Planning my Pre-vis
In order to do my previs, I started out with a spreadsheet with a rough plan of all my shots in each scene that accompanies / fleshes out my story board.
I started out with the scene that I wrote out for my storyboard and then I used that to think about the different shots within that scene. I included what kind of camera angle or movement id like, the music or sound effects in that particular shot, the lighting or “effects”, for me this just referred to the light colour, and maybe if there was a slight depth of field on the camera.
Because I don’t know what it looks like inside a factory, I have taken a few pictures from online as inspiration for the factory.
I also then made a plan of the object that I would like to model or attempt to model. I have given an estimate to the level of difficult and what software I should use for it. I also have found some links to good tutorials to help me. I really want to attempt the modelling as I think some of it could be pieces for my portfolio.
So far I attempted to model a can, the “main character” of my story. I found a really good tutorial on YouTube on how to attempt this. I also brought my own cans and had them as reference. Below is an image I used as a reference in Maya.
I imported it as an image plane to use in Top and Front orthographic view in Maya
I first started off with a cylinder with all but the top deleted, from there I extruded it outwards to create the outer edge of the can. From there I was able to work into the middle and used other cylinders there were also extruded outwards to create the edge of the hole. I learnt that you can Bridge edges together to fill gaps and “fuse” mesh together. I also learnt if you go into perspective view and realise that the mesh is is not flat, you can select all the vertices and use the scale tool in the Y axis to make the mesh all on one plane.
I found that some of my mesh was looking black, this was due to reversed normals. I learnt that you can click on Mesh Display and hit “Reverse” with displays the normals… normally.
Another really helpful tip I learnt was that it is really important to have tidy mesh. Ideally, we always want four points in our mesh. So at this point I went about merging some of the the vertices together and tiding up the mesh. I find it difficult to see where to merge the mesh together to tidy it, I find it is like a puzzle, but after a while I got the hang of it.
This part was probably the easiest, I just extruded the edge of the tops and went into the front orthographic view to follow the shape of the can. It was just a case of extruding and scaling the edges.
I extruded all the way to the bottom of the can and used the tool Fill Hole and then Poke to create the bottom of the can. I then used the Edge Loop tool to create harder edges to better define the cans shape.
Then it was time to add the rim of the can, this was quite difficult and I didn’t find the blue print too helpful at this point so my actual can I had brought was very helpful as a reference. Again, I used the extrude tool and the Edge Loop tool. I again used the blue prints and a the same tools to create the cap.
By this time I was pretty much done with the tutorial I found and the modelling process for an open can. But I wanted to add a slight bend to the cap thing to make it look like it had been used to open the top. To do this I found it easiest to use the Tab key to select the bottom portion of the cap, then use the Shift + > keys to increase the selection. From there I used Ctrl + Shift + I to Inverse the selection so just the top portion of the cap was selected. Then it was just a case of using the Soft Selection Brush to move and rotate so it looked like the cap was facing upwards.
But then I realised that I also needed to model a closed can. My can again came in handy as a reference.
It wasn’t too hard. I selected the edges, and used the Bridge Tool to remove the hole. I used the extrude tool to make a “seam”.
This is the what the top of both cans look like.
After I modelled the can, I started doing work towards a 3D Story board. I used many of the tools that I used for modelling the cans.
In the first two images I did is the establishing shot of the corner shop. I wanted there to be a focus on the fridge inside the shop so put a material that added an emission, then keyed the emission on and off to look like there was a flicker. I was playing around with lighting colours and a HDRI. I like the warm orange and goes with my colour palette.
Then it transitions to a shot with the fridge. Again there is a emphasis on the fridge.
Then another still shot, a close up, of the two cans in the foreground of the fridge.
Then the next shot, the lighting become pink and I’d like to add a blur or more of a depth of field. I want it to be another close up shot of behind one of the cans facing the other, I am hoping this will personify the cans, to make it look like they are looking at each other. With a change in the lighting, blur/depth of field coupled with romantic music starting to play, I am hoping this is enough to make the audience believe that the Cans are falling in love.
Currently, I am happy with the way it is going but I am realising how much work I have to do.