A Siege of Colour
3D Ready
2April 8, 2010
After completing my first stereoscopic production in the role of stereographer I feel excited to continue working in stereo in my personal work. I’m excited to apply the techniques and knowledge I have gained to ‘A Siege of Colour’ and to build more upon my understanding of how depth affects the cinematic language I am still trying to decipher.
Moving On
0March 22, 2010
This is a render from 3ds Max of the bunk… The textures hold up really nicely close up as well. Below this image is the proxy version that was built for the previsualisation. There are a number of alterations to the shape and detail on most parts of the objects but the overall shape and dimensions must remain similar due to the animation and positioning of cameras and objects during the previs. If the matress was much higher than the proxy version then Horstmann would not be able to reach his head over it as he does in one of the shots. Therefore special considerations must be made before changing the overall shape and size of objects, the knock on effects could be much more important than the initial reason for changing it.
I’ve been spending pretty much all of my awake hours at work just recently so ive not done much here at the lunar workshop. The bunk is complete though and now I’m moving on to the steps just behind the bunk… An exciting time is indeed upon us.
I’m developing some interesting methods of texturing that I’ve not encountered before on tutorials or forums so I think i’ll post some of the methods up here for the gentle chaps and ladies who may be interested in such of the like.
More Texture Work on the Bunk
0February 22, 2010
Listening to AFX… Texturing the bunk. This is like the digital equivalent to knitting.
Macklin Cellar Texture Adventures
0February 15, 2010
Macklin Street… Me and Jim descended into the murky depths of the cellar at the weekend and pretty much documented every square inch of the place. It’s awesome down there… It used to be crammed full of old stuff, and weird stuff, like a boat engine and propellors etc. It was good to see it completely empty and actually be able to get around it without getting trapped.
I forgot to charge my camera batteries so Jim let me use his Canon DSLR and took a few shots himself.
Anyway, here’s a few:
There’s three rooms which are pretty nasty and then there’s this… A pristine white meat fridge with hanging hooks and a 30cm thick wooden door and Jim inside… straight out of an eighties slash horror movie.
Me in the cellar, taken by Jim Cork on his Hipstamatic iPhone.
Richard’s Bunk
0February 13, 2010
It’s around one hundred years since Captain Scott led the ill-fated expedition to reach the South Pole.
After many years of exploration, planning and exhaustion the Terra Nova Expedition to be the first to reach the south pole was preceded by the Norwegians by just thirty days. Scott and his party died on the return journey and before the other members of the expedition returned home, a wooden cross was constructed by the ships carpenter and inscribed witha line from Tennyson’s poem Ulysses: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”
I found some images of ‘Discovery Hut’ and ‘Scott’s Hut’ a few years ago and remember being deeply inspired by them. The hut’s are pretty much preserved exactly as they were left in the early 20th Century including slowly rotting seal blubber and a myriad of classic British branded goods such as Bird’s Custard and Fry’s Cocoa. So anyway… I collected hundreds of images of the handful of huts from this heroic era of exploration and discovery. Mainly from Seth White’s online journal.
Parts of these huts have found there way into the design of the environment where Horstmann resides so I thought it would be good to share the inspiration. One key element is Richard’s (Richard ‘Dick’ Richards) Bunk from the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, which followed on from Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition. The bunk is on the far left of the image below.
A terrifying inscription on the bed reads: “RW Richards August 14, 1916 Losses to date: Haywood Mack Smyth Shak(?)”
It’s not important to the story at all, that the bunk has this background. In fact I don’t really want it to look like a bed. One shot will have the top of the mattress and the pillow in full view but I’ll possibly lose them in shadows or take them out for that particular shot if it’s too obviously a bed. I don’t really want it to feel to habitable as an environment. As much as inspired by the look and form of these images I feel the overall idea of this being Horstmann’s uncomfortable reality should be maintained beyond being faithful to these visual influence. I guess it’s just an interesting story. Well… Here’s the beginnings of Richard’s Bunk anyway.
Wooden Cupboard
0February 10, 2010
Just kicking back making a cupboard… Texturing in mudbox etc
I was thinking that cupboard is a strange word… Just looked it up and it turns out that ‘as the name suggests’ it’s a board for putting cups on. I never thought of that.
Thoughts on Light, Colour and Depth
0February 5, 2010
For this project I’m enjoying the adventure into new territories of light and colour. I’ve always been interested in light from both a scientific and creative viewpoints but throughout this project I have been reading more about light and colour as a creative language and exploring new ways of using them as storytelling devices.
The whole story takes place in one small room but I think it’s essential to change the perception of depth and space throughout the story for emotional and dramatic effect.
The inevitable colour of dust, an ephemeral impact, daffodil yellow, a sustained attack of blue… other ways to sustain feelings over time.
The close ups… A tarnished green R61G76B71, a nostalgic moment #4C4547
There are a couple of oportunities in the story for a close-up of Horstmann. I like the idea of creating an intimate space between Horstmann and the viewer as he pauses to watch in ore as the butterfly passes before him and behind the position of the camera. I think this shot in particular would benefit from having a short depth of field to pull Horstmann into our space and blurring the background environment to push it further into the image and create a soft and intimate space. The colour will have to be subtly dynamic.
Stereoscopic Ponderings
0I’ve been thinking about producing ‘A Siege of Colour’ in stereoscopic 3d for a while now. I’m not sure if it’s a good idea. I have been working on a stereoscopic production at work for the past six months and it’s been an amazing journey of discovery. It’s an exciting time for ’3d’ at the moment with most box office cg animations having duel release as 2d and 3d and especially with the recent release of Avatar but it’s also a format laden with problems. It’s very interesting to hear everybody’s opinions and experiences with s3d, which seem to vary from the extremes of hate to love.
As the stereographer on my first steoscopic project I have been learning on the hoof… Wht’s fascinating me is that much of the beautifully evolved language of film doesn’t always translate well when the element of depth is added. Beyond the novelty of 3d images there is a very complex language to explore. The boundaries are different from two dimensional film in a number of ways, and the only way to explore these boundaries and the alternative cinematic devices that depth can add is to author primarily for 3d. That is, to work towards a stereoscopic outcome only, not one that would work in 2d and 3d and consequently never really take full adventage of either.
Construction Begins
0January 26, 2010
Whilst waiting for Biff to get creative on the lobe based artwork I’ve begun work on the modeling and texturing phase of the production.
My basic pipeline for this is 3ds Max for low poly versions, then Mudbox for any higher detail modeling and a mix of Mudbox and Photoshop for texturing. I always end up getting carried away with the texturing, usually wasting a good few hours working into parts of objects that aren’t visible to the camera. I do love texturing though… The hero objects are the more satisfying but there’s always good opportunity to add interesting details to the peripheral objects that help to build up the overall feel for an environment.
I got Total Textures V01 R2 from 3d Total for Christmas off my folks, which is extremely useful a starting point or for a blanket texture pass on all the elements in minutes. For the more important stuff I prefer to locate specific textures and surfaces. It’s time for a texture adventure. Yeah.
