Research.

My research has been progressing at a steady rate I've been looking into media reports, such as the manhunt  ban back in 2003-2004 and the newtown shooting earlier this year, as well as this I've been looking at many research papers and searching got MRI scans to show the studies of the brain and how violent video games effect the brain.

I have learnt a lot, many people do think that violent video games is  reason for the aggression seen in young adults however i've found that it is a component to lead it to aggression and there has to be other aspects that needs to contribute for the person to turn to aggression. Although violent video games don't create agression it does desensitize the individual to violence in the real world.

Environment Modelling!

So a while back I started modelling the environment where the Trailer would take place, I have included some screen shots of the progression. I wanted to give this environment more of an underground dungeon look.

This is a wire frame view of the environment I created, I wanted to something with a lot of space it gives me a lot to work with the camera. I also intend to create some items such as crates and barrels to give the environment some character.

I Added some drains for character and emphasis to the environment, this was done using the Boolean method I wanted to have another source of light other than the lights on the ceiling of the environment, I want an eerie effect.

This is how I laid out the UV's for the main exterior of the building, I used a process called substance texturing in maya, which allowed me to use images from maya's pre-installed files and cut out the process of tiling an image together, with substance texturing it also allowed me to experiment with the ageing of the texture as well as depth, ware and tear and a lot more.

This is the lighting I had set up, I used two spotlight to get this look, I wanted a bit of blue tint to it to give it more of an eerie and scary effect. I also need to rig the door so the characters are able to get into the next scene. I showed this to Florian he suggested that I light up the scene more to make sure the audience can see everything, I saw the point but I was against it as I thought It would take away the effect I am going for! However I will experiment with the lighting more!

So these are the tests I ran with the lighting coming out of the drain.I wanted some foggy essence surrounding the drain, as you can see it looked awkward with the hard edges, the first image was a lot closer to what I was going for over the second image, the final image was perfect as I got the shade of the drain pipes showing, I used a volumetric light to get this effect.

Script and Voice Over Plans!

ok so I've been planning to do the voice overs for a while now but I needed the script first so I've created a script (included below).

‘NO MORE ALLIES’

Screenplay

FADES INTO DEANO’S FOOTSTEPS ECHO THROUGH OUT THE AUTIORIUM AS HE APPROACHES THE CELL.

*DEANO OPENS THE DOOR*

DEANO

Alright Mate!?

How you doing fella?

JULIUS

Fancy seeing you here.

DEANO

Looks like the Isolation treatment is doing you good.

JULIUS

So what can I do for ya?

Before I blow ya brains out.

DEANO

Steady on mate! Haha!

Look, the ‘Others’ are out doing more important jobs we need some one

Capable to do this one, and if you’re lucky we can get you back in the list.

JULIUS

What’s the Job?

DEANO

We need you to go take out an important geezer over in the states, you have the potential to be our top guy just work within the lines.

JULIUS

I’ll get rid of your guy no problem, but I’m not gonna make any promises about sticking to the rules.

*SMIRK FROM DEANO*

*FADES TO ENDING TITLE SEQUENCE*

The End

  

in this script i'm trying to portray various things in the relationship between these two characters, i'm aiming to show there is a discrepancy between these two but at the same time I want to show there is a history there, and neither of them want to make the first move because of their pride. By reading through their character profiles you can get know the story between these two people. I will also be uploading the research and the full synopsis on this project.

Personality Profiles!

So somehow a month has flown by and I have done so much on this project and I have a lot to upload a lot of stuff which WILL be done through out today!

So the first thing I am going to unveil are the two characters that are in the trailer and their personality profile sheets, I have mapped out who these people are and what they are about. I learnt a lot from this process even though I had done it before, I always learn something different. As I was creating multiple profiles, it showed me that people will always have some differences and no one person is the same, although you can also use characters personalities to compliment each other.

Dean ‘Deano’ Harris Personality Sheet

Name – Dean Harris

Alias – ‘Deano’

Age – 38

Height – 5’11

Weight – 120kg

Sex – Male

Race – Caucasian

Eye Colour – Brown/Brunette

Nationality – British

Glasses – No Glasses or Contact Lenses

Skin Colour – White

Shape of Face – Triangular with strong flat chin.

Distinguishing Features.

Clothing – Deano dresses very smart and is always seen wearing a variety of name brand suits.

Mannerisms - 

Habits – Deano is quite often seen smoking the finest Cuban cigars when in his office or being chauffeured to a destination you rarely see him smoking whilst he is walk around.

Health – Even though he indulges in smoking and the occasional drink, from his visual representation he does seem to be in healthy shape, he eats healthy meals and also exercises regularly.

Hobbies – Deano’s hobbies are mainly playing golf and the occasional squash or tennis game.

Favourite Sayings –

Voice – Being from London, he has a very deep London accent.

Walking style – Being the head honcho of this organisation, you can tell he has a very confident and powerful walk about him. It commands authority and attention.

Characters greatest flaw – His greatest flaws are that he smokes cigars and it is slowly chipping away at his health.

Characters Best Quality – Deano’s best quality seems to be that he is also a generous person as well as having a great sense of humour, with great leadership and tactical ability.

Social Characteristics

Hometown – Peckham, London, United Kingdom.

Current Residence – Deano Currently lives in Central London also in Soho London, United Kingdom, and not too far from Julius.

Occupation – President and Founder of the Elites.

Income – There is no affirmed amount that anyone knows on Deano’s salary but it is estimated to be over £1 million annually.

Talent/Skills – Deano’s most notable talent is his ability to be a great leader as well as to be a mastermind and strategist when it comes to war and attrition.

Family Status – Looking into Deano’s personal life with a big house, beautiful wife and two lovely kids. He was an only child and his father had passed away at a young age and with his mother always struggling whilst raising him they developed a strong bond with each other even to this day.

Character as a Child – he was always considered a lazy child, even when his father passing away he turned to the class clown looking for attention, but eventually whilst transitioning into his latter stages of secondary school he started cleaning up his act and working hard towards his goals and being more focused on the more things important.

Character as an Adult – Ever since deciding to change himself for the better as a teenager, he really went through a rough transition as he was going through his self-improvement part of his life, now he has become a lot more well-rounded as an individual. He has worked tremendously hard to get into the place he is right now in his life, so we see a lot of humble aspects about his character over the possibility of him being an arrogant person.

Attribute and Attitude Educational Background.

Highest Level of Education – Deano has masters in Politics and achieved a first in Bsc Hons in Politics also.

IQ Level – his IQ level is currently scored at 140.

Life Goals – His short term goals are to get Julius back into the regime of things, as he can be a great asset to him and his roster. In terms of Long term goals he really wants to raise his children to have the same values he has and to avoid the mistakes he made as a child, and to also be successful.

Self-Esteem – With his hard work over the years he has always viewed himself as a humble character and always keeps that mentality and never lets his success get to him, and In terms of his physique, because he exercises regularly.

Confidence – Deano isn’t someone who is overconfident, but at the same time he doesn’t under sell himself, and you can see this in his everyday actions.

Emotional State – Whilst working he has a very logical mind state so he knows to make the right decision however when dealing with family matters there is a lot more of an emotional aspect to it whilst keeping a logical view.

Emotional Characters

Introvert or Extrovert – Deano has always been an extroverted person even as a child and still has no problem expressing himself.

How does he deal with…

       Sadness - because he lost his father at such a young age he was take emotional problems a lot better than the average person.

       Anger – This is something that doesn’t occur very often because, when being in a logical state of mind, he’s able to be a lot more calm and collective with his thoughts and feelings.

      Conflict – He has managed to avoid a lot conflict in his personal life by having good relations with the people around him. In his work life it seems to be more common and is able to reach a solution to a problem.

      Change – Is something that had a lot impact on him as he was always adjusting to it because he always had to keep up with the outside world as well as transitioning into fatherhood.

      Loss – With any loss he’s had, it has been hard on him and he has slowly been able to push through it and been able to pick himself back up.

Motivation – His motivation for getting up every morning is to create a better space for his family to be in, so they have no struggles growing up.

Fear – Is something he has had to grow up dealing with constantly and not let it consume him, it has become something that he is accustomed to.

Happiness – Being a father, his happiness is always seeing his children grow, prior to his family it would be making his mother happy and being running to his little successful moments.

Relationships – This is something that he’s been always comfortable whether it be love relationships or just a platonic friendship.

Spiritual Characteristics

Does he believe in God – Deano was always raised as a strict Christian.

Does he have a strong faith – as he got older he started being a more laid back Christian.

Does he abide his religious laws – he doesn’t really abide by his laws as much as he did when he was a kid, when he was a child he would participate in lent as well as going church every Sunday.

Story Archetype – Deano would be the equivalent of a mentor in this story.

Does the environment affect him – The environment Deano is in isn’t really something that affects him as he has been able to overcome different circumstances ever since he was a kid.

Five Important events leading up to the characters storyline –

1)    One of the biggest events that led up to Deano’s storyline is that passing of his father at such a young age.

2)    Seeing he mother work so hard and struggle to keep a roof over their heads whilst a young teenager made him change his attitude towards school and make him work hard and create goals for him to achieve.

3)    Finally completing his education and realising he can now provide for his mother, by achieving financial freedom.

4)    Creating the roster for the elites.

5)    Coming across Julius for the first time and realising the potential he had and how useful he could be.

Five events in the characters back story that lead up to this point in the story that will be presented to the audience –

1)    Losing his father at a young age made him see things in a different perspective.

2)    Being asked to create a roster of Elites of skilled people who can do jobs that people from MI 5 have difficulty with.

3)    Having several meetings with important Politicians and how well the elites are doing.

4)    Having a conversation with Julius on joining the roster and watching him train from a distance and seeing him develop.

5)    Going to Julius in isolation to try and get him back into the ranks by giving him a job to do.

Julius Personality Sheet

Basic Statistics

Name – Julius Bennett

Alias – ‘God’s Child’ ‘The Genius that comes once in a generation’

Age – 24

Height – 5’11

Weight – 130

Sex – Male

Race – Caucasian

Eye Color – Brown

Hair Color – No Hair, Bald.

Nationally – British

Skin Color – White

Shape of Face – Triangular

Distinguishing Features

Dress Code – Julius has a casual dress sense with a slight rugged look. For example he would wear a white tank top, with a pair of straight fitted jeans and pair of Timberland Boots. Whilst on jobs it’s pretty much the same but he may have a bag with him.

Mannerisms – His mannerisms are mainly squinting like he has an instinct to kill when he has gone into a daydream, which can cause trouble with people who may take it the wrong way.

Health – Julius is in good health at the moment, he has endurance to escape a situation physically. He is also mentally stable even with all the time he has spent in Isolation.

Hobbies – His hobbies mainly consist of playing video games, playing FIFA and supporting his favourite football team Manchester United.

Favourite Saying – His favourite

Voice – he has a deep voice and with him being raised in east London he has what’s known as a ‘cockney’ accent.

Walking Style – he walks in a confident manner but yet he has a laidback aspect his walk.

Disabilities - He has no disabilities.

Greatest Flaw – his greatest flaw is that he took on some lawless attributes such as not listening to people and not being told what to do, this has caused him a lot of trouble which got him into isolation. He also has great flaws within his personal life; his biggest flaw is that he’s not as good as women, as he is at his job.

Best Quality – His best quality is that he is helpful and generous to everyone that he gets to know and comes across in life as well as being gifted at everything he does, physically and mentally challenging.

Social Characteristics

Hometown – Julius was born and raised in Hackney located in, London, United Kingdom.

Current Residence – Julius now lives in central London in an area known as Soho in, London, United Kingdom.

Occupation - Julius works in an underground organisation, called The Elites, prior to this he was a soldier in the army.

Income – Due to the Organisation Julius works for this information is not provided, however, considering the home he lives in it is estimated that he earns £500,000 every year.

Talents and Skills – Julius was always been a talented individual, he really excels in his profession as ruthless killer and is always hinted to be their next top guy in the ranks. These skills will be of great use to him as he will be taking out many important characters with in the story.

Family Status – He is the youngest of three children, he has an older brother who is 27 and an older sister who is 29, his mother and father moved away from London as soon as their kids were able to stand on their own two feet and now live in a quiet neighbourhood in Birmingham, north of London.

Character as a Child – As a child Julius was very popular, as he was the kid who could keep up the good grades as well as go out and play football with his friends, everybody admired him and there were also the few that hated him.

Character as an Adult – His character as an adult is a lot more rebellious and aggressive, it even seems like his has something that he wants to prove, but doing it on his terms. But he still has that helpful and generous aspect to him.

Attributes and Attitudes Educational Background.

Highest level of Education – Julius finished his A Levels with three A* In Maths, IT and Business, after this he decided to go in a different direction in his life.

IQ Level – Julius IQ level was tested when he first joined the ranks, it came out to be 150.

Character’s Goals – Julius use to be a very business minded individual whilst he was in college doing his A Levels, but once he left and signed up to the army he always aspired to be the best in his platoon and now he aims to be the top dog within the ranks.

Self-Esteem – Julius is well aware he has gifts, that the majority of people have, so he has a very humble view of himself and is confident of his looks and isn’t paranoid about the bad things that are said about him.

Confidence – Confidence in general is something that Julius portrays very well, but he can get slightly arrogant when obtaining some form of success too fast.

Emotional State – Due to his profession Julius has become a more logical being however prior to his profession he was more of an emotional character, towards is his family and his loved ones.

Emotional Characteristics.

 Introvert or Extrovert - Julius overtime has become an Extrovert someone who has no trouble with speaking to stranger, before he used to be extremely shy in when talking to his relatives.

How does he deal with -

Sadness – Julius has mainly experienced sadness when losing his friends whilst in the army, he is a normal human being and sheds tears like any other human being would.

Anger – Julius can sometimes bottle his anger up but when being pushed over the edge he goes on a rampage and takes some time to regroup himself.

Conflict – he has rarely dealt with conflict but he has a very calm and collective take about it and does not let it get the better of him.

Loss – He has only experienced loss when in the army and losing his comrades and deals with it by crying and maybe drowning himself in alcohol.

What would he change about his life – Julius has a very successful life, but if he wanted to change one thing about his lifestyle he would wish to live the rock star life, but without the popularity aspect of it incorporated.

Motivation – His motivation that gets him out of bed is that he wants to become the best and he will not settle for being 2^nd best.

Fear – With having a poor upbringing and not having a lot as a child, and after making the money he is earning now, he doesn’t ever want to go back to that same deprived state he once grew up in.

What makes him Happy. – When he notices self-improvement and notices he’s become more financially stable than he once was he cannot help but be happy.

Relationships – In terms of Relationships he has experienced various types of relationships from being in love to casual encounters, he deals with them quite well emotionally, he doesn’t work himself too much over it. Socially as a kid he was quite shy even though he was popular but eventually he got used to it and became a lot more social with strangers and not just friends.

Spiritual Characteristics

Faith – Julius was raised as a Christian and can be considered a ‘part time’ Christian currently.

How strong is his Faith – He doesn’t really put all his eggs in one basket when it comes to God as he also believes in some aspect of science and the aspect of him being able to control his own destiny.

Does he live by god – He has some aspects of his life where he abides by the rules of god but at the same time he wants a life of freedom where he has his own rules.

Story Archetype – In this story Julius is the hero type.

Does he change in different environments – Julius can get slightly depressed when he’s thrown into isolation. He is generally happy and content when in the comfort of his own home or when he’s sent out doing an assignment. He used by shy when walking to an environment where he wasn’t familiar with the people as well as the environment, however he is now comfortable in his skin in that situation, It doesn’t affect his visual representation.

Timeline: five important events that led up to the characters story line:

1)    Being raised in a deprived neighbourhood and wanting more out of life, giving him the motivation and ambition to strive for big goals.

2)    Realisation of his gifts.

3)    Experiencing social anxiety and realising he should do something about it progress in life.

4)    Experiencing loss when starting in the front lines of the British army.

5)    Meeting his mentor that would eventually take him under his wing.

Five events in the characters back story that will be presented to the Audience:

1)    Joining the army, and going through training and realising the difficulty in it even though he was gifted in the physical aspect of his life.

2)    Various aspects in his life in the army from fatal losses and when becoming victorious from dyer situations.

3)    Meeting his mentor for the first time and the conversation they had.

4)    When he was given his training for going into the elites, and being able to pick skills in various scenarios, such as escaping a situation that has gone wrong to keeping his assignments quick and easy.

5)    The first time he was thrown into isolation as a result of not obeying the rules set out by the group.

I know its a lot to take in but I also wanted to add when building characters I learnt that it is essential that you can stay passionate about all of them and not just focus on the main character and have the supporting characters compliment the story and the main character, this way it helps the story keep a solid structure.

Playing Catch Up!

For the past few months I've been working on my Final major project whilst still trying to improve my skills as an animator.

Whilst working alongside my modules I was doing a lot of research and development I made sketches on the  main character as well as doing the research for the whole project in general, my research went mainly on the subject of violence in video games, my main question was Has shoot 'em up game had an negative influence on the general public? I did have a bit of trouble with this because the main aspect I was going to touch on was the school shooting in America that happened recently. I went to see Florian about this he gave me great advice, he told me to have a look into the call of duty games and shooter games similar to this.

I also created a storyboard to get an Idea of how this trailer is going to play out. I have also done a color scheme of one of the storyboard shots just to get a better Idea of what I intend for it to look like. (below)

(Storyboard Piece)

I continued to build my character in Z-brush over Christmas and I thought I had a great outcome, there were still minor mistakes such as the geometry was low on polygons so certain areas of the torso looked slightly stretched. I had shown it to Florian my supervisor and he told me to be aware of the anatomy because the arms looked out of place in comparison to the torso and the rest of the body. However after looking at it  and analyzing it, I thought it would be a lot better to start again and try and sculpt the body as a whole rather than going at it bit by bit. The result I got by going at the character as a whole was a lot better for me I got a lot better results in a shorter amount of time which was really great for me efficiency wise.

Meetings and how I want things to look.

I finally gave my pitch which I personally thought didn't go well. as i didn't give visuals even though I had some in my bag at the time, however I was happy to get the supervisor I had suggested, I decided to setup a meeting right away as I had things I wanted to get advice on.

I was told to look at some low poly modeling which I was give some tutorials for via email, as well as that I was told to get some visuals of what I wanted the project to look like(below).

This is a cut scene from the game black on PS2. the interigation style is something I was looking at closely.

These are some Images that I think would go well with the kind of look I want If include a spotlight effect I would most definitely want to add some dust like effects.

Progress....

I know it's been a while since I've made a post but it has been difficult due to me being at work for the whole of september, however that doesn't mean I haven't been making any progress I have nailed down my idea, what I'm going to do and how I am going to do it. I have made sketches of my previous ideas so you can see where this idea has come from and the slow progression thats has been made, to my current final idea.

(which WILL be uploaded soon!)

The proposal has also been completed which has made things a lot clear I have put a copy of it below. I have also included a checkpoint sheet to show what I should have completed by certain dates.

1. Briefly describe your proposed project and list key outputs – [what do you want to do?]

The name of my project is called ‘No More Allies’ I plan to create a 30 – 90 second trailer for a video game. I had various ideas before coming to my final idea of No More Allies, my first Idea was to be a conversation between two gangsters however due to the time frame the amount of work needed would be quite difficult. I have looked at various trailers from video games such as Call of Duty, Hitman, Homefront and many others. I will be keeping an up to date journal of all the work and progress I am making on the project. I will have sketches and progress models to show the progress I am making and where my Ideas are coming from and the improvements and tweaks that are being made. I would like to present this project on DVD disk as well as uploading it online onto my portfolio for employers to see.

2. Outline your motivation for choosing this project subject [why do you want to do it?]

I chose this project because I think it outlines the knowledge and Techniques I have learnt whilst studying digital animation, everything from sketching out ideas to rendering in Maya or 3D studio max. I had the opportunity to do something similar to this on the character and environment module however it was not to the scale I have planned this project to be. I have a great understanding of the amount of work, I have to put into this project as well as what needs to be done and how it will be achieved. This will also be a great piece to put into my portfolio to give an overview of the various skills I have.

3. Briefly describe your methodology – [how do you intend to go about doing it?]

The main research I will be looking into for this project would mainly be on gaining a better knowledge of texturing to gain a realistic effect, Rendering for a High Quality production, what makes a good intro scene, these are the main topics I will be looking into before I start production. I will be out sourcing a few of the tasks on this project such as the Voice acting. I will need various microphones to record sound effects and the voice acting itself. The skill in this project I personally think I have but not to the standard I would like, so this means I will be improving my current skill set to match the standard I am aiming for.

4. List the personnel involved in your project and their roles – [who is involved?]

The people involved in this project besides myself would be a voice actor, that would need to be able to do 2 voices, I have scheduled the voice acting to be completed on the last week of 2012. I have also decided that I would like either Girish Lukka or Gavin Lewis to be the supervisor of this project, as I think they would be best suited for this role. There are possibilities of certain aspects of this project being outsourced such as bringing someone in to rig the character or someone for texturing, however I have chosen to complete the majority of this project on my own, not including the voice acting.

5. Specify the main working locations – [where will the work take place?]

For this project I will be working mainly in the comfort of my home and the university, although I may need a room where I can voice record. As for equipment I will need microphones for voice acting as well as sound effects, there also may be a slight possibility that I will have to use a graphics tablet. In terms of software much of the software I already have on my laptop but it would also be convenient for Zbrush 4r4 to be available in that animation studios, in case if there is an emergency and my laptop stops working.

Bhimal Ladva

21123327

Digital Animation

6. Broadly define a plan of actions with key milestones [when will the project be done?]

wk w/c main activities and milestones

01 01/10/12

02 08/10/12

03 15/10/12 - Proposal Complete.

04 22/10/12 Proposal complete and submitted by Sunday of this week

05 29/10/12 - Pitch Presentation Complete.

06 05/11/12 Pitch sessions this week

07 12/11/12 Pitch sessions this week

08 19/11/12

09 26/11/12

10 03/12/12 - Research/Pre-Production Complete.

11 10/12/12

12 17/12/12 - Character Model Complete

24/12/12

31/12/12 - Voice and Sound Effects Recorded

13 07/01/13

14 14/01/13

21/01/13 - Environment Models Complete

28/01/13

04/02/13 - Character Rigged and Textured and Environment Textured

01 11/02/13

02 18/02/13

03 25/02/13

04 04/03/13

05 11/03/13

06 18/03/13

07 25/03/13 - Everything will be Animated

08 01/04/13

08/04/13

15/04/13 - Trailer Rendered and Quality Assured.

09 22/04/13 Completed final draft to be presented and discussed with supervisor

10 29/04/13

11 06/05/13 A3 (portfolio) deadline Friday 10/05/13

12 13/05/13 A4 (evaluation) deadline Sunday 19/05/13 

I will be posting more often from now on, but honestly, this project is scaring me, but I think I will enjoy the stress and challenge!