Skin adjustments

a short clip of the Semir's adjustments to the skin tone and additional vein placement. I'm very happy with the progress so far, just a few minor adjustments and we're there :D

let there be..

Here is the first real lighting test I've done and below it is the storyboard/colour panel i was using for reference. I've used a range of mental ray spotlights to to fake global illumination and this will make the renders considerably faster. As mentioned in the previous post, optimising has become necessary. As much as I like using GI and there is still a chance i'll use it, a non-GI setup is a lot more controllable. There's a lot more tweaking to do but I feel this is certainly going in the right direction.

testing testing..SSS

while the modellers were modelling, Semir was busy trying to optimise the character for rendering. Since we'll be having the same character by the hundred it will be incredibly intense on our memory ram and also our render times. In the characters previous state (high poly count, Sub surface scattering) we would have had trouble having 10 models in just an open scene.

One thing Semir has particularly been working on is faking the sub surface scattering (sss), for example when light penetrates your skin it scatters around, partially highlighting the near edge of that area. Above is a render of the characters face using mental rays SSS shader, Semir will try other alternatives by using utility nodes.

the reason for a face by face comparison was also to show how i want the skin texture to look. The face on the right is the current look of the character, this is what Semir sent me in an email and the face on the left is the color we're aiming for.

we've been busy..

Myself and Alex have been keeping a seperate modelling blog for the film, it was so that we could give each other feedback without making this one look really messy. http://l13modelling.blogspot.com/ this is the link to our modelling progress just to show that we haven't been sitting idly by.

Enter : David Marc Bryan

Amazingly talented animator has joined the team of awesomeness.

Check out his skills..
http://www.davidmarcbryan.com

Do not disturb

grime, grime, grime.

Block Party

This is the finalised look of the estate tower block. As well as giving a reference to the modellers i really wanted to capture the mood and atmosphere in this concept for the opening scene.
When it came to using reference for buildings, i really wanted to keep to the estate tower block shape and i looked at buidlings around Latimer Road tube station.

sneaky peaky..

heres a few storyboards in no particular order, this is just to give you an idea of where this is heading.

It's been a whole month..

..since i last posted but its been a busy month working on storyboards and concepts. I'm only going to post tiny update today because a lot of the work being done is in WIP stage. This is the hallway concept design, it was meant to be a panel for the storyboards but i ended up spending an embrassing amount of time on it so i decided to give an extra push and turn it into a concept design.

Bear long tings

This is Eddy the teddy. hmm..name's subject to change. Unfortunaely this cute bear doesn't have a defining role in this film but it does serve as one of the characters props. This was modeled by Semir in maya and rendered with 3delight.

Storyboard progress!

I've storyboarded the first 30secs of the film, really doesnt sound like much but its exactly what i want which is rare. I'm far from finished and theres a very long way to go but i'm happy with the progress so far. I wanted to do a color script after i had finished the storyboards but i decided to incorporate it into panels to save time, i'm not sure if thats the right descision but i figured if they can achieve two things at once i'd be saving time. The above is the result of the groups input during our previous meeting, especially Tyrone Hemmings' contributions. Must apologise for dirty giant water marks, unfortunately my work has been stolen before and i've become hatefully paranoid :(

Character progress

A great amount of detail has been added to the characters face. Initially i had not intended to show the characters face (albeit 1-2 secs) but Semir's model would not only be a waste not to show it off but it posseses strange facial features which manages to capture a freakyness i didn't know i was looking for. It somehow looks like a teenager with a babies face.
In addition, displacement mapping and first pass fine skin details have been added.

If you've noticed, the characters vest no longer has the fold detail, this is because we're using maya's ncloth to simulate folds when the character moves.

Unwrapping.. but not presents

While i've been working on storyboards, Semir has made progress
with unwrapping the character in preparation for texturing.

Production Workflow

A production workflow is an essential part of any animation and film production, it gives us a clear chronological outline of what needs to be done. It also helps visualise the entirety of the project.
As you can see there's a lot to do, but an exciting journey lies ahead :)

I'm really shit at storyboarding..

..sooo, i've only done 3. I'm not even sure if this is how i want it to look. The idea is to get a sense of timing and feel for the film and at the moment its a got a long way to go.
Yesterday we had a group meeting where the majority of the discssion was about storyboards and how my shots lacked dynamics. So, Steve has suggested we all try our hand at it. This could be a great opportunity for us as a group to pool our ideas together to make up for the lack of bells and ribbons that mine don't have..yet.

Another other..

Finally! an update -_-" Theres been a huge posting gap due work commitments but heres another character board. I needed to help express the characters' character by amplifiying body language. Aside from the obvious color palette a different pose was needed to express that certain moodiness.

Modelling begins

Since the character board was posted, Semir has made super human progression with building the character in 3D. This handsome young fellow was modelled in maya and sculpted in Zbrush.

Anatomy and character accuracy are spot on, but adjustments to things like the mask are set to change. The characters mask needs some asthetics changes, its more of a personal preference but i would like the facial features to be quite androgenous. Although the characters are all boys with shaved heads, the masks androgeny would create a genderless mass. Having the characters with shaved heads was for the asthetics but it was also to avoid the complications of moving hair since alot of the scenes will see the characters moving their heads quite violently.
Details like the veins will be added over the coming week and hopefully a start on texturing the model.

strike a pose..

finally managed to get a character board done and this is the result. This is the 1st of 3 so hopefully there'll be more on the way. but now..sleeeeeeeeeep

Enter: (new) member

Semir Saleh has joined Lucky 13! (again) or was he ever gone? Semir was one of the orignal members when we first put together this idea during our 1st year at uni.

check out the talent.. http://eye-for-complexity.com/

once more with feeling..