Ahhh... we are going to finish studio today!
It's a relief in some way, in terms of workload, but I will actually miss the class. It was good fun and I learned a lot about after effects mainly. This was also the first project where Lauren and I worked by ourselves as a pair, and I think we did a very good job.
I loved studio because it was a 100% multimedia unit...which meant no boring parts :)
I hated studio because of the complete panic at the end of each semester.....ah, good times...
Looking forward to doing great stuff with what I learned :) (or atleast just get a decent job)
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
The Team
Just an update on how the team has been working...
Its been working pretty well between us lately for studio, we've both been doing our individual work on time. Btu when it comes to a moment of high stress, I am automatically assigned the role of leader...which is not always pleasant. I find myself having to keep bringing Lauren back on track by telling which tasks are on the priority list, and which can be ignored for now...something which I thought would've been obvious. She also sometimes asks me what she should be doing next, which can be annoying as I don't think I should be telling her what to do.
But other than that, I think we pulled it off. Every group have their little issues, but atleast ours aren't deal breakers. We each bring something to the team and I think there is a good balance. Although I complain sometimes, the work does get done :)
Its been working pretty well between us lately for studio, we've both been doing our individual work on time. Btu when it comes to a moment of high stress, I am automatically assigned the role of leader...which is not always pleasant. I find myself having to keep bringing Lauren back on track by telling which tasks are on the priority list, and which can be ignored for now...something which I thought would've been obvious. She also sometimes asks me what she should be doing next, which can be annoying as I don't think I should be telling her what to do.
But other than that, I think we pulled it off. Every group have their little issues, but atleast ours aren't deal breakers. We each bring something to the team and I think there is a good balance. Although I complain sometimes, the work does get done :)
Monday, October 6, 2008
the sky..continued
Found some interesting stuff about how to make a nice looking sky in After effects. Initially I was thinking of just a still picture of the sky, with some clouds and maybe the moon, but after some research I realised that it would be cool to actually make the stars twinkle every now and then and to also make the clouds move very slowly.
to be considered...
Tutorial on how to make the twinkling stars:http://toolfarm.com/tutorials/nightsky.html
to be considered...
Tutorial on how to make the twinkling stars:http://toolfarm.com/tutorials/nightsky.html
the sky...
Found a couple of nice pictures on the web of the sky at night, but none of them can be used on its own. The pictures will have to combined with a few other ones to look good.
After some research i realised we have two options...we could either make the sky in photoshop and then use it as a texture on a plane in maya, Or we could use it as a background layer in after effects.
I first tried using a random image as texture in maya, but it wasnt working as well as i would've hoped. To create a sky in maya, the texture has to be applied differently than the usual textures. Instead of using an image as colour (which is what we usually do to apply a texture), I was told by Nils to use the image as Incandescence. This is because the brightness of the sky is not supposed to be affected by the lights on the scene, so to avoid this we use the texture as incandescence instead of colour.
But the problem here is that the texture can only be seen on the plane when it is rendered. This made it very difficult to work with, as I cannot see the texture unless i render the scene..
will try using it in after effects instead.
After some research i realised we have two options...we could either make the sky in photoshop and then use it as a texture on a plane in maya, Or we could use it as a background layer in after effects.
I first tried using a random image as texture in maya, but it wasnt working as well as i would've hoped. To create a sky in maya, the texture has to be applied differently than the usual textures. Instead of using an image as colour (which is what we usually do to apply a texture), I was told by Nils to use the image as Incandescence. This is because the brightness of the sky is not supposed to be affected by the lights on the scene, so to avoid this we use the texture as incandescence instead of colour.
But the problem here is that the texture can only be seen on the plane when it is rendered. This made it very difficult to work with, as I cannot see the texture unless i render the scene..
will try using it in after effects instead.
boost!
After working all day on studio last monday, we were both a bit more interested in the project again. (yay!) although there's a lot of work to be done, atleast i think we will be able to finish it on time. We're now both working hard on the scene in the park. We keep wanting to go back to post production work, but we realise that studio needs a lot more attention right now...lets hope it all works out.
trees..continued
Managed to find some nice models of trees and grass for the park. They were all in 3dsMax format. Had to open them in Max, export as fbx and then open the fbx in maya and save it back to maya format.
Some problems cropped up when exporting models from max to maya, as some of them used functions that were specific to max. So when they were imported in maya, some of the nice effects had disappeared. Had to pass on some really good models because of this problem.
Some of the textures on the trees looked a bit plain, so we might add our own textures to create a better look.
I did a small trial on the park and its looking good. :)
I might give lauren all the models so she can make the terrain and I will be working on making a nice picture of the sky at night.
Some problems cropped up when exporting models from max to maya, as some of them used functions that were specific to max. So when they were imported in maya, some of the nice effects had disappeared. Had to pass on some really good models because of this problem.
Some of the textures on the trees looked a bit plain, so we might add our own textures to create a better look.
I did a small trial on the park and its looking good. :)
I might give lauren all the models so she can make the terrain and I will be working on making a nice picture of the sky at night.
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