Major Project - Lighting Test #3

I added a lens to my camera in Maya as suggested by Alan, this helped me make the scene darker overall.

I then added some extra rim lights and a back light for the boy to make him pop. I also took the image into photoshop and adjusted the curves to push the values a bit more.

I went into the next scene and imported my lights to see if they work with close ups, after getting some feedback from Alan it was apparent that the lamp and bed need some bounce lighting from the wall, I went ahead and added that. I think it helps the image to pop out a bit more, however my render times are starting to creep above 5 minutes which is longer than I wanted them to be.

Major Project - Hand Scene #2

I adjusted the timing and flow of the hand scene and I think it is working much better now, when it comes to lighting these scenes I will add red rim lights to link the 2d and 3d world together.

Major Project - Hand Scene #1

Took the night off lighting and moved onto a missing 2D animated scene. It was a nice break from the challenges of lighting and I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out. I am looking forward to bringing everything together and having a nice mixture of 2d and 3d animated elements!

Major Project - Lighting Test #2

Lighting Test (no shadows)

Lighting Test #2 (fixed ambient occlusion)

Today I carried on refining the lighting in the bedroom, I want to create like a default lighting group that I can import into scenes and adjust as required. Here is how far I've got, I had some issues with getting shadows into my scene however Alan helped me remedy this.

I feel like the Boy needs a stronger rim light on his legs, however overall I am quite pleased with how this image has come out.

Major Project - Lighting & Mist Test #1

Today was spent trying to get some lighting set up in my scene, I spoke to Alan in the morning and he suggested trying to get the broadest stroke of colour in first using ambient occulsion. This is how it is looking so far, I quickly realised that it is tricky to light a night time scene, but I will carry on adding lights and finessing.

I also did a quick test of the mist in flash to see if it would work with my animation. there will need to be multiple layers of mist however I believe it will work quite successfully in the final film!

Major Project - Bedroom Modelling #2

I spent some time getting the assests ready to be implemented into each shot, I want to try to also create a "default lighting" that I can import with the room and adjust per scene. I'm a bit out of touch with lighting and rendering in general so that is something I will need to discuss with Alan.

There's still loads to do and some stuff to still figure out but I am ready to drag this film over the finish line!

Major Project - Bedroom Modelling #1

I've been modelling and getting the bedroom elements ready for texturing, here is my current progress and below is a test of the first shot with the new models. I think the boy and the environment fits quite well together, all the elements need texturing which will be my next job after the bed model is finished!

Major Project - Animation Progress #3

I've finished smoothing out all of the animation and now I need to start finessing, I also started working on some of the 2d animated elements. The whole thing is starting to get there however there is obviously a lot of work left to get it over the finish line!

Major Project - Animation Progress #2

I've continued to smooth out and adjust the animation of each shot, here is how far I currently am. I will soon be able to move onto the polishing pass and after that I will focus on getting a couple of scenes as perfect as I can to use for my future reel. 

I tried adding some 2D flash animation to the spider beds roar scene to get a better idea of how it can all work together. I want to add loads of little 2D accent animations throughout and then use flash to also add the fog/mist into my scene, like the example below.

Major Project - Shots 12 - 25 Progress

I'm working through every shot smoothing out animation and tweaking poses where necessary, I had a lot of issues with the jump poses and after talking to Alan I reworked the whole shot and it is working much better now. I want to add smear frames for some of the movements to exaggerate things and add more of a cartoony feel to things, this will be added after the animation is polished!

Major Project - Shots 4 - 12 Progress

I've been smoothing out some of the animation, tweaking poses and adding inbetweens. Had a lot of fun really exaggerating the room transformation scene, lots of squash and stretch!