Cheating Textures

I'm not sure words can really express how excited I am to be finished with modeling. Not to say I wasn't having fun, but now that the modeling is finished it brings about new challenges to breath life into this character. It's funny how simple things like skin folds or wrinkles can make so much difference, but it says something about who we are. When we see an older gentleman with harsh lines across his forehead and deep creases stemming around his cheeks, we see someone who loves to laugh and has marked his body with his tales of joy and love throughout his life. It's a sublte but visual sign of the person before us and in many ways this is true regardless of if you're human or even a dinosaur. The little details speak volumes about us.

As you can see from the photo above, I didn't get too far with the texturing last night. In fact the majority of the night was setting up for this process. To texture a 3D model like a dinosaur, is a lot like drawing on an Orange. It's way easier if the skin were to be removed and flattened out. Now, assuming you cut the skin in such a way that it would be easily wrapped around the fruit again, you'd be in a pretty good position to create some really stunning artwork when the peel is flattened out. This is essentially what was required of our Gallimimus. Her skin was unwrapped and flattened. The pieces that belonged together were re-stitched together and after hours of work, she lied out flattened before me. It was a very important step, because next I began to hand draw the detail back onto the dinosaur.

Which is pretty close to where I left off last night. While she does have a basic color attached to her right now, that's not really my focus. There's this certain truth to Animation in which states 'Never do more than required'. It seems lazy, but there's an honest truth in that. The audiences will never know what you didn't do if you plan ahead to know what they'll be looking for. Adding texture follows much of this same thought process. When I modeled the dinosaur I knew I wouldn't be forced to create an over zealous amount of detail because for one: the animal would be in motion, and a lot of detail would be lost in the blur, and two: the animal wouldn't be in any extreme closeup position.

There's two aspects to the texture which are really important. The first is called a Bump Map. Which works to create the illusion of thin creases in the skin, much like the ones you'll find on your own hands. These are low intensity creases. The next step is using a Displacement Map. This is unique in that it actually displaces the mesh itself and will react properly with lighting. You can see this most notibably at the moment if you look around the arms of the Galli. But the combination of the two tactics creates a pretty well done skin texture.

The downfall in all of this of course, is simply the fact that it has to be hand created. While there might be an automated process for it I'll find in the future. At the moment I can take credit for every wrinkle you see before you.

More to come!

Muscles Groups

Quick update today, last night I worked pretty hard to define the Gallimimus' muscle groups even further and smooth out some of the rough areas across the body. From about the shoulders back I'm pretty happy, even the feet have come a long ways since the beginning. The fingers still need a bit of work, they're a bit too sharp and fearsome in my opinion. The shoulder blade needs to be refined too to make for smoother animation when they're curled up into a 'traveling position'.

The head has brought about a new set of problems. I took a crack at it last night, but wasn't too satisfied with the results I was getting. I'll probably start from scratch again today and see what I can do. The skull is a very odd shape, namely around the eyes. It's a very angular shape that softens into deep wells for the eyes and chubby cheeks. I decided against designing the mouth to open, the animals simply won't be seen long enough to bother putting in that level of detail.

Galli- Galli- Gallimimus!

It's nice to see progress being made on the Ranger Corps front. Last night I got the change to flesh out the body and feet on our Gallimimus Model. This might just be the first herbivore model I've ever made and there's some unique challenges in that alone. Rather than teeth and a certain about of 'snear' Gallimimus are all about speed and raw power. Which has meant a lot of emphasis on muscle groups and giving the Gallimimus the right look that conveys speed. There's a silver lining however when it comes to this model and it's simply the fact that you won't see the animal resting in place but running in a group. This is beneficial because I won't have to put an extreme amount of detail into the model, considering it'll be blurred anyways. Which means a faster turn around for production. What you're looking at now is a good first past, but the final model will likely have twice the level of detail when complete. The feet still need additional work, they have this odd shape in which the toes are thin, the heel is thick and the lower leg bone bulges- finding the right ratio is a bit of trial by error. Tonight, I'll begin work on the hands and head too- which will have come with their own set of challenges. The fingers won't be difficult and again aren't required to be animated too heavily, the head on the other hand will be defined a fair amount. Not that it'll be seen in any high resolution, but I tend to think people's eyes gravitate to the head of most creatures. So I'd like to see it moderately fleshed out.

Other interesting aspects of the Gallimimus I've learned along the way are in response to its growth patterns. The young often has shorter snouts and grew in length with age. This has lead to me to consider creating a secondary model, tweaked to be a sub-adult. It would be a minor variation, but perhaps needed variety for the film.

On the scripting front, not a whole lot of progress has been made. I've been putting a bit of thought into the storyline, but I haven't taken the time to sit down and flesh it out. The problem really comes down to the main antagonist. With so little time for this story (I'm thinking under 5 minutes) that puts a lot of pressure to focus on only one main antagonist, rather than two- which was the original story design (like a one-two punch). But who knows, I have a clever approach to involving two antagonists, but it's really a question of logistics. Not to mention this means double the work.

At the moment, the idea stands that a Ranger has arrived on scene to a truck crash. He realizes the truck operators are dead and the animal cages have been torn open in the chaos that ensued. The problem is what was on board- creatures that were on their way to be euthanized. Predatory creatures with teeth like serrated knives and deadly saliva filled with a slew of incapacitating toxins. Finding and killing them is the Island's top priority. The problem is the Rangers are already deeply involved in a security threat. The island has just received it's first Tyrannosaurus Rex and she's scheduled to wake up soon. It's up to our hero, with limited chopper support to hunt down the creatures before they can escape the area. But even with the advances of 1992 military grade technology, is he the hunter or hunted?

The other issue is physical manpower. I'd like to produce this was as few of people as possible. Two or three would be ideal and I have people in mind- but the problem is again, logistics. More people, more problems. I'd also like to keep the speaking parts to a minimum, but again this becomes an issue with ideas of never before seen dinosaurs or abstract concepts. How do we explain to the audience its mouth is full of toxins if we don't say it? Showing it opens up a new set of problems. In these cases I often look back to Metal Gear Solid, where as an audience member we met Solid Snake, a fielded agent who still had a million questions about the complexity of the the 'Metal Gear' world around him, much like the players. We might be able to field a similar solution here too- perhaps the Rangers in the chopper are experienced, senior members and our hero is still a bit of a rookie. But they provide invaluable radio support and logistics from the air.

That's about all the film notes for today however- hopefully I'll have a much more rendered out picture by tomorrow!

UNITE the Jurassic Crew!

I've spoken to the main resources behind the Ranger Corps production and everyone is back on board. We've decided to shrink the size of the production and instead focus all our effort in a much more intense easily manageable piece of pie. Better to not bite off more than we can chew. I've promised to start work on the script, an early first draft drawn from the previous versions of Ranger Corps. It's a little sad to see all that work we did fleshing out characters get trimmed and cut, but in the end it's really the direction we have to go.

I've already made a decent amount of progress. The 'intro' of the film has essentially been edited together and only a few special effects are left in the way of finishing it off. The speed of which this has been accomplished can be attributed to a few 'advertiser' tricks up my sleeve, namely b-roll. But using this footage has increased production value, by showing aspects I would never be able to film myself (like areal shots over Hawaii). Thankfully, with a lot of animated models previously being created, this means production time is going to be a lot faster in general. This does however provide us with a certain challenge. The script is being condensed and much of the 3D models I've created can and will be utilized. But in a sense it's almost like building this film around a checklist. Does it include 'this, this and this'? Good. That's not necessarily bad and if anything opens up doors to new animation possibilities- without the concern of over burdening myself.

The rest of the crew is on standby until I can produce the first draft of the script. I'm excited and terrified all at once, as every scene and word spoken has to directly feed into the story and move it along in a very direct manor- time is our limiting factor this go around.

In my last post, I spoke about consumerism and how much of a role it takes in Jurassic Park. It was an aspect we previously had in prior versions of the script, but perhaps until now it wasn't fully understood. I'm really excited to see where this line of thought will lead us down the road. In particular, I'd like to offer audiences a certain twisted humor, or dark irony in how this plays out in reality. 'When shit hits the fan- save the park, in the most economic form possible.'

Jurassic Comeback

I can't tell if I like this beer, or I'm just drinking it because it's beer. Regardless, this post isn't about the simply amazing looking Jurassic World, in which I'm super over excited for. It's nice to see after years of waiting- and being fearful beyond words that Universal would ruin the franchise for good (if JP3 hadn't already done that...) that they were finally breathing new life into the series.

No, this post is about a personal project of mine that I started well over a year ago. It was called Ranger Corps: Jurassic Park. It was an indie film and had a lot of heart. The number of hours are beyond measure that a group of us spilled brainstorming, writing and designing this film. It was a real genuine act of love and it was unfortunate that life got in the way. A lot of personal drama got in the way of production, namely people moving, women, work and a slew of other time obsorbing issues. Try as we did, it just never panned out.

Truth is, I've felt terrible about putting the film on hold. Though I feared it may have been lost forever a few times, I always believed we would come back to it eventually. But perhaps it's for the best things did get torn apart. Because it gave me time to reflect and look upon the concept with fresh eyes.

At Ranger Corp's core, the film was to depict a Jurassic Park under construction, about 2 years prior to the film Jurassic Park. We really wanted to show how amazing this park was going to be, even if it meant just sliding in 'master shots' of in-construction park attractions, facilities or beautiful landscapes. The idea was to celebrate this beautiful world that was being protected by a group of extraordinary Rangers.

But things have changed. I've changed. In the year that's passed I moved on from working at Starbucks and took a job as a Video Production producer. It's been a great opportunity and I love what I do. However, it's shown me the other side of Video. While the average film maker is worried about telling a message or making an emotional point- Video Advertising isn't. Well, not in the same way anyways. I've done a lot of promotional work and advertising. Even just creating Product Example videos are highly analyzed and orchestrated productions. Scripting just the right message with the right visuals, to give the product just the right value that will send the viewer to that purchase page.

So recently when I started about picking up this project again, it got me to thinking about all the things I've seen since I started this project and it got me to thinking about how much consumerism is really the selling point behind Jurassic Park. The novel and even the film make no point to hide this fact, the entire idea is wrapped around the 'theme park' model! But there's a certain beauty that escapes all from all this and lets us forget that Jurassic Park is a money making machine- or that's the intention anyways.

I usually brainstorm and script the hell out of anything I'm working on. Logistically it's the smart way of going about things- but this time I had something very particular in mind. I wanted to sell the same smoke and mirrors act to the audience. I wanted to shovel it into their watering mouths... and then wrench it all away. I want the audience to feel the warmth of the embracing blanket of majesty and discovery- to only jarringly have it stripped away to a much more raw reality.

To achieve this I decided to use some of the same resources I would use if this was any other product I was trying to sell. There were the 'money shots' of dinosaurs, and the filler B-Roll that supplements the message that's being sold. Add in a touch of music that conjures feelings of the classic 'Jurassic Park' magic and you're well on your way to achieving JP Nirvana.

The project is a ways from completion, the hard part is ahead of us. But with a little luck I can bring the crew together and finally make something of this project once and for all.

Jurassic World Ate My Lunch

Let it be said- Jurassic World's trailer that was released today was bad ass. After months of waiting and worrying my favorite childhood franchise might be ruined (again, Jurassic Park III anyone?) It was really happy to see the production quality appeared pretty top notch and the story seemed fairly solid. There's been a bit of pissing and moaning about a few issues, but nothing that can't be explained away.

First, there's been a lot of annoyance over the 'low' quality of the CGI in the film. While I admit, the CGI doesn't appear as top notch as even say 'King Kong' where I was extremely impressed by the lighting and textures of the creatures depicted. Lets keep in mind the film won't be released until next June and the CGI itself doesn't look poor aside for a couple of shots. The main gate in particular looks a tad fake. With such a span of time between now and the release there's no doubt in my mind work on the film, post production in particular is still chugging away- and that means the CGI will make improvements.
Another issue that's been circling the message boards has been the credibility of a made up dinosaur. This is a real fine line, because on the surface a 'genetically built from scratch' dino sounds pretty lame. But lets take a moment to realize that A) None of the animals in Jurassic Park were 'real'. They had already been altered. A fact I'm sure will be made clear in the film. B) Cross genetics isn't really that lame unless this thing has wings, spits venom and can survive outer space. Lets remind ourselves to be rational. The trailer as a whole looks very well thought out, there's no reason to jump to conclusions. The brief glimpse we get at the dinosaur itself appears to be very... well. Dinosaur like. I get the impression it's going to be fairly familiar- perhaps it's real threat is its intelligence.
The last issue I've heard is the fact that Chris Pratt's character is working with 'trained dinosaurs'. A fact that Pratt himself acknowledged sounded silly- and again, this is one of those ideas that sounds lame until we stop to think about it. First, lets keep in mind that humans and seemingly dangerous animals such as lions or sharks have managed to be studied in extremely close proximity. There's no reason to believe that the Raptors are simply killing machines, a fact I'm sure Chris Pratt's character will attempt to drive home. The second thing to consider, is that Pratt's made a point to say that 'trained' doesn't mean tricks as much as it means the broad sense of the word. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest the Raptors might be used as bloodhounds in a sense. Especially considering there's a dinosaur on the loose. On the flipside I could be wrong and maybe the Raptors are so smart they're using their relationship with Pratt for their own advantage. Sneaky bastards.

So there you have it. That's been my day. Oh and kissing Vanity without a beard f'n rules.