Maya Tasks...

As I think I'm suffering from work withdrawal I thought I'd jump on a couple of these tasks I've let pile up:

Rigid Binding:



Advanced Passes:

The passes had a couple of problems but I think I could do them again when I need to...Or I'll just do the tutorial again :D

Non Linear Deformers:

The shadows arent' strong enough really but you can still see it all, just about :D

Jiggle Deformer: Jiggly chin



Sculpt deformer task:

Every time I tried to watch the arm move or add the jiggle deformer it started freaking out or maya would have a fatal error so this is all I can present for this task.

Reflection Pass:

Capsule rigging:

Influence Objects:



The elbow went a little wrong but I think the bicep is okay :)

Presentation Post...

Art of Publication

Completed Final Animation.

I do believe it's done :)

Final Animation without credits.

It's almost how I wanted it but despite my best efforts I couldn't get it to export the extra sound so it's a little flat. Not too bad though.

Disc and DVD Art...

I might dull down the colours a little on the case but I quite like them both :)

Final Animation with Sound Effects...

I think I managed to cut out the ugly glow on the bacteria and fingers crossed the sounds work with it, I struggled a little with them but I think they work well enough.

Final Animation Part 2...

I'm currently working on the sound effects so I just wanted to know if this version has a better connection to the music and looks a little tidier. Also, I tried re-rendering a couple of the scenes but it didn't really help too much so I just tried editing in a couple of extra shots of the bacteria.



It's shorter, so I'm worried it's a little too fast, but let me know if you think it's good enough to keep working with or if I need to tweak it.

@Phil, Final Animation (First Draft) Feedback Please.

Try and watch it in HD if you can, the particles are quite subtle :P



It's a little jerky at points so I've popped back and put some cross fades in to fix it and there are no sound effects as I was worried about having too much going on with the music and the voice over. Other than that I'm generally pretty happy with it :)

@Phil, After Effects Help...

I'm just playing around at the moment but I quite like the idea of using a vignette and I've also tried a particle effect:



I think this is quite nice but I don't know if it's too much. What do you think?

Help with Render Passes Please!

I've finished making the animation but I'm worried about the render time when it comes to the extra passes. I've started rendering the ambient occlusion, beauty and specular passes but its so much slower than just rendering the one. Do we need these passes or will the normal beauty pass be enough? I don't want to fall behind because of it :(

Voice Over!

Ready to go! :D

Couple of Tweaked Videos...

The glow wasn't on in the previous ones so here's the two I have so far:





The lights quite bright. I'm not sure if it's too bright or not but atleast it's all working :)

@ Phil, Any Better?

I think they may be a little uniform still but it's definitely an improvement. D'you reckon it'll do or should I tweak it a little more?

First Scene Camera Movements...

This is my first rendered scene and I'm wondering if it works as an establishing shot. I think the camera movements are okay, if maybe a little fast. I need to pop back and change the light inside the cell as it wasn't pulsing here but it's an okay beginning.

@Phil, Quick Question...

As I'm quickly running out of time, I'm a little worried about how long my scene will take to render. In my pre viz I imagined having lots of cells that were all moving and lovely but I'm starting to think that maybe that's a bit out of my reach now.
I thought that instead I could just make it centralise around the three main cells with a few blood cells floating in here and there. That way I could try to make sure that all the animation works nicely instead of doing it a bit half-heartedly on lots of different things. Would this be a smarter idea or too simple and a bit rubbish do you think?

Previously, In Life Drawing...

 The drawing above on the right is one of my favourites so far. It just looks pretty darn good in comparison to my others.

 I quite like this one above too!

Quick Playblast...

Just to show the movements they'll be repeating. Onwards to actual animation!

Too Pixelated?

 Is this texture too pixellated? I think it's okay but I could do with some opinions from others.

Fixed Lighting...

Much Better! I added a directional light to show off the cells a little more but now the vein seems to have disappeared. Not sure whether to make the bump map deeper, change the texture so it's a stronger colour or just play with the lighting more.

Vein Re-Textured...

This is what I have at the moment:

It's a big improvment. I thought it was a little better with a lighter bump map so the tiny bumps aren't so obvious.  Quite nice really I think :)

Textured Bacteria...

I'm going to give blend shapes a go on it's body but I have to work out a way of doing it that won't effect the tendrils. It's an okay texture though I think, contrasting the cells enough to look like an intruder. Any tweaks that would improve it though let me know!

Voice Over Update...

I just heard back from Rose, she'll have it done for tomorrow and I'll put it straight up here when I get it. Great stuff! :D

Moving Tendrils...

At least it's moving now!

It's Alive!

Sort of...Not really. But it does look pretty nice!

That's looking a bit more interesting thanks to massive amounts of help from Simon :D

A Little Bit of Texturing the Bacteria...

Only a little though. It hasn't worked as nicely as I thought when I tried putting it into a scene so I'll probably change it again:

I think it's the diffuse map that's playing up but I'll sort it all out tomorrow.

B Cell Texturing...

Onwards to the vein and bacteria! :)