The Mood and reference film material

Oceanic, one of most beautiful videos I have ever seen done by David Arkenstone's 'Myths and Legends.' Directed by Johnny Wilson. 3D art by Kerem Gogus

http://youtube.com/watch?v=G8L7pruaYI4

http://youtube.com/watch?v=t5SLW_M4_6I

simple (not to do!) and nice title sequence.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Nc62jQPHlSA

An interesting piece of student underwater animation. I like the idea and the lips sync animation.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=uUIip8JAFXg

Maybe this isnt exactly connected with what we do, but it is the beautiful piece of animation, such a deep story told without words.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeW6uOZDPTo

Interesting animation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOf4SktPDak

Vangelis, Cosmos. Animation of lights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_5Im69AjNs
the animation of underwater environment and funny story.

Modeling

So far I modeled just few parts of environment and am still setting the mechanisms which are going to help us with animation within environment.

I modeled SHARK EGGS already. Its really hard to achieve transparency and glow at the same time.

...and SEA FEATHER

The Ocean Village is in progress. It will functionate like a living organism. We are thinking to apply some artistic, different textures from those that are popular in common (not photos, but hand made ones).

Village in the beginning

Village in the middle of modeling.

Some concept sketches for the village.

I was also thinking how to set the MECHANISMS into the environment, so we could animate it.There are few possibilities:

-LATTICE

-BLEND SHAPE

-JOINTS

-CURVES

House in the beginning

House in the middle of modeling

An example of surreal underwater 3D environment.

Vocational Studies Company Research

I checked on SKILLSET site:

http://www.skillset.org/animation/

There are some very useful links, about:

• about the industry
• Careers Advice
• Training&Kvalifications
• Fundings
• Useful links,...

So if I check the last one: There is a link to industry organisations:

Pact
Pact is the UK trade association that represents and promotes the commercial interests of independent feature film, television, animation and interactive media companies.

BECTU
BECTU is the independent union for those working in broadcasting, film, theatre, entertainment, leisure, interactive media and allied areas.

Welsh Animation Group
Wag's aim is to bring together everybody working in animation in Wales and to build on the creative and economic successes of animation in Wales.

UK Screen Association
UK Screen is the trade body charged with representing the post-production and special effects sector at home and internationally.

Where can I advertise myself?

Therefore - its important for people to use websites like Festivusand Imagine Animation

was designed to unite professionals and students working in and around Animation to help them find work and collaborate on projects.

is the job website which will allow you to widen your search for work in UK Animation and beyond. Its a site where companies can post new job for keen graduates and freelancers.

The Script and Storyboard - My Version

“OCEAN FAIRY TALE”

1st SCENE: The boat , sunny day (Title scene)

DIVERS on the deck, talking, then jump into the dark water (real life footage, taken form a film).

FADE IN:

2nd SCENE: Exterior- dark ocean environment

ACT 1: Sound of diver who just immersed into the water (could be sound of jumping into the water when title pages running), then silence. The dark ocean environment with all the sediments and mysterious lightning on the back, coming from behind. Camera fixed.

Here the story begins.

ACT 2: Once upon a time there was a LITTLE LIGHT living in a waist ocean. She liked to play with her LITTLE SISITERS and BROTHERS (xsilophone bell sounds and little children's whispers). They had this mysterious ability to bring things into life when touching them.

ACT 3: the Little Light comes slowly to the scene, stops, hesitates...then all the rest appear as well and they start to dance (maybe spread and get back again). Then they get into the cue and slowly move on.
Camera first stands still follows the action.

CUT TO:

2nd SCENE: Exterior- ocean, shark eggs (hanging from above)

The little lamps pass by the SHARK EGGS (in darkness first, just softly enlightened from the down up), enlightening new life in them when touching (light appears behind and passes through, little EMBRIO inside trembles).
Camera fixed, pans in, then stops.



3rd SCENE: Exterior-drop off (slope) with SEA FEATHER FOREST

When drifting down the slope little lamps playfully jump on and off the SEA FEATHERS.
Camera fixed then follows. Wide angle.

4th SCENE: Exterior- Coral and village

ACT1: Then drift down the drop-off into the mysterious calm (standing still- not a single thing moves) LANDSCAPE IN A SHADOW (softly enlightened on the back, we don’t know yet what it is) . Lamps hesitate again.
Camera fixed.

ACT 2: Then one of them (“The Little Naughty” ) runs away from the group and when he touches things he switches on the light and brings them back to life and so the others follow. Camera fixed, wide angle, then follows the action.

They hide and chase each other, enlightening and animating more and more of space and on the end the whole coral village is shining in its beauty.

SEA WEED is ….floating with the current
ANMEONES develop into beautiful roses with moving leaves
CORAL TREE starts to move, because its actually a well camouflaged sea horse
SPONGES are stretching and squashing as they would breathe.

4th SCENE: Exterior- coral village

ACT 1: Suddenly… the life stops. The village is still enlightened, but nothing moves, everything hesitates. Silence for a moment.

ACT 2: As we hear the horrific sound of Jaws the dark SHADOW of PREDATOR passes by, all the sponges suck themselves in, anemones disappear, sea horse becomes a tree again and little lamps hid themselves as quickly as they can. Village turns into dark, lifeless landscape again. Silence.
Camera fixed, wide angle.

CUT TO:

4th scene: Exterior- coral village
But little lamps were silent enough for him to miss them. Once the danger is gone the music starts to play again. Little lamps are saved and they become vivid again, playfully spread in a circle and then crush together.The BANG causes the light spread.
Camera fixed, wide angle.


FADE out:

5th FINAL PAGE- SCENE: Exterior- the shore (sunny day ,people talking)

Divers return from the dive (the real life footage).

Bump Mapping

Bump Mapping

Another powerful and useful method to add to texture mapping is bump mapping. This kind of map does not change the geometry in any way, but it tweaks the way the surface responds to lighting to give the impression of bumpiness based on an applied map. Only the luminance of the applied bump image is used to create the bump effect, so grayscale images are the norm for bump maps. A middle gray is considered flat, lighter areas are higher, and darker areas are lower. In areas where the bump map's brightness is changing, the surface will look like it's bumpy. Because the bump map effect will not affect the silhouette of a surface, you can't use bump mapping to simulate large features that you'll get near to or the effect will be ruined. For example, you wouldn't normally bump map a character's nose; however, you might bump map the pores on that nose. For many surfaces, bump mapping is perfect—fabrics, craggy surfaces, wood grain, or even metal vents, provided the camera doesn't get too close.
TIP
To see a bump effect, the material usually needs to have at least a minimal amount of shininess.

Coordinating Texture and Bump Mapping

When you combine texture mapping and bump mapping artfully, you can get an extraordinary amount of detail from even fairly simple models. Artists often create these maps in a paint program, and carefully match the placement of the bump effects in the grayscale bump map to the corresponding colored areas in the color texture map. Maya uses the bump map's luminence to set the "height," with white being all the way "out" and black being all the way "in." If you try to use an image as its own bump map, it rarely works; the shiny areas appear as large bumps and darker areas that protrude look recessed. It's important to keep bump maps slightly soft; ultra–high-contrast black-on-white images do not work as well as softer images with gradations between the extremes.

Useful site to simply learn texturing:

http://www.3dtutorials.sk/index.php?id=25&page=3

Caustic (optic) Effects

I did a little research on Caustic (optics) Effects in a water, which could contribute to more misterious and fine lighting of our underwater scene.


Caustics produced by a glass of water

In optics, a caustic is the envelope of light rays reflected or refracted by a curved surface or object, or the projection of that envelope of rays on another surface. Caustic can also refer to the curve to which light rays are tangent, defining a boundary of an envelope of rays as a curve of concentrated light. Therefore in the image to the right, the caustics can be the patches of light or their bright edges. These shapes often have cusp singularities.

Nephroid caustic at bottom of tea cup

Caustics in nature

Such concentration of light, especially sunlight, can burn. The word caustic, in fact, comes from the Greek καυστός, burnt, via the Latin causticus, burning. A common situation where caustics are visible is when light shines on a drinking glass. The glass casts a shadow, but also produces a curved region of bright light. In ideal circumstances (including perfectly parallel rays, as if from a point source at infinity), a nephroid-shaped patch of light can be produced.[1] Rippling caustics are commonly formed when light shines through waves on a body of water.

Computer-generated image showing caustic lighting

In computer graphics, most modern rendering systems support caustics. Some of them even support volumetric caustics. This is accomplished by raytracing the possible paths of the light beam through the glass, accounting for the refraction and reflection. Photon mapping is one implementation of this.

I also found some good tutorial about Mental Ray Rendering, which is very useful to learn how to do these effects in Maya.

http://www.interstation3d.com/maya/tutorials/mray_caustics/caustics_introduction.htm

Underwater World

Tv Scuba-my own experience

I satrted to SCUBA dive in 2003, since then the underwater world is my biggest passion. It gave me so much, but also took some. Although I have spent several hours admiring it , I have no second thoughts when it gets to the point of doing it again. The experience of hovering like in the space is so relaxing and interaction with acuatic life returns my faith into life.

After getting a professional degree in diving I started to work as a divigng guide in Jordan and Egypt, Red sea and I also coperated a lot with underwater photographers and videographers, lately with Jaime Burns, who set off the first all day diving programme http://www.tvscuba.com/ .

SeaCreatures- macro environments

Water- movement bubbles, reflections

http://www.joandjoe.com/ On a Diveshow in Birmingham I met these two web designers who do flash animated underwater cards. I think they captured the underwater movement and lighting very well.

m not perticularly keen on doing water effects, but as we spoke with the group some misterious mist effects with luminiscented dust and beams passing through, wuld contribute to a ....(vzdusje). We vere thinking to achieve them in compositing part of post production.

The study of lighting

If we think about this picture as abstract (without figures) , this is the way I imagine the lighting. Soft, homely and misterious at the same time, similar to one in Dennis Sever's house.

As we need some sort of a story teller, I thought it might be a great idea to have a bubble travelling around and camera following it's path. Then we decided that it would be great to place a lamp inside, so its enligtened from inside and so brings even more to a misteriousnes of the whole metier.

The concern with its extinxtion

I used to help with campaign of Royal Jordanian organisation to preserve coral reefs, doing clean up dives every day, educate locals and turists about the importance of keeping the the marine flora and fauna. For a weekend I also had a chance to speak about shark extinction concern with a lady in charge of Brittish Marine Conservation Society. I am deeply concerned with the fact that coral reefs and marine life around the world are dying because unproper treatment, dragging nets, fish farms, forbidden spear fishing, coral collecting, boat polution and most of all...us people who, come there daily in big hords and completely distruct the normal life of it. This is why I think it is important to show people how beautiful it is and of what importance it is to preserve it for our followers.