WEEK 9 - Tune ups, fixes and Post Production

Now is the time of rendering. We all messed around with lighting, Harrison the most. Although most of this was in mental ray which for some reason skrewed up for us and NO ONE could fix.



This is a glass brick i did that looked really ugly on its own but really good in mental ray (which of course we couldn't use). So Harrison made a more attractive glass brick and put it in the scene.

I also did the editing. Which looked good. There was a few things that didn't match up or had to be done. For example there was two door scenes rendered where the character opens the door. one is shot from outside set, the other from the inside set. The frames that lin kthem though are different AND different lighting. To fix this I did a simple transition between them, keyed out around the inside door to make it brighter and faded it into the scene's colour to be the transition. I didn't actually used the transtition effect within premoere Because there was still an obvious cut i made a blur between them. I also experimented on one from with some lightning for some eye veins. It's not necassary at all but it was fun to do.



And this is the camera flash part. To do this I just used the normal transition effect on premiere between a pure white frame. Along to the sound this works perfectly.




And finally here is the gherkin i modelled which i forgot to do before.. which of course is the most IMPORTANT model! :P

WEEK 8 - More texturing

This is some shots of my textured models in the scene. The bottom picture is rendered in basic lighting.



This week I'll also be compiling everything together and touching up the walls.. texturing tables/booth etc.

Modelled Planks of wood

Here are some wooden planks created and textured quickly. Its a bit late for the schedule but nothing too drastic.






Here is the texture i used. I cut out four panels so they look different from each other.



here are the final boarded up windows. I used the nails from before to put around the wooden panels also.. again for realism.





Here is from the side.. with basic lighting.

Jukebox Texturing

This is the final texture for the jukebox. Its not brilliant and it only uses simple textures taken from a photo of the jukebow. Except for the light wood texture which was from a seperate file. The lights were done with a simple blinn. As they weren't going to be 'on' and colourful anyway.

Overall though I think the jukebox worked quite nicely, but is best when seen from a distance :P

Week 7 - UV Mapping

This is the UV (placed on the model) of the booth.



This is a texturing test on the booth uv which worked fine!!! :D



This is the texture I made. I did simple colours then put a leather texture over it, all in photoshop. I thought this was cool but I thought it could do with some more dirt.



This is the dirtier texture which I think Is good enough.

Jukebox Modelling

For the jukebox i used this image as reference.





And after hours i had this made! I never realised the jukebox would be so hard to do so I think I won't have enough time (or energy) to do much detail.



And here is the final design after hours and hours and HOURS!!!

I'm happy with it but not too happy. It could of been a lot better but it was just taking far too long so I had to leave out small details like metal parts around the jukebox.



Here is it in scene. Basic Render.




This is wood put up on the jukebox and modelling the inside would have taken too long. I also had no reference of what it looked inside, so this was the best option. Simple low poly nails were put in too for realism.

WEEK 6 - Modelling

Im now modelling! And i'm starting with the diner booth.

To start with I kept the proxy version of the booth in the scene to use as guidelines for height and width of the booth.





These pictures are of the booth i made. It was a good start and doesn't look bad but it doesn't really stand out. So instead I made the one below.



I made this version a lot more round on the edges and put a simple design on the seat to look more liek the style of a 50s booth, but in my own style rather than copied. I also put some rough colours on just to test.



Here is the booth and the double booth in the scene.



And here are the final models.

Referencing and Proxy Referencing

In order for us all to work on our own seperate parts and to have them all in the same scene without exporting/importing them in and wasting time, I learnt how to do referencing.

The parts I am modelling are most of the furniture objects. This includes Booths, tables and chairs. Referencing this means instead of creating one object like a booth and importing it later then creating a table and importing that, I could just create a reference of where the objects WILL be WHEN they are made. So when they are completed I can move the files in and it will automatically be in the scene.

The only problem with this is that there needs to be something there so that Daryl can start animating whilst me and harrison are modelling. This is where Proxy referencing comes in.

Proxy referencing is like linking a reference to another set of files, which you can easily switch between. In this case, I made 'proxy' versions of my furniture which is basically blockout furniture. I can then concentrate on creating the proper models to put in whilst Daryl can animate. When the files are done, I put them in the folder and just switch the reference from proxy to proper!


Blockout-like furniture

Paris Texas - Research from Film

These are some examples of a road and sign posts in a desert environment. This can be very good reference to use when creating our environment, for a road outside our diner.





These shots are some good examples of a rundown building, also similar to a diner, but in a much different style to our own. Other than style though this can still be very helpful in getting the aesthetic of the building right. For example, the bits of barbwire fencing outside and a barrel making it look very old, and the general dirty look to everything.

The lighting used inside is also very good reference to use, as our lighting will probably be very similar to this, but to fit in to our storyline. For example, we probably won't have blinds, but horrible blowing curtains. And in other areas parts will be boarded up. Will shall probably have more light than this, be it will still be quite dark and murky nevertheless.








These are some nice shots of rock formations in a desert in Texas. This is some good reference for the background scenery we will be needing for our environment.

Production Schedule

Production Schedule for project created in Microsoft project.

WEEK 5

This picture which I found on google I thought would be perfect to base our diner on. It seems just the right size for our diner, and enough space for our character to move around in and interact in.




This is a product dimension sheet of a 50s diner booth. I used this as a base for creating a blueprint of our diner, also based heavily on the photo above. I decided to cut out the worktop to the north of the diner as it didn't seem necessary for what we needed. Instead though, I placed a jukebox in that space, which we felt is VERY important for a 50s diner.




Rough blueprint created to scale in Photoshop.


These are some pictures from a website of 50s style diner furniture. I think this is great reference material to use when creating the environment.



These two screenshots show a rough 3D layout of the inside of the diner (part being used). I followed the dimensions of the blueprint and also scaled it round our character model which we found online. The reason for this is so that Daryl can start animating the scenes whilst me and Harrison create the models, texturing etc to place in the environment later.. basically to structure our time better.



These two screenshots show a rough 3D layout of the outsdie of the diner. Again, just for a base for Daryl to work on.