texturing for sets

Here are a couple of the textures I'm working on for the kitchen set. The bottom one is for the kitchen bench, the other for a sauce bottle on the bench. It's weird, when I was searching Google Images for labels to use, in only came up with really unusual products - there was no tomato sauce, olive oil etc. So my character is making a risotto from guacamole mix, holiday punch drink mix, matzo bread and catfish fillets. Mmmm, yummy! But seriously, it doesn't really matter because you wont be close enough to read the labels, what's important is the effect of having the bottles and jars there to give the impression that he's cooking.

the animatic

So this is my animatic finally - it was finished forever ago, but I never posted it. I've compressed it so it would upload easily, so the image quality isn't as good as the original version. I've since made the script much shorter (see a previous post for the full final script), and will have to re-edit the animatic to suit it, for Ben Dudding's class.




[edit] Oops, it seems the sound didn't work, perhaps in the compression process. Oh well, it will have to do, it takes 2 hours to upload the damn thing, and I'm over it :)

second set

This is the second set I'm working on, I've started to texture it, but also need to do a little bit more modelling. Most of the 'acting' will take place within this area, on the couch at the top, in the kitchen, and running around the rest of it.

the money shot

This image was produced in Christian's class, the idea was to create a quality still of the finished character. I chose to have him running, because it gives interest to the shot, and I put an appropriate image behind of what the Big Brother house these dudes inhabit could look like. I sourced the logo at bottom right and made up some fancy text to match it.

sound effects

I only need two types of sound effects for my project, the Big Brother theme music, and some crackles and mic noise, because the sound recorded in the lab seems too clean for audio that is supposed to be recorded using mics attached to the body.

This morning I spent a couple of hours trying to get the Big Brother theme tune, and was eventually successful. It was actually quite informative, and I'll probably use the technology I discovered in future. First I tried unsuccessfully to download an mp3, then I found on YouTube a video file which had kind of a megamix of all the theme music from Big Brother. I used ripvideo.net to download the file to my computer (I didn't know you could even do this!) which gives you a flv file, so I had to download an flv player as well. However, this didn't solve the problem of getting the audio from the video file. Then I found a program called Freecorder which records audio from your browser window (so you can record basically any sound that plays through your pc speakers), so after a bit of playing around with the settings, I managed to record the audio from the video playing on youtube. And the sound quality isn't really that bad.

Here is a link to the mp3 I recorded using this process.

Francis animation cycles

Here is a video of the 6 animation cycles handed in for Christian's class on Friday, I've looped them all a few times. The colours went a bit too contrasty when compressing into a wma file, but you get the general idea. Now, to get them working in UT, eeeek!!!

first set

I'm starting work today on the 'sets' for the machinima. Here is the diary room, for the final scene of the movie. I better go ahead and texture it now, too.

Here's proof that Francis is now able to run around in Unreal. I haven't yet been able to play him, there is something wrong with the textures (I think it might have to do with the upl files). I liked the way the run cycle turned out, he has a girly run, which suits the character.

The script

Below is the finished script, for which the dialogue has already been recorded in Ben's class. I had to cut it down a fair bit from the machinima version, which was SIX MINUTES long!!! I think it's better this way, more punchy. Considering time constraints, I have also sacked the Kim character, seeing as he/she only had one line of dialogue anyway. If I have time, I might put him back in, because having four characters is more realistic for the Big Brother scenario.

Exterior of house, establishing shot

VOICEOVER: Well, its been an interesting week in the big brother house, with tensions between Francis and Casper really dominating the house. Earlier in the week, a house meeting spiralled out of control after a discusssion about Francis’ cleaning of the bathroom.

Cut to FOUR housemates sitting at the table (or on the couch?)

FRANCIS: It’s fine, it looks clean to me, I don’t know what you’re talking about.

CASPER: It’s disgusting, there’s fingerprints all over the mirror, and all this hair clogged in the sink. And I don’t have to say who the only person with a beard is, do I?

ASHLEY: Guys, guys, calm down, come on. Francis, I think that Casper would appreciate it if you could clean just a little bit more frequently, do you think you could do that for us?

C: He’s just bloody lazy.

F: What did you say?

C: I said you’re lazy, you don’t pull your weight around the house

F: Well at least I don’t steal food, like some people I could mention.

C: That’s it, you LIAR! I’m sick of you. I summon the powers to curse you! Your first born child will be eaten by a giant snake and all your riches will turn to sand and melt into the sands of the desert.

F: (sob) You bastard (runs out)

(stunned silence)

A: God, Casper, was that really necessary? Way to spoil a house meeting. (walks out)

VOICEOVER: Later on in the week, a simple comment by Casper puts Francis over the edge, no doubt fuelled by the ‘curse’ incident.

Kitchen. FRANCIS is stirring a pot on the stove. CASPER walks up and stands next to him, peering into the pot.

CASPER: Hey man, what ya makin’?

FRANCIS: Risotto

C: Oh dude, I’ve gotta do the washin’ up later, don’t get all that stuff burnt on the bottom. Its always bloody impossible to get off.

F: What? What? You! Always going on about something, I’ve had enough of your shit. Maybe this will shut you up. I smite you!

Francis raises his arm and sends a fireball to Casper’s head, which bursts into flames.

CASPER: Aaaghhhh, Ooooghhh, Aaaaggghhh!

Cuts to a wider shot, CASPER is running around trying to put the fire out with his hands. FRANCIS stands watching with arms folded, laughing to himself. ASHLEY and KIM come rushing in

ASHLEY: What’s going on?

KIM: God Casper, haven’t you heard of stop drop and roll?

VOICEOVER: Lets cross now live to the diary room, where Casper is about to participate in this week’s nominations.

CASPER is sitting in the diary room facing the camera.

BIG BROTHER (voiceover):Casper, Who do you nominate for one point and why?

CASPER: Well firstly I want to nominate Ashley for flying under the radar, I don’t think he joins in conversations, and I don’t feel I’ve gotten to know him very well during my time in the house.

BB: Very good, who do you nominate for two points and why?

C: I want to nominate Francis because he smote me.

BB: And how does that affect you, as a housemate?

C: Um, I got burnt, he was trying to kill me?

BB: But he didn’t kill you?

C: No, obviously I’m al…

BB: What? So he didn’t even kill you? Your last chance, how do his actions effect YOU, not the other housemates, but YOU as a HOUSEMATE.

C: Well, I guess they don’t.

BB: This is your final warning, who do you nominate for 2 points for eviction and why!!!

C: Well, I suppose I’ll nominate Kim, for strategic reasons.

PAUSE

BB: You may return to the house.

Cut to graphic screen showing Francis’ head and name and ‘EVICT’ and ‘2SAVE’ numbers.

VOICEOVER: To evict Francis and send him directly to the underworld, call 19026EVICT. To keep Francis in the house call 190262SAVE and follow the prompts.

Heads for Ashley and Casper characters

I completed these a couple of weeks ago, but forgot to post them here. These are the head meshes for two other characters, Casper (top) and Ashley. The will have the same body as Francis, but I will change the colouring of the textures to differentiate them. I've almost finished unwrapping the uvs for these two heads, so I plan to have the textures completed today also. I need to find a way around having to skin all three bodies (if you just swap the heads, you lose the skin, because it involves going into the Editable Mesh or whatever). After I skin the Francis character properly, I will test a few different ways to do that. If worse comes to worst, I will just have to skin them each individually.

Progress on Francis texturing

So the Francis character is almost complete, just needs a bit of smoothing and slight tweaking of the textures. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, and because of the colours, it looks ok Flat-shaded as well (which is a better approximation of how the character will look in Unreal (see below)).

Final zbrush models

I finished modelling this head in zbrush a while ago. I'm revisiting it now to use as reference for my texuring. I think I should also be able to literally use it for texturing - using sections of the screenshot image as an overlay in photoshop.

Importing the character mesh into Unreal

Today I managed to get my mesh into the unreal engine (using a default texture, as my character's texture is still in production) and have it run around using animations from a standard Unreal character. I learnt that it's fairly easy and quick to use the standard animations, but because they are designed with carrying guns in mind, they wont be suitable for my characters. Instead I need to design my own animations, and overwrite the standard animation sequences. The biped used in the UT file Male_Skeleton seems to work well with my character mesh, so at least it will save time there.

The only major problem with my mesh seems to be here (looking up his legs under the 'skirt'). The mesh deforms badly and also the seams don't appear to be welded. I should probably be able to fix this by adjusting the rigging. Also, Ive also managed to export a skeleton mesh inside my character mesh, which shows up at inopportune moments, this can be fixed easily by re-exporting the mesh. Will post up the texture shortly, when it's finished.

The finished mesh

Here is a screenshot of the finished mesh in 3dS max.

UVW mapping

Again, this was completed before I went away. The head and body are now unwrapped and ready for texturing. It's a bit difficult to see what's going on with the head unwrapping, but this is due to the structure of the head - it's made up of different parts which are often at right angles to each other. Unlike with an organic head, it's not necessary to have them all flowing into each other.

Head UVs
Body UVs

Colourways

More old work I havent uploaded yet. These were used to work out the colouring for the head. I like the top left, but would also prefer to have more small white areas and lines, which were difficult to portray at this drawing scale.

Concept Art

Ok, so I've been away for a week or so, and yes it was a lovely holiday, thank you for asking. I've just realised that I never put up the concept art for my characters so here it is.

zbrush and scripty bits

Oops, been a bit lazy with posting recently. Here's some work I've been doing in zbrush on the character head. The basic shape was imported from the basic 3DS Max mesh shown in the previous post, and then sculpted further in zbrush. Unfortunately the version of UT we're using doesn't accept poly normal mapping (please, correct me if I'm wrong), so I wont actually be able to use it in the machinima. It's still useful in terms of working out the texturing though. I particularly like the wood texture just outside the mouth, which was acheived using a custom alpha brush.

I'm changing the script a bit as well, I've gone off the idea of having them talk about nothing and more thinking about what it would be like if Hindu gods were in a big brother house. I was talking to a friend about it, who's into scriptwriting, and he wrote a little bit, which I love. I dont really like the first bit about the blue puppets, but the rest I'm definately going to use. I'm going to try to have the full script finished soon, and I'll post it then.

Nomination two days after fire incident. Casper is in the diary room.

BB:Who do you nominate for one point and why.

C: Well firstly I want to nominate Bluey because he doesn’t like my jokes about blue puppets and how they’re all pedophiles and drug dealers. I didn’t hang out with many blue puppets when I was getting constructed. I heard they push drugs and fuck kids. He calls me colourist, but he’s just a blue puppet, so he must be lying.

BB: Very good, who do you nominate for 2 points and why?

C: I want to nominate Sean because he tried to kill me.

BB: How does that affect you, as a housemate.

C: I like to live; I was burning to death and he beat me, intending to kill me.

BB: But he didn’t kill you?

C: No, obviously I’m al…

BB: What? So he didn’t even kill you? Your last chance, how do his actions effect YOU, not the other housemates or the postman, but YOU as a HOUSEMATE.

C: Well, I guess they don’t.

BB: This is your final warning, who do you nominate for 2 points for eviction and why!!!

C: Well, I suppose I’ll nominate Sean because he’s also blue.

BB: You may return to the house.

Have started modelling the character today. I'm pretty happy with the head, but the body needs more work or I will run into trouble when it comes to animation. The polycount stands at 2348, before any smoothing is applied. I need to make a final decision on the costume worn by the character as well, before continuing on the body modelling. I also need to work out which animations I will need. I'd like to have a rotation of the arm at the shoulder, from palm facing up to palm facing down - is this easy to do or not? Before finishing the body, I should make up a dummy model and try out my animations with it, to identify any potential problems.

project overview

My machinima (as yet untitled) follows four extraordinary-looking characters as they engage in very ordinary activities. The character design takes its cue from Balinese gamelan dancers, with their elaborate costumes and distinctive movements. The characters have humanoid bodies and large colourful mask-like heads. Over the course of the machinima, the characters will talk about each other, discuss their current activities, eat and move from room to room. The viewer is supposed to be flummoxed as to the apparent lack of storyline until the final scenes reveal that the characters are residing in some kind of Big Brother-like reality tv show. The 'sets' will be an essentially domestic environment decorated in an extravagant manner, and the camera angles and shooting style will be similar to those used in Big Brother.