With out doubt this blog has been suffering :/ with trying to keep this one, the 3Dhit thread and the manipulation short film diary up to date I think its fair to say I've been struggeling as I'm only a one man band. However, that's a load of crap and I just need a can of 'man up'.
So! Recent developments! I re-worked the topology for the train model and have been working on some shades, they're a little poor at the moment however I've recently managed to acquire a new renderer, so I look forward to having a play around with shaders and should have some new renderes up shortly.
So my latest assets I've been working on for the showreel is this jukebox. The process is a long way from finished yet but need to get brainstorming a little further than I already have. My original intentions were to create a nice polished brand new manufactured jukebox, the I decided to beat it up a little, scratch the surfaces and make it grubbier (its currently at the 30/70% stage of the clean to damaged transition) but I'm still not happy with where I'm going with it, all I keep thinking is "big woop, its just a jukebox" It needs more, like updating to a nightclub 'ravebox' or something.
So there's not been much said about the film recently and that's because of a few things.. One reason is because I've set up a separate blog for the film and have been more recently been posting there, and the other reason is because there's a few things currently under wraps and wont be revealed for another couple weeks or so.
But a rough update.. Went back home to Kent and with a friends help shot a couple reference shots, mainly for shot angle reference, working out how best to shoot the VFX shots and practice, so that come the day of the official shoot I'll know exactly what I information and details I need to capture. So here's a couple shots from the past couple weekend.
Ok so this is the latest asset created for the film manipulation, 1 of 2 train carriages to be created, the other being an oil/fuel tank car which is around 50% modeled. Should have the texturing done by tonight as its all pretty simple. got around to UV'ing the Locomotive but will post about that at a later date :)
Submission deadline today, had a little trouble finishing up, it was brute force rendering last night to get something fairly nice looking out as the original render crashed :/
anyway, around half to 2/3rd's done i think, needs to be re-textured and a couple areas working on model wise, hope to also build a little more of a scene around it for the 50% grade submission. also was said that the camera pan needs to be sorted out but that was never anything final anyway.
next asset to come for submission will be trailers and oil tankers, another serious load of modeling but should be ok, just got to clear a little 'paper work' a couple of reports to write and pre-production stuff to get on with too so it'l be a busy couple weeks!
Ok so this is where we are regarding the modeling process, reckon I'm around 80% done. there's still a world of detail that needs to go into this and a few tweaks need to be made I've just noticed :/ but it should be ok for draft submissions. I'm hoping once textured it should look ok but yeah a few things to do, probably go back to them over xmas as there's a few other things i need to get on with now
Finally got the wheels finished, was a bit of a lengthy process trying to get them lined up but i'm pretty much there, I need to add more cables, wires and pipes i think on the inside but this is for a showreel draft and film r&d piece so I will be revising the model at a later date, full model renders to come..
Pretty much finished the body work now i think, the majority anyway. Finished the fans and started work on the base platform with the railings. still going pretty well and getting through it at a fairly good rate, i think it'l get me when i get down to the wheels sets where the detail increases a little more though, all in good time :)
Started to go into a little more detail now, the the top half of the body done. added the side pannels handles hinges etc and air vent and grills. all going well so far, smother than i thought as its just pretty much been a case of duplicating object but i think it'l start getting crazy towards the lower half of the model, the wheel sets in particular.
So a couple days ago i started work another model, the locomotive which will be the main focus of the film. its all pretty basic looking so far but will hopefully take shape relativity quickly and I'll have something to show off in a week or so for the next showreel submission. pretty much just lining up cameras and getting some good reference so far, more soon..
Got to the point where I'm around half way through the project I think. This is the submission I handed in, got a couple render passes in there and wires. In the next few days I'll be starting on the train model, the feature model for my VFX trailer which I hope will turn out nicer than this model but I think it will take a little while longer but we'l see how it goes :) Enjoy..
As mentioned in a previous post the texture works a little slap dash as I've not properly started uv'ing yet but here's a couple renders of the basic colour's I'm going for :)
Bit of a rough job but as far as I know I don't really plan on showing much of the interior, also started to slap on some textures and shaders but not got as far as full uv's yet
Bit of a lengthy one today, lots to catch up on, posts seem to be piling up but can never seem to find the time to finished them off, but hey, il post drafts regardless and finish the full posts at a later date. So! been working on the theme of the model, it kind of has to tick two boxes, one being a showreel piece, and the other, somehow fitting into my film as research and dev. Been having a think, and after scouring the net for reference...
I think the best.. place? the model will fit will be as a fire rescue 4x4/truck. its going to be a kind of rural small town fire service vehicle, in a similar way this 4x4 is to a sheriff/police officer.
Looking to give the model a bit of back story, rather than it just being a model "oo wow, he can model a car, BIG WOOP" I want people to see and read into it, give it a bit of history, and get the view questioning and guessing ..gives it a little wow factor I think :)
