The forgotten tests

So I meant to throw this up here a while back. Long ago, around the time of the first age, before the 3D fires were alive and burning, I began a rough 2D fire comp test...it turns out it's supposed to be played super fast - LIKE LIGHTNING...but fire instead, so it's not really what we need anyway. Also, there's a few strange artifacts going on that need tweaking obviously. I was also going to look in to having the paper blackening before the fire as well, but I see no reason for it now; thankfully the 3D fire looks like the way forward!

So there super slight differences in the timing here. When it's too slow it doesn't look right, it's supposed to be a fast wipe sort of deal.

This one's slightly slower but it's not hugely obvious.



So here's a few stills to help you get the idea.

Burning Paper Test 2

This time I converted John H's planes into curves, and used the curves as curve flows for particles, which became the emitteres for the fire. So, the net result is that the fire moves with and sticks to the original animated curl. From this angle, you can't really see it that well! Nevermind!

HD arrows

Dwarf Palace

Dragon Fire Test 2 - 3D Fluid Containers...

This time I've used an early version of Kieran's dragon with a quick and dirty rig animation. The fire this time is a 3D version of the 2D fluid containers I tried before, so there's a bit more depth to it etc. Still problems to be ironed out in reference to the way it moves along with the dragon's head near the end of the short clip etc. But that will come....

Tree-Hand Modeling

Started modeling the Tree-Hand which 'captures' the Eagle. 

Used one of the concept designs I had done previously as reference:

First version of the model - unsmoothed:

First version of the model - smoothed:

Wireframe:

Tried adding a very simple rig to test quickly if the geometry was going to do what we need the Tree-Hand to do:

Realizing that the model will be smoothed, in order to retain the sharper edges to match with the rest of the paper world, I added in more edge loops for the edges of the fingers/branches and roots. Elongated the branch/fingers slightly to add a bit more creepiness to it and this will probably allow more freedom for movement and entwining as well. Also modeled the second hand/roots which is curving in around the main tree-hand, based on the original concept design:

Discussed with others in the team about the hand looking more tree-like before it 'grabs' the Eagle. I suggested maybe adding more trees/branches behind it. These could then be entwined with the hand and then fall away to reveal the hand. Or another suggestion was to just make the finger/branches more contorted and entwined with each other before unfolding to look more hand-like. So there are a few things to try next!

- Lilly

A Hasty Lighting Test for the Town

I quickly threw some image-based lights on John's lovely buildings...the HDR imagess I found were mostly lighty- daytime ones, perhaps too bright for what we need?




Obviously the positioning of the buildings are not correct, I literally threw it all together to see how it would look.

And here's how they look without the Background images...

It's pretty rough. It will require a bit more time obviously. I'll maybe look into changing up the colour of the lighting and messing around with some things to make the light a bit more atmospheric.