Personal Work: Sunday Speedpainting #8 - Chester Bennington #2 (WIP)

This week I chose to continue working on this painting I started last weekend. My computer was giving me a hard time and wasn't recognising my tablet, so I wasn't able to paint as long as I wanted to originally. Despite this, I focused mostly on the jacket this week and a few other bits on the face and hands.

Buildup (continued)

Before & After

YPGTTO: The Horn District

I've been working on The Horn District set over the last few days and I think it's come out rather nicely. It took me some time to clean up the models to ensure they didn't collapse when in smooth preview but it got there in the end. I tried my best to imitate the camera angles as seen in the animatic/pre-vis...this set is now ready to be textured.

YPGTTO: The Harp, Cello, & Viola Districts - Digital Sets

Over the last few days I've been to work on a few different sets for YPGTTO. I was asked to tweak The Harp District (initial established set by Jack White) as needed for the purpose of pre-vis and so on (here is the textured version).

I did a similar task of augmentation and extra population for The Cello District (initially established by Peta-Gaye Brown). The Cello District is probably my favourite district, so I'm very glad I got to help out a bit with this one. It was already textured while I was working on it so seeing the colours rather than all grey was refreshing.

Finally, before having to flip to The Harp & Cello Districts, I was working on The Viola District. I spent time modelling and figuring out the basin of terraces needed to house the buildings. It took some trial and error to get the scale right and a good amount of levels/platforms. I then had to edit the centre pillar so it wasn't so stubby. I also had to figure out 'wire-waterfalls' for this district, which was a bit of a challenge. In the end, with the addition of some horizontal pegs, I think the wire-waterfalls look quite nice. Now that the buildings are in place as well this district is ready to be textured, and I'm excited to see it colourful and full of life.

Personal Work: Sunday Speedpainting #7 - Chester Bennington (WIP)

For this week I wanted to do a painting of Chester Bennington who recently passed away. Linkin Park was the first real band I ever listened to (thanks to my mother who first showed me their music) and that shaped what music I'd be interested in later on in my life. Their music in general (along with many other people) has helped me through some difficult years. I only recently saw Linkin Park live on July 3rd, so I wanted to do a portrait of Chester in honour of his memory. I plan on working on this painting for my weekly speedpaintings until I feel happy with it.

YPGTTO: The Clarinet District - Modelling & Digital Sets

I've now finished setting up the digital sets needed for The Clarinet District. I've had to do a bit of 3D modelling to make a more detailed staircase and slide for a scene where the character Red chases Yellow up a building. Since the stairs then switch instantly into a slide, I included both the steps and the slide in this scene so they could be switched on and off.

That scene is then followed by a more abstracted aerial shot where Red is sliding down the spiral. I modelled the spiral in a way that it is somewhat of an optical illusion (the end of the spiral is further away from the camera but I also scaled it so it was smaller and looked even more distant). I also added a funnel/cone around the spiral and added some windows to create a sort of 'inside out' building.

I also finished creating the distance shot, and in this scene I used the models that I rigged for animation as the buildings in this scene are meant to squash and stretch. I also modelled an extra 'entrance platform' for this scene so Red has something to stand on and so I could place the sign somewhere that would be easily visible.

There are a few more sets that I've made for this district, which can be found on my 'catchup post' and the properly textured versions of these sets will be on the CAA/ONE blog. Now onto The Viola District!

Personal Work: Sunday Speedpainting #6 - Mad Max War Boy

Today for my Sunday Speedpainting I decided to find a reference image and use it to create a character. I used this image and made a quick painting of a War Boy from one of my favourite films - Mad Max: Fury Road.

YPGTTO: Catchup Post - Compositing, Digital Sets, Animation, & Modelling

I've only just realised that I haven't made a post on my own blog in regards to the CAA / ONE is More's YPGTTO project. So, I figured I'd make a large 'catchup post' and then continue to follow it up with regular, smaller posts.

I've been asked to help out with the creation of an animation of Benjamin Britten's 17 minute long composition The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra. I'm working as a Digital Artist / Animator / Compositor for the project but I've been doing bits and pieces of everything (which is great since it's keeping me from getting rusty over the summer).

This includes some compositing tests in After Effects to accommodate the different languages that the animation will need as it tours Europe. I'll include one example, but there are more available both on my YouTube channel and on the CAA/ONE blog.

I also have been working on constructing digital sets. So far I've worked on The Overture, The Oboe District, and The Clarinet District (still in progress). Most of the assets used to create these scenes have been modelled by others, passed to me for assembly, then passed onto others for texturing or creating the pre-vis.

The Overture (before textures) 

The Overture - Stage (before textures)

The Oboe District (before textures) 

The Oboe District (before textures) 

The Clarinet District - Street Scene #1

The Clarinet District - Street Scene #1

The Clarinet District - Street Scene #2

I've done a few bits of 3D modelling including The Overture's lift (with working controls), map, destination board, dome, centre orb, and stage, The Clarinet District's bridges and river, and some extra stairs and a spiral slide for The Clarinet District. Some other bits I've modelled includes pathways, roads, and supports. 

I've also done a few bits of animation so far such as testing out The Overture's lift. The Clarinet District was also unique because the buildings had to animate and move, so I worked with squash deformers to animate them. I then built controls to allow others to animate them with ease.

I'm pretty sure that's all for now, but I'll try to update my blog with work related to this more regularly so I don't have such long posts in the future.