Close to finishing!

I'm almost done with the lamp animation, which is around 27 seconds long at the moment. I've also managed to improve the lighting and shadowing quite a lot, in comparison to the last few posts. Heres the latest single-frame render from just before the lamp approaches the box next to the brown table, before climbing onto it to reach the vase.

Larger Version: http://tinyurl.com/665enzo

Close to finishing!

I'm almost done with the lamp animation, which is around 27 seconds long at the moment. I've also managed to improve the lighting and shadowing quite a lot, in comparison to the last few posts. Heres the latest single-frame render from just before the lamp approaches the box next to the brown table, before climbing onto it to reach the vase.

Larger Version: http://tinyurl.com/665enzo

Improved coffee table

I've finally fixed the reflection problem on the glass table:

larger Image: http://tinyurl.com/2ezv7nw

 The reflection of the boxes get rendered on it now. The next problem is that the glass isn't letting any light pass through it and casting a dark shadow, but at least it doesn't look as lame as before. :)

Improved coffee table

I've finally fixed the reflection problem on the glass table:

larger Image: http://tinyurl.com/2ezv7nw

 The reflection of the boxes get rendered on it now. The next problem is that the glass isn't letting any light pass through it and casting a dark shadow, but at least it doesn't look as lame as before. :)

First test clip

Last night I did a short 4sec render of the lamp looking around the box its sitting inside of, in draft quality, just to see how it turned out. The results were good, although I had to export it as an image sequence, since the mental ray renderer doesn't have any kind of video format option (which I spent over an hour finding out).

I used Adobe After Effects CS5 (trial) to create a video out of all the rendered images Maya had created, which was suprisingly easy to do. Here's the tutorial I used to figure it out: http://www.vtc.com/products/AdobeAfterEffectsCS3/Footage/69370

And finally, the test clip of the lamp having a quick look around its box:

First test clip

Last night I did a short 4sec render of the lamp looking around the box its sitting inside of, in draft quality, just to see how it turned out. The results were good, although I had to export it as an image sequence, since the mental ray renderer doesn't have any kind of video format option (which I spent over an hour finding out).

I used Adobe After Effects CS5 (trial) to create a video out of all the rendered images Maya had created, which was suprisingly easy to do. Here's the tutorial I used to figure it out: http://www.vtc.com/products/AdobeAfterEffectsCS3/Footage/69370

And finally, the test clip of the lamp having a quick look around its box:

The one thing you can't live without

A TV! The scene of the lamp animation now has a television and a stand/unit to go with it. The TV unit isn't textured yet and still needs something to fill it, like a DVD player or something. Heres a render of it so far:

Larger version: http://tinyurl.com/39ooncx

You might of noticed the walls have a texture as well and that there is a skirting board around the edge to break up the wall to floor transition a bit. At the moment though, I'm finishing off the basics so I can get to work on the actual lamp animation and come back later to finish off the little extras and minor stuff.

The one thing you can't live without

A TV! The scene of the lamp animation now has a television and a stand/unit to go with it. The TV unit isn't textured yet and still needs something to fill it, like a DVD player or something. Heres a render of it so far:

Larger version: http://tinyurl.com/39ooncx

You might of noticed the walls have a texture as well and that there is a skirting board around the edge to break up the wall to floor transition a bit. At the moment though, I'm finishing off the basics so I can get to work on the actual lamp animation and come back later to finish off the little extras and minor stuff.

Furniture

It's been a while since my last post, so I thought I'd post a test render of how the scene environment looks so far:

Larger Image: http://tinyurl.com/2ejjl2z

The glass coffee table needs a bit of work because I can't get the boxes on top of it to show up in its reflection yet, and its a bit too shiny for a glass table anyway. The window is also missing, that will also have a glass effect on it and maybe some basic trees and a sky outside it to make it look better. The only things left to do after that are the sofa and wall textures, models for the light, TV, desk and shelves. After that I can start animating the lamp. The only thing worrying me is the amount of time rendering the animation will take, because it takes around 30 seconds just to render a static image for what I have so far.

For the glass effect on the coffee table, I used this tutorial to get me started:
http://www.spafi.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=468&Itemid=29

Furniture

It's been a while since my last post, so I thought I'd post a test render of how the scene environment looks so far:

Larger Image: http://tinyurl.com/2ejjl2z

The glass coffee table needs a bit of work because I can't get the boxes on top of it to show up in its reflection yet, and its a bit too shiny for a glass table anyway. The window is also missing, that will also have a glass effect on it and maybe some basic trees and a sky outside it to make it look better. The only things left to do after that are the sofa and wall textures, models for the light, TV, desk and shelves. After that I can start animating the lamp. The only thing worrying me is the amount of time rendering the animation will take, because it takes around 30 seconds just to render a static image for what I have so far.

For the glass effect on the coffee table, I used this tutorial to get me started:
http://www.spafi.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=468&Itemid=29