Post-formative Update

We are now on Easter break~~ formative went as well as could be expected, but I feel so much pressure to finish all the backgrounds asap! ;w; Still gotta do about half of the still backgrounds and havent even started the rotoscoping ones.. time to work hard!

Quick updates....

Newly finished backgrounds;

ENTRANCE HALL COMPLETE (for now) Matt has given it the OK. It was almost there anyway but now the pillars are looking fiiiine ;)

If you compare this to my first attempt at the entrance hall;

It really has come a long way. I think being in this group is even more beneficial then I first thought; I have team mates who inspire me to keep going and can see the flaws in my work and help me get past them. When I first drew this background I thought it looked pretty good, but reflecting back on it now there are so many parts that needed improvement! I can't believe I couldn't see them. I feel like I've gotten better and that I can draw anything if I keep trying! ^^

And the staircase...
Here are my first two colour attempts;


which I then sent to Matt who sent back this;

which is the picture on the right but with its contrast changed and which has been edited with the dodge and burn tools..
so I cleaned it up a little from where Matt used the dodge and burn tools to get this;

BEAUTIFUULLLL, i reaally like the colours on this one ^^
So there's two more backgrounds finished..

Next background to work on;

The other side of the entrance hall.. let's hope it doesn't take as long as the first! The second pic is where it might be cropped in the finished piece... but best to draw it too big then too small!

Maya Animations

More animations in Maya using the blockout to be rotoscoped!
Not sure if I explained what I made in Maya properly already, but I created a blockout of a few of the rooms - the entrance hall, princess tower and the banquet hall. Aside from using them as reference for backgrounds we will now be using them as reference for animations. I just create a camera in the room desired and voila! Should make life easier later on.


This one is where Don looks down and grabs the chicken leg from the table!


And this one is where he throws the chicken down the table towards the guards.

Not sure when I will get round to rotoscoping these but it would be nice to do it early on and way before the deadline.

fight scenes where people lose their weapons

trying to find some reference for smitten and am gonna post it here to remind myself... we're looking for a scene where someone loses something, a weapon if possible, and the camera shows it flying away.. have looked through about 30 films so far and these are the best ive found;

0.48 -1.11 - although the sword doesnt skid here :(


3.10 -3.24 - from the wrong angle and doesnt seem so dramatic when he loses his weapon..


8.28 -8.35 - it doesn't skid across the ground but it is still dramatically lost haha..


4.05 -4.10 - wrong angle...?


3.47 -3.50 - almost perfect!! D: but only almost..?


you would not believe how many light saber battles, pirate movies and disney films ive sat through today trying to find clips!! will continue to add to this post if i find anymore..

I'm not sure who will be animating this scene but I'd like to help save them time by finding a good reference if I can.

This week in updates..

Spoke to Matt on Monday about how to improve the backgrounds so far and heres what we discussed.


For the infamous entrance hall scene!
We are starting to think it looks very good as a cutout;

Hence when we finish we might try and cutout effect on all the bgs.. but not sure yet. Anyway here is Matt's correction pic;

And here's my attempt to re-do the pillars and then see how it all looks in cutout;

I think the pillars need more work... But it's slowly getting there. Will update this again soon.


The banquet scene background needs to be moved up a little, with more focus on the table and perhaps a change of colour for the floor and for the length of the tablecloth to be increased. Here is Matt's correction pic;

And here are the 3 alternate attempts I've tried since;

It's mainly changes to the floor and the tablecloth length. Again, I'm going to wait for Matt's feedback before progressing here.


Also edited the princess tower with Maya's help so there is more focus on the bed;



And finally a quick cutout experiment using the stairwell reference;

We wanted to see what this would look like using the 'cutout' filter on photoshop, since it has worked quite nicely for us so far, but because this is a bit of a complicated image with a lot of shades it just looks messy... So.. simplistic is the way to go once again, I'll keep working on my own one..

More backgrounds..

I'm still working on them... here's a different angle of the princess tower for near the end...;

I really like the way I've coloured this one :D


And the beginning of working properly on the staircase scene along with the reference I'm using;

Since this is a bit of a difficult angle I had to use reference like this, I don't want to resort to tracing so am sometimes going by what my eye thinks looks good! And Matt's advice of course :)

We also got out schedule done using 'Shotgun'!

Above is a screenshot of a few of the shots we have to complete, but theres about 30 more online :D since I'm only dealing with the backgrouds though I'm going to make my own little to do lists on this blog to push myself in time.

March

I am now starting to get back up to date with things..
I have completed the children's book, IPP and the first draft of the dissertation meaning I am able to devote all of my time to Smitten again!

Since the last entry I have completed another draft of the entrance hall.. I've made it bigger, added lighting and hopefully it looks less cluttered now.. I think there are still a few things that need improvement but for now this will do.



I have also started working on new backgrounds using the blockout in Maya.

A shot of the princess tower at the end;



A staircase;


And an initial shot of the banquet table;

Again Maya has saved the day!! That angle would have been insane otherwise.. saves so much time!

Just need to wait till I get more feedback from Matt and keep experimenting with the backgrounds until I get it right!! I'm feeling excited about drawing again now that all the other things are taken care of.. Except the schedule which I hope will be ready soon..