Sword in the stone brief. Concentrating on the sword, Excalibur, instead of Arthur. Set in a forest (possibly Hampstead) early morning, different shots, possibly on the last shot an actor (who will play Arthur) walking towards the stone.
Adobe Photoshop is an imaging and photo editing software created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll.
Autodesk Maya otherwise known as just Maya is a 3D computer animation, modelling, simulation and rendering software created in 1998. It was originally developed by Alias Systems Corporation.
Week One
We created this image of Stonehenge with a stormy sky in Photoshop. I started with cutting the blue sky out with the lasso tool, deleting it then placing the image of the stormy sky behind the image of Stonehenge.
Experimenting with Maya for the first time at University, we were told to create a house and design it which ever way we wanted to. I decided to go with a diamond/ triangular shape. Adding more shapes and extruding them and manipulating the edges and faces, I came up with this.
Week Two
The woman in the sky was created with an image of a woman in front of a green screen and an image of sky. However this image was not created with the same technique as the the Stonehenge image. Instead we used the color range tool. Then once the outline of the woman had been selected, we could delete the green screen then slide the image of the sky. To get rid of the green hue surrounding the woman, we had to create a mask and then select the hue and saturation tool, mess around with it until the green was gone so that it would appear that the woman was actually in the sky.
Chroma key compositing (green screen) is a technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues. It was first used by Larry Butler in 1940 on The Thief of Baghdad. However there is proof that Georges Melies experimented with this idea in the 1898 film ‘Four heads heads are better than one’.
Our second task of the session was to create an abandoned building. To replace the sky we used the first technique we learnt with the lasso tool. Then we added this rusty material on top but turning the opacity down so we could see the building and adding a darken colour filter to make it more apocalyptic. I also added a sign post and spray paint.
Week Three
Our first Maya task was to build a spaceship. We had complete freedom on how we wanted our spaceship to look, I went with a dragonfly/butterfly/shark kinda look. Again by extruding and manipulating the edges and faces I was able to achieve this look. Once we had our final shape, we were able to render it in Arnold and download a HDRI image to create a universe for the object. To finish the spaceship off, we added a chrome material giving it that gold metallic shiny look.
Week Four
On week four the task was to build and design a kettle. But we had to use an edge loop to create the handle. I used tree branches and antlers as reference.
Week Five
This vase was created with the Revolve tool in Maya. We started off by drawing a curve then by selecting the revolve tool it spins the curve turning it into a vase. By scaling it and moving the edges around, I came up with this shaped vase.
By creating numerous curves, we were able to use the loft tool. As we selected the three curves in the correct order and applied loft, a skin/cover was added to the curves, connecting them. The loft tool is genuinely used to create cars.
Boolean is the technique of combining objects to make shapes that would be a lot harder to make with other techniques. The first option is difference, the second example is intersection and the third is union.
The wedge tool is another way to extrude but more in a arched/curved way. This tool would be useful to create vents or knees.
The Lattice deformer tool lets you change an object shape with a lattice that you can manipulate
Nonlinear deformers are techniques to help you change the objects form, you have an option between: A bend deformer; sine deformer; squash deformer; twist deformer; and a wave deformer.
Assignment 1
Fake News
For my fake news assessment, I decided to go with an alien invasion in London. As we can see the happy couple are thrilled to take a picture with the UFOs and especially next to a landmark: The London Eye.
With the techniques learnt in class and some of my own, I was able to construct this image.
I created this image by using the first image of the tourists in London (Left) and adding the UFO image (right) on top. To get rid of the UFO image's original background , I used the Lasso tool and rubber tool. Once I was happy with the result, I could then duplicate the UFO to get three more spaceships. To make them more believable, I had to use the rule of thirds and perspective (the closer the space ship was, the more detailed and larger it had to be). I decided to put the closest spaceship behind the London eye (for perspective reasons) by duplicating the base layer and placing the UFO image between the two, I was able to use the lasso tool to delete the part of the duplicated base layer I didn't want to let the UFO layer come through.
I also added an image of an alien and a beam coming from the UFO.
The images used for this assignment
Bond Gadget
For my James Bond gadget, I decided to create in Autodesk Maya then textured and rendered in Arnold a Zippo with a hidden camera.
I made the main part of the zippo with a cube by extruding it and scaling it into a rectangular form with room for the camera to go in. I duplicated the main part of the zippo and scaled it down to make it into the lid. I added a cylinder shape for the hinge to connect them both.
The camera part of the gadget was created with another cube, again extruding it and scaling it into a smaller rectangular shape.I added flattened cylinders to the camera cube to create the lens and buttons.
Assignment 2
New York Rooftops
Modelling Process:
Reference
To create my New York rooftop scene, I used the pictures on the right as reference, I wanted a mix of everything. I also added fire escapes as they are a well known feature to New York buildings.I wanted large but simple buildings in the back with a close view of rooftops in the front. I used duplicate a lot instead of rebuilding everything.
Texturing
To texture my scene I used the aistandardsurface texture in Arnold and I brought UV snapshots into Photoshop and placed the textures onto the UV snapshot and imported it back into Maya.
I then added a night skyline HDRI and used a sky dome light and rendered it in Arnold.
Timeleap
For my time leap scene, I decided to jump into the future. I wanted to create this retro gated village on water (like this i gave a taste of the past (especially the 80's)). I created the pod houses and larger buildings by extracting and duplicating. However for this scene, I used mainly the aistandardsurface texture in Arnold.
