Tuesday 28 February 2012

Maya: Dynamics 1: Particles, Emitters & Forces - Part 3 WIP

Active Passive Rigid Bodies (Bowling Alley)




Particle Collision (Rain)




Particle Collision (Metal Objects Sparks)

Transcription: Tower of Babel Sources - WIP

Map Artefacts
Various online sources showing the placement of the tower from Satellite: Direct Link


Earliest known Tower Inscription:

(1)


Written Descriptions of the Tower

Description 1. Histories - Herodotus, Written 440 BC

"The temple of Bêl, the Babylonian Zeus [...] was still in existence in my time. It has a solid central tower, one stadium square, with a second erected on top of it and then a third, and so on up to eight. All eight towers can be climbed by a spiral way running round the outside, and about half way up there are seats for those who make the ascent to rest on. On the summit of the topmost tower stands a great temple with a fine large couch in it, richly covered, and a golden table beside it. The shrine contains no image, and no one spends the night there except (if we may believe that Chaldaeans who are the priests of Bêl) one Babylonian woman, all alone, whoever it may be that the god has chosen. The Chaldaeans also say -though I do not believe them- that the god enters the temple in person and takes his rest upon the bed." (2)



Description 2. A Tablet from Uruk - Written 229 BCE.

"The tower was made up of seven terraces and it gives the height of the seven stocks - 91 meters all in all. The ground floor measured 91 x 91 meters, and this is confirmed by archaeological excavations conducted by Robert Koldewey after 1913 (91,48 x 91,66 m). Large stairs were discovered at the south side of the building, where a triple gate connected the Etemenanki with the Esagila. A larger gate in the east connected the Etemenanki with the sacred procession road. Seen from the triple gate, the Etemenanki must have resembled a true "stairway to heaven", because the gates on the higher terraces seemed to be standing on top of each other." (3)



Description 3. The Book of Jubilees - Date Written Unknown, possibly 200 BC.

"And they began to build, and in the fourth week they made brick with fire, and the bricks served them for stone, and the clay with which they cemented them together was asphalt which comes out of the sea, and out of the fountains of water in the land of Shinar. And they built it: forty and three years were they building it; its breadth was 203 bricks, and the height was the third of one; its height amounted to 5433 cubits and 2 palms, and thirteen stades" (4)





Illustrations:

(1) Tower of Babel stele, the inscription dates to 604-562 BCE.
Source: The Schoyen Collection


Bibliography:

(2) - Book: Histories
Author: Herodotus
Date Published: 40 BC

(3) - Website: Discovery News
Writer: Rossella Lorenzi
Accessed: 27th Feb 2012

(4) - Website: Livus - Articles on Ancient History
Writer: Jona Lendering
Accessed: 27th Feb 2012

Transcription: Direction Change

Had a long chat with Phil,

Course of my project has changed for the final time.

Aim is to transcribe the Tower of Babel with the direction focusing on a documentary audience.

Instead of taking current images of the tower, I'll be looking at sources that describe the tower. As they are all different descriptions of the tower, I'll be taking the consistencies within their description and using that as the blueprints of the tower. I'll obviously cite these sources as I find them.

I'll need to work overtime in pushing past pre-production and into production this week.

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Wednesday 15 February 2012

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Maya: Dynamics 1: Particles, Emitters & Forces - Part 2


Emit from particles (Fireworks2)




Emit from surface 1 (Barrel)




Emit from surface 2 (Can Dissolve)

Transcription: Influence Maps














Maya: Game Modelling: Head Part 1-3

Monday 13 February 2012

Transcription: Final idea. Real starting point

I've wasted two weeks too much on ideas and planning stage. Need to pick something and get started.

Final idea and one that I'm going to go ahead with is as follows:

Transcription - Painting to 3d Environment for Film
Expanding the Tower of Babel idea to a Babylon City Landscape

3 Specific Landmarks within this Environment
Tower of Babel / The Ishtar Gate / The Hanging Gardens

Environment Stylisation Influence
Bringing into a Alternate Universe, Future Utopian era. Still rooted into it's Arabic structure to an extent


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For Future Utopia Influence - using same influences that was in Narrative for Environment
Using influences of Blade Runner (1982), Metropolis (1927), Deus Ex Human Revolution (2011). In addition to, Akira (1988), Matrix (1996) and Minority Report (2002),


To root Babylon's heritage - Using influences of Arkkadian, Iraqi, and Arab decent.

Babylon is Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia within Iraq

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Pipeline Breakdown for the next 8 weeks.

Pre-production - Script / Concept Art / Turnarounds / Color Palette
Modelling - Self Explanatory
Texturing - UVing / Bumps / Materials
Lighting - Shadows / Reflections / Highlights
Animation - Dynamics / Anything Scripted / Camera Shots
Rendering & Post-production - Passes / Premiere / After Effects


Week 1 - 30th Jan
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Week 2 - 6th Feb
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Week 3 - 13th Feb
Pre-production

Week 4 - 20th Feb
Pre-production + Modelling

Week 5 - 27th Feb
Modelling

Week 6 - 5th Feb
Modelling + Texturing

Week 7 - 12th Feb
Lighting + Animation

Week 8 - 19th Feb
Animation + Rendering

Week 9 - 26th Feb
Post-Production

Week 10 - 2nd Feb
Post-Production, Art Of

Sunday 12 February 2012

Maya: Dynamics 1: Particles, Emitters & Forces

Sketching Particles: Clouds




Directional Emitter: Explosion




Omni Emitter: Fuse





Volume Emitter: Smoke





Curve Emitter: Fireworks 1




Curve Emitter: Shockwave





Curve Emitter: Water Foam




Curve Flow: Motion Path Dynamics


Tuesday 7 February 2012

Transcription: Idea Two - Music to Music Video

Just to throw a bit of variety into the mix, this idea stems from the last few days of thought.

Idea Two:
Music to Music Video
A choreograph of a dance, music video, creating a character and stage, and animating that character performing to the song.
Inspirations:
Gorillaz-On Melancholy Hill @ 1:30
Michael Jackson - Beat it @(3:24)



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After talking to Alan today, the reason this idea was stemed was due to my lack of inspiration or will to push forward with the alternate future Tower of Babel idea. it's too uninteresting to work on for a full ten weeks.

I was given a few options towards how to approach transcribing 'Music to Music Video'. For example- A full blown music video, an animated short, a parody. As well as examples of the character, dancing houses, a demonstration like Napoleon Dynamite, a cockroach version of Michael Jackson. a character vibing with another character - a la Tom & Jerry:







or Daffy Duck and Donald Duck






This would involve modelling and rigging one or possibly two characters, as well as creating an environment-black screen or a full blown street.

I would need to also consider that I can only use a segment if I add it to my demo reel, as the music will most likely be copyrighted.