1st room mock up

Bear update

A New Beginning...

First design of my bear

Animation update

todays animation so far

1st day animating without environment

finsished environment with lights and motion blur

animation update

another arena animation preview

arena animation start preview

Robot with textures

The Arena

The Arena with lights.

The Arena without lights.

robot in house (no roof)

textures on the robot need to be adjusted to reduce render time even more if i want a speedy render. bump maps are looking on surfaces such as the brick and floor tiles on closer inspection.

Building set up so far

Generator (textures not finished)

bot update 4

bot update 3

Robot head 1

Steam test 2

Bot update 3

(just if your wondering... textures and colours aren't done yet.)

Steam test 1

http://youtu.be/ZBM8dRE18QE

robot update 2

Robot update

updated environment 2

I have removed the lights and changed the pieces on the outside that are less important to texture that takes up less render time. This differentiates the pieces watching and the ones playing. I have also take out the spot like to reduce reflections off the metallic textured surfaces.

This is the scene with a target spotlight on to make the scene more moody. Although this looks good, its quadruples the render time.

Robot leg with ik solver

Environment update

Already having a few problems with render time per frame due to the new material on the other chess peices containing raytrace on a multi surface object. Not to mention my idea of having a croud of chess peices watching the show... They don't add render time just from their material but from the amount of polys they collectively have.

Environment so far...

chess board

lighting shot of the chess board coming together.

Floor tiles

Steampunk floor development with photoshop. Later to be used on a bitmap for my environment.

Preliminary enviroment design

Chess

Steam Punk Chess Pieces

Character research

I like the idea of having a human looking robot with all the same features but completely robotic. I have been looking at different games and characters on there to give me inspiration.

I like the idea that my character lights up on being active. The other idea was that it didn't have the common perception of steam powered machinery with a chimney pipe but have the steam come from somewhere else like a mask.

This is a character from resistance: fall of man. I like the idea of my robot having a visible power source on its back that could also produce steam along with the face.

Metal is a big thing to consider about material. The texture has to be rough and look worn.

Steampunk

Steampunk is a science-fiction style created as a alternate history during the 19th century when steam was the predominate form of energy. It has been used in lots of different designs from concept art to fashion.

Steampunk is a really good style to make a robot really look like a like it is powered by itself. The movement of my bot must be quite clunky but deliberately clunky as if it is heavy and has come from the 1855.

I have a choice as steampunk style tends to be either American "Wild West" or British Victorian era. Both are very gritty but have the potential to be very different.

SteamPunk Chess Robot

Initial ideas of what this could involve by simply splitting up the words...

Steam - "The vapor into which water is converted when heated, forming a white mist of minute water droplets in the air."

The way i need to use the steam in my project is to make it seem like steam is powering my robot. Steam power was an early form of energy in the evolution of machinery. Thinking about this, i need to give my robot a style that could relate. 

General perceptions of steam powered machinery consists of large cylinders, lots of cogs, wheels, and smoke coming out of the top.

The steam doesn't necessarily need to just relate to my robot but the environment too. I could have an old factory where the chess will be played. This will go along with the "punk" style too.

I've thought about really going over the top and attempt to make it look like the whole place has previously burnt down and is still smoking. This will give more atmosphere to the scene and make the viewer think why it could of happened, potentially relating to why the robot is playing chess and not humans.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/C9WYjD_sS-Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Self Evaluation

As the producer of the film, I wasn’t expecting everything to go smoothly as I didn’t have faith in myself. The group thought otherwise and I took their word for it. Right from the start we all worked as a team to get the jobs that needed doing in post-production done. I thought I did a good job of making sure everyone had an equal amount of work through regular meetings and keeping people up to date on Facebook. I tried to make sure everyone had as much of an input to the film ideas as possible. Everyone did a really good job of keeping up with work and they knew their place. I managed to find us a good location and email him for permission to use the grounds at allotted times. I felt that we gave a good pitch and had a substantial amount of research, planning and ideas to follow through with.

Prior to filming, we needed all our props and actors. I made the mistake of not finding solid replacement actors if anything went wrong with the plan. It turned out that we lost both of our actors and the replacements couldn’t do the days we were filming either. Luckily the group managed to find other actors that we worked well with and looked good on camera. I feel like I could have had more of an input with props but due my limitations at university it didn’t make sense. I therefore tried to help out as much as possible in other parts of the film.

During the shoots I gave as much concentration as possible and tried to give my opinion as much as possible. I did this by helping the director with organising the actors, with positioning, how they’re meant to look and act. Trying to keep an eye out as much as possible for things that could disrupt the continuity was more difficult than anticipated due to the amount of equipment we had and having to keep moving it around. I realised towards the end that people may want to edit the film differently to the original so I gave the group the opportunity after the main shots the director wrote whether they wanted to film anything else for their edit. Everyone was happy to jump in and get what they wanted. I feel like I gave everyone in the group equal rights. This was a good and bad thing as everyone was chipping in in different ways, certain people weren’t established to their job and the sound got ruined, as it wasn’t concentrated on. Other things like lighting was a problem due to having a power supply and renting battery powered LED lights was a problem because they never had them in stock.

Suring the edit, I thought I could have timed myself better. I mean that I felt like I rushed it a bit and therefore hindered the look of my film. I do like the way it has turned out and a big part of that is the soundtrack I chose for it, which I think  works perfectly. Considering I’m not very confident with film, I thought that I did a really good job of leading a group building to a movie. We as a group worked really well as a team and I feel really happy about the finished product.

Location Scouting

I have emails a few places that i thought would be suitable for our shoot but one in particular seemed perfect...

Locations

To Marcus Pope,

I am a student at Nottingham University and we have been assigned a brief that instructs us to make a film thats location is the roof of a car park. Fletcher Gate car park would be perfect for our film therefore i am inquiring about the use of the roof. We would be filming at night from 17:00 - 21:00. We don't need to take up the whole roof and we are happy to work around the public use of the car park. We will have a car in the car park and of course, we would pay the usual fee of parking for that. We will have a camera crew, lighting crew, directors and props with us. There will be 8 of us in total and our actors will be mimicking a security guard and a drunken chav. We have no need to film any signs stating the premises. The props we will have will be a golf club, walkie talkies and cones. This is only a short film but if we can take any footage in this place, it would be a massive help.

Thanks,

Marcus Howard

Morning Marcus,

I have no objection in principle, however we need to ensure this doesn’t take place when there is an event on at the Arena, as the car park will be full.  Are you able to secure any certificate of liability insurance from Uni?

Marcus Pope | Parking Operations Manager

Nottingham City Council

Loxley House | Station St | Nottingham | NG2 3NG

M: 07534 603 056

T: 0115 876 3148

E: marcus.pope@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

Character Profiles

Andy:

An ex police man that has been relieved of his duties due to police brutality. He is at his happiest on the golf course by himself where he lets out his anger on the golf balls. He sees himself as a bit of a pro. He has never been married, but used to have a girlfriend that left his once he lost his job. He has no interest in finding anyone else. He had been unemployed for 2 years going to regular anger management therapy sessions and stopped going by his own choice once he found work as security guard in a car park. He has been working there for 3 months and has already had warnings from his superiors for being rude to customers and bringing a golf club to work every now and then. One particular night lights his fuse when he is at work on the roof when a car pulls up in a coned off area and refuses to move. Andy takes out his frustration on the man’s car and later on, the man himself.

Vinnie:

Vinnie considers himself a bit of a lad that can do pretty much what he wants and get away with it. In his early twenties, he hasn’t quite grown up to the society he should be conforming to. He works part time in his local corner shop but uses his parent’s house and funds for drinking and trying to impress women. He has secluded himself from his friends by getting drunk and being abusive towards them. He drink drives almost every time he goes out and picks up a different girl each time and tends to lose them by the end of the night. When he drinks, he becomes provocative towards anyone that approaches him. Little does he know that he is soon to meet his maker (Andy).

Andy’s colleague:

Takes his job a lot more seriously than Andy. He thinks Andy is a bit of a muppet and likes to take the mickey out of him from time to time. Despite this, he does respect him and check up on him to make sure he’s not causing any trouble.

Girl with Vinnie:

She is someone who likes to drink as much as Vinnie. She has only just met Vinnie before getting into his car alone to join him with drinking and joy riding only to find herself in the middle of an argument between her new found friend and a security guard.