Thursday 27 January 2011

Corridor Test Video

In a previous post, I showed how I had worked on lighting a 3D environment. Today I created another corridor but changed the lighting colours and added a volume fog. This made it so there was fog within the actual corridor while we see it through a cameras perspective.

This was a test render of 100 frames to see if it all worked and now that I know it does, I can impliment it within my section of the trailer. The video is very quick due to the fact I only worked with 100 frames and worked with it at around 25 fps.

Wednesday 26 January 2011

Team Storytelling Reflection

The following will be a reflection on the presentations we gave yesterday that were about storytelling. The presentations were also recorded.



Above: The image above was the first presentation board and shows the work of myself (Work on left) who researched Folklore and Harrison (work on the right) who researcehd Viking/Norse storytelling and mythology.

Below: The image above shows the presentation board of team mates Robin (work n the left) who talked about the Aztecs and Corey (work on the right) who researched Egypt but talked about childrens nursery rhymes and stories.



Overall, how do you feel your presentation went?
Over all I feel that our presentation went quite well. We all spoke clearly about our chosen storytelling section - me with folklore, Robin with Aztec, Harrison with Norse/viking and Corey with general nursery rhymes and stories. Corey could have practised a litttle more on what he was going to say but other than that I think our presentation went well even thoguh we were having them recorded which was a last minute addition.

How long did your team take?
The preperation work for the presentation too a couple of weeks to gather the information and prepare what we were going to say and do. The presentation itself I think took about 15 minutes altogether, however I've not looked back on the recording for an official timing yet.

Was everyone prepared?
I think that the majority of people and teams were prepared and ready for giving their presentations. They all knew about their chosen storytelling methods and times though I thinkn it was that we were being recorded that threw poeple off a bit. As stated, having them recorded was decided just before the first presentation was to start and so it made people feel even more self conscious that they would have done if we weren't being recorded. As stated previously though, I do think Corey could hvae practised a little more on what he was going to say but other than that I think everyone from both my team and the others were prepared.

How did your audience react? were they positive, encouraged, distracting etc how did this make you feel?
I feel that our audience reactions and participation was quite positive and engaging. We asked the audience questions and go responses, they asked each of us questions which we were able to answer. I believe we havd the attention of the whole class while we were giving our presentation but I think their attention started to drift a bit towards the end of it. The fact that we were getting a positive reception to our presentation gave me more confidence when I was speaking and I hope the others in my team also got mre confidence.

Comment on yourself while doing the presentation- were you prepared, were you nervous, what can you do in future to improve this?
As I was the team leader I had to speak first; we were also the first team to give a presentation and going first always makes me nervous. However I think I did fairly well, I did mix my words a little when I started but as I went on I got more sure of myslef and spoke more confindently. I feel that I was prepared, I knew the subject I was talking about - Folklore and I knew the majority of hte story I had to tell, thoguh I did forget the name of the place it was set. During the telling of the story I did mix my words up again a bit but I think that I handled it well.
In the future, to improve myself I think I just need to memorise the names/places more and jsut to work on my speaking to an audience more and build my confidence.

Generally - what did you learn from doing this presentation? what can you take from your research to use in your team game
From doing this presentation I learnt about many different storytelling methods as well as stories that were told int hose various styles - Folklore, Viking/Norse, Aztec, Cherokee and more. Knowing thiese different storytelling styles and how the stories were written gives me a greater understanding on story construction and their meanings. I can then take that and use similar methods to write the story of our team game and incorperate the ideas into teh actual trailer.

Thursday 20 January 2011

Lighting


Today I learnt how to use lighting to make a simple object look much more realistic.
I started by making a new file and created a plane and adding a sphere on to the plane so that it was standing just on the plane. I then added a spotlight above and behind the sphere and directed the beam at it.
After I added the spotlight, I changed the colours of the sphere and the plane to better suited colours to work with the lighting. I turned the shadows On and set the shadows to Ray Traced Shadows. The ray traced shadows turn normal shadows created by the program into much better quality shadows and much more realistic.

After that I changed the colour of the lighting and changed its intensity so that the lighting it was giving off was warmer and still worked with the colours of the plane and sphere. I then set a decay on the spotlight and set it as an inverse decay. I carefully moved the decay start to make the scene look warmer and focus more on the sphere than the plane.

After doing that basic lighting figured out, I then went on to practice creating similar lighting to use in my environment. As my environment is comprised of interiors only, I feel that it is important to figure out how to light the rooms and corridors before making the primary environment.

Firstly I created a box and shaped it into a corridor, then changed it to an editable mesh and took both ends of it off along with its roof. I then flipped the normals of the box so that my eventual lighting would show. I made a small cone to act as a light shade and placed it where the roof would be.
The next step as actually adding the lighting. I made a small target spot and placed it just under the cone. I strated playing about with the intensity multiplier until I got to an intensity that suited my needs. The final stage to setting up my lighting was to add an atmosphere/effect to the target spot. I added a Volume Light effect and lowered the density so that when the scene is rendered, you can see the actual beam of light but at an acceptable level.
Once I was happy with the density and how the lights were looking, I made several copies of the cone/light and placed them in intervals along the corridor. I also placed a small Omni light at the very end of the corridor to light it.

Wednesday 19 January 2011

Trailer Plot and Character List

Character List -

Elizabeth Krasivaya - Main Character - a serial killer with one hand missing. She was imprisoned in the facility and only works with other for her own ends.

Dr L. Crosgrove - Lead scientist who performed the experiments on the inmates

Dr Cyka - another scientist who is slowly driven insanr by the situation. A cowardly person who only survived by leaving their friends/co-workers behind.

Doug - another serial killer who has survived but is reluctant to help anyone as he enjoys being in the overrun facility.

Plot Idea For Trailer -

The trailer starts with a sweeping panoramic shot of the frozen wasteland possibly in Siberia - te coldest habbitable place in the world. As the panoramic shot moves, a frozen dam comes into view. As the camera moves in on the dam the screen fades to black and a scream is heard.
The camera focuses back and the viewer is now in a coridor in what appears to be a medical prison facility.
Dr Crosgrove will be doing a voice over as the first interior shots are shown. All looks reasonably normal as the camera moves down the cold, lonely corridor. As the camera reaches the end of the corridor another scream is heard - the view turns back around and the corridor that you just walked down has changed into a nightmare - blood, grime and bloody handprints and trails are all over the walls and floor. The camera quickly moves down the changed corridor as horrible sounds start coming from the metal doors lining the walls.
The next several shots are of a ruined facility with blood and gore and horrible sounds.
The camera will zoom in on a person playing in the blood and gore - Doug. It will then cut to a shot of Dr Cyka huddled in a corner muttering.
The final shot of the trailer will be the camera slowly moving towards a cell door and looking in through the window. Inside teh camera will zoom on Elizabeth Krasivaya's scarred face.

Monday 17 January 2011

Constaints

What problems have I/will I encounter?
The following questions are the main constraints both me and my team have to consider about our project and all that is involved within it. These questions below will be filled in later on thios week after our next Team Meeting where we will discuss these questions as wella s the currebt state of the trailer.

How will the team work otogether/or not? -

Organisation, who is doing what and when for the client? -

Financial/budgets, How much would a project like this cost to produce? -

Legal, copyright, IP's, Patents? -

Deadlines - As we have not been given a dead line, I would set our team deadline for hte completion of the trailer to between two weeks a month before the digital showcase. This way the team will have time to polish the trailer and make sure everything is as good as it is going to get.

Rescources Available -

Thursday 13 January 2011

3D Design Plan

As our team are focusing on different aspects to be combined into the trailer - Harrison and Corey are working on exterior/outdoors environments, Robin is working on an interior for the medical section. However his side is where it is all pristine and clean. I am working on an interior section rather than an exterior/outdoors environment. It is my intention to create an environment of a medical facility but in opposite style to Robins version. Where he is making a portion of the facility all pristine and clean, I am wokring on the sections where the horror aspects are - dirt, blood, grime.

The following link will take you to an example of how I hope my environment section will look like:
Click here

Here are some screenshots taken from that example trailer -

My current plan is to draw the layout of my environment before I proceed in making it so i know where everything should go. If I manage to get the same feeling in the example trailer into my own work I will be very happy.