Lower Manhattan WIP

Armed with Google Earth and Google's 3D warehouse I was able to assemble a model of lower Manhattan and upper Brooklyn relatively quickly.  Here is a work in progress.  A few key buildings missing as well as the tons of extra cars and people I need to find a way to animate, but it looks pretty good from this angle.  I wanted to avoid creating a cityscape altogether but in the end I gave in, compelled to do so by the cinematic doors it would open.  Oh yes, I am going to milk this for all its worth :)

Ambriel 3D Robot Animation Test

Ambriel the robot character is finished.  Textures & rig recently being completed.  Here is a quick 3 second animation test:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zk8wgkrW6k

I am creating a full CG environment of lower Manhattan complete with Brooklyn Bridge and Brooklyn as well.  Google Earth came in real handy for this.  Pics in a week or two.

Ambriel is wrapping up its texturing phase, rigging is the next stage.  Production fell behind a bit due to an unexpected busy work schedule for the past three months, but I am taking time off to kick back into production of Aeon Angel.  Perhaps the most important thing is to start cranking out shots.  My 3-D camera broke too, one of the cameras isn't functioning, I wonder how much is it going to cost to get it fixed?  I still have some new scenes to shoot.  It's cold right now, so will take some time to let it warm up before shooting again.  There are a lot of 3D movies out now, and even commercials are being produced stereoscopically.  I would like to use this film as a call card to get in on some of the action.

Because I'll have more time to focus on this short, I think much of my time will be spent animating and rendering.

New robot, new script

Currently trying to finish up a new bot before thanksgiving break, a new script has been written, with more character development and a clearer concept.  A mad rush of texturing and rigging for thanksgiving eve!

 The new bot is Ambriel, and he's currently in texturing + rigging stage.  Texturing will probably take a few days, and rigging about one or two days, depending on how well it works.  Ambriel features 6 wing lasers that can transform into various formations.  He flies around mostly, hence the underdeveloped legs.

Three shots completed

I completed three VFX shots already for the film, suffice it to say, they were fairly straightforward except the third one which was slightly more complex in that it required 3D tracking & rotoscoping.  The changing depth information was a challenge to match in Maya, but thankfully my job was made easier due to the parallel nature of my 3D camera.

I fly to Korea tomorrow to be a part of the Pusan International Film Festival director's training program, so who knows?  Perhaps this film can gain some traction in Asia.  The shots were farily easy to render, standard passes, beauty, ambient occlusion, ambient occlusion for the floor and shadow.  Lighting was simple, a directional light to simulate the sun and an HDRI.  At every location I shot at, I made sure I took an HDRI picture.

The spider mech was modeled, textured and rigged in only two days, whereas the big Bobo robot was created in like 3 years...He is truly the hero robot and every part of him is accounted for, texture, model, rig, its all well thought out with plenty of TLC.

 I wanted to create a few battle shots between Mihael (aka Bobo) and Sariel but these shots once again took longer than I expected.  Working with only one computer (no render farm) definitely has been a limiting factor in my workflow, not to mention the linear nature of my 3D pipeline.  But for this project, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Here is a VFX demo of these shots:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVrFXXQKeGU

September Update

It is September, time is really flying.  Looking back at my previous blog, I had set a goal for myself to finish Bobo robot (aka Mihael), as well as finish CGI characters of Xaphan and Adam.  Well, as usual, the robot took much longer than I originally planned, and so I am only about half way done with modeling Xaphan.  Haven't started on Adam.  I am however, finally finished with rigging Bobo, and 99.5% done with his parts.  I have to make one more additional part for his arm and that's it.  However, the rig works, he is almost completely accounted for and it works well.  It was a lot of work to get to this point.  I shot a short film this past weekend and Bobo will make a guest appearence in it, it will be a sort of test run for the rig and the shaders.

I would say the most complicated part of the rig was trying to constrain the right things to the right things.  I would constrain some group to some joint but only find out that it wouldn't work if I moved the bot a certain way.  A lot of trial and error.

I did figure out how to rig up arms and legs with this guy though.  Next step is rigging organic humans. 

Mihael aka Bobo robot shader build

Building up Bobo piece by piece due to technical problems with mental ray.  Cleaned up the scene and removed all extra junk and geometry from previous versions.  Hopefully it won't give me any problems the 8th time around connecting shaders...

Here is a WIP.  The purple color is for unconnected surfaces.  My goal is to finish the robot completely this weekend.