The End...... for now :)

So that's it! Our last ever project at Ravensbourne is over :(

In regards to the final film, I am pleased with the end result. I have learnt loads from just taking part in this project, from new software (After Effects and Mudbox), to pushing myself the hardest I've ever done regarding my modelling and texturing skills, not just on the models that needed to be created, but the amount of models that were needed in such a tight timespace. I should probably say that next time I take on a project I will be less ambitious, because we have worked such long hours on this, but I would be lying...I can't control wanting to create bigger and better things, and I think that goes for my team too :)

Talking about the others.... a few thank-yous, that I will try to keep unslimey :)

Callum- thanks for sorting out all our graphics, and my buisness card and just being happy to help on a project that took time out from your own work. I owe you a pie!

Jamie- (aka Harry Hinks) thanks for the sound work, and for never paniking when it was getting a little tight around deadlines.

.......And of course Dans and Jake. After being in contact with you almost every single day for three years, I wont wish you 'goodluck' becuase that sounds like goodbye and I doubt this is the end of us :D

Compositing

Below are a few screenshots taken from my hand-in folder demonstrating a few of the shots that I composited together.

Compositing is not easy. It takes ages! And is extra stressfull especially when objects aren't rendering because the render farm is going crazy and time is ticking away! After going through the compositing process I feel really comfortable using After Effects which is cool, because I've previously found it confusing, but it's amazing how much you pick up, when there is no other choice but to learn and to learn fast!

Below are some diagrams explaining more about the compositing process. Please click on an image to enlarge :)

Timescheduling

The last two weeks have been taken up with rendering, (Daniel C ) and compositing, (myself, Dan R and Jake) and so we saw the demise of the time schedule. Tasks changed constantly for individuals all the time due to renders failing and them having to composite new scenes, to finishing shots early and taking others work, to falling behind and having others take your work, so a timescale was impractical. Instead, to keep track of our work, how much we had completed, how much we had left to do, I wrote it all down in my notebook (hehe sad I know) and when that finally ran out, sheets of loose paper stored in the notebook. My notekeeping must have been effective... and I'll ruin the surprise now..... as we got our film in on time. Yay!! :D

Background Props Texturing

I created a texture for the helter skelter. Dan R had made one originally but it randomly disappeared off of the face of the earth which isn’t good, so a new one was needed!

Hmmm, it has occured to me that previously I have forgotten to post up the UVs and maps of objects I have unwrapped and textured etc. These are all in my folders for hand in. It seems as though I have only forgotten to show a few background obects. Here be the maps for the shopping trolley for example. I wont post the others up as they don't make particualy interesting blog viewing, but tiz all in the folders :)

Below is a screenshot of myself and Jake taking time to position objects in Kittys pirate room for Dan C to animate with.

Supernatural Room

The next room that I created was the supernatural room. I had always seen the rooms colour scheme as green, but Dans had seen purple. I did a few rough tests to view the difference, but it was agreed that green looked cooler (yay!). I also made some quick tests to identify which pattern would look best on the walls, choosing the squiggly lines over the curved.

You can see from the above tests that the wood doesn’t show through the coloured patterns, so it looks a bit strange and out of place with the rest of the ride. When allowing the wood to show through in a Photoshop texture, the glow effect would go, and I wasn’t prepared to sacrifice that. There had to be glow- I could see the image really clearly in my head! Ever the technician, Dan C suggested that I should make an incandescence and glow map. This was a brilliant suggestion as it would basically eliminate my problem, allowing the woody texture I had created in Photoshop to have a glow attached to it, creating the desired effect I was looking for.

I also textured the fire exit. Dan R had previously made the model, but as time was pressing, I had to texture it. The point of the fire exit is to make the room appear fake and obvious as a ride. It is out of place with the Victorian theme we have, but that just adds to the effect. Is the ride really Victorian, or just run down, is it magic or is someone controlling it? It signifies an obvious divide between the areas that are obviously ride, such as Kitty’s room and this room, and areas that are actual worlds such as the cave and the graveyard sequences.

Jury Room

My next task to complete was the jury room. If you remember, this room was meant to originally contain still puppets in a jury, with a judge puppet in a mechanical fortune teller box that would decide the girls fate. Due to time constraints, the jury was axed and just the judge remained. I had started building the judge and his belongings, as seen below, but it was becoming obvious that this idea was not going to work as time was pressing, and even when the model was finished, Dan would still have to skin and rig it.

Myself and Dan C had a discussion and decided on a new room idea, axing anything to do with a judge all together. Instead, this room would have a rocky cavern on either end, with a foggy floor, and at the sides nothing but blackness, a no-mans land, with an echoing voice asking them the question that would determine their fate.

To construct the design of the room I built 8 rocks and used a tutorial from the following website to create a texture completly frrom scratch:

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://vandelaydesign.com/images/textures/plaid.jpg&imgrefurl=http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/photoshop-tutorials-textures/&usg=__u_jrhieQMPxAL-2azbYrtKP5bb4=&h=301&w=300&sz=16&hl=en&start=41&um=1&tbnid=a_NToJhlGUq4fM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dplaid%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D21%26um%3D1

The tutorials on this site are easy to follow and simple to adapt into your own designs. I reccomend them!

I positioned the rocks, using the camera angles Dan C had already set keys for, allowing me to know the space the camera would be viewing, so I could frame the scene effectivly. Once I was happy with the poisioning of the rocks, doors, and 'love or hate' lights that I had built, I attempted to make fog for the scene.

I had never made fog before, so I researched some tutorials online. The one I used was:

http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/tutorials/simple_fog/simple_fog.html

and then proceeded to conduct some tests:

After a few tests, I realised fog wasn't what I was after at all. It was just so static. I decided that smoke would be the way to go. Dan C showed me the basics of how to make smoke and other effects using dynamics and particles in After Effects and how to animate them. I had never used After Effects before so he gave me a run through of the key features. I picked it up pretty quick, as it was very similer to Photoshop, which was good! Armed with the basics, I then created the following smoke tests which made it into the final cut of our film (but more about compositing later :P