The assignment was simply to create an image in photoshop that utilized layers, masks, and image adjustments. This is what came out of my head.
I guess the idea is sort of an homage to my summer, which is where all of the photos I used came from. These were the original photos, as well as the project file. I gotta say, I’m pretty damn proud of that tree.
This is a very rushed attempt at both motion tracking and animating with a skeleton I rigged myself… I foresee much better animations in the future for this little fella. :/
To finish our Old West Town project, our professor divided the class into teams. 1.) Assembly took everyone’s features and combined them into one file to create the map of the town, 2.) Landscape created the surrounding environment, including the landscape plane and texture, 3.) Atmosphere created lighting, skybox, clouds and a few particles, and 4.) Render created and animated cameras. I was on the Landscape team, so I helped with creating the ground and road textures, mountains, etc. Since all of these teams worked separately at the same time, all four of these aspects had to be combined together to work properly – I also helped with this combination process. The cameras have not been rendered out yet, but it will come soon. For now, here are the images rendered from the whole town.
Here are the final renders of my old western graveyard. I gave each headstone its own engraving. They range from the standard “R.I.P.” to clever or famous epitaphs to Breakfast of Champions references. I’m really proud of how this turned out over all.
By the end of the week we’ll have everything thrown together into a full-blown old west setting. Exciting stuff!
Our class is creating a complete old western ghost town – along with a texture and a prop, each student has been assigned a feature for the town. I chose to do the graveyard… I’m not sure what that says about me as a person, but it seemed like a cool idea at the time.
These are the first renders of my graveyard – complete with several unique gravestones, some wooden cross grave markers and an old broken-down 19th century hearse wagon. The fence, trees, boulders and cacti were props created by other students. I used the sculpting tool to give the ground an organic shape, and used a lot of the boolean tools to create some of the unique shapes in the hearse wagon and gravestones. Though I’m very proud of this work, this is certainly what one may call a “rough draft.” I plan to add much more detail to the hearse wagon and personalization to the graves, plus some more grass and rock details.
Our class has moved far away from robots now and has decided to collectively build an old western town in Maya. We are each assigned a texture, a prop, and one main environmental feature, all of which will be combined into a full old west scene. This week’s assignment was to do a texture and a prop, and luckily, mine coincided with each other: my texture was wood, and my prop was chair.
I decided to make two: a basic wooden chair would be much more practical, but no western town is complete without a rocking chair. I’ll be the first to admit they are incredibly basic, but we had one weekend to do this, and I put in 30+ hours at my second job on the weekends. Plus, in western towns, they just slap it together anyway, right?
This week’s assignment was lighting, but I have to admit I spent much more time tampering with materials than with the lights. I added a much more convincing material to the body, made the details of the body 3D, and moved the lights to a more appropriate location (as well as turning the mouth into a light). I put him in a room, which I admit is bland at the moment, but it was only for the purpose of a backdrop. I designed it with my childhood bedroom in mind, so I apologize for the pastel-overload.
As for the lights, I just gave him some standard three-point lighting. The backlight is up high, in attempt to look as if it’s come from a ceiling fan or something, and the key is meant to look like a floor lamp. The fill was kept subtle, and mostly used to light the areas closer to the ground.
Anyway, I’m much happier about his design now, and stoked to start animated him, though that project will be put on hold while our class builds its western town. :]
