13/05 - Update

At the beginning of this week, I was discussing the layout of the fridge with Mikayla who is in charge of matte painting. While using the prop sheets we produced last week, we also had to consider how we would direct the viewer's vision towards our character through the use of clever prop placement (an example being an unfinished juice box with the straw pointing towards Butter). We thought another good idea would be to give subtle hints regarding the punchline of the animation within the background by adding a carton of soy milk. This would give the viewer a fun realisation as they rewatch the animation a second time when they discover the milk carton. 

During this week's group meeting, I was given positive feedback for the ideas regarding the little details for the layout. I was slightly worried that the first concept looked too crowded, meaning it would direct the viewer's eyes away from our character. However, the lecturers actually liked the idea, along with the various ways the background highlighted Butter. We will most likely go with that concept, unless we decide to take a few items out to emphasise the fridge of a student = should lack food....a little...>.>;


I also had to work on the much dreaded UV mapping and texturing of the plate. However, despite my initial hate towards the process, with the help of video tutorials and our Head of 3D Jerwin, I was able to get the work done rather smoothly.

Jerwin explained the smooth UV tool. Despite how Maya unwrapped the UVs in a way there would be the least distortion, the smooth tool actually cleaned the UV mapping by smoothing out the edges which allowed it to have a lot more accuracy to the original model.

Core of Rose before smooth tool

Core of Rose after smooth tool

Petal 1

Petal 2

Bottom stand of plate

Top, bottom and sides of plate

Jerwin recommended that I unfold the UV for the side of the plate to get a cleaner UV.
It would also make it easier if we wanted to add a separate pattern/texture from the top and bottom

Cleaned up UV map for the side of the plate

After creating the UVs, we found a texture online for a white ceramic with a few "cracks" to give the plate a more natural look, rather than giving no texture other than a shiny reflective white surface.

Also added the rose drawing to the UV texture ><

Adding a red overlay to the white ceramic for the roses 

Plate with the finished textures and resized roses.

This is the turnaround for our finished prop. Many thanks for our Head of 3D Jerwin for the assistance throughout the entire process, even up to adding point lights for the turnaround.

05/05 - Update

I actually ended up not doing much over break. I just thought about the props within the fridge because I wanted to give Mikayla a hand with the matte painting in the future. I also sketched the ideas this week as well as discussing with Mikayla what she had in mind with the layout of the setting. She was given the task of adjusting the layout because she has a better idea of the sizes of the fridge.

I also roughly added the butter model Jerwin created to the plate to get an idea on how large the butter would have to be in comparison to the plate model. Jerwin had already added rigging so I had to add a control which would allow me to move the model around.

Plate positioned with roses to the side. We should be able to see butter's
expressions fully.

The painting is covered quite a bit, but the amount that still shows
accentuates the butter and the "romantic" atmosphere

I also tried rotating the plate so the roses were placed in front, but this
covered his face. That would be a problem considering the fact that
our character expresses himself more through expressions rather than body language

After the group meeting with the lecturers, I was told that the roses placed on the plate looked slightly large. And because they're pointing inwards, it is rather hard to tell what they are from the front view of the plate. Also, everyone preferred the initial rotation of the plate as it allowed the viewer to get a clearer view of Butter. I also noticed that I accidentally made Butter lay on the wrong side, as he usually takes up the left side of the screen for the screen direction throughout the animation.