Showreel for MPC Event

Here's my final showreel submission for the MPC event held on July 22nd.

Showreel WIP V1.0

My current 2011 showreel, WIP draft edit 1.0

VFX Shot

One of the shots I'm planning on putting into my show-reel. The building is a 3D mesh with a projection mapped texture built in Nuke. The missile trail, the explosion, and the fire are all Maya 3D fluids. The debris was produced using a particle simulation and instanced debris meshes.

Estimated time to complete: 3 days (including render times)

General Grievous

So a group of my friends and I have started a very short character modelling competition. Given that most of us have done a BSc degree (as opposed to the BA) we don't often get the chance to flex our creative/artistic muscles, especially when it comes to character modelling. So this is a great chance for us to prove that we have just as much modelling talent as our BA counterparts ;)

The object of the contest is to pick an existing film/game character, and re-design them into the sort of character you'd expect to find in a fighting game (such as Tekken or Mortal Kombat). I've chosen General Grievous, from Revenge of the Sith, and am currently in the process of modelling his head. Here is roughly 45 mins worth of modelling so far.



The hardest part so far has actually been finding decent reference material to work from. There's almost no images available of Grievous from the side or behind, so I've had to design a lot of that myself. Which isn't a problem really... since being able to improvise is a useful skill in itself.

Watch this space.

Update 1:
Grievous now has "ears"(!)



Update 2: Head pretty much finished now... time to start the body.

Sweeney Todd Assignment Redux

Redid my Sweeney Todd assignment from 2nd year, here's the resulting video.

Modelling: Magpie Gunship WIP1.0

Currently working on a new modelling/texturing project; the Magpie gunship. Built mostly from imagination, its supposed to be a big futuristic heavy-armoured gunship/troop carrier type aircraft (think the love-child between an Apache and an Osprey)

Only built the basic geometry for the front end so far, with a few little areas of detail just to keep my art direction the same. Roughly 2 1/2 hours work so far. (excluding rendertimes)

Traffik Tool Demo

Handed in my final submission for my Major Project on Monday. Part of the submission included having to give a presentation on the working and design behind Traffik. Included in that presentation was a video which demonstrated the tool's functionality and work flow. Here is that video.



I'm planning on redoing the video in time for a few showcase events taking place over the next few months, along with a remake of a few other shots and scenes that I've worked on over the last few years. More posts to follow, so keep watching this space.

Traffik for Maya WIP

As explained in previous posts, I am currently working on my Traffik for Maya tool. The project is now almost complete. The construction toolset is 99% finished, and the simulation module requires only a few bug fixes and some tweaking. Below is a screenshot of the finished tBuild UI, along with a quick test network built using the tool.

I have also created a few short video clips demonstrating the simulated traffic in action, after it has passed through tSimulate. As you can see in the video, there are unfortunately still a few issues with certain track pieces. This is mainly down to curves not existing in the right place in world-space, something easily fixed.

Video Game Art

Here's a few images of some WIP game-related environment work I did a couple months ago, mainly to cure some boredom. All but one or two of the textures and models in the scene are custom built by myself, and of course all of the BSP geometry was built and lit by me.

I was sat in the opticians yesterday, waiting for my appointment. I noticed a TV with footage of the Royal Wedding on, mainly the flypast. I quite liked the helicopter angle of the Lancaster swooping across London low in the sky, and figured I'd use the shot as a template to showcase my AC130 model. Not really a final shot yet, there's still a few things I'm not happy with (the camera movement for one) but for a start it looks okay.

Traffik for Maya WIP

Here is a WIP video demonstrating my (almost) finished Collision Avoidance and Dynamic Path Detection/Selection frameworks.

In the video, the red and green cars (currently using cubes as placeholders) are configured to try and drive at 1.0 x the scene's global maximum vehicle speed (currently 10 units per second). The blue car is configured to drive slightly slower, at 0.75 of the max speed. The faster vehicles will travel at their maximum speed until they come into range of the slower vehicle, whereby they slow down until it is no longer within their 30-degree FOV, then they speed back up to their original speed.

Whilst navigating around the scene, the vehicles detect which curves begin at their current position. This enables them to detect which curve to move onto next, and in the case of branching paths, allows them to select an option at random to give the impression of conscious thought. This means when road systems are built, the user will not have to manually tell the tool which street connects to which - the vehicles will be able to automatically navigate of their own accord.

What I am currently working on today...

# TOM ROWELL - TRAFFIK PYTHON PROTOTPYE

import maya.cmds as cmds #REMEMBER TO UNCOMMENT FOR MAYA TESTING!!

import time, sched

vehicles = []

sceneLength = 0

timeIncrement = 0.0

sceneFPS = 0

class Vehicle:

id = 0

type = 'unused'

currentPath = 0

nextPath = 0

geometryObject = 'unused'

motionPath = 'unused'

ADL1 = 'unused'

ADL2 = 'unused'

ADL3 = 'unused'

def __init__(self):

self.geometryObject = cmds.polyCube()

for x in range(1, 4):

currentNode = cmds.createNode('addDoubleLinear')

exec("self.ADL" + str(x) + " = currentNode")

exec("cmds.connectAttr( \'" + self.ADL1 + ".output\', \'" + self.geometryObject[0] + ".translateX\')")

exec("cmds.connectAttr( \'" + self.ADL2 + ".output\', \'" + self.geometryObject[0] + ".translateY\')")

exec("cmds.connectAttr( \'" + self.ADL3 + ".output\', \'" + self.geometryObject[0] + ".translateZ\')")

exec("cmds.connectAttr( \'" + self.geometryObject[0] + ".transMinusRotatePivotX\', \'" + self.ADL1 + ".input1\')")

exec("cmds.connectAttr( \'" + self.geometryObject[0] + ".transMinusRotatePivotY\', \'" + self.ADL2 + ".input1\')")

exec("cmds.connectAttr( \'" + self.geometryObject[0] + ".transMinusRotatePivotZ\', \'" + self.ADL3 + ".input1\')")

self.motionPath = cmds.createNode('motionPath')

exec("cmds.setAttr(\'" + self.motionPath + ".fractionMode\', 1)")

exec("cmds.connectAttr(\'" + self.motionPath + ".xCoordinate\', \'" + self.ADL1 + ".input2\')")

exec("cmds.connectAttr(\'" + self.motionPath + ".yCoordinate\', \'" + self.ADL2 + ".input2\')")

exec("cmds.connectAttr(\'" + self.motionPath + ".zCoordinate\', \'" + self.ADL3 + ".input2\')")

def queryVehicle(self):

print ("\n==Current Vehicle Query==")

print ("ID: " + str(self.id))

print ("Type: " + self.type)

print ("Geo Obj: " + str(self.geometryObject[0]))

print ("ADL1: " + self.ADL1)

print ("ADL2: " + self.ADL2)

print ("ADL3: " + self.ADL3)

print ("==END OF VEHICLE QUERY==\n")

def attachToPath(self, path):

print ("Attaching to path on curve \'" + path + "\'") # debug line

exec("cmds.setAttr(\'" + self.motionPath + ".uValue\', 0)")

exec("cmds.connectAttr(\'" + path + ".worldSpace[0]\', \'" + self.motionPath + ".geometryPath\')")

exec("cmds.connectAttr(\'" + self.motionPath + ".message\', \'" + self.geometryObject[0] + ".specifiedManipLocation\')")

exec("cmds.connectAttr(\'" + self.motionPath + ".rotateOrder\', \'" + self.geometryObject[0] + ".rotateOrder\')")

exec("cmds.connectAttr(\'" + self.motionPath + ".rotateX\', \'" + self.geometryObject[0] + ".rotateX\')")

exec("cmds.connectAttr(\'" + self.motionPath + ".rotateY\', \'" + self.geometryObject[0] + ".rotateY\')")

exec("cmds.connectAttr(\'" + self.motionPath + ".rotateZ\', \'" + self.geometryObject[0] + ".rotateZ\')")

# reserved for future additions

def testVariables():

global currentPath

print ("Test variable is: " + str(currentPath))

def initVehicle( x ):

global vehicles

newV = Vehicle()

newV.id = x

vehicles.extend([newV]) # add a new vehicle to the end of the list

def findVehicle( x ):

global vehicles

for v in vehicles:

if v.id == x: return v

def getSceneLength():

global sceneLength

global sceneFPS

sceneLength = cmds.playbackOptions( query = True, maxTime = True ) # get max length of scene

sceneFPS = cmds.currentUnit( query = True, time = True ) # get fps of scene

if sceneFPS == "game": sceneFPS = 15.0

if sceneFPS == "film": sceneFPS = 24.0

if sceneFPS == "pal": sceneFPS = 25.0

if sceneFPS == "ntsc": sceneFPS = 30.0

if sceneFPS == "show": sceneFPS = 48.0

if sceneFPS == "palf": sceneFPS = 50.0

if sceneFPS == "ntscf": sceneFPS = 60.0

sceneLength = sceneLength / sceneFPS # generate scene time in seconds

return sceneLength # return scene time in seconds

def runSimulation(simLength):

cmds.currentTime( 0.0, edit = True)

printTime()

print ("Running a " + str(simLength) + " second length simulation\n")

simCounter = sched.scheduler(time.time, time.sleep)

runTime = simLength * 100

print ("This equals " + str(runTime) + "centiseconds\n")

printTime()

for x in range(0, runTime):

simCounter.enter(0.01, 1, doSim, ())

simCounter.run()

printTime()

def doSim():

global sceneFPS

global timeIncrement

timeIncrement = sceneFPS / 100

newSceneTime = cmds.currentTime(query = True) + timeIncrement

print newSceneTime

cmds.currentTime( newSceneTime, edit = True)

print "\nAdding a bit!"

def printTime():

currentTime = time.strftime("%H:%M:%S", time.gmtime())

print currentTime

getSceneLength()

runSimulation(getSceneLength())

# === everything beneath this line is testing related ====

# initVehicle(1)

# findVehicle(1).queryVehicle()

# findVehicle(1).attachToPath('curve1')

# initVehicle(2)

# findVehicle(2).queryVehicle()

# findVehicle(2).attachToPath('curve2')

# mass creation testing - comment out between tests

Currently working on a set extension/texture painting exercise for my showreel. Painting a 4K texture for the fishing boat by hand at the moment. Here's a WIP shot of the texture in situ on the mesh.

Sci-Fi Work, Part II

Here is a WIP model sheet for the Jericho starship I'm modelling for the sci-fi shot. Currently only the basic blocked out mesh is complete, with some limited detailing and test textures.

Currently working on a background plate for my sci-fi shot sequence. Been working on producing a convincing procedural planet shader, as well as appealing lighting and atmospherics. Managed to get something looking reasonably nice so far. Have to render out a moving sequence and find some way of tracking the sun for the lens-flares.

First Proper C++ Program

This is it, my first real C++ program. All it does is print pythagorean triples between 0 and 100, but I'm proud of it :D

// PythagoreanTriples.cpp : Defines the entry point for the console application.

//

#include "stdafx.h"

#include "cmath"

float calculateHypot(int a, int b) // calculates square root of a^2 + b^2

{

float c;

c = ((a*a)+(b*b));

return sqrt(c);

}

bool checkInteger(float a) // subtracts int-cast version of c from c to determine if integer

{

if(a-(int)a != 0) return true; // if floating value, return true

return false; // if integer value, return false

}

int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])

{

printf("***********************\n");

printf("* PYTHAGOREAN TRIPLES *\n");

printf("***********************\n");

int a;

int b;

//printf("The result is: %f", c);

for (a=1; a <= 100; a++)

{

for(b=1; b <= 100; b++)

{

float c = calculateHypot(a,b);

bool isInt = checkInteger(c);

if(isInt != true) // kinda reverse of what you'd think, but it only seems to work this way

{

int intC = int(c); // purely for display purposes - changes C into an integer value to cull trailing 0s

printf ("a = %d b = %d c= %d\n",a,b,intC);

}

}

}

}

Sci-Fi Work

Currently working on a sci-fi scene, mainly to test my own modelling/texture skills, as well as lighting large scenes. There's also plans to work up a reliable destruction pipeline, something I've been meaning to do for a while. Here's a random screenshot of the main starship in the scene. I'm currently remodelling and retexturing it, so I'll post some updates as and when that happens...