Fall Final

Probably even more stressful than every one of my core class finals. Only having an hour and forty-five minutes really kept me from adding or perfecting many things. I wish I had time to make more objects, such as an artist's pad and pencils/paintbrushes, and fix the book. I was going to animate the desk lamp, but didn't have time for that either. Animating was all done with only a few minutes left in class as modeling, texturing, and lighting took so much time, and I feel bad about the video. Really wish I had time to make it actually look nice.

The Alleyway: Series 7 - Compiled Movie

After all these months of Maya going wrong and sending me into intense swings of anguish and sorrow... I have finished the short compilation. Persisting through rockets that fall apart, particles that don't exist, explosions that took three days to make before realizing there was a button for it, and toilets that deform when touched... it is done. Oh, and don't forget the cameras that only stared at the floor. It's been a good run, Maya.

The Alleyway: Series 6 - Cameras

Opening shot from establishing cam

In the middle of the path the establishing cam is on, door opens before it comes in

End of the establishing trail path - rocket will shoot out

RocketCurve camera, captures the rocket as it travels on its path

Same RocketCurve camera before the rocket leaves frame

RocketStop camera near the end of the rocket's journey. Fixed the sky after these pictures so it wouldn't look as grainy.

The Alleyway: Series 5 - Object Upgrade

My rocket shooting across the sky - particles will be fixed soon, was focused on getting the object itself in the alley and will fix the smoke and fire behind it when I animate it. Maya also deleted a days work on the particles. Yaaaay Maya.

Closer up shot of the rocket. Used a curve and rotated it for the body and connected two paths and duplicated for the wings. Once again, I'll fix the particles behind it.

What goes best with rockets? A toilet! Made it all out of polygons, took a while.

Soon to come: it shall flush.

Shadows Assignment

One day in class the computers were out of use, so we got an assignment over shadows around the school!

Light comes from top left as well as the floor it bounces off of. The circled pillar is the source for the shadow behind it.

Top right directional lighting, causing a shadow on the railing. Large cone angle and many different ones, so not a harsh shadow.

Top left lighting. Semi-faded cone angle.

Pretty soft and faded cone angle causing a light shadow with soft edges.

Didn't get the windows in this picture, but they're casting the shadow. Very sharp edges closest to the window.

More shadows cast by the window. Much of the light bounces off the floor and indirectly lights up its surroundings, such as the stair divider.

Top left directional lighting, very harsh edges due to the sun being the only major 

Another shadow cast by the sun on the trashcan. Similar edges, yet there is more bounce light affecting the pavement under shadow so it isn't as dark.

The sun is just aweesome. Ultimate shadow creator!

Shadow cast by door. Harsh edges.

Very soft edges due to the many light sources from aboce.

Another soft shadow from many different light sources.

Dark shadow in locker, cast by the top of it. Light, however, bounces off the bottom and compensates for not being pitch black inside.

Top right lighting casting a semi-harsh edge shadow under the table. Light bounces off the floor to soften the edges.

Harsh edge shadow against the door with very little bounce light.

Ball Bounce

Oh, this ball. The most time consuming project so far as it tied in modeling, texturing, lighting and animation. And we got to make fire! Whooo! I had fun, even if the ball's face is awkward. I made the face on my own in photoshop though! Using the bend and squash deformers was easy enough once I got a feel for how it was supposed to look. Hope we do more things like this!

The Alleyway: Series 4 - Let There Be Light

Eye-level shot staring down the alley, now with added lighting!

Elevated shot of the scene.

Closer up on the back three lampposts.

This lamppost has center stage. By the way, if you couldn't tell, I reallly like the moon.

Shot of a different lamp post and how it illuminates its surroundings.

Maya is basically a jerk about lighting. No matter how hard you try and tweak things, Maya will make them look hiddeous. It also didn't help that the book was telling me the wrong stuff, such as making the lamp lights have an intensity of 25 (they're only about 3 to 4 now). This would make them multiple times brighter than the moon. Silly book! All in all, lighting is difficult but rewarding when completed! The scene looks infinitely better than before lighting when everything was all the same.

Animating the Door

Picture of door opened at the end of animation sequence - the hardest part of animating was organizing the heiracrhial ranks of objects my town. So much clutter.

The alleyway: Series 3 - Textures

Tire and screwdriver - textured

Lamp post - textured

House with door, lamp post, barrel

Longer shot of full scene to see the sky, wires, and roofs of different houses

Tire

Close up on rim. I really believed I was making an octopus during the tutorial, but in the ended it started to look more like a tire. There was a small discrepancy in the tutorial on the "legs" of the rim, as it had us extrude multiple times instead of one long time, which created the bridge of metal in the middle.

Close up of treads. These were much simpler to make than the rim, especially since I only had to make one pattern and duplicate it around the tire. I like the look of these.

Project in its en*tire*ity. Hahaha, I crack myself up.

Screwdriver Model

Handle of the screwdriver. Used booleans to cut the cylindrical holes in the sides, and simple scaling of sides for the core handle shape itself.

Tip of the screwdriver. This one was more troublesome to get to look like the right angle and length. Overall, using booleans wasn't too bad.

The Alleyway: Series 2

Awning

Door

Lamppost

The Alleyway: Series 1

Long shot of the alley, showing the plane and part of the sphere around it.

Closer shot of the alley, gives the view of each house with still a surrounding setting.

A more eye-lecel shot of the alley. Lamp post isn't finished, screen shots were taken in the middle of modeling it.

Camera Shots and Angle

Extreme long shot consists of a view so far from the subject that they aren't even able to be seen. This can also be referred to as an establishing shot because it is gernerally used to set up where something is by its surroundings.

A long shot shows a scene much closer to the subject than an extreme long shot to stress the more immediate surroundings, but is still a good distance away.

In a full shot, the subject (usually a person) fills up the frame with head in the top portion and the feet in the bottom. This allows us to focus on the person while still receiving information about their location.

A medium shot shows the subject from roughly the waist/hips up, as the setting has already been established. This is typically used for common dialogue scenes. The mid shot is generally emotionally neutral.

A close shot is when one part of the subject (usually face) fills up almost the whole frame. This shot can be very confusing for the audience if overused, because it is not good for establishing where they are or what is going on. The most common use is to show a character's emotion as a cutaway.

An extreme close up is used for dramatic effect, and requires a good reason to be used. This shot goes closer than the eye would normally see, and typically consists of just one part of the face such as an eye or a mouth, without a background.

A birds eye view angle is from directly above, putting the audience in  a superior position to the subject that now looks small and sometimes unrecognizable.

A high angle shot is less elevated than a bird's eye, but still gives the feel of the objects being smaller and less significant. These are good for establishing the setting, as the objects typically become part of it.

A low angle shot is defined as anywhere below the eye-level and looking up. This angle makes the audince feel smaller than the subject, and is often used to make the subject look bigger and powerful.

  

An eyelevel shot is exactly how it sounds - an angle in which the camera is in line with the subject's height so that he/she doesn't have to look up or down.

So what are my favorite shots or angles? My favorites are low angles shots because they can change the whole mood by distorting the subject to a greater height, long shots because they are critical in establishing the settings and can give such valuable information, and the close shot because it shows close up details of the subject, often portraying emotions.