Progress report

Initially, I decided to make some silhouette's up for my gadgets using generic 'Steampunk' items and shapes. The end results are below, and although in some aspects there are victories, Alan and I both felt that the designs were forced and still didn't hold the logic and quality that I'm looking to achieve this time around





So it was back to the drawing board, and once again taking Alan's advice, I started to think a lot harder and with more clarity about what exactly the reason was for redesigning these gadgets. so to help me I decided to make a little check list for each gadget (3 of them - a mutual agreement that quality over quantity is going to be key here - positive decision) in my sketch pad. below is what was written down in my sketch pad, and is now blue tacked to one of my monitors to keep drumming into my head, what I'm supposed to be thinking about.

Proton Pack

KEYWORDS - Suck
Fire
Energy
Weapon

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS - A trigger/firing element
A Power source
Something to show it's on
Something to show it's firing
An attachment from power to receiver
An element of mobility

MATERIALS - Copper, Brass, Metals, Woods, Wiring

MECHANICAL INSPIRATION - Funnel
Strong Lights
Gears
Gauge
Lever
Wheels
Cables
Pulleys


PKE Meter

KEYWORDS - Handheld
Search
Alert

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS - Something to alert user of paranormal activity
Something to show a reading
Something to locate ghosts
Must be light enough to carry by oneself

MATERIALS - Wood, Brass, Copper, Glass, Leather, Wiring

MECHANICAL INSPIRATION - Compass
Gauge
Antenna
Bulbs
Bells
Cogs
Handles
Electrodes


The Ghost Trap

KEYWORDS - Suck
Contain
Capture

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS - Something to draw in the ghost
something to transport it from suction device to container
Somewhere to hold the ghost
Something to show the trap is full or in use

MATERIALS - Brass, Glass, Piping, Wood, Gems

MECHANICAL INSPIRATION - Gramophone
Funnel
Vacuum
Jewelry box
Pipes
Cables
Lever
Crank

Now, it was once I began to think of the objects more as characters with stories and meanings of their own, that their logic began to take shape, and it is then that I reattempted some silhouettes using this logic and designer thinking.




These are the initial shape silhouette's for The Ghost Trap.



Above are the Shape blockouts for the PKE Meter



And Here are the results of the shape tests for the Proton Packs.

As you can see, these shapes alone are not enough, so I decided to try my hand at adding some detail in with gray tones. Personally, the actual imagery based outcome I don't like as I struggled with this technique, although it shows whats in my head, and after today, I can chose one of each gadget and design them in colour with each of their special components being more resolved and detailed/textured.







So, now I have more of an understanding of what I need to achieve, as mentioned before, I think the next step would be to design the intricate parts that are are only loosely drawn on these silhouettes, individually in colour and texture, and then put them together in a space, to see what my final piece would look like.

Latest Work Update

Hey there everybody, This update won't be in my usual video format due to some unforeseen circumstances. I just had to get my work which I have done up to show everyone. Hopefully things should be back to normal within the next week.

So without further a due, here are the finished concept blueprints for my weapon designs.



Here we have the Grapeshot. As with all the blueprints, key features and mechanisms were annotated. Also, as you can see with this image, the cockpit area is quite small in detail, therefore was given its own close up blueprint.



This is mostly for concept purposes, as the cockpit in the final piece will very rarely if at all be in view. It's still good practice and logic to design things like this though, in case of any future changes to my project.



Next we have the second manned weapon, being the Hell Lance. Once again, key areas and mechanisms are shown and noted. Also, the cockpit area is given its own blueprint to show it in more detail.



Despite the intention of this piece to show more detail, it is once again merely for an audiences purposes, as the cockpit area will be pretty much out of sight for the entire duration of my final piece.



Moving on to the handheld weapons now, and this piece shows the Ender 50cal. In all of its blueprint glory.



And finally we have the Spectre blueprint, showing its mechanisms and key features as well as having a brief description of what exactly this gun is capable of.

Now that the blueprints have been drawn up, it was a natural next step to outline which parts of the weapons would be split away or detachable etc.






The above images show just how and where these weapons will split, what kind of split that area is (see individual keys) and what kind of splits there are all together.

So, to look at what my next steps are I have to think about what needs doing. After speaking with Alan on Friday, I will now need to produce my base mesh for the weapons, as well as taking those concept pieces and adding some depth and shadow, just to show the audience what exactly each feature of the gun does or looks like.

So fingers crossed things get back to normal and next time I'll have a video again for you all.

Concept Progress

Please find below the concept Art featured in the video.

Models and Metaphors - Nobody panic!

Ok, So it's obvious I haven't blogged in quite some time. Reasons for which are plenty, and valid, however, this post isn't to talk about that, but rather to show everyone that all is well and everything is in fact in hand :)


Right, off the bat the idea for the '10 second animation' is as follows. From an almost POV/Birdseye camera, the viewers see a pair of turntables (vinyls spinning have the requested logo in the centre, almost like the white label) and all you see are the hands of a cartoon/stylized chimpanzee mixing, scratching and cutting the equipment. There's bananas and such sprawled over the equipment. Despite being a monkey, he'll carry out the mix perfectly. I intend to match what goes on with the music (I have chosen DRONEBEATS7 as my music option) and the effects in it, in time with the monkeys actions. Having been mixing for 11 years - It seemed like a good route to go with.



Above is a basic influence map of the ideas others have come up with which inspired my chosen idea and the kind of style I have decided to take my animation into.



This is a very basic 'story board' of what the animation will show. Its basically just a scribble of my initial idea which I ran with.







And here is a little concept knocked up on Photoshop.



Considering that the hands were going to be the only part of the monkey that you actually see, I decided to sketch up a few hand studies. Nothing too spectacular, just the kind of things that the monkey will probably be doing.


After the initial ideas were jotted down - it was time for modelling.
I decided to get the props out of the way first, as the monkeys modelling and rgging etc. would take the longest.





Here we have a very basic banana prop. Again nothing too exciting, but adds to the surreal kind of flavour I'm aiming for.





The above images are of the monkey arms we will be seeing in the animation (untextured obviously at this stage)









Here we have the rest of the props, including the headphones, mixing desk, vinyls and turntables.

After modelling I decided to get the larger task of rigging the arms and hands. I used the simplest method I knew how which was taught to us during the cartoon character tutorials. The rig is a simple IK rig however my main concern was detailing the weights precisely, as the hands would be seen at a fairly close range.







Here we can see the rig animation test. I'm fairly happy with how the rig came out and the deformations work for the purposes I need them to.





Initially, the shading and texturing side of things was going to look how it did above, but after some test renders I decided that the colours were too overpowering and decided to change them.



As you can see above, the colours I chose in the end are a lot softer yet still vibrant and don't take away too much form the animation.







To counter balance the soft, pastel, brushed metal feel of the environment, the monkeys (Jo Bananas) arms are coloured somewhat generically, as so they don't merge with the rest of the scene.

After this, I had to animate the scene. I used a basic key frame animation technique. The vinyls spun by just rotating them, the LED's flashed by using a clone material with a glow on it, and keying the visibility on and off to create the effect, and the hands were animated using in betweens and key frames. Pretty basic stuff. As is, I'm not 100% happy with the actual animation aspect of this piece, however, I do intend on rectifying some of the issues I have, during the next week or so, so that the animation is contest ready.







Here are a few screen grabs of the animation during different stages

After this, I needed to light and render then Animation. I used a dircetional light set up, facing the camera, and a few extra lights, point light and spotlight, to expose a few areas in greater detail. Below is the final animation and a render of a frame.






So there you have it. Despite not being able to blog, for specific reasons, you can see that the work still managed to get completed on time. I apologize for my absence on the blog, and look to fill it up during the summer with all the new skills I plan on acquiring. Like I said before, the animation is at 100% competition standard yet, so I will continue to work on it before I submit it.