I am dyslexic test shot

To get a greater hand on the style of the short film the production of a test shot was put into production. The main goals of this test shot were to experiment with combining of the 3D and 2D elements as well as experimenting with both tooner shaders and other more conventional texturing formats like that of a lambert. 

I started by created a large poly plane which I molded into the basic cave shape I was going for. After adding in many books and trying different variations of high and low polys I also experimented with different toon shaders and outliners to get a sketchy look that a 2D charcter would stand out on. 

Here are some of the renders along the process of this test shot.

    

book assets

I started to create assets for this project mainly consisting of varying types of high and low poly books. These would then be used by the other modelers when creating the 3D environments. Here are a few of the more detailed book assets.

Toon tests

As the team wanted a sketchy more monochromatic look for the book world environments I started playing with the paint effect tools in Maya and more specifically the toon shader and outliner. I started by applying this to simple book geometry to get a feel for the style of the project and to see if the toon shader technique was right for the project. Here are some of the results. 

  

I am dylexic

During the pre-production stage of the 'I am dyslexic' short film I was offered the role of head of 3D and VFX production and I gladly accepted this position. This meant in future I would be not only heading up the 3D environment creation, texturing and lighting but supervising the other artists as the project progressed

mountain tests

I decided to create some simple mountain tests to add to the teams growing pre-production work for 'i am dyslexic. here are the results.

book monsters

after some book tests I modeled some potential book monsters that could confront the protagonist of the short film along his journey. Here are some renders of the work in progress.

I am dyslexic book test

After joining the I am dyslexic team I started by created some simple book models in maya to start to find the style for this book filled world. Here are some early renders of these book models. They are fairly simple and yet despite this the high poly count creates a look that would swallow the character and so I dont think these tests were hugely accurate at finding the style although they were a step in the right direction and help develop later concept work.