Maya Character Progress

It's a bit quiet on here. Here's an update with the characters. The male is now connected to the rig, which means it's just a matter of tweaking the body shape a bit for the others - no re-painting weights which is the longest and most tedious part.

I'm getting better at walking animations too. I need to refine the female's because it looks a little weird.



See you guys tomorrow. I'll be in fairly early but we should meet at lunch if not before, hopefully we can secure a few fast computers in the computer suite.

Pre-Vis: First Half

I hope these are ok. I looked back to see if we had anything put down about how long each shot is but I couldn't see any. So I've just gone with how long I think each one should last. Also I know they're not all of my scenes I was meant to do but I aim to have then done by Monday afternoon (at the latest). Plus I can edit what I've done so far if it's not liked.

Also the first scene, I know you don't see the blob but I put it in there roughly, more as a way for me to visualize what is going on (easily taken out. I'll re playblast that scene without the blob in it as well so we have two to go by). I also thought tilting the screen at that point would add some tension (as we won't be having the blob).

Pre_Vis_1 from Levalin on Vimeo.

First 8 scenes previs

Painting Weights, Oh How I Love Thee

AKA: Maya Technical Development.

I've spent the day creating a rig to use for our characters, skinning the model, and then animating a basic walk cycle to make sure all the weights were painted correctly.

Walking Animation:



Walking Animation X-Ray:



Head Control Demonstration:







Fully articulated fingers for a few scenes where they might be needed, and full head / helmet movement.

The same rig can be used for all of the characters so making the rest will take no time at all.

How are you guys doing with the preliminary visualisation scenes?

Won't be able to come to meeting

Hey, I've got Aimhigher Associate training tomorrow at the uni from 10am-5pm, so I won't be able to attend the meeting. We should however get a lunch break, so I'll come down to the base room to see if anyone's there and if anything needs discussing. To be honest, we've discussed most of it on Monday, I've got the previs, sound and blob concept to do for Monday.

Pre-Vis Responsibilities

The list below is colour coded into the scenes we've chosen to do for the pre-vis. Bharathi and I colour coded them so each person knows who is doing which shot.

1: You see Mars. (Rotate around it)
2: Spacecraft lands.
3: Long shot of the crew walking across the surface of mars
4: Close up of one crew members visor which reflects more of the surface
5: We see the foot of one astronaut step on a crack in the surface, the crack then becomes bigger
6: He calls over the rest of the crew
7: Dialogue: Captain Shall we investigate further
8: They go back to the ship to get equipment
9: Close up of foot and ground giving way
10: The last guy to leave for the ship falls in to the hole, with the rest of the crew in the foreground
11: Guy struggles to get out of the hole, holding onto the sides, then suddenly disappears. (Maybe shouts out help?)
12: Wakes up in a daze. "Huston We have a problem" (first person view)
13: Rest of the crew look over the hole (camera angle, over their shoulder looking into the hole?)
14: Looking up at the crew standing over the hole, from inside it.
15: The three remaining crew members argue about whether to save him or not (one doesn't want to help)
16: They scale down the hole (wide shot)
17: Over the shoulder shot with flashlight (Audience see the shadow of the blob, but the astronauts don't)
18: Invisible cut: Through the eyes of the blob, looking at the astronaut (straight after the flashlight scene)
19: Lucid Studios appears
20: Running heavy breathing
21: Swinging at blob and missing.
22. Hitting blob.
23: Flamethrower on blob.
24: Title shot
25:Blob attacking the screen

Blue- Charlotte
Green- Bharathi
Pink - Matt

Music for walking on Mars...and Montage Music

Let me know of any changes.
zSHARE - Lucid walking on and the falling through Mars.mp3

Title and poster idea

This is really jus to get the font nailed. Let me know what you all think, but to be honest, I'm edging back towards Simon's font idea posted earlier, I think we could use that. A friend sent me this tutorial on creating a Retro Sci-Fi poster (link below), so I'll probably use that, and create another idea.

Tutorial:
http://adamlevermore.com/2010/08/19/tutorial-creating-a-retro-sci-fi-poster/

Meeting Tomorrow

Haven't checked out the timetables yet but I assume we've still got Monday's free.

Gonna be in University tomorrow from lunch onwards so if everyone else is up for it we should talk then. If we don't start production this week we should at least refine what we've done so far so, come production, we can be as efficient as possible.

Anyone else in tomorrow?

Mars Concept 3

The third concept piece. This one showing the crew member shining their torch onto the blob and seeing a shadow.

The Night Of The Invisible Blob From Mars

Title Logo and Lucid Redesign

An attempt at a retro title layout and font:



And our studio Logo, slightly updated with the stylised 'L'.

No Animatic?

Are we presenting without an animatic tomorrow? Matt, you were to do the animatic, if you've done it, could you upload it, if not could you let us know so we can work out presentation around this.

New Synopsis

It's the year 2000, and in order for the people of Earth to widen their knowledge of the planet Mars, NASA send a crew of 4 astronauts there.

Whilst walking on the surface, one of the crew members steps on a crack in the ground and it spreads.

The crew decide that they should return to the craft in order to get specialist equipment to investigate the crack.

However, immediately after they decide to go to the craft, the crack gives way and one of the crew members falls in!

Despite one out of the three crew members safe on the surface protesting against going into the hole to save their friend, they eventually agree on going in.

Once down there, they see their friend and find out he's safe. However, as soon as they've all gotten down the rope, an invisible force takes the first crew member deep into the cave.

They begin the search for the taken crewmember. Wary in their movements, they approach the cave with caution.

The blob makes another surprise attack, this time, they begin attacking it with various tools from their kit, they succeed in hitting it, and in turn are able to see it, but it still gets away.

They eventually encounter it again and use a combination of their flare and oxygen tank to use as a flamethrower and burn the blob.

They leave Mars, not knowing that part of the blob has escaped with them onto the craft......Invisible Blob from Mars 2!!!!!!! ON EARTH!

Martian Cave Concept Update

Updated both concept pieces. The top one I simply changed the canvas size. The second I re did ass to try and keep in the curvy pillars in. However do you think I should add in the black lines which define each piece?

Mars Music 4th idea - Walking

Another idea for Music whilst walking on Mars, and I reckon something like this could be used whilst approaching Mars too. Please comment on changes, I hope we are going somewhere with this sorta soundtrack.

Download Lucid - Walking On Mars 2

Presentation pages and who's responsible...

PLOT - Bharathi

SYNOPSIS - Bharathi

SCRIPT - Bharathi

STORYBOARD - Matt

CONCEPTS - Charlotte

CHARACTERS - Matt

IDENTITY/LOGO/TITLE - Simon

MUSIC - Bharathi

Materials

Here's 6 different materials, which one looks the best?

Mercury Foil


Mercury Foil Alternative


NASA Fabric Matte


NASA Fabric Glossy


NASA Fabric Reflective


NASA Fabric Reflective Alt


If anyone has any good suggestions or references of a material that might also work, I'll make a shader based off of it, apply it to the characters, and update this blog post with a new render.

Maya Character Development 4

The characters are nearly complete regarding both the model and texture, here are some renders:

Rock Textures

Some rock images which could be used as the textures of the Martian surface.

Maya Mars Surface

A quick update regarding the Mars environment. Here's a test render:



Probably needs more rocks. Comments?

Maya Character Development 3

A small update on the characters. I've cleared up a lot of stuff behind the scenes and also made some different shaders for the suit and helmet to up the reflectivity. It might look better with a silver material like the Mercury suits, so I'll try that next.

There are still problems anatomically, especially with the male space guy. After they're equipped with bulky back packs and belts and other bits and pieces, I'm fairly certain it will hide the body shape a bit and will look fine. Also, once they're rigged, their poses won't be so straight and unnatural as they are now.



It's the beginning of the 5th week tomorrow, and we are aiming to start production on the 6th so I'm going to have all the astronauts finished and (hopefully) rigged come next weekend. So, in tomorrow's meeting we can discuss a what we've got left to do before production starts, and also what we need for Wednesday's pitch!!

Big astronaut character design idea

I did a quick sketch for the character design of the 'big astronaut'. I was wondering if this was the kind of thing we wanted for this guy, before I go into detail, and do turnarounds and that.

Working Script

Night of the Invisible Blob from Mars

Trailer Script

Matt’s man (V.O) (Throughout trailer)

“4 astronauts are sent to collect research on the planet Mars, but once there, they soon find out that they must explore a whole new world BENEATH Mars' surface! When a crewmember falls through a crack in the ground, the rest of the crew find themselves committed to investigating the crimson crevices of the red planet to save their friend. However, what they don't realise is that they aren't alone under there...”

Ext. Space

Look through the spacecrafts window as it approaches Mars.

Ext. Mars

Low angle shot of spacecraft landing.

Long shot of crew on Mars.

Close up of crewmember’s visor with reflection.

Close up of crewmember’s foot stepping on crack.

Medium shot of crewmember turning around and looking at crack. “Hey! Come check this out!"......or......"We have an anomaly in the planet's surface Captain". (After stepping on, and seeing the crack)

Medium shot with crew surrounding crack.

"Let's dig this bad boy up"....or...."Captain, permission to investigate" (As the crew gathers around crack)……………… "Let's get some more tools from the craft".....or....."We will need to return to the craft to retrieve specialist equipment" (As the crew gathers around crack)

Off angle shot of crew walking away with 1 crewmember in the background.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh".......or......."Helpppppppppp" (Crew member falls in)

Close up of hole as crewmember falls in.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh".......or......."Helpppppppppp" (Crew member falls in)

Ext. Under Mars Surface

First person view as a flare is lit.

"Ohhhhhh shiiiiii".....or......"Houston we have a problem" (Regaining vision/Flare)

Ext. Mars

Crew looking into hole

Ext. Under Mars Surface

Looking up at hole with rocks falling down

Ext. Mars

Over the shoulder of crew member (Male)

"I'm going down".............or..........."We have to save (name)??? (Male argues)

Over the shoulder of crew member (Female)

"No! I'm going back"......or......"The procedure in an incident like this, is to return to the craft, we don't know what could be down there" (Female argues)

Over the shoulder of crewmember (Male)

"You're just gonna leave him? I'm goin down!".......or......."I Never leave a man behind" (Male argues)

Ext. Under Mars Surface

Long shot of crew coming down rope

Medium shot of crew using torch to look around area.

Blobs-eye-view of light shining on it

(fade in)

Ident: Lucid Studios

(fade out)

Ext. Under Mars Surface

Close up of torch hitting the ground

First person view of crewmember running breathing heavily.

Blobs eye view as it sneaks up on a crewmember.

Medium shot as crewmember uses flamethrower on screen.

Medium-Long shot of crewmember swinging at nothing shouting

"Where are you!" (Swinging at the invisible blob)

Title Screen

Night of the Invisible Blob from Mars

(fade out)

Close up of Blob attacking the screen.

Teaser Poster 1

Hopefully the lack of information will be intriguing. What does everyone think?

Voiceover idea

4 astronauts are sent to collect research on the planet Mars, but once there, they soon find out that they must explore a whole new world BENEATH Mars' surface! When a crewmember falls through a crack in the ground, the rest of the crew find themselves committed to investigating the crimson crevices of the red planet to save their friend. However, what they don't realise is that they aren't alone under there...

Script Ideas

Got more ideas for what each character says, I've put two different tones for each bit of text, if you could comment on the type of tone you like, or comment on a different piece of dialogue for that part.

"Hey! Come check this out!"......or......"We have an anomaly in the planet's surface Captain". (After stepping on, and seeing the crack)

"Let's dig this bad boy up"....or...."Captain, permission to investigate" (As the crew gathers around crack)

"Let's get some more tools from the craft".....or....."We will need to return to the craft to retrieve specialist equipment" (As the crew gathers around crack)

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh".......or......."Helpppppppppp" (Crew member falls in)

"I'm going down".............or..........."We have to save (name)??? (Male argues)

"No! I'm going back"......or......"The procedure in an incident like this, is to return to the craft, we don't know what could be down there" (Female argues)

"You're just gonna leave him? I'm goin down!".......or......."I Never leave a man behind" (Male argues)

"Ohhhhhh shiiiiii".....or......"Houston we have a problem" (Regaining vision/Flare)

-Montage-

"Where are you!" (Swinging at the invisible blob)

"Take this" (Using flamethrower (oxygen tank with flare))

Marketing Idea

We could create a video of one of us recording, pretending to be a reporter outside an early screening of 'Night of the Invisible Blob from Mars' (outside lecture theatre 2)...One of us comes out and pretends we have just seen the full film, and jus say how brilliant it is...we could semi-improvise this, e.g jus ravin on about how good it is, and maybe having another person come out and jus be in shock maybe drop to the floor? I'm up for this, it'll be really quick to record and upload and all we need is our presence for it!

Lucid Studios Facebook page!

Lucid Studio blog address change

Sorry about the blog address change if it has confused any of you whilst looking for the site. I felt that we should change our address for promotional purposes (e.g. poster, Facebook) as lucidstudios.blogspot.com looks alot better.

Underneath Mars concept

I created this concept to help with the visualisation of the cave underneath Mars. Let me know of any changes that can be made.

Complete:

Stage 2:

Stage 1:

More Marketing

Hey guys. I had a quick idea last night about how they promote films in Hollywood. We could post it on our facebook page as well. Normally they interview the leading characters of the film and ask them questions about it.

So for example we could all play the four characters and have a poster of the film behind us. Up to you though, tell me what you think?

P.s - Really nice work on the business cards simon

Mars surface concept art

I created this concept based on what I believed we wanted the surface of Mars to look like. Please let me know of any changes to be made.

Complete:

Stage 2:


Stage 1:

3rd Concept Piece Idea

Just a few rough ideas for the 3rd piece. The top 3 images are of the crew climbing down into the cave. The one on the left and centre of the bottom 3 is a shot of Mars from space. The last one in the bottom right hand corner is an image of one of the astronauts shining a torch in the blob's direction and only a shadow is cast.

Concept Piece 2

The 2nd concept piece. It needs a little more work but I want to get a base down for all 3 before I add in more detail. Is this OK? The clearer pale parts was means to be some sort of pool of water with a little stream. However if we're no longer going with finding water underground then I can easily change the colours to make it solid ground.

Maya Character Development 2

Thought I'd post a quick update to keep everyone in the loop with our character progress. As the design is drawing more inspiration from the 1959 - 1963 Mercury space suit and less from the more modern white bulky suits, the characters are slimmer.



The body shape is nearly complete, but there's something very off about the proportions that I can't quite pinpoint. I will get some human references and use them as a template to fix this problem.

One of the main challenges was to show the difference between the male and female character enough that their gender is obvious to the audience.

I'll continue to refine them, and once I fix the proportions and add some creases to the material the main suit design will be complete, and we can work on colour and accessories like belts and radio packs.

And here are some wires. Hopefully the topology is okay for skinning.

Business Cards

I'd forgotten about this until I saw people posting them up. A large part of the project is developing an identity as if the studio was a real commercial business, so I've created some cool business card concepts that I'd like to think reflect Lucid Studios' professionalism.

Click for ridiculous and unnecessarily high resolution.



And the raw design:



The boomerang shape subtly represents an 'L' for 'Lucid' and the simple and lightly toned background colours also help to focus attention on our names so that potential contacts remember us more easily.

Sorry if I've gotten any names wrong! And feel free to post suggestions if you feel there could be improvements.