Major Project - Underwater Test #2

I tried tackling the underwater scene again today, I still haven't been able to get the shadows to work yet. I think the shadows will help sell the scene a bit more so I will try to find what is causing issues. I added bubbles and particles to the scene in an attempt to add depth and I think it is somewhat successful. I think the bubbles are a bit too big but for this test they fulfilled their purpose.

Major Project - Underwater Test #1

I've been fighting with the underwater aesthetic today, so far I don't think it's there yet. The first attempt went pretty badly so I started a new scene and tried again, it still has some issues and will need bubbles or something in the foreground to break it up a bit.

Major Project - Mist Test #2

This test scene is looking a lot more like what I had pictured in my head, there are still some tweaks needed to make the mist blend better with the water however I am really happy with how this is turning out. Eva gave me some great advice on creating a specular map for the water which really enhanced the scene. I think there is another level of complexity to add which will be the glistening of the water, but that will take some figuring out.

This whole exercise has been very useful for me to get better at compositing which is something that I have always neglected. I quickly realized that the compositing is what will sell the shot at the end of the day.

Major Project - Mist Test #1

I played around with some particles in maya today, trying to create a nice mist/fog effect as I will need plenty of it for my animation. I think this test went okay but it can still be finessed a lot, I feel as if I needed the fog to be thicker but it was something I only really noticed when I was compositing.

I also quickly discovered that I will need to render out objects that are in the water separately, as it will be much easier to blur them and adjust them where it is needed. 

Major Project - Bed Rigging Test #1

Following Alan's advice, I have put together a rough test rig for the bed. For the legs I used a IKSpringSolver, which has a handy little graph that can be used to dictate the weight it has on joints. I decided to use the flexiPlane that I've used throughout my project as the spine of the rig, that may be changed to a ribbon spine but at the moment it is doing the job required of it.

To test the rig out I put together a really quick animation, I wanted to see if the legs would bend correctly and the overall functionality of the rig. I noticed that the control that moves the leg joints for additional sculpting may need to be orient constrained to the leg joint as well as point constrained. This is because at the moment having only the point constraint limits the ability to sculpt as the geometry remains oriented to the leg.

Adaptation A - Infographic Tests

I did a few tests today trying to figure out how the different steps could be revealed, this is what I came up with so far.

The first idea was to have the banner pop up with the letter, how ever I felt as if this was a bit static so I wanted a more dynamic way of showing the letter.

The second idea was to have the banner roll down and this was the first attempt at that, I also tried giving it a bit of rotation as it left the screen to make it a bit more interesting to look at.

The third is probably my favourite so far (still up for a lot of change), I fixed some issues with the rolling banner making it feel like it fits better and changed the rotation as it leaves.

The interface needs some adjustments still but it is slowly getting there, I have been working on the 26 things again to have a few different lists to choose from.

Fantastic Voyage - Environment Background Test

Today I've been working on some of the sets for the animation, I decided to test out adding a glow effect to the background code and the chipset assets. Here are the results so far.

Fantastic Voyage - Merozoite Blendshape

Here is the blendshape for the merozoite.

Fantastic Voyage - Sporozoite Blendshape

Today I'm focusing on creating the blendshapes for all of the cells, here is the sporozoite's blendshape.

Fantastic Voyage - Intro Live Action Tests

Today I filmed the live action shots with the help of Sam and PG, here are my test edits.

01. Raw footage, no colour correction

02. Colour corrected

03. Colour corrected & graded

04. Colour corrected & graded

05. Colour corrected & graded

06. Colour corrected & graded

Some of these were more experimental, pushing certain colours to see what effect it had on the overall tone of the footage. From here the video will transition into the Maya world, previs will determine if it works well.

Fantastic Voyage - Glow & Glitch Tests (Maya & After Effects)

Today I did some more tests in maya and after effects, here are the results.

1. Maya glow test

2. Glow added in After Effects

3. Glow animated and distortion added

Fantastic Voyage - Blend Shape Glitch Test

Today I was suggested by Sam and PG that I look at blend shapes for the glitch, so I watched the tutorial and had a little play around in maya, the results are quite successful.

Fantastic Voyage - Maya Glitch Test

I did a little test in maya to see how I could tackle the glitching effect. Here is the result, I think I could add some effects behind the cells as they glitch, or perhaps the whole environment would change, more tests need to be done to figure out the exact look I want.