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Texture samples Since the setting is based on ancient relic and the lost civilisation, everything would be extremely fragile and significantly degrades to the point everything would be collapsed at any moment. All concrete samples are picked from Google, but the particular first image (wall painting sample) makes me curious. The sample is actually based on a city named Pompeii that once buried under volcanic ash as Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 C.E. (Ambler, 2015). It is remarkable that the paintings are surviving and sustaining for two decades, but Ambler pointed: “The Roman wall paintings in Pompeii that Mau categorized were true frescoes (or buon fresco), meaning that pigment was applied to wet plaster, fixing the pigment to the wall. Despite this durable technique, painting is still a fragile medium and, once exposed to light and air, can fade significantly, so the paintings discovered in Pompeii were a rare find indeed.” (2015).  The sample that I am choosing is named P. Fannius Synistor’s bedroom  and it is identified as Second Pompeian Style (Architectural Style), according to Ambler (2015). There are Four styles in total that represents each specific period with different theme and it is hard to search such paintings when they are exposed to environment. The purpose for Second Style is to create illusions to audience as if they are looking at a scenery out of window (Ambler, 2015). This gives opportunities to explore architectural elements and establish spatial imagery at will.  Reference: Ambler, J,L, 2015,  Roman wall painting styles, accessed 8th April, 2018, <https://smarthistory.org/roman-wall-painting-styles/>

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Storyboard for short animation sequence Basically I just want to have the short animation revolve around the relic and showcase some of the features in the scene such as ancient wall paintings. However, I am unsure of the duration of the animation specifically for the assignment, even though I am aware that the animation needs at least 10 seconds for the sequence. I could make it run at least 60 seconds long, but I need to clarify it in the next class so I can give myself some room to establish the animation in any way I want.

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Sketches for Pre-visualisation After I do some research to explore the meaning of ‘Fantastical Structure’, I come up with an idea that could represent my own definition of it. The initial idea is to establish a scene where an ancient relic (as main focal point) is presented in a resemblance of a ruin that no one has not discovered until recently. This is inspired by a video game called Tomb Raider, as this is one of my long favourite video game series. The game is about exploring ruins and mythical relics that based on actual mythology in certain regions or cultures (for example: The Legend of King Arthur, Norse Mythology, Lost Civilisation of Aztec, etc.), while encountering numerous dangers from opposition forces who try to acquire the relics of the past. Ancient relic and mythical ruins always be an unknown, bizarre world to modern era, bringing curiosity and wonders to people to know about the wonders of civilisation. So far I have not decided yet for the specific shape of the relic, assuming it is a completely unknown object to mankind that no one knows before. Although this is just a particular scene where it showcases a relic in an ancient ruin, there are some details that would highlight the representative of an ancient civilisation. The highlighted areas will be ancient wall painting to serve as a record or storytelling of the origin of the relic. The big stage with multiple staircases as a placeholder for the relic, representing the highest value that could raise the importance of the lost civilisation. The reason why there is a hollow space inside the wall is to establish the connection between the records (wall paintings) and the relic as one unique relationship, bringing them closer. Also, this creates an unrealistic confined space deep inside the wall to show that the relic must be kept inside for future generations and no intruders shall take it away from where it belongs. 

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Peter Nowacki - The Race Day (2012) Peter Nowacki is a 3D Artist and currently working at art production Ars Thaena. The portfolio ‘Behance Portfolio’ contains numerous quality projects that he is working previously. ‘The Race Day’ (2012) is one of Nowacki’s personal projects, having steampunk atmosphere as the main objective of this artwork. Nowacki stated that the progress of making this piece was combine different 3D softwares (3DS Max, V-ray, Mudbox, Zbrush) to establish high details. Later on he used After Effect to create Chromatic Abberation (an effect to distort light source in different angle, resulting in losing on focus) and small hint of smokes by Photoshop. In my opinion, this creates another similar atmosphere where no human existence is presented, yet all the props in the scene seems like they are degrading in a period of time. I like how he utilise light source with support from After Effect to create post-realism photo rendering. Additionally, he had good selections of textures so they would fit the scene accordingly.

Reference:

Creative Bloq Staff, 2013,  30 brilliant 3D artists to follow on Behance, accessed 11th March, 2018, <https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/top-artists-follow-behance-11121367> Nowacki, P, 2018, Peter Nowacki, accesed 11th March, 2018, <https://www.pnowacki.com/#/the-race-day-1/>

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Maya Tutorial: Coffee Cup (Revisited) This is a good start to refresh my mind about basic knowledge of Maya. I did the same thing in CGI Lens Lab back when I was in Undergraduate. It’s a bit shame for me to forgot almost everything in Maya because the last time I use it was 3 months ago after the final assignment. Thankfully I’m doing the same thing again to remind me how each function works. I could add further details on the cup, but I decide to hold it for now because I just want to take it slowly and refresh one by one after each tutorial for each week. That way I can fully utilise almost everything in Maya to work on the assignment. One thing to note that I’m using both Windows and iOS so I’m very familiar with commands on both platforms. However, I expect some technical issues from Maya when I switch between each platform so I need to be careful and save as much as I can during the progress.

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My understanding about 3D Visualisation As I learned about the history of 3D Visual and CAD (Computer-aided Design) in general, I found that 3D world has become more fascinating than ever before. From Ed Catmull’s 1st ever 3D Hand animation to modern era of CGI movies and 3D technologies and artworks, these truly bring a whole new concept of how visualisations should be and it applies to many professional industries (Film, Animation, Video Games, etc.). 

Video games is the area I’m most interested in. I always have passion about video games and I’ve been playing multiple games for a long time. As a gamer, one of the most demand for a video game is the graphic itself; there are other criteria for it but that will be another story for another day. Back in the day video games were improving through decades and when 3D technology was introduced, this increased gamers’ demands and they did not hesitate to upgrade their PCs in order to enjoy the most beautiful 3D visuals as they could. Nowadays every video game developers always attract players to play their games, with both visual representatives and storytelling. There are many popular franchises such as Crysis series (3rd image - Crysis 3 landscape screenshot, extracted from Google) where developer Crytek uses their own engine named CryEngine to enhance 3D visual to maximum (pun intended for those who knows the reference). However, the system requirements for this game is high so it’s somewhat restrict gamers’ PC system to enjoy the game fullest, although people can still play the game in lower settings but the visual is not as good as high settings. Video game industry can now comparable to Hollywood’s Film industry in terms of quality and popular demands from its audiences and it can be having more potentials in the future if 3D technology keep enhancing visually.

My experience about 3D ModellingThe first 2 images are from my previous works when I was in Undergraduate, taken from CGI Lens Lab course as an assignment. That was my first true experience of 3D Modelling, as my most favourite activity and true passion. Even though there were some frustration moments while modelling, it didn’t stop me from polishing the final presentation for my model and 3D rendered images. I have utilised 3D modelling skills on 3D softwares(Sketchup was my most used 3D software previously), but professional 3D softwares such as Autodesk Maya was my 1st time ever to use it. It is a very complicated tool as there are too many functions to keep up what I should do to make things work. Eventually, I only know the basic knowledge of Autodesk Maya and enable to make such work for the assignment still amaze me to this day. Obviously it requires continuous practices to get the gist of it, but hopefully I can learn more about this software in the future.