Major Project - Interim Crit Presentation.

The Spitfire - Interim Crit Presentation by BradKompany on Scribd

 

Major Project - Animatic with Narration.

Here is my Animatic, it features my narration and a musical score I felt was fitting for now.

Major Project - Final Narration Script

To finalize my script, I read my original (found here) out loud and recorded myself doing it over and over, and I would make notes and changes about when parts didn't sound right or roll off the tongue naturally, the end result was the script you see bellow.

Major Project - Animatic (No Audio)

While i'm syncing in my Narration here is the raw video of my Animatic.

Major Project - Pre-Viz Scene Concept Stills.

I've made some early Maya concepts featuring the setting of the final scene of my film, where my Avatar character discovers an old Lego plane hangar that the younger version of the character built around the unfinished plane when he gave up, symbolizing how in real life the model was hidden away in a box.

As this is one of the most important settings of the film, to really get an eye in for it I got my Test Spitfire Asset (with the addition of landing gear) and designed as close as I could imagine to a Lego Hangar. For the final design I can add many more layers to give it a smoother more detailed look to better replicate the shape of a real hangar, but fundamentally they're very simple buildings.

I will be seeing about getting some assistance with the Arnold lighting tomorrow with Alan.

Real historical Hangar I based the design on.

Major Project - Visual Mood Reel (reupload)

Here is a short collection of live action recordings I made over the last month to try and capture some of the visual themes I felt I could use for reference in my film.

(uploaded the wrong version before)

Major Project - Cinematography and Tone Inspirations.

Major Project - Concept Art 1 and Scene Idea Proposal.

I've been brainstorming idea's for the visuals of my animation today to go along with the narration based documentary story. A theme that I feel is a rather large part of my story is the idea of evidence of improvement, the fact that I was able to learn how to be more careful at making Airfix kits over the years to the point I am at now where I am happy with the end result.

But something dawned on me which is something that I always used to do with anything art related and only recently stopped doing. I had always removed old art or put away things I had made in the past that I was no longer happy with compared to my work today, I realized over the last couple of years from artists online and my other course mates example that you should never really dismiss your old works, and just embrace it as part of your process of improvement.

So I figured that a good way to show this was with a final dog fight style chase through the scenery set up throughout the animation. My "Avatar" (the main character that essentially represents me) see's the first Airfix plane that I ever made (which I talk about at the start that after a while I hid away because I no longer was happy with it) flying overhead, so he goes about trying to shoot it down in the perfected modern plane I had built, trying to literally shoot down my previous work example. Towards the end I though as he's getting a pretty clear shot he notices something along the lines of the pilot of the old plane being a younger version of the Avatar character, to show that you should never look at the things you made in the past in a negative light, and just accept its all part of the process of getting better at something, ending with both planes coming into land and then hard cutting to the real world versions of both planes being placed on a display shelf, thus the last shot of the film.

So I tried to visualize this scene as best I could with a first draft of concept art as I had the best imagery in my head of how I wanted this scene to look.

Please feel free to leave feedback on my climax idea and my concept art!

The new plane (left) chases down the old unfinished plane (right) around the Lego tower that features earlier on a sky that includes the pattern of my cutting mat.

First sketch.

Major Project - Pre-Viz Spitfire

As I am starting work on my Pre-Viz and conceptual shots for the my film I have started building place holder models for the final products. First things first I've started with the Spitfire, as its for the Pre-Viz I tried avoiding going into crazy detail and using orthographic reference, so I just referenced it by eye with my real world models I had on hand. While it is lacking full detail I still tried to capture all the important parts that I feel will feature in some way (engine exhausts, canopy, wing shape).

For these rendered shots this was my first time trying to set up my own custom scene in arnold so they might not be exactly perfect, but my aim with the shader for this Pre-Viz render was to capture the plastic look of an unpainted Airfix model kit.

I have included these images too of some progress shots of the Airfix model I was building (http://bradleeking.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/major-project-airfix-spitfire-time-lapse.html) so you can get a better idea of the shader I was trying to replicate, with better lighting I think this can be easily achieved. (you can also see the inaccuracy's between the real model and my render easier i.e. the cockpit shape, propeller and the empennage)

@Alan - Maya 2018 Query.

Just starting a fresh project in Maya 2018, I've noticed a couple of really cool new features for modelling, for example they've added dimension units along the width and length so you can get precise (although i'm not sure what the measurement is in).

But something I did noticed that from the get go on this project that my Outliner is full of... well, stuff. The only thing I have contributed to this is the "default layer", is this normal for 2018?

Major Project - Airfix Spitfire Time-Lapse

My project is based on my experiences through life building Airfix kits and how the process helped me develop into a more careful person and become overall less haphazard. The style of my film will be that of a documentary, so to help myself fully understand my entire process of how I build a kit from scratch today I decided to film myself building a kit from scratch over a Time-Lapse.

I did this so I can observe the different stages the kit goes through leading up to its finish, essentially serving as the most in depth resource for research I could have. With this I can reference the stages for my animation and my digital modelling 

Also as all the raw footage is at 1080p some of the clips may be useful for the final film or test animatics, to add a sense of real world evidence to the story.

You'll notice in the video that I didn't add any weathering details of panel lining after I had finished painting the model, this was due to me wanting the video out as soon as possible, and I know that I focus on small details for far too long so I would be stuck getting something that doesn't change the overall model looking perfect for a long time.

Music: End Titles (Dunkirk) - Dunkirk (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)