Final Island and Complex Pictures

All the techniques i learned, shortcuts i found and created, elements i discovered all came together to create the final island. There are still many things in this project i would improve if i had more time for the project, additional work buildings of different colors, more trees of all kinds, living residence for the agents living here, more detail into the buildings and actual working water and expanding the island because the view from the capsule cave at the back is what i was most disappointed about. The lighting was one aspect i didn’t expect to turn out as well as it did, especially the reflections of it on the glass of the buildings.

The first and last shots of the island i wanted as they were the same/ similar shots to the intro and outro of Neverland in peter pan; i nice little tribute to the main design influence. another little tribute i wanted was the choice i music, originally i thought some from the new Thunderbirds series would be good but i could find any that fit 1 minute and it didn’t seem suitable. in the end i went for a true and appropriate tribute the Disney fairies franchise that inspired most of this project and drastically changed it for the better by having the music by Joel McNeely from the prologue of the first Tinkerbell film. i got it from the cd of the soundtrack i have. All that i have to wait for now is the final rendered film.

UV Mapping

UV Mapping quickly turned into my favorite method of adding textures to objects, one i certainly intend to use more properly next year for my final project.

By luck the shapes of the island appeared very clearly on the map so much so that sometimes i didn’t have to select the part i wanted in perspective. most of the textures were placed very well so all i had to do was expand the occasional face, stretch a some lines, move some vertexes and manipulate the UV points. if i had more time i would have worked on the map more to make sure each polygon on the island had the same level of detail of the texture as some parts had more detail than others. as i learned through the table experiment i had to find pictures that were seamless otherwise the dark and light edges would clash making a poor effect.

Modeling island and complex

Modelling the island was more tedious than i thought but the final result was very much worth it. The island started as a cylinder to which i added extra attributes to allowed me to sculpt each part and layer of the island. After getting the shape i manipulated the faces, edges and vertexes because i knew which faces i wanted as certain textures.

Modelling the building for the complex were very easy. They mostly started as boxes or cylinders. I started with the commander and control center

the hospital

the technician towers

the conference and ceremonial stadium (the only building to have an interior modeled as the ceiling would later have a clear blue texture)

  

the robot control center

and finally, the transmission tower

The tower and command center I modeled to be as close to the original lego models with a modern and functional look, with a dash of castle architecture thrown in. The hospital was based of marineville from the tv series stingray, technician towers i based off nothing in particular but got the idea of the size and uses while in the Victoria and Albert museum, the stadium was loosely based off paddy’s wigwam church in liverpool. the robot center however had no influence but just a purpose. the capsule vehicle cave at the back of the island was modeled in the island file, same for the center corridor connector in the middle of the complex and the garage and runway at the front. Textures for the buildings such as glass was added once into the scene to as to make sure each had the same glass texture, colors were chosen from default. I wanted nearly each building to have a different color as opposed to just metal colors and textures, not to mention each talent/ role on the island is color co-coordinated, this adds color to the scene beyond natural colors and makes them stand out. The bright colors also emphasis the fact that this fits the target audience for children and family.

Here is the color code:

Command – white, Vehicles – red, technicians – green, medical – pink, computers – blue and robots – orange.

Some talents like teleportation (yellow), security (purple) and compounds (brown) didn’t make it into the final cut because of modeling and rendering reasons. i would have much preferred to have them in to add to the working feel of the complex. if i had more time for this project i would have added them in but i had to compromise.

To add to the nature of the island besides the textures, i added trees from the brush tool but i only made a row of 5/6 trees and duplicated them and placed the around the island individually, this was a nice cheat/ shortcut that still looked very effective.

For the ocean and background i simply turned a flat cylinder underneath the island into an ocean and made a giant sphere around the ocean and texture half of the inside with sky as i would have a 360 degree turn around the island. i also added a plane turned to 2 mountains to place at the end of the runway.

The final problem was the stream running through the complex. using the particle emitter to make water fall was easy but getting it to collide with the island surface to make a moat the run down towards the front cliff was another matter. particles first didn’t want to collide properly with the island so i extracted the polygons of the island the particles would interact with so it would work properly and then hide them before rendering. Unfortunately the particles didn’t make a moat nor flow to the cliff, they bounded about and didn’t fill the moat, fortunately i came up with a cunning plan to cheat and give the illusion of a stream instead. i removed the extracted polygons and then made a box with the water texture and placed it underneath the top surface of the island but just high enough to fill the gaps o made for the stream the added another emitter at the cliff to give the illusion of a running stream. i am quite pleased with this plan and think it works quite well and adds one aspect of pixie hollow i wanted in the complex to give the feel of working with nature.

The icing on top of the cake for this was adding a light source. Fortunately the picture of a sunset sky i chose for my sky-dome had the sun in it and i placed the sky so the sun was shining in front of the island to light up the complex then added a light source at the spot of the sun on the dome. All i had to to was color the light to bright orange to give a perfect feel of sunset light.

Modelling Experiments

Before getting started on this big project i wanted to experiment with certain elements that would be in my final environment. Firstly i wanted to get an idea of the size of the island, location and size of the mountains and the buildings The shape of the island itself (particularly from above) is very unique and i wanted to start with that, the side views would come naturally and i wouldn’t change that very much, just so long as it had a mix between real islands and Neverland.

The first attempt of the island was mainly an experiment to get a clear idea of the placing of everything. Basically it is a few plates and traffic cones placed on top of each other but the purpose of it was well served and allowed me to get a clear idea of what my 2d drawings would look like in CGI. I was quite pleased with it but i wanted to give it a more natural look and make the island almost one single shape so merging of the mountains and the rest of the scenery looked natural. In class i was taught the technique of using vertexes, edges and polygons to sculpt shapes and surfaces.

I tried the technique and found it to be the best way of sculpting a landscape perfectly, make it all one shape and avoid looking to geometric and symmetrical. It also allowed me to play with how to place buildings on the scene accordingly to the sculpt of the mountains. This was going to be my final maya project for the environment but i decided to make the whole island out of one big cylinder.

Before making my final version of the island i wanted to experiment with the main factors of the project that were vital, namely, textures and water. We were told that UV mapping is the most tedious but effective way of adding textures to an object. I had to look at quite a few tutorials on youtube (not all of them very helpful) and eventually found a few that gave me a brief introduction to hypershading, brush effects and fluid/ particle animations.

I found a tutorial on adding textures which consisted of giving a table the texture of wood by the use of the UV mapping.

Here is my take on it, i didn’t get round to the legs but this proved well in teaching me how to UV map, a technique i soon got used to and took a big liking too.

Next i wanted to try something more drastic on my own, i simply made a box and made each face on it with a different texture of different elements of nature (bionicle helped with my choice of elements)

 

This proved to me that UV mps textures is not such a difficult task. My only concern for this was getting a few textures to fit such a unique shape that would be my island but UV mapping allows me to change the texture face by face etc. One last element that i was concerned with was the water as i wanted a few waterfalls and a stream to run through my complex. I found one tutorial that allowed mt to use a fluid emitter but…

after trying it it proved far to complicated and far to detailed. the water itself was difficult to control as i wanted it to do very specific actions. even real water on a model would be easier to control. all the polygons emitted caused complications, including slowing down of playback and would slow down rendering. the water isn’t such a huge part of the environment as nothing revolves around it so i decided to look at a better solution. That is where i found a tutorial for a particle emitter and how to control it which proved more easier and less detailed.

Making it from a waterfall was relatively easy once i got hold of the settings and use of gravity fields. having it interact/ collide with objects was more easy.

One last element to add to my scene was wildlife/ plants. i found by accident on maya a brush tool that allows us to paint brush certain elements across a landscape. getting used to that was quite tedious, especially when i learned it only works on flat surfaces so manipulating it and changing it’s scale it was quite difficult.

Practice on all these elements all helped in the final version of the island and it’s complex.

Research

There were many ideas not only in the world but throughout many films and TV series that inspired this island all together as well as the design. The most important is Neverland from Disney’s Peter Pan.

The Island itself inspired the structure, shape and color scheme of the island as well as the scenery. Ever since it was first released in the 50s and bringing it back in the Disney Fairies franchise, this island has become a location of magic, make-believe and happiness throughout Disney history and makes it’s audience feel similar feelings about the island. I wanted to have my island contain such traits to draw the audience into it. Many who have seen my designs and island ask weather i based it of never land which makes me happy that the design influence comes across. This island was a big help in the designing of an island for a complex and other building because the design looks natural, obviously cartoon and has a series of landscapes that could contain buildings all over.

Pixie Hollow is a spot in Neverland home to Tinkerbell and her friends. I wanted as much as i could to make my complex bare a resemblance to this magical place because it is the center of magic in Neverland and so much activity that help the fairies do their job in changing the seasons happen here. I wanted my complex to have the same purpose and looking to Pixie hollow for it’s structure helped, such as having the most important part in the middle with lots of other locations of different colors surrounding it. Working with nature is something i wanted in my complex not only for design reasons but to meet the brief of the module. Trees, streams, lights and mountains were the best choices.

Moving away from Neverland, the main purpose of the people who work and reside in the complex are rescuers, they fly to people in distress around the world and save them with their machines. Sound familiar?

Tracy Island was the main inspiration of the complex and idea of rescuers because of my love for Thunderbirds Are Go. This show is basically what started my whole universe of ideas and has expanded ever since. I thought it perfect to have elements of Tracy island such as buildings over the island, a runway platform and workings within the island added to the design of my island as a tribute to what started it all. One helpful aspect of the design that helped me was how the buildings were fixed on the island and serves a purpose. The recent release of the new Thunderbirds series was perfectly timed for this project and has inspired me to work on it better.

Another universe that i looked to mainly design and island structure was the island homes from the lego Bionicle franchise. The island, Mata Nui, Metru Nui and Voya Nui gave me some good ideas for the island. As the bioncles work with nature like the Disney Fairies it seemed right and helpful to have their islands inspire the design for my island because of their unusual and unique shapes that add a mystical and fantasy quality to the island. Having different forms of nature all over the island helped in placing certain parts of the complex and adding nature to the island, just like pixie hollow.

There are many other island, locations and environments throughout the animated movie and series universe and many of the ones i have seen and loved helped in not only the design of the island and building but getting a feel of a happy, natural and working environment. These include (in order of appearance on collage) the Island of Sodor from Thomas and Friends, Duelist Kingdom from Yu-Gi-Oh, Berk from Dreamworks Dragons, Camp Wawanakwa from Total Drama Island, Angel Island from Sonic X, Duelist Academy from Yu-Gi-Oh GX, the hundred acre wood from Winnie the Pooh and Nomanison Island from the incredibles. Nearly all of these locations have a similar design of a huge mountain in the middle, lots of different elements of nature like, sand, trees, rocks etc and having lots of building and houses around it suitable for people to live in. These are important to my island as work happens all the time on it, as well as leisure.

Not all of the design influences are restricted to just fantasy worlds from films and TV series, some real places around the world helped. I also wanted to look at real environments similar to the worlds i looked to so i can have some real traits of nature, building interactions and landscapes. Unfortunately, there were only a few i knew about and they were (in order of appearance on collage) Bora Bora, Portmarion in North Wales, The castle by Loch Ness in Scotland and Hobbiton in New Zealand. Looking at how real places looked opened up more ideas on how to design, model and animate the island. All the images i have looked at during my research have all come together to create the Island and it’s complex.

Island Concept

In my Universe of ideas the Complex on the island i have chosen for my environment project is what started it all. About 10 years ago I made a few building out of lego and the idea has expanded since then to a series of building in a complex on an island. I still have the complex that i did my best to make out of lego. I felt it right that i should look to it as part of my research so the idea doesn’t fall too far from it’s roots and make it recognizable.

In the very early stages of making this complex in lego the complex was based in a crater on the moon, then onto a giant ship but as popularity of the Disney fairies franchise grew it inspired me to add a few elements to the idea, one of which being placing the complex all over an island instead of a small space allowing it to work with nature. Since then i have tried to draw my complex but drawing natural landscapes has never been my forte. The concept art I had drew before and during this project gave me a basic idea of where everything was placed and how it interacts with the natural structure of the island.

Unfortunately, most of the decisions to be made had to rely on modelling the island first and then placing the complex in, which lead to a few buildings either being cut out or drastically changed. Removing a building on the back of the mountain, teleportation building, brig, gun and heliport platform.

Environment Idea

For our second and final project for year 2 we were asked to create an environment in maya. This allows us to show that we are capable of modelling a location, add textures to it and add elements of nature into it. Examples of said elements are water, fog and trees. This brief of this project made me give a lot of thought into what idea I can do. I had many ideas from my universe but unfortunately only a few seemed suitable and had some design ideas. Some ideas that came up were an interior for a spaceship, a near-futuristic city and a fantasy island with a science-fiction complex. Both the Spaceship Interior and City ideas fell through because I hadn’t given much thought into them as much as I did the Island, not to mention most of the designs would be restricted to geometric shapes with mostly metallic textures and not have much room for natural elements. The Island became the best choice for this project because the ideas for it are almost infinite, includes a decent balance between natural and man-made elements and because the island is a natural environment it would allow me to have a challenge outside my comfort zone to model it. One factor that drew me towards the island is because in my universe of ideas, the complex is what started it all, it means more to me and designing it in my art style proved to be a challenge over the years so modelling it would allow me to see it and image it in a new perspective and a new light. The only thing that concerned me was the scale of it would be quite big for a maya project so i had to compromise and cut out a few ideas to make this work, not to mention find a few short cuts in modeling and natural elements. Designing the bird’s-eye-view of the island would be step number 1.

Character References

Here are some images I found on Google Images of various characters I based mine on and some that bare a resemblance to mine after the design process was complete. (Disclaimer: I do not own these images, they belong to their rightful owners.)

These characters include (in order of appearance):

Chef Hatchet (Total Drama)

Azog the Defiler (The Hobbit)

Drago Bludvist (How to Train your Dragon 2)

The Hash-Slinging-Slasher (Spongebob Squarepants)

Kirke (Hoodwinked)

Psycho Killer (Total Drama)

Leatherface (Texas Chainsaw Massacre)

The Creeper (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012)

Charcter Concept

Here are a couple of pictures of my concept art of my character.

Final Animation Playblasts

Here is all my playblasts for my animation can be found on my youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOLSh4-ElfEbPmFh354UYiA/videos