Projected houses

Both "dingy" and "posh houses" have been test projected using photos from the london locations scout, bump maps have also been used to enhance the texture. For a test we rendered out a colour and ambient occlusion pass and have comped them together. We did this to see wether the houses worked well together both in texture and exposure. The "dingy" street test has also been colour graded to see wether this look will work.

"Dingy Street Test"

"Posh House test"

Matte clean up and modelling the rich houses

Before beginning to model the houses for the rich area, a large amount of matte clean up was needed. This involved painting out people, railings and lamps as we would not want these to be projected onto the model. The following images show the original picture, the cleaned up matte and the resulting model: 

Modeling

So where are we at in the project....
at the moment we are in the modeling and projecting stage, after the test projections we knew we understood the technique so now it is a matter of modeling the location photos. By taking the pictures we model using them directly as ref. I thought i would upload the models i have done so far it is a long process as modeling is not my most favourite subject but its a learning curve and i have learnt alot about the different tools avaliable in maya. By doing this and projecting the images i have noticed that adjusments will have to be made to each photo to adjust the brightness so they all match.

"the Models"

i have uploaded a sheet of models done showing the front 3/4 view of the models and the ref image used to model from.

"The Models in a street"

i have also uploaded the models put into a street, a look we will have by the end of the modeling stage.

We do have alot of modeling to do as we will need alot of houses the piece dnt look repetitive. 



Alley Projection

"Alley Projection Test"



I have been testing with different ways of projecting textures for the alleyway, been testing with projecting textures from  photos and applying them to basic geometry this gave a look which we wanted and give enough texture detail to get away with such basic models. Recently i have been looking into producing even more detailed texture from the photo used to project, using bump maps created from the image by inverting a black and white image the texture of the brick worked perfectly

Comparing the original projected texture against the bump mapped you can see the detail that is extracted from the brick texture.

From this test i produced another projection using what i had learnt

"Street Projection with Bump map"                                                    



"Close up of the Bump mapped Surface"                                                                 

Blocktest

 

To Understand the Camera move we wanted within the project a rough blocktest was put together.The camera is one continous move so to get it roughly right at this stage helps to know what sort of shots in the greenscreen studio is needed and also the timing for the piece. As it is just a blocktest the scale of the environment is not 100% accurate but it helps us to understand the look so that we are on the same wave length with how the project will be put together hopefully.

Alley Concept

Spent the day on the alley both concept drawing and making an alleyway projection test below is the Concept.

"Alley Concept"

We wanted the alley to be very dark and eerie as Mr Hyde walks down it at the end of our shot We wanted him to be almost a shadow, Probably in the final the yellow fill light will not be there as it will be hard to green screen, matching the lighting in the green screen studio to the light created in CG. The alley is in the dingy slum street so tried to get this across in the concept.Again as a theme in the piece a blue filter was used and the snow covering the top roofs. Overall i think the concept works well and the eeriness is portrayed. As a late addition i added the mist at the end of the alley, I think fog will be a good thing to include within the project both to add creepy atmosphere and cover any mistakes made.

Concepts

In order to understand the look for our project the next stage was concept, using the ref images we collected the sort of look we wanted for the project was in our heads just needed it down and able to see. The concepts are of the London rooftops and Hyde's lab.

"London Rooftops"

this was an import concept as you cant gather roof ref, the novel is set within a winter period so we wanted a blue tint to be seen in the piece this blue gives the look the coldness required for a winter period also shown with the snow covered roofs. The houses themselves are dirty and dingy as Hyde's Lab is set within a slum in Soho.

"Hyde's Lab"

This concept was more to understand how a street would look in the piece, the houses reflect grime as mentioned earlier it is set within a slum so the houses couldn't look clean and pristine as it would not fit within the look. The Houses are cloaked in shadow a reflection of the eeriness that we wanted to create.

Locations to scout

The following locations were discovered using Google maps and will be visited to take projection photographs:

cleveland street
cavendish square
bedford square
clifford's inn passage by fleet street
donovan bro shop
gunthorpe street
The Ten Bells, City of London, United Kingdom + fournier street
Dean street Soho
saint james square
henrietta street for 'cobbledness'
southampton street - covent garden

Film Reference images

Project Brief

The project will be based upon the fictional book “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson. The tale is set in a wintry 19^th Century London and describes a male doctor with a split personality, one evil and the other good.

The piece will begin with the camera focussing on the character “Dr. Jekyll” in a window taking a potion. The camera will then pull out to show a panoramic view of London and will pan down to reveal that “Dr. Jekyll” has now transformed into the more sinister and hunched persona “Mr Hyde”, whom is walking into a dark alleyway.

The intended outcome of the project is to produce a visually stunning and realistic shot, which will last approximately 60 seconds long, based on the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The piece will incorporate live action shot on green screen with a cg environment of London by the use of camera projection techniques. The CG environment will be based upon the description of the London setting in the novel, and will be matte painted in order to give it a realistic Victorian ambience.