3d last edits

Assuming this looks similar posted as it did in the render view, this is my final of my scene for 353, or whatever the class is that's on maya. Using both a warm and a cool from similar angles for the front light, and some side fill from around the corner. It reall became all about framing the gobo figure in the end, I don't even know if people will realize that there's a turn at the end. But it's time to stop futzing and say 'done' (see previous post on 2d final about being done on time). I'm happy with what I've learned, at the end focusing on lights almost felt like being back in the theatre at the control board again, only the render times make it less fun. The new machines should help that for little scenes like this one (can you say 10 gigs of ram? sheesh).

Lost my way, but had fun

I really don't know what I'm doing with this scene anymore. I had fun toying with a gobo to create the shadow, and added some NURB 'wires' which kinda look like the figure is holding a spear or something. But really... I just don't know. I learned a lot getting here but I'm not sure if this is all it is, or if I could have divine inspiration/drive to make it something... else. better?

I should play with skinning in the uv mapping way, on something more complex than the trash can cubes.

Note to self: Old maya books apply perfectly well to new maya stuff. It's not like there have been any changes on the order of Word 03-07. Now if only maya could read the old files...

Without anything better to do.

I think I'll blame the weather. That's easier for me to accept than any personal problems of enthusiasm or motivation or lacks there-of.
I almost didn't come to 'class' again. I was reading at home a freakishly addicting book called "Water for Elephants." I don't know what it is that makes you not put the book down, I guess a combination of 'everyman' believeable ness or characters that are larger than life without doing anything steriotypical, riding a fine line between subtle hints of their dark parts and - I don't know. Anyway, the book is short (I've been reading it since this morning at 8 and am half way through) so it won't suck my attention too long.
So I do manage to guilt myself into coming to class. And I sit at the computer. I look through my blog to see where I'd left off on the 'scene.' I look through some classmate's blogs to see what they're up to. It all looks better than mine. I watch Cody's posted link to the Warhammer Trailer, which I've seen before but still looks really cool. It stops and I literally sit and stare at the screen.
I want to... sleep? I'm not that sleepy just tired. Lacking ummfh. Maybe a slurpee, surgar and caffiene... Something. Or go home and nap.
Then, staring at the last rendering of the scene, remember mile's suggestion to photoshop it to check lighting ideas...
I do.
I think of something to work on.
I start working.
And now an hour has gone by, with some profit to the scene; I like it better anyway. Still need to skin things, I think that'll require me to do the lighting over. Lit fog is kinda fun, needs to be subtle of course. Helps show where the light is coming from.
So. A to do list for next time:
Lit fog light around corner.
Skin the other things.
Darken the trash cans.
Work on the dumpster skin (don't know how that broke down).


And get sleep or whatever I'm lacking. Maybe a multi-vitamin.

Scene chugging along

I completely forgot what I'd planned to work on, and just futzed with the skin of the dumpster and the ground; after the Lucas presentation.

Still need to add lines, power cables... and figure out what the focus is. Still dumpster focus drawing... how to make that the point?

Ok really Stopping now

I stepped away after the last post, came back and moved the wall like I talked about. I think it's an improvement, but now the dumpster in the corner draws the focus. All the lines kinda point at it... maybe I should re work the 'story' to fit something sinister in the dumpster.

Dusting Out the Alley way

Having hit a few bumps on the happy flight of point pushing modeling, I decided to come back to the Scene thing that is kinda the final. I touched on the bump maps of the trash cans again, threw together an eletical box greeble/nurnie, then dove into tweaking the lighting and camera angle. I wan the audience to wonder what is around the corner, and the bright point source back there does kinda beckon, but it needs more stuff to hit than the two greebles. Also I'd like more interesting lines, some power lines crossing or hugging the walls (which are really blank). I know that should be possible....
Finally, part of me wants to push out one of the walls, the stairs one, by about a trash can's width. I think I'll start next time with that.

Goblin head truckin

Well, 2 and a half hours pushing points leaves me a little phased (need to blink, my focus is too much like playing COD 4 where if you blink some jerk will sprint by with an MP5 and spray you... to an instant re-spawn. but I digress).

I found a way to get a big boost when I think I'm doing nothing and going no-where: smooth polygons. A one click way to change this:
Into this:Much happier to the eyes. Though he looks more like a monkey...

What I've been up to this weekend

When I wasn't sleeping off that slight cold/sinus infection thingy, I was plodding through an 'intro to Maya' tutorial in a book I bought. To mile's credit, less than half of the stuff so far has been new, but still I feel it's been worth the $40, and there's lots more coming. I just hope I can get through it before the 30 day trial ends, or that the trial does simply look at the system clock for the current date. Meh.

Heading Forward

Further work on the head. Tutorial has broken down on the key area of Cleaning up triangles and 5 sided things; he says do it but doesn't really explain how.
Also I'm getting sucked into Shifting around all these little points. Now I know now what they meant by keeping to the broad picture and doing the little details later. Must find ballance of point picking while cutting more and more bits into this thing.

Crayon Scribble of a model

Following the tutorial, as well as I can. Hopefully I'll learn a lot about fixing ill made points as well as doing over stuff. This... example of a first effort was only about a hour of a half, though I spent some time trying to do many points at once, which ended worse than just rapidly doing one at a time. Whew. Still, it's fun.

BumpMappin

Playing with Bump maps... It's odd. Mostly maulally adding stuff to the trash can lids.
As I understand it, the shades of grey on the map create levels or bumps which react to the lighting to form these shaded areas. It's really counter intuitive at this point, I should stick to grey-scale-ing and leveling the skins instead of adding my own stuff.

Futzing with 09

Looking for a command that's been moved in 09? Under help, theres a "Find Menu" option. This pops up a little window that finds commands in the menu system. Very useful when working with tutorials for old versions.

An actual Tutorial on Modeling

And it's actually interesting and useful, to me.

A bit of Truth

Stumbled upon this gem, a syllabus of the hard knocks.

At work on help desk ramble/ web findings.

I want to do a few things. When I reached a certian point in my theatre educaiton it was time to design my own show, and then to intern at the world renown Oregon Shakespeare Festival, trying my hand at being a 40 hour a week lighting tech. Actually I did both during the same term which made both harder and less informative and successful. But even so they turned out well.
For various reasons I didn't leave to pursue a wildly successful yet sadly underpaid career in a big city, and now I've been nearly fully side tracked into this computer stuff. Coding, drawing in Photoshop, and now 3d modeling and rigging.
I know enough, barely, about 3d that I want to try it out. Reading the CGsociety page I can see that doing just one model and lighting it and slapping up some background scenery takes A LOT of time and effort, and is 'normally' done with several people working on it. This makes me pause.
I'd like to somehow intern in this field, try it out. But I don't have the kn0wlege yet to do so well. And, for me, the 3d class is plodding along slowly. I feel I could be moving much faster, but I don't know where to head towards or what resources to use to self teach.
Looking online everything is in Maya 2009. The books in the cabinet, that I've looked at, are for maya, like, 4. Hm.
I COULD activate the 30 trial copy I downloaded then forgot about. I COULD use the online tutorials, or even fork out the big $30 for a 'getting started' book. I would have to make myself do this, at home, where the distraction of all my beloved games are right there. Waiting to be played. And I've been kicking pixel and taking names on COD 4 recently.
So we arrive at the real reason for this post: shameing, convincing, motivating, whatevering myself into self study.
And wondering when/where I could do something like an internship after training up a bit.

Online animaiton schoolmaster interview

'Best animation schools' - but are they reviewed or just advertising here?

Maya tutorials - some broken links, some that looks like useful stuff, and even free.

And another thing: After reading the interview, I realized I have no idea if I want to go for Animation, rigging, modeling, lighting. Or all of them. I have to try them first. I guess modeling is the first part...

Cute little baby skin... erm...

Well, there it is, my first rendered skin. The bricks were originally huge, need to work on that and remove the lines. Also reduce the 'snowed on' effect, I wasn't going for a time of season in particular. Though some heaps of snow could be interesting....

Alley way in progress

These are some scratched up, 20 min of work shots of my alleyway. The upper one didn't have a white background in Maya, made it much darker. I would like to flesh out the rest of the trash cans, then start on the bits that stick out and such.

Not sure how to:
add curved wires
edit the multiple trash cans effectively ( could I make one and place instances and change them all?)
make the stair way better.
Figure out what would close the end after the turn.
Navigate the user to the turn...
ect.
Street lamps for the light to come from.

Ok so yeah these projects grow a lot, and the to-do lists most of all.

How to see what I'm editing with all the clutter in so close. Seperate files and pasting in?

Now I'm making myself depressed. I'm going back to the safe harbor of Flash and 2d dimensions and coding, sweet coding...

These are my research for the alley way. It turns out, now that I look at something bigger than a thumbnail, that the fifth one down is actually a 3d rendering itself, which I consider a bonus steal for studying technique. I hope these post, right now they are a huge mess of HTML code...

The next scène

A cluttered back alleyway.
You see A brief entrance from the street, with a fire escape & dumpsters, further on a left turn to a back stage entrance to the local smut house. Password slot included. The buildings loom above nearly blotting out the sky. Trash would be everywhere, close lines obscuring whet little sky is left. Posters on the walls, dark corners for lurking.

Block town back story

This was a cute little town with a city hall on Main Street, until the baron arrived. His changes begin with the factory - a bright hope of jobs despite its placement in the center of town. Hopes begin bodies with the clouding of the sun from the smoke, then the migrant workers living towers bail f across the street. The baron tried to placate the masses by rising up their old town hall on a scaffold, a gesture which seemed to him grand, but was pointless and wasteful to them. The strange water tower was added when the sprigs and wells ran murky and poisonous with the factories pollutants. No one really throws when the tower was built-it seemed to have appeared one day, glimpsed through the fog & haze. Without a doubt, this was the baron’s lair. Looking down on the town he now controlled.