So it seems to be hard to care about keeping this blog up to date....
Stage 1 presentation been and gone. All good.
My story has been more or less finalised now so that's a good thing I guess.
Everything is now focused on the seed, showing its oppression and its need to break free and grow.
The story being told from the point of a CCTV camera is liked but thinking it should be destroyed somehow with the rest of the building leading to a floating camera for the last few shots of greenery.
Feedback says people like nuclear holocaust instead of asteroids as its more man versus nature. Asteroids seem to be giant natures in your face.
Also from feedback it seem as though I do have characters in my story in the form of the location, the camera and the seed itself.
So now I have lots and lots and lots of modelling and texturing to do, Mostly fun but can get tedious. Got a cardboard box and a shipping container done though.
"Le Box of Card"
I'm liking my cardboard boxes, making them taught me how to make double sided shaders, gave me a chance to make some specular maps to make the Sellotape shine.
"Help... my cargo's getting old!"
This was fun making and fun finishing 'cause it means I've actually done some work.
Made one to begin with, then copied the file, and modified the geometry and texture file.
From this I've learnt the good use of UV space fitting the whole container into one 2k file.
I think it turned out quite well, might have to add a bigger bump map to the stage 3 (destroyed) level container but then again, it will only be in the background of a few shots.
Just the overgrown version to make and that's the first prop stages finished.
"Stage 1 Model Reel"
The amount I've done so far in my modelling,
not enough really,
I have almost finished making the fork-lift though.
Must do it non-stop over the next few weeks!!
And now for my Leica Reel!!!
Its makes sense almost, needs more seed action at the beginning, zooming in of the crates and stuff, camera focusing and following individual seeds from the offset.
I like it and I also liked making it, using Photoshop like it was MS Paint!!!
"Final Leica Reel"
It's amazing.. I know!!
From just looking at this again I think i'll go ahead and build up the interface
for the camera in nuke right now!!!
Should be fun making the assets in Photoshop and bringing them into a big Nuke Node Tree.
The character will be hard to relate to as it is just a robot arm
A character seems to need a reason to want to survive
Good things:
An idea that should fit into 2 minutes
I like it and refuse to change the base ideas
So to fix all these qualms I've got to think more about the story I'm trying not to tell.
For what I'm calling story sentence 'cause that's what it is, I'm trying to say whats going on and base all emotions, action and stuff around it:
A robot that just wanted to survive
A robot that would not quit
A robot that wanted to escape but first had to evolve
A robot that was forced to improve itself so it could survive
A new robot that helped an older one to survive
So, both old and some new thoughts there.
I looked back on the guidelines paper we were given and saw the option of architectural fly-through and thought "Oooh!!"
Maybe I could tell a story that way, flying through my initial idea pausing or slowing down on the important parts that tell a story while still showing off as much of the scenery as I can?
This would bring cause for a very strange looking shot list and make me throw away my nice colourful one that I've got going now.
I'm thinking watching how proper architects show of their stuff and seeing how I can incorporate a story into that form of motion/idea.
Some other ideas/feedback form my second presentation:
the factory could end up falling around the robot so he would still end up being outside in the end
Could replace the robot with a more humanoid type so the audience would relate to it more?
"Half done Thumbnail sequence"
Bashed together a short vid, working on timing
and camera moves in each shot.
Now to continue designing / building the location which i refuse to change too much.
Making things makes everything better.
Ok, I've had way too long a break ignoring what has to be done.
But now I've finally figured out a new design for the factory that should work:
Letting the trolley track return to the start after the product has been unloaded,
On that note, a way to pack and distribute the product through either train line or ship,
Because of this new design I think I've made a lot more work for myself but I think it's worth it.
But now I have to model a ship as well to park in the river, oh yeah, I'm having a river as well, and a train line with a few tracks and that probably means trains as well so I'll have to design a slightly futuristic train and carriages as well.....YAY!!??
After checking out reference image this is me deciding to add more to the scene, river / towers /
rail tracks / gantry cranes / less compact design
Trying to figure out how to incorporate everything I wanted into one design, I think the answer in the end may be glass.... lots of lovely glass!!
So I've learnt a few things about ships though; the type of ship I'm going to model will be a Feeder Ship, the kind that transports stuff to bigger ships to take it world wide. So I thought that it would fit well in a wide made made river/canal.
Beam means width of the ship.
Draught / draft means how much of the ship is below water.
This ship is:
100.6m long
18.2m wide
26.8m tall from bottom to top:
20m above water......
Now, back to AutoCAD to figure out all the dimensions of this metal mess of creation....
Trying to work of the scales of the ships, lorries and rough human sizes but without knowing exactly what the factory produces it's quite hard. More sketches are needed I think...
Oooh and to finish the shot list, that my need the directions to be changed slightly, but not too much:
"Location to fit story, not story to work around location...."
A quick test animation for shutter doors for the major project's location.
There will be a couple of these in the location.
Its has a NURBS slider to animate the up/down of the shutter to make it easier to animate.
Okay, so finally decided to post what my idea should be, still hoping it's good enough to fit the brief.
Concept:
Breaking free
Premise:
A semi-sentient production line robot strives for freedom from a decaying factory.
Hero:
Factory production line robot
Character goal:
To escape, be free, see the outside world
Motivation:
Bored/tired of the monotonous existence, trapped as the last working robot, has no purpose anymore, lonely,
Conflict:
Vs. Environment - unable to move because stuck to floor
Locations:
Factory Production line - old, falling apart, left on automatic for years, rusty, no human contact, dark colours - brown, black, rusty red, olive green,
The outside - overgrown, wild, full of nature, remnants of civilisation, broken city in background?, brighter natural colours - greens, blues, grey floors, earth browns,
Time period:
future of the future, after autonomous semi-sentient robots are used, mankind has gone; either from this area or completely,
Target Audience:
Maybe from 12 upwards, some references for older audience
Going to have to wait for a title though, something that fits very well and that at least give an idea of what the story is vaguely about.
And....
One of the many plans for the locations. Trying to get everything I need in the place while keeping the free space for camera shots and keeping the design relative to the action, not designing the action around the location.
"One of many...."
So many ideas for how this is going to work.
This one is by no means final but I am liking the right side of the image
where the conveyors come from other room onto the track.
Also needs a airlock between robots and outside.
And..... grey makes the whole thing look dirty but at the beginning it will be spotless white.
A decision of good and badness...
Good:
Makes designing and planning the buildings and other models easier and more tidy
Not too hard to learn to use (if you can find the tutorials)
Bad:
Soooooo many buttons
Haven't found a decent tutorial yet
Still need to know what the buildings going to look like in the first place....
So today I have sent off my story idea to see if it seems ok, should hear back soon this week I hope.
I've also started on a shot list spreadsheet, I got shot number, shot description, notes, sound, transition, and frame numbers. I do believe spreadsheets make everything tidy.
Today I've gone from random note in Pages to written scraps of paper to Numbers.
Scraps are easy to rearrange, add to and visualise what exactly's going on.:) I like my ideas!
I've realised 2 minutes is 120 seconds and therefore 3,000 frames of goodness.
At the moment I have 19 shots at 6.3 seconds / 157 frames each. Of course each shot should be different times for pacing and whatnot.
Tomorrow will see a plan of the factory area and the finishing of the shot list, which may involve adding a shot or two for smoothness.
Looking forward to trying to give card building a go. I think a small model of the factory will help realise the possibilities and camera angles and everything else I've forgotten!!
I thought this blog looked a bit bland so decided to add a sketch of the idea thats been haunting my mind.
Not very detailed, I know, but I just had to get it out there.
"My Idea begins"
Quick sketch in pensil. lined and coloured on iPad Sketchbook Pro.
This weekend will see the finalisation of the story, hopefully and the checking with tutors.
I have most of the idea thought out, beginning and end kinda, it's the middle that's causing ponderance.
Need to stop getting distracted.
Ooh, I have managed to find plenty of reference images for now, quite a bit of copyright stealing, but I guess it's ok for inspiring/reference. I think merge them all together according to time/location/emotion maybe.
Mood boards!! That's the word for it, starting to gather why their a good idea.
Today I must complete the actual story and ask uni peeps to see if it's acceptable.
I think go through aLl the needs of a short story and write down how it will be shown in mine;
character, character goal, conflict, resolution, location, style
So, I've started reading my book on making short animations and made a few notes on it (which I'll be posting later when I'm done).
No new ideas, but got some thoughts on how to think up some:
Look at life and wonder why, think what if they were different, what would the world be like then?
Think about yourself, your wishes, dreams, secrets, act them out using this story
Use the news to find ideas, take one simple idea from there and expand into a story
study people around you, see if their character can be used in a short
Look at other peoples ideas and expand on a simple thought from those
Btw; it's a good book. Repeats itself a lot, but that helps drive in the ideas. Might not read it all but looks like it gets better. Character and location development look cool.
Travelling through time in the same spot showing changes through the ages. Building started new and shiney and shown ageing as time passes, weeds growing, rusting, falling down.
Anything about a guy in a suit of armour.
Life in a Celtic Iron age, round houses, horses and carts, living off nature.
And now going to start reading the idea book finally.
An emotional factory production line robot, longing for freedom: watching its creations go out into the world. [modelling, simpler rigging, anthropomorphising a simple robot]
A slow pan through a slow-motion war-zone. [showing of modelling and some animation. + compositing if not using all CG]
A short architectural visualisation of a dream house, fly through. [modelling, minimal or no animation]
Not that thought out yet though, and still haven't looked at the "ideas" book.
So... since creating this blog I have done almost no work on my major project idea.
Buuuuut!.... I do have some ideas of what I'd like to include and definitely not want to spend the next year messing around with.
Good things: Compositing (3D and real life), as much modelling as I can fit into it, robots :) (their always fun), try making some of my own music & SFX
Evil things: Deep stories!, not too much rigging or weight painting, actual people (hard to control and get to do exactly what you want =P )
So there we go, my idea must be just that, an idea, not a tale, story, novel, epic or anything big. Keep it nice and simple for the insanely short 2 minutes.
What I must do: A good 4 - 5 ideas that can be written in one sentence each, I'm sure that will limit the short from getting to out of hand.
