Matters of a Matte Painting

We're gallantly nearing the end of our maiden modelling voyage so we've started to talk filing and naming conventions etc

Kaitlin has worked on a best system for this which will really streamline our pipeline, and make sure rigging and texturing are all happening at the same time.

BEHOLD!

Organisation and consistency is key to this working, so we need to ensure that everyone is on the same page and filing in the same way.

We've also re-addressed some of our shots and have chosen to pull a couple that we felt were a bit too many and cut down some of times.

In terms of rigging, Yannis addressed possible issues that may arise when the ogre is kneeling down - due to the shortness of his leg / stumps (poor ogre). We'll be able to test this probably once he's rigged, but if it does cause any problems we'll look to some clever camera angles of changing he pose of the ogre at that moment.

 

Sushma's also been looking at animation references for the ogre and the goat - but as we won't really see their feet we're wanting to focus a bit more on how they will appear as they move across the screen - eg. bobbing along.

GOAT REFERENCES

Kaitlin found a cool reference for facial time and movement

Cristina has worked on a gorgeous matte painting, although after reviewing it we've decided that there are a few tweaks we need to make, especially do it doesn't distract from our characters. We want to make the terrain a bit flatter and less green so we have more the desert feel. Also by tweaking the colour of the sky we'll make sure that it doesn't blend in with the bridge and drown it out. And by adding a bit more variation in style and size between the hills / rocks, it will give our scene more depth.

The artwork for the game Journey is probably the best example of this! And it really shows off that low-poly look.

Week 4: Weekends are for working...

We've been pretty much ploughing ahead in the modelling department , smashing (almost) our personal deadlines.

Pretty much everyone's been in full modelling mode this week, which has included the characters, the landscapes and the assets! Our deadline to complete these is by Friday, but we're all nearly finished (winning).

Trollilcious - thank you Yannis

Ritchie's Goats looking gloriously goaty

Amit's also been working on a few facial tests to assess the best way to get expressions and movements out of our characters, and so far it looks like blend shapes are the main contender. He's also done a test render for one of the mariachi's!

In terms of the assets like the rocks we're definitely keeping in mind bump mapping etc to give the illusion of indentations etc, but for the couple rocks that will be in shot Natasha brought up a good point, that by modelling in that little bit extra level of detail we can get some good lighting and shadows etc.

Natasha has assets coming out of her.. assets...

We've also been talking about keeping these models quite simple and stylised - especially in the case of the Joshua Tree which could get quite tricky. Cristina and Yannis suggested blocking out the silhouette in simple shapes - with the buds being more hexagonal - we could texture these to appear like they have spikes. It'll also look more low poly this way.

Floral fun courtesy of Kaitlin

 Joshua Tree silhouette and low poly tree examples

We're also mindful of making sure the scene doesn't appear to busy and distract from the story of the smug pinata's

The bridge is pretty much there, and Bimpe will be finishing of the landscape surrounding it. Also she modelled the bougainvillea (like a chump) - we'd considered the possibility of mapping the texture on a plane, but as the plants are attached to the bridge and would be in shot, we thought this might be a better way to go, although we're till considering our options and thinking about the render time.

burps, bridges, bougainvillea from Bimpe

As we've got quite a bit in terms of assets, to save us rendering time (and our social lives), Phil's suggested creating 3D effects via 2D planes. So for rocks further away it would just be a case of rending out the image as a TARGA, changing the alphas and applying as a texture to a plane.

We'll most probably doing this for the assets that has less screen time. This will also lower our poly count, which has the potential to be surprisingly high.