Transcription update - Visual style tests

For the last week or so I have been working away trying to figure out the visual style of my piece. After my research I've decided the overall style I want to achieve is a hybrid of Raymond Briggs mixed with a comic book. Here is a run down of my progress so far.

 I completed modelling my character and UV mapped him...

Inspired by the graphic novel "Ascent"  and the comic book series "Victor" I discovered in my research, I made some cell shaders to try and recreate the comic book feel. I could then render out a separate pass with cross hatch textures in the vein of Raymond Briggs. 

Once UV mapped, I moved on to rigging. As this character isn't walking and is mostly flying, the legs are rigged with forward kinematics. Here is a quick rig test animation...

From here I moved on to modelling the environment for the first act, the bedroom my character falls asleep in and dreams he flies out of the window. Here is a test render with some basic textures mapped.

At this point I discovered the toon shader settings. I liked the cell shaders but I couldn't make the black outlines consistent. The toon shader sorted this and I did a test render compositing simple colours with a grayscale lambert with lights to retain the shadows. Here is the composition....

I liked the results so I returned to my character and created a basic animation and composited together "TOON" and "CROSSHATCHING" passes. Here are the results....

Currently I am setting up the first scene with all of the passes, getting it ready to animate. Here is a composited image of it so far.... (the window will eventually have a matte painting of the street to add depth)

Transcription Update - Character Modelling

Depth of Field Tutorials

Maya Software: Camera Depth of Field

No Depth of field

With Depth of field

Measured Focus distance

Focus region adjustment

Mental Ray: Camera Depth of Field

Standard Depth of field

Anti-aliasing contrast adjustment

Mental Ray: Lens Brokeh Shader

Maya Software: Layered Shader method

Mental Ray Tutorials (Part 1)

Transitioning from Maya software to Mental Ray

Maya Software Depth Map Shadow reference

Mental ray shadow map default render (blurred shadows)

Shadow map 'softness' refinements

Final Mental Ray Shadow map

Motion Blur Methods

2D Motion Blur: Maya Software

Blur by frame: 1.00 Blur Length 1.00

Blur by frame: 3.00 Blur Length 1.00

Blur by frame: 3.00 Blur Length 3.00

Blur by frame: 2.00 Blur Length 1.00

Blur by frame: 2.00 Blur Length 1.00

Shutter open: -1.00 Shutter Close: 1.00

Blur by frame: 2.00 Blur Length 1.00

Smooth Value: 10

3D Motion blur: Maya Software

No Motion Blur

Blur by frame: 1.00 Shutter: 144 Coverage: 0.125

Blur by frame: 1.00 Shutter: 50 Coverage: 0.125

Blur by frame: 1.00 Shutter: 100 Coverage: 0.125

Blur by frame: 1.00 Shutter: 100 Coverage: 1.00

3D Motion blur: Mental Ray No deformation

Preview quality

Motion Steps: 1.00 Time Sample: 1.00

Preview quality

Motion Steps: 5.00 Time Sample: 1.00

Preview quality

Motion Steps: 5.00 Time Sample: 2.00 

Time Contrast: 0.5

Production quality

Motion Steps: 5.00 Time Sample: 1.00

Time Contrast: 0.5

3D Motion blur: Mental Ray Razteriser (Rapid Motion)

Motion Steps: 5.00 Time Sample: 1.00

Time Contrast: 0.5

Visibility Sample: 0.00 Shade Quality: 1.00

Motion Steps: 5.00 Time Sample: 1.00

Time Contrast: 0.5

Visibility Sample: 1.00 Shade Quality: 1.00

Motion Steps: 5.00 Time Sample: 1.00

Time Contrast: 0.5

Visibility Sample: 1.00 Shade Quality: 0.001

Maya Dynamics Basics (Part 5) Instancing and Sprites

Transcription Update

After my last meeting with Alan, visual style was discussed again after looking at my animatic / storyboard. For further inspiration Alan suggested looking at an old English comic called Victor. I've looked up some the art work and found some really nice images, however, being a comic book, the colours are very bold. I took them into photoshop and reduced the saturation to get a different colour palette. Example below:

I also stumbled across images for a graphic novel called Ascent  (2007) by Jed Mercurio which will also deliver some inspiration.

From here I looked into 1940's WWII art work and found these images. They also have a comic book feel with an interesting colour palette. 

I used a combination of these images to draw inspiration and produce some concept work. I definitely feel like I am building a visual style towards my final piece. My digital painting skills aren't prolific and I'm quite concerned at how long it takes me to produce one image, so I am going to move on to maya as soon as possible.

Grandad concept 01

Grandad concept 02

Flight concept