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Texturing part1

In the past few weeks I've textured Khalid's building, his truck, my own building, and 7 of Sarah's, along with a relatively large number of 'extra's including a shopping trolly, lamp posts, traffic signs and more. I've also had an attempt at texturing the road, but Dan eventually did the final version, as I felt my texture wasn't good enough.
Khalid's building I was quite pleased with - I think keeping the windows unrealistically bright, and darkening most other things creates a really nice effect, somewhat John Virtue-esque.
My own building was relatively easy to model, though I don't think the result is all too impressive. One of the main fears I had with applying Dan's textures to everything was that his paintings are possibly too striking;

Having something strong in an otherwise dull scene can have a positive effect of bringing contrast, and creating powerful composition. Having a few strong elements in a scene is walking into a dangerous territory. It can come across as overkill, distracting, tasteless and confusing.
So going back to my building - What I've modelled was intentionally messy, but I found it difficult to make everything look distinctive and seperate when it comes to texturing. I realize thta the building is not likely to be prominant in any of the scenes, so I felt that considering how much work needs to be done, the result was satisfactory.

As I'm writing these lines I realize that my lack of sleep is really catching up with me. And my mind is a blurr, my sentances incoherent. probably better to continue this after I've had a bit more sleep.

Stuff

For now, this is stuff.
When/If I have more time, it will be detailed and explained walkthrough of my work.
But for now - stuff.

texturing101

Oh dear blog. How I've missed you.
I've meant to write you sooner, but I've been so busy, and everything was in the way and.. oh who am I kidding? I found another one..
I've been writing to PPD blog on the side, living a double life.

Anyway.
I did this a while ago, it's the texture on Khalid's building. I hope to finish all my texturing assingments quite soon. It's my first proper attempt at UV mapping and applying textures. The theory of it is simpler than the practice. So if you want some changes, let me know

Not entirely relevant, but what the hell - I went to see ‘Waltz with Bashir’ the other day, an Israeli animation about the first Lebanon War, told from an ex soldier’s point of view. 

Wow – amazing animation and quite a powerful film. It’s done in both 2d and 3d, though it’s done so seamlessly it’s practically impossible to tell what’s what. Not many animation films are as innovative and ground-breaking as Waltz with Bashir is. 

After the screening there was a Q&A with the art director - David Polonsky.  He came across as unusually honest, intelligent and modest; some of the audience questions seemed pretty odd and unfair (“Would you donate the income from the film to [such and such] Palestinian cause” to name one). In all cases, the answers were genuine and non-evasive. 

In the process of trying to promote your film, it’s often tempting to get swooped into the hyperbole machine. If there’s one thing that this night reminded me of is that honesty should never, and does not have to be, compromised anywhere along the creative process or afterwards. 

On the more practical side, this has also shown me the level one can reach with 2d flash animation. I’ve spent time since then refreshing my memory in the program. It’s proving relatively easy, considering I haven’t touched it for about 7 years. I’ve decided not to abandon 2D animation, and try to keep practicing on the side, as well as progressing in 3D.

 

 

Modelling is all done. They're quite badly modelled, in terms of movability or rigg-ability, but as far as modelling for the sake of decor goes, I think it'll do just fine. I liked Jared's comparison to a movie-set: from the right angle it looks amazing, but walk behind it and it's cardboard and cellotape. It's more or less the approach I went with.

Blah. Trying to learn a bit about texturing, UV thingy, bump mapping, and other stuff. I'm way over my head here, but hey - the first step to failure is trying right?