Animation Key Frames

Here are the key frames for my animation. I have decided to stick with my initial instinct of not having the cat in the frame as I received feedback that suggesting that it would look better without. The scenes are not finished at this stage so it is just a basic sequence of shots. 

Modelling - Kitty Kingdom: Smaller details Part 2

I have split this into two parts as I am going into quite a lot of depth with my modelling therefore I wanted this to be visible, individuals who are uninformed regarding 3D Animation may not appreciate the time and effort and skill that go into each model.

As I previously stated, I wanted to experiment with the idea of cat flowers. I took this image and edited it.

I then modelled a 'flower' in maya. 

I felt that the flowers need some leaves so I modelled and textured a leaf. 

This is the finished 'Cat flower' which I am pleased with. 

Kitty Kingdom - Texturing

The base of Kitty Kingdom is a grassy, hilly valley. As I previously stated, the structure of the environment is highly influenced by The Lorax.

I particularly like the composition and depth within these scenes which is something similar to what I hope to achieve to give the impression that the environment is a large kingdom. 

I have not previous produced a grass texture that I have been entirely happy with. I have previously experimented with the PaintEffects in Maya however, for these materials to look good in Mental Ray, they need to be converted to polygons which results in a ridiculously high poly count and slows down the rendering time dramatically. 

I modelled the hills in Mudbox, starting with a flat plane. 

One of my peers informed me of a method of texturing in MudBox where you project an image and paint it on to the object. I did this which looked good in MudBox but when I sent it to Maya, it looked like this:

Obviously the lighting isn't great, I just stuck one in without altering it but I was not happy with this result, I feel that it looks really unrealistic. 

I then decided to texture it in Maya instead which resulted in this:

I am a lot happier with this result as it is closer to the visual I was looking for. 

Modelling - Kitty Kingdom: Smaller details

In Kitty Kindgom, everything is cat related (of course) therefore I am going to create objects with a 'cat twist'. For example the trees are not going to be standard trees, they are going to be cat themed trees. As previously stated, I have asked many people what they think Kitty Kingdom would look like therefore i am going to combine ideas.

There are many stereotypical things that cats 'like' such as balls of yarn and cardboard boxes.

When I decided to make a yarn ball I was unsure of how to model it and could not find any tips online therefore I created a polygon sphere and put a polygon torus around the outside.

I then duplicated the torus many times and placed them in different positions around the sphere which resulted in this final model of which I was happy with. 

I then experimented with different textures and colours. 

From my experience, a majority of cats love cardboard boxes therefore I feel that there needs to be some in the scene.

This was simple to model, I created a cube, deleted the top face and extruded the edges to make the flaps. I then applied a cardboard box texture.

Another popular item with cats is a scratching post. 

As scratching posts have a rough texture, I had to try and replicate this to make it look more realistic. I found that the material used on scratching posts is called sisal rope so I found a couple of textures and experimented with which one gave the best visual. I also produced a bump map to give the texture depth. I felt that the second image looked more appropriate. 

Using the yarn balls and the scratching posts, I am going to make trees for the environment. 

Modelling - Kitty Kingdom

I have collected ideas and researched different aspects to help me create Kitty Kingdom. I have decided on several items to model such as scratching post trees, balls of yarn, cardboard boxes, flowers and more and have essentially created a 'mood board'.

Stereotypically there are many things associated with cats such as playing with yarn balls, drinking milk, catching mice and more.

As Kitty Kingdom is a fantasy land, I think that small details are important to reinforce this. I am going to essentially mimic the real world but make everything cat related. 

 I like the idea of the flowers being animals in Alice In Wonderland therefore I am going to experiment with creating cat flowers.

I found this image which is along the lines of the visual I was looking for therefore I am going to experiment with it. 

All cats seem to love boxes so I am going to incorporate them. 

I like this concept of cat shaped clouds as I want everything in the kingdom to have a cat theme. 

Scratching is important to cats and I have come with an idea of modelling scratching post 'trees'.

No Kingdom would be complete without a castle/palace. This is going to be one of the main structures within the environment so the production of this model will be important as it will reinforce the idea of a kingdom. 

Kitchen Environment Complete

This is the kitchen now complete and I am happy with the finished product. I have learnt a lot producing this particular scene and have once again surprised myself with my abilities.

Animation Tests

Here are some short animation tests to ensure that the scenes and animation are correct.

Modelling - Kitchen: Work in progress

Here are some screen shots of the modelling I have done so far and how the scene has progressed: