Scenario modeling part 2/ Modelagem de cenário parte 2

The scenario of the film Gadanthara, made by “The Detail Library Committee” is rich in detail and full of history. My name is Maria Amélia Gonçalves and with Flávio we are modeling the scenario. I’m going to explain about the process of construction and modeling in the film.

The aesthetics of the film was thought like the Stop Motions films. We got many concepts in this technique and then we transported to the 3d technique. When we are modeling the objects we think before how would this be done in miniature. We paid attention in dimensions, materials and others things. We thougth  these things before the construction.

The builds come to us with position, size and level of importance determined. This helps us to consolidate our ideas. After thinking, finding reference and talking with other members of the team, we analyze the most significant

point: the level of importance. This level is calculated together with the takes, that are defined with the camera in the map of the city 3d. If the build is next to the camera most detail will be in it.

We filed references (picture and photo) that help us to create the objects of the scenario. We always talk and ask opinions to all team. This is great because the work flows.

All the process is special. The build receive the particular attention, one by one. We put then memories, dreams, preferences aesthetics and a lot of things. I am very luck for working in a production where the first rule is let the imagination free.

– português – 

     O cenário do filme Gadanthara, que está sendo produzido pela “The Detail Library Committee” é rico em detalhes e cheio de histórias. Meu nome é Maria Amélia Gonçalves e junto com Flávio sou uma das modeladoras do cenário. Eu vou explicar um pouco mais sobre o processo de contrução e modelagem do filme.

O filme foi pensado com uma estética similar aos filmes de Stop Motion. Transportamos alguns  conceitos  desta técnica para a modelagem 3d. Ao modelarmos os objetos do cenário pensamos antes como isso seria feito em miniatura, ficamos atentos as dimensões, materiais, entre outras coisas, que são pensados antes da construção.

Os prédios chegam para nós, modeladores, com posição, tamanho e nível de importância já definidos. Isso ajuda a consolidar-mos nossas idéias. Depois de pensarmos, pesquisar referências e discutir juntos de outros membros da equipe, analisamos o ponto mais significante: o nível de importância do prédio. Este nível é calculado de acordo com o ponto de vista das tomadas, já definidas com câmeras no nosso mapa da cidade 3d. Quanto mais um prédio aparece junto a câmera, mais detalhado ele será.

Sempre deixamos arquivado referências (desenho e fotografias) que nos ajudam a desenvolver a montagem dos objetos do cénario. Além disso discutimos e pedimos opinião de todos da produção. Isso sempre ajuda muito, pois assim o trabalho fica mais livre.

Todo esse processo é muito especial. Cada prédio recebe de nos uma atenção particular, depositamos neles nossas lembranças, nossos sonhos, nossas preferências estéticas, enfim, é uma grande sorte poder trabalhar em uma produção em que soltar a imaginação é a primeira regra.

Scenario modeling part 1/ Modelagem de cenário parte 1

Just a Bar with Gadanthara's (name of the main character) dimensions (yellow cube).

My name is Flávio Carvalho Markiewicz, I’m 20 years old and studying Product Design at Universidade Estadual de Minas Gerais (UEMG, State University of Minas Gerais). I attend to the 3D classes with Dilly and started to get engaged in this project. I’ve been an intern at Detail Library’s production for four months, and intend to keep working with this for a long time.

In this first part of the project, me and the other artists are modeling the buildings and objects that will be in our beloved San Corisco. The city construction began in a 2D (vector) and 3D map, made by Daniel, using simple objects (cubes…). In this map all the streets, sidewalks and buildings of the city are marked. We also use this map to set shots and scene layouts. Based on our main character’s path and the angle/distance of the cameras, the managers marked (using different colors) the amount of detail for each building.

 

Detail of the building Just a Bar.

The idea is to build a city alive and with personality, then every building that we make has its own history. Each building also has a name, and we try to insert this name into the building’s history. In most cases, the building’s name can make an influence at its layout, architecture and style. We always observe real cities pictures, stop-motion movies and the Detail Library’s team concepts, as references, before start to model the buildings.

So, that’s it. Thanks for all those who believe in our work and in Detail Library’s project. Probably I’ll be back for one more post!

— português —

       Meu nome é Flávio Carvalho Markiewicz, tenho 20 anos e atualmente faço o curso de Design de Produto na Universidade Estadual de Minas Gerais (UEMG). Frequento as aula de 3D do Dilly e comecei a me envolver nesse projeto. Já estou estagiando na produção do Detail Library há quatro meses, e pretendo continuar trabalhando com isso por um bom tempo.

       Durante a primeira etapa do projeto, eu e os outros artistas ficamos encarregados de modelar os prédios e objetos que farão parte da nossa querida San Corisco. A construção desta cidade começou no mapa 2D (vector) e 3D que o Daniel fez, usando objetos simples (cubos…). Neste mapa existem as marcações de ruas, calçadas e prédios de toda a cidade. Também usamos este mapa para marcar as tomadas e layouts de cena. Baseado no trajeto que nosso personagem principal faz e o ângulo/distância das câmeras, os diretores marcaram (com cores diferentes) o grau de importância e detalhes de cada prédio.

       Como a proposta é fazer uma cidade muito viva e com personalidade própria, cada prédio que modelamos possui uma história, mesmo que breve, por trás dele. Uma vez que cada prédio tem um nome (desde títulos de animações clássicas até lendários lutadores/atores japoneses), tentamos encaixar tal nome dentro da história. Na maioria dos casos, o nome do prédio influencia a sua composição, arquitetura e estilo. Antes de começar cada prédio, conferimos as dimensões máximas do “terreno” reservado para ele dentro do mapa de San Corisco. Nessa “metodologia” bem flexível que tentamos seguir, observamos muitas referências antes de realmente colocar a mão na massa. Entre fotos de cidades reais, maquetes de filmes de stop-motion e os belos concepts da equipe, tiramos o máximo de ideias, e aquelas que mais se adaptam à história do prédio começam a tomar forma no Blender.

       Então é isso, obrigado a quem também acredita no nosso trabalho e nos projetos do Detail Library. Provavelmente estarei de volta para mais um post!

 

Raising funds

Last month we’ve kept ourselves busy with the presentation of the the Detail Library Project in order to try and get some fundraising. One of the pieces of the presentation is a little teaser trailer. The production of a propper teaser, with the 3D models and sets would costs us a money that we don’t have (it’s a fundraising initative after all), that being said, we’ve went for an intermediary solution. We’ve cutted a teaser out of our animatic and did some make up work on it – coloring the sets and redrawing the character. It will not just help our future sponsors to visualize the project, but also have helped us to padronize the design of our main character. The following video is a compilation of some of the parts that we’ve used for the presentation, to avoid spoilers some parts have been removed. The segment of the music theme was composed by Marcio Brant specialy for the production, and as the animation, the music is only a preview and will finalized as soon as someone drops a coin in our hat.

Promo Teaser (animatic) from detail library on Vimeo.

This second video is an edition with segments of our original animatic so you can compare. The most notable thing is how diferent the design of the main character is.

Promo Teaser (Original Storyboard Art) from detail library on Vimeo.

Made with GIMP and Blender.

The real thing

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the delay again! (I swear I’ll stop talking about it…)

For our new project (from which we still can not talk much about) we’ve asked a friend from work, Edvaldo Vieira, who’s very good with modeling – to make a statue of the main character in the short: Gadanthara. Gadanthara is the strange figure dressed in the yellow raincoat, he is an employee of The Detail Library (in the history).

Edvaldo (or Eddie) is an excellent artist who has done work as designer and sculptor for large enterprises. The only problem is that he doesn’t have his work published on the internet! =P

We’ve asked him how was the experience of work in this model:

“I really liked, was very nice to work on something different from my usual work (superheroes and advertising). The designs of Eduardo Damasceno are very different even from the animations that go out today. I really want to (when I have time) make more models for the project!”

Here is some images of the model:

And we love the result! Actually we like so much that we are reviewing the model and RIG of the character thanks to the excellent work of translating the 2D to 3D design that Eddie did!

Thanks Eddie!

3d pre visualization timelapse

Ooops, we did it again. =P
Our last post was in November 25, of 2009! That’s months already! We apologize again for that. But this time, we apologize in a more appropriate way: showing you new work we’ve been doing in the short!

Just to not leave anything blank, we should say that we finished the project: Pirates x Ninjas x Robots x Cowboys. The pilot was not among those chosen to become the TV series, but the work was praised and the kids liked it (hey, this is what matters!). =)

Ok, so we finished the AnimaTV project. And, among other things (like experience), we gained the opportunity to work in a production company with experience producing live action movies and TV shows: Abuzza filmes.

And now we’re in a production house, so we are obligated to produce. And what is the project that we’ve been waiting to get going? The Detail Library, of course! So begins our plan for world domination: We did the bible of the project and prepare it for fundraising, either trough government culture incentive laws and edicts, or in other ways (we can not comment yet). All this is leading the project to other directions, we will still do the short, but we want it to result in “much more” than the production files released under a Creative Commons license.

The direction the project will take now is still uncertain, but know that we’re working hard on it. When we have news we will post (hopefully it will not take so long this time).

But as I said before, this post is not just to give you the news, we will also show some work. During the last months we were working on things that would help the project look more “attractive”. Each one of us (Me, Daniel and Damasceno) then had a specific work: Mine was to do a preview of how it would be the final look of the film. Attention to the word PREVIEW: The image you see below is just that, a preview.

So I kindly asked to our beloved art director Eduardo Damasceno to paint a concept art to guide me and serve as a starting point. Also sat with our director, Daniel Pinheiro, to decide which view of the city to use. We decided for a key point in the short, but before it get’s to boring, let’s concept art:

Deciding the location and with the concept art in hand I could get to work. I started checking all the material we had already done, finishing the buildings, poles and started making new constructions and posters. For the modeling and texturing of some buildings and poles I had the help of another artist: Diogo Coutinho. João Paulo modeled the character. Then came the assembly of all in one scene (using the wonderful Link system in Blender) and lighting. And was on the lighting and scene layout that I had more work: there were many elements, we had to portray a dirty town, polluted by posters but in a way that we could still read the image without getting lost. Not to mention an art director who speaks the same way he paints: intuitively. (don’t get mad at me Duda. = P)(duda: my statements are clearer the the Himalayan mountain tops in the summer). That was a big challenge, took time, but I think we reached a good result:

We’ve had a total of 89 versions to reach that result, and I saved every one, here is a video showing the entire process of creation:

Detail Library – 3d pre visualization timelapse from detail library on Vimeo.

Well, in short, that’s it.
We still have numerous other news to give, and they all involve something to show you. But on my part that’s all.

I hope you enjoyed the post and the 3d preview – and forgive me for any spelling error.

See ya! =)
.Dilly

Gadanthara RIG

This is the RIG of our main character: Gadanthara.

As you can see in the video below, he’s naked so far, but in the short we will make use of simulations in his clothes (thanks to the Dev who made Cloth Sim!). As these simulations will be made after the Animators finish the Shots, they will work with him naked. Well, not completely naked since he is wearing these cute boots. 🙂

Gadanthara RIG from detail library on Vimeo.

Link to Hi Def OGG (redirected to Media Fire): http://www.mediafire.com/?gzmcez9zwn2

I hope I have managed to show something of the RIG for you. Feel free to ask anything about the rig on the comments.
Thanks! And see you in my next post! (who knows? about Cloth maybe? or shading… :))