Rendering and rendering

Since my last post ive been working away on my rendering skills. Ok, im trying to Animate better not Render better however I'm learning a lot and having fun, so sue me.
Please open up the images in separate tabs to flick through them, the differences are subtle and yet they are there and they are important to the final render.

The image below is an update on the concept from the last post. I showed the concept in my last post to TheDaz* and he said "you've for the principles but you've gone a bit batshit with them".
So below is an update, a more conservative, balanced take.
I've focused on using atmospheric perspective to create depth, strong highlights to define form and mood and colour temperature to create believable colour. As TheDaz* says, I think I've got the principles. Now I need to practice with them so I can develop finesse and convincing subtlety.




Below is my first render from of the scene based on the concept above.
Initially I started trying to texture everything but it was taking so long and it wasn’t going in the direction I wanted it to based on the concept above.
So I turned to vertex painting and hardware rendering, I will compile and treat the image in post with added noise, bloom and a shadow pass. This way is a LOT faster, easier to tweak and frankly, more fun.

In a paint program I’ve added a slight noise. I’ve also duplicated the image, blurred it, laid over the top and set it to lighten mode to give it a softer atmosphere.

I’ve still got to do an ambient occlusion pass so that the stairs have proper shadows which I will place over the top in multiply mode, again, in post.
Then I’ve got to change the character textures so that they complement the mood and lighting of the scene, create a light rig for them and render separately with an alpha channel.
I will also create an ambient occlusion pass for the characters so that they have convincing self shadowing.




I showed the render above to TheDaz* and he came back with the image below. He's implemented colour temperature more effectively around the main wall light. He's also added more atmospheric perspective and a bounce light that fills in the area around the stairs, column and opposite wall slightly.




Hopefully by next post I will have a new playblast of the animation in the lit environment with characters also lit. I may even have the colour pass of the render ready.


*What are you looking here for? TheDaz* always has a star next to his name. At my company he's like TheStig of art and his time and advice is very much appreciated.

Passing over

Hi,

this is a quick post to say I've uploaded a new pass to youTube which can be seen here. In this pass I've implemented feedback from colleagues and friends. There are many small changes however the main changes are the foot sliding as he recovers from the roll. Plus a new final pose for the henchman at the end of the scene which is meant to make the hero look trap in the corner of the screen.



I've also performed another pass on the background concept to give it more depth and to draw the eye to the area where the hero will emerge into the scene.



I will now be focusing on getting the background ready to be modelled and lit.
till next post!

Animation Passes and Paintovers.

Hello,

I've been pretty busy on the short Hunted animation I've been working on in my spare time.

I've got to the point where im looking at what the background environment should look like, below is how it currently looks. It's just a rough mock-up made of a few planes.



For inspiration I've been looking at the backgrounds in the Sorcerers Apprentice with Mickey Mouse.
There is a great animation blog here called Animation Backgrounds with a set of background images from the animation:
www.animationbackgrounds.blogspot.com/search/label/THE%20SORCERER'S%20APPRENTICE

I took the image above and painted over it in Photoshop.
My composition, texture and colour is nowhere near as strong as those images above however I do love to try. Hopefully with a few iterations I can get a bit nearer the quality shown in Disney's backgrounds.
As it is I like the idea of using moody midnight blues to convey the mood. I think the overall composition could do with some work to make it more interesting. I should also look at using colour to help describe the volumes in the scene.
I'm going to look at a few books of old castles to see if I can find items to punctuate the scene with. Maybe those books will point towards the colour scheme I should use too.



Animation Passes

Following on from last weeks post with the first blockout of the overall movement. Here is the next pass which gives some idea of how I want the character to move during the animation:



Here's an update, I had an idea that there should be an antagonist right at the end to end the scene with a question. What happens to the main character when confronted by a chap with a sword.



And here is the latest pass with all the animation blocked out. The next phase is to ask as many people as possible for critical feedback before moving onto polishing the animation. Hopefully there arent too many fundamental errors that require fixing. The further I go into an animation the more time it takes to change it fundamentally.



That's it for now, my next tasks are to set up a basic face rig for the main character and carry on working out what the background should look like.

cheers.

Hunted!

It's time to start a new animation. My last animation clocked in at 30 seconds long which, as I learnt, was far too long. To enable me to create, make mistakes and learn faster this animation project will be much shorter. Hopefully I can move onto another project more rapidly and speed up the learning experience.

My primary aim is to create a short four second action animation around the theme "Hunted". The animation should be to a very high quality, ideally Gobelins quality.
My secondary aim is to improve my ability to put texture in the timing of my animations.
My third aim is to create an animation in the style of Gobelins. If you've never seen a gobelins animation, here's a link:
http://www.gobelins.fr/galerie/animation/

So far I have some rough pose sketches (read very rough), see below, im trying to capture the feeling of legging it from something with some extreme posing.



I tried creating a few sketches for some backgrounds, frankly, they were a bit rubbish. But that's not to say they were a waste. They showed me what I didnt want to see and gave me an idea of what I did want see. I sat down with Maya and played with basic geometry until I saw what I wanted to see. The bonus is that when I come to do paintovers of the geometry I wont have to work out the perspective and can get on with being creative.

With regards to animating the piece, I'm taking a different approach to blocking out this time by using stepped keys in Maya. It creates the feeling of stepping between the frames and shows no inbetweens. I've avoided it in the past as I felt it was difficult to get a sense of timing. However I've been practising with the technique and found it to be a quick way of feeling how an animation will turn out in terms of timing.

I've started a public wave to keep track of feedback, click the link below to take you straight to it.
HUNTED ANIMATION WAVE

To go off topic for a moment. Im sad that Google have decided not to continue with Wave. I certainly find it useful, I hope the features of Wave make their way into other internet applications.

Below is the first block out of the timing that I'm almost happy with.
Next post I will update with a more broken down animation using some of the poses above.