Friday 25 July 2014

Major Project Journal Entry


21ST JULY 2014 RESEARCH & PROPOSAL


  • Reading “The timeless way of Building” by Christopher Alexander, started to understand how the timeless way was born. 
  • The Quality, The Gate, The Way, The Kernel of the way.
  • I will probably look at how shapes work with one another and will also define the magnitude of the pipers power (Tune of the Piper).
  • Worked a bit on my major project proposal, but still lacking genuine content. My goals and title background seem to overlap a lot, I have probably hit a road block. 
  • I have read what Eddie has written on my project concept and it’s very interesting. It will definitely help me address my main problem, i.e. the core concept. It gave me an insight on where to actually begin.


22ND JULY 2014 RESEARCH & PROPOSAL


  • Read about half the book on timeless way of building. It’s a really good book on how to create a town or a city that is based on patterns. Stopped at chapter 12, the creative power of language.
  • Wrote and submitted the first proposal draft, still have to add a lot more to the proposal, before it gets approved.


23RD JULY 2014 RESEARCH & PROPOSAL


  • Continued reading the book – and studied about contextual ideas, conflicting forces and configuration. Studied more about pattern languages.


24TH JULY 2014 RESEARCH 


  • Studied various topics on “The Way” of architectural constructions of town’s and cottages. Learnt about differentiating spaces, how patterns are laid one step at a time and how sequences are formed. Also learnt about how a certain language is used to build a cottage for instance.

25TH JULY 2014 RESEARCH 


  • Will try and complete the gist of the book by today, and create a time schedule for my major pre-production process. Time is short and I will have to put in extra effort to aim for an achievable pre-production goal.


26TH JULY 2014 RESEARCH 


  • Finally finished reading the book (sub topics and general summary only). Have a picked up a few pointers on how to build timelessly with quality without a name. The process of pattern work building, the process of construction, the process of repair and finally its ageless character.


28TH JULY 2014 PROPOSAL


  • Added more information to my methodology and further refined the proposal.


29TH JULY 2014 PROPOSAL


  • Took a break from this project and currently working on a lighting challenge (Bart Train).






































Friday 4 July 2014

Reflective Statement



Reflective Statement


I had started my project with an extensive research on Fantasy Art, Literature and Films and made a mind map to reflect my idea on what I really wanted to achieve. The Fantastic genre is a daunting task on its own, but a fairly interesting one too. I divided my mind map into three different segments. Art, Literature and Films and started off from there. Fantastic Literature helped me a lot in basing my idea and finally narrowing down to something that really interested me. From George MacDonald to J. R. R. Tolkien to G. R. R. Martin to finally C. S. Lewis. Hans Christian Anderson, one of my favourite authors and all-time favourite children’s book novelist helped frame my idea even more. Juvenile Literature interested me a fair bit and most of them have been adult contemporized. My favourite’s  Alice in Wonderland, The Little Mermaid, The Emperor’s New Groove, Sleeping Beauty and so on and so fourth . Most of them are brilliantly structured when an essence of eerie nature weaved in. Illustrations were plenty during this time of literature.
Comic books and Fantasy Magazines also came into existence in the early 1930’s where fantasy had more of an influence on the general public, people wanted to see something different, be it a magic show, or  a huge Gorilla on the Empire State Building. Whatever the case people started to buy into Fantastic ideas. Fantasy Art is a pivotal part of our colourful history, the varied spectrum it added to this already wide history was astronomical. This is when Tolkien’s literature started gaining popularity. Smart Editing in films were seen more, Stop motion, which was one of the oldest forms of storytelling, were used more and more prominently.
Fantasy Films like King Kong, Jurassic Park, Terminator and The Wizard of Oz paved the path to the future of Fantasy Art.  

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

I set foot researching on Fantastic artists, Fantastic literature and Fantastic films and built a mind map to deeply understand my subject. I did a brief study on Folkloric tales and Authors. I leaned towards juvenile literature which till today interests me. Hans Christian Anderson and C. S. Lewis have always been my childhood inspirations. The eerie nature of their tales were always asking to be created visually. However the Legend of “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” is my pick. I always wanted to do something with the story or the visuals.
The concept I wanted to stick to was more towards Juvenile Literature. I was always impressed by the Legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. It was the year 1284 when a strange and wondrous figure arrived in Hameln. He was attired in a coat of many colours and was taken to be a rat catcher, as he promised to free the town of a plague of rats and mice for a fixed sum of money.
The citizens pledged to pay him his fee, so the visitor produced a pipe and began to play. Soon all the rats and mice came running out of the houses and gathered around the Pied Piper in a teeming mass. Once convinced that each and every one followed, he went out of the town straight into the River Weser where the vermin plunged after him and drowned.
The townspeople, however, now freed of the plague, regretted their promise and refused to pay the Piper, who left Hameln in a bitter mood.
On the 26th of June in that year he returned, this time dressed as a huntsman, wearing a grim countenance and a wondrous red hat. While the townsfolk were assembled in the church, he again sounded his pipe in the streets.
But it was not rats and mice who came out this time, but children! A great many boys and girls older than four came running and were led through the Ostertor gate into the very heart of a hill where they all disappeared. Only two children returned because they could not keep up: one was blind and could not show where the others had gone, the other dumb and not able to tell the secret. A last little boy had come back to fetch his coat and so escaped the calamity. Some tell that the children were led into a great cavern and reappeared in Transylvania. A total of 130 children were lost.
I still have to revamp my concept so I have a stronger structure to base my Environment around. The Project I wanted to do is an Art Piece on what Fantastic Art is really about, is it the Mood, The Story or just all combined creating a rather unique image that would support my research and Idea. 3D is just a mere medium and without a solid structure can fail really badly. The art Style I wanted to go for was more to do with the psychology of why then “Oh!! That looks great”. Warped architecture is real, believe it or not. There are reasons why the buildings or house are shaped in a particular way or style be it the Shambles of York or the Alley’s in Stockholm, Sweden. Everything great has a meticulous amount of research and effort put in to achieve a particular goal or result. No good work comes without a fair amount research.
Likewise, I will try to depict a scenario where everything fits, revolves around the ghostly legend of the Piper and has a fantastic theme to it. It sure is hard, but all good work is hard, and if done well results are always promising.

Problems

The problems I did face was while creating the proxy for the building, on how warped I wanted the architecture to be. Would I go all gun’s blazing or subtlety would play its part, it a hard decision but I did stick to something more exaggerated and more akin to my usual style. Problems?

There are so many, mostly technical, from learning a new render engine in Vray, to New material’s in Maya, to preferred style and most important of all TIME.
Considering all the problems faced, I was able to achieve what I initial planned and get more or less what I wanted, you can keep trying to better things but there is a time when you have to say, Enough and move on.

Learning Outcomes

This is probably my best project I have worked on till date, studying the Victorian Era, from Victorian architecture to the Food, the way the middle class and the working class people survived, to famous alleyways in different countries in Europe and various other continents. My research Blog has an in-depth research on Alleyways and the Victorian Architecture. I got to learn the V-Ray render engine, and good gracious it’s a wonderful render engines, miles ahead of the dated but still impressive Mental Ray, mind you this is not slating Mental ray in any shape or form just asking for it to be updated.
Just in general a lot of this I did learn from this project, all invaluable information I wouldn’t learn otherwise. Eddie helped me a lot in directing what path I have to take regarding this project and hope to borrow his brain for further idea down the road, such a great research lecturer he and I can’t thank him enough.

What would I do differently?

Not much really, just maybe Time Management, which is probably my best till date, so can’t be too harsh on myself. The concept probably, which will haunt me for the next month or so, hopefully I nail that out and get going with the project. Otherwise I wouldn’t change too much , I set foot with a certain plan and got more or less what I expected, more is always better but I can’t really complain to be honest. Special thanks should go to Arien, Eddie, Chevy Saumitra, Sagar, Richard and Maxim in inspiring me with this project.



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Clint Rodrigues

Texturing Process - House 001

Texturing

Texturing and lighting are probably my favorite part of the whole 3D pipeline. Having a painting background helped a lot in creating various unique textures. I have used Unique textures along with Tileable textures. Most of the grunt work that is the Walls, Floors and the Roof were all tiled. Unique textures were used on the rest of the props on the house.


Autodesk Mudbox Texturing





Photoshop Texturing




CG Textures








UV Unwrapping- Autodesk Maya 2014

Probably my least favorite bit of the project, and many would agree with be but at the same time one of the most important part of the pipeline. No UV's then No Textures then No Lighting. UV's are the backbone to everything and good clean UV's are really important, which helps create good looking Textures to be painted upon or in general just avoids stretching. UV unwrapping the house took about 2 days at most.







CrazyBump

Crazybump was used to generate most of my Normal and Reflection maps. Small handy little software not for puny humans.


Thursday 3 July 2014

House 001 - Scene Lighting Pipeline

Lighting


My favorite bit really, adds shape and mood to the image. I started of with the Basic 3 Point light setup (Key, Fill, Rim) and started lighting my model with a default shader slapped on (Vray Mtl). My light setup is displayed below. I always believe in the saying "Good lighting is felt not seen."

Jeremy Birn's book on Lighting and rendering is a great Bible on Lighting and Rendering and every time you read it you will always find something new.


Another website I found really comprehensive was this tutorial on different lighting moods by Floze. 



HDRI's were downloaded from this library : http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive.html


Seen below is my lighting setup used to light the scene. Nothing too fancy just a few lights and bam!! you got yourself a decent looking scene well lit and render light.




Light Attribute Settings in Vray

Global Illumination Settings in Vray


I used the Barcelona Rooftop HDRI, it was the closest image I could find that fit my scene. I should have actually gone and shot my own HDRI image and will do so for my Major project, but for my requirement the Barcelona image worked just fine.


Author : Blochi
http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive.html

Chrome Ball with HDRI
Key Lighting

Fill Lighting

Rim Lighting

All Lights with No HDRI

All Lights with HDRI

All Lights with HDRI & Background



Textured Lighting Process

Key Lighting

Fill Lighting

Rim Lighting

All Lights with No HDRI

HDRI Lighting
All Lights with HDRI

All Lights with HDRI (With BG)

Lighting Process along with Render times ( Resolution : 1920 X 1080 )

References


Birn, J. (n.d.). Jeremy Birn. Jeremy Birn. Retrieved June 15, 2014, from http://3drender.com/jbirn/

Birn, J. (2000). [Digital] lighting & rendering. Indianapolis, Ind.: New Riders.


Snickelways of York - Construction Study


Scans from the Snickelways of York Book 

Mark W. Jones

I got myself a secondhand copy of Mark W. Jones Travel Guide, which by far is the best guide I have read, published in 1983 Mark covers every nook and corner of York, England. I still haven't finished reading the book but will do so eventually. So much to read but so little time. This book provided a good foundation for my project and helped kick start it. It does include a very detailed description on The famous Shambles of York.






References 

Jones, M. W. (1983). A walk around the snickelways of York. York: M. Jones.