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.

Some more designs from Mudbox

Trying to get the right look for the buildings. However this look is too common; looks like rust which doesn't suit the theme of the film. I was aiming to make it look like corals, houses made of corals.

Also not very satisfied with the design. So now I am looking for something even more different as the town should be something which doesn't remind of everyday's life. Something between the heaven and the earth.

Having trouble importing Mudbox models into maya also Mudbox seems to slow down my computer and it started crashing often. Therefore, takes too much time.

Decided not to use Mudbox and go back to modeling in Maya. Use simple textures hand drawn in photosop and grey scale for the bump map.

Mudbox test 2

One of the houses model. The houses have to haves something mysterious about them. Decided to try out veins. Tried various colours red, blue, green, however purple looks the best.

Showed to few of the course mates they did say it doesn't look like veins and looked like mauled instead. I am not quite happy with the design will be working further on the development.

Mudbox test

One of the arches for the movie. Tested how it might look.

However to work in Mudbox takes a lot of time. Might need to look for an alternative.

Personal work: Half naked robot woman

Made in photoshop. Just a couple different colour tests

Animatic for the final years project

I have changed my movie idea. Instead of my previous carousel story, the movie's environment will now take place in an abandoned city in the water. The story will be about a girl getting onto a boat, which is metaphorical parallel of the girl  dying; and the city that she journeys through kind of a purgatory, a city of dead.

A boy's spirit is following her through this city, coming out of various places and once she gets to cathedral, they swap around places. A girl becomes just a spirit and stays in the that city as a spirit. However a boy becomes a real boy and takes her place to the right to live.

Technique: will use maya, if there is enough time paint over frame by frame. Will try modeling objects in Mudbox first and the importing them to maya as obj., if this doesn't work will model in maya. Aftereffects, Premier Pro for post production. 

In this story there is a lot more animation. Some people from the second year will be helping me out. Might need to ask somebody to animate in 3D and I will have to rotoscope it over and then colour it in.

Colours: orange, yellows, reds, blues, purples

Some sketches for research

Quick character sketches for the project

Might be using these images as portraits painted on the cathedral doors as shown in the animatic. 

More paintings

A test design painting of a girl. This should be the last shot. Maybe a close up to her face and hair slightly moving in the wind. 

Test maya render painted over. 

More art work for the project

The dilemma. The lantern light is very strong and it seems irrational that such a small light will give such strong lighting, unless it's magical / mystical. Will need to solve this.

Sketches for the scenes

Using maya for camera angles and modeling. Everything else is painted over,

The cathedral and the boat

Design sketch

Looking for the style and design for the project.

Test images for the project

One of the other course mates also doing a film about carousel so I changed the idea. Instead of using carousels to help to tell the story, I will be using the city which will have to be very different to a normal city. 

Used Maya and Photoshop. Looking for the right look for the movie, working out camera angles.

The houses need some textures. Not yet sure what, however this looks too plain. 

A shot where a ghost boy might appear in  the window when the boat light goes through. Maybe the light is what first attracts ghost attention.