The Going Live Packshot

This is the packshot I helped shoot and composited as part of the course team project with Guinness and The Mill:

IB Lighting and Comp Tests

This is the whale from the Going Live project. It is set up to be lit by particular scenes.

Such techniques involving HDRIs and touching them up to light the character in a real life scene are very effective and much more interesting to me than just setting up Maya default lights by themselves and tweaking them... So this has been an interesting practice.

I have done a compositing test in Nuke here, matching the grain and colour correction of the scene. I am awaiting the texture/ displacement map/ colour map/ bump map for the whale. After getting these, we can do a test render and composite for one of the scenes... It should be exciting and better quality work than we have produced before.

Going Live | Guinness Packshot Tweaks

Ross has tweaked the pack shot to a style he has in mind. What is particularly interesting is the idea of the swirls creating the harp on the glass.

This should be finalised soon.

Going Live | Packshot Test

After our test, and subsequently lessons learnt, myself and Ross Douglas organised and executed the filming of the packshot. We organised to have the help of the experienced Malcolm Finnie, and I booked out the EX-1 and the facilities.

Yesterday we picked up our clear Guinness shaped glasses (x4) and today we filmed the shots.

We initially thought we would film a 'perfect' shot of the Guinness rising in the glass after being poured. However, it appeared with Malcolm's advice that a multiple exposure and combination/layering of the best clips would be best. So after stinking out the photography studio with booze, we bunged a few of the clips together, then I tweaked it in order to create a first test.

Here it is:

In order to create the swirling effect desired (in combination with the basic rising), and not waste cans of Guinness, we mixed the pint with a stick. This shook the glass a little, so this needed stabilised (this is still not perfectly executed). I also animated a mask to create the rising effect (I feel that we can make this fully rise and meet the head and therefore last longer). There is around five shots combined here in this test - set to 'Screen' with tweaked opacities.

We will have meetings during this week to discuss all of this.

I think this went night and day better than last week's attempt. Obviously a long weekend drinking Guinness in Belfast for my big brother's stag really helped!

A Plinth of Guinness

Special thanks to Alan Grieg in the woodwork studio.

Going Live Update

I have been working on several things during Going Live.

In the initial stages, I worked on touching up the storyboard, cleaning up and tracking a plate and getting Ross' voice over recorded with Brian Cox.

Since, I have worked with Sean on the pre-vis in order to finalise this, as I felt every meeting seemed to centre around everyone's dissatisfaction with it. After sitting down with Sean and working on the compositional layout, we met with the group the next week, and with a few minor tweaks, myself, Ross and team leader Sarah were very satisfied with the edit and deemed it 'final'. Everyone was satisfied with the composition myself and Sean created as well.

Myself, Ross and Isabel have had meetings and touched up the HDRIs in order to light the character within the environment. We have set them up in Maya with directional lights and final gathering and mental ray shaders, etc, and even added in some rough proxy geometry to create the scenes in a realistic way. I have also conducted rough Nuke comp tests. We will work on these more this week and once we get the final scale of the cameras from Jack and Sean.

Myself and Ross have begun work on the shot of the Guinness. We did what became a test run yesterday. We shot on a DSLR (video and photographs) and used what we could find to set it up. Malcolm Finnie set up the lighting. We were best reflecting light off of white columns rather than letting light directly hit the glass. We have since, after difficulties, countered our problems by requesting a custom-made plinth from the woodworking department to paint black; ordered a blank Guinness glass from the internet and booked out the EX-1, photography studio and Malcolm Finnie for next week. We also need to practice on our Guinness pint pouring technique, and cool the beer beforehand. This should be finalised soon, and here is a test photograph:

The Mill Visit/Going Live

On Thursday 17th of January and Friday the 18th, we had a visit with workshops and lectures from London based visual effects company The Mill. Our course at Duncan of Jordanstone has a good relationship with the company it appears, and this was the third time I met people from The Mill whilst studying here.

There were a lot of very interesting techniques with node set ups for computer generated lighting for visual effects to tweak the lighting using HDR images for image based lighting in the master class. We also discussed our studio work with them individually and as groups which was a good wee chat with likeminded and more competent/experienced people in our fields/industry. So, all round this was a good visit, well worth just blogging, and we will meet up with them again in April in London to have a look at our project we are doing with them.

My Belbin Profile

We got our behaviour within a team results based on our self evaluation questionaire which we answered last week.

My main results were as follows:

Plant - creative, imaginative, unorthodox. Solves difficult problems.
However, ignores incidentals. Too pre-occupied with own thoughts to communicated effectively.

Shaper - Challenging, dynamic, thrives on pressure. Has the drive and courage to overcome obstacles.
However, prone to provocation. Liable to offend others.

Resource investigator - extrovert, enthusiastic, communicative. Explores opportunities. Develops contacts.
However, over-optimistic. Can lose interest once initial enthusiasm has passed

Other results were:

Co-ordinator - mature, confident. Clarifies goals. Brings other people together to promote team discussions.
However, can be seen as manipulative. Offloads personal work.

Monitor evaluator - Serious minded, strategic and discerning. Sees all options. Judges accurately.
However, can lack the drive and ability to inspire others.

Completer finisher.
Specialist.

I am not:

Teamworker - co-operative, mild, perceptive and diplomatic. Listens, builds, averts friction. Indecisive in crunch situations
Implementer - Disciplined, reliable, conservative in habits. A capacity for taking practical steps and actions. Somewhat inflexible. Slow to respond to new possibilities.

Nickname: 
'An explorer' (secondarily a 'maverick')

My thoughts:

So, it is clear to me that everyone reading the descriptions for the profiles and roles can relate to them all in some way. It is a bit like cold reading in a sense but at least there are 9 different options and not just one. 

I took a similar test in 2011 with Dundee-based company Insights. They used a different technique in the questionare and were based more on personality defining, and so the profiles I got back were harsher as this apparently can't be changed it is in your DNA and the way you are, but nonetheless, again, true.

I only had two 'least preferred roles' in the profile, so I practically was competent in them all as the other 7 were either preferred or manageable. They say this is behavioural, or not a personal, evaluation so these things can change in the future. So it is likely, I believe, that these 7 roles will fluctuate in competency or preference through time for me. However, it was a good idea and as I say I do relate to the profiles and it does make you think about your behaviour in a team and where you can fit in, improve or where you are allowed not to be so great or as good as others are if you want to take up a particular role. I like the idea this can also adapt. I would agree with the particular roles I least prefer as these do not 'talk to me' like the others do.