Elephant Character

Mr. Elephant is finished! ... His mesh was finished a while back but I haven't uploaded anything on here for ages, so here you go! :)

First I got to say Thanks Very Much to Amanda for building the Elephant as part of her Collab work for me!! Unfortunately I had to change a few things, mainly because of animation purposes, for example:

• Rebuilt the wheels so their pivot is central as they don't rotate properly otherwise

• Reshaped the trunk so it's pointing out straight so it's easier to Skin

In the end I used Amanda's mesh and cleaned it up and reshaped it a bit, making him rounder and chunkier to make it look more like my Turnarounds ... I'm a fussy bugger, aye :)

Turnarounds :

Before (Amanda's Version) :

Amanda's Elephant Turnaround from Aled Matthews on Vimeo.

After (My Version) :

My Elephant Turnaround from Aled Matthews on Vimeo.

Play-Doh Fun!!

So ... I went to my local Tesco's not long back to get some booze, as you do, and on my travels around Tesco I saw some Play-Doh! Of course, like every 20 going on 21 year old student I was like "ZOMG! PLAY-DOH! MUST BUY!!!" So I did :D

Now, obviously it must be pretty strange for a student to buy alcohol and the amazing Play-Doh at the same time cos I got some right dodgy looks off people!!
A teenager in the queue, for example, was with his mother and STARING at me and pointing and whispering to her ... I was like WTF?! haha!
He was constantly doing it so I actually turned around and said it was for my uni project, kinda. He just looked at me and carried on whispering, so again I was like WTF?! haha!

Then the girl at the till first scanned all the booze I was buying, then when it came to the Play-Doh she picked it up, turned it around a bit in her hand and just looked at it funny as if she was like ... WTF?
So ... I thought I had to explain myself why I was buying Play-Doh at the same time I was buying some booze by telling her that it was for my uni project. She just said "Oh, uhhhh, Ok then :)" (aka I don't really care, why are you telling me this)

Anyway, I thought it was very amusing and just thought I'd share my eventful trip to Tesco with my blog readers :)

After getting home I made my Bee character with the Play-Doh because that's how I want my CG character to look like in the end ... made out of Play-Doh ... so I thought it would be a good reference to use while modelling. Tesco only had Orange and Green so I had to make it out of them. I think he looks kinda cute :)

Pre-Viz

PRODUCTION BEGINS!!
After Advanced Tech was over I started on the Pre-Viz for my advert.
For anyone who doesn't know what a Pre-Viz is, it's basically to help figure out what camera angles work best to frame each shot, and also to help time each shot out for the animation and music.

Because I'm doing a Compositing project all the Environments/Props in the Pre-Viz has to be to scale, so when I stick a camera in the digital bedroom, for example, I know I have enough room in real life for the camera to take the shot.
It was lots of fun measuring out my housemate Danie's bedroom (where the scene is gonna be shot) going back into my room to build it all up, then realising several times that I hadn't measured something, then going back into her room to bug her again and again after forgetting again and again to measure something up before I finally had everything measured!!


Anywho ... here's a diagram of the 3D Environments & Props measured to the nearest inch:




Here's my first (and definitely not last) take on the Pre-Viz for my Anti-Bullying advert:

First Pre-Viz from Aled Matthews on Vimeo.

• A lot of the shots are very quick and some of the camera angles are terrible! Some are too far, others don't frame very well or just need rewoking all together. Soooo ... time to work more on my Pre-Viz i guess!
  

Advanced Tech: Character Modelling

Advanced Tech has come again ... this time it's part 4,5,6.
If I had to describe the project in 1 word i would say ... STRESS!
But, it's crazy how much I've learnt from an intense 3 week project ... so the stress was worth it I guess :)

This Advanced Tech was all about Character Modelling.
We learnt how to properly Model a character from a box, Texture with UV Unwraps and Rig it with bones.
I decided to build my Monster character from my Advert so that I didn't have to worry about building him through the Production stages of the project.

To get the marks I needed to pass the project I needed to give him 3 different textures which would show off the different bump and specular maps ... so that's why he has some crazy tank top thing going on and a metal arm! He will NOT be looking like this in my Advert haha!
I UV Unwrapped his body, then did a projection map for his smoky skin and used the UVW Map to create the tank top and metal textures on Photoshop. I used Photoshop to create the Bump Maps and Crazy Bump to create the Normal Maps


Bump Map:


Normal Map:


Rigging was FUN! *add sarcasm here*
It's such a pain in the ass to create a rig and get it to deform nicely with Skin Modifier!
This was the most stressful part of the project, but I'm really glad we were taught how to rig a character because now I know how to do it, and I can use it again :)

All in all Advanced Tech was ridiculously stressful and intense! But, it was totally worth it considering the amount of stuff I learnt!
Sooo ... Advanced Tech = WIN! (but stressful!)


Here's everything put together in 1 nice video with a character pose at the end:

Monster Turnaround from Aled Matthews on Vimeo.

Pre-Production: Snake & Rocket

My initial idea for the 3rd Guardian friend was a springy Snake.
He could jump great heights to protect the Boy from any dangers which came from above.
I decided to scrap the Snake idea and go for the Rocket instead as it would be easier to animate




The Rocket character has the same concept as the Snake ... as in, the Rocket can fly around at great heights to protect the Boy from above, just like the Snake could.
I found designing the Rocket very challenging as it's an inanimate object. There are a lot of scrappy drawings here which I did to help me with the design of the character. I found that I didn't like any of my designs, so this method helped a lot.
After a long design process, I finished with him being long and nimble, so that he could protect the Boy by bending and flexing his body as he shoots towards his enemies.
In the final render the Rocket will look as though he is built together from Lego, so that he looks like a toy that the Boy could play with

Pre-Production: Bee

Another one of the Boy's 3 Guardian friends is the Bee ... or Bees, as there's 3 of them.
The Bee was difficult at times to design. I played with the idea of having them part vehicle like the Elephant ... but in the end I decided against it just because I didn't like the idea.
I ended the design with them being small, cute ... but deadly!
They may be small, but their thick, sharp stingers make them dangerous! They work together and use their stingers to protect the Boy from harm.
In the final render the Bees will look like they are made from Play-Doh to fit with the childish theme

Pre-Production: Elephant

One of the Boy's 3 Guardian friends is the Elephant.
At the end of the designing process he was designed to look big and strong, and built like a tank.
I decided to give him wheels instead of legs so that he would be easier to animate, and it fits well with the character being part of the Boy's imagination.
The Elephant protects the Boy with his strong structure. His wheels allow him to gain speed and attack the Monster with a powerful stampede.
In the final render he will look like a soft toy with monster truck wheels.