Shattering Vase | Maya Tutorial | Year 3

Interim Crit | Minor Project | Year 3

It's The Year 2500 | Interim Crit by Beckie Ryan on Scribd

Late Drawing Entry | Results from Kit | Minor Project | Year 3

Here is a late response to my kits that I sent out. This drawing is by Layla (aged 7) and I've been told I'm not allowed to remove the smudges as "they are part of it!"

Her world includes:

• Portals with parking spaces (you park your spaceship on the roof)
• Another portal that leads anywhere but its favourite is the beach. Portals all lead to different places
• House floating - can land on platform
• Robot pet shop. Sells all pets as robots and some are radioactive and glow in the dark.
• Disco trampoline changes lights with each bounce.
• Light up pool (mood lighting) Comes with a calm pool for if you've had an angry swim. 

Her responses to the questions are as follows:

What does your home look like? - intergalactic!

How are you cooking your dinner? - Ultra violet combined with gamma rays

How are you watching TV? - EVERYWHERE

What is your mode of transport? - Levitating

What are you/your children playing with? - BIG robots and bouncy slide

Describe your garden/outdoor space - Blue grass that glows in the dark with light up flowers

What can you see from your window - space ships

What is the year 2500 like to live in?

Question and Answers | Page Spreads | Minor Project | Year 3

These are some of the double page spreads from my Art Of. I've tried to include everyones responses that I had for every question even if its just a written response. These aren't the cleanest but I'm hoping by the January deadline that I would have had some more responses back which I can then include.

Maya Experimentation | Maya | Minor Project | Year 3

I've begun to take peoples drawings and convert them into basic Maya models. This is not only to get the shapes right and to start getting a range of them converted but to allow me to experiment with textures and lighting techniques.

The plastic cup is a brilliant example. Just by adding a realistic glass/plastic texture to the piece, it really adds a new dimension. I also want to find a way to add a black outline over the piece to tie it to the original drawings. If possible I'm hoping to use the original drawing over the top but I'm not sure how easy this would be.

This is the latest drawing that I'm experimenting with. The basic shape of the 'sky domes' have been translated and the basic textures added. The sky domes are now glass and the posts have been given a generic texture for now.

Override Sets | Maya Tutorial | Year 3

Toon Shaders & Cartoon FX | Maya Tutorial | Arnold | Year 3

I changed the colour from red to blue as I found it easier to see the colour differences.

Inspiration for the Future | Minor Project | Year 3

I've been looking for inspiration for my project. I've had no input during the drawing stage and I feel like its thrown me slightly off balance. Now that I have a range of designs back, I'm trying to find ways to tie all of them together. I thought that YouTube may have a variety of futuristic videos that I could watch that might make something 'click' for me be this an idea for a colour scheme or something else.


The Two Ronnies were way ahead of their time. This gorgeous sketch shows just how over the top the future could really be. Originally broadcast in October 1976, its a great reminder that this could have been a reality.



The ideas behind this video are very useful towards my project. The ideas seem to back up several peoples drawings and ideas but the imagery used coincides with what I've been thinking surrounding colour. The drawings I've been given are black outlines only, no colour. This is by design as it allows me to connect the drawings together with colouring myself should I need to. Black, silver and white seem to be a reoccurring selection of colours. Metallic blues and greys also crop up too.



This video answers one of my questions - how are you cooking your dinner? Its scary to think that we've already reached this level of advance robotics.

Results from Kits - People's Drawings | Minor Project | Year 3

These are the results that I have received from my kits so far. These are scanned with no tinkering. For each set of results I have scanned the paper and tracing paper separately and then with them overlapped if this was how they were meant to be. I have also written each person's name and either their career or university course. 

Beth Sargent - Fashion Media and Promotion

Michael Ryan - Electrician

Josh McTear - Design for Theatre, Film and Production

Kirsty Wren - Security Guard

Sally Ryan - Patient Transport

Pat Ryan - Retired

Terry Johnson - Tea Drinker

Project Update #2 | Minor Project | Year 3

I’ve finally received some drawings back from people. I’ll be scanning them in before I start on the next stage. The plan is to directly lift peoples drawings and make them into little animated sequences. A lot of the drawings and ideas that people have given me all seem to running theme. In the future, people seem to believe that the earth will be uninhabitable to some extent and that technology will have reached a peak that I think will happen in the not too distant future. I’m not sure where people have gotten these same ideas from. Maybe its an inbuilt fear but it has produced a selection of drawings that all fit in within the same world.

I will also be producing some text ‘animations’ from peoples annotations of the drawings to feature along side each drawing that I use. I’m not sure how many to feature yet but it’s very likely that I’ll take 1 or 2 drawings from each person as a few do overlap or have the same underlaying themes. 

Plan for this project is as follows:

• Scan drawings

• Edit them into a consistent format for all

• Start an Art Of layout to showcase peoples work

• Experiment with text effect in Adobe After Effects

• Find videos of/about the future for inspiration

• Create a colour board. (This will be for the art of and in case I decide to colour the drawings as they are currently only black line drawings)

Project Update | Minor Project | Year 3

Originally I wanted my project to focus on trying to recreate something from the past. Instead I've switched views and my project is now focused on trying imagine the future with the help of some other people.  "It’s the Year 2500"

I've created a 'kit' which is being sent out to a range of people which consist of paper, tracing paper, a black felt tip and a list of questions. At the moment I've selected 10 people of all ages and career paths and they will be drawing responses to the questions and hopefully giving me a written response as well. 

The questions are as follows:

• Describe your home – what does it look like?

• How are you cooking your dinner?

• How are you watching television?

• What is your mode of transport and where do you keep it?

• What are you/your children playing with?

• Describe your garden/outdoor space.

• What is the year 2500 like to live in?

• What can you see from your window?

Whatever I get back from these 10 people will hopefully give me the grounds to start developing some interesting ideas. I'm hoping that I can take their drawings and create 'blueprints' for each response. Where it goes from here will be decided upon once I receive the drawings. I might directly use their ideas, take inspiration from their drawings or even improve upon their drawings. 

Where it goes from here all depends upon the feedback from each person!

Project Ideas | Minor Project | Year 3

I want my project to be titled "Beyond the Unknown" as I want to create a 3D model of a town, location or set ideally based in the past. This is because a lot of our historical sites are either badly damaged by time and weather, destroyed or simply unfinished. I have 10 ideas in which I expanded on and a further 8 which is purely location only. I have so many ideas because I'm very aware that some of them are unfeasible by either the amount of work or what would be required to complete some of them. I have had a chat with Phil and imaging what the future would look like is also possible but I thought that I would list everything that I have thought of so far.

Atlantis

• Underwater greek/roman city

• Filmed from a diver’s perspective

• Used as an education tool/to help scholars/students visualse what it could have looked like

Mayan Empire

• Then & now

• 3D model of one of the ‘lost cities’ and how it could have looked like

Titanic

• Model its final resting place and how the ship now looks

• Could be used to enhance learning about the events

Recreation of Rochester Castle

• Working from historical documents and imagery

• Recreate Rochester Castle in its hay-day

Pyramids of Giza

• 3D model of the pyramids including the speculated chambers

Fotheringhay Castle, (Oundle Northamptonshire)

• Recreation of the castle as all thats left is one lump of stonework

Lyveden New Bield

• unfinished Elizabethan summer house

• 3D model to show what it could have looked like if it had ever been finished

Chatham Dockyards

• 3D model to show its useage during some of its busiest times

Port Lympne Castle (Kent)

• 3D model of the castle and surrounding areas to show what it could have looked like during medieval times when it was first built 

Fort Amherst

• 3D model of the tunnel network showing the Fort during it's various stages of use.
• I am also aware that they are possibly due to get more plans of blocked off tunnels from the government soon. 

Collossus of Rhodes
Alexandria Lighthouse (Egypt)
Tower of Babel
Vindolanda
Old oil plants
Industrial esate
Ford Dagenham
Fleggburgh Hall (Felbrigg Hall, Gardens and Estate, Norfolk)

Resit Submission Post & Reflective Statement

Lighting and Rendering

Mental Ray Part 2

Mental Ray Part 3

Mental Ray Part 5

Mental Ray Part 7

Mental Ray Part 8

Mental Ray Part 9

Mental Ray Part 10

Mental Ray Part 11

Jet Pack Jones

Skinning
Rigging
Facial Rigging
Texturing

Unfortunately due to issues that I ran into along the way, I wasn't able to complete the texturing for Jet Pack Jones. However I do feel that I have learnt a lot from these tutorials and have learnt that Macs do not have as many constraints when working in Maya like I first thought. The main issues that I had was needing to use HDR a windows program (sorted in the end) and how tabs have moved so drastically from the 2015 Maya to 2016 Maya. The learning curve has been steep and it was great in some instances to learn the maths side behind the tutorial. I would like to try and use some of the lighting and rendering techniques again in the future but my next challenge will be using the correct lighting method at the right time.

Texturing 1 & 2 | Jet Pack Jones | Maya Tutorials | Resit | Year 2

I was unable to present images for part 1 as I deleted the previous high-res models and the smoothed models also. But I did get the use normal maps and understand what baking is. Below are the images from that part.

Mental Ray Part 7 (completed) | Maya Tutorials | Resit | Year 2

This was a very interesting tutorial to do. I'm unsure why my shadow is clipped or why the shadow was originally square but this is as close as I could get.

Facial Rigging Parts 1, 2 & 3 | Jet Pack Jones | Maya Tutorials | Resit | Year 2

TL - Part 2 (the eyes) TR - open mouth
BL - Open eyes BR- mouth parts 3 to 5

Open eyes, closed eyes and cleaning up the model

4 mouth shapes

All of the brow movements

I may have accidentally mixed up the order of some of the screenshots but these are the images I have for the facial rigging videos. It's nice to see a character come to life - even in greyscale!

Rigging Completed | Jet Pack Jones | Maya Tutorials | Resit | Year 2

End of part 1 - rigging the feet

End of part 2 - rigging the spine

Parts 3 & 4 - Arms, fingers, colours and restraints

I forgot to take pictures during the process of these tutorials so I did go back once Part 4 was done to take the images.

Skinning Completed | Jet Pack Jones | Maya Tutorials | Resit | Year 2

End of part 4

End of part 4

End of part 5

End of skinning videos

Mental Ray Part 8 | Maya Tutorials | Resit | Year 2

It was great to see how important displacement maps could be and I found it fascinating to see it render out looking better and better often just by changing a few settings.

Unfortunately I ran into problems with the second half of the video and for some reason the mushroom would just explode during the rendering.

Mental Ray Part 11 | Maya Tutorials | Resit | Year 2

I found this tutorial really interesting and can see myself using this - possibly even during 3rd year. It seems like a nice and easy way to trick Maya into running the workspace quicker without impacting on the speed of the program or render times.

Mental Ray Part 10 | Maya Tutorials | Resit | Year 2

TL - orig TR- motion blur  BL - motion blur 5 BR-motion 5 steps 15

(from left to right)
Top - Original, Motion full, Motion 5, Maya software
Bottom - Maya software shutter, Camera shutter 144, Camera shutter 72, Camera shutter 250

Mental Ray Part 9 | Maya Tutorials | Resit | Year 2

Original view

Ambient view

64 samples & 128 samples

method 2

128 samples

Ambient Occlusion shader

I thought this tutorial was very interesting and it was nice to see 3 different ways to get the same outcome. I have realised that this is the same scene from Part 5 and its interesting to see the difference between the 2 methods. The portal lights gave a more realistic outcome but the ambient occlusion could be used in photoshop to get to a similar result by increasing the samples.

@ALAN Mental Ray Part 7 | Maya Tutorials | Resit | Year 2

I'm really struggling to do this tutorial as I can't download HDR Shop. No matter what I try I get left with either an error as to why the page doesn't exist or that Safari can't open the page. Thinking it may have been an issue with Safari I did try to download it using Chrome and the same thing happened. If anyone could help that would be great as otherwise I'm well and truly stuck.