Blog Move...

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Portfolio Updated

Finally, I have finished my context 2 assignment, and updated my online portfolio. My portfolio contains HTML 5 code and Internet Explorer 8 doesn't support. Therefore, please use "Google Chrome" or "Mozilla Firefox" web browser to view my portfolio. Sorry for any inconvenience cause.

http://www.kakeilao.com

Visualisation Project 2- “Location, Location”

In this project we have to design and model an interior location base on a story from a different time period. This is an interesting project, as I always interesting in architectural and interior visualisation. I think this project will help me identify the pathway within the virtual environment that I interesting in the most, because I always hesitate between animation and visualisation. Anyway, at the end of my year 2 I believe I will find out which area that I most interest in.

I have spent a week to make the decision of what story that I will work with. I was trying to find stories that I familiar with, and the story have a good description of the interior design. Finally, I find a well-known story that most of the people have read when they were children. It is called “Alice in Wonderland”. I plan by using the first chapter for the passage for the project. The chapter was about Alice falling down to the rabbit hole.

CHAPTER I

Down the Rabbit-Hole

"Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?'

So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, `Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.

In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.

Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed; it was labelled `ORANGE MARMALADE', but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.

`Well!' thought Alice to herself, `after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!' (Which was very likely true.)

Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end! `I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud. `I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think--' (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a very good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) `--yes, that's about the right distance--but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got to?' (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.)

Presently she began again. `I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think--' (she was rather glad there was no one listening, this time, as it didn't sound at all the right word) `--but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia?' (and she tried to curtsey as she spoke--fancy curtseying as you're falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) `And what an ignorant little girl she'll think me for asking! No, it'll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.'

Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking again. `Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I should think!' (Dinah was the cat.) `I hope they'll remember her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I'm afraid, but you might catch a bat, and that's very like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?' And here Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, `Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?' and sometimes, `Do bats eat cats?' for, you see, as she couldn't answer either question, it didn't much matter which way she put it. She felt that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with Dinah, and saying to her very earnestly, `Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?' when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.

Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a moment: she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost: away went Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, `Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!' She was close behind it when she turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she found herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof. There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked; and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again.

Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key, and Alice's first thought was that it might belong to one of the doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, but at any rate it would not open any of them. However, on the second time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: she tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted!

Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even get her head though the doorway; `and even if my head would go through,' thought poor Alice, `it would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only know how to begin.' For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.

There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she went back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on it, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes: this time she found a little bottle on it, (`which certainly was not here before,' said Alice,) and round the neck of the bottle was a paper label, with the words `DRINK ME' beautifully printed on it in large letters.

It was all very well to say `Drink me,' but the wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry. `No, I'll look first,' she said, `and see whether it's marked "poison" or not'; for she had read several nice little histories about children who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleasant things, all because they would not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long; and that if you cut your finger very deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked `poison,' it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.

However, this bottle was not marked `poison,' so Alice ventured to taste it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast,) she very soon finished it off.

`What a curious feeling!' said Alice; `I must be shutting up like a telescope.'

And so it was indeed: she was now only ten inches high, and her face brightened up at the thought that she was now the right size for going through the little door into that lovely garden. First, however, she waited for a few minutes to see if she was going to shrink any further: she felt a little nervous about this; `for it might end, you know,' said Alice to herself, `in my going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I should be like then?' And she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle is like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having seen such a thing.

After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided on going into the garden at once; but, alas for poor Alice! when she got to the door, she found she had forgotten the little golden key, and when she went back to the table for it, she found she could not possibly reach it: she could see it quite plainly through the glass, and she tried her best to climb up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery; and when she had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing sat down and cried.

`Come, there's no use in crying like that!' said Alice to herself, rather sharply; `I advise you to leave off this minute!' She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes; and once she remembered trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself, for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people. `But it's no use now,' thought poor Alice, `to pretend to be two people! Why, there's hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!'

Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table: she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which the words `EAT ME' were beautifully marked in currants. `Well, I'll eat it,' said Alice, `and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door; so either way I'll get into the garden, and I don't care which happens!'

She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself, `Which way? Which way?', holding her hand on the top of her head to feel which way it was growing, and she was quite surprised to find that she remained the same size: to be sure, this generally happens when one eats cake, but Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way.

So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake."

The description of the environment is not as detail as I thought.

I have created a list of visual elements that I had highlighted from chapter 1.

1- Fill with cupboards and book shelves

2- Maps

3- Pictures hung upon pegs

4- An empty jar from one of the shelves was labelled “Orange Marmalade”.

5- Long, low hall, lit up by “a row of lamps” hanging from the roof.

6- Locked doors all round the hall
    - locks either too large or the key too small

7- A little three- legged table

    - made of solid glass.
    - a tiny golden key on it.

8- A little bottle on it and round the neck of the bottle was a paper label (with the words “DRINK ME’ beautifully printed on it in large letters.) A sort of mixed flavour of cherry tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast)

9- A low curtain, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high.

10- A little glass box lying under the table, with a very small cake in it, which the words “EAT ME” were beautifully marked in currants.

However, there must be lots of drawings of Alice tumbling down to the rabbit hole. I will research and watch the “Alice in Wonderland” film again. In order to give an inspiration of how the interior of my project looks like. After all the research, I will created a mood board, and do some concept drawings.

Still Life Project

Room atmosphere with one light on.

Objects and light at different position.

Depth of field lenes and focus on the flowers.

Afternoon lighting effect.

Evaluation

In this project, my task is to re-model at least 6 objects that I have found or collected. The aim of this project is to model and texture accurately and realistically, in order to fit with the topic area – ‘visualisation’.

To commence with this project, I first visualised stuffs that around me, for example, objects that in my house and then I gathered the objects together and tried to give a theme to them. At the same time, I have researched and looked at other still life scenes. I thought about to produce something that look similar to still life photographs, such as those taken by Peter Lippman. However, due to the high quality that I desire to produce in this project, I decided to photograph my own objects, because I can observe and measure the objects in order to achieve the aim.

The objects that I have chosen were a lamp, a vase with three wooden flowers, a glass of juice, a jug of juice, a plate and eight pieces of biscuits. In my still life scenes, it revealed that it is a tea break in the evening.

During this project, I have learnt a lot of modelling skills; especially how to model and texture objects accurately by using lathe modifier, edit polygons of objects and UVW unwrap map. And now, I am confident with modelling 3D objects from the real world.

In my project, it involved me to use different methods to create the objects. For instance, the glass, the jug and the vase, I started modelling them by using a line then applied a lathe modifier on it. Any details that need to add on afterwards, I had converted them into editable poly and moved the vertex to the shape that I need. For the remaining objects which are lamp, biscuits, plate and flowers, I used standard primitives and transformed them into the shape that I want, then converted them into editable poly and edited the vertex and edges, these objects are time consuming to model.

In addition, I have learnt about texturing in this project. The texture tutorials gave me a clear idea of how 3d models are texturing and it will be a useful knowledge in my future projects. I had used this method for my biscuits and flower, and I understood that texture is an important process to give me a realistic 3d model.

I found the most difficult section in this project was lighting, because it took time to render out the effect that I was looking at. I had spend two days and tested with the lighting. However, I felt that it was a good practice by experiment with different lighting such as normal light and light with mental ray on. Also, different lighting shadows will create different mood. For example, shadow map, mental ray shadow and ray trace shadow. These three do different jobs, and in my project I decided to use mental ray shadow as I have render my scene out as a mental ray.

In general, I am satisfied of my final renders. However, if I have more time I will concentrate more with the lighting, as I did not expect it was time consume to render. This project gives me a prospect in my future career as I found this project looks more professional than my previous works. 

Mapping my flowers

Modelling flower

The followings show how I create a flower.

The following is the hardest part that I had spent a day to make it accurate, 

Finally... 

Re-modelling the jug

I have re-modeled the jug, because the final result looks different to the real object.

The following pictures show that how I created the handle,

After edited the handle, I have applied a smooth modifier on it.

Finally result of the second jug!

To apply a glass texture. At first, I have found a video tutorial in the internet and I have used the fresnel function to apply the texture on.

However, I will the mental ray rendering in order to make the objects realistically. Therefore, I have applied the mental ray glass texture on instead of the one that I showed above.

Progress of my Still Life Project

Model of a vase

Model of a glass

Model of a jug

Model of a plate

Model of a lamp

Ideas of still life project

My Fantasy Olympics

In this project, I need to produce a 30 sec animation by using Adobe After effects. I have to think of a futuristic sport, and design an appropriate character to compete within the sport. For me, this project was a challenge, because I have to use a software that I never use it before.

Firstly, it involved some research to get some ideas of sport and character that I created. I came up with ideas of playing sports under water or in the galaxy etc. Then I decided to have the sport of Hamster ball running over water. It is about a character running inside a hamster ball, it is like a running game. Running inside a hamster ball and compete with others.

To start, I sketched out of the idea of running inside a hamster ball on water. Then I sketched some ideas of my character e.g. faces and outfits. Also, I have sketched the assets that I need in this animation e.g. the environment (trees, clouds, water, banner…etc) and audience.

After sketches, I have to create the character in illustrator by using different layers, because I have to separate different parts of the character of different layers in order to animate in After Effects. After I created all the parts that I need, and then I imported them into AE, and place them into a 3d space by following my storyboard. In this animation, I have created a particle that made the animation interest was the CC particle world. This is how I create the fire from the fire torch.

In this project, everything was new to me, and I found it is interesting to use 2d character in 3d environment. At first, I was confusing how can I create 3d environment by using 2d elements. However, after I finished this project, I have a clear idea of what does it mean. It is just about layering and camera angels.

I was not 100% happy of what I produced in this project, because I don’t have skills with the software and I did spend a lot of time to experiment with the software. There are lots of little bits that I want to have like the wave of water etc. However, in my next semester I hope to learn more. From this project, I learnt that I could not import too many assets into one project, because this will affect the speed of preview while you are creating. I did imported too many trees in my project, and I end up I could not have the effect of a depth of field camera, because I could not preview from the screen of what will it look like. This project did gave me the feeling of what is the advertising animation industry fields like, also from this project I realised most of the advertising are combine with 2d and 3d elements.