Major Project: Syrup & Camera Tests

I wanted to begin playing around with the position of the molecule and the camera in the Maya scene. For this shot, I quickly tried to create a material that was maple syrup-like. This was made using Mental Ray, so I plan on creating specific glaze tests for that texture. I felt that smooth, shiny, warm-coloured material would be more appealing than a pancake texture. I also feel it'd be interesting to explore seeing projections through the sphere itself. I feel this particular line should be more about the projected images of my grandfather rather than the molecule since I think in most cases the molecule is the negative or unstable presence.

I find these tests interesting, but I find the camera movement relatively bland. The second test I played more with the focal length and the tilt of the camera, but I think there is more to explore with some lens filters which would be a good thing to test out once I migrate this over to Arnold. I also this shot would be good to experiment with colouring the lights, even if just slightly. I think adding a slight golden colour could help immerse the space in a more 'homely' or nostalgic feeling which is what this line is trying to express.

I do like how the syrup looks, although it looks a bit too watery and the jiggle deformer was a bit too extreme near the end of the tests. I also want to test out with the scale of the molecule more as well. I only adjusted it slightly in this test so it would cover the lens at the start of the film, but it might be interesting to make it more extreme so it took up a large part of the room initially, but then shrinks down. I might do a few pre-vis like tests even though I won't be able to see the material or the projections...from there I could position the projections.

For the projection, I spent some time in After Effects to add different types of distortion. I stumbled across the VR Digital Glitch effect which I thought looked interesting even though it wasn't necessarily intended to be used this way. I also drew some masks to create the distortion, but I think I need to spend more time on glitch effects to make it look better (I admittedly rushed it so I could get into Maya). I also think adding the VHS effect would look good on this if I were to do a cut in the film that was just the actual photo.