Switching it up

So Nintendo has recently announced a new console rumors had been floating around about a Nintendo NX but it’s been confirmed and the system has been officially christened as the Nintendo Switch. At home, Nintendo Switch rests in the Nintendo Switch Dock that connects the system to the TV and lets you play with family…

Induction to maya

As part of our induction to 3D modelling in Maya, we were tasked with the construction of a dinner set. The dinner set needed to include a table, knife, fork, plate, spoon and wine glass, I was able to complete all of these but the spoon as I was limited to only being able to…

Game Ready and Movie Ready Models

Computer graphic artists are constantly trying to emulate the real world. The main canvas that we paint reality on is the computer generated (CG) 3D model. CG models are used in a variety of ways for many disciplines. Although they can run the gamut from medical visualization, accident recreation, and entomology, main uses of this technology…

Lighting and rendering in maya

In maya there are many different types of lighting to consider. The main setting of lighting are: Intensity Colour Fallout/ decay Cast shadows There are also different types of lights you can use Area lights : an area light is used for still image rendering. Directional lights : a directional light is used for light…

Booleans and Deformers

The Bend Tool: This can be used to bend a shape; the straight purple line shows the shape completely straight, whereas the line on the right shows the curvature that is taking place on the object. This tool is very useful for making arches but does require a lot of sub-divisions to make a smooth and fluent…

Thor Hammer

In this lesson, we had to model Thor’s hammer, the only restriction was that it had to be as low poly as possible. This was done by taking a simple cuboid and Beveling the edges. To make the handle and keep the poly count down, I extracted the bottom portion of the hammer and made sub-divisions…

Final modelling assignment

Game Ready For my game ready model I decided to recreate Whis’ staff from dragon ball super this involved the use of the extrude, smooth, move and scale tools. To create the point and large ridge at the top I extruded the top and bottom to give me extra geometry to deal with. I then…

Keying

Keying is defined as the process of replacing part of a piece of footage with footage or an image from another source. Alpha channels are important as these provide the transparency or opacity of an image these are represented in black(blocks out info) and white(shows info). When filming on a green screen there can be variations…

Matte Painting and compositing

A matte painting is painted landscape that can be used for a background. It is used to give the illusion of an environment that isn’t there. DMP: Digital Matte Paintings are the same thing but created by compositing multiple images together in Photoshop. You are then able to export this as a TIFF or PNG to After…

Stabilization and Tracking

Matchmoving is very self explanatory it is matching the movement of an object composited into a scene to make it look as if it belongs. Tracking Stabilization Shots are stabilized to make motion within the footage seem much more fluid no matter where it is shot this also makes it easier for software to track…

Lighting for VFX

Lighting for VFX is very simple in concept but can be relatively difficult to actually get done. VFX uses three point lighting and green screen to achieve results. Things to consider while shooting for VFX Things you should consider while shooting are shadows, creases in the green screen curtain, even lighting and making a lighting plan….

Cameras

Exposure is how light or dark and image is depending on certain settings such as the ISO, shutter speed and aperture. ISO is how sensitive the camera is to the reception of light either increasing or decreasing the amount of noise (grain effect) there is to the final image. A smaller ISO means that there…