Update

Still not happy with the story. Breaking it down into different cards is helping. Have started to look 

into

 http://www.how-to-write-a-book-now.com/plot-outline.html

As a way to sort out the project. Its really difficult to try and concentrate on design when the plot and narrative is so broken. 

Have created this pallette and given it to emma for her concept art. 

I have been thinking about colours. And having contrast. I like the contrast in the museum to the washed out dreamy-ness of the visions. 

The constrast and hues in the museum lighting remind me of Blade Runner. I'm leaning much more to a live action opening. 

For the visions and characters we were trying to do something original with textures.

I was thinking about using the 2D shader as a way of making them different. Got advice from alex saying this was a very difficult way to go about it and to experiment with a ramp shader which i will do.




Have also done a tutorial about texturing to get a better idea of doing this.

New animatic

In this updated animated, i have added in a scene at the beginning showing the story. The is also a motion tracked scene using a 3d modelled head in a filmed enviroment. The story is beginning to make more sense. But I dont like the cards at the beginning or the end.



I have been experimenting with clouds in Maya in summer and had another check up on it last week. These feature in the animatic and I think they turned out quite well. I changed the evoloution of them over time to quite high and it gave the time-lapse effect i was looking for.

I also looked at the ocean shader, for the water with the crane. 

This shader was pretty much a job in itself but I didnt want to use after effects for a cheap water effect. I think this looks ok for now, but could use more transparency. 

The problems with the animatic, the story needs to link up and make sense, I like the idea of starting in the museum, but how to make that work? Also, i think it needs some kind of narration but I hate narration. 

Cut Out Test

In comparison to my 3D tests trying to implement the codex images but still keeping a 3D enviroment that I can move the camera around in. I cut out a codex image on photoshop as a test. Think it looks
horrible. So this has been abandoned.
   


Again its very hard to work on style when the narrative is in the air.

Experimenting

I'm still working on the narrative of the Aztecs. But need to crack on with design as well, to depict the Aztec characters I have been experimenting different ways of maybe realising the Codex as 3d geometry in Maya. I spoke to Alex about creating 2D characters in Maya that always face the character. I will need to create one Rig, with every kind of Aztec accessory in it, then i should be able to use instancing to turn them on and off and randomise them. This is proving to be challenging at the
modelling stage.

Aswell as the codex in the museum I have bought a book called "The Codex Borgia" 

In this amazing book, there are hundreds of Aztec illustrations and beautiful designs. I love them but Im struggling to fit them into the project as I originally envisioned it. I've attempted to model them in 3D.  

As you can see, my first attempt isnt up to much at all. I've always avoided modelling because i find it quite tedious, I'm going to get much better if I want to make this project. However, I just dont think these characters can be produced in 3D. 

Started a tutorial in Nurbs modelling. 

Have tried to storyboard this properly after creating the first animatic. I have listed lenses to be used an colour coded the difficulty of creating the shot from green (easy) to orange (challenging) 

Museum trip

After the successful pitch, me, James and Emma, went to the British Museum to look at some aztec art. I took pictures of the things that inspired me. I find the designs on Aztec codex's to be fascinating and would love to implement them into the design of the project.
 

The masks and designs are a lot of fun visually. Again inspired to find a place for them in the project.

The lighting and mood of this Aztec space inside the museum makes me want to try and find a place for some live action footage, which would be nice to fit in for the people interested in VFX.

First

For this term I have decided to look into nCloth and nhair in maya. I haven't looked into this before and I think it will be essential for making my project have a more interesting look. I am still trying to define the look and style of my piece. But I know what i want the cloth to look like, so will try and focus on making it work.

Advanced Technical Skills

Origins

For the 3rd year project I have pitched a series of slow motion 3D renders depicting the omens foreboding the end of the Aztec empire.




I created this animatic and then pitched it to the class. My project was lucky enough to be selected and I am now the director of this project. We have a review at Christmas to check the project is possible. At the moment the animatic doesn't have the impact I'm looking for. The story is unclear and isn't very engaging. I think it requires some sort of narration or story telling to push it through. But this is difficult to work out at this stage. I have quite a few members in my group, but everyone seemed to agree to doing everything on the day, so not sure how much help is fully on board.

Aztec Project START

For the final year project at Ravensbourne I will be pitching a project I have created called Moctezuma. The film will focus on the visions that King Montezuma was said to have had before his empire fell and the Spanish invaded. I have a lot to sort out in terms of the narrative this term.

I created an animatic over summer to try and explain my idea better to the class, I would like it to be quite serious and dramatised, with photorealistic lighting 3d enviroments but I'm unsure of the look I want to go for.

Dissertation