a few screenshots

screenshots because i dont want to show my actual video

this yoda one isnt exactly a screen shot as he doesnt play fifa in my film

500 word rationale

This project's brief was to re-interpret an existing script, we were given 3 samples but I chose my own script, the Pod Race Scene from 'Star Wars'. By making it a bit different I wanted to do it in a city rather than in the desert, and as the story goes on you realize it's a game in which Yoda is the player in real life.

I chose to do this, not only because I wanted something different from the main examples we were given, but a lot happens which tests my abilities, I have had to create fire, an explosion, pod racers, a city, and I also took a different route with texturing from what I normally do. There is a cartoon/game effect in texturing, making it look less realistic, so when it shows Yoda playing, there is a difference between the game play and real life.

Within the first few weeks I storyboarded and planned exactly what I needed to do, this definitely helped me do things in the right order, I was a lot more organised than the first animation I created.

I feel I have improved a lot on this project, my modelling of the pods and characters shows this. I also found it a lot easier to rig the characters this time. As I mentioned the texturing is different, and is split into two different styles, the main piece is cartoon like, and the scene with Yoda is more realistic, this tested my ability to texture but I feel I have accomplished the difference in textures and I am very happy with how both turned out in finished renders, and best of all neither style had a big impact on render time, unlike my first animation which was taking up to 5 minutes a frame, most of the frames in this piece took a maximum of 50 seconds a frame.

There weren't many big challenges I faced in this project, I did believe I would face a few, but I managed them quite well, for example creating fire from the engines, I set this aside and worked on other parts first as I thought it would be difficult, but creating a blizzard particle system and making it look like fire, still in the cartoon effect, was very easy.
The sound was the biggest challenge, as i did not spend enough time on this and i feel it may have ruined the animation, my lack of sound editing knowledge may have let me down on this project, none of the sounds matched up with what i had created.

In conclusion I feel I could have planned the rigging and animating a lot better, I feel they may have let down my finished piece, especially if I want to become an animator. this project made me realise that maybe I should work more in the visualisation side rather than animating as I enjoy making realistic images, although I liked the cartoon effect I gave this piece. I do feel I have improved from the robot project, but I definitely have a lot more to improve on and learn before the final year.

fully textured pods

i haven't shown much so here is a preview of the final looking pods, and yes iv cut it down to 2 racers, things piled on and i realized iv managed it badly so instead of 5 racers there is just these 2, the good guy and the bad guy.

Yoda plays Fifa

Flickr Material Library

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60837426@N07/

my website

www.wix.com/peyman89/peymanimation

I know Wix isn't that good but its only a temporary website until i learn to make a proper site, and get better at the work i do.

Also you can see my showreel on the site.

update on what ive been up to

iv'e admittedly been very lazy over the past couple of weeks, i have barely done any work, and any work i have been doing has been working on my showreel, so i guess all i can show are little things ive been adding to my showreel, only stills as you will have to see the showreel when its ready for the full thing.
(I decided to go all out on the poker chips, i made the pattern myself, i didnt google the image!)

today we learnt how to make sky scrapers

since josh did a poster i thought id do one too

games console and my game

yoda's hands

Nothing overly complicated but its Yoda's hands for he is playing the game in my animation, thought id have a concept render of him playing too.

i umm... drifted away from the project for a bit - living room

I started by making the tv for the end scene of my animation, then i drifted off and made a living room, it wont be used for anything, but i thought it looked cool.

the fireplace is supposed to be one of those fake ones thats like, on a screen.

dont pay too much attention to this, it was just a time filler.

3rd alien head - white eyes or black eyes white horns?

Toon shaded

Alien Helmet

My original sketch of the alien helmet i wanted to create...

My pretty much completed helmet (without body)  which took me from 12.30pm till 8.30pm (not including gym which was 4-7)

It was very hard to model but i feel iv'e captured the concept sketch pretty accurately.

Toon shaded - how it will look in my animation

Nas & Damian Marley - Patience

this is the new video for one of my favourite songs of 2010, 'patience' by Nas and Damian Marley. I love the video and its just brought back memories of my summer as i saw them live, which was great. But yea this is the video for it, which looks similar to the 'Power' video by kanye west, a lot of layers overlapping, very arty.

Directed and shot by: www.NABIL.com

Editor: Eric Greenburg

Post/artwork: Gustavo & Clara

Producer: Nabil

add Prod: Kathleen Heffernan

thx: kathleen Heffernan, Marc Antoine, Jodie Smith, Sheku



Damian Marley & Nas are Distant Relatives

Pod racer and character 1 in 2 locations

cartoon textured 1st character

lumpy skin texture man

a quick scene test

I actually like this image, i think its a good concept image of what i want my finished animation to look like, so im happy woop woop.

Also the 'walt disney' signs are purely for their glow effects and to represent street signs, nothing more.

tunnel 1

I made a practice tunnel, more of a base tunnel, just to see how id like it to look, and even though i do like the bricks, i want a more flat/metal look going on, a futuristic feel. It did take 2 minutes to render this frame, mainly because of the lights, so work is needed on that if im going to need more lights.

making my own textures - road

 I couldn't find a road texture in the maps already on MAX, so i made my own road map with a bump map, obviously since the road is mainly flat, the bump map wont affect much, but i think it has caused little road lumps to look a bit better.
You can use it if you like, its all about sharing :)

Normal Road Map

Road Bump Map

lighting test render 1

few things obviously wrong but also some good parts to this, keep in mind its only a lighting test, not an animation test.

1. the texturing of my pod seems to lack depth when there arent any lights.
2. yea my bad, the camera movement messed everything up and you can barely see the lights hitting the textures when it does look good, but if you pause it when the light hits it, thats the look im after.
3. this environment is almost how i would like it to look, it kind of matches the pods texturing in that its not exactly realistic, its got a GTA feel to it, still needs a lot of work but im happy with how the texturing and the lights work, just need the texture to work when in shadows.

side project - z brush man

im learning Z brush on the side, so this is a man im working on, hes not finished but i thought i would show him being created.

creature start

Kind of like a base mesh for a creature, needs a lot more work obviously, but initial design is getting there.
and he has no legs because all my characters are sitting down inside a pod racer, no need.

start of light testing

Ok this isn't how the environment is going to look, this is purely a test to see if the glow on the words can illuminate the scene, and they can, (the words represent glowing street signs/shop signs etc) there is no sunlight, only a skylight, and the words with SI, the floor being reflective also helps. 

The environment will hopefully look a bit more cartoony, 2.5D, GTA style, as ive said before. I do like this floor though, a bit less detailed and it will look a bit more game like, but im happy that the scene is illuminated well so far, gotta keep goin, but for now, back to modelling.

Pod race scene - update

ok so im around 4 weeks into the project, which is scaring me because the work i have produced so far doesn't seem enough, then again its still pre production in my head, im still designing particular parts before i model.
In the past i have gone straight into working in 3D, but i want to get my workflow correct and professional. I am still doing 3D work as i sketch out designs though.

I have begun making another base mesh for the creatures, i think i can use the same base for all 5 drivers, but i want another big character for the guy who hits the gong at the start.

I also tried some lighting tests today, i built a simple environment, but then i got lazy and didnt do any lighting, il do it soon.

as far as pod racers go, i still haven't completed the first one i posted a while back, but as i said, still designing ideas, so once every design is complete, it should be easy to work from, rather than finding what i like in 3D.

so thats where i am right now, im also learning zBrush on the side, for me.

iPad

iv'e begun modelling some of the smaller parts of my scene, this is the iPad which is going in my scene for like, 2 seconds.

what ive done so far

This is mainly for me to look at and see what iv'e done for my project so far, you don't need to read this.


WHAT I HAVE DONE


- List of every cut that need to be storyboarded.
   - Storyboarding should be done this weekend, ready for presentation, no need to go back and look over, every scene has been accounted for and written down. Except end scene which isn't scripted in original star wars anyway.
- List of everything that needs to be created.
   - this includes fire and smoke.
- Visual style and references for how i want it to look.
   - many many many referenced images - for environment, characters, pod racers, fast and furious cars, rockstar games images (texture reference), tunnels.
   - found my texture.
- sketches and drawings have begun.
- story is finalized.
- low poly base mesh model - first attempt created.
- 1 pod racer is 3/4 complete - done before hand.

NEED TO DO - BEFORE PRESENTATION

- possibly a mood board of styles and references
   - Id rather just print screen my folders of images as creating an actual mood board holds no significance to me, it only presents what iv'e looked at nicely, which is in no way helpful to my production timeline, i would rather just show the images, and move onto real work.
- Storyboard.
- make the presentation
- Project plan
   - A schedule of some sort, to help me sort out what needs to be done by when so i don't go over the deadline.

Low poly human figure - first attempt in 3DS max

i say first attempt, the first 2 times i tried to make a guy, i kept trying to bevel in some abs, but it failed, so i started over, so this is my 3rd attempt, nothing special, just a simple model.

I call him

ceramic mow-hawk man

texture style example

OK so after like, 6 hours straight, i think iv'e got to a texture style close to the GTA style i was after, I'm happy with how the pod looks once textured, i can definitely improve on some parts, but in general, its the look i was after. 

I also did not use Ink n Paint, as i find it very limited, instead its another shader i found and worked on to give the look i needed, using mental ray, and so the texture isn't as limited.

Don't think about this environment too much, it was just a quick scene i made to give this image more depth and to see how it would look in a 'city'.

Now that i have this visual example of the style im after, i can go back to focusing on the start of the project as i need to now storyboard everything. This texturing was mainly for me to see if it was possible and find out if i should do the whole scene this way, and i would prefer this way over the 'live action' background. I do feel having images as the background would be easier, but i don't want easier, i want to be able to show my capabilities of creating a city in 3D, so this is the path im going for. enjoy.

Oh and there was also the option to give the texture a black border or a 'contour' over every edge, but i felt it looked better without it, a tiny bit less cartoon'y.

stuck in 2 minds

ok so im going backwards a bit now, i have 2 different ideas for how i can do this project.

idea 1 - the same way i have explained, slightly cartoon-y with a 3D modeled environment.

Idea 2 - a bit more tricky, but if i was to texture my pod racers how i had originally done it (if you go back a few posts you can see my original pod racer almost complete)

but then use a live action background i.e photo's of a city. This could be very useful, and look a lot more realistic, as i could use Nottingham city centre for the race track. The only fall back would be camera movements. If the background was a picture, then obviously the camera would have to be still, otherwise the background would just move with the camera (unless the picture was massive and i panned across it).

The only solution i can think of would be to simply have a lot of cuts, meaning no camera movement itself, but lots of different angles (would mean i need a LOT of photos).

And for any extra scenes where i want a close up of the pod or racer in motion (the scene where the 2 pod racers are talking to each other for about 2 seconds) i can simply make a 3D environment, as it would be motion blurred anyway, and hopefully i can match it as close as possible to the actual environment.

Thats my thoughts, enjoy.

visual example for my scene

I was using my existing pod racer and a quick street scene i created to get an idea for how i want it to look in style. So i re textured my pod using Ink n Paint and got the style of paint i want to make it look quite similar to the theme i mentioned earlier. so as far as texturing it i think i know what i want to do, but there was a MASSIVE problem, and that is the lighting situation, Ink n Paint seems to have a lot of problems with lights and shadows and stuff like that, even with a lot of paint levels, there was no depth in the scene, 1 light would illuminate the entire scene rather than the part i wanted, and that is a problem if i want it to look like night time, so im going to need to do a lot of research on either how i can get accurate lighting with this material, or find a way of making normal textures look slightly cartoon-y, which seems like the more obvious option, so we will see.

This is similar to how i want it to be textured, its still a bit cartoon-y, but im working on it, this style could even work, but we will see how it goes.

pod racer - extract from Wookieepedia

A podracer was a repulsorlift racing vehicle piloted duringpodraces across the galaxy, though specifically in the lawlessOuter Rim Territories. The term "podracer" was also used in reference to a being who piloted these racers.

Contents  [show]

DesignEdit

Anakin Skywalker, famoushuman podracer.

A podracer, or "pod", was essentially a one-pilot cockpit attached to two racing engines via strong cables, such as those produced by Steelton. The special engines for these craft traditionally came in one of two varieties of mechanical action: internal combustion engine types or rocket motor types (engines using moving mechanical parts and rocket motors using no moving mechanical parts). At a distance, one could differentiate engines from motors by noting if there are rotating fan/turbines at the front of the craft (engines having large rotating fans, motors lacking them). Energy binders projected from each engine connected both turbines together, forming a loose triangular configuration with the pod itself, dragged behind the engines, at the highest point. A racer could commonly achieve speeds in excess of eight hundred kilometers per hour. Because of this, podracing required lightning-fast reflexes, and only species with a wide range of sensory organs and multiple limbs or durable bodies were known to race pods. Species such as Humans rarely took part in races, and never won—with a single exception.

Famous podracers,Ben Quadinaros,Gasgano and Clegg Holdfast.

Podracers were commonly customized by their owners, whether to achieve greater speed or agility, or simply to end up with a unique-looking racer. The infamousSebulba piloted one of the largest podracers on the Outer Rim circuits, complete with numerous hidden features and secret weaponry, while young Anakin Skywalkerbuilt a custom racer in his yard in Mos Espa. Many podracers were painted by their owners to symbolize different things or just to look good.

HistoryEdit

The podracer evolved from the animal-drawn carts used in racing sports, and later, the swoop racers commonly seen in competitions on Taris, Manaan, and Nar Shaddaa following the Great Sith War. It was a daring mechanic called Phoeboswho designed the first podracer, and a pilot named Gustab Wenbus took this machine for its first experimental flight. Since then, podracing became widely popular on the Outer Rim Territories, and though it was outlawed when the Galactic Empire came to power (although some continued it illegally), the sport enjoyed a resurgence following the Yuuzhan Vong War.

pod racing - extract from Wookieepedia

Podracing was a popular sport in the less-developed regions of the galaxy. It has been called "the ultimate test of skill and daring onTatooine," and was certainly one of the most dangerous sports ever invented, killing many racers.

Podracers were small, one-man repulsorcraft, composed of an anti-gravitypod propelled by one or more pairs of large turbine engines. The engines were not physically connected to each other, being linked instead by power couplings consisting of plasma discharges. The engines were connected to the pods themselves by means of long, Steelton cables.

Contents  [show]

CharacterisiticsEdit

Anakin Skywalker's Podracer.

Besides housing the racer's pilot, each pod contained a repulsorlift engine that kept the craft at a specific, low-level altitude. The turbine engines were incredibly powerful, and were connected by an energy binder that kept them from flying apart. Podracing was popularized in the Outer Rim Territories during the last decades of the Galactic Republic. Its underground nature, great excitement, and almost gladiatorial propensity for carnage held immense appeal to all manner of folk living on the fringes of society.

Because of the reflexes needed to control the pod as it raced around the course at breakneck speeds, as well as the dexterity needed to control the pod racer, all pod racers (apart from Anakin Skywalker) were nonhumans. Inhuman physical attributes, as well as extra pairs of hands, came in handy when trying to control the pod at its top speed of around 900 km/h.

HistoryEdit

"Podracers. You have to wonder whether they have half a brain left because they used to race, or they used to race because they had half a brain."

―Ulda, 8 ABY^[src]

Podracing traced its roots back to the days of animal-drawn carts, from which evolved races with hanno speeders. Ultimately, this sport's development kept pace with that of galactic technology to evolve into Podracing. The concept of modern day podracing was started on Malastare by alien racer Gustab Wenbus. Wenbus had entered himself in a race with a super-fast prototype pod designed by a mechanic named Phoebos.

One of the most famous Podraces was the Boonta Eve Classic, held on Tatooine in 32 BBY. The spectacular race was especially notable for being won by a Human, nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker. This marked the first time a Human had ever won a Podrace. Other popular races at the time included the Vinta Harvest Classic on Malastare, the Ando Overland on Ando Prime^[1][2] and the Aleen Classic.

Although technically illegal (often controlled by the Hutts)^[1][2] Podracing flourished during the rule of the Galactic Republic, particularly among planets in the Outer Rim and on worlds such as Malastare and Ando Prime. The sport was also watched by citizens from the Core Worlds; large viewscreens in seedy establishments such as theOutlander Club on Coruscant relayed Podraces from all over the Rim territories. Podracing's popularity reached an all-time high following Skywalker's win, but as the political situation in the Republic deteriorated, so did the appeal of Podracing.

Many of the sport's generally-accepted criminal activities were exposed, and some of the most famous racers were arrested for a variety of crimes. Podracing was soon outlawed in the Core. Shortly before the outbreak of theClone Wars, it was reported that attendance had dropped more than fifty percent from the era of the Battle of Naboo, although betting transactions remained at an all-time high.^[2] Podracing soon gave way to swoop racingand other forms of extreme sports.

With the Declaration of the New Order and the rise of the Galactic Empire, Podracing became outlawed, and under the Empire's far more stringent standards of law enforcement, the sport fell out of popularity altogether, though by30 ABY, it was noted that the sport had been making a comeback in some systems.

A podrace was shown in the holoscreen in the cantina where Starkiller found Rahm Kota.

In 137 ABY, a podrace was shown on a holoscreen in a drinking establishment on Coruscant, suggesting that the sport continued to regain popularity.