Assasins Creed Brotherhood

Although Assasins Creed Brotherhood isn't the third game in the series it is a sequel to the 2nd in the franchise and for a game that just gets better and better just by looking at this video you can see some new gameplay and from this trailer the game will be one of the best games of the year, November 19th mark it down on your calendar:

Sintel

I was just looking through sites and found this brilliant piece of animated short, with a really good plot that was created by a Blender based software company which began creatin short films and this is the latest one:

Here are the other two short films produced by the same company:

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 5:Rough Cut of Text Placement

This video is just a rough cut of where i have placed the text i will use and how they will be viewed by the audience and i have just placed them in their final view, they are not yet animated along with the chess pieces but from what i have done so far i can see the text going well with the pieces and with the final tweaks to finish the piece of it will look like a great combination.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 5:Tfu Tfu Font Style 1st Shot View

From the previous blog i had worked on the positioning of the text and placed it right where i wanted and found that i was right in wanting the text to be placed upon the chess piece rather than embedding the text in the chess piece as it wouldn't stand out as much and so here is the font style that i believe stands out and is placed with the chess piece, the 'Tfu Tf'u' font style.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 5:1st Shot Text View

This clip is a short one of the first shot of the rising of the chess piece and showing the text within the piece but as you will notice the font is a basic one because i wanted to get the positioning of the text within the piece right and found that whilst placing the text on the chess pieces inside rather than embedding the text it stands out alot more and with the font i have chosen the text wouldn't be much of anotice if it were embedded within the piece.

Tron Legacy Music Video by Daft Punk

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 4:Text Rendered Textures

Here is a basic texture of stone which i thought looked good but i didn't want to go away from the traditional two coloured board and only used this texture to see how stone would look if i used a grey scale.

This stands out the best from what i've worked on, textures wise as the colours go well in contrast of black and white but because the textures had looked out of place as to what i have been going for. The textures don't look like a stone texture but just a basic plastic board and i had thought that because the textures go so well i could use it as a final piece example.

Again these textures go well but because the textures look too repetitive in the markings in the stone but the textures go well together. The problem with the texture as well as the repetitiveness is that i had wanted a much darker of a chess board and the textures that i had used makes the individual board spaces stand out.








The texture that i have chosen is the one you see in the image on the right and i had chosen the texture which i found fit my search description, with the dark fossil red and a dark creamy white. With this texture theres the problem of it being repetitive  but also a bit blurry but after i complete the animation i will begin to improve on the texture.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 4:Animating Chess

So i have started to animate my chess set from the camera angles shown in my storyboard and this is just a test of the animation, to see what needs to be improved and i can see that i will need to pace a few of the shots more quicker yet having the chess pieces move slower could set th epace of the movie which is a gradual build up of the meeting of Lord Loss and Grubbs, but i will add text and texture along with the pieces as i progress further with the completion of the animation.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 4:Chess Board Textures

When using the hyper shade i began to do some practise texturing and found that the hyper shade was easy to use, just link the process together.

The hyper shade allows me to go back into the tool and allows me to change the colour of he objects after i've completed the project.




The next couple of images are of various views of the texture i have chosen, the reason is i have chosen this is because the book is a dark and eerie mood and i wanted to capture that mood into the chess board and pieces and i had picked the dark fossil red as it goes well with the black and white traditional board and fits with the fossil red and creamy white.




Top view as shown in the image to the left, shows how well the texture will be viewed, the reason for this is because you have the wide view of the chess set and board.

Being able to see the chess board and set gives you the better scale of the objects and you can see how the individual textures go well with the colour but not the stone effects as the textures i had chosen had come up as blurry once zoomed in.

With the textures being used upon the chess pieces although they seem repetitive you still get that stone effect as its showing carvings or markings into the stone which come off.

You can see in the image to the left that texture on the chess piece is repetitive but comes across as a stone piece and the texture is similar to how the creamy white texture on the chess board is and so fits with the mood.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 3:Texture Tests

So i began testing the textures i had chosen to represent my chess pieces and from a further out show these textures go really, really well with the models and below are some of the various view of the textures on the chess board and set. From what i can see is that the textures become repetitive and that is something that i would want to sort out once the animation and text aspect of the project is complete as it doesn't take much time using hypershade to change the pieces to the texture i want.

As you can see from the image there is a huge texture problem and it is visible on the front side of the knight as it looks as if the texture is metal and shiny which is not what i had wanted although the rest of the Knight worked out as being stone with the visible markings yet they are a bit too blurry.

But the bottom of the Knight comes across as a piece of patterned stone which i like but feel again that its too repetitive.

Now from this whole texture process i felt that the best outcome from it so far is the creamy texture albeit that its not what i had wanted but the repetetive effect comes out as a great stone pattern for the other half of the chess pieces and the colour comes across but has the dark aspect with the patterns and i feel it works.

The tiled chess board is a great combination but as its shown they all seem too blurry, from a distance great but close up blurry, however the colours mash up well as you have this dark fossil red with its markings and the other a creamy white and shows that the combination of colours go together but i need a much smoother looking texture to use.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 3:Textures

As i had stated in a previous blog that i will be doing a stone structured chess set and would try to incorporate a similar contrast of colours to the traditional black and white board but would use a dark fossil red and a creamy white and in this blog are some of the similar type of textures that i am looking for: 

Here is a page of the type of textures i am looking at, from what can be seen the palette of colours show that i want a dark creamy texture to represent the white side of the board and pieces.

Finding this site allows me to go through the various choices and pick any that are best suited but the one that i am looking more towards is the colours of these textures from this site but a texture that is visible as a stone material with cracks, chips and many other variables of stone material.

Now this is the type of texture i am looking at when i mean visible stone material yet i chose this image as an example of the marings i want to see on my material and found this image as a really good example and then after looking at it i see the colour of the image come through and i began to wonder could this be a suitable contrast of colour to represent the black side the board.

This texture is best suited for what i have been searching for as it is the creamy contrast of colour which varies throughout the image as its lighter and darker from opposite parts of the image and allows the markings on the stone to be shown very well.

Looking for fossil red textures i came across this image and found it stick in my head with the markings being shown as chipped into the stone and although it suits the criteria of texture that i'm looking for it doesn't have a connection of the colour of black from the black side of the chess board, had the colour been much darker to have hints of the fossil red it would best suit my project.

Now this image is much more of the previous image but everything it was missing as this image shows a much darker presence along with the carvings of the stone and you see hints of the fossil red that i had been wanting.

This image was chosen basically because of the markings, carvings and just the picture you would get of stone being dark but at a closer look i started to see these streaks of red and thought that this is really good and would fit my chess board.

Another texture that i thought stood out with its stone like grains as you can see the bits and pieces of this stone fading off and although the colour isn't what i was looking for it still has this dark red and grey effect making the bits and piees of the stone have more of a visbility in the image.

The cracks in this image is what i take away as it shows that fragile part of stone and how its affected and shows the age of the stone, but i really liked how the image has these various bits of grey around the cracks giving the stone more of the effect of its time from being solid to slowly fading away.

This texture is really brilliant image because it has that stone affect when the stone is fading away of breaking apart as you can see the darker pieces of the stone show that its the outer layer of the stone whilst as this layer fades away you get this creamy grey and i see the cracks showing more of teh stone breaking apart to show the process of stone from its outer layer, breaking or fading apart in the cracks upto the inner layerof the stone which is much more lighter in colour to the outer layer.

Creamy piece of stone that i had been looking for but seemed much too bright to be used in my project as it show the markings but had these marking been more visible or larger then it would seem more of ancient stone for a chess board and set.

Fossil red was what i had been looking for and found this type of stone which at first look doesn't look like stone and yet in some views looks like a close up of marble but i choe this because of its colour it stands out with the fossil red but because of the random bits of blue orange and othe colours it makes this image look like something other than stone.

In it's chips and markings on this stone allows it to be one of my favourites to be the creamy white part of the chess board and thats show through the colours being creamy and blending with the whites, and grey and these three bits of colours allows the markings to be shown up in the image and makes it stand out as a piece of stone.

Again the marking on this stone makes it seem more of a stone but put it with the dark fossil red allows the image to be more of an old piece of stone and having a second glance o fthe image i saw a different look, a look which seemed that this image could be of a grey stone which wis covered in blood and i thought that this could be even better as it would then be a good show of how this demon had come along and slaughtered this boys family if half the chess board was covered in blood.

Here i was just searching for an image of fossil red as if it were much more darker than previous images i had seen and found this which goes along with the carving as if someone was scratching or hitting the piece of stone.

Again i was looking for a creamy based texture and found this although it isn't much visble as a piece of stone the image has the colour that makes it stand out.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 3:Beginning the Modelling...



Outline of the shape i want
creating



The polygon once rotated

Beginning the modelling process in Maya was the right choice as i had chosen Maya because it had been one of the softwares that i liked using and would of like to use again and when i didn't want to have to do a live action chess set i believe doing the chess set in Maya made me work with the objects much better when filming and creating the specific camera shots i had wanted.

But once i had gotten into Maya i had basically started from scratch, creating a polygon and working from there but later known to me i could have created an outline of my shape and then rotated it to to create a smooth finished piece.

As you can see from the image on the right once the rotation had been done from the outline of the shape, i had a smooth chess piece which would then be worked upon to create the stone look.










 

Layout of shapes



Here is the layout of my grid, working form the side view and using this view i was able to focus on one side then rotating the outline to create full 3D polygon and doing this for each individual chess piece had only taken a couple of minutes but when it had come to the time to create the knight piece became more on the modelling aspect.


 

Modelling the Knight from a
basic polygonn





 


Having three various Knight design



Modelling the knight was one of the trickiest pieces as most of my modelling had been doing basic shapes and when stumbling upon a more harder shape to create i had joined the polygon shapes together and so i started to do the same with this Knight piece i had started to model the Knight in individual polygon which would soon be built together.

However, it was later revealed to me to start of with a basic cube polygon and work from that by extruding the shape till it fits the outline and shape of the knight in the image.

Building the Knight

Smoothiong the Knight

Once i had gotten the outline of the Knight sorted i began to swith back to my 3D

 perspective where i could then work around the shape and shape it more out and create the 3D shape more accurate to what a chess piece looks like. Having to continously make sure no extra polygon pieces or parts were out of place was a part of the process in which i had to keep track of.

Keeping track of any anomalies made me aware of having to switch between the different perspectives and make sure i tidy up any unwanted peieces of the chess piecea and once i had smoothen out the polygon any anomalies would be visible but once i had smoothen out the polygon i had the Knight piece beginning to take shape .

Many perspectives helped with anomalies

Working through all different perspectives helped with building the polygon into what i had wanted but also being able to work around the 3D shape to find its flaws and there had been many but mainly the fact that there had been edges and faces that weren't connected or sticking out, so i had to look at each views to fix the problem. I had found though that the 3D perspective was the one that i could work with as i could move around the piece rather than focusin gon one perspective and being limited zooming in and out on the piece.





Completed the chess set and had shown the pieces on an
example of a chess board



Once i had finished finding and solving the prolems i began to create a example chess board using the traditional black and white board cover but mainly wanted the scale of my board and set of chess. I had gotten the rough scale of the chess set and the layout i wanted to keep but this is how the chess set looks with the pieces placed upon the board with my chess set having the layout of being near the end of a chess game and so would have the pieces scattered across the board whilst others around the board.

Contextual and Theoretical Studies Level 5 Week 2:Cinema as a Door

Todays session was focusing on 'Cinema as a Door', how it leads the viewers into the film by creating a hook in the opening scene to pull the viewers into wanting to watch more and in the opening scene could benefit from it being a hilarious comedic moment in which carries on the mood throughout the film or even a sad beginning to show the depression of what will become a happily ever after but whichever way the opening scene is it is there to let the viewer into what will be expected throughout the film or to find out what happens next.

The time of the film also helps in the easing through the door way as the viewers see the connection of the specific time period and see a way in as it relates to them and a way its shown is through the time periods of animation from the days it had been a drawing moving to a 3D model movement these show how the time of the films production makes it a transition for the viewer because it s so basic and not complicated to get through to the viewers.

Sounds are also a form of doorway as sounds that are familiar to the viewer help to ease them into a car chase scene using fast paced sounds, this is from the viewers knowing the sounds and becoming familiar enough to let themselves get into the storyline or action sequence and also through the sounds of narration can help to ease the viewers into the film as a soft soothing voice can bring you into a sunset scenery of a mountain top as the narration of the back story of the film is being told.

I had found this intro into a game which is similar in the sense that the cinema as a door is used to get the viewers into the game and be lead through or into its storyline by the narration of what is going on and to set up the scene for the overll gameplay:

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 2:Font Research Part2

At first i had been focusing much more on the animation and pre production that i had almost forgotten the font aspect of the project and so from looking at the various sites and styles of fonts used i was discussing about what type of font i am looking for and a friend had told me about a websitedafont.com that could help in what i am looking for.

This font had been used in the film 28 days later and i thought that the style had a good understanding of what the film is about. I see that the film had been about the corruption of the society which is why it comes through the font style, because the text looks corrupted and falling apart.

Again this font is using the similar corrupted style and fading the text which could be used for my demon connection as they are seen as corrupted creatures and that this font can be used for my project because looking at the style it seems like a dark, strange style.



 
Faith collapsing font style had captured my attention because you have this old style of font being used which makes the text stand out. From the style of the text being of a historic nature and having only certain aspects of the past known creates a dark understanding of what may be hidden in the past and that could sum up Lord Loss as he is a dark figure in the book but all we know about him is what is writen whilst his past is hidden.

This font style had a certain mystery behind it, the reason why i think it seemed strange is that its not detailed but you can tell what it says and the bits of old grainy effect along with the black ink makes it fit for a title sequence that would need a piece of text that seem mysterious an dstrange which fit the description of the Lord Loss character.

I had chosen this font because the way the ink looks makes the text look like its liquid which instead of black could be a crimson colour to look like blood for the point that the films start point is the mutilation of the main characters family.







This font style is by far my most favourite as it captures the dark gothic style in the text being of an ancient style with these additional lines and markings, which could be shown as bits of blood splats.The text along with the font style create a good combination to make the final piece of the text look menacing and somewhat spiteful towards the audience, to grab their attention.



Although this looks like a kids style font i had chosen this because it so basic but tweaked a little can look menacing and dark but when i first saw this i thought a halloween style font but once i started to think if i had the whole thing covered in blood it could look like a blood running down the lettering.

For this the font had just looked like its been carved into skin as you wouldn't get lettering with so many staright lines if it hard to write it and having this carved style embedded into my chess pieces would go well with this font being similar to what people would picture a halloween style font.

This font had reminded me of a horror film The Grudge because of how the extra lines with the text look like a representation of how The Grudge had her long thin black hair draped down her face. From that connection i had though this is a scary piece of font because it looks so dark and goes along with the big black size of the text and the small thin lines to create a crazyness around the focus point.
Here is a peice of font i had picked because its seem like a similar type of font as the previous one but with this font its using the thin lines as basic as it can be but because the text is so blunt the lines make the whle text stand out as a scary text.

Looking at this font style makes me see it as if the text had been messed up and abused witht the so much of it having cuts into it or pieces coming off and right there is the similarity that can be shown through the text that the story has something to do with the shreding or abused occurance.





This font style to me is seen as its a hand written font with the circles being coloured in and having thin light lines scribbling the text out, From that i see that this font style can be seen as a dark, strange style and that the text had been scratched, showing a similarity between the film and having the circles being coloured in black has that dark hole feel and a sense of darkness.

Eroding the text was one style that i had seen had stood out because from it you can get an uncertainty of what the film could be about but is something that can be disturbing and when finding a style that i could use i thought that i could break up the text as its eroding away.

The One That Stood Out

 

However after looking at numerous style of fonts i had my mind set on style that seemed more menacing and dark and chose the Tfu Tfu by Meir Sadan style of font.