Oil Lamp - Part 2

To make the flame I first choose the Sphere gizmo then I made an arc around the middle of the lamp. I only needed the flame pointing up so I un-ticked the hemisphere box in the modify panel which took the bottom part of the arc away. next I re-sized the arc so the flame would be the right height and width. I wanted the flame to be as big I could get it because the lamp will be quite small in the opening scene and I want it to be noticeable.



Next I added a Fire Effect to the Atmosphere and Effects here I experimented with shape and characteristics of the fire. I needed to make the fire look more like a single flame which was more realistic for a lamp. Finally I wanted to add a flicker to the lamp. I'm not 100% sure I want the flicker because the lamp might work better illuminating the old man with just a fixed omni light. As I was dealing with the flame now I thought I'll add the flicker now to see if it worked. I first set the frame to 300 and turned the auto key on then I opened up the the track view editor and changed the frequency and strength in the noise controller.



Now I needed to add some materials to the lamp. I wanted the lamp to look old and used to match the old mans house and the roughness of the story. I came across a nice texture of a sheet of metal with rust on, I added the texture to both the defused and bump maps. Overall I'm happy with the lamp but ill have to wait and see how the light looks when I add it to the scene.

Oil Lamp - Part 1

To make my Oil Lamp I started by making a couple of Chamfer Cylinder Objects. I turned the big one into an editable poly and cut the bottom off so it was flush to the bottom of the lamp.



In the next stage I created more Chamfer Cylinder Objects and started building the lamp up. The next bit was to cut out the inside of the central section, as this was where the flame was going to be.



Firstly I added the top to the lamp. This was made up of a sphere that has been chopped is half by using the 'chop' perimeter. Next was the central section, first I made three rectangles and put inside the central part of the lamp. I then used the Boolean object to cut the rectangle shapes from the cylinder, this was a bit of an experiment that didn't quite come off but I tidied it up by converting the cylinder to a editable poly and deleted a few polygons and straightened some verts.



Next I wanted to a handle and the support bar the were made with the rectangle tool where I bumped up the thickness in the render output. I was quite happy with the lamp so far next I needed to add the flame and hopefully get it to flicker.

Scene One - Rain

The scene needed more atmosphere so I decided to add rain, I started by adding spray from the Particle Systems drop down. I rotated the angle of the rain so that it would hit the Old man in the face as he left his house. I want the rain to be heavier in the second scene than the first so after experimenting with the parameters I think I've got speed, size, blur and count just right. Next I changed the colour of the spray to a bright white and a self illumination of 100.

Scene One - Hills & Background

To make the hills I first went to the Create panel > Geometry > Patch Grids > Quad Patch and drew a Quad Patch in the top view port. I now wanted to recreate the hills that were in opening scene of my animation. I did this by making two mounds on the object by using the Edit patch modifier and the soft selection option. I then added a Grass picture to the diffuse colour and bump maps in the material editor.




Next I added my house to the top of the hill by merging it to the scene.




In my initial story board I wanted a sunset in the background in which the sun going to go slowly down to give the effect of time passing. But now I have had a change of mind and I'm going to have the scene at night. This will give more enthuses on: 1,The light coming from the house and also from the Old mans lamp. 2, I can add rain and lightning to the scene. 3, The Old man is going to be more annoyed with these conditions, which adds to the story. I made a starry picture in Photoshop and then added it as a background. There is a possibility I might use the moon if the scene needs more light.

House - Design

I started by making a box object. I converted the object to an editable Polygon and deleted the the areas in which the doors and windows are going to be placed. I then choose a appropriate door and window and re sized them to fit the gaps. I choose a door that opened towards the camera as I thought this would look better.



Next I added the loft section of the roof by creating a cylinder with 3 sides for the inner section and by using the line tool I created the beam triangle.



The roof was created with a 3 sided cylinder I then deleted one of the sides this gave the same angle as the loft section. I then added a couple of boxes for the chimney. I hollowed out the top section so I can emit smoke from within the chimney.



Next I needed to find some textures for my house I wanted to make the house look old and weathered but not too dark because the scene was going to be dimly lit and the house is a big part of the story. I found a nice brick map but the colour wasn't right so I used Photoshop to give the brick work a white worn paint effect by changing some things in the blending options of the program.



I found two different wood textures for the windows, doors and beams which I used UVW Map to align the textures. I also found a slate style tile for the roof. I added the same textures to the bump maps to give the textures ab it of depth.