YEAR 3 MINOR PROJECT- INNTERRIM CRITIQUE

Link to Interrim Critique Presentation
This week our studio group had our interim critique. We presented a slide show, animatic and very short previs, available through the link above. We have some changes to make, but mostly got a "green light", so we are good to go!

Yr 3 Minor Project - Barnabas Sketches

Some quick photoshop sketches, looking for ways to carry facial features between father and son.

Year 3 Minor Project Week 5 - "And Son..." Benjamin revisions

After a chat with tutor Justin, I have made some revisions to the Benjamin sketches.

Firstly Justin felt the black mourning outfit needed breaking up.  There are restrictions on our colour palette because of the narrative, so I have kept to a range of greys. The red-and-white bow tie is necessary to the story.
Justin also felt the original boots were "wrong": too stubby and rounded, so I have revised these using reference material.
Justin suggested making the coat tails long to help make Benjamin's clothes look too large, but I'm not sure about this, I think it makes it a bit too comical.

 The second set of sketches show revised faces now that we have settled on a face with widely spaced eyes, large low ears, and a wide forehead.

Year 3 Minor Project - "And Son..." Week 4

Refining main character concepts this week, Benjamin and Barnabas.

Yr 3 maya Tutorial: Mental Ray: Using Maya Layered Shaders with Mental Ray Nodes

Year 3 Maya Tutorial - Lighting Profiles: IES Lighting Information Files

Year 3 Maya week 1: Mental Ray: Round Corners Node

YEAR 3 Minor Project - "And Son..." - Week 3

This week I have been working on rough drafts of the two main characters in our story, Benjamin and Barnabas.  I am focussing on the father and son dynamic and looking at expressions.
I've also done some more rough concepts for the environment.

Year 3 Maya Tutorial: Ambient Occlusion Lighting & Light Decay

Year 3 Maya Tutorials - Using Ambient Occlusion with Displacment Maps

Year 3 Maya Tutorials - Sub Surface Scattering Part 2: Cartoon Shader

MAYA TUTORIAL: SUB-SURFACE SCATTERING

YEAR 3 Minor Project - "And Son..." - Week 1 & 2

My Minor project is a collaboration between myself and two fellow students.  We aim to create all the pre-production needed to make a 3-5 minute short animation, which we hope to produce as our major Project next term. 
The film is called "And Son"; it is based on an animatic made by Samantha Butler as part of her year 1 work.
The bulk of the work for this project will be on our combined studio blog POLYDOODLE PICTURES but I will continue to post round-ups of my work on here.

WEEKS 1 & 2
 I am mostly Chief Concept Artist at the moment!  I have spent a vast amount of time researching style and form for artistic direction, and begun to sketch characters to get to know them.

YEAR 3! AND A NEW STUDIO!

I have made it to the Third Year of my degree!  This year I have formed a collaborative studio partnership with two fellow students, Sammy and Stitch.  Our studio blog is

http://polydoodlepictures.blogspot.co.uk/

"What I did last Summer" - Work Experience

At the end of year 2 I was fortunate to gain a work experience placement with a visual projection company.  My brief was to create moving images that would be projected onto the walls of a stately home for a wedding. I was asked to "treat the house as a giant blackboard" and cover it in chalk doodles.

My initial designs were:

I then took each design into After Effects and created short loops of animation, doing several configurations for each design.

     

The company used all three designs as part of their finished animation.  

 

YEAR 2, TERM 2 - LINKS TO MAYA TUTORIALS

 Links to Maya Tutorials

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/maya-term-2-explosion.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/maya-tutorial-omni-emitter-fuse.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/maya-tutorial-smokedrain.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/maya-tutorial-fireworks-2.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/maya-tutorials-shockwave.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/maya-tutorials-water-foam.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/maya-tutorial-volume-emitter-space.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/maya-tutorials-curve-flow.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/maya-tutorials-fireworks-2.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/maya-tutorials-airship-particle.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/maya-tutorial-bowling-alley_7.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/maya-tutorial-oil-barrel.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/maya-tutorias-coke-can.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/maya-tutorial-instancing-part-1.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/maya-tutorial-instancing-part-2-scale.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/maya-tutorial-instancing-part-3.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/maya-tutorial-instancing-part-4-object.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/maya-tutorials-instancing-part-5-object.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/maya-tutorial-particle-collision-rain.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/maya-tutorial-particle-collision-metal.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/maya-tutorial-instancing-part-6-aim.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/maya-tutorial-instancing-part-7-aim.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/maya-tutorial-instancing-part-10.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/maya-tutorial-instancing-part-11.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/maya-tutorial-mental-ray-transitioning.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/maya-tutorial-instancing-part-12.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/maya-tutorial-goals-part-1-mud-drop.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/maya-tutorial-goals-part-2-controlled.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/maya-tutorial-mental-ray-optimisation_6175.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/maya-tutorial-mental-ray-motion-blur.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/maya-tutorial-mental-ray-depth-of-field.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/maya-tutorial-instancing-part-9.html

http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/maya-tutorials-games-character.html

MAYA TUTORIALS: Games Character Modelling & UVs

MAYA TUTORIAL: Instancing Part 9: Instances & Paint Effects (Trees)

ADAPTATION: "Plop" turnaround and mini-animation

ADAPTATION - DVD ARTWORK

ADAPTATION: THE ART OF THE OWL WHO WAS AFRAID OF THE DARK

The Art of the Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark by smallbrowndog

ADAPTATION: "Plop" Textured turnaround

Ta-Da! "Plop" turnaround

Was slightly panicky until I realised it was the bump map!

ADAPTATION: "Plop" complete, jointed, skinned, blendshapes etc

The character is complete, and just needs lighting and rendering.

Blendshapes

Blendshapes: Normal, surprised, sad, tired

Jointed

Skinned

Animated flight

Animated Flight

 

ADAPTATION: Plop flying playblast

A bit jerky, and I haven't done the ball dynamics, but here is a playblast of Plop trying to fly:

Adaptation: I have achieved an owl!

I'll post the pipeline and decision type stuff later, when I get some feeling back in my hand!

MAYA TUTORIAL: Mental Ray: Depth of Field Methods - Part 1