Animation update

On the 29th of March, the environments were starting to be put together. I started by putting together the scenery for the bench scene, where Arthur and Merlin converse with each other.

Here the colours and textures of the environment were tried and tested to create a not too realistic, cartoony feel yet still with depth and texture.

This is an example of screenshots of previous stages and renders of the bench scene.

After establishing the scenery, I then started the animation by working on the most difficult scene, revolving around the bayonet falling into the water. For this I used the fluid simulation in Blender and rendered it using blender cycles.

The bayonet itself was taken from turbosquid.com with the UV textured edited before being imported into Blender and used as a moving obstacle to interact with the fluid. The shot was then rendered and altered in After Effects to achieve a night time/dusk render. There were some issues such as getting a decent looking splash and a water shader suitable for the style of this particular animation.

Here are various renders showing the changes made to the shot. 

After this, I started animating Arthur throwing the bayonet in Maya.

I first started off doing the camera panning down to reveal him holding his bayonet along with some subtle body movements. I then added on a background on a moving layer  as well as adding a night filter in After Effects

This is a snapshot of Arthur holding bayonet in maya

This a render which still needs to be brightened up a little

After this, I continued to animate Arthur throwing the bayonet by having a frontal shot of Arthur raising the bayonet over his head and a back view of him actually throwing the bayonet. Here I also learned of Maya's ocean shader and thus made a fairly convincing, low poly water surface.

I then moved onto animating part of the bench scene. Here I just animated Arthur sitting alone before noticing and waving at Merlin. It was then that i was made aware of a built in rig controller in Maya as previously I moved each bone individually. Using the controller, I then animated Arthur running towards the camera with a helmet and the bayonet brought in from Turbosquid. 

The next task would be to animate Merlin's parts, again using the rig controller and finish of the last few shots of the animation. I will then bring them into after effects and edit accordingly. 

I have also decided to remove the beginning scene of the row of bayonets and arthur in the barracks so that there are less scenes to animate before the deadline next week and to help make the storyline more linear.

Merlin and Arthur rigging and expressions

This week, I finished off the rigging and facial expressions for both Arthur and merlin.

I added the expressions onto both characters by using blend shapes in Maya

This was the process of making expressions for Arthur

This was a screenshot of a fully rigged Arthur smiling and waving

This was the process of rigging Merlin

This was a render of merlin saluting and marching

This was the process of creating blend shapes for Merlin

And this was the final render of Merlin smiling and saluting

The next task would be to continue creating the environment before starting to animate the scenes. the backdrop of Arthur's Seat may be a mat painted, painted with Photoshop with a painted/watercolour effect.

Arthur texturing and rigging

Over the past two weeks, I completed modelling my Arthur character and have been working on my finishing the texturing and getting most of the rigging done.

This is my model complete without the UV textures.

This is my Arthur model after UVing the Khaki design onto his uniform.

This was my Arthur model after giving him a hair texture

This was a test render, showing his skin shader

This was my model after some shaping around the eye area and giving him some eyebrows

This was my model after giving his belt a UV texture and bump map

And this was my final render of my model with his name tag before starting to rig.

This was a snapshot of my character whilst being rigged using Maya's human IK

And this is Arthur fully rigged and textured, sitting on the bench that I modelled earlier. The next task will be to fix the elbow joints before moving onto rigging Merlin.

Merlin textured

This is a small update to show a fully textured render of Merlin.

The skin was done by using the fast skin shader in Maya with a UV texture painted on Photoshop.

The next step would be to texture Arthur and rig both characters. I will then focus on the environment.

I have already started modelling the fence for the scene of Arthur and Merlin conversing at Prince's Street Gardens and previously I modelled a bench. There are brushes in Maya that I can utilise to create bushes, grass and foliage. I will create a mat painting for the background and add it in after effects.

merlin and arthur models update

Today I finished off modelling both Arthur and Merlin.  Below are ambient occlusion renders of both characters. I have also started to add textures starting with a fabric texture for Merlin's suit. 

Screenshot of completed Arthur model

Ambient occlusion render of Arthur

Ambient occlusion render of Merlin

Texture render of Merlin

Merlin model

Today I finished off my merlin drawing and attempted modelling him in Maya.

This is the finished outline drawing

This was a render after modelling the jacket and trousers

And this my Merlin model more or less complete. The next step would be to finish off Arthur. texture both models and rig them

Arthur model

I recently started modelling Arthur for my animation. So far I have just modelled the head shape, the shirt and the start of the trousers.

I have decided to model the torso, legs, head, arms, feet and head as separate objects to help make them easier to model as I will be able to add edge loops to certain parts of shirt, trousers etc without affecting the whole model. It will also mean I can easily add certain materials to certain parts of the body. This is what I have done so far.

merlin update

This is just a quick update to show a quick sketch of Merlin's body.

The suit is to reflect his time in the military, showing a stoic, refined pose with a tidy appearance.

Update

Having written and submitted the planning document for the project, I finished my Arthur design and started on Merlin. I am hoping to start modelling the characters within a week or so.

first, I added a side view and coloured in Arthur. For ease of modelling, I may make the hair more blocky and stylised than shown here.

I also started to design merlin's head both font and side. it was decided to make his hair and facial hair are more blocky and stylised to make it easier to model

Arthur animation update

Today I had a quick look at options for creating the landscape for my animation. Previously I looked at using Digital elevation models of the Edinburgh, Arthur's Seat in particular, and putting them into Vue. I then found that it would probably be a lot easier by simply creating an Arthur's seat lookalike in Maya by sculpting a NURBS plane as it will only be viewed in two shots at the most. For the sky i may either use view to make a HDR map or simply download a royalty free image.

As for the story, it was suggested that perhaps the scene showing the bayonets was perhaps too sudden for an opening scene at it would be better lead into it from another. Instead I am thinking of having Arthur cooking and while chopping up some vegetables, the knife reminds him of his bayonet and prompts the flashback to the bayonet-on-the-rack frame shown in my storyboard and animatic.

Today I have also started to model some of the props for the scenes. I have started modelling the bench in the scene where Arthur converses with Merlin. This is the bench as it looks so far and I will update again as I progress.

Arthur character design

Having settled on the story and completed both the storyboard and the animatic, I started the character design for Arthur, which will also be the base model for other military men in the animation.

I first started to design the face as I prefer to design the face first before the body.

 Then after designing the body to have a stalky frame, I decided that the face looked a little too young and redesigned it accordingly.

Coloured versions will be available with a side view in due course, along with character designs of Merlin before modelling in Maya.