SCAD Cut

Realized that the 'final' film is not up here! How did that happen!

We're still having some issues with sound and the like, but here's what showed at the SCAD Graduation show.

Here it is! Enjoy!

Out of Time - SCAD Cut from Natalia Mercado on Vimeo.

Starting animation!! -Shot 5 Animation

EDIT 5/20: It's been a while! Here is a 'final cut' of the film and it's timing. Still more tweaks ot be done on animation, but that will have to me after this whole thing is over! Rendering is about 25% underway- stay updated!

Untitled from Natalia Mercado on Vimeo.

EDIT 3/20: Deleted some updates for space and quality sake. Blocking 2 for shot 5!







Animation has started! Blocking 1 or shot 5.

Applying Paint effect lines?

I've been a little annoyed with the transition between hard polygonal objects against the background or even against other polygonal objects. I'm trying to see if we can remedy this and make it look even more painterly by adding a blur paint effect to toon lines.at the top there you can see a little explosion attempt but we're getting there...







The main issue here is that we need to render in mental ray to prevent nickeling as you can see in the model...we have been rendering and smooth preview as mental ray can handle that... what it can't handle is two months so will have to do some composite tests.

Rendering Cretaceous

UPDATE 11/17: Animatic has been updated with the rings, sets, props, etc. check it out over here.

EndUPDATE

Sequence of renders showing different lighting stages. The matte painting is actually in the Maya scene in these renders. The end product will involve after Effects compositing.








Update 11/16

More Texturing...

UPDATED: 11/11

UPDATED: 11/16

Mailbox Progress.


Looks like we finally need a name for him... can't find one that feels or just looks right. ANY SUGGESTIONS WELCOME


Final base tex
A little washed out...

Machine and Mailbox

Time to show other people's work! Thanks for texturing the time machine, Dayanna! (WIP)

And Jason (Not to be confused with out professor) whipped this out according to Cassandra's concept art- how awesome! What a likeness!

Traveller Shader Tests

UPDATED: 10/31

With lights....


Without lights...
Ramp shaders a peculiar animals....

He's also proving a little more difficult than the dino... came up with some ideas on my back and forth trips to the computer lab- for now we might have to put it to rest and come back to it later.

Also, the time traveller rig is done! Three cheers for David!

Texture Experiments

I need some color up here!

Experiments with the textures- basically we're trying out a ramp shader with different files of different shades on it- according to principles of light. I can stand here and pretend I thought of that myself, but it was actually Xuco who came up with this- he's the master of experimentation. I'm just trying to adapt it to be more painterly.

The goal is to get it to all match up with how light actually affects objects. I made each texture file according to how light wraps around a form.


Image above from James Gurney's Blog, which is a necessary resource for any artist, regardless of specialty. All this computer work has kept me from drawing for a while... and I was surprised to notice that I was forgetting simple (yet so complex!) principles such as this. So, I turned to diagrams like this and found I still have a lot to learn...

Anyway, there's still a lot of tweaking to be done, and figuring out how they'll look with lights is still a challenge to face.

EDIT: 10/28/10 More experimentation. Added complimentary colors to highlights and shadows (blue and red.) Probably should push it more...


Removed some unnecessary maps- makes render times faster!

Facial Rig

Almost there with the facial rig. Need some corrective blendshapes for the beard.



Cretaceous!? Damn!

Dino Rig Test

Quick rig test. Done in an hour or maybe two so animation is somewhat lacking... but shows that that rig works!

Thanks Xuco!

Here's an endless loop URL: http://www.endlessyoutube.com/watch?v=1TaEfW9mOUw

Also, I think i got him to sit the way we need..

Dino Rig

Hello dudes. I've been working on the dinosaur rig, and it's coming along. He's looking pretty happy

Gave it to Natalia and she gave me a few things to tweak. For the most part, though, it's working pretty well. I'll post a video of the rig working later. Or maybe Natalia will post a motion test. It does have a hard time sitting down, but we'll figure out.

Time Machine Interior Model

Wireframes

More wireframes

I made a fence!

Updated 10/13/1o: traveler flat tex is finished. Dinosaur tex completed- still messing with shaders.

Some in process screenshots of dinosaur added, WIP traveler image replaced with final.






Random pictures of texturing- not final at all.

I made a bump map for a fence in zbrush! Stylish!


Here's the paintover I did for comparison- the hair and face still needs a lot of work.

Mattte Painting Lists

UPDATED: 10/10/10

Condensed a lot of the paintings, as some can be re-used and arranged differently.


Man! I hate posting something that isn't an image or video! Bummer!

Matte painting priority list.