Shrine Opening Test #2

Revisions to the shrine opening, with increased speed and acceleration. Still toying with the idea of the fade to black during the narrator's dialogue as you can see in the 4th variation.



Some minor tweaks to the positioning of the rock formations is needed to stop the slight 'popping' towards the end of the pull back.

Shrine Opening Test

One of the trickiest environments to tackle is the transition shot from the shrine where the camera pulls back through the environment. Here is a playblast of the scene focusing on the camera movements, with two minor variations in the editing. Elements such as lighting is not final.



We are yet to determine the idea of cutting to one or two shots of the wolves with the slow panning of the soul and narration, for a sense of tension/buildup before the race. Feedback is most welcome.

R&D: Shrine Dynamics #1

With the wolves affecting the environment in fantastical ways, dynamics are an important element for our animation. This can be achieved with a combination of Maya dynamics and post effects, or just post composition effects alone.

Here are some initial render tests with Maya dynamics for the Shrine Environment. The soul is suspended in mid-air over the central shrine which reacts strongly to the wolves' presence.

Raw Maya Particles


Post-Comp


The post effects gives a much needed boost to the basic dynamics, which will most likely be the best way to approach this process. It's still a little rough at the moment and will probably go through many more tests and variations, as elements such as lighting from the particles will need to affect the environment (current render is a single background plate).

Shrine Environment #03

A lot of experimenting with textures and Normal Maps this week, while making more progress with the shrine environment. Textures have been applied throughtout the environment along with additional adjustments to the lighting.



Shrine Model with Normal Map



Totem Models



The base models of the totems was taken into Zbrush, polypainted (painted directly onto the model rather than a flat texture map) and scuplted for additional details. From this, normals maps and texture maps from polypaint were exported and applied to the base mesh.

Shrine Environment #02

More progress with the shrine environment experimenting with the lighting in the scene to get a sense of the tone we're trying to capture. Elements such as the background matte painting and blue shaft of light are temporary at the moment and will be further refined.

Shrine Environment #01

Work in progress for the Shrine environment, blocking things in at the moment and will continue to add further detail. A few experiments will be needed to be carried out involving textures with normal maps and the background matte painting.

Main totem props

Concept Shrine Environment #02

Second concept piece of the shrine.






To further suggest the transition into more man made influences as we arrive at the forefront of the human spirit, the environment is now more reflective of Native American influences with totem like elements. This also helps to distinguish the final confrontation with more significance.

Concept Shrine Environment #01

Concept piece of the shrine environment which holds the human spirit that the wolves seek to control. The presence of the wolves agitate the flames evoking the spiritual nature of the environment as the ruins resonate from within.







Rather than literal representations of Native American structures, I opted for more abtract/suggestive representations of rock-like material. However, this may need to be further resolved to suggest a more significant shift to a man-made environment. After some discussion with Jolanta, we have some fresh ideas to try at this key environment.

Some initial designs of the shrine


References