Grad Show Setup

Assess Wk2 - Assessment Setup

Assess Wk1 - New picture of both my Mandelboxes

Left: White, Strong and Flexible. Right: Sandstone.

Wk12 - Portfolio Site done.

It took five days but I've got a functional site that I like now.  It can be seen at http://www.isrealmathew.com

Wk11 - Portfolio Site

I was attempting to avoid doing actual coding on this portfolio site.  Thus, I threw together this version of my site.

After the comments from critiquing sites and finding out that this site i worth a significant percentage of my major mark, I decided to bite the bullet and code a new site.  I came up with the following template in Photoshop:

Wk10 - Catalogue Image & Naming

We found out on Friday afternoon that the Gallery needed a picture and the title for our works.  Some of us haven't got a title or even finished renders of our work.  It is very late notice.  On the bright side, they gave us until Monday to submit the picture and title.  I've changed it a number of times but I've decided on the title 'Tglad's Formula'.

This is the picture for the catalogue:

Break Wk1 - Physical Possible!?

So, after installing the Collada plug-in, I was able to export from Maya into the DAE format, which when zipped came down from 87MB to 19MB

I imported the model into the Shapeways website... Within 15mins, I knew that the model was viable and even had a price tag attached.  Here are my first three uploads:

10.5cm solid displaced model = $869.92

5.4cm hollow displaced model = $127.59

5cm solid constructed model = $98.48

Clearly, the volume has something to do with the cost but I found that with my 5cm model, that making it hollow, whether a cube or an identical replica within made no difference to the volume or the cost... this could be related to the 5cm size though... not sure.

The question is, should I buy it for nearly $100?

Break Wk1 - Mandelbulber Slices to Cube...

I was showing David the ability for Mandelbulber to only show partial cross-sections of a fractal.  He gave me the thought of mixing the displacement idea with slices, captured front-on.

In the end, it seemed that only 27 slices were needed before I had reached a solid form:

I further refined this gradient to 11 slices, removing redundant levels having only small additional details:

Depth Animation

This was still producing non-mirroring geometry thus, in photoshop, it was mirrored, flipped, etc.  The result was a near-perfect slice used to create a single cube side.

This side then had the sides chamfered off at 45 degrees.

Using some rotation, I combined and merged six copies of that side to form the best cube to date:

Break Wk1 - Renders to be calculated.

Position and render path calculations page2

Render position calculations

After the 50000 frame render test took so long...

I decided that I'd go with 9000 frames from beginning to end, doing it in 3000 frame render batches... There will be 9000 for the centre view, 45 degrees and 90 degrees respectively.

Position and render path calculations page1

Fly-thru Render Path of chosen Mandelbox

Render position calculations

Wk7 - Photofly was a bust...

I tried twice to use Photofly to make the model.

In both instances, the path I used was a circle, rounding the top, then down around the base.

First attempt, using a black background:

The result was a relatively clear model of only two sides.

Second attempt, using a patterned background:

The second attempt produced a model with four good sides.  You can see that the path was again misinterpreted by the program.

In any case, these incomplete models couldn't be easily used to piece together a full cube.  Eventually, after a lot of trying, this method was abandoned.

Wk7 - Physical Object Concept (Displacement)

Custom Mandelbox

Mandelbox Face

Face without Light, shadow, etc.

Displaced across cube

Displaced across Plane

Displaced over cube on each surface.

Wk6 - Fly-Thru Concept

This is my customised Mandelbox... with a view to designing one that can be produced physically.

Using a -90, -45, centre, 45 and 90 degree pass, I created a test for making a setup where the viewer can place their head inside the mandelbox.

 This is the render that I did, combined using Nuke, starting from the centre of my customised Mandelbox. This is only 1350 frames but it illustrates the concept:

Wk5 - Fly Thru for Displacement Maps

In an effort to generate nice displacement maps, I decided to do a fly-thru from the corner of a black and white mandelbox...



Textures I've played with so far:

Using the particle system, I can see that using such images will work nicely in creating some textured surfaces:

Wk4 - Will the pieces come together?

So, using the objects I've created thus far, I've attempted to see what I could construct with them as building blocks... as a proof on concept for the creation of my model/environment.  This is what I've got so far...

I'm thinking at this stage that repetition is important... who knows...

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Wk4 - Maya Learning Curve

So, I've been creating shapes for my manually created object/environment:

My idea is that this will look like it is
 taking in the mist.

The arch is featured a lot within the Mandelbox.

This animates up and down whilst spinning.

I do have a few Maya topics/questions now:

• Camera angle/focal length

• Texture of surfaces

• How to fix a shape, eg. my platform.

• Mist/Fog generation

• Mirrored surface to create infinity?

• Can you have simple animation without keyframes?

Wk2 - Maya Crash Course... Booleans are cool!

So, I had a bit of a crash course this afternoon with Kit regarding Maya and in particular Booleans.  Very nice.

The couple of shapes I've picked out for my constructed model/environment will need such ideas and using one object as a cookie-cutter, so to speak, will make it infinitely more helpful.

Here I'm trying to recreate the basics of a shape that appears in my first render:

On a side note: Kit showed me particles too but we're gonna have a followup lesson on those later.  I really shouldn't have dropped Maya after first year.  :-o

Wk2 - Mandelbulber & Other Cool 3D Fractals

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Modified Mandelbulb 1

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3.01 seconds = 8 hours effort

I have 3.01 seconds of new footage at the end of my 'ad'. It only took 5 hours of setup/shooting and another 3 hours editing.

It was a convoluted setup: