Scott Pilgrim vs The World, the movie

Yesterday night I went to the cinema with my friend to watch Scott Pilgrim vs The World, and it was good. Even though me and my friend got there a little late, DAMN YOU TRAFFIC AND ROAD WORKS :(, we still enjoyed it though.



I will try to keep spoilers to a minamum but the main plot of the film is about Scott Pilgrim who falls instantly inlove with a girl name Ramona Flowers and the two of them started dating. However seven of Ramona's exes formed a team called The League of Evil Exes and their goal is to beat up Scott or anyone who will date Ramona (atleast that what I think, haven't read the book). And so to end up truly happy with Ramona Scott must defeat her seven evil exes.
Like I said the film was good and very different to other films because it uses game logic like winning coins when beating someone up, gaining 1-ups when reaching a certain high score, and using special abilities. However there is a down side to the film. The first few minutes are boring to the point of wishing that the film would be over, I don't know this happened because I was a bit late for the showing, but it does picks up with a bang. The way the effects are used are interesting, from sound effects like a telephone 'ring', a door bell 'ding, dong '. To big effects like fire balls, monster battle, and people turning into coins. And the way the fights are done are very clever and well choreographed. It also turns out that this film carries a message about taking responsibilities for your actions, and if anyone who watch this movie you will know what I mean.
In conclusion, if anyone can stand the long first act then this film can be very enjoyable.

Summer Project part 2: Story and Character Development

During the week I was brain storming on the type of story to make using the music that was given to me. My first idea was to have a group of people being attack by shadowy figures. I posted his idea on my blog and Phil responded saying that rigging people was a bit too tricky so make something simple but interesting. He gave me some examples but on of them stand out the most which was shapes hunting shapes.







I really thought this was a good starter since shapes will have a lot of character and can be very lively if done right. But instead of having different shapes chasing each other I thought why not have a small circle being chased by a big circle being chased by an even bigger circle. And each of them look slightly different, the big circle could have eyebrows while the even bigger circle have spikes. This idea came to me when I was talking to my brother he pointed out that my idea sort of resembles pac man when he is eating the small balls.











I thought of the first act and the second act but the third act is giving me some trouble. The first act starts with the small circle looking for food. During its search the small circle found an object thinking it was food but it was really a rock so the circle threw it, the rock hit a sleeping big circle. The big circle then woke up and looked around it self to see what hit it and saw the small circle.

This opens the second act with the big circle sneaking up on the small circle so it can eat it, but the small circle notice the big circle and run away with the big circle chasing it. The big circle chased the small circle to a cliff, the small circle jumped down it and ran some more until it hit a dead end. Here the big circle finally cornered the small circle, it then opened its mouth while the small circle was shivering in terror.

Here is when the third act starts and I was having difficulty in deciding on how to end it. The first idea for the third act was to have the big circle lunged at the small circle but the small circle dodge out of the way and the big circle ends up missing and bit the wall. The big circle ends up getting stuck, the small circle then makes it's leave but not before mocking the big circle by throwing a rock at it.

The second idea had the same approach with the big circle lunging at the small circle and the small circle dodging out of the way which got the big circle biting the wall but the big circle wasn't stuck this time and got it self out of the wall. However in reality the wall was actually an even bigger circle. The bigger circle then had it's sights on the big circle and started chasing it. The small circle was decided to carry on it's search to look for some food. Lucky for it there was some food next to it and started eating happily with the camera fading out.

The last idea for the third act has the big circle lunging at the small circle and just when it was about to eat the small circle, the area around them just closed. It turned out the two of them landed in an opened mouth of an even bigger circle. The bigger circle then started munching and went back to it's opened mouth position. with the camera zooming out we see more bigger circles some in their opened mouth position and some eating other circles that landed in their mouths then returning to their opened mouth position.

And that all of the different endings I actually think the last one has more of a surprise to it, with an even bigger circle finishing of the two characters.



Here I was designing my three circle characters starting with the small circle. I decided to use to circles one that can open it's mouth and one that doesn't. Next I have layered out how I would rig my small circle character. It's arms are actually separate from the the main circle it's self so I don't have to model them and it will be easy having them in their position while changing the body.

Next I was designing the two big circles. I used pac man as a reference to see where the mouth is located and how big it should open. I also gave them some eyebrows to make them look different form the small circle. The eyebrows are also a separate mesh from the the main body so they can move more easily.







And that's all I have been doing this week, if anyone sees this please leave some feedback one my idea.

Summer Project: The Music

For the summer project I must make something that suits the music that was given to me. It can be a story, a character, an environment, anything that suit the music. The file that was given to me was soundscape 30.
Here is the sound track if you want to listen to it.


At first I thought it has a sense of thriller, but while listening to the music carefully I felt it carries more of a hunting theme, so I decided to focus on that.
The first idea was to make my own predator (not the one in the movies) that was snake like or any creature that moves silently and strike in a manner that makes the prey scared, since at points in the music had a gentle elegant tone mostly near the beginning of the music and ends with loud music which carries a conflicting tone.

But while listening to the music I then started to get visions of people camping in the jungle around a camp fire. Only to get picked off one by one by unknown predators. I know it sound over used but that was the feeling I got from the music. The predators are actually shadowy figures while the people are either hunters themselves or poachers or maybe just a group of people carrying weapons. This story ends with the last person escaping and the shadowy figures following him. The figures grab the person and drags him back to the pack, the figures then finishes the person off screen.

Another idea was to have a tribe of people hunting animals actually show how the tribe watches it's prey before they strike. The setting for this story was set in the days when the woolly mammoths were still alive and the mammoths are the victims while the tribes are the hunters.

I like the idea with the people beginning hunted by the shadowy figures, and the one with the tribe hunting animals. I'm still deciding on which one I should follow. If anyone reading this please send some feedback.

Unit 5: Maya Walkcycle Animation

For my final tutorial I had to do four different walkcycles:: Basic, Contact Method, Double Bounce and Down Pose. It really helped a lot on learning how to animate a walkcycle and adding life to it. Here is the video showing all four walkcycles in three different views: 3/4 view, front view and side view.



Well that's all the tutorials for the first year Maya homework I am so happy That I finished all of it, now I can start on my summer project.

Unit 4: Different Camera Rigs and Three People Conversation

Here are all of my work from Unit 4 of my Maya lesson. The first two videos are just pre-vis that shows different ways of filming a two person conversation and a three person conversation.
Two Person Conversation


Three Person conversation



The next three videos are animation test. The first video is a pivot bounce having the ball bounce to where it's pivot/center is located. The second video is a center bounce having the ball bounce on it's center. And the last video is a rotation bounce having the ball bounce across the area while rotating.
Pivot Bounce


Center Bounce


Bounce and Rotation



The last two videos are object animation the first video are the paper clips and the second video is a pendulum.
Paper Clips


Pendulum

Unit 3: Camera Rig and Texture Tutorials

Finally finished all of Maya Unit 3 Tutorials.
I began doing the camera rig tutorial first since it was very easy to do.
The purpose of the camera rig is to give it more of a real camera feel with its panning, pitch and roll movement. I have also added a third grid and a diagonal grid to the camera so I can plan out the shots better.



The next tutorial I have finished is texturing a treasure chest and adding a background to it. This tutorial goes in more detail in texturing a model, by giving it some colour, making a bump map for a rough surface and adding a spectral map to show which parts needs to be shiny.
The images are layed out to show the order of how i textured the treasure chest scene, first the ground, map, coins, and jewels. Next was the barrel, then the treasure chest and finally the background.









The final tutorial shows more different ways of texturing models with only mayas own materials by mix and editing them. All four of the tutorials show the many uses of the ramp node, from changing the colour of a model to how see through it can be. The first images shows the blood cell texture. I made it by using a cloud texture for the inside and out side of the blood cell and adding a cloud bump map. The second image shows one plane with two textures. When texturing a model in maya both of it's sides will have the same texture so the tutorial of the second image shows how to give an object two different textures on both of it's sides. The third image shows water droplets. Basically the tutorial shows how to make a more realistic water droplets by making the model transparent and shiny. The last two images shows an xray material. The reason there are two images is to show the different lighten of the xray one darker and one lighter. This is to show an example of a glow for an xray.












I haven't posted the fur tutorials because I have already posted them on my blog.

What did I do Today 1

Today I went to my old GP to do a blood test. I reason why I went to do a blood test is because lately I am having trouble eating food even when I am very hungry I just can't eat my food properly. Actually just thinking about food makes me sick, I don't like it :(. It's been going on for a long time so I went to my old GP last week to see what was wrong, they don't know yet so they gave me some pills that could settle it and ask me to book a for the 14 of July (today), but getting the blood sample wasn't the hard part it was the fasten I had to do yesterday. I couldn't eat all day I was very hungry but I had water to fill me up since that was the only thing I could have. The strange thing is even when I was super hungry I still find food unappealing. I'm worried. So when the nurse took my blood sample she said I might get my results next Monday.
Lets hope it's nothing serious.