Continued Texture Development: Bark and Leaves Edition

24th November 2016

Continuing the look development project, I have experimented with different materials in Maya to gain the best results for our work. I have tried lambert, Blinn and other base materials; from this I manipulate the materials attributes which produce interesting results.

I had to create a texture for the tree trunks, leaves and moss. These are all different materials with very different properties co-existing within the same scene. I have tested different ways to gain results such as bump mapping, UV editor and Mudbox. In this test I have used bump maps alongside a basic colour. This way the object is lightly textures to produce an illustrative atheistic.

This was problematic because I could not use a traditional texture as this would make the object realistic; therefore I chose a non-conventional method to produce an interesting texture. An example of this is the bar of the tree, I used a tree trunk bump-map, I then turned the depth very low; the final texture is rather abstract and does not appear like the original texture.

The leaves were very problematic as I had to test several materials and altering their attributes. I had to research the structure of leaves and consider their transparency within an illustrative setting. Therefore, I used a leather texture, turned the bump map low and the transparency to estimated 60%. This created an interesting effect of the leaves being slightly transparent with a leaf texture.

I will have to continue work on these textures such as the shack, moss and the water which makes up the ground of the setting.

Manimation: Children's Media Conference 2016: Volunteer Edition

Thursday 17^th November

On the third day of MAF, Manimation took place across the road at the Auto-Trader building on the sixth floor. As well as MAF, I also volunteered for Manimation because I enjoyed the experience last year.

There were a number of talks with heads of the BBC and other speakers including David Sproxton discussing the animation industry. Topics of technological advancement and creative proposals were just a couple of the points raised at these talks, which allowed professionals to engage with each other. As a runner I took the responsibility of assisting managers of the event and making entrants feel welcome with drinks and snacks.

In my spare time I took the opportunity to participate in the VR demonstrations which I found very enjoyable and inspired me about my future career. I am keenly interested in developing VR and augmented reality as I always look out for ways to move forward. This would be the technological advancement I could be working on in the near future; therefore I must develop an understanding of these technologies.

In addition I took the opportunity to speak with a number of industry professionals; an event such as this is a fantastic opportunity for professionals and students to mingle. Overall, I found this a fantastic and enjoyable experience which has given me new insight into the rapidly developing technologies and this affects my practice. 

Manchester Animation Festival 2016: Volunteer Edition

Tuesday 15th - Thursday 17th November 2016

Another year has already come around to welcome the Manchester Animation festival to HOME again. It was a fantastic experience and I am even more pleased to say that I was fortunate enough to volunteer this year at the event. However I had to balance my timetable with the Manimation festival which was on the Thursday, so I couldn’t volunteer for the full three days unfortunately.

DAY 1

This was a very busy day for myself as I was a runner for the team, ensuring everything was running as smoothly as I could help it. Finding missing tickets and acting as ground control as the lobbies became bustling crowds. I took the time on my break to view the short shorts which were a collection of up to two minute films created by artists and studios for the festival. These shorts were extremely entertaining to name some including: ‘More Stuff’ by Blue-Zoo, ‘Tabook’ by Dario Van Vree and ‘Full ANL’ by Aardamn Nathan Love.After that I was busy again with moving easels out of the event space after the life drawing session.

 

Once that job had been done I was fortunate enough to attend the Aardman Fellowship award where Peter Lord and David Sproxton spoke about their years of Aardman as it was the company’s 40^th anniversary. Afterwards I had my Art of Aardamn booked signed by both of them and spoke briefly to Mr Sproxton; thank you very much again if you are reading this.A fantastic start to a brilliant festival.

DAY 2

Starting the second day with the screening of short films, these were films created by artists which lasted around six minutes. These films did feel rather long; personally I felt that these films were too ‘artsy’ and were trying too hard. I much preferred the short and snappy short shorts.After that I helped at the ‘Blue Zoo HooDoo’. This was a talk by the producer and director of the ‘experience’ HooDoo. This was a virtual reality short where the audience are placed in the middle of the story and interact with the characters with interesting results. This was a very interesting talk as they spoke about the process of creating HooDoo and the problems with creating a virtual reality short.

After that I was timetabled for the Skwigly Screening, Skwigly is an animators’ newsletter/ magazine. This was a screening of artists work. I enjoyed some of the work within this screening, however there were more that were too abstract or too ‘artsy’ again much like the short films. Of course all of the work was well made and I can appreciate the work put into them; as artists we will always be subjected to opinion and bias, I am not a fan of the final product of all artists’ work.Shortly after that I participated in the Skwigly Quiz, this was a quiz hosted by the company Skiwgly which offered great prizes ranging from a statue of Gromit signed by Nick Park, animation books, DVDs and much more. We had to answer a series of questions relating to the Stop Motion industry and naming characters from beloved animated series and films. Unfortunately, our team ‘Dreamworks Teamworks’ (not responsible for the name) was one of the last teams. We chose our prizes, I won a badge which I am pleased with.Back to volunteering, I worked at the ‘Making of Ethel and Ernest’ talk. This was a talk by Steve (director of the event) with the animation director and producers of the film ‘Ethel and Ernest’. This was a fantastic talk as they discussed the process of creating such a film, working alongside the author and ensuring the style is consistent.

Finishing the day with a screening of ‘Ethel and Ernest’ in one of HOME’s many cinemas. I found this film very enjoyable and moving. It was well made in writing, screenplay and style by how I felt so involved with a family and was taken on this journey through time, growing to love these characters.

DAY 3

I did not volunteer for the final day of MAF because I was volunteering for ‘Manimation’, a separate animation festival. However at the end of the day I was fortunate to attend the award ceremony at MAF. This was hosted by Barry Purves, who was very funny and presented the awards brilliantly. There were many awards given to artists for their work for their commissioned films, short films etc. Finally, the volunteers were awarded their prizes and received a thank you for their work throughout their time at festival.

Conclusion

The Manchester Animation Festival has been overall a fantastic experience, I feel that I have learnt so much over such a short time, meeting new people and my understanding of the industry. Inspired by artists’ work and thinking about my own, and asking myself how can I do that? I am definitely looking forward to next year’s festival. 

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Texture Development: Swamp Edition

November 2016

Allocated to texturing with the group, I have the task of developing the stylised textures for the scene. This involves observing and reviewing the concept art to ensure the style and colour is captured within the models.

Concept by Siobhan Gilmore

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Within the concept, I saw the trees are coloured by the life that grows on them such as the fungus and moss, which breathes life into the image. Knowing this I used a base colour of brown for the bark and multiple layers of green paint for the moss. I saw the moss almost acted as a layer of snow where it would rest on top of branches rather than underneath; unless it was hanging from the top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I experimented with different ways to create the appropriate texture including: Maya’s bitmapping, bump mapping and hyper shade as well as Mudbox’s paint tools and sculpt tools. I found that the concept art was not detailed; it has an illustrated look, which made me turn away from realistic bump mapping and texturing. Therefore I considered using Mudbox’s paint tools to paint the texture directly onto the models to create the appropriate style.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will continue work on textures by continuing to experiment with different styles; most likely to move onto UVs and Photoshop. This may produce different results I am looking for. I believe I have learnt a lot from this experience, including the level of knowledge and detail needed to produce effective texturing work.