Had to assign a lambert to the model otherwise it showed up as pure white and blended in with the background.
Might have to change it around so the lower plane gives the illusion of deeper ocean, although this could work.
Monday, 12 May 2014
Render scene and lighting tests
Ship Update
First off;
Hello, does anyone still work on this charming project?
Seriously dudes, the attendance is horrendous!
Moving on.
We (I) now have the main big turrets on the ship, as well as the propeller fan planes.
Saturday, 10 May 2014
Rendering Guide
Figured I'd post this here even if it isn't needed.
Walk cycle is 32 fps for one cycle, starting from one foot and ending on the same foot. Generally work to 24fps for one cycle.
Down in the bottom corner of maya, there's a button next to the little key, which is the settings menu. Towards the bottom, in playback, there is a playback speed. Usually set
to play every frame, you don't want that. Change it to 24fps. This is so it will play it at the correct speed. Set up the frames you want by dragging the bar under the timeslider.
If you require more than 48 frames, change the number at the end of the timeslider. Set it to 24 frames unless you need a buffer (like T-Pose). If you need buffer, set number at the start to 0 instead of 1.
Setting up render frame: Change the perspective camera's environment background color to white if you do not have a background scene. Create > Lights > Ambient Light > move behind light. Always render to the front viewport.
Ambient light goes at the back, slightly raised. It does not have shadows on it, if you find it's too bright turn down the intensity to 0.5. The next light is Create > Lights > Directional Light. It does not matter where it is in the scene, although you want it in a place where you can control it.
There has to be an angle on it, otherwise there will be no shadows on the render. Put it wherever you want as long as it is infront of character. Top of render, click resolution gate. This shows you what is going to be rendered, gives you a better idea of what you're rendering.
Render settings, clipboard > render settings. Click on it and switch to mental ray. If mental ray doesn't show up, go to window > settings > plugin manager and find mayatmr and enable it.
Click on loaded + auto loaded and click on refresh to enable mentalray. In the common tab, scroll down to render options. Uncheck the Enable Default Light button. In the common panel, there are a few things to change. Under File Output, In Frame/Animation ext change default option to name_#.ext
Make sure the project is setup in a project file, make sure it goes into the right place. By default it'll dump it into the images. Go into edit and open the project window editor.
Set up a subfolder in the images folder so the .iff files of the walk and idle animations don't get mixed up. In order to add a subfolder, click on the folder next to the folder name, go to images and right click add new folder and call it whatever you want. A subfolder is needed for every animation you do, otherwise everything will get mixed up.
Click accept and it'll close the dialog box. At the top of render settings the path will have changed. If it's a walk animation, change the name to walk animation so the name walk animation will be in the file prefix. In the frame range section, set start frame to 1.000 and end frame to 10.000 (for example, you need to figure out how many frames you exactly need.)
Next step: Renderable camera is persp. If you make custom camera, make sure that one is selected. In Image size, set it to HD 720. Leave resolution as it is unless you want to be rendering forever. After this, the render settings are done.
Last step: Change window from Polygons to Rendering. Click Render > Batch Render > click box. Don't touch anything here, just click on batch render and close. In order to keep track of what is rendering, open up script editor. It will go through every single render frame until every frame has been rendered. Glance at it occasionally, to make sure it hasn't stopped or showing error messages. To make sure the render was successful, go to the project folder and in the images subfolder and look for the .IFFs.
Double click the IFFs and it will open up fcheck. If it doesn't, look in Autodesk > Maya > fcheck and manually open up the .IFF files. You shouldn't need to do this, this is to just to check if everything went fine.
Open up aftereffects. Click new composition, although aftereffects doesn't have the option for 720HD 24fps. Select 1080HD 24fps, make sure framerate is 24 and click OK. click side window, select Import and select multiple files. Find animation folder with IFF files click on first frame and check IFF sequence, click open. Click OK to the dialog box and click done. your sequence will be in the top left of the program, click and drag into composition box. Make sure the frame fits the window.
Make sure you adapt scene length to the length of the animation.
Click file > export and add to render queue. Down the bottom, the render queue will pop up. Leave render settings at the best settings. Change output module, by default it's lossless, change it from Avi to Quicktime in the format dropbox. In format options, set video codec to MPEG-4 Video. Check the box that says Resize and set it to 1280 x 720 (click the numbers). In the drop down box select DVCPRO HD 720 23.976. Click OK. click output to, set it to where you want to output the render to. Set it to the folder where you want the mp4 to go, click save
And then, in the corner, click render. Once you've done that, you can close it if you wish and double check the mp4 is where you saved it. It'll play in quicktime, it can embed in powerpoint and play in VLC. Make sure the bar is in line with the end of the animation (the red bar) otherwise you will get black after the animation stops playing.
We need to have the mp4 file and the raw maya file on the disc. Make sure everything is in a project folder so nothing needs to be repathed. Walk and Idle animations should be separate scenes, in a project folder.
Walk cycle is 32 fps for one cycle, starting from one foot and ending on the same foot. Generally work to 24fps for one cycle.
Down in the bottom corner of maya, there's a button next to the little key, which is the settings menu. Towards the bottom, in playback, there is a playback speed. Usually set
to play every frame, you don't want that. Change it to 24fps. This is so it will play it at the correct speed. Set up the frames you want by dragging the bar under the timeslider.
If you require more than 48 frames, change the number at the end of the timeslider. Set it to 24 frames unless you need a buffer (like T-Pose). If you need buffer, set number at the start to 0 instead of 1.
Setting up render frame: Change the perspective camera's environment background color to white if you do not have a background scene. Create > Lights > Ambient Light > move behind light. Always render to the front viewport.
Ambient light goes at the back, slightly raised. It does not have shadows on it, if you find it's too bright turn down the intensity to 0.5. The next light is Create > Lights > Directional Light. It does not matter where it is in the scene, although you want it in a place where you can control it.
There has to be an angle on it, otherwise there will be no shadows on the render. Put it wherever you want as long as it is infront of character. Top of render, click resolution gate. This shows you what is going to be rendered, gives you a better idea of what you're rendering.
Render settings, clipboard > render settings. Click on it and switch to mental ray. If mental ray doesn't show up, go to window > settings > plugin manager and find mayatmr and enable it.
Click on loaded + auto loaded and click on refresh to enable mentalray. In the common tab, scroll down to render options. Uncheck the Enable Default Light button. In the common panel, there are a few things to change. Under File Output, In Frame/Animation ext change default option to name_#.ext
Make sure the project is setup in a project file, make sure it goes into the right place. By default it'll dump it into the images. Go into edit and open the project window editor.
Set up a subfolder in the images folder so the .iff files of the walk and idle animations don't get mixed up. In order to add a subfolder, click on the folder next to the folder name, go to images and right click add new folder and call it whatever you want. A subfolder is needed for every animation you do, otherwise everything will get mixed up.
Click accept and it'll close the dialog box. At the top of render settings the path will have changed. If it's a walk animation, change the name to walk animation so the name walk animation will be in the file prefix. In the frame range section, set start frame to 1.000 and end frame to 10.000 (for example, you need to figure out how many frames you exactly need.)
Next step: Renderable camera is persp. If you make custom camera, make sure that one is selected. In Image size, set it to HD 720. Leave resolution as it is unless you want to be rendering forever. After this, the render settings are done.
Last step: Change window from Polygons to Rendering. Click Render > Batch Render > click box. Don't touch anything here, just click on batch render and close. In order to keep track of what is rendering, open up script editor. It will go through every single render frame until every frame has been rendered. Glance at it occasionally, to make sure it hasn't stopped or showing error messages. To make sure the render was successful, go to the project folder and in the images subfolder and look for the .IFFs.
Double click the IFFs and it will open up fcheck. If it doesn't, look in Autodesk > Maya > fcheck and manually open up the .IFF files. You shouldn't need to do this, this is to just to check if everything went fine.
Open up aftereffects. Click new composition, although aftereffects doesn't have the option for 720HD 24fps. Select 1080HD 24fps, make sure framerate is 24 and click OK. click side window, select Import and select multiple files. Find animation folder with IFF files click on first frame and check IFF sequence, click open. Click OK to the dialog box and click done. your sequence will be in the top left of the program, click and drag into composition box. Make sure the frame fits the window.
Make sure you adapt scene length to the length of the animation.
Click file > export and add to render queue. Down the bottom, the render queue will pop up. Leave render settings at the best settings. Change output module, by default it's lossless, change it from Avi to Quicktime in the format dropbox. In format options, set video codec to MPEG-4 Video. Check the box that says Resize and set it to 1280 x 720 (click the numbers). In the drop down box select DVCPRO HD 720 23.976. Click OK. click output to, set it to where you want to output the render to. Set it to the folder where you want the mp4 to go, click save
And then, in the corner, click render. Once you've done that, you can close it if you wish and double check the mp4 is where you saved it. It'll play in quicktime, it can embed in powerpoint and play in VLC. Make sure the bar is in line with the end of the animation (the red bar) otherwise you will get black after the animation stops playing.
We need to have the mp4 file and the raw maya file on the disc. Make sure everything is in a project folder so nothing needs to be repathed. Walk and Idle animations should be separate scenes, in a project folder.
Tuesday, 29 April 2014
Okay Task list time
Tasks that need to be done;
- Finish refining battleship assets
- UV unwrap all models
- Texture assets
- Story Board
- Rig ship
- Create scene
- Gather SFXs
- Animate ship
- Render scene
- Presentation
Well that's all I can think of for now.
Monday, 28 April 2014
Update
Well the refine modelling is underway, will get the models and UVs onto Dropbox so the texture artists have access to them.
Other than that there is not much else of an update, I'll keep modelling and UV unwrapping.
Tuesday, 22 April 2014
Monday, 31 March 2014
Monday, 24 March 2014
Target's of this Week
ok these are the targets for this week,
Ben;
Finish final concept and continue modelling turrets
Jenna;
continue modelling the block out and look at animation
James;
continue and finish story board, ready for Phil to get ideas for music
Rhys;
continue practising textures and try to match or get close to final concept colours.
Ben;
Finish final concept and continue modelling turrets
Jenna;
continue modelling the block out and look at animation
James;
continue and finish story board, ready for Phil to get ideas for music
Rhys;
continue practising textures and try to match or get close to final concept colours.
Place Holder Status
This place holder model is complete just needs the parts separating and put into Maya, will get it up to Dropbox ASAP.
Also the schedule update.
Sunday, 23 March 2014
Tuesday, 18 March 2014
Notes I took on 17/03 (Monday)'s playblast tutorial
I can clean it up if needed, but this should be enough to understand and do.
set up new camera
set project correctly
set up scene correctly
NTSC 30fps
time slider 30fps
give animation frames in time slider
panels > perspective > new
render settings > maya software > HD 720
view > camera settings > resolution gate. forces to display 720x480px
view > select camera
>translation/rotation > key selected, keys camera at frame 1.
move to end position and key. will animate automatically.
window > animation editors > graph editors, make sure everything is smooth (click a button)
right click time slider > playblast > options for playblasting, render in images if not showing animation.
display size from render settings, frame padding 0. save to file turn on, save to images in current project.
keep file type consistent otherwise it will overwrite. Maya legacy issues. gg
after finished, maya will open it's image viewer. fcheck is supposed to play through in real-time.
put into something like premier, individual images render into full movie.
right click keys, break animation to break animation. go out back to persp camera.
orthographic view
create EP curve (create menu)
Set to cubic line
click on area where you want the camera to follow.
edit line same way you edit geometry, press F9. right click, control vertex. shift select curve, switch to animation menu.
Animate > motion paths > attach to motion path.
front = Z
up = Y
break rotation so you can manually control where the camera is facing.
Monday, 17 March 2014
Week Targets 17/03/2014
James
- Stoyrboard art.
- Reference and concept animation environment.
Ben
- Final concept of Battleship
- Continue with battleship assets i.e. turrets, etc
Rhys
- Look and experiment with Maya Playblast
- Continue with texturing.
Jenna
- Finish place holder model.
- Refine ship body for final stage.
Place Holder Model
Here is the draft of the place holder battleship, this is subject to change when we have our final design concept. The model file will then be available on the group Dropbox.
Schedule Update
Sunday, 16 March 2014
Beta turret hull texture
Things to improve on:
Base texture (Too dark, needs to be lighter. Might need to have the "rust" effect stand out more.)
Panel Shape (No idea what I'm doing here, I tried to make what one side of the hull would look like but didn't do it very well. Need to add more detail as well, for example buttons for input and a power port)
Power lines (I want to make them glow, and another color can be selected.)
Flat Texture:
Base Panel:
Textured Panel:
Base texture (Too dark, needs to be lighter. Might need to have the "rust" effect stand out more.)
Panel Shape (No idea what I'm doing here, I tried to make what one side of the hull would look like but didn't do it very well. Need to add more detail as well, for example buttons for input and a power port)
Power lines (I want to make them glow, and another color can be selected.)
Flat Texture:
This is just a test, I will be creating a way better version. Tell me what you think, though.
Monday, 10 March 2014
DropBox
I have created a dropbox for the group, so if you have any work such as concepts, models or any reference material upload it in here. the email address is benandjennsgames@live.co.uk, ask me for the password and i shall give it.
Basic Turret Model
Update on the project rendering.
we discussed that we'd all have a go at the rendering for the animation which can also be a learning process for those in the group who haven't done it before.
Weekly Task 10/03/2014
James
- Keep expanding the battleship concept with more sci-fi and steampunk features.
- create my own version of a sci/fi turret.
Rhys
- Create test/beta floor texture.
- Create test/beta turret hull texture.
Ben
- Refining ideas.
- Starting Turret model.
Jenna
- Make Maya Place holder file.
- Continue refining ideas.
Concepts
Here is a design for one of the types of turrets.
Body and Base to be done
It's design was inspired by the Steampunk style Gatling-gun and the Sci-fi turret on the right
The three barrels will rotate like that of the Gatling-gun, as it stands I have no idea how plausible this is or how it will be done.
I'm going for a Sci-fi based model with a Steampunk texture to incorporate the two.
I'm going for a Sci-fi based model with a Steampunk texture to incorporate the two.
Ship body concept
Here is a design of the battleship I have done
I took inspiration from a few of our reference images.
(No duh that's what they're there for!)
(No duh that's what they're there for!)
Such as the Avengers Air ship image that James has put up for the propellers for the lift. I designed that they fold away into an empty space just below the deck.
To aid in the transition from sea to air, I have put three Helium gas canisters on both sides, they are partly embedded into the ship to reduce some of the drag they will cause while in water.
In the center there is the control tower, a radio tower and some smoke stacks for some Steampunk accent.
The 'wing' at the back is for air steering, despite looking at how planes tail fins help turn the plane I don't think the rudder itself would be efficient.
I have done some place holders for the turrets and hidden sphere turrets, this will more than likely change for the final design. The sphere turrets were inspired by these.
To aid in the transition from sea to air, I have put three Helium gas canisters on both sides, they are partly embedded into the ship to reduce some of the drag they will cause while in water.
In the center there is the control tower, a radio tower and some smoke stacks for some Steampunk accent.
The 'wing' at the back is for air steering, despite looking at how planes tail fins help turn the plane I don't think the rudder itself would be efficient.
I have done some place holders for the turrets and hidden sphere turrets, this will more than likely change for the final design. The sphere turrets were inspired by these.
As for a basic idea of what we are aiming for the animation we want to show the battleship in the sea, the transition from sea to air and then into battle showing off the turrets.
Research into Sci-Fi/Steampunk and how we can combine the two.
I tried to find examples that fit our theme, AKA Sci-Fi elements with the look of steampunk. I didn't manage to find much that would be relevant to our project, so I looked more into walkways/flooring. I plan on creating a version of a floor which combines the elements found in the research, and I will also create an attempt at a turret hull similar to the white one found in the asset research. I did have an extremely incomplete work in progress, which wasn't getting anywhere, that I scrapped when I saw the tutorials Jenna uploaded, so I'm going to incorporate those into the work.
Plans for next week:
Create test floor texture.
Create test turret hull texture.
Sunday, 9 March 2014
[James] Avengers Ship Research
We found that the avengers ship was a good reference as it has four propellers lifting the ship from the sea to the sky.
Tutorials
So here is some tutorials I have found that could be useful to our group, they are all for Maya.
If there is any anyone wants, let me know and I'll see if I can find one or if you have one that's useful put it up here.
- Maya UV and Texturing Basics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQKdfJ1vVnQ - Crates
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsYj4kCSBjM - Realistic dirt metal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZLRpE6WKK4 - Water tower texture - includes; normal map, specular etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwLD1DwTSqU - Seamless textures in Photoshop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7XCEFSjRF8 - Normal Maps in Photoshop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG3pTxgZdsI
Plug in link; https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop - Stained old paper texture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdcchbCbkiw - Sci-fi wall panel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lJ33FqZGbQ - Rusted metal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM7lLPEPJTY
Splatter Brushes; http://designm.ag/resources/500-splatter-brushes-for-photoshop/Grunge Brushes; http://www.youthedesigner.com/2008/07/28/200-free-grunge-photoshop-brushes/
Monday, 3 March 2014
Weekly Tasks.
Week 5 Phase 2 Continuing refining ideas.
Tasks for this week:
Rhys: recreate some of the example research and separate research for steam punk and sci fi.
James: expand on the concepts for the assets, turrets recreate battleship with more sci fi and steam punk.
Jenna: Rough drafts of battleships from the research we have collected as a group.
Ben: Part concepting, part modelling.
Phil: reviewing the audio research.
Tasks for this week:
Rhys: recreate some of the example research and separate research for steam punk and sci fi.
James: expand on the concepts for the assets, turrets recreate battleship with more sci fi and steam punk.
Jenna: Rough drafts of battleships from the research we have collected as a group.
Ben: Part concepting, part modelling.
Phil: reviewing the audio research.
Overview of project so far.
Features: Battleship, Turrets, Life pods, Control tower, How it's going to fly. Gas canisters, Turbines, Propellers.
Appearance: Sci Fi/Modern Body structure & Steam punk theme.
How we're going to animate the ship, Parts that will function, Radio Tower, Turrets, Turbines.
Sound effects: Water, Wind, Waves, Turbines, Gun fire varied.
Sunday, 2 March 2014
Sunday, 23 February 2014
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