Final product

This is basically what it came out looking like. If I have to redo it, I would retopologize the geometry after exporting the OBJ into maya as by default it gets exported in triangles which is not the greatest for bump maps

Marvelous Designer_A review and personal experience

Marvelous Designer is a stand-alone package that allows the user to design and physically simulate 3D virtual clothing. It is developed by CLO Virtual Fashion, headquartered in Seoul, Korea. The first official release of a CLO Virtual Fashion software took place back in 2009 and was named CLO3D. Despite its initial instability and the lack of basic features, such as Undo, it had already convinced early adopters that saw the potential of the toolset.

Today CLO3D is used by the fashion/apparel industry, while Marvelous Designer (MD) is used in film and VFX (Weta digital – the Hobbit), games (EA, Ubisoft, Konami), and architectural previz. The developer has quickly built a growing community around its software and has kept releasing improved versions, year after year.

The features introduced in Marvelous Designer 5 aim to simplify and streamline its workflow

My personal experience with it was pretty Great given it's non-complicated, streamlined process. I was able to get a hang of it's key features really quickly. Although I haven't gone to some of the more advanced features, I will definitely be adding this to my workflow process.

Work towards presentation

 My aim for this project was to produce a piece of traditional japanese clothing using an advanced digital simulation program.

These were some patterns of Kimono i have found online.

Originally, "kimono" was the Japanese word for clothing. But in more recent years, the word has been used to refer specifically to traditional Japanese clothing. Kimonos as we know them today came into being during the Heian period (794-1192).

During the Edo period (1603-1868), the Tokugawa warrior clan ruled over Japan. The country was divided up into feudal domains ruled by lords. The samurais of each domain wore identified by the colors and patterns of their "uniforms." They consisted of three parts: a kimono; a sleeveless garment known as a kamishimo worn over the kimono; and a hakama, a trouser-like split skirt. The kamishimo was made of linen, starched to make the shoulders stand out. With so many samurai clothes to make, kimono makers got better and better at their craft, and kimono making grew into an art form. Kimonos became more valuable, and parents handed them down to their children as family heirlooms.

Making the clothes in Marvelous designer.

Dabbling in ZBrush

I saw a lot of potential with the use of this program and although my base knowledge of this software wasn't adequate to incorporate it into the final product, I do think I will be sinking my teeth into it next year.

Setting up lighting within Maya using the Arnold renderer

In conclusion I've learnt Marvelous designer to a satisfying extent and I have confidence that I should be able to replicate and get even better results for the next time I use it.

It's quick, has less of a learning curve then some of the other programmes I have learnt to use such as Houdini and Zbrush not to mention I get immediate results.

Conclusion post

Spent an all-nighter last night trying to make make sure my renders were working properly. Several had alot of lighting consistency issues and I still in then end could not solve everything and the final result is somewhat lacking. But I still learnt an immense amount on terms of just the arnold renderer and compositing with real life elements as I wasn't even sure how to do it previously.

I found everything about this assignment really hard as I has to research up how to do each and every step. Probably annoyed my tutor to no end making him show me same techniques again and again but I eventually got it drilled into my thick skull. Pretty sure this is one of those moments where you remember something oddly specific for years to come.

Anyways. The final product can definitely be improved on but I think the overall experience was a decent one. This was one of my favorite papers so far.

Time crimes_Film review

Time crimes was a Spanish film made in 2007 directed by and starring Nacho Vigalondo. The film was basically about a man who unknowingly caught himself in an infinite paradox. He kept trying to go back to change his former selves from making certain mistakes but he continuously makes things worse.

I thought certain parts of it was entertaining enough. But it definitely wasn't something I would have recommended personally. 

Class work

Lighting set up design

Brushed up on my logo design

Spent my time today in class setting up render shots with my tutor which was great cause i saved all the settings and can copy them over to the rest of my shots. 

Researched some copyright music to use for the actual animation linked below:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCht8qITGkBvXKsR1Byln-wA

Blunders and progress

So Came in today to chip away at my tasks for the day and lo and behold! as I open up my maya scenes, I am met with this monstrocityXD

As you can see the file has been terribly corrupted somehow. So going back I set up a new master file from where to operate from and I forged ahead.



Anyways here's some tips on Lighting my VFX tutor showed me as I was having some issues with the lighting where it was looking really grainy. I'll make sure to implement it for next time.

BSA306

So this is what i compiled for my paper, due to time restraints and the failure of one of my renders this was all I could smack together. It was incredibly fun though and I enjoyed rendering in arnold as it was a first for me.

BSA227_update

How things look atm 

Link to iron man repulsion blasts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKKdTxWm-CE

Short exercise in VFX

Art study

Elena Bespalova art study

More art studies

Art studies

Art studies

Class in VFX

Nuke

Nuke

Rendered maya Frame

After effects

Tools we used in the programs

Nuke: WriteGeo -file set and name
                           - Camera tracker - Track and solve

Maya: Camera- Environments (right side) attach

Aftereffects: (adjusting fps) Right click- Interpret footage and etc

Movie review

 Los Cronocrímenes

is a 2007 Spanish science-fiction thriller film written by, directed by, and starring Nacho Vigalondo. The film stars Karra Elejalde as Héctor, a man who becomes part of a time loopand must stop his other selves from continuing to exist. 

I really disliked the film. The plot was predictable. The characters horribly plain and not very likable. I was really suprised this was made in 2007. I thought it was made in the 90s..XDD I wouldn't recommend this to anyone except those who likes cringey things

Inspirations

Currently the main artists I'm following are

Marc Brunet
https://www.artstation.com/marcbrunet

Alex Figini
https://www.artstation.com/alexfigini

They both have tutorials up for sale.

Rodrigo A. Branco
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8ZlJO (Amazing tripple a quality)

VFX class tutorial

We made luke blow up today..XDD

Effects used:

Curves
Adjustment layers
New-layer-solid (scrren/overlay_
CC pixel polly (fragments)
Roughen Edges
Glow
CC Drizzle

Marvelous designer 2nd test

Kimono test 

Studies

I've found this channel on youtube called Sinix design and he has some pretty decent 2D tutorials

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yMjWqnRhU4

Marvelous Designer

So currently in this project I'd like to make a Haori-espue sci-fi cloak for my current 3D character. I've been following this one particular guy and I think it'll be manageable.

Travis Davids

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCniZ7Qzbv17NvoCypCzB4Ow

Sangho Jung
https://www.youtube.com/user/sersia78/videos

Historical Samurai class citizens

A garb from The Momoyama Period

My first go in MD using the tutorials and jpegs from google

Rhythm and Hues

Rhythm and Hues

Rhythm and Hues was a VFX company established in Los Angeles, California in 1987 and works a variety of successful films offering their high end skills of being able to create magic from the confines of their fixed bit. (fixed bit is a set amount of money regardless the type of work that gets passed down to them)

In 2013, they managed to take part in a film called 'Life Of Pi' which later won an Oscar at the academy awards. But unfortunately they went bankrupt from the incredibly sketchy deals being thrown around to everyone forcing their founders to make the heart wrenching decision of letting many people go. Many people were infuriated when credit was not given to them by the director Ang Lee who gave thanks to many others but not them.

All in all they pretty much had to let all of their VFX artists go and the company was sold off to the highest bidder and still continues to function today.

After effect lessons

We used after effects to mess around trying to artificially create 3d moving videos with the use of 2d images. Using a variety of visual techniques and features from the program itself such as tinting, Camera tracker, layering and the curve tool with masks on basically everything.

BVA142 poster

Very subtle color correction differences? but this was the final poster I came up with for the upcoming gallery Kevin wanted on wednesday.

Artist influences

A short film called Gloam by David Elwell and Gareth Hughes
They achieved the results they did through integrating a 3d model into a piece of film footage with well-placed filters and smooth transactions making the creature look like it belonged on the set. They were an influence due to the likeness of what I wanted to go for in my film on terms of adding a 3d model into a set.

A fan-made animation for Amazing world of gumball by Mike Inel.
Mike is a freelance creator with a fan powered patreon that helps support him and what he does. In the animation I mention, he shows 3d and 2d aspects mixing together really well. He also utilizes really appropriate filters. He’s influential to me and with what I was trying to make because in the beginning she is a 3d character stuck in the screen and as she comes out, she turns into the 3d model so I could see how I could draw from this guy’s work.

Other stuff for BSA227

Evidence of other work and research done in my time

Current treatment

 Larger than Life

The classroom is still all but the frequent tapping on the keyboard as a student silently goes about his homework. As an over the shoulder shot comes into display hovering behind him, it shows he is working on his next drawing; A sci-fi girl donned in blue armour of sorts.

The student rubs his eyes and gives off a big yawn, it is evident he is pretty tired or his eyes are at least. After a brief stretch, he heads out for a breather and his leave is signalled by the soft thud of a shutting door. And all is still.

Suddenly, the girl on the screen begins to shift around as she slyly looks about from the confounds of her monitor prison. After determining the coast is clear, she hops out of the screen materializing as a 3d model and begins to wander about the surface of the table as a small collectable toy size miniature.

She is snapped out of her surveillance of a pair of glasses when a series of harsh beeping sends her shooting over the keyboard, ducking in cover for she knew what those sounds were; security drones that have been alerted to her escape and have come to detain her. As she peeks over the top of the mouse she’s just able to catch a glimpse of a pair of shadows hovering past a sketchbook before she ducks back down again.

She is not as powerless as these drones will discover soon as she infuses her right hand with energy charging it up into an electrical blue. She takes a deep breath and jumps out from cover taking a few shots before diving for cover behind a small mouse. The drones are now pelting her with blasts of their own, one which manages to smash into the mouse sending chunks of plastic debris flying.

As the girl pants and tries to think of her next move, in the distance she hears the unmistakable footsteps of the person returning to his post. She abandons the fire fight with a dirty scowl and jumps back into the  screen presuming her position in the psd file.

As the camera pans over the table all you can see is two little toys (the droids) lying motionless atop the desk and the girl back on the screen back to her original self. All you can hear as the screen clouds to black is.

Student: “Hey what happened to my mouse..”?


-END-

Studying

Been doing some research on artists who provide some good material for me to start watching and learning.

This 3d artist called Marie-Michelle is an intermediate level free-lancer in Montreal whos worked on a couple of smaller scaled projects it seems. I really enjoy her step by step break down and she provides alot of good sources to hit up on terms of how to do more realistic textures.

I also found this guy, not sure of his name but he runs the youtube channel Fullerton College Digital Arts.
He has a few nice intro to zbrush which i need to learn more about.

Another artist called Daniel got a feature but some 3d arts magazine. I saw his 3d model and i was really drawn to it aesthetically so i got in contact with him. He told me about his youtube channel with a full recording of him working on the exact same model that got featured so good on me for that move. I'll be watching that at some point to further break down how people more well versed in this medium function.

Shayleen Hulbert is a 3d artist who did this twitch stream esque thing on youtube. theres like 4 or 5 videos lifetime showing her modelling the character. Really good.. ;-;


Links:

Marie: https://www.youtube.com/user/mariempepin/featured

Fullerton College: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVBHYoWHFmU

Daniel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZu7kj4zjOy8a0qHfvtfipQ/videos

Very in depth texture painting process/tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk_YRkDsJrQ

Hai Phan QUALITY stuff man he even covers normal maps..
https://www.youtube.com/user/haikaiYT/videos

Shayleen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-NuXcoZ_mU&t=3018s

Persepolis review

The film was directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud released in 2007. The original creator of the idea behind the film was Marjane herself and the story of her life from a young child to adult woman.

The themes behind the film were really diverse as it covered the horror and loss of war as well as the trauma it can have on a young human because even as she grew older she never managed to shake the impact the war had on her. The loses in her family causing her later on depression as she tried figuring out who she was.

My piece of cake on this film is that the animation style was really appealing as it effectively showed the scene to scene exchanges as the story progressed very fluently. I really enjoyed the story within itself for its detail and depth behind it. It's just crazy to me i guess because she had lived in such a different world and yet the thing that really got to her later on in the story line was a everyday mundane thing like being cheated on. "I've endured loses and war. But the thing that got me was love".

If anyone would ask me if i would recommend this film I actually would strongly consider it as the narrative was strong and the messages presented behind it was so driven.

Drawing practice

Got a bit rusty from just always doing 3d stuff so I tried to go back and draw something but It's only made me realise I need to study a whole lot more.

Homeward bound

Alright. So i've been doing a lot of self research on the things that inspire me and I concluded the theme of my project for my final year project for next year. I won't be able to blast through all the ground work for it because of my current assignments that I have ongoing.

One of the companies whose work I've admired for a long time is Naughty dog from Santa Monica California. I used to play Jax and Dexter as a kid as well as Crash Bandicoot and then closer to the current age, I've played Uncharted 3 and 4 and my favourite of all, Last of us (I played the DLC as well)

Can I just say what a game. The life the creators breathed into these characters I mean what a gem. The ambient audio and the surrealism of it all. If the situation from this game had come to life, I could imagine so vividly how everything could play out. I watched the game play through of it multiple times and I played it myself and just the impact it had on me and continues to have on me is huge. As I write this blog post I'm currently listening to the 'behind the scenes' video of the game and it is just a piece of art perfectly amalgamated. (link is on the bottom)

So out of this inspiration I want to create something out from this kind of feel. Out of the quick brainstorming session I had with myself, I decided to make; Homeward bound.

I'm currently working on the plot and the content I would like to include as the body of work for the assignment.

So far I'm going to need to brush up on all of the programmes that I've seen professionals use at least to a basic standard so I understand what the artists are referring to in a tutorial.

So far I need to learn (improve)

Photoshop
Autodesk Maya
ZBrush
Marvellous Designer

I have all of them except a license of Marvellous designer which is a bit of a pain in fair earnest.. But however S.I.T does. Huge relief so towards later in the year I need to go through some solid tutorials and learn to work to integrate that into my pipeline.

The making of last of us:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0l7LzC_h8I

The whole playthrough version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4QBSL4JGmc

Larger than life

Basic Script:

-There is a computer with an open file. The file is a page full of drawings of Ane; the main protagonist.

-Person standing infront of the computer yawns and heads off for a break.

-In the center, one of the drawings of Ane comes to life as she slyly looks about from the comfounds of her monitor prison.

-After determining the coast is clear, she jumps out of the computer turning into a 3d model.

-She wanders the surface of the table as a tiny collect-able toy sized version of herself. Surveying and checking the objects.

-When suddenly she hears the beeping of security droids that have detected her escape. She sprints off and jumps behind the frail cover of mouse.

-The shadows of the droids lurk over the surface of some table top utensils closing in on Ane.

-Ane peeks over the mouse to only have the top of the mouse obliterated. She ducks back down panting and startled.

-She powers up her hand and returns a few shots of her own but as this fight drags out. She hears the distant but unmistakable footsteps of the person.

-She hurdles over the mouse and returns to the screen just as the door opens and the human returns.

-Camera pans over the table top revealing two little toys (the droids) and Ane back in the drawing file.

-End-

Self reflection

-Self Note-

I have to admit. As of late I've been really struggling with finding motivation and the fire to keep doing what I'm doing. It's been tough cause after drilling myself over multiple challenging assignments I'm left high and dry with very little mental capacity left to work on anything else in my spare time. I feel every creative person hits this barrier sooner or later and being in my course has been a solemn reminder of how easy it is for people to lose hope and move onto 'settle' for other things. Many of my ex course mates and friends have done so and year by year I've seen so many faces come and go. Disheartening really.

I would be lying if I said I've never just paused what i was doing regardless whether it was in course or not and thought will this all be worth it for me at the end. So I've spent the last few weeks just taking a step back and revisiting all the things that had made my eyes shine with inspiration back in my highschool years. 

Games such as Skyrim and the countless hours I had spent toiling away in the ancient nordic dungeons off the west of Whiterun somewhere.. maybe running from some enraged giants after my companion mistakenly shot their prized mammoth with a cruddy arrow. But whatever it is. My happiness slowly seeped back and I find myself generally more positive nowadays. The silly depressive tendencies I have will never fully go away because that's who I've become now more or less but at least I have an answer when the question drifts back to mind of "why am I here"?

To make characters and animations centered around things I'm fond of. Things that make me happy and keep the sadness at bay.

I watched this animation created by students off in Canada somewhere who had apparently had teamed up (mainly as a trio) and worked on this fan based animation for Bethesda's Skyrim since their first year. It was simple yet powerful enough to hit me. I can do this too. 

I can't immediately jump back to my original enthusiastic self but I certainly can slowly start working towards things. Setting myself a achievable schedule and try to work on my projects objectively one by one. And with enough motivation from my games, all these unique creators making the things they love and the support of friends and family, I hope I can pull through and not be another failure story. 

-Ken out-

(For future referencing and studies)

One they fear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyOVgtKszDs

the making of 'One they fear'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzv9XInPXPE&t=218s

Movie review

A Scanner Darkly is an animated science-fiction film made in 2006 by Richard Linklater. The movie and all of it's characters were entirely brought to life by using the animation technique of Rotoscope. The movie seemed very complex i'll give it that.. But it wasnt really my kind of movie so I wasn't overly interested.

Houdini liquid simulations

We did some water simulations in Houdini today. Subject: Water particle simulations. I also learned this is what we're gonna be doing for the next several weeks as according to my tutor it's actually complex and theres alot of different tricks to doing liquid animations.

Heres an egg.. XDD