for the layout of the dock ;


















The orange in the picture is the way the flame has been lit by the plinth in the middle and set alight oil in the walls which lights our room. The tapestry will be either hanging on the wall in the room or along the corridor, i can't decide. probably this main room makes more sense. the ceiling design is like the Rochester Cathedral.



















This is my second idea where we can see the supporting arches for the ceiling and the room is simply already lit and the tapestry will be on the either side of the wall in between the torches.
I like the simplicity that we easily go onto andi's stairs.

Guy's tell me what you think and which you prefer.

Also Hayley i have found some cool torch designs on National Treasure when i was looking at the treasure scene lighting.