The Second Year Project: The Plague Doctor

For this project I worked on layout, texturing, lighting and modeling.

This is the background for the starting scene drawn in Photoshop.

This the next shot. So camera pans down from the first shot to this one. I modeled everything but the lamps and the archway. Textures, lighting and fog effect done by me in Maya. However it is not my favourite render. I would have used this one instead.

But had to compromise with my team.

That is the next shot. Again everything is done by me apart the tavern (house in the midlle)

Furthermore I modelled the main character the Plague Doctor.

Played around with it's textures, too.

Also done some fog test animation for the project, unfortunately it was never was used.

There are some more sketches from very beginning of the project. Tried to work out the mood, colours, looks.

Girl & the Boat

 Here is finally my finished peace.

Hope you will enjoy it.

Used Maya, Photoshop, After Effects, Premier Pro

The Girl in a boat

This is a first cut of my film.

 There is almost none fade in or outs, I will be adding it later, also the timing of the scenes needs correction.

The film still have few narrative issues, lacking connection between the girl and a boy, will try to solve it by adding few more scenes with a boy in it. 

Some parts of the film still needs a colour correction and needs to be brighter.

Also will be adding a grain effect over the whole movie, similar to "the Secret of Kells".

The last shot of the girl needs to be longer and camera needs to come closer to her face.

Some of the shots are too long. I found that in After effects it is very hard to time the shots correctly so will be re - doing all the scenes in adobe premier pro also adding music and putting it back in again to after effects to add the rest of the effects.

Not yet certain of the name of the movie, might have to change it.

There is yet no music and no credits. Couple of first years are going to help me with the credits.

I will be working on these things till the next deadline.

Couple final renders

All 2D animation is put into Maya on a plane, which cast the shadow and reflects the light.

There will be four shots of the girl on a boat, showing time lapse, that means that she swims far and for quite a while and only then she sees this massive mysterious entrance to somewhere coming out from the fog.

This needs colour correction, more reds and oranges in the sky.

Will be putting girls face close up showing the her reaction to this shot.

Here the ghost will flash in the window and camera will slowly moving forward, dissolving to the shot inside the window.

Random bits

Character colourings and different poses, angles. 

All the character animation in my project is 2D, all of the boy animation is done by Shahnaz Mohsenim, however I coloured all of it. The girl was rotoscoped by me over Tom's Merrison 3D animation, afterwords also coloured by me.

First draft of the girl design was created by Jess Willson, adjusted by Shahnaz Mohensim. Boy desing created by Shahnaz Mohensim.

Few house textures to apply for the house models in maya.

Used mainly grayscale for the bump map.

Was hard to find the right look for the movie, however I am happy with the result.
Used veins and random brick directions to set a different feeling to the environment.

Lantern texture.

Fog which I used in project. Drawn in Photoshop and put on a plain in maya, where I animated the movement and transparency.

Lantern glass texture. Once applied on an object in maya used glow and incandescence.

Render Scenes

Shot 1. The opening shot. The camera will be slowly moving from below the hills up and reveal the shot.

Shot 2. Here are few test shots, will be using them to show a time lapse.

Shot 2. Girls test drawing put on a plane in maya just to see how it might look with animation finished.

Quite like the water in these shots. I extended the fog to go trough the water and made Maya ocean shader transparent but kept it reflective so it would reflect the colours of the fog. Will be using this method on all the rest of the shots as well as at the minute is looks the best out of all the water test I've done previously. 

Shot 3. The Arch shot. 

Shot 4. After girl swims through the arch the town scene will appear. Will be using different colour set to highlight the difference between the two worlds.

Shot 5. Different fog and colour render.

Shot 6. 

Shot 7.

Shot 8. Still working on this shot. It feels to noise and it is not very clear.

Shot 9. Cathedral render less fog. Lanterns slowly moving, the main part of the cathedral will start to spin and the doors will open.

Shot 9. Different density fog render.

Shot 10. Boat will be slowly swimming towards the cathedral and then going into it. 

Shot 11.  This shot follows after a girl swims through cathedral. At first it's dark and then the door will start opening and the light comes in and reveals the shot.

Shot 12. Boat is swimming towards the camera and the boy appear. The boy who was following the girl is not a ghost any more. He became a real person.

Shot 13. In here the girl will be already a ghost, sadly looking at the boy going away.

Few of the shots are still a bit too dark needs correction, also few shots are missing fog.

Animations

All these shots are animated by Shahnaz Mohseni and then coloured by me.

Ghost Boy shot, when he is looking behind the corner. 

Girl face close up when she sees the cathedral.

Girl face close up when she sees the opening shot of the town after she swims through the first tunnel.

Sky

Painted Sky for the project in photoshop. Will be inputting it as a plane into maya to achieve the wanted look.

Added the painting in Maya

Film shots/ design progression

This is the first arch test shot. It is the 3D render and I just draw over it in Photoshop. The design is not yet complete. This looks a bit like heaven which I don't want. 

A different arch design test. Not sure if I like it looks too simple and the style is too different to the rest of the film.

 Added couple of  lanterns which are hanging in the air to reveal the perspective of the shots . Lighting is not yet quite right in any of the shots. It is still a bit too dark.

Will be drawing fog manually, however will put it on a plane to animate and adjust in maya. Here it is just drawn over in photoshop which looks a bit dirty, and 'kills' the detail.

Looking for right look and light for this shot. Light looks a bit too bright here.

This shot is still not right, however this shot is closest to the wanted look. Need to adjust the fog and make it brighter, add some more purple.

One of the very first test render with fog draw over.

A render straight from Maya. Needs fogging and to adjust light. The bump map for the textures is too high, need slightly different camera angel, and can't feel the distance of the boat and the houses behind it. Fog might fix all that as well as camera angle.

Cathedral first render.

Added fog and lanterns, however now it looks too foggy, will be working on the fog.

 As in most images with the fog, fog seems to be too dense as it is just an image plain.Will be going through all the shots again and fixing this problem.

For water just using maya water shader.

Back of the cathedral shot fogged. The boy will be coming out from the boat swimming towards the camera and then the ghost slowly appearing behind.