Apple Tree

Compared to my other trees, the apple tree is more focused upon and is the centre of attention in some shots. Because of this I needed to make sure that the design and make of it was detailed enough and didn't just rely on polygon planes with a texture on like the other two trees. I decided to create on leaf and then duplicate this several times, placing them around a smaller branch. When looking at real apple trees, there are smaller branches which contain the leaves and apples, that grow from the larger branches, I wanted to try and replicate this and it would also provide more depth and detail to the tree. Once each leaf was in place, I added a bend deformer and adjusted the curvature on each to give a different shape and to make it more unique. The image below shows the original leaf and how each smaller branch looks. From this smaller branch I then duplicated it many times and positioned it all around the tree. The colour that is on it at the minute is just for reference purposes, so I could distinguish the leaves from the branches. I will go on to texturing both the leaves and the branches in the same style as I created my other two trees.

My tree design adapted as I went through the modelling stage, I found that the branches needed to be separated more, and by looking at real trees it tends to be a common feature where the main body of the tree branches out into different directions. It's not fully visible with all the leaves on, so I may go back and delete a few in order to expose that area. With the original design I found that it was lacking somewhat but after separating the branches, it seems to have helped it a lot.

Apple Tree Designs

Compared to my other trees, the apple tree is quite a main focus within my animation. Because of this, I had to make sure that it was more detailed than the trees in the background and would be believable within its setting. It's a much larger tree than the others and has a slightly different design in order to stand out from the rest. It needed to be grand in terms of scale and in looks. I looked at real world apple trees to get a basic understand and I found out that the leaves and branches would spread out from the trunk quite a vast amount, as seen below.

As my piece is stylised in terms of design, I didn't want to fully replicate an apple tree, instead I took the idea of the leaves and branches spreading out from the trunk and used this in my design. To make it more interesting and organic I didn't want just a straight regular trunk, instead I curved it round which can make it more appealing. In Lilo and Stitch, all the designs are very rounded with hardly any sharp edges, this makes the characters more appealing as curved lines are more inviting that harsh straight ones.

Tree Modeling and Texturing

Using my designs, I created two different trees that would populate the majority of my environment. For the pine tree, in order to reduce the poly count I created the texture with an alpha channel which would allow for parts of the texture to be transparent. This reduces the poly count as I don't have to model each individual leaf section.

When using textures with alphas, sometimes shadowing can appear as Maya can get confused as to which areas are transparent. I had this issue and in the image below you might be able to see the shadow that occurs. To get around this Shadow Attenuation needs to be turned off, which can be found in the raytrace options under each object. The images below show the pines trees with shadow attenuation both on and off. It can be quite subtle sometimes, however to me it was quite visible and it needed to be turned off.

Shadow Attenuation ON

Shadow Attenuation OFF

To give the trees more depth and detail I wanted to create a normal map for each. I used a piece of software called Crazy Bump where you can input a picture of your choice and it will automatically create a normal map for you. You are then able to adjust certain attributes to give your desired result. I tested out bump mapping and also displacement mapping to see if either could create a better result, however the normal map gave a more realistic yet subtle result when compared to the others. I created the displacement map through Crazy Bump, and the bump map was a greyscale version of my tree texture I created in Photoshop. The bump map, I found was too harsh in some areas and didn't create a very realistic result, whereas the displacement map was too subtle and didn't show up very well. I have used normal maps on my other tree and will be doing the same with the large apple tree as well. 

Bump Map

Displacement Map

Normal Map

Environment Design

Looking at real world and animation examples, I've complied together a moodboard of images that have certain things I want to try and incorporate in my own environment. I like the idea of the tree somewhat overhanging over the cliff to give it more of a sense of danger, and a higher risk for the dragon to take before he climbs up it, examples are shown below. The aesthetic of the environment will have to compliment and work a long side the design of the dragon. For this I have chosen to have the trees somewhat realistic in terms of construction, but their textures will be a bit more stylised. It will need to feel as though it belongs in an animation and work well with the dragon.

Below is a quick mockup I produced in watercolours of how the two cliffs might look against one another. Each will have a forest and will open up onto a clearing, and the edge of the cliff. In order to get a sense of scale I'm planning on producing a size chart of the trees in relation to the height of the dragon. This will give a better sense of proportion and allow myself to scale object accordingly. I experimented with different designs of trees, some resembling real trees, while others a bit more stylised and unique. I think I'm going to go with a pine tree and one other in order to give some variance to the forest. The colours will be green as pine trees are evergreen trees and this keeps it somewhat realistic and the audience can easily identify with these as they are in our own world. Even though my animation includes a dragon which is seen as fantasy, I don't want the world to come across as a fantasy world, it should have familiar characteristics and foliage to our own world. I want the audience to be absorbed within the world and the story, and by having something that they can relate to, it makes it easier for this to happen.

Mudbox

I wanted to take my dragon model into Mudbox to create a more rounded shape and to also add a few extra details such as the brow. I had a few issues with taking my model into Mudbox from Maya, one of them being t-shapes. T-shapes are when three or more faces share an edge, and therefore cannot be subdivided. To get around this problem I found out that the major area for this was the wings, and because I needed my wings to be of the geometry I had already created, I separated them from the main body. I only imported my dragon's body and will attach the wings on again once finished.

Once in Mudbox I used the grab tool to start shaping my model and smooth off the round edges, from here I then subdivided it in order to add more detail when sculpting. Using the wax tool I could build up layers to the geometry whilst still keep the topology. I used this for the brow and also to add more shape to the legs. Mudbox is really useful for pulling and pushing parts of your geometry into new places, I was able to do this with much more ease than I would have been able to do in Maya. There are a few more things I need to tweak and work on with the model before I go onto UV mapping and texturing. I'm hoping to texture my dragon within Mudbox using the painting and stencilling tools, but I'll have to look into that further nearer the time.

Dragon Modeling

I've started to model my dragon earlier than I had originally planned as I'm waiting on a few other things to be sorted before I move onto my storyboards. With my Dragon model I'm planning to take it into Mudbox where I can add more detail through sculpting. At the minute I have the basic dragon shape minus the final eyes and inside of the mouth. I added in the extra details such as the spikes and wings because then I hopefully won't have to retopoligse my model. If you add on any extra geometry you will have to retopologise. I want to give my dragon a more curved and round shape and I think by doing it in Mudbox it will be the easiest way. In Maya there are tools to smooth and sculpt geometry, however it's not as accurate as I would like. Within Mudbox you are able to add new subdivision levels (creating more polygons) and this will allow more accuracy when sculpting, and also a high level of detail can be added.

You can see my progress below. Using the t-pose that Sophie had created for me, I was able to use this as a guide for proportions and details such as the feet and wings. As I was modelling I found that there were a few things I had to change. Once you start creating something in a 3D space, things may need adapting and in my case it was the feet/claws and how big the legs were. I was worried that the legs might cause some issues when rigging and animating so I have made them skinnier in the width. Right now my dragon is still very boxy but once in Mudbox I will be creating a more smooth and round shape to him.

Storyboard and Animatic

Below are my storyboards for my animation along with the animatic. I've tried to time out the animatic as best as I can and hopefully this will be used to aid a possible music composer. At the minute the animation will probably reach around the 2 minute mark (I always find my animation is longer than I originally anticipated from the animatics). For the storyboards I have taken my original story ideas and expanded them further, adding in more detail to each specific shot. As you can see, you can get an idea of how each shot will be laid out, however I haven't put specific camera shots in. I find that I work much better in a 3D space when it comes to layout and composition, so I will be doing this in more detail within Maya once every asset is created. I've tried to describe the key emotions that the dragon will be feeling as to give me a guide when it comes to animating. I will be referring back to my storyboards when I reach the animation stage, staying close to the original concept but possibly improving the composition of the shots.