Maya 3D - UFO

The final task was to create a UFO. I began by creating a very thin cylindrical object. Using the extrude tool, I dragged it to the centre from both sides to create a slant. This would be the base of the UFO.

In order to create the dome, I made a sphere and cut out half of it. By placing it in the centre of the cylindrical object, I used the 'slide edge tool' to link it to the other shape (after combining both mesh). This would therefore allow both objects to be manipulated together.

I worked on the underside of the UFO, adding detail to it by extruding inwards to create the 'abduction hole'. 

In addition, I selected alternative faces along the underside of the object and extruded to slightly scale down and push inwards. This would create a nice 3D look to the UFO. I also hardened the edges to the panel in order to give off a mechanical look to it.

The below pictures show the final piece of the created object.

Once I was happy with the overall look, it was time to texture the final piece. I created a UV map of the object and began separating and spacing out the pieces in order to create a texture in photoshop.

I used shapes to cover various parts of the ship, also adding a feint texture over the entire piece. Once completed, I used this to cover the UFO

The below picture shows what the UFO looked like after adding the texture. I wasn't entirely happy with the outcome, as it appeared to have bled through a certain part of the cylindrical object. Therefore I decided to add texture to separate parts of the ship by selecting individual faces and adding texture to them.

I started by selecting the affected area and replacing it with a Blinn, using a texture I was happy with. I was very happy with its outcome, as it create a nice line effect over the top of the cylinder.

Next I selected the inwards panels on the underside of the UFO and changed the colour of them to black. I then changed the colour of the abduction hole to a light green, also changing the ring around the ship into a dark green and ridge around the dome.

Maya 3D - Planet

I began creating my planet by using the Sculptris software which I downloaded to my laptop. By using the various tools, I was able to manipulate the object (similar to clay). The more I manipulated the object, the more triangles were created. This would make it a more complex object as there are more points of manipulation.

I saved the file and imported it easily into Maya. However, the problem with this object was that it was way too complex, as it had many points of manipulation. This would deem difficult when creating a UV map.

To fix this issue, I had to 'Bake' the object over a sphere object. This was created by setting the Target (the sphere) and Source (Sculpt), in which I used the normal map. However, the first attempt didn't seem to work too much, therefore I used the ambient map to create the final outcome. The outcome was very feint, however I was happy with it and added a planet texture over the top

Maya 3D - Asteroid

In order to create the asteroid, I started with a spherical shape. The 'soft selection' tool was an important feature in the creation of this object, as it allowed me to manipulate without it being too clunky.

The soft select tool allowed me to select an area of which I was able to drag and pull/squash different parts of the object. This helped me with the base of the asteroid, as it has an uneven shape.

Once I was happy with the outcome, the next step was to add texture to the shape. This was completed by adding a Blinn material. I saved an image of an asteroid texture, which placed it over the shape.

The below image shows the UV texture editor, which shows the map of the asteroid. The image behind shows where it fits over the asteroid.

Fields and Frames - Cinemagraph

A cinemagraph is a GIF which is made to be a mixture of both footage and still photography. The image would play a certain part i.e. something in the foreground or background, whilst the rest of the image stays still. I am very interested in recreating this technique for fields and frames, as it gives the audience something to focus on (the moving part of the image), whilst appreciating the photographic moment in which the subject is in.

For my first attempt, I took footage of the final moments of a football match (video below 2:13). This was a great shot to practice this skill on as it was presented in slow motion with the camera staying relatively still, giving me the opportunity to track the path of animation. I used photoshop's video editing software to help me track the motion of the video, allowing me to mask over the top intricately.

I opened another layer and used the paintbrush tool to cover Ramsey's arms. This was a long process as I had to fast forward through the frames in order to track all the movements of his arms. 

Once completed, I managed to completely cover his arms and the space in which they would end up by the end of the footage.

I created another layer and copied the final frame of the footage. This would determine the end of the sequence, whereby the tracking of the arms would stop. I then selected the layer in which I painted over his arms and used it as a mask for the final frame layer. Inverting the mask allowed it to cut whatever I had covered (almost like a stencil), allowing for the footage underneath to play. This was the only thing that was animated, as the layer above the footage was still.

My next attempt was to find better suited footage (meaning a more still image/more things happening in the shot). I found a high quality video of a snake biting into a water balloon in slow motion. This gave me more options to track multiple things at once.

The above picture shows the process of painting over the motion of the water droplets and also the movement of the snake. I used the same process as the football player, however I found this footage a lot easier than the previous. This was because the camera was entirely stationary , allowing me to see exactly where the droplets would go without worrying that it would overlap something else through the camera's movement.

For my final attempt, I used footage from Kingsman: The Secret Service. I chose this particular shot because It allowed me to play with the background whilst the movement was smooth and the camera was stationary.

At first, I began to track the character's foot, as she had a simple up and down movement in the background. Once I was happy with the way it turned out, I decided to roughly cover some of the city skyline in the background, as it had a subtle glowing of the city lights and a few cars moving around in the background.

A neat feature of editing footage in photoshop was the fact that I was able to edit it just as I would do a photo. This allowed me to adjust the colour tones and brightness levels to how I wanted it to look.

The final step for all three edits was to export them all into GIF form. This was completed by Saving to Web. I had to fiddle around with the setting quite a lot which allowed me to change the size of the image and how I wanted it to loop.

My first attempt at saving the GIF had a couple problems. I kept getting errors as the file was deemed too large to export. This prompted me to lower the width of all the GIFs to 1000, thus fixing the situation without lowering the quality or looking too small. I set the loop from "once" to "forever", making certain that it wouldn't stop after the first view.

Final Exports

After viewing the first GIF i made, I was happy with the attempt but I believe this was a difficult one to achieve as there were far too many things moving behind the player, therefore the masking included the backgrounds of the fans and the opposing player's shoulder running behind him.

The snake bite was an improvement on the previous one, as it was easier to complete due to less things moving in the background. The tracking of the water droplets on the right side of the GIF have room for improvement, as they just randomly disappear behind the still droplets. Despite this, I still believe it has a nice effect.

The Kingsman GIF was probably the most successful out of the three, as it was a simple movement to track and is effective. Although not very noticeable, the city lights in the background add a nice touch to the piece.

Studio Shoot - Lighting the Set + Evaluation

As my role in the production was to light the set, I liased with the Cinematographer (Charlie) and we decided that we wanted a gloomy/dark, low key style during the opening scene. This would give the scene a depressing/cold feel, indicating to the audience that this is an uncomfortable situation for the character.

We began by using a spotlight facing towards the actor, thus giving us a harsh shadow which projected onto the furthest wall. Two lights were used to fill the rest of the set, however it was a challenge to create this as we didn't want those lights to interfere with the character's shadow (therefore creating multiple shadows).

The shot of the character breaking through into the creative world was a successfully lit scene (I preferred this scene as it turned out as I'd hoped). We used a smoke machine to accentuate the harsh light protruding into the 'Creative world'. The harsh light was intended to simulate the eyes focusing from a dark environment to light, therefore creating a white light in the background.

The TV scene didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, as the character can barely be seen during this part. The way in which we could have rectified this is by adding a stronger light from behind the TV's, however we had hoped that the TVs would create a strong enough light to create an outline for the actor. We had tried adding a background light with a blue gel, however it didn't produce a strong enough light (as shown in the above picture).

Another flaw I noticed when watching back the footage was the fact that there were a couple of inconsistencies with the shadows during the first scene.

I analysed the above still which is the first shot of the film. The wall behind the actor shows one shadow (also includes the shadow of the guard), however in the same shot we can see another shadow which was created from a different light. This was difficult to fix as we had to use a spotlight in front of the set in order to create the shadow for the right side. The biggest problem for this was the fact that a later shot (picture below) shows that the shadow is harsher on the back wall (as opposed to the left sided wall).

In conclusion , despite the small gripes I had with the consistency of the lighting, I am very happy in the way the film turned out. The amount of effort and teamwork that went into this production is something that I enjoyed and hope to work in a similar kind of work ethic again. 

My role for lighting was a new experience in which I was excited to try and have an input in the way the audience could interpret a scene just by how a set was lit. It was a tricky process to have to try and get the perfect balance of light on set but with the help of Charlie (Cinematographer), Tori (Lighting), Laura (Director) and Chloe (First AD) I was able to get feedback and suggestions on how they thought the scene should be lit. Although it may not be perfect, I believe that the edited footage gave the film an intentionally dark/gloomy look, which alludes to my research on prison films/scenes (such as Bronson and The Dark Knight). I also enjoyed working closely with Charlie as she had a lot of input and advice on how to light the set accordingly. I think that the way to improve on my role on lighting would be to test out some more styles of lighting, however I believe that with the amount of time we had to test the lighting, it was impossible to try all the different styles.

Overall it may not be the most professional looking outcome, but I believe that with the timescale that we had (we only had a day to film without any time for rehearsals), our efforts show on screen and I am pleased with the way it turned out. The teamwork was the main focus of this production and it was great to be a part of it.

Studio Shoot - Set Building

Once the walls were firmly secured and in the correct position for the shoot, we began designing the interior of the prison walls. The crew managed to gather a load of old books from the charity shop, in which we all tore every page from it and sorted them form the lightest to heaviest pages.

We broke off into small teams to work of different parts of the wall. Two people were pasting the pages at a time, whilst two people would stick them onto the walls. To speed up the process, we had an extra person use a brush to go over the pages in order to make sure it stayed stuck on the wall.

As we got closer to the centre of the room (where the bricks would be placed), it was decided that the pages would curve around the centre, indicating to the character that there is something behind the wall. We made sure that every part of the wall was covered completely before continuing on.

We did have a couple problems during this point, as the wallpaper paste on the pages was making it incredibly heavy for it to hold to the wall. Therefore, this created a problem of the pages peeling back. This problem was rectified by using masking tape to secure it into place by sticking it on the top of the wall and over to the other side so the camera wouldn't pick it up during filming.

On the other side of the centre wall, we painted it in black. This would therefore cover the 'wooden' look from behind when shooting it from this side (after the character breaks through).

The foam bricks were brought in to be used as the inner bricks of the wall (of which the character would break through). After a test, it was decided that clay would be the best material to cover them in, as it would give the desired crumble effect once dried. Therefore, a group of us covered all the required bricks with clay by mixing it in water.

 Once dried, we tested the bricks by stacking them in the hole (some bricks had to be cut in half for it to fit). Laura decided that the bricks would look better painted maroon, therefore we began to test out how a clay covered brick would look once painted. We then painted all the bricks and let the dry before continuing.

The outcome (above picture) was achieved by only sticking the side bricks onto the wall therefore allowing the actor to break through the middle without any struggles.

The hole was then to be carefully covered whilst still implementing the curve and keeping the consistency from both sides. We had to make sure that the wall wasn't too heavy that the pages would peel off, however if it was too thin then the bricks would be visible from the other side. Thinner pages were chosen and we used less wall paste in order for it to weigh less.

The final step in creating the set was to tea stain the pages, giving a 'weathered' and 'used' effect.

During the day of filming, we placed the props and took pictures (in which Leanna was in charge of continuity). The mattress was a problem at first because it kept sliding due to the actor's movements during the beginning of the scene. This was rectified by taping the underside of it to the floor, giving it less chance to move when pressured.