A new look revisited

With Rob Jones help, our group has worked out a new style. Similarly to what we did before we used a ramp shader and occlusion rendered on layers. Also we used blurr and brightness to toggle with the depth of field. This time however, we inclused a shadow layer and a skyline. To top it off we used the toon line but instead of just placing a black outline around everything, we decided to use a darker colour of what it is outlineing. this gives it a more earthy feel and reminds us of Sean Galloway's artwork. We did try using the outliner on a seperate layer but it looked terible so we decided to render the outliner with the object.

A New Look...

Hey guys, today has been pretty event full. Firstly Neil and I tried to get a more subtle colour scheme to the toon shader. We fiddled around and got a little further but it still looked really flat and boring, we weren't sure whether to use the toon shader at all. Then we met Rob Jones and like a beacon of light he lifted our spirits. He showed us how to render in layers and how we can manipulate those layer to create a unique look. He firstly coloured the scene with a ram shader not the toon. This gave a greater variety of tone. He then rendered the background, fiddled with the opacity, and blurred it slightly to create a greater depth of field. He did the same with the house except he didn't blur it. He then rendered a layer of occlusion on top of what we had done to make it more grainy, and to get a better balance of light. These subtle things made a huge difference as the scene really came to life. This really reminded me of the backgrounds in the Batman animated series. This was only a quick test but I already think it looks fantastic! an actual shadow is needed now and I still think we could use the outliner but more subtly.

Animatic

Hey guys here's the animatic, with art by Josh Cook and editing by yours truely. One thing to not is that the shot where the camera spins around will not look like that in the final movie. It will actualling spiral down around the houses created a much more 3D effect.

Cart Tracks

Hey guys,
I modelled the tracks coming from inside one of my storage sheds. The shed can act as a place to store them when not used. Therefore they lead from the shed to dead man quarry.

Function of the refinery

Ok guys I had a thought and that thought was we haven't really looked into what happens within the refinery, so with two plans up above here's my idea on it. On Josh's sketch we see tracks leading in and out of the refinery and into Dead Man's Quarry, however we don't know where the tracks acutually start. Could it be that the tracks start at the entrance, but goes through on the outside of the town area, not through the middle? If you look at Josh's pic the tracks could start on the left side, at the back of the two buildings, right? The buildings could be shacks, sherfiff building, saloon or whatever, the point is the tracks can lead to where they where originally drawn before.
Next, is what happens within the refinery so here's what I think happens.

1. The mine cart goes in the main building on the right track, and within the main building the track curves leading outside again, but instead of the cart coming out it stops in the middle of the curve.

2. Whatever the cart was carrying, it will be unloaded to the back where a huge coneyor belt is, that goes over the canyon. If you think about the luggage in the Airport, the conveyor belt moves in the same fashion.

3. Eventually the product will reach the edge of the conveyor belt, and the product will go into the boiler. Based on the plan above Josh's pic, this could be the process of how the town is powered, that little circle next to the boiler I imagined being the smoke tower. If you remember that little tunnel I built connecting the tower, that's where the smoke goes.

4. Afterwards, what's left of the product goes back on the conveyor belt and gets put back in the mine cart which then takes it to Dead Man's Quarry. Kinda makes me think they are burning humans or something, but anyways the process starts all over again. That's my idea anyways, SO BRING ON YOUR CRITICISM! Ahem...I mean let me know what you think.

Alright here is my version of the refinery, which is almost done. I haven't done the passagway that connects to the back of the refinery because I don't have the enviroment Lewis has done, so I'll create it once I do. Ok here's what's going on, if you look at picture 5 (the one just above) we have the main building of where the mine carts passes through. To its right we have a storage building which looks a bit like a big shed, there's also a passage that connects the two. To the left of the main building is these 4 cylinder type things. Not sure what they are exactly, but if you look at my Team Fortress pic I got the idea from that, which I persnoally think looks pretty good (let me know if you want it taken out). Now if you look in the distance you'll see this huge smoke tower, and another block called the boiler, if you look closely in pictures 2 & 3 you'll see a little rectangle attached to the big tower, which will be attached to the boiler.
This is what I've done so far so let me know what you think. If you look at my previous post on my personal blog or maybe the group blog, you'll see that I posted a question about where the tracks go. I'll elaborate more on this even further on my next post.

The Refinery inspiration!

This big building is what I'm gonna base my idea on I'll do some basic sketches of it. I really like the towers and I always had in mind that the place would be overall metallic, but the wood has a great touch it, but I'm definitely gonna use this.