New Project!

Ok so its been aaaaages since i've had time to post any of my personal work on here, but here is a sneak peak at somthing i'm working on at the moment. I have managed to get a realistic chain link effect in maya, and i'm quite proud of myself as I came up with the method all by myself! and i'm not giving away any secrets!

Render Layers

It feels like over the last couple of months, I  (and the others in my group) have really stepped up a few levels in my understanding of many areas of VFX.

One dramatic change is now my use of layers when rendering. no more is it essential to spend days and days ballancing lighting and render settings for shots, then outputting forever as a single image.

Now the doors to compositing are open to me, and it is really starting to become clear that COMPOSITING is the heart of all VFX.

the images i have chosen to represent this dont really do my new understanding justice, however they are the best i have on my computer at the present time as i have just cleaned off all of the last project files.

Framestore Running

Also another development was that i started work as a runner at Framestore at the start of December. This has been a very enjoyable experience so far. Being able to see how a company like this work has been very informative and has prompted me to re-think my specialisms. It has made my uni learning experiences feel much more real, as you get to see whether what you are being taught in lectures is actually relevant, or in some cases even correct!

Hello Again!

Hello anyone who happens to read this blog. Basically the last couple of months have been hard packed with work! I just thought I would write short update!

So we had those 2 uni projects to complete, one of which was an environment project which took us right up to January until we were finished. I am very happy with the result. there are some definite areas of improvement for future work, but the main thing I have gained from this project is that I have found a very motivated group to work amongst. Many thanks to Sanjay Sen, Ollie Kane and Stephanie Joy.



for working journal see:

http://junkgregmartin.blogspot.com/

The other project was to model and texture using LOD constraints. I found this mostly enjoyable, however the brief was patchy in places and the submission requirements were a little detatched from the actual work leading up to them. So here is a video of my project. I made a Bike with spherical wheels.for



For working journal see:

http://strafebike.blogspot.com/

Lack of posting....

Hey there, I just thought it might be a good idea to explain the recent lack of posts on this blog. I have just started back at uni this week and so there is a huge amount of coursework going on in my two Uni blogs. please find them here to find out more!

Industry Exercises:
http://strafebike.blogspot.com/

Environment Project:
http://junkgregmartin.blogspot.com/


Hopefully soon I'll get time to work on my own personaly driven learning again, and when i do, I shall update!

See you soon!

human anatomy - my favorite subject

Ok so many of you who know me will know i'm sort of obsessed with the female form, with sketchbooks littered with observations. So after a short week's break from producing anything big in maya, I decided to see what stage I'm up to with my modeling uv layout and texturing skills by attempting another human figure, with the emphasis on photorealism.

I'm really happy with the results, and now after a year of learning Maya's possibilities and limitations, I am starting to understand a lot more about the pipeline processes used in creating computer animation from the ground up.

If there is one area in which i am still wildly ignorant, its rigging. I did make a joint skeleton and curve control rig for this model, and for the most part, it worked. However the elbows would not perform as planned for, and i had forgotten to inset clavical joints in my joint chain before binding so i just left it for the time being.

So the last thing i plan to research and study before I officially start uni again on the 25th is rigging and muscle systems. Until then, enjoy this demo of my female model!

global illumination and final gather.

today was spent learning the basics of global illumination and final gathering whilst rendering in mental ray. It seems like a whole new world of information is now available to me and I plan to continue with this area. Above is somthing I did to experiment with the possibillities of the techniques to create a photo realistic interior scene. Click the image so see a full resolution image.

earth.

Today i spent most of my time doing tutorials on texture nodes in Maya. It got pretty confusing towards the end but thank god i made notes. But after 8 hours of learning, i was eager to create. Below is a view of the earth I produced using just 2 un-edited Nurbs sphears with shader networks attatched. A huge combonation of nodes were used (probably quite in-expertly) so I wont try and name them now. The end result looks good enough I think, if i was to repeat this exercise i would focus on getting specific land masses formed so as to show them off with close ups.

Click this image to see full size render

SolarSystem

This is the result of a good few hours labor. The funny thing is, even whilst doing it it didn't occur to me that all I'd end up seeing was something similar to the nights sky.

effects.

ok, so the last couple days have involved me filming myself doing strange things in the hope of composting them with some effects. These are the first two i have come up with:

Juggling Distant Suns:



Doppelganger Gunfight:

petite le voleur: a 14 day project

 

So i've come to the end of this 2 week project and i am extremely pleased with the results! I started out with the intent to make a really nice piece of character animation, finnessed to perfection, but soon into the start of the project, i found my own skills to be a poor limitation. So instead i thought that i would make the goal of this project a learning based one. yeah sure the end result isn't great, but the resulting knowledge i have gained made it worth it.

By seeing a character through from pre production to rendering has taught me a huge amount about each of the stages:

-modelling
-texturing
-rigging
-painting weights
-animating
-lighting
-rendering

I have found that of course i still have a huge amount to learn, but i've also proved that with only a year of learning maya, one can produce a satisfactory short film. I hope you enjoyed watching it even half as much as i enjoyed making it!

Day04

ok so just a quick update on the progress i made yesterday. I've completed 6 shots out of 18, and with friday here already i'm planning to extend my deadline so i get the work all done.

Day 3 - the story and enviroment

ok so not much of a story as suck, just sorta how it runs.



So today i worked on this animatic, concerntrating on timings of shots and what happens during them. Although this is an animatic, i would like the final outcome to look a lot different to this. this may sound confusing, but i am really enjoying the freedom i've given this porject so far, so if somthing else feels more right some where down the line, i'll run with that.

The next stage in this 5 day project will be to finalize the enviroment and prop models, then i can start completeing individual shots in duplicate maya scenes. I havnt seen or heard anything to make me want to work this way, its just what felt right earlyer whilst making the animatic.

Day 2 - progress so far.....

Ok so today i finished the rig and tested it a couple times and found it satisfactory. I haven't mentioned yet but i am planning a few scenes in which this character is a thief. Below is a test i did to re-familiarize myself with the basics of character animation and walk cycles. By no means a great piece of animation but i'm still pretty happy with it for a few hours work.

This week's task: make a character animation

Hey, so yesterday and today i have made great headway in my project for the week. It had occured to me that i dont really have any stong character animation within my portfolio/showreel. this isnt a major problem as i don't really want to be an character animator as such, however that dosnt mean i dont want to learn it as i think every area of 3D animation relys and depends upon knowledge in all of the other areas to make a good final piece. Below is a quick render i did to see possible problems when animating some simple movement. From this i can see i will need to re-address the painted weights around the shoulders and hips. other than that i am quite happy with this model. I'm not going for perfection first time or anything niave like that, however i have set aside 5 days for this task, so I've got time to improve certain areas.

Test render:


Here is the reference i drew up before hand. I read in some of my books that often you will be given a simple image as opposed to detailed blueprints of a character so i tried to model this way instead. over the process of modeling the character did change somewhat, but for the best i think. I had only spent an hour or so coming up with the concept and reference so it was a very mailable process.

Advertising Mock-up: Mini Cooper

I wanted to use a nice render of my Mini Cooper model in something and this sprang to mind. it was very simple to put together and I'm pleased with how it looks.

Loading Screen

why not.

Temple Music; A Conclusion.

So Temple music has reached an end. The client was very specific in their new boards, which i followed 100%. It wasnt a situation where i could add my own style or anything new so I do not claim ownership of the final piece. I still liked the old one. Heres the one they went for:

Photo-realistic modeling project: Mini-Cooper

After a weekend off from producing, I decided to get straight back in with some photo realistic modeling. I choose the Mini Cooper for its personality and style. I'm pleased with the results and with the time taken; around 8 hours spread over 2 days.

I plan to make this an animated project and I am now working on an environment for this model to coast around in. Below is a test i did today to better understand the technical implications of this kind of project. Enjoy the Playstation1 Style renders!


Free desktop background: 1440x900

 Teaser: