More stuff...

Today, I haven't really done research as such; but I have spent time getting up to speed with various techniques in Maya.

I have been playing around with methods of creating light and shade and I came across this tutorial, which explains how I can create a sky by using the Mental Ray rendering software: http://en.9jcg.com/comm_pages/blog_content-art-109.htm

I have just created this scene of the sun setting by following the tutorial:

I think it is a quick way of creating various sky effects, but the only downside I have found is that rendering takes much longer and it seems that the sky does not show up in the video file, unless you save it as a video sequence in FCheck.

I am also trying to explore ways of playing with the colour of the sky itself to get a more red texture and also methods of including clouds.

Please take a look, and tell me what you think.

Crash course in UV mapping

I've just been trying to get my head around UV mapping. Its quite a broad area. Heres a video I found about the basics of UP mapping, I suggest you watch

Also some of you still need to accept my invites to the blog and also send me your individual blog address.

Individual blog links

Howdy everyone!!

It was good to hang with you all today :)

Could you all please message me the links to your individual blogs, or add them as a comment to this blog post?

And also, if any of you have any ideas for names of our team, please let me know!!

Thanks and have a good weekend

Enthausiasm high!!!

Hey guys following on from my research in the last post i was in the mood for a bit of painting so i did some concept art of the Serengeti. The quality of the image below is not great but i will bring the art to uni to see in more detail. Also watched a few videos of the sunsetting in the Serengeti and observed the changes of light closely maybe we will all need to do this at some point.

Then i played with maya and some how came up with this (at the bottom of he post) which is heading in the right direction to what we need to do check out images below.

A Few ideas!!!!

Hey guys i have been thinking about this project alot since we got it and have been thinking of places that inspire me and places i feel that we could adapt to create a great environment.

First off i will say we need to get the ball rolling so im gonna throw ideas out there and go from there.

Right first idea is adapting the beautiful and mesmeric surrounding of the "Serengeti migration" its so great and would be a challenge but i reckon by working hard i think we can create an awesome environment.

I am inspired alot by african art and this style of imagery could work beautifully in our cartoon approach to modelling.

Also animating would be no issue with so many species of animal living in the Serengeti and also the Masai tribes of Tanzania and kenya. This is such a visually appealing place and lighting will be key in creating a adaption of the Serengeti.

Research for african art is widely available in london and at the british Musuem they have room dedicated to africa. Also in a few days we will have access to one of the best documentaries ever made and was shown at Imax in 1994 "Africa : The Serengeti". I feel this idea lends its self to our cartoon approach so let me know what you think. :)

Let's get the ball rolling...

Hello all,

I hope you're all doing good. I just thought I'd get this started by posting up a blog entry on what we need to do. First of all, Jared has recently sent us an email which states that we need to send him details of who is in the group, but also the TEAM NAME. So if any of you have any suggestions at all of a good name for our team, post them up here, it could be anything!

Also if you haven't done so already, enrol on this group on moodle: http://learn.rave.ac.uk/moodle/course/view.php?id=694

As for research that I have done, I thought I might post up some extracts from the graphic novel, I Saw It by Keiji Nakazawa, and is a first-hand account of the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6th 1945. It is loosely where I got the idea of using Hiroshima and the idea of portraying a town before, during and after a nuclear attack.

I've also begun looking at some images of Hiroshima and also photos from shortly after the disaster and I've come across some pretty graphic images so far. I shall post some more research up once I've got enough.

As for the rest of you, if you come up with any more themes for environments and some research/imagery to support these ideas; please post up.