Improved Demo Reel

Show Reel and New Blog

This new blog will will start wil an overview of my best work and work I produce after Univeristy.

Show Reel:


My new blog address is:
http://lmcguiredigitalartist.blogspot.com/

The Big Finale

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqWYb-xLMis

update

There still a few tweeks to be made to tidy up the animation and sound.

Business Card

The Business Card Design Changes Once Agian.

Sound Synced Update

This is every close to the final clean ups for sound and animation.

sound and animation clean up updates

an updated play blast with synced sound. still some camera alterations to be made.

Business Card Tweeked

Sound test previse

started putting together and building on the sounds of the animation

Business Card and Logo Idea

Are the bubbles a step to far I wonder




The last card is my chosen design. Some modifications may still be made.

Working With Sound

I have started to put the sound track together, out of the jobs left to do I think this will take the longest. many of the sounds in this prelimunary test are very wrong at this stage, but they are a start. The backing music is the sort of melody that I am looking for but am still currently have trouble finding the right track. this one is the best so far but is still very low quality.

Depth of Field testing

Still a few niggly glitches to conqure but everything is on track.

Solove one problem to find another

After spending the majority of today reanimating my camera to run smoother along the time line I did a pre-vis render which showed the camera flow and adjustments made there, however that play blast does not the depth of field for the camera as it travelers past the events, so I produced another full render of the sequence in order to test this. In recreating the camera movements, the depth of field for the majority of the animation is completely wrong. I will now need to spend the next day or so correctly these flaws.

timeline clean up

While cleaning up the animation for the time line scene I have remade the water splashes and started from scratch with the camera movements and Depth of Field. There is still come tideing to be done before I am ready to render.

cannons clean up

cleaning up animations

I have gone another step further to tidy up the animation in the silhoutte scene and fix any problems i was having before. This is the lastest version (without its firy background)to check through the pace of the camera and characters. The camera is still a little to fast or slow in some places however the characters are moving alot better. The compression of this version seems to squash the scene out of its intended ratio which i will check and fix for the next post.

Cleaning Up Animations

I have been going through the process over the weekend of cleaning up the animation within the silhouette scenes. There is still some work to be done, but here is the latest play blast pre-vise.

Full length test

A full length animation test, before sound (next task) to check and list all refinements needed before the final renders. The key point to this test was to make sure that the two scenes come together appropriately. from a first glance the style works however the colours in the second scene are very dramtic in contrast to the more subtle desaturated colours in the first, eventhrough they do have a desaturation placed apon them. These desat levels need to be played with an pushed further. From this animation I will next add the sound to the animation before listing all the alterations and refinements needed in the animation.

Lighting

I have spent today playing with the lighting so that the lights turn on and off dependng on the camera position, in atempt to draw the audences attention to the specific events as the camera travels through them.

Stylizing tests

65% desaturation, with graphic pen soft light over crumpled paper textures.

Transition and Matching styles test

The frame rate / animation needs to be slowed in these examples however they are test for style.

Stylizing Timelines tests

depth of field test at 70% desaturation with graphic pen soft light.




depth of feild test at 100% desaturation with graphic pen sift light.

Depth of Field and Stylizing Test

Full opening clip


Full opening Cip in Graphic Pen

Depth of Field and Stylizing Test

Along side the tests I have been carring out to style the time line sequence I have also been playing with the depth of field in the camera settings to give the piece a better sense of distance. To test the depth of field I have need to spend some time on short render sequences to make sure that the DOF changes effectivly which has eatten into the estimated time frame for this stage in the production. However this has not caused me to fall behind as I have managed to work on other portfolio bits while waiting.
















Depth Of Field


Depth of Field with Graphic Pen filter

Stylizing Timelines cont...

Test 1 for graphic pen filter. This effect isn't looking as horrible as it did in first inspection. Maybe playing with the levels of light and dark might help the objects to stand out under the graphic pen effect.

New Research

ORIGAMI, the style choice for this animation has been staring me in the face and I completely over looked it. It is the most obvious and logical of answers, for the majority of the project and the original concept it is somthing I should have seen. The style of origami paper folding rifts on two concepts of the silhoette scene,(my main story)1, the use of paper, coloured of otherwise and the history of east asian art. Tests need to be carried out to be sure this is the right way forward.

Papery Candle Test

Stylizing Timelines recap.

Maya Render


Graphic Pen


Poster Edges and 50% desaturation


Grey Scale


A combination of graphic pen and desaturation


65% desaturation and a papery bump and texture


65%desaturation, poster edges, and a papery bump and texture

The paper bump is seen clearer in previous posts about the papery renders


Papery bump and texture, grey scale





Papery bump and texture, grey and white scale. In this one i tried pushing the contrast in light and dark to its limits.


The same as above with red time line

The paper bump map within these renders may need to be pused further. the more I test a try out new styles, the more I like the idea of this scene being made out of paper. Papery textures and styles need to be experimented and pushed further.

Stylizing Timelines cont...

Stylizing Timelines cont...

It is time to take the idea of styling the timeline scene above and beyound the effects i have tried. It is a given that from the original renders from maya, the saturation needs to be decreased by at least 50%, so from now that is the first edit of every render.

I thought about what the original concept ment to me. The idea of using shadow pupets ment the theory behind the use of paper cut outs to teel the story, so why not have everything on the time line textured with crumpled paper.










This is somthing that has worked well for the clock texture, this may have been more success full for the clock than the ships as the clock is created from texture files where as the ships (up to now) didn't need to be. However the reverse can be said the edgings of the texures, the poster edge effect works well for the ships image however it is far to potent for the clock scene. Is there a comprise for this? I'm not sure, more tests are needed with other key shots to see. Further tests and changes need to be made to the ships to make this idea work. The colour of the sea itself is still to in-your-face at the moment.

Interim Crit and the last 5 Week Plan

Are a successful interim crit, I now know exactly what is left to be done within the last five weeks of the project.

Time table of whats left to be done:

Week 11:
By the end of this week I plan to have completed all of modeling, lighting and animation process. I have a few small items to model and add to the time line to clear up understanding of the 1701 Captain William Kidd event on the timeline. I need to model his hat and a treasure chest to clarify the idea of piracy. I also plan to begin more texture test to find the right style to pull every aspect of the project into line.

Week 12:
I plan to complete and re-texturing and stylising from week 11 and start tests for creating the appearance of distance with simple differences in the camera focus. I plan to test two versions of this to find what works, firstly with itself in Maya and secondly in post production (probably the bets option) in After Effects.

Week 13:
By the end of week thirteen I plan to be ready to begin rendering. If I render within this week, it leave me time to make amendments as and where needed, in case there are any problems. Before I start the rendering process in this week I plan to create a time based animatic with as many sounds needed as possible to carry out one final check on the animation speed, lights, textures, etc.

Week 14:
I plan to have finished all renders within this week and be well into the post production editing, sounds, and levels of camera focus.

Week 15:
By the end of week fifteen my animation will be complete (figures crossed). At this stage and with this forward planning time table I can foresee a few days leeway which allows for any problems which I may into.

Over the next five weeks alongside my project I plan to complete at requirements of the profession portfolio, along with business cards and website.

Light Tests 1

Light tests useing spot lights over each event and directional lights .

Render Test

A full render of the timeline sequence to test camera speed and angles, lighting, tetures and animation. (no particles render tests yet.)

Captain William Kidd on Time line

Filling scene.

After working through and putting together the time based animatic, and adjusting the camera work accordingly i have found that there have been around 100-150 frames of unexpected dead space as the camera realigns itself to move past the first event to the second. This space has needed to filling with other time line related events. After looking back over the history books for 1600's I found every little in the way of events that would be easily scene on the time line. I narrowed it down to two events which would stand out and provoke interest in the audience. The first was the marriage of Prince William of Orange and Mary Stuart in 1677, the second was the hanging of the unfortunate and infamous Scottish Pirate, Captain William Kidd. I chose the second of the two events as it was a hanging with a difference. From the images I have seen, and documentation I have read, Kidd was arrested and shipped back to the England where he was trialed in May 1701 and sentenced to death for his first and only of piracy and murder. This unlucky man had even the disastrous death. On his execution, the hanging rope had broken, before he was hanged properly in the second try. His body was disposed in a cage on Thames River as a warning to any potential pirate.

Time Line Scene

New and Improved slowed and steadied camera. with the previous pre-vis the camera was a little too fast and eratic. I have spent today redoing the camera (and corrisponing animations)to allow the audience time to float through the scene to there destinaton. There are further refinements to the camera and surrounding animation to be carried out to make sure the camera stays on track with the time line itself, there are a few frames where it still wanders off center. I also have a 150frame dead space where the camer is turning as it follows the timeline to the next event. I this dead space I plan to add ann event in the distant as I have done with the Great Fire of London. I not quiet sure what should fill this current void, but my first idea was a wedding scene of Mary Stuart and Prince Willaim of Orange in 1677. i shall need to look back over the time of this period once again.

Pre-vis

As the end draws near, I have put together another pre-vis with sounds that are closer to those for my final piece. The modeling, rigging and animating, step ever closer to their final stages, this pre-vis has shown me exactly what is needed in the final weeks before I begin to render. Much of the camera work needs refining and their are still some characters missing from the final scene with others which move to fast. This pre-vis piece has been about sound and timing rather than the content, hence a grey backing for the silhouette scenes which will later be changed to the fiery back drop of the candle flame.




(double click the link to watch on you tube)

Render Problems

I have come across many problems with with my cannon ball splash scene. The first problem was getting the particles of the splash to render at all. Alan showed me a renderer from a much older version of Maya, the Maya Render Buffer which has allowed me to render the particles of the cannon ball splash. The Maya Render Buffer has nearly as many function as the normal Maya hardware and software renderer we generally use. However with all these controls at my disposal, I have still had a few problems when putting the layers together. It appears that so far through my testing I have not created an alpha channel for the particles layer, there fore the particles do not appear in the scene as they should.

Having found the alpha the final text below (the 3rd clip) works out the best, however i have used the particles layer in the final render 3 times as it looked very translucent.

light test

Light Tests. Using spot which is parented to the camera to light the way. An ambient light is set to a low intenstiy to dimmily light the surounding darkness. Also a point light is located within the flame to intensify its light.