Summary/ Evaluation

This year has been stressful, challenging and fun. The tasks that were the most fun for me were perhaps learning and developing my 3D lighting skills and also creating the deck of cards and cognac scene. This was the setup I was most satisfied with and I was proud to have achieved such a high quality render and composite. I believe I have pushed myself so that I am no longer in my comfort zone as I was associating myself with things that I had never attempted before, such as lighting, texturing and UV mapping, I even attempted rigging. I think the most problematic obstacle in our project was the character. To be fair we probably should have learnt more about rigging before the course had started.

So we may not have a finished narrative but I believe that this was a great opportunity to learn new skills and techniques. It has given me knowledge of the industry pipeline and the importance of teamwork, communication and hard work. The most important thing I think that I will take away from this final year is not just some good work on a showreel, but the good memories, contacts with my fellow third year students and above all, new knowledge and skills. This was one of the main reasons I came to Ravensbourne was to take advantage of new software that was industry standard. I felt that knowledge in a new program such as Maya would make me more flexibly and improve my employability. To begin with I despised Maya, but I have grown to embrace it as a useful tool to aid me when I work. I believe I have improved so much as a 3D artist, and I know I am only scratching the surface, but this knowledge, I believe will serve me well for when I leave college. It will provide me with a basic foundation which I can then improve upon when in the workplace in the film industry. I am confident that I now have the skills required in order to become a valued and reliable employee.

Critical Analysis

There is always more we could have learnt and achieved, but in my opinion we produced some great work that I didn't not think I would produce back at the beginning of the year. We have learnt so much on this project. I have developed my 3D skills ten fold in as far as modeling and lighting and I believe these were the areas that were my strengths, and certainly the areas I most enjoyed. My weaknesses were perhaps animating, UV Mapping and rigging. If I was to do this this course differently I would have perhaps tried to get a larger group or I would have learnt more about rigging earlier on.

Thanks

Thankyou to all those that helped with the film. Id like to thank Abs Hans, Andy Kinnear, Tara Dulake, Clym Smith and Josh Griffin who all helped to bring life to our character by helping us in as far as rigging and blend shapes/ facial expressions.

I would also like to thank Joe steel for helping us with compositing some of the animation sequences.

Id like to thank Fahran Younas for UV mapping our character.

I would like to thank my parents and my grandparents for supporting me over these past few years at Ravensbourne, particularly this last and final year.

But most of all I would like to thank my brother for putting up with me and helping me improve as a 3D artist and aiding me on this project to produce some truly great work.

Directing

During this last year on this final project, directing has, I admit been stressful on occasions. However I have also enjoyed it tremendously. It is one of those "love hate" things. I have learnt so much over this final year. It has been a good opportunity and a steep learning curve. I wanted to direct my own film in order to improve upon my directorial and story telling skills. It was perhaps unrealistic to think that we could finish a complete narrative in under a year with just my brother and I working on the project. However it was a pleasure to work with my brother who could relate to my initial idea and vision and whom has tremendous talent. This final year was an opportunity for us both to learn new things and develop as artists. This experience has consequently made me more eager to continue directing in the future. I have alsways enjoyed directing and I love telling stories.

My idea was not initially picked but I managed to convince Mike that my idea was worth pursuing. I wanted to work on something, unique, original and different. I feel that animation does not need always need to cater for children and they certainly do not need to feature fluffy animals. I wanted to do something mature, that targeted the adult audience. I wanted to try and create an animation short between the realistic and the stylized. I wanted my idea to touch the audience through emotive story telling. After all my idea is about love and tragedy.

I also wanted to go ahead with my idea as I thought it would be the best way to learn, rather than work under someone else's film that I may not otherwise have learnt as much or had enjoyed working on. To direct was my own idea was my aim. If I fail to accomplish my initial targets, well at least I can say I tried. After all, University is all about learning and experimentation.

Lighting Problems

There is particular scene which I am attempting to light, and thus far it has proved tricky to get the lighting to what I want. It is the scene where Frank is smoking by the table. I dont want the scene to be to brightly lit, yet I do not wish it to be too dark so that you cannot see Frank. I want the lighting set up in such a way that it veils Franks eyes and forehead so that just his nose mouth and chin are visible. Because the scene is a medium shot there is very little I can do in order to manipulate the lighting in as far as "barn doors" etc. If it was a close up it would be a lot simpler as these lighting manipulators could be hidden by placing them outside the camera frame. I will try to see if I can improve upon the lighting setup tomorrow or else I may have to reconsider the composition of the shot entirely.

Apologies

I apologize for not updating my blog between January and February earlier this year. This discrepancy was due to the fact that I had multiple units to work on and deadlines were tight, particularly the dissertation. The dissertation was a major priority. It was however useful to this project as I was studying the importance of composition in filmmaking. I applied this new found knowledge when refining my shots and developing my filmic language in terms of camera placements etc.

Ready For Degree Show

I am concerned that we are behind schedule, however I am confident that we should have something to show at the degree show. As it stands we have in my opinion some fantastic work to show. Even if we do not manage to show the whole narrative we will be able to show the best renders and animations showcasing our lighting, texturing, and rendering skills.

Promotional Material: Poster

I have prepared a simple yet atmospheric and mysterious poster for the degree show to depict the mood of the film. I was very happy with the result, especially the lighting. I waned Frank either backlit or top lit with a large portion of his face concealed in shadow. The image below is the final result. I have already had plenty of positive feedback regarding this poster and I have posted it on Facebook to generate some interest.

Alex Progress Rendering

Alex is rendering in parallel to my machine in order to speed up rendering. We will render final gather passes first so if the worst comes to the worst we will have something somewhat finished to show. Occlusion passes on their own will not be ideal. Occlusion is necessary however as they greatly improve the quality of the image in terms of depth. We shall do occlusion passes after we have done final gather passes. Alex is making good progress and I am pleased with the quality of the renders and that they are extremely close to my initial vision.