Final Animation Re-edit

Here is an edited version of my animation, it does still need more work but it includes all of the frames.

Project Reflection

I have particularly enjoyed this project and feel that it has been my most fulfilling project to date. I have dramatically increased my knowledge and developed my skills. I have considerably enjoyed producing this project as well most likely due to these factors. There are countless examples of what I have learnt, I think the most beneficial aspect has been the production of the kitchen. Again, I have surprised myself with what I am able to produce and the knowledge that I have gained. Specifically the creating the lighting set up in the scene was a huge learning curve for me. Previously I had little knowledge of producing appropriate lighting for a scene therefore I used this project as an opportunity to develop these skills and spent a lot of time researching and experimenting with lighting as well as increasing my knowledge. I also learnt about three point lighting and used this for renders of the objects within the scene. I now feel that I would be comfortable producing a lighting set up for a scene and am keen to develop my knowledge further as I still have a lot to learn. I also developed my skills regarding texturing and modelling of which I am always eager to do as texturing is a passion of mine.

I do feel that there is a lot that I could improve on especially with the final animation. There were many reasons as to why I was not able to produce the animation to the standard I had hoped, time was one of these factors. Even though we did have a fair amount of time to complete this project, I also had several others which involved using Maya and rendering which restricted my use of Maya; I was not able to begin rendering until later than I had anticipated as I had to render other projects as well.

Kitchen Model

This is a panning shot of the Kitchen model that I produced as I feel that not all of the aspects of the environment are visible. This video provides a better insight of the finished model. 

 

Final Animation

There are many aspects of my final animation that I wish to improve and I will continue on improving it. Here is the most current version:

Editing Stages

The rendering took a lot longer than I had anticipated, I was rendering for 13 days solidly and have managed to render out the animation however I am missing a second of footage of the cat going through the cat flap as I did not have enough time. Here is the footage before editing:

For the editing stages, I will be using Adobe After Effects where I will be adding sound and editing the footage that I have.

I had an idea for the title shot, I wanted to produce something that looked like this but with the words 'Kitty Kingdom'

I to recreate this is Cinema 4D however, I have not used this software before and with limited time I was unable to achieve the aesthetic that I wanted and ended up with this: 

I did not feel that this was a fitting title scene therefore I decided to experiment with cat fonts instead. I produced this which I feel is more appropriate.

Kitty Kingdom Complete

Here is the current finished model of Kitty Kingdom; I do feel that I could have produced a higher quality environment but there were many obstacles that restricted what I was able to achieve. Rendering time was definitely one of the biggest factors that disabled me from producing a high quality environment as the kitchen scene had taken a lot longer than i had anticipated therefore I needed to keep the render time of Kitty Kingdom as short as possible. The factors that I would improve would be the grass and the pavement textures and well as to add more details within the environment. I could not include some objects such as the trees as this dramatically increased the rendering time of each frame.

Kitty Kingdom - Lighting

The lighting for Kitty Kingdom will not be as complex to produce as the lighting for the kitchen was. I want to produce a natural outdoor lighting in this scene therefore I will be using the Mental Ray Physical Sun and Sky and will be placing the sun accordingly.

Kitty Kingdom - Work in progress

Kitchen Scene Playblast

Here is a playblast of the initial scene of my animation within the kitchen.As I have previously stated, the animation is from the cat's point of view. I am pleased with this scene and have began rendering which as always is going to be a lengthy process, it has been rendering for over a week and is still not complete.

Kitty Kingdom - Grass

In previous projects I have experimented with different methods of producing grass within a scene however I have not yet found a method that I am happy with as I have not been able to produce a high quality realistic grass.

I think that this is in important aspect of the scene as it is the base for the entire landscape. I am going to dedicate some time to this as I want to push and develop my skills especially as this is an area I have not yet conquered. As far as I am aware there are a few ways to create grass, I have tried them all such as a grass texture or using the Paint Effects tool however I discovered a method involving using Fur which appears to be the best method for Maya and Mental Ray therefore I am going to experiment with this in detail. I have tried other methods however they are not the standard that I want. I received some feedback from my lecturer that it looked too much like carpet.

So I decided to start experimenting with Fur, this is a test shot so I was able to see what it looked like. I think that this is definitely a step in the right direction. I am going to research and experiment more to produce exactly what I am looking for