romas lesson

i always find Roma's lesson very useful many of the tools she has shown us come in hand such as the vector tool and other texturing tools that will transform my work.

here's the skyscraper i made today.

ive been working on my environment a bit more heres an image. I like the way its going so far can't wait to see what it looks like textured.

environment

so ive been so focussed on my character and comic strip i completely forgot about the environment so i made a start today its nothing amazing but i set up the basic out line of my alley way and created some trash cans (as the americans say) and fire escapes.

what i've been up to

i've been playing on illustrator and photoshop trying to create my comic slides. i've tried different backgrounds but i think the one thats most effective it the black and white version the background is a photo of a street in my local town and the traced it in illustrator. so what i've decided to do is when the environment for my scene is done i will render out some files and done the same to the to give me the same effect this way it will be more suiting to the style.

BLACK & WHITE



BLACK& WHITE WITH COLOR

roma's lesson

so heres the terrain i did in Roma's lesson altought i cant use it in this project i know it will come i handy later.

portfolio

ive been working on my portfolio for a bit now i like the way its going but its a bit bare at the moment cuz i have alot of art work ive done on paper i need to scan in or take photos of.

what ive been up to

ive made a start on my model but its FAR from finished but its a start.

ive also made a start on learning illustrator and flash to help create my animated comic sequence for the beginning of my animation.

changes

after thinking over my scene i started to think it was really bland and doesn't involve the comic book influences as much as id like

one comic book and game that has always stood out to me was max payne its really gritty and fully of emotion. i loved that in the game instead of cut scenes the where comic strips and i liked how it flipped between the illustration and animation another game that does this is Infamous another great game both these games kept me hooked and wanting more, so i thought i might try something like this having a comic at the beginning and end of the animation to set up the story a little but also comic books tend to be like dreams the beginning usually start with you not knowing how the characters got there but you don't really care.

i havent got the script sorted yet but as soon as i do i will post it. i've changed it to a story of revenge.

in the mean time
max payne


infamous

rain test

so ive been playing around with particle flows i've done two versions one very simple and renders fairly quick and another which is more realistic and makes slashes on the ground but for some reason when it comes to rendering it won't render the particles of the rain and plus it take like 3x longer to render so thats pretty much out the picture any way.

so heres the simple version because the scene is going to be dark and gloomy the rain doesn't have to be too realistic plus i think it would work with the comic style am going for. am going to play around with it further to see if i can make a splash effect.

characters

i need two models for my animation a thug and a superhero so heres my sketches

THUG




un-SUPERHERO

progress

so ive been work on the city my scene is set in it going to pan over the city and zoom into an alley way were the scene takes place.


textured

loser

this is an idea for my loser superhero

style

for the style its going to stay comic styled so dark and over the top. one thing i was looking at was batman arkham asylum while playing this game i was constantly amazed at the style of the environment and characters you really feel like your in a comic. i will differently keep looking back at this game thought out the project as a reference. and if you haven't played the game i recommend you do the story, texture, environment, characters are all amazing.

story

the isn't defiant yet but i think the basics of the story is going to be some thugs in an dark alley way are mugging a women and my superhero will come to save the day but unlike other heros he's not the most power full and ends up getting beaten up by the thug the women then hits the thug with her bag and knocks him out she then walks of casually.

i like this story because most comics a hero saves the day and everyone cheers but in this i thought it would be funny if he was a useless super hero.

ideas

so after being given the brief i first thought about doing the rotating hallway scene from inception but then thought that could get very complicated and it would be too short. so i decided to go with the matrix scene as i think it will be more exciting

because i am very much influenced my comics and graphic novels i thought this would be the best route, i like the gritty, dark and tension you get from them so i wanted to try and get this feel in i the animation.

finished

so i handed my project in today cuz everything done and am very pleased with the outcome so i thought id hand it in and start my hols earlier so merry crimbo everyone and enjoy my final piece.

THATS MY GAMEBOY!!

collage work

so after cleaning my room i found some of my collage work so thought id share it with you

animatic

heres my animatic

Finished

FINISHED

well most of it ive done my animatic my animation just need to do the PNG files now

but overall i think this project has gone well last year when doing the virtual environment project i didn't have a clue and my final piece was quiet boring and basic there was no textures and everything was boxes.

but after doing the semairs this year i have learnt a lot Roma showed me some things i didn't even know you could do like work from a real image and build your environment from that also basic stuff like texturing and different modifiers. then in Andy's lessons i learnt how to rig a model and animate it to be honest when he was showing us how to do it i was so confused but when it came round to doing it myself it made sense probably because i learn better when i do it myself.

when i look back at the first 3d work i did i can see i have definitely improved this year and i know i will continue to improve i am happy with the work i've done but i have no doubt i will look back at this in a year and laugh like i have done with the last project.

one thing i learnt for this project apart from the obvious 3ds max skills is to try and time my seclude better as towards the end i was worried i didn't have enough time to get things done so it meant some very late nights and i left my sound till last when i should of been thinking about it from the beginning meaning the sound wasn't as good as it could have been.

i think my style of work is best suited for character and environment modelling as i feel this is stronger than my animating although that could change with in the next few years. but for this project i enjoyed the model aspect of this rather than animating and i think i understand the modelling and rigging more. as well as this i enjoyed the first stages of the design process as well such as concept art and story bored because i come from and art and design background but as i learnt a lot about drawing and expressive painting at collage i am really interested in the 3d modelling aspect of the project for now.

A LOOK AT THE IMPROVMENT


1ST Project last year




project this year

so ive done my rendering for the 2nd scene which is the most important and edited it with sound overall i think it works well and i feel i have learnt the basics of the program know i understand the modelling part of the program a lot better after this project also i had no previous animation experience but by doing this project i have a basic understanding of it now and feel the next project will be a lot better.

i just have my animatic to do and if time the 1st scene but its not that important.