3D Models

I've been modelling one of the background buildings for my environment scene, I've used the concept art to model the building and planned out what goes where, as you can see by the rough sketch below.

The building I have been modelling is from this concept art below, it's a very simplistic building with very box like features.

And here is a simple rendered JPEG image below of my 3D model. I mostly used cubes to model this apart from the door knob which is a sphere. I think it starting to look like the concept art and will look much better when its textured.

Using my concept art for the building I have produced these models in Maya, here is just some rendered images with some quick lighting.

I did some quick sketches of how I would model "building#2" which is the (deli building) and I planned out how I would model the fire escape which runs down the side of the building. You can see my planning in the rough sketch below.

And below is some rendered images of my environment so far, I am quite happy with how it is looking, because it's very much like the concept art, and wasn't to difficult to model.

It's not finished yet but it's almost done, just a few things to add in, such as the roof assets some less detailed background buildings and some assets for the pavement.

And below is some shots of my fire escape I have attached to the side of the Deli (building#2) I think it fits in perfectly with the rest of the buildings.

I've added a few assets to the building#1's rooftop, such as the rooftop access door, some planks of wood, some long and small rooftop vents and some empty plant pots, as you can see below.

Here is the other roof with the assets on, I've just added a few items and will add more later if they are needed.

I have also started to model the other environment, which is the stairwell inside the building, I have just modelled this environment in a different scene for ease and not having too many items floating around in the one scene. but here is my progress so far.

Just some simple boxes, for the girl to be carrying in the scene.

Finished Storyboard

The timing is not set in stone, it's just there as a guide to go by, the animation is looking to be about 57 seconds long.

Rooftop Concept Art

I'm starting off by planning what assets are going to be on the main rooftop, I've drawn out a little plan just below, to help me design.

I've also did a quick sketch of what I would like the Rooftop door to look like, just below.

Below I have drawn out a little sketch of what I would like to occupy the rooftop, it's basically the assets I have named in the plan picture at the top of the page. With a quick sketch of the building next to building #1 of what will occupy that rooftop.

More Mood Boards

Here's a mood board of what type of buildings I would like for my environment, below.

And the other mood board below, is the colours I would like to use for my textures, because I think the bricky red and orange colours, really give the environment that New York feel.

Rough Storyboards

First two Frames

Page #1

Page # 2

Page # 3

Page # 4

Page # 5

Page # 6

Page # 7

Page # 8

Character Descriptions

Character #1 "The Runner" (The one being chased)

Name: Jason
Age: 20 years old
Build: Skinny, maybe a little gangly and about average height
Occupation: Part time student, and Sales Assistant in a shoe shop
Relationship status: Single
Films: He likes action films, and is a bit of a film buff and a bit of a know it all.
Hobbies: playing his Xbox, he want's to be a game tester for Microsoft, but is way too lazy to apply. He also likes roller blading and likes to say "free-running" is his hobby, even though he isn't very good at it and never practices it.
Lives: He lives in a small apartment, in the outskirts of Manhattan, New York, with his mum.
Little Bio: He's very lazy, and has to be asked a few times to do stuff, he skates around the city in the early hours as he finds it peaceful, and he's doing graphics at college.

Power Centre: His power centre is quite high, it's in his head, so when he runs or walks, it's as if his head is pulling the rest of his body along with it.
Energy Level: He has a high energy level, so he is quite fast about everything.
Tension Level: This character is wound quite tightly, so he gets spooked easily from every noise and creak and is always aware of his surroundings.


Character #2 "The Chaser"

Name: Leo (Leonardo, but he prefers just "Leo" because he dislikes his full name) 
Age: 21 years old
Build: He is quite a big lad, with muscles so he looks quite intimidating.
Occupation: He's a student, studying Architecture, He also works as a barman in the local club
Relationship Status: He has a girlfriend, they've been together for a year now, they met in Uni
Films: He is a big fan of the big action flicks, especially the "Bourne films" and the Jason Statham films
Hobbies: Playing American football with the guys, and playing pool.
Lives: He lives in student accommodation at his college, in New York, he shares with a roomate, but spends most of his time at his girlfriends house, as she lives off campus.
Power Centre: His power centre is in his chest, and that's where most of his movement comes from.
Energy Level: He has medium energy, but is slow witted from time to time, and doesn't notice things straight away.
Tension Level: I would say he's quite laid back and loud noises don't really phase him, his posture is a little slouchy.

Draft Script

The Chase 

Starts of with one character running up a stairwell inside an apartment building. The character is constantly looking back over his shoulder, like someone is chasing him. The character runs into a person on the landing carrying some shopping bags, causing the person to spill the shopping on the floor and down the stairs. The character doesn't stop running, he gestures a sorry at the person and continues running up the stairs. Until he reaches the rooftop exit door at the top of the stairwell. 

When the character reaches the rooftop, he runs to the end of the rooftop. The character hears a loud bang and he turns around seeing the guy who's been chasing him, standing at the rooftop exit door. The guy at the door just stands there and stares at the first character intensely, with a determined look on his face. The guy at the door starts running towards the first character and panic floods the first characters face as he sees this. The first character takes a few quick steps back and looks back at the guy running towards him. The first character then starts running to the end of the rooftop and does a big leap across to the next rooftop, landing in a stumble and a skid. 

Now the first character is on the other rooftop, he picks himself up brushing his knees as he stands. He looks back at the other guy on the other rooftop, the guy looks really miffed and is standing on the edge of the rooftop shaking his fists at the first character. The first character then gives the guy a big smile which looks very smug and a sarcastic wave. As he walks away towards the fire escape at the end of the rooftop. He starts to climb down the fire escape until he gets onto the street. When he gets onto the street, he does a little happy/jaunty walk as he's very pleased with himself. 

Then a familiar face pops out from around the next corner and it's the guy from the rooftop, he stops in front of the first character. The guy just stands there and stares intensely at the first character for a few seconds. Then quickly touches the first characters shoulder and shouts out "TAG"! and runs off leaving the first character looking annoyed. 

Project Motivation- 

My personal objective is to create a short 3D animation, that is about 30-60 seconds long, created primarily in Autodesk Maya. I want to tell a story through just body language and expressions and use as little dialogue as possible. I want to show my character animation skills and modelling skills, by using already free rigged characters. I will be modelling and texturing everything myself. 

Technical Description- 

I am using free character rigs, the Morpheus rig, which can be found on Josh Burtons blog. I will be using two of these rigs for my two main characters, just changing there appearance and giving them different clothing. I will be modelling the buildings and all objects for the environment in Autodesk Maya and I will do all texturing and any sculpting in Z-Brush and Photoshop. I will be doing the lighting in Maya as well. When I've rendered all the passes, I will put it all together in Adobe Premiere Pro and add the foley sounds and music in. 

Describe your product- 

I will produce a short 30-60 second 3D character animation. The genre is an action/comedy piece with a subtle twist at the end. The audience I think it will attract will be older children and maybe young teenagers. 

Outline- 

November-December: Concept Art for Environments, blocking out the environments in Maya. 

December-January: Video referencing(for animation), Storyboarding, animatic, blocking out key poses in the animation. 

January-March: Fully animating the characters. 

Mid March-Mid April: Lighting, texturing and adding in more detail to assets in the environment, camera angles. 

Mid April-May: Rendering, adding in foley sounds and background music, and the one bit of dialogue. 

Concept Art

This is concept art idea for what the stairwell might look like, its just the bottom of the stairwell but you get the idea of what style I'm going for. nice muted colours and a hard wood banister, I might even add some gravity on the walls to, just to make it seem a little less nice.

Just some simple sketches of some basic rooftops

Below I have drawn out a 2 point perspective sketch of a building, it's just an early idea of what my building for the environment will look, I've gone for a very simplistic style and classic new york type building, with the fire escape down the side of the building.

Some more building concept art, I have done a much wider building with rectangular shaped windows and an arched doorway, which I think looks very New York, which I'm aiming for.

Work in progress of colouring the building above 

For what's going to be in the scene, I've basically drawn out a quick birds eye view sketch, below.

This will help me plan out where everything is going and how many buildings I need to model. On the left hand side (the empty side of the pavement) I'm going to have some basic modelled buildings so it looks like a real and convincing street.

From my Plan above, I've done a perspective sketch, of what the street will look like with all the buildings drawn out, as you can see below.

Here is my finished, "Building#1" Concept design, I've gone for a quite old fashioned looking New York building. With the reddy brown and grey brick colours and old stoney archway for the door, which I think gives it character.

The rough sketch of the street, I am going to upload into Photoshop, and colour over the top to get the same painting style I have above. Here is my work in progress of the street view so far. I have just rescaled and tweaked the picture above to fit in the painting, because I really want this design in my final environment.

Here's more work in progress, I think I might mute the colours more on the building second form left because I feel it doesn't fit in with the rest.

Below is my finished concept for my little street environment, the cubes on the right and left ends of the street  are just going to copies of the current buildings because you won't really see them in the final animation.

Here is a front view of the buildings I am going to use, the brown building on the left is the "building#2" which the character jumps onto the rooftop of this building. I like the toned down colours of the buildings makes them very subtle and won't drag attention away from the characters.

And under is design for the stairwell, I wanted it to look quite old and a little run-down, so it adds to tense atmosphere. 

Final Idea

The Chase

• Starts off with one character running up the stairs in a stairwell, the character is constantly looking back over his shoulder.
• He doesn't see the person in front of him with some shopping bags and runs straight into them, making them stumble, dropping the contents of the bags on the floor and down the stairs.
• The runner looks at the person, gesturing a sorry face, but keeps on running up the stairs, until he reaches the roof exit door.
• The runner comes out of the door, checking over his shoulder anxiously, he keeps running until he reaches the end of the rooftop, he looks down, the height scares him causing him to take a stumbly step back.
• The runner then hears a loud bang, so he looks behind and sees the guy that's been chasing him standing at the rooftop exit door. The guy looks at the runner intensely and then starts running towards the runner.
• So the runner takes a few steps back, takes a deep breath looks back at the guy chasing him and then starts running towards the end of the roof, Jumping across. (dramatic and slow motion)
• The runner makes it across diving into a forward roll on to the next roof top.
• The runner gets up and looks back at the guy and does a little sarcastic wave, and walks to the end of the rooftop.
• The other guy looking angry muttering and jabbering under his breath at the runner.
• The runner carefully climbs down the fire escape from the top of the roof, and gets down to the pavement looking all smug with himself.
• The runners doing a little happy walk along the street, until he comes to the corner and the chaser guy walks out in front of him.
• The guy stands there and intensely stares at him for a few seconds, until he raises him arm to the runner, then quickly taps him on the shoulder and shouts "TAG" and runs off in the opposite direction.
• Leaving the runner being like "nooooo" in a dramatic way. 

(Style)

For the style I wanted it to be set in New York, and have the tall building's with the fire escapes running down the front of the building. I've put a collage/mood board together of some rooftops that I like.

And below is a collage of a few images I found on the internet, mostly from from Tumblr and Flickr, there quite rural and abandoned stairwells and cold and made from concrete.

Some more stairwell collaging, more warm and inviting than the last one.