Environment: Samurai At Short Scene (Tree area)

[BiTMAP]

the grass texture seems a bit big or blurry, and the objects don't feel like there actualy THERE... I'm not learned enough to know what cuases that.

[Shaykai]

I think i know what he means when he says that the objects aren't 'there'. I think its your lack of shadows. The apple looks like its floating. I do dig your textures though. ALl in all a good job :)

[LPlasma]

Yeah, I believe i'm going to do the following things:
Make the shadows harsher
Make the ground texture less blurry/more random bump map
Add more of the smaller grass, especially around the rest of the objects
Tweak the trees/stuff in the far background to fill the scene a bit more

[LPlasma]

Here's an update, I've tweaked the lighting, started adding the small grass, and a few other tweaks around the scene.
http://www.desertcrisis.com/lplasma/shortpics/test29.jpg

[Shaykai]

Wow thats a vast improvement! The scene is really coming together! I just gotta ask how you made the texture for that apple? You got it perfect! Also your post is Samurai at short scene... wheres the samurai?
The ground texture and shodows are also way better now.

[JFrench]

Thats funny...you're making an ant samurai short..........A Bugs Life is a movie staring ants based on Seven Samurai.......the irony is CRAZY!
I'm not saying you're ripping anything off. I just found it very amusing in my head.

[LPlasma]

The apple is composed of a base diffuse map that I made by hand that is just a simple red with some dots + some color variation. The main 'look' of the apple comes from the bump map (multi-layered noise), a falloff map on the specularity level (gets brighter highlights facing the camera), a falloff map on the diffuse (turns darker around the faces facing away from the camera) and that's about it. Here are a few pictures of the ant for you:
http://www.desertcrisis.com/lplasma/shortpics/ant19.jpg
http://www.desertcrisis.com/lplasma/shortpics/ant18.jpg
http://www.desertcrisis.com/lplasma/shortpics/ant17.jpg
http://www.desertcrisis.com/lplasma/shortpics/ant20.jpg
http://www.desertcrisis.com/lplasma/shortpics/ant21.jpg
http://www.desertcrisis.com/lplasma/shortpics/ant22.jpg

I had posted them earlier (it has not really changed much since then, it's effectively done) but here they are again for the purpose of consolidation/ease of viewing.

[Shaykai]

wow thats fantastic! i can't wait for this animation to be done! When do you think you'll finish it?

[LPlasma]

It will be done by the end of this semester. I will start animation post-spring break most likely. I just need to finish up the scene (minor stuff) and it's all ready to animate. Animation wont take me more than a couple weeks for the first pass, tops. I'll probably post the animation once it's starting to get 'near completion' for critiques on the animation + camera angles + such.

[augustus]

2nd post is really good. And i like your ant-samurai.:thumbsup:

[LPlasma]

Thanks, any suggestions?

[LPlasma]

I've started messing with depth of field + running a few tests on atmospheric perspective + such. I'll be doing the baseline enviornmental animation and then starting on animating the short itself. Anyone have any tips on animating large bodies of grass (both big and small as seen in the scene)? Here's a bit of an update.
http://www.desertcrisis.com/lplasma/shortpics/test31.jpg

Thanks. Any input is appreciated.

[LPlasma]

I'm also going to tweak with exposure control to increase the level of contrast over the scene. The levels are overall pretty low and I'm going to tweak that.

[mactabilis]

woohoo, go LPlasma. The environment looks very nice, as does the ant of course.. Id like to see some Ant in the environment, not just some real tree :bounce: ..
Maybe you should come up with a name or something for him? Especially since he's more ninja-like than Samurai. Id recommend dropping the "Samurai Ant" name, other than that, I like it a lot, the environment seems to match the ant..
Oh ya, What are you using?

[LPlasma]

Yeah, Samurai Ant is just the 'working name' until I find something better, which I plan to. The software I'm using is MAX 5.1 (w/ character studio/physique for the character with morpher for the facial stuff) and Photoshop 6.0 (7.0 at home, I work on this primarily while at college, which is 99% of my time :P ). I'll post some pics in a bit with the tweaked lighting levels that still have the improved shadows but higher contrast levels overall. I'll put the ant in those pics. I've just had him in the scene hidden since it was unneccessary to render him to tweak the scene + such.

[LPlasma]

Here's a few pics of the ant in the scene now. Scene is 99% complete at this point.
http://www.desertcrisis.com/lplasma/shortpics/test32.jpg
http://www.desertcrisis.com/lplasma/shortpics/test33.jpg

[mactabilis]

I really like the second picture, looks very cool

[LPlasma]

Thanks, any suggestions though?

[mactabilis]

oh wow.. delay. Um no.. no suggestions. If you keep things like the second pic, it'll look great.. I think the first bothers me because he's a ninja.. he shouldn't be so lit. and the arm looks weird positioned like that IMO..

oh. by the way.. mactabilis = ben of Tomorrow's Nobody

[LPlasma]

Oh hey ben. heh, and yeah the arm does look a bit odd (especially with the intense perspective) in the first pic.

[LPlasma]

I started animating it today. It's 30 seconds and i've mostly animated the first shot (4 seconds). I'm going to setup his bandana before I go on. I expect to have it mostly animated within a week or two. Here's what the first scene looks like, the camera zooms in on the ant, he makes a face and runs off.
http://www.desertcrisis.com/lplasma/shortpics/test36.jpg
http://www.desertcrisis.com/lplasma/shortpics/test37.jpg

[LPlasma]

Also, i have changed the composition of the shot in the beginning, I lowered the camera closer to the ground and offset the entire composition. It goes to the same shot as it zooms in though.

[LPlasma]

I'm 300 frames into the animation, have 600 left (of varying degrees of complexity). I expect to have most of it done by the end of next week. We'll see how it goes.
http://www.desertcrisis.com/lplasma/shortpics/test41.jpg
http://www.desertcrisis.com/lplasma/shortpics/test39.jpg

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