Wednesday 28 February 2018

Major Project | Steel Experimentation


After carrying out a number of renders that began to feel much larger in scale and far more cinematic (something I'm keen on achieving in my final film), I've begun a series of 5 renders that I will composite to create a shot that more accurately represents the kind of footage that will be seen in my end product. Here is the first shot to be composited...





Tuesday 27 February 2018

Major Project | Steel Experiment | Low Angle Renders


After some advice from fellow student Thomas Smith concerning rendering from a lower angle to achieve a sense of scale, I've gone back into Maya and created some renders using a different angle to see what the results could accomplish...
















I like the kind of thing presence these renders are starting to have on screen and after some feedback from Phil I now plan on looking at these kinds of angles from a cinematic point of view working at a lower speed.

Monday 26 February 2018

Major Project | Steel Experiment


After deciding on an aesthetic and method of conveying personality for my steel material, I created this small animation that begins to show the type of movement that will be seen in the steel portion of my final film. This deformation combined with camera movement and cinematic angles will help build a solid foundation for the timing and look of my overall end product...

Sunday 25 February 2018

Major Project | Steel Material


As I continue down this path of experimentation I'm beginning to really want to start finalizing some decisions, mainly those around the aesthetics of the end result, which will be a short film showing different components of various materials visualized within Maya, working almost as a show reel of textures. 

With that said I'm going to complete the final two material experiments (steel and rock) and then move onto the more cinematic section of my film, looking into staging and lighting a little more. The next set of images are visualizations of steel within this 3D world...






After taking these renders I think it is clear that the steel portion of my final film should be quick and feel mechanical, showing deformations happening at a fast pace, resembling the movements that occur within various machines.

From here I want to carry out a test render that shows these deformations occurring, identifying what kind of role this material can play in my end product.

Wednesday 21 February 2018

Major Project | Plastic Texture Experiment


The next material I'll be working with in my final film will be plastic, a material that I want to illustrate in its resin form, or when it is being used as a cast for some kind of liquid to set inside it. To do this I have created a plastic textured object and made it an Ncloth, I have then collided that object with another whose physical properties are the embodiment of the melting point of plastic, so that when the two collide a resin is formed in the shape of plastics melting point.


(The above object was physically dropped onto a sphere that illustrated the melting point of plastic)





(After the point of collision, when the object begins to hang over the collider a duplicate is made and then inverted, showing the cast)



I'm extremely happy with the path this experiment is beginning to lead me down and will continue to experiment further from here on, perhaps working on filling this cast with some kind of liquid that resembles the process of creating a model from a plastic cast)

Saturday 17 February 2018

Major Project | Marble Sculpting Technique | Camera Work

After looking more into the camera technique I want to use to show the sculpting methods used to carve marble, I was able to create this animation that briefly shows the potential it could have in my final product...              

         

Apart from a little work still to be done around achieving the overall marble material effect, I'm happy with how this has turned out and I'm excited to experiment further with this technique.

Friday 16 February 2018

Major Project | Marble Sculpting | Hammer And Point


After initially searching for a way to translate this method of sculpting marble in Maya, I've decided that I want this material's feature in my outcome to have a jagged, very rigid personality, mirroring that of the technique itself.

To do this I'm going to use a mixture of limited particle dynamic and Deformations to portray the technique. Something that I want to be prominent in this area of the final film is camera work, I want to highlight the technique with rigid movements like those seen in this live performance video...


           
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6Z573n6-xU

By combining a camera technique like this with timed deformations I will be able to convey the technique and methodology used in marble sculpting.








Tuesday 13 February 2018

Major Project | Glass Sculpting Techniques | Cold Glass


After successfully narrowing down the software techniques I am going to use to display the first two sculpting methods, I have moved onto cold glass, a technique that will utilize particle dynamics to show a sense of shaping and grinding... 







Thursday 8 February 2018

Major Project | Glass Sculpting Techniques | Hot Glass


When it comes to the technique of hot glass sculpting the 3D techniques I can use to replicate this in Maya are slightly more simple than that of glass blowing. By applying an Ncloth to the model I can achieve the physicality of melting glass and by using various twist and bend deformations I can replicate the act of sculpting. With the correct Ncloth values I can give the model a presence much like the one shown in the image below...


Once this physicality is achieved the act of sculpting will be animated using a number of deformers much like the image below...


The usage of these two techniques is allowing me to sculpt objects in the same manner than sculptors would use on a physical piece, something that is extremely important to the work I'm creating.

The next technique I'm going to focus on is known as cold glass sculpting and revolves around grinding, something I plan on simulating with a variation of particle dynamics.


Wednesday 7 February 2018

Major Project | Glass Sculpting Techniques | Glass Blowing


Now that I have established the techniques I want to depict for each individual material I have begun to work on the technical process' applicable with each method. The first material is glass, which has three main techniques of sculpting and will take a the usage of Ncloth, particle dynamis and deformations in Maya to achieve an accurate representation. The first technique I am experimenting with is glass blowing, which will use a variety of Ncloth and air fields...




By constraining the glass object to a model working as a foundation, I can push air through the glass much like glass blowing, allowing the model to inflate and mold...


          


By developing this method that allows me to create a visual experience similar to glass blowing, I am going to be able to successfully depict this method of sculpting glass in the future work of this project.

The next experiments I am going to develop are the remaining glass based sculpting techniques, hot and cold glass sculpting.