Last post today!

Decision has quickly been made to add some stills of my third year work to better display wireframes and textures etc. Feel free to gander through!

The Waiting Room:
Film Version:

Showreel Version:

 

 Outmode Props:

 

Pursuit Environment:

Captain Hook Character:

 

 

Pirate Ship:




Quick project

Perhaps not so in-depth as first thought in terms of an idea for a project. but I realised that the style in my showreel is all quite similar and contains nothing based around childrens film or game who, it can be argued, are the main audience for animation style productions.

As a starting point, I've quickly made a barrel. Not overly ambitious, granted, but more is to come. Promise!

I'll stop blabbering, until the next post here is the barrel!



BarrelTurnaround from Laura Swindells on Vimeo.

The end is nigh!

Everything is handed in , the projects were finished and I'm beginning to slowly catch up on lack of sleep! Looking back on how the 3 years have gone, specifically the 3rd and last, I have learned so much! My skills have developed noticeably and, to be honest, I'm a little lost without an upcoming deadline or on-going project...

However, without further ado!

Presenting my showreel!


LauraSwindellsShowreel from Laura Swindells on Vimeo.

Now just to get started on a new project... Suggestions anyone?

Inspiration: Ubisoft

After staring at alleyways and texture maps and so forth, the eyes needed a quick break from the computer and were swiftly relieved by Far Cry 3 via the PlayStation. I'm only at the start really so can't say much about the overall plot or story-line, however, in terms of the environment, it is outstanding. In keeping with Ubisoft's reputation of large, open maps, Far Cry 3 certainly does not disappoint! The vast size and range of environments is actually insane! From beaches, to forested, thick vegetation to hut styled villages the game oozes with cast away imagery and is therefore completely captivating.

Far Cry 3. No copyright infringement intended

Other than Far Cry 3, Ubisoft are responsible for Rayman (1995), Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon (2000), Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (2002), Assassin's Creed (2007 - present) and Just Dance (2009) to name but a few.

Founded in 1986, Ubisoft is now the third independent publisher of video games worldwide hiring more than 9,200 team members worldwide including 7,800 dedicated to production with offices in 29 countries. To further prove the success of the studios, in October 2013, Ubisoft invested $373 million to create 500 new jobs over the next 7 years in Quebec, Canada. 

Assisin's Creed IV Black Flag. No copyright infringement intended.

 Upon looking through the website, there are graduate schemes available in programming and game production which sound fascinating! However, through looking at the high level of detail in the environments and the characters I need to get experience and land junior roles to be part of the designing team!!

The Pursuit: More props and shots completed!

Apologies for the lack of posts here, progress is being made thick and fast and without making excuses, I've been in the "groove" of modelling, texturing and churning out everything from graffiti planes to bins to help fill this scene!

Here are a few renders of the finished shots so far, feel free to click on the image to see an enlarged version.

As you can see, extra bricks have been placed into the floor to help break up the tiles and add extra 3D detail to the shots which I think works well. Greater detail would be added if using a displacement map, however, in these shots the character's faces dominate the scene and extra detail in the floor does not warrant the added render times which average around 5 minutes. (The highest being 7:16 for shot 3 with the ivy).

Upon studying these shots as a group, it seems apparent that the lighting colour is not consistent, so the next step is triple check the RBG values are the same for each light and then onwards and upwards to complete the scene by Sunday - two and a half days and counting - yikes!

Wish me luck folks!

The Pursuit: We have IVY!

This is just a quick post to say that I'm blown away by this free software which real-time grows ivy over any obj object imported into it. It is created by Thomas Luft, and here is the link where you can download it for free along with tutorials on how to use it:

http://graphics.uni-konstanz.de/~luft/ivy_generator/

Although I really want to let it grow everywhere over my scene, I realise that this is unrealistic for backstreet alleys and have therefore kept it to the first alley where the creature appears from. This keeps the ivy to one shot and also adds a wild visual to the introduction of the animal before the chase begins.

Although the door on the left still needs a texture adding to it, this shot is finished unless there is further time to add more detail. However, because I am having to tweek 20+ shots in such small space of time, I need to force myself to move on to ensure consistancy of quality in the film as far as the environment is concerned!

The Pursuit: Final Pre-viz

Here's me talking about new lighting and realised that I haven't posted the new updated shots up yet!

These are the shots I am now working with in the form of a pre-viz made by Claudia Staelens, our director. Hopefully this will help you gain a greater idea of the film and, in terms of the art, an idea of the scene needed.

What is also obvious from these shots is that the character faces take up alot of each shot, meaning that the detailing of the environment needs to be positioned accordingly to avoid being hidden, unseen and needlessly ramping up render time.