Friday 30 November 2012

Maya prgress

Soent all the day modeling my cloth on the altar but I like the way it came out.


Photoshop exercise

Phil gave us a quick Photoshop exercise to help free up our drawing. This is a really good way of getting thumbnails gives you a lot of ideas you would never come up with any other way and also produces a lot of work in a short amount of time.






 After we had done the panels we had to chose one and work into it for 10 minutes. Below is my 10 minute concept art.
I think for my next project I will work my thumbnails like this, it's the best way, would have been good to start my projects like this from the beginning but it takes a while to break out of certain habits.



Thursday 29 November 2012

Wednesday 28 November 2012

life drawing

I decided to work on black paper this week to try something a little different. 




Using paper to block out the shapes first and then working into them with charcoal and chalk.


Wednesday 21 November 2012

Animation Toolkit

Here is my hand drawn animation of a bouncy ball.



And here is our pixilation animation we did in class in my group it was Dhuran, Lucy and Nadia.

Monday 19 November 2012

Maya Animation Tutorials

Here are the animation tutorials we had to do.

Car Animation
Rocket Animation
Robot Animation

Pencil and Eraser charater Lighting and rendering

Here are my Pencil and Eraser characters finished not sure if I got the lighting right, it was quite difficult getting all the highlights in the right places.

Alien Orb Lighting and Rendering

An introduction into the basic lights in maya and how to use them.

Friday 16 November 2012

OGR: Secret Lairs

Online Greenlight Review

Hero prop: Final Concept

I forgot to do the progress for my hero prop and I flattened the image before I remembered that I needed to show my progress, so here is just my final.


Key Thumbnails

Following Phils advice i redesigned my altar and made an alcove on the wall as well as including a table.


Then I decided to do a more close up sketch of what the new design of the altar will look like.


I'm going to use these as my key thumbnails to take into Photoshop and start my final piece. 

Thursday 15 November 2012

Thumbnails

These are some thumbnails just figuring out some details like how I'm going to have the altar with a fireplace underneath or on a table.

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Thumbnails for the altar

Again these thumbnails are just working out details but I'm wondering if it's better to have it on a table with a table cloth or to have it on top of a fireplace?




Thumbnails

Here are some more thumbnails working out more of the details in the room so when I take it into Maya I know exactly what I need to be modelling. The first page of thumbnails is just working out the wooden panelling I'll be using on the walls. I think the square panelling with possible the design of a pentagram inside is what I'll use. When I come to doing this in Photoshop I'll see if the pentagram inside works if not then I'll just use the square panelling.


Below is a few thumbnails with a close up of the desk and what will be on it. I think that's where I'll have my hero prop laid open on the desk, with a glass decanter of scotch and a cigar. The chairs going to be leather in the design of the antique red chair I have on my influence map. 


life drawing

This week we were told to be free and expressive with our drawing, and use a number of different media. I really like the last one that I did.





Secret Lair: Thumbnails

These are some thumbnails for my secret Lair, I struggled at first to get the right perspective but I finally got I the way I wanted in thumbnail 4.


The next few thumbnails I decided to play around with the arrangement of the room, but after that I've decided I like thumbnail 4 the best, I'm going to play around with the Items in the room and the details but that is the perspective I'm going to use. 


Wednesday 14 November 2012

Secret lair Influence Map

This is my influence map for the concept art of my Secret Lair of the Undead Mob Boss.



Character Bible

The Secret Lair of the Undead

Hero prop thumbnails

Here are some thumbnails I did for what my hero prop would look like as a cane.


Although i like the idea of my characters hero prop being a cane, listening to the advice of my creative partners I'm going with the book idea as it does fit in with my characters story a lot more than a cane. Also the thought of modelling a mini dragon hanging off the side of a cane is slightly daunting.
Below is what I'm going to be doing for my final hero prop design. Most of it is taken from what I drew before for the book and the next step is to just do it in Photoshop.








Monday 12 November 2012

Sunday 11 November 2012

Hero prop Ideas

When I first got this project I had no idea what I was going to do about my hero prop, my first thoughts were of possibly a gun which was an hire loom or an antique that my character had collected or stolen. Then after talking to Phil a bit and he suggested that I need to figure out my characters story first which might help and have a hero prop that was tied to the fact he was un-dead and maybe it was a book of black magic which he used to become un-dead or some item that tied him to a curse that made him un-dead. So I decided to create an influence map to give myself a few ideas.


Also started to think that if my character did make a deal with the devil or used black magic or voodoo to become un-dead there may be sacrifices that have to be made at an alter so maybe a sacrificial knife would be really good as a hero prop.

These thumbnails I did as a way of seeing if while I put down some of the ideas for the hero prop if I got any inspiration while doing. The book was quite nice to do and got a few ideas with that and the sacrificial knife gave me quite a few ideas, and I might put it into my scene even if I don't use it as a hero prop, but the pistol didn't really inspire me much.






After thinking a bit more about who my character is and after I did a bit more research on Mob Boss's and I can across Kingpin, I really liked the idea of my character having a cane as a hero prop. Also with Kingpin's cane it has a concealed laser which he sometimes uses would nice to have something similar but maybe a prick of poison, or some blood that has something to do with how he became un-dead. So I did another influence map to accommodate the change in my idea. I want the top decoration on the cane to have some type of meaning to my character, maybe an animal he identifies with. I guess the way he obtains the cane will be important either he collects it, buys it or its a gift. I think maybe having it as something he has collected off one of his victims or a gift as part of his transformation into the un-dead.
While doing research for my influence map I started to think of having the cane compact with symbols that all have different meanings such as their linked with power, eternal life etc...




Fake voodoo

I've decided my character is going to become undead by dabbling in dark arts and voodoo. I think I'm going to go in the voodoo direction as I think it's slightly more interesting and less clique. The actual practice of voodoo has nothing to do with human sacrifice, vampires or devil worship the practice is a life affirming practice that encourages its participants to better understand the natural processes of life and their own spiritual natures. But that doesn't really help with making my character undead so for the purpose of this project I'm going to go with the Hollywood version of voodoo with the blood sacrifices and devil worship. So I'm going to create a version of voodoo through various films and preconceived ideas people have when they first here mention of the word, I will use some things that are very true to the religion but most of it will probably be fake. I'll be using this version of voodoo when I write in my character bible how my character became undead.

As part of my hero prop these are a number of symbols I might like to include on my characters cane.

Sesen A Lotus Flower. This is a symbol of the sun, of creation and rebirth. Because at night the flower closes and sinks underwater, at dawn it rises and opens again. According to one creation myth it was a giant lotus which first rose out of the watery chaos at the beginning of time. From this giant lotus the sun itself rose on the first day. A symbol of Upper Egypt.
Palm Branch  It symbolized the measure of time.
Chaos
Chaos is the opposite of order. Since everything changes, there is no right or no wrong -- only the quest for pleasure. The 8-pointed star represents the many different directions of chaos and the many ways you can follow it. 
Alchemy This simple 17th century "sign" illustrates the blending of geometric shapes -- circle, triangle, square -- representing the various "elements" needed for spells and magic
Dragon
A mythical monster made up of many animals: serpent, lizard, bird, lion... It may have many heads and breath fire. To mediaeval Europe, it was dangerous and evil. In the Bible it represents Satan, the devil.
Pentagram
5 pointed star pointing down. Used in occult rituals to direct forces or energies. Often represents Satanism  the horned god or various expressions of contemporary occultism, especially when a goat-head is superimposed on the inverted pentagram.
Anarchy
Absence or denial of any authority or established order. This represents the slogan, "do what thou wilt." Some say it represents the ASMODEAS: a demonic force..
Spider
Linked to treachery and death in many cultures, it was seen as a "trickster" in ancient Africa, a "spinner of fate" in ancient goddess cultures and -- in ancient Greek myths -- the goddess Arachnida was turned into a spider by her jealous rival Athena. Christian cultures have linked it both to an evil force that sucked blood from its victims and to good luck because of the cross on the back of some species. 
Ankh
An Egyptian cross symbolizing a mythical eternal life, rebirth, and the life-giving power of the sun.
Amenta
This symbol represents the Underworld or Land of the Dead. Originally it meant the horizon of the sun set. Later, it became the symbol of the west bank of the Nile, where the sun set and also where the Egyptians traditionally buried their dead.
Leb
This symbol represents a heart. The Egyptian believed the heart was the center of all consciousness, even the center of life itself. When someone died it was said that their "heart has departed." It was the only organ that was not removed from the body during mummification. In the Book of the dead, it was the heart that was weighed against the feather of Maat to see if an individual was worthy of joining Osiris in the afterlife.





Friday 9 November 2012

UV Mapping

This is my UV Map that I made in photoshop and then the final rendered image.

UV Map in PhotoShop

Final Rendered image