Maya Tutorial 2: Digital Sets

Another Monday, another Maya tutorial. This time we were focusing on starting to create environments. 

We began with moving image files that we were given onto maya, too make it easier for us to render them in 3D. Once we have all 3 images on place we could start bringing in walls and surfaces to fill out the area, Here are the screenshots from that process. 

 

Maya Tutorial : NURBS

After the Polygon escapade I can definitely say that the NURBS process of modelling an object is much easier and quicker. I can create all of the complex curves of the Egg cup so much faster then the painstaking selection process of polygons.

Maya Tutorial: Polygon's

Tried out the first Maya tutorial today. Turns out it is a pain in the back side to get right the first time but I got there eventually. Its nice to see something finally taking shape after all this time.

Update: Turns out a lot of my progress images didn't save so I only have the finished product for the Polygon egg cup, hopefully the next one will be better.

Diomira: Alternate Reality and Ancient Greek inspiration.

I feel as though I should have a complete post detailing my ideas for the city Diomira and what Ideas and inspirations I want to include into my thumbnails and detailed images. Going off of the description for the city we don't get much in terms of the feel of the city, and what it's like within its walls.

After playing the game Wolfenstien: The New Order, a game in which the Nazi's won world war 2 after discovering hugely advanced technology and supernatural powers, as well as watching films like Frankenstein's army, in which doctor Frankenstein was a real scientist in Germany during the second world war (lots of Nazi's for some reason, might want to get some more original enemies directors) and created amalgamations of technology and soldiers to create new, militarized versions of his monster from the novel. This kind of fantasy story telling really gets me excited because I find other people's interpretations of events and world's hugely fascinating. Frankenstein as a Nazi doctor? awesome.

Taking this philosophy I created a world around the Idea that the world is still in the Ancient Greek era but their technology is vastly advanced compared to what it was, statues of gods are giant, metallic constructs that move and act as sentries instead of guards around the city, buildings are made of metal and look quite harsh, all except the giant diamond like domes that surround the city. Soldiers are outfitted with semi-mech suits that enhance their athletic abilities, generals riding mechanized horse's that sort of this.

This kind of world is much more interesting then the run of the mill description that Calvino has given but I hope to retain the original feel of the city that he imagined. I will be doing some sketches of the city that I want to create soon as well as visualizing some of the robotic inhabitants of the city as well.

Hope to have some work up on here as soon as possible.

Metropolis Movie Review



Metropolis     

Fritz Lang

1927

"The workers do not appear as simple laborers, instead the march in sync, in what appears to be an endless line, resembling drones much more than people". (Ted Rossini,-). Looking at the opening of Metropolis I am immediately reminded of my studies on the ideals of Marxism and socialism. The way Rossini describes the movements of the workers and how they are all one uniform body, working together more as a machine then men shows the way this world that Lang has created is run. With the rich on top controlling everything from their high towers and fancy buildings, whilst the working force slave away underneath the city, keeping it running often as a secret that very few people on the surface know about, this is noted in the scene where Freder descends into the city and witness the workers for the first time, moving in union, often working themselves to death in order to keep the city alive.

These people are the lifeblood of the city, the true owners who unlike the wealthy above them have to work themselves to the brink in order to keep themselves a part of the system that has been created.

I find this film to be very powerful especially for the time that it was created. In 1927 Germany was under the control of the Weimar republic, a very unpopular government at the time which led to the creation of Hitler's Germany. Ideas such as socialism and Marxism would have been very vocal in people's minds during this time, people who are looking for any kind of change from the usual, degrading government system they had to deal with during the aftermath of World War 1.

As Matt prigge suggests "Metropolis remains the benchmark of agenda-driven extravaganzas, stirring and fun in the right spots" (Matt Prigge, 2014) this film could have been a way for Fritz Lang to drive his own agenda into the minds of his viewers, too get them too look at the situation that they are in at the time and to enforce change, releasing themselves from their "Slavery".

Coming away from the political nature of the film, Lang made the film itself a stunning example of science fiction film making. The most iconic scene of the film being the moment that Rotwang's machine-man (who is actually a woman) transforms into the echo of Maria. Although dated, the effect still looks amazing and really shows the fantastic ideas that film makers where able to get across with the limited technology that they had back I the day. As Phillip Kemp describes, Metropolis is"A luminous and resplendent visual masterpiece" (Phillip Kemp, 2014)

All in all this film is a masterpiece of its time, conveying many underlying political issues that were around at the time, able to entertain audiences years in the future with its stunning visuals and surprising effects.

This film has been one of the best silent films that I have seen, something that I wouldn't have watched If it wasn't part of this course.

Bibliography

Ted Rossini, http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/German/German1111/Rossini1.htm, Date Unknown

Matt Prigge, http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/screen/capsules/Metropolis.html, April 1 2014

Phillip Kemp, http://www.totalfilm.com/reviews/cinema/metropolis-2, April 1 2014

Image found through http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017136/mediaindex

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Robert Wiene
1920

Alternate Reality Idea

Whilst completing the thumbnails for one the cities I had an interesting Idea that I wanted to get some opinions on. Instead of just going on the descriptions of the cities themselves I was wondering if we could create a twist to the worlds for example. The city Diomira resemble's and old Greek or Egyptian city too me, with the huge god statues that are around the city, something you don't see in any modern city's nowadays (only in rare occasions). This paired with the huge domes that don't seem to fit the aesthetic I started to think of an alternate reality where technology had evolved much faster then culture. Similar to world's like the Wolfenstien games where the Nazi's discovered future technology and had access to supernatural and alien tech. Winning world war 2 and changing the world completely.

You could have a world where the Greek's where able to develop huge metallic city's with robotic guards, mech suits and chariots powered by steam, whilst still staying the way culturally that they would have been many years ago.

I find this to be a much more interesting idea then just looking at the city itself and trying to design it purely off of the description. So like I said at the start If I could get some kind of feedback on this and what you guys think, it would be a big help. Time to start sketching ideas. :)

Help with perspective drawing.

As I am not a very good environment/architecture artist (I'm much better at character design and that sort of thing) I have been struggling to draw calvino's cities in any kind of detail outside of the abstract thumbnails that I have already produced.

A way I can up with recently to try and give me an idea of how these images would be laid out and the way I should be drawing them I decided to use a game that I have been around for many years to give me some examples that I can draw from and attain a good idea of how these areas should be created.

This morning I went around the in game world in "World of Warcraft" and took around 150 screenshots of the different cities and environments that are available. Each screenshot is taken from different angels and depths so I can have something interesting to try and thumbnail quickly and sort of accuratly.

I will include the link to the Imgur gallery with all of my screen shots if anyone else wants to try and draw from them or wants to use them to inspire there own work;
http://imgur.com/a/Vn8Vc#0

Now here are the thumbnails that I produced from some of these images and calvino's cities as inspiration.