Author: Benjamin Spensley

02/12/2024

This week I created two animations in Maya. The first animation has a cube bouncing along the ground. This simple animation was made by adding keyframes to the transform and rotation to create the desired motion.

The second animation was more complex and required a rig to be created for a human model. This rig was created using the quick rig feature within Maya. Once the rig was created I downloaded a jumping animation sheet and added it as a reference image in Maya, then I started by posing the model and adding keyframes to the 7 key animation points.

25/11/2024

Unreal Engine

This week I wanted to create a landscape for my cabin to be placed in, as I have used the Unreal Engine landscape tool before I wanted to try using other software to create a heightmap that could then be imported into the landscape. To get references for the landscape I looked up the location of on of my inspiration cabins as I really liked the view.

After finding the location I measured the distance and height of important features of this area so I could get a realistic scale when creating the landscape.

Once I had enough reference information I started to recreate this environment in World Machine. After following the tutorials built into the program I was able to edit one of the preset worlds to create a heightmap that looked similar to my reference.

18/11/2024

3D Tracking

This week I had to track a more complicated scene, this meant I had to place a lot more points. To manage all of these points I grouped and coloured them per building and floor.

After fixing the lens, distortion and deviations I exported the camera and point data into Maya. With this data I am able to recreate the buildings in 3D and have the camera move through them correctly.

Balloon Festival Modeling

For my balloon festival I wanted to create a futuristic sci-fi balloon. Once I created a moodboard of balloon ideas I decided I wanted to create something with metallic plates that somewhat resembled a spaceship.

I started my doing some tests with the Random Flow add on for Blender, this allowed me to quickly create metal panels and details that would take a very long time to create manually.

After creating a sphere with metal panels I started add hanging cables and other details to the side of the balloon such as antennas, pipes and lights.

When I was happy with my model I added a HDRI to light the scene and give the model realistic reflections. I then animated the model rotating and rendered it with a transparent background.

The next step was to import this render into nuke and scale and position the balloon behind the mountains that have previously been masked.

Once I have the balloons in my shot I began to grade the scene to look darker and give it a sci-fi feel.

11/11/2024

3D Tracking

This week I tried tracking 3D camera movements in 3D Equalizer. To start tracking the shot I needed to add lots of tracking points throughout the shot, these points needed to be at areas with high contrast and unique patterns.

In order to get a good track I had to create points in the foreground and background that had a parallax effect.

Once I had all my tracking points set I had to calculate the lens and distortion from the camera that was use to record the shot. Then I reduced the deviations and bad tracks to get as low of a value as possible.

Modelling

I exported two models from Zbrush to rig in Maya. For the human rig I used the quick rig built into Maya. For the dog I had to manually place the bones and make sure the hierarchy was correct.

04/11/2024

Project

This week I created 3 different ideas for what my model will look like. Out of these 3 shapes I decided to move forward with the middle design.

Once I had chosen a design I added materials to it to get and idea of what It would look like when completed.

Then I tested how the model looks in different lighting scenarios.

When I was happy with my model I checked how everything looked with the wireframe view.

Modeling

To apply textures to specific areas of a model, I unwraped in then carefully placed my building textures in photoshop so they aligned with the models UV map.

I tried texturing a model in substance painter. To apply one of the sample materials in substance painter I simply drag it onto the mesh, then I can change the masks and settings of the material in the right panel.

Nuke

To start tracking an object in Nuke I used the tracker node then selected key points on my object with high contrast. This is so the tracker has an easier job distinguishing pixels.

Using these tracking techniques I can match move or stabilise a shot. In this case I tracked a phone then stabilised it. With this stabilised shot I can more easily replace the phone screen with my own content.

After this content was fit to the screen I animated scrolling to match the finger movement within the shot.

A mask of the finger was made using the roto node so that I could be overlayed ontop of the replaced screen.

Separating Instagram content and top and bottom bars

Finally I added motion blur to the shot and colour graded the replaced screen to match the shot and add more realism.

28/10/2024

Modelling

This week I had to retopologise a face exported from ZBrush. Once the model was imported into Maya I made the object live and used the quad redraw tool to create polygons ontop of the existing mesh. While doing this I tried to create loops around the eyes and mouth so that the face will deform well when animated.

To add textures to an object in Maya I selected my object and created a new material, in this material I imported a image and set it as the base colour of the material. This applied it to the object.

To add a texture onto a model I first have to unwrap the UVs. Once the model is unwraped I can export the uv map and create a texture ontop of in in a software such as Photoshop. Then this texture can be applied to the model and will be mapped correctly.

Unreal Engine

Using the Unreal Engine Water Body plugin I can easily create body’s of water and rivers. these features and be shaped using splines and be further customized to create lakes and oceans.

21/10/2024

Nuke

This week I created a mask for a man running using the rotoscope node in Nuke. In this node I created shapes out of Bezier curves to create masks for certain parts of the body. After these shapes were made I then animated them using keyframes to keep the shapes ontop of the body.

14/10/2024

Modelling

This week I learned about more tools in zbrush such as Tools and Zphere. I added a head to my scene using the Tool feature then I added a body by deforming a sphere.

I used the Zphere tool to create a simple rabbit sculpt.

7/10/2024

Modelling

This week I created a simple character in Zbrush. I created this character by starting with a sphere then sculpting it with the drag and dam standard tools.

I was tasked to create a low poly animal in Maya, for my animal I decided to create and Oarfish. To create my low poly fish I started with a cube and extruded and scaled it to match my reference image.

Once I had the basic shape of the fish I added some loops and made the model thinner at the top and bottom to give it a more natural shape. Then I added extruded some planes to create the fins and other details of the fish.

Finally to give the fish a more fluid shape I used a lattice deform to easily position it.

30/09/2024

Modelling

This week as an introduction to Maya I created a snowman using 3 spheres. I then blended the spheres together by removing the sections and connecting the edge loops together.

For this weeks homework I needed to create a simple castle in Maya. I started by making the walls of the castle and adding crenellations.

Then to make the wall more realistic I used a lattice deform to add imperfections to the wall.

When I was happy with one side of the wall I mirrored it to create a walkway, and added a tower to the corner.

Once I had my wall and tower I could complete my castle by copying and rotating it to make a courtyard. Finally I placed my castle on a simple landscape.