Victoria Ying

http://conceptartworld.com/?p=22386

I came across Victoria Ying's work while looking through artists on Concept art World website.

I like her drawing style, it is simple but the use of lines, shading and colours help to add detail to the drawings. I would also say it is a cartoony style so it reminds me of past cartoons featured on channels such as Cartoon Network on shows such as Tom & Jerry or Dexter's Laboratory.

It is type of drawing style that I could consider when I start practising and it is a good artist for me to look at for inspiration as she is a professional concept art and illustrator. She has done work for animated films such as Wreck It Ralph and Tangled. She is currently working at Disney Animation Studios. Her other pieces of work are very unique with the way she uses unusual colours for objects, I like the colourful appearance of these drawings.

Over the Summer Work

DRAWING

Over the summer I am going to really work on my drawing skills, starting off really simple such as drawing objects around me and hopefully be able to move on to sceneries.
Since I shall be spending the majority of my summer in the countryside forest I shall use the scenery to my advantage as most of my drawings can be from primary sources instead of secondary so I shall be buying a small notebook so I do not feel intimidated by producing large drawings.


I am wanting to improve my drawing skills for many reasons such as it is the best skill to have to get my ideas down visually and it will help me with future projects when I am at the initial research stage. For example, I can be using more primary reference sources if I need to model an object, I will understand the shape better which will only improve my 3D modelling skills.

It will help my storyboard skills because I realised every time I needed to produce a storyboard for a project I left it too late and this sometimes made my project hard to understand and this way I can plan things out better.
I can also be able to find what type of drawing style I want or have and improve on it.
I would like improve my concept art on future projects so this can be done by working on my drawing skills.

To make sure I see this task through, I shall be posting pictures of the drawings I did.

Visual Effects Company Protests....

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/03/06/visual-effects-industry-takes-protest-to-twitter-facebook/


The VFX industry have started speaking out and standing up for the fact that they do not get enough respect and appreciation. There have been many cuts in their industry even though they have been able to help produce successful blockbuster films with these cuts.

''Effects artists are responsible for the thousands of effects shots that appear in most of today’s blockbuster movies. Despite rocketing demand for visual effects in commercials, movies and games, creating the effects is getting increasingly unprofitable, industry executives say.'' 

''The bankruptcy of Rhythm & Hues is the second bankruptcy filing by a leading U.S. visual effects shop in the past six months, following Digital Domain Media Group Inc. DDMGQ 0.00% in September last year.''

The company, Rhythm & Hues are now in bankruptcy, however they ask that artists and other companies join together to improve trade and work in their areas so that in the future we all won't suffer like this again and it could help to improve later films.
These artists in favour of this protest are changing their Facebook profile picture to a green rectangle, this represents the green screen technology used for backgrounds.

This news is what I need to keeping up to date with to know how I can influence the industry and what I can bring to it, it also helps to know what companies want the best for their employees and their companies.

Jack The Giant Slayer- CineFex

I decided to choose this article from the CineFex magazine, they give a detailed description of behind the scenes information to how some scenes in films are made. The TV equivalent to this would be 'The Making of.....' which was a show that MTV used to feature.

The director, Bryan Singer wanted to use the same effects used to create 'Avatar' but instead of more CGI, he wanted it to be more live-action with CGI integrated into the scenes. This meant they used motion-capturing with actors to create the mythical creature giants. This did not restrict the director to where he could place the cameras, it allowed him to be free while filming.
Bryan Singer tried to find ways to reduce the cost when thinking of the scenes that required huge sets or characters that had to computer generated, so I learnt that bringing the best out of the movie at a low cost without reducing the quality of the film is a factor to remember.
As you can see from the images above, green screen with a mixture of 3D sets were used to complete the scenes. This has also taught me that there are many roles that are needed for many different aspects of film, VFX and animation which means that I should take my time to explore these different roles to see where I want to improve my skills.

I learned more information but that was just a summary. I find it very interesting and I am inspired by all the hard work the crew working on this movie is doing especially before it enters the editing studios.

Personal Project- Absorb

I shall be producing a personal video project before I leave for America in the summer for camp.

This follows from my previous post on things that could go wrong even though you plan ahead, so I am attempting to create a short video based on the idea of Inspiration.
It is the story of how a celebrity has influenced a young youth to pursue his/her dreams and the hard work that he/she are doing to get there.

I am working with my friend Namara Williams, who shall be featuring in the video and it is a simple story about how a person's determination will help them succeed their dreams. The idea is solid right now, so now I am in the process of booking out equipment and finding locations for the filming.
I shall be seeing this work from the beginning till the end which is the editing process.
We have already decided what sounds are needed and the soundtracks for the video.

I have tried to plan as much as I can ahead of time such as borrowing equipment and making sure that locations are available.


However, the last scene will be hard to shoot in my opinion as I shall be using the high speed camera to capture certain movements and also this scene is meant to represent a dream that Namara is having so I want that idea to come across visually.

Doing this short video will help me explore more filming and editing skills as I am thinking of looking into how to composite videos.
I am excited for this personal project, it will also teach me better organisation skills which will only get better with more personal projects that I do.
This gives me the chance to do what in my mind I want to and see if it works, so I am experiencing this as a stepping stone.

FMX Festival- CineFex

http://www.fmx.de/home.html

I researched into this festival which took place in Stuttgart, Germany on April. The festival focuses on Animation, Effects, Games and transmedia. It takes place over a duration of four days.

It has similar events held to the Bradford Animation festival. I hope to save up and travel to experience this festival as the speakers who went this year are people in different parts of the Media industry and they will be able to give a lot of valuable information. I have checked and transport can be booked from England to Stuttgart for under £200 plus the cost of where to stay and the festival prices to the different events. I would definitely like to visit this festival so I can be able to decide on what area I would like to work towards to or explore more of. If I am able to go next year I can compare the Bradford Festival to this one.

This is a screenshot of what events took place this year and there are workshops which I can look into.

Social Networking- Absorb

These are the logos for the different types of websites that can be used for social networking to promote your work and enhance your chances of getting hired.

I have listed below: Deviantart, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Youtube and Vimeo.

A good way of getting your work noticed is to add companies in your field of interest on these networking sites and start following them so you can stay up to date with what they are looking for in employees and what type of work they produce. You can also ask for their opinion and this can help to create good work relationships even though you are not currently working for them but knowing and talking to them as a contact can open many other doors for you.

Collaborating with other artists you follow on these websites in similar fields and other fields to you can help to enhance your portfolio to promote your chances of getting hired and getting your name out there for freelance work.

When I feel my portfolio is at a good standard, I shall start to sign up to these sites that I am not already signed on to help get feedback and more information in networking and producing better quality work.

Visual Effects Companies- CineFex

Below are visual effects companies that I shall be following so that I can keep up to date with their current work and also what type of people they recruit for their team or certain skills that could help you get hired by them. In my 2nd year, if we learn a little about VFX I think that could help jumpstart my research into this category of work and use it with my current interest in Film.

IMAGE ENGINE

http://www.image-engine.com

As I was reading through the 'Cinefex' magazine, I came across an ad for the visual effects company IMAGE ENGINE which are currently recruiting.

They have worked on the recently released film 'Fast and Furious 6', 'Safe House' and 'Battleship'. They are located in Canada so if artists are willing to relocate they could be apply to this company.

RODEO

http://www.rodeofx.com/

I found that the Rodeo company website gives a lot of information on what they are currently working on and other company information. Also located in Canada, they are currently working on the second Hunger Games film but have also done work on the recent film 'Jack the Giant Slayer'. 

They also provide these services: concept art, 3D tracking and data capture, on set supervision, 3D animation, CG environments.

Film: Biker Boyz

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0326769/

The equivalent to Fast and Furious films, though with motorbikes instead of cars. The storyline is not new but the motorbikes help to add to the storyline to make it more interesting and it is good because it is mainly cars that are targeted such as the Fast and Furious films.

I enjoyed watching this film because it had a strong storyline , a bit soppy at times which took away from the serious lives these 'Biker Men' live and how they are influenced by it.

I found the effect used to describe how a 'born' rider feels when they are racing towards the finish line. I think it was a cliche technique, but it worked well with the movie.

The storyline in this movie was built up as the movie progressed, it seems a bit rushed towards the end but the viewer gets the gist halfway through, but I definitely liked how the storyline built up, it kept you engaged. The action scenes were not extreme which worked for this movie if not it would have taken away from the lesson being taught.

Copyright and how to address it- Absorb

The Copyright Law gives the owner or the person responsible for the piece of the work the right to use control how their material will be used or distributed.

The materials of these owners are automatically protected by the Copyright, Design and UK Patents Act of 1998.

These rights cover: Copying, Distributing of product, Public Performance e.g. busking, Adapting.

The owners have the right to object to their work being defamed, mutilated or distorted.

This act covers types of product such as Films, Games, Music, Animation, Computer Applications and Drawings.

Internet Work can also be covered in certain countries such as the United Kingdom. The good thing is that once you have produced this work it is automatically covered and does not need to be registered in any way.

However, the copyright law lasts for a product 70 years for a Film, artistic and photographic work, and 50 years for Sound Recordings. Most of the time to use work that has been copyrighted, you will need to seek permission if it is to be used for commercial reasons, sometimes you do not need to seek permission if it is mainly for educational purposes.

If someone uses your work and passes it off as their own, contact them first to talk the situation out and only resort to legal involvement if needed.

This summary of information is what I shall keep in mind when I distribute my work around so I can avoid any copyright issues dealing with my work or any others. The 'Pirate Bay' website is a good example of how the copyright laws are in action. They specialise in allowing downloads of free music, apps and films which can affect the media industry financial status.

Studio Task: Dynamics and Rigging Exercise

When it came to carrying out this exercise, I found it easy at the beginning of the tutorial videos but as the tutorial progressed it was hard to follow and I kept piling up the skills learnt in previous videos in new ones so I basically confused myself.

I kept trying to complete these dynamic exercises that had to do with animating the flag and after many attempts of at least 4, I just exported the a video and playblast of what I had. I decided to also just import my flag into Unity to complete the tutorial.

I would say that it was not using the IK Spline Handle tool or any other of the Ndynamics options in Maya but I simplify should pay more attention to the videos and not to follow them in a chronological idea and listen to the instructions more.

Overall, I have learnt this simple lesson though it did stress, however I know where I went wrong.

Game Engine: ForgeLight and Unity

https://www.planetside2.com/forgelight


From the article in 3D World Magazine, I learnt about the new game engine Forgelight which is described as the next-generation MMO (massively multiplayer online). Forgelight has been used to create the game PlanetSide 2 PC Game. 

It is said to take advantage of the computer's capabilities ''without slowing down performance'' or affecting ''game play''.

Above is a screenshot of what the advanced features it has.

I am not much of a gamer but I found the idea of this game engine being created mainly to support the game PlanetSide 2.

Also since using Unity to help create my game level I have learnt how the basics of Unity works and more complex things such as Particle systems which I found hard to get my head around.

Unity supports many platforms which allows it to be the first choice of most people since it can work on iphone, PC, Mac, Web, Wii and many others.

Since in this module I have used Unity to create my game level I can only inform what the Forgelight engine can do.

Daniel Dociu

This is some of Daniel Dociu's work, he is a concept artist and video game director.

I really like the strong shading in these drawings. The lighting has been used well to accentuate different areas in the drawing.

I have posted these also because they were useful when I was thinking about how to make my environment scary or think about how certain props would be texture.

I really like this drawing because of the AWE theme running through it, the monument is drawn to show it is at a huge scale compared to the humans and with the use of minimal colours for shading allows you see study the whole composition of the image because the edges have been accentuated to show that there is more lying beyond the bright light.

Though this drawing is small in composition there is a lot still going on in this image and already tells the viewer that the wooden bridge might be dangerous with the angle it is at. The shading lines convey motion in my opinion.

 I shall definitely keep looking at Daniel Dociu's work because it inspires not just on ideas but also visually conveying them.

My Concept Art- Tree house Game Level

This is the concept art and colour experimentation I did for this project.

As you can see some drawings have been repeated over and over again, this was so I could understand how I wanted my environment to look like or what was going to be in it. I drew the tree houses placed in the trees many times because it was not until I started modelling it in Maya that I had to make a few changes like adding a balcony and a roof whereas my initial idea was to just have the tree house perched on the tree. I also added wooden stacks to hold the tree house, the extra props or objects helped to make my game level more visually appealing in my opinion.

The three images above just show my experimentation with colours of how I would texture my treehouse, I decided to keep the colour choice which was the orangey colour as the inside texture of my treehouse but changed the outer texture. 

Props

Below are the drawings for how I was thinking the inside would look, again when it came to modelling it in Maya and with the time frame I had, I was able to create the props I wanted but however I wish I had spent more time texturing my vase or chest because they could have been modelled better. 

A 4 circle layout of how the interior of the 4 tree houses might have looked.

Originally as seen in the drawing above, one of the tree houses were going to have a pool inside it but I scrapped that idea because when I imported my environment into Unity and started adding particles I decided that it would not have worked so I created lakes around my environment to substitute not having one in my tree house. The lake in the tree house was meant to mimic how certain streams or lakes are found in caves.

The throne room as seen above, I kept that the same except I just changed the layout of where the chests and pillars were placed, though the idea that the throne would definitely be placed in the main tree house stayed. I also added stairs leading to the throne which I think helped to emphasise that this tree house was the main one.

Modelling & Texturing My Throne

First attempt at the UV mapping of the chest lid. I found that since I wanted to try and make the texture from scratch, it was hard because when I placed it on my model the texture came out stretched. So I changed some colours and took out certain things I had done. 

This is my second attempt which I kept and used in as my final chest lid texture, which with the time frame I had, I think it worked well. 

1st attempt

2nd attempt

Final 3rd attempt

As you can see I had three attempts are creating the UV map texture for the cube of my chest. I mainly had problems with keeping the image in the middle of the cube from stretching and also trying to draw my texture from scratch. I created these colours by changing the Layer mode in Photoshop because I thought it would add depth using the dark colours.

I would say that my chest is not the best textured prop out of the other props and models in my environment.

Final image of how my chest looks in maya.

Problems I Faced with my Game Level

Rain Particles System

I created a particle system in unity with the shader ''Fairy Dust'', however Annabeth advised that it would be a better option to create a new particle system from scratch instead of using the new one implemented by Unity. The ''fairy dust'' shader was edited so that it was stretched and when it was emitted, it looked like rain. The problem is solved and the rain falls down perfectly onto the terrain so I am happy with the results.

Screenshot of how the settings are laid out in the manually generated particle system

This way I got to understand what really goes into a particle system from manually adding the components it needed which was 'Ellipsiod Particle Emitter' 'Particle Animator' 'World Particle Collider' and 'Particle Renderer'. I still need to learn to understand what each one can do and how it all came together to help make the particle 'Fairy Dust' look like rain.


Bats Particles

1st texture sheet image

2nd final texture sheet image

Instead of creating a 3D bat in Maya, I used the idea of creating a textured animation image which allowed me to save time when creating my game level. The main problem I had with implementing the Targa. image into the particle system was that the bats emitted weren't visible and the different settings I added did not work. However, when I changed the shader setting in the Render category from 'Particle/Additive' to 'Particle/Multiply' it made the bats visible.
However, I felt that I could make my bats look better, so I created another texture sheet image as seen above and added some red eyes, this has made the bats emitted look more realistic even though it is mainly their silhouette. I would have thought about working on making more bats per image so that the animation was smooth but this works for now with the time frame I have.

I am glad that I could keep the bats in my game level because I felt that they would definitely add the 'FEAR' element to my game, especially since adding the Bat's sound effect helped to add a realistic tone to my level.


Importing my environment into Unity

When I imported my game level from Maya to Unity I lost my textures, so I had manually attach my UV maps to the objects in Unity. I learned that in the future when I want to import my level, I should import each object one by one because then any animations or textures I have do not get lost and even though this task would be tedious it would save me time having to re-attach all the textures to my objects again, especially since I added bump maps to the objects and Unity's bump map settings aren't as good as Maya's in my opinion.



These are the problems that got me stuck while creating my game level or that I learned a lot from.



These processes and skills that I tried to use through my modelling, texturing and adding features in Unity have helped me get my game level to a standard that I am happy with. I made sure that I included the main props that I really wanted to keep, but also worked on getting the lighting right within my game as was possible.

Progression of my game level

How the terrain looked as I started creating the forest floor.

Aerial view of the forest land creating using the terrain tool in Unity. 

Screenshot of the rain particle system

I wanted to add rain particles to my environment because I of the initial design to have ponds/lakes in the forest so with the help of my classmate, I was able to adjust the settings on the particle system to create realistic rain.

View of the level, but not finished.

As seen in the image above I have made the lighting for my environment to be dark because I think this will enhance the feeling of 'FEAR', I gave the sky an evening setting from the Render settings.

I added some Point lighting around the forest because then it means that my first person controller can see around my level.

This is an image showing of how I started the process of adding my bats particles to my game level. This is definitely an important component because bats are instantly thought of to be scary, emphasising the FEAR theme. I may change the appearance of the bats but right now I am seeing how it works in my level.

Here I am playing with the lighting, I wanted to go for between afternoon and evening so dark enough to convey FEAR but light enough to be able to see the forest and the surroundings.