Maya: Dynamics Part 3: Omni Emitters

Character: Olympigs - Character Development

Pig characters refined in Photoshop and why I've chosen certain colours for each character:

Standard Pig - Pretty generic pink pig.
Swim Pig - Orange colour disguises him like the goldfish, blue snorkel like the water.
Demon Pig - Twice the size of the other pigs, intimidating and coloured red because he's angry and dangerous. Upright pointy ears, angular face, snout and eyes, angry eyebrows and fangs.
PigWings - Glows yellow from halo, flies slowly and gracefully like and angel. Halo attached to tail.
Skinny Pig - Half the size of other pigs, can fit through narrow tunnels and can dodge the Demon Pigs easier.
InvisiPig - Like Standard Pig but very low transparency so can hide from Demon Pigs.
Jet Pack Pig - Colours of Superman as character flies like a superhero over obstacles.

Will work on some environments/levels for Tuesday :)

CG Tropes & Practices 6: Light Rays Vs God Rays

God Rays Exterior

God Rays Interior

Moving Light Rays Interior

Narrative: Inspiration, Logorama

 
In our tutorial Alan showed us this animation 'Logorama' which is about a world made from well known logos. I couldn't find the English one but it's more about the visuals anyway. He suggested that maybe we could make our factory environment from the shapes of icons that are found on cardboard boxes. This would mean that it would have a really unique style and that Will's cardboard box characters would fit in really well with that environment.

Here's some icons that I've found that may be helpful:

 

Character: Games Influence Map

For my game I'm looking at either having platform style game where it's quite basic and blocky or one in the style of addictive app game 'Temple Run'. I'm edging more towards the Temple Run themed game as I think it will be easier to incorporate the device tilt action when playing rather than the more flat side view game. Like the coins in Temple Run, the Pigs will collect food to boost their energy levels but there will be many obstacles to dodge along the way such as gaps in the path, water, enemies etc. So the player will have to choose the appropriate pig to use each time to get to the end of the course. All the environments in each level will vary and get weirder each time to keep interest in the game. Player has to reach a certain score to unlock next level or new powers? 

Pigs (Wildlife/Animals)  Food (Energy) Tilt (Balance/Stability)

Narrative: Prop Design, Origami Crane Orthographics

Narrative: Environment Design

My Rough Factory Design

With Will's Characters

Another One With Will's Character Designs

I made a rough idea for our environment but still needs a lot of refining such as having the paper shredder and 'rejections' lever / trap door etc..  but think we should stick with the straight-on fixed camera throughout. I think the conveyor belt design I have here will be 3D modelled, along with the characters and then maybe we will just have a painted 2D background to suggest the rest of the factory world and keep focus on what's happening in the foreground. I've added a couple of Will's character designs in here as these were my favourite ones and I wanted to see how they would fit in with the factory space. Although I can't quite decide which I prefer at the moment, it's all work in progress!

CG Tropes & Practices 5 - Ambient Occlusion

No Lighting

Ambient Occlusion Plugged Into Shaders

Ambient Occlusion Area Light

Ambient Occlusion Pass

Character: Developed Game Idea

 

 

My Words:  Wildlife    |    Energy    |    Stability

 

 

My idea is to make an App game as I think it would suit my idea best and is also most current in the games industry. The characters are pigs, all with different abilities for the challenges they may come across. It will be an agility course type game with crazy kinds of pigs who will encounter obstacles and what is the best way to overcome them. They have to collect food along the way to keep their energy levels up. New pigs are revealed at each level and the player has to decide when is the best time to use them as special pigs are only usable for a limited time. Each next level has increasing difficulty.

Here's some drawings I've done for the pig characters.
Standard Pig: for general use in the game such as walking and jumping etc.
Flying Pigs: To fly over gaps in the path, areas of water or enemies (Demon Pigs). There is Jet Pack Pig and Pig Wings. If your pig is running out of energy he can use Jet Pack Pig, if your Pig has a lot of energy, Pig Wings can be used.
Demon Pig: Wants to attack other pigs and drain their energy levels.
Swim Pig: To cross areas of water in their path, turns orange in the water to blend in with the other fish and has a blue snorkel.
Skinny Pig: To fit through small tunnels.
InvisiPig: Uses transparency to hide from the Demon Pigs. (No Sketch Available)

Maya: Dynamics Part 11 - Collision Events (Rain)

Character: Initial Ideas

Maya: Pipeline 1: Head Modelling Part 4 - The Mouth

Narrative: Environment Influence Map (Factory)

 

I like these three images in particular to inspire our environment. Images 1 and 2 have the straight-on view of the conveyor belt whereas the third one it at a slight angle. Although I like the fun and simplicity of the first one, I really think the colours of 2 and 3 would really work for our animation.

Maya: Pipeline 1 - Head Modelling Part 3: Refined Blocking

Maya: Dynamics Part 1: Sketching Particles, Cloud & Balloon

CG Tropes & Techniques: As Real

 Today we looked at CG Trope 'As Real' where fiction is placed in the real world and the brain can't quite understand it such as Hyungkoo Lee's 'Animatus' in which he creates realistic skeleton structures of famous cartoon characters (see below):





 

 

We also looked at a series of images that were cartoon characters made to look realistic just to show how creepy fictional proportions would be if placed in the real world...

 

 

Another example for 'As Real' was this fake Star Wars footage at a German airport where a real life setting was used and therefore the lighting was genuine as well but the aeroplanes were replaced with science fiction models so it looked quite realistic.



Maya: Mental Ray Part 3: Linear Work Flow

RAW View

Correct View

Narrative: Post-Tutorial Feedback, Story Timeline / Breakdown

So after our tutorial with Alan on Tuesday we have finally come up with an idea that would work for our animated short.

 

So basically we are planning on having a fixed camera and the animation starts with a boy working alone in a card factory.

 

        0sec

•  A girl enters.
• The boy looks at her and smiles but she doesn't see him.
•  They start to take alternate glances at each other.
• 10sec
• He tries to send her a love card along the conveyer belt but as it approaches her, her mind becomes focused on something else and it goes by without her seeing.
• 20sec
•  He then sends a card with music but by the time it gets to her, the music has died so she rejects it.
• 30sec
•  He then tries a paper plane but it tragically lands in the paper shredder.
• 40sec
•  She opens the window next to her.
•  In his final attempt to get her attention, he makes an origami bird and sends it to her.
•  When she sees it, she doesn't reject it but picks it up, intrigued.
• 50sec
•  A gentle push of air makes the bird flutter a little then a more forceful gale comes along and carries the bird back to the boy, her eyes following the bird with curiosity and then she realizes...
• 60sec
• END

Character Class: Mini Task - Street Fighter Vs. Connect 4

Yesterday with Justin we were all given two cards with opposite kinds of games written on them which we then had to think of a game which is a combination of the two. The two games I got were Street Fighter (Video Game) and Connect 4 (Physical Strategy Game).

I made some notes for my idea and came up with a game where two opponents fight (like in street fighter) but with softer weaponry or just kicking and punching. As Connect 4 is a kids strategy game I didn't want anything too violent. The player that wins the fight gets to place a bomb in the grid-like setup of that in Connect 4 and once 4 bombs of the same colour are connected in any direction, the other opponent is blown up. Also if you win, you can choose some sort of upgrade. I made a quick idea for a logo for the game which I decided to call 'Connect Gore!' which incorporates both fun and violence as in Connect 4 the counters are red and yellow and the structure that holds them is blue. I used these same primary colours in my logo where the bombs are blue and yellow and the dripping blood and the letters are red. Although the bombs and blood are very violent, I used the primary colours, a rounded font for the 'CG' game initials and put fun faces on the bombs.

Character Briefing: Three Cards For Games Project...

The three cards I received were:

• "Wildlife"  - Animals & Insects / Diversity
• "Energy" - Electricity / Force
• "Stability" Balance / Coordination

The categories they fall into are character, environment and mechanism but whichever way I think will work best for a game concept.
I will be brainstorming these words out to get some ideas flowing ready for week's lesson :)

Maya: Pipeline 1: Head Modelling Part 2 - Blocking

Narrative: Research + Investigation Into Environment Design

After Gemma had posted this on our group blog earlier, I thought I would share it further on here so the full development process of our animation is clear on both the group blog and individual blog. So after Scarlett spoke with Phil about our project we had a change of plan and have now decided that the animation will be set in a greetings card factory. Gemma had found this video on YouTube which takes you through the process of what would take place in a real world card printing factory and you can see how all the machines would work. Here's the video and I think It's going to be really helpful when it comes to modelling and animating our scene.

Figure 1:  Xerox iGen4

Figure 2:  UV Coater

CG Tropes: Tilt Shifting

Learning the technique to make things such as buildings and environments look miniature.

Here's a couple of images I've tried the effect on;

Before (Above) and After (Right)