Long time no post!

Over the past 6 months post have been lacking I'm afraid, and this is all down to my degree film project I have been working on. So, here's the fruits om my labor! 




(The kidnapping of a young girl causes a tragic trail of events to unfold, jeopardising the lives of many innocent people. After a freight train wreckage causes disaster on the outskirts of a bustling city, rail engineer and father to Emily, John Bairstow is brought in off the record by the Police for questioning. Suspected of causing the disaster, Bairstow is haunted by intensifying harrowing flashbacks as DCI Taylor ruthlessly presses him for answers.

Emily is a final year degree project written and directed by Connor Paterson, a visual effects generalist who was responsible for all CGI and post-production effects.)

EmilyShortFilm_DialTest

so here's one of the shots ive been working on for the film, a shot depicting the speed rising out of control. looking at it now I can see Its pretty quick, so I'll render another 24 frames either side for padding. Its lit with hdri and directional at the moment but will create better lighting to make it feel a little more out of control like -  http://footage.shutt...h-pressure.html

I used this shot for reference, tracked the motion then imported to maya, modeled proxy geo then projected some textures.

There's still more to do here so it would be good to hear opinions. Looking at it now there's a few issues but I'll wait to see how many of you notice to decide whether its that big a deal.  

ShortFilm

Short films beginning to take shape now! check out http://emilyshortfilm.connorpaterson.co.uk/ for updates on location, assets, plot and casting for the project. Filming in a week then back to the vfx shots shortly after! 

Mapping the field

so dissertation work has been looming, which means its time to get my imap, what is the creative equivalent to a literature review.. ish. Anyway, here's how it all went..

Re-Brand

So just a little more on the re-brand assignment, been working on a number of little projects to hopefully give a good impression :-)

So I mocked up..

Business cards 
Sticker books
DVDs and cover
Pens
IOS and android app
Letter heads and envelopes

and a couple more things I can't remember right now..   :s But anyway.. 

The xmas break. HA!

So as always there's been a lot going on and I've struggled to keep the blog updated :-\  however.. My excuse is mainly that of also trying to keep another work thread over at 3dhit.co.uk up to date.. Poor I know..

Anyway.. Updates so far

The locomotive' - currently re-textured uv'd rendererd and ready for comp, im not there with the shaders yet.. after recently becoming a fan of arnold im still getting to know it all but will keep working after the deadline. I also created a 3d enviro which will be used as the 1st shot for my short film project so I'll be killing two birds with one stone so to say :)  AO preview...

I've also been working into the cargo train car as it was just a weak excuse for a poly box before :\ I've now added more detail into the body, worked into the door panels adding fixtures and hinges as well as revising the wheel set wires trying to tidy it all up a bit and also uv'ing. Ive now rendered and will be comping and posting up final renders shortly.

Work on the rural fire truck has been under way too. I've been working more detail again, mainly cleaning up the topology making a few adjustment to the bumper, winch and wheel arches. been working on the shaders and textured too, still work to be done here but not bad so far i think :)

Something away from the cg side of things is my personal re-brand project I've been working on, redesigning my logo, updating CV and website designs, creating business cards, sticker books, DVD covers, men use and disc designs.   ..think that's about it but I may have missed one or two things. Anyway, here's a few images of how that's all looking at the moment :)

Overall its been a pretty productive Xmas break so far, writing this post has made me realize how much I really have got done over the past two weeks which is a not of a confidence boost! (Thought side just been slacking all this time!)  However there's a week left before deadlines and a hell of a lot more to get finished.   ..its going to be a busy closing week!

Neglect

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.

JukeBox

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.

Updates at a later date though, all for now :)

Manipulation

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.
 

Train Car

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 :)

Locomotive - submission

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!

Locomotive - 80% modeled

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 

Locomotive - Wheel sets

 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..

Locomotive - Front &rear platform ends

Work on the Front and rear end of the platform with air breaks and couplings too..

Locomotive - Fans, Rail and platform.

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 :)

Locomotive Panel Detail

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. 

Locomotive - early days..

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..

Suzuki Samurai Hand in

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..

Suzuki Samurai Assets

Anyway.. so to make this norm 4x4 look like more of a fire service vehicle I've been cracking on with some assets..

   

Suzuki Samurai Texturing

 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 :)