Final Project - Death and Rebirth

Riverview Hospital

After been inspired by Graham Young's work on Still Life with Smoke and Mirrors Ive been interested in capturing the feeling we get when in old abandoned places that once had human life. I like the idea that rather than these places dying, they are more transformed into something...spiritual is the only word i can come up with but its so much more than that. I want to be able to re-create a place that has gone through this transformation and then use elements and colours created through time and play with them. It will be constructed in 3D which means i can manipulate it in whatever way i want. Create and re-purpose...possibly through simple animation. In the image above of Riverside hospital the green on the window stands out to me and projects this beautiful colour on to the walls either side. These buildings dont follow the purpose society set of for them anymore so there are no artificial lights and clean walls, because of this the sunlight from any windows or holes becomes very powerful and striking setting off all kinds of colours and shadows everywhere. 

Lake Shore Inn

I have a vision of a camera panning down a corridor like the one in the image to the left. The light some how changing, reacting to us invading this place. Follows down to a bathroom like the Riverview image above. The green can start moving up and over the windows changing the colour of light coming in. A vibrant flower grows out of an old cracked toilet bowl. I want to be able to play with the colour and shapes. I have this experimental idea camera been you and invading this space...something tiny like a piece of dirt is moved out of place, seen close up in slow motion falling...the room reacts by everything animating into a shape edge with an unnatural high pitch scream/sound. The same feeling as the hair on your neck after getting a shock or fright but its the room thats feeling this. These are all just ideas im accumulating for now.

I got the idea of making strange from a video James showed me. Video is from 16tracks.net and the song is Videotape by Radiohead which can be viewed below.

To begin any of this experimentation i need to choose a place. Ive been looking into Strathmartine Hospital, an abandoned Asylum in dundee with a long history...but that will be for my next post.


Radiohead_Videotape from Wolf Jaiser on Vimeo.

Planning semester two

Ive been following a daily schedule for semester two to help me focus my work (not including DT tutorials). This way nothing will be left behind. Schedule will change as projects finish and will be replacement with my project work.

Monday: Going Live
Tuesday: Written work
Wednesday: Going Live
Thursday: Council Project/Project work
Friday: Camera tracking
Saturday: Project Work
Sunday: Sketching - focusing on anatomy


Final Project
Since i am concentrating mostly on light and colour i've decided to create a still cinematic environment. The choice of the environment  is paramount to the success of the project. It needs to have an emotional impact on a mixed audience while also allowing me to experiment changing the mood of the piece though just light and colour. I am giving myself till Monday Feb 21st to finalise and storyboard the environment (due to nature of the project the storyboard will mostly be done through photography). Then starting straight into modeling. I was inspired by the piece below called Still Life with Smoke and Mirrors, created by Graham Young.



Still Life with Smoke and Mirrors from Graham Young on Vimeo.

Direction workshop - Doors Closing

During this project we scripted and story-boarded ideas. Two were chosen and we were split into groups and each given a role to play. This was to an exercise mostly in working as a team in a production pipeline. My role was as editor for this project, but we all did a little of the other roles as well.

Roles: Director, camera operator, Editor and producer.

Applying skills - futuristic interior

Tree used as power source

I began working on this as a practice piece. Taking the skills i learned from the cryloab tutorial and applying them to create my own designs.

The story behind this piece is set in the future where we have used up most of the worlds resources and have found a way to use trees as a power source. When finished i want to have the grid around the corner to be broken open, markings on the wall and broken items on the floor. The room itself would tell a story by the after math.

When working on my next environment i will be spending alot more time working on the concepts. This was just to get a taste. The designs need to be more consistent and relevant, questioning the existence of everything within the environment. Building in a design that is consistent with a cultural relevance and/or has some form of application.

Main entrance

Top view without roof

Tutorial update - Cryolab

 

Floor texture

Since the last post I finished UV mapping the cryolab and have just begun the texturing section which i have been looking forward to. As you can see from the image above the floor texture is only using a colour file. Other files such as bump maps may be added later in the tutorial but if not ill be adding them myself. The texture was created in Photoshop using different effects and illustrations.

UV map example

Depth of Field study

During the last few weeks i have been borrowing the canon 30D from the university loans to conduct different photography projects so i can apply what i learn to the camera within Maya, a 3D graphics software package. The following study is on the depth of field. Before starting this project i didnt know what aperture or F-stops ment, which are all terms used within the camera in Maya as well as for photography of live-action films. Something as simple as depth of field or a lens flare can trick the eye into adding alot more life to a 3D environment or animation.


During this study i learned how to adjust the shutter speeds, aperture and iso (light sensitivity) to capture the desired shot. I then went into Maya to replicate the same shot. In this case a shallow depth of field.

 The image to the left was created by zooming out and moving in close to objects. Focused in on object in front. The shutter speed at 200 and F-stop down to 5.6 (lower F-stop focuses out more of the foreground and background and the aperture is controlled by these F-stops). The iso is turned down to 800 as the shots were taken early in the morning with lots of sunlight.

The image to the right uses the same attributes as the image above except the focus in on the object in the back.

 
 I then replicated the same effect within Maya. Once a camera is set up in Maya you can access it's attribute editor. Half way down the list is a section called depth of field. Once this is activated the options are Focus distance, F-stop and Focus region scale. For the image to the left i applied a Focus distance of 12.3, F-stop of 5.6 (same as above) and Focus region scale i left at 1.

The image to the right had the same attributes as the image above except i changed the F-stop to 25. This gives a more subtle shallow depth of field because the F-stop is up a lot higher.







This shows the same results come from the Maya camera by changing aperture as from the digital camera but they use different techniques to capture the same effect. The break down of the Maya camera functions is that the Focus distance allows to choose which object in your scene to focus on, the Focus region scale allows you to choose the distance that focus will travel and the F-stop controls how blurred the out of focus objects become. Also its important to mention that if objects are rendered out separately through render passes from Maya that effects such as depth of  field can be added in during the composting stage using software like After Effects or Nuke. This is usually the preferred way to apply these effects in a professional production pipe line. This means effects can be played with afterwards without having to render out scenes again which can be time consuming.

Programme of study progress

Research Poster

I began this course wanting to explore the potential of 3D animation as an art form and developed into how to create a particular mood or atmosphere through the design of an environment using 3D graphics. I quickly learned that lighting and colours played as an important row as well as the actually modeling and texturing of an given world created using 3D graphics. I began to break down the different elements that i could study and bring together to apply to my final project. In this case will be a 3D animation, although could have also been the development of an environment for a computer game.

Cinematography-
As i explained in a previous post understanding the elements that make up cinematography are fundamental to my programme of study. That is learning how to use light, colour and camera movement to set up my scene. I began with photography projects concentrating on depth of field and framing. This was mainly to get a better understanding of how to use aperture and shutter speeds. The same elements are used to control a camera with a 3D software package such as Maya. This lead to me looking into artists like Gregory Crewdson for his amazing ability to tell a story through lighting. I have been reading into some books on cinematography in live-action film making and 3D animation and contrasting the two. However it is important to actually be on set to help out on a live-action film so i have made contact with a local cinematographer. I am hoping i'll get to help him out on one of his film projects by next semester.

Concept Work-
Before i begin work on creating an environment i need to start drawing up concept work. This can be a blueprint used in 3D space or just as a guide. Personally i refer to use the concept as a guide which allows design to be developed during the modeling process as well. I have begun some sketch work but only some ideas to play around with rather than towards a final project. I find Syd Mead's work interesting from a creative point of view but also the mathematical structure. A story from the final animation is still in progress but once it is finalised i can begin to question how the environment should look.

3D graphics-
Since starting the course i have completed a tutorial on designing a beetle using only Nurbs and i finished modeling and uv mapping a cryolab. I still have to finish texturing and lighting which will be completed over the Christmas break. I have begun to work on my own environments taking the knowledge from the tutorials as well as testing out some new techniques. I will be posting up my own work in the next week. I have also began work on blocking a house for a forthcoming arts council project.

Final Project-
A three minute short 3D animation working in collaboration with other students. I have been working with Adam to develop a story but is still a work in progress. The story wont be finished till sometime during the Christmas holidays. Then work will begin on concept work, story boarding and blocking out a 3D animatic which is planned to be completed by the first week back to semester one.