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.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 2:Font Research Part1

I had been looking at some fonts that are used for films and title sequences that were similar to what type of style i will be going for. The type of style i was looking for was a horror, dark and eerie text that stood out as being a connection between the text and the dark mood of the book.

I had found this text which is the classic or basic point of horror text, as its just the text with a blood dripping effect. I believe that this is a good effect to get blood coming down and bleeding but because it had a basic text formatting the effext was less affective.

This text format makes the expectation of the game more clearer in the sense that its a horror based game in space, but for me it comes more across from the text also having a fading between the text and the background to give it more of a view that the text is part of the space but stands out because of the lighting effect around the lettering.

The text for this researched image wasn't the focus point of my attraction towards it but rather the background or colours used around the text. The colours used are red and black which are the main two components used to represent the horror image as it gives that sense of darkness and blood and the contrast between the two gives it a random effect which captures your eye.

This text represents the blodd dripping effect alot better than the first text researched as this uses the font style better, from what i can see it seems as though the text is metal based and has been used as a knife to puncture something. The blood appears over the letterin gto be dripped and the reason for this effect to be more advanced then the other is for the realistic colouring of the blood and lettering as this is more of a crimson dark red.

Effects used for horror come across as always being a dark shocking style and with this font the effect that is used is one which creates the feeling of the film being about the process of life or something that surrounds the graveyard mood.

The effect i am mentioning is the eroding text which could represent the whle decomposing of the flesh within a graveyard because of the dark blood colouring that is shown for the eroding text. Eroding text can also be seen as dirt being thrown across the text as a representation of the horror film being about someone being buried alive.

This text is  another example of a dark font used to show the horro genre from the basic flame manipulation used for the text and because flames are an unstable fear it shown a sense of fear of a dark, scary film. The font is simple but due to the font being engulfed in flames makes it stand out from the black background to give the viewer a much visible focal point. 

I had chosen this as a expectation of what i hope to achieve as the film as you can tell is about halloween but what caught my attention was the fact that the font isn't much of horror option but a basic bubbled, neon text and i found that because of the nature of the film the text represents it very well as the film is more about the halloween aspect and the text captures it throught the text being a bright orange colour of a pumpking and having the font style be so simplistic goes well with the image it is shown with.

Text of this simplicity is shown well with the image it is accompanying but by taking it away from the picture you will still get that eerie feel from it and i see that because of how the outline of the text is a dark orange in comparison to the pumpkin and which maybe the belief that the text could be a pumpkin and has been carved to show this text from the bright candle light that is shown within the text.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 2:Mood Board

MoodBoard

On the right is my mood board which as you can see has a lot of dark images this is due to the book that i have chosen is a dark, an eerie, horror book.

Many of the images don't have too much of a difference in colour as many of the colour used are dark and blending with a a few bits of bright colours to have a significant area of the image stand out.

The images have similar styles such as the contrast of colours to have the image merged with its colour creates a more understanding of whats going on and what the image is trying to get across to the audience.

For my title sequence i had begun to see if there could be a connection between the colour and the title sequence and using the cover of the book i could use a dark backdrop which has a shade of red fading in and out on the dark backdrop, similar to the right side of the mood board which gives off the sense of anger, fear and bloodshed (a connection to the story of the book).

Contextual and Theoretical Studies Level 5 Week 1:Week Task

We were assigned to write a brief intro to ourselves :

I am interested in becoming a games designer more specifically the concepts of both characters and environments but as i learn more throughout this course t broadens my eyes to more options but mainly towards games and i feel that this course has helped me in furthering my development into the games industry as well as the addition of having a person who has spent time in the games industry, in Mark Griffiths i can learn alot from.

I haven't really looked at much theory work and haven't really focused on it much but any theory involving the games, cartoons, comics, superhero and just any form of imaginary theory i could be opened to learning about. The book i had chosen for my brief was Darren Shahn's Lord Loss a book in which i had been recommended to and the last book i have read in a while so my choices weren't that big but i feel i made the right choice as i had a rough idea of doing a chess board movement type title sequence.

I'm not really sure what i would want from this module other than interesting theories behind what i would like to do or even something interesting like the back story of font had been interesting as we don't really focus on the origins of font and the many that are at our disposal.

Contextual and Theoretical Studies Level 5 Week 1:History of Type



Advanced version of the wooden letter block



Today's session was teaching the class of the history of type and where certain types of font had originated and evolved from and this was done in great timing of our project that is coinciding with the contextual studies on making a title sequence. The history of font can be traced to the days when Johannes Guthenberg introduced the wooden block to allow printing for the bible through ink being spread on the wooden block which had a specific letter carved into it and then written onto paper. Due to this procedure being expensive and a long procedure to accomplish the bible that were completed had to be attached to a steel chain as there were such a few of bible created that they were seen as priceless objects to have that people were trying to steal them.

Old English text was one specific type of font that i saw as a improvement of a basic design as it has this level of class from the font being more of a timing font style to create by adding more to the font you get that this font is to create a sense of high level rather than a running ink piece of font.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 1:My Idea and Storyboard

Storyboard

My idea is to involve the chess players scenario from the book, in a way in which the title sequence will have a chess board and chess peices that will move as a traditional chess game would be played out but my idea with the chess game being played is to embed the texts into chess pieces, have the texts being shown behind the pieces after they've moved, underneath the peices, on the chess board and more.

I will be doing 5 shots that will last 6 seconds each, 3 seconds for movement and 3 seconds for the title and the final shot are a compilation of extras that i will be able to use if i have time available. The Title sequence will begin with the movement of a chess piece to reveal the chess board and pieces and will have the camera move around the chess board to reveal titles and eventually finish with a check mate move to which the fallen piece rolls towards the screen.

I will be creating the chess pieces within Maya and animating them using the same software, the reason i have chosen to do so is because i had the option to use a local life size chess board but that would require filming and i believe that filming isn't my strong point however 3D modelling had stood out to me and i wanted to go back and try to model the objects for my title rather than plan to film my title sequence.




Each scene will consist of 6 seconds, 3 seconds of movement and 3 seconds of camera movement

Shot 1-The scene will begin with a black view as a low shot looking up, the scene will begin from there to the first piece moving to unveiling the chess game which will be half way through. The camera will stay in the same position whilst the piece moves and the first text is shown embedded within the piece.

Shot 2-This scene will begin with the camera movement switching or moving to mid shot as it turns right towards the next piece to show text down the side of the piece.

Shot 3-After the previous scene is finished the camera will again move from mid shot to low shot as it moves left towards one of the chess board squares, which will then have camera tilt down to a top view shot making another piece of text visible.

Shot 4-From the previous shot the camera will come back to on the chess board and then move or rotate the camera to the right. With the camera in place as a low shot focusing on the chess piece in front the viewers will see half of the text which will connect to the other piece coming across from the right side.

Shot 5-This shot will start off with the camera rotating to the left and move towards the final chess move, check mate, which will the horse cornoring the king and not allowing it to move anywhere thus making the king lose and bein knocked down and rolling towards the screen and causing it to fade out to black, through out this scene the shot will be a mid shot with the view of the horse visible.

 Extras-As you can guess are the extra ideas of shots that i am willing to involve with any time available, there are shots such as a mid side shot which would have each lettering of the text on the individual pieces, another is a top view looking down on the board and seeing the piece make its move and unveiling a text, one that is again a top view which shows the text on the rook piece along top of the piece and finally the far out shot looking over one side of the pieces to across the board which will have large lettering or text to make up a wordalong the front of the pieces.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 1:Title Sequence Research

Before i had started to get my initial idea fully figured out, i had started to look at title sequences that stood out to me and i had found the following title sequences that had stood out because of their basic effects...

This title sequence was a good choice of mine because it shows the images of the story that and a glass shattering affect, which goes really well with the text as it doesn't allow the image to take up more of screen.

This affect allows the images to have the glass shatter effect on them but isn't used upon the text to allow it to stand in front and be focus point along with the image.



The next title sequence is another one that stood out because its not a sequence that focuses alot on one point but combines both and in this sequence it is used alot more although you would have to look more at the text to uncover what it says.

The usage of the text on signs gives it that realism. The combination of the two allows it to be apart of the backdrop which gives another understanding of what the movie is about.

Another great combination title sequence is the Napoleon Dynamite title sequence which i found had worked really well was because the film is about a high school male and his time through high school and because its his life the title sequence is just a sequence of his everyday life which with each sequence gives another piece of text and although it combines the two it works because it shows the brakfast scene with sauces used as the ink for their text.

This was only seen by me when it was used as an example of a title sequence but i had seen it and the simplistic sequence stands out because the text is used along with the view of the buildings. Showing the text next to the buildings works as it shows that the film is set with i New ork  from the many buildings and from the final image of a park which could be Central Park.

I have chosen another superhero title sequence because this one has the the whole scientific research and experiments going on in the title sequence whilst text appears around the images. This goes well in my view because you can see how the text is joint with the images and makes it more of an image.

The colour used for the text makes it stand out from the image because of the contrast of the bright green compared to the darker lab room and it has the effect of liquid that is used as part of an experiment.

X Men Origins:Wolverine the trialer is another that stood out but not the title sequence but an affect used for the Marvel and 20th Century Fox Logo where the story of the film comes across as you see the logos as a glass container that begins to fill up of adamantium, which is the storyline metal that is used as the material for Wolverines bones transplant. But what ha dstruck out to me from this affect is that it so simple but the affect is used as a indication of the turning point of the films storyline and the affect of the logo container slowly filling up with adamantium liquid  is a basic fade in affect as its see through logo which slowly fades in with the adamantium rising.

The Little Big Planet Intro is one that stands out the most from the various title sequences i have looked through but this was a user controlled title sequence as the player controls their sackboy going through various obstacles till you reach the end of the sequence but as you play along the background random objects appear or fall combined with the text of names of the creators and images of them aswell. But because this is an interactive title sequence that you wouldn't expect of a title sequence to be so interactive however because of this it makes the title sequence so unique and show the user what they can expect of the game as you play and the random objects catch the attention of the user, but because the game is about the creativity of gamers the sequence uses that creativity in the font style as each piece of text changes thus standing out with the random objects and imagery as you play along.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 1:Choice of Books

Darren Shans Lord Loss

The book i have chosen is Darren Shan's Lord Loss of the Demonata Series, in which a teenage boy by the name of Grubitsch 'Grubbs' Grady and his family of chess players to which teh story begins with him comign home one night to find to find his family mutilated by demons, which gets him into a mental institute and gets taken away from there by his uncle who tells Grubbs more of his family background to which he then gets re-involved with Lord Loss who had mutilated his family.

I had chosen this book as it was part of the Demonata series to which i had been reading, that this first book in the series is mostly remembered to me and when remembering about the storyline i thought towards the chess playing family connection and thought that a chess scenario could be a good idea for my project and allow me to try my hand at Maya again as i have become accustomed to using it in the animation module.