Semi final Product!

So here is one the  Final renders of my project. I'm pretty happy with the lighting, rather annoying that the paint effects stay to green and aren't that effected by the area light. Next time I shall not be using the paint effect in my scenes. They seem to come out looking a bit a cheap and tacky. So thats a draw back, but I have learned my lesson for now. I do love the lighting effects coming off the trees though. I would like to find a way of making the floor blend in the the tree roots like in real life how everything blends together nicely. I added a couple of sticks on the floor to make it seem a little more like a forest floor too. I absolutely LOVE the fog effect behind the trees, Its just a shame that it doesn't work in mental ray. Because my displacement map has gone really funny with the current render settting, maya software. The cart isnt mapped or textured in this version though. I need to do that and re-render. But overall i'm very happy with how it all comes together as a scene. It really gives a feeling of being small. And a feeling of dread too, the big scary forest closing in on you. It looks like a very tight path too, so its giving a feeling of being closed in a very dense forest.

Lighting

I played around with the lights for a while, I started with way too many lights and I was really over complicating things. So decided to scrap them all and start again with a main light and area light. The area light gives everything a blue wash. I then made a huge spotlight behind the trees with fog in it. I wanted the foggy light effect in the trees to make it seem really creepy. After that I made some spotlights to simulate the moonlight coming down upon the trees and ground. I added on pointing at the tree in the foreground to create a nice highlight around the edge.

Composing the scene.

Pretty easy to be honest, just placing everything where it should be, rotating the trees so they don't look the same and altering how the trunks look too. I set up two views on my workspace, one being the actual shot. this way I can adjust things accordingly and it made everything so much easier.

I played around with some paint effects too, I added so vegetation but not too much so that it looks all green and friendly. I particularly like the 'jungle grass' because its very straw like and can be made to look a bit creepy. Looks all spikey and dry. I did find the paint effects add loads of polygons to the scene which slow it down to no end.

Disaster.

Today I wanted to import the cart into my scene, so I grouped all the geometry together and saved it, along with the backup file. Everything was ready and mapped! So I tried to import it and I got a strange message... Something about data loss. So I opened the file again on its own and it had somehow corrupted. This was horrid, it took me around 7 hours to map and texture everything. So I'll be doing all that again, but before that I will be making the scene work on its own.

Floor making.

This one was pretty straight forward. I just created a Large rectangle with around 20 divisions each way and put it into zrush. I started making the scene with it in though so I knew what size and shape I needed. I also made the terrain uneven with the path being the lowest part. Make the scene way more interesting and realistic.

Here are some pictures showing the Process.

Zbrush painting.

This part I was dreading, because I struggle with colour and matching them. In my last project when I created a vase I struggled matching the colour to the actual vase, my mind just couldn't quite get round it. Which was very frustrating. But to my surprise... my base colour looked ok, so I proceeded to create some darker tones in there, and then some even sharper darker tones. The process didn't take me too long as it just came naturally again. Zbrush and my mind seem to work really well together. I added some green to it, and some final touches and I had a pretty convincing tree!

And again, I exported the map and put it into maya, This was very easy as everything else had been set up. So hear I present the finished tree!

There is a problem I see in zbrush, Its the amount of subdivisions you must have before you are able to paint or sculpt smoothly. If I were to do that on my own laptop, i'm sure my computer wouldn't be able to handle it. So that sounds like it could be a problem if the computer isn't the greatest.

Zbrush sculpting.

I really love Zbrush. Everything came so naturally here. Building up and taking away just seems to click with me. This took me a couple of hours but I fully enjoyed the process. I was constantly Flicking from Google images to zbrush. Making sure I wasn't missing any details that would make it look natural. I made sure to include little holes and indents in the toots, and how it looks as though there are several tubes in a root.


Here came the tricky bit, Mapping the tree proved to be more of a challenge than I thought, I tries several methods of making a good map, like running a seam throughout the whole thing apart from the top. But I ad so much distortion. I ended up putting loads of seams at the base of the tree, so all the roots could open up and fan out. And also one at the top.

And then I made the displacement map, which was pretty easy. I had to go to a tutorial again though because the first one I made was very weak. Seems there was just a few things I needed to check in the boxes.


And here it is back into maya! I imported the OBJ from zbrush that was UV mapped of course. I couldn't even fathom trying to map that in maya. I must improve on my mapping skills. It took a while to get the displacement spot on but Im very happy with the result. And the seam that runs up the back... you can hardly see anything!

TREES

Trees trees and more Trees!

I did a couple of sketches so i could get more of an idea about how the base of the tree works and how I wanted to model it. I have recently started to use Zbrush and loved the idea of sculpting my model in it. So I started to make the base mesh in maya.

starting the cart.

I started modeling the cart here, I spent way too much time on the details but I couldn't help myself!

Here are some reference images I used for inspiration too. I put in the mechanics and everything in this. The full works... too much detail. But I did enjoy the outcome.

Here are some the the texures I made myself for the cart. All of these textures are mine. I have made them from scratch on photoshop, I'm very proud to say!

Concept art...

Here I explored some ideas and different angles I could have used in the scene. I decided on a point of view shot, from the little girl. If this were animated, the camera would spin around and move out from the tree. Like she is coming out of hiding. And then she finds the horrid scene infront of her.

I looked at some photos of forests and paths to get an idea for perspective but the scene i ended up with was from my head completely. The narrow paths and large amount of trees really creates a feeling of being closed in. It also brings the focus down to the wooden cart.


Here is a story board I came up with too, to show the scene in context. The girl runs to the tree and hides behind it. With sounds of the people being murdered. When it stops, we have a long pause before she opens her eyes and turns around. She looks around, we see the scene. and then we flip to the ground to reveal her looking from behind the tree, but also a hand on the floor with blood. And then she screams.

The story

The story I have chosen is called: The old woman in the wood.

Here is the part of the story I am going to create in maya...

A poor servant-girl was once travelling with the family with which she was in service, through a great forest, and when they were in the midst of it, robbers came out of the thicket, and murdered all they found. All perished together except the girl, who had jumped out of the carriage in a fright, and hidden herself behind a tree. When the robbers had gone away with their booty, she came out and beheld the great disaster. 

This part captured me because of the horrid situation the girl would have been put into. To discover the people she was with dead and gone, and to find herself alone in the huge and vast woods. I love dark and moody atmospheres so this is great.

Some things I want to Include in the scene:

• The feeling of being small
• helpless
• lost
• the wood being long and vast
• a hint of claustrophobia, the trees close in on you
• moody lighting, moonlight
• mist
• long tree trunks
• broken cart in the middle on a narrow path.
  
  Time to get sketching!