Second year 3D short animation

new website + showreel

2010-01-24T04:23:00.001Z

www.mark-ranson.co.uk

direct link to showreel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKZAFE7ktiw

My DA portfolio

2009-12-08T00:43:00.001Z

for more of my work, please visit:

http://markranson3d.daportfolio.com/

2009-11-17T00:52:00.002Z

Faust makes it onto the inside cover of 3D world magazine!!! dell uses still to promote new desktop and ATI graphics

Youtube

2009-09-15T15:55:00.002+01:00

Videos now available on youtube in nice swish HD quality :) enjoy!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/LostArtist89

Faust Special Version

2009-05-29T20:53:00.001+01:00

Faust operatic/theatrical version from mark ranson on Vimeo.

Very Special Version of my film:

Music designed and created by tim Johnson from scratch for music coursework, creating an operatic/theatrical piece based around my film concept/idea

images not so important on this version, purely like a music video...

enjoy people, its rather special

Final Film cut

2009-05-15T09:30:00.001+01:00

"Faust" by Mark Ranson from mark ranson on Vimeo.

special thanks to globus music, tim johnson and all those who inspired me to push myself further than i ever have in my entire life

well... its all done ladies and gentlemen, and what an astonishing adventure its been.

No film day for me but all the same its been an incredible experience and id like to share with you all the final product

couldnt have done it without everyones support and motivation right from day one, believe me when i say im extraordinarily greatful to everyone who pushed me that little bit harder and gave me the passion to see it through

and with that in mind... i give you Faust, hope you enjoy

few more shots

2009-04-26T19:46:00.002+01:00

2009-04-23T00:22:00.002+01:00

Blood Drip

2009-04-13T23:32:00.000+01:00

Blood Drop Test from mark ranson on Vimeo.

blood drip

scene 1 shots

2009-04-03T05:43:00.001+01:00

Still shots for scene1

List of tutors seen

2009-04-02T21:59:00.003+01:00

as the brief states, "before easter atleast 5 tutors must be accessed for advice on your film" and quite rightly so. just for records and the boring jargon that follows the brief here is the list of the tutors seen, what for and the dates:

Neil + Malcom: dvice and help on modelling for wolf character - 04/03/09
Neil: advice and help on modelling for female character - 09/03/09
Martin: help with lighting first scene shot 3 - 19/03/09
Sol: Help with cloth sim for the tie - 24/03/09
Martin: Lighting/colour advice for all the opening shots

2009-03-29T06:26:00.001+01:00

Few updates of many, have to get the rest organized first....

i grew myself a proxy forrest if there ever was a miracle, MR proxy certainly is just that. forget walking on water, forget feeding the 5000 (unless it was with MR Proxy high poly fish)

obviously not finished just yet, need to play around with some textures, some better lights, some more grass here and there etc.... - rendered in 2 minutes flat top quality, and theres another half of the forrest behind the camera after that, mahhhooosssive stretch of running space

and a dagger for the love scene. sorry about the kack lighting i just dragged it into my watch scene and changed the colours, and it didnt like the reflection on the blade much. i decided to go abit greecian/romanesque for the dagger. seemed to fit the whole scene genre a little more.

Rigging, hair and lighting

2009-03-23T04:08:00.003Z

Lighting setup and hair. rigging in process. on schedual so far but its going to be tight!

Character updates/lighting test

2009-03-20T17:45:00.002Z

Character update: Face = final
happy with the design, i cant afford any more time tweaking his face. also sculpted a waistcoat, going back to the origional few designs. works much better for me as a character. still working om the shader.

Lighting Test: First scene. spoke to Martin today, quite happy with the feedback. all seems ok, only improvement is to put a slight highlight - very faint, on the bannister just to bring it out more. image has NOT been fusioned so hopefully when its all comped together it will look so much better after. quite pleased so far though - time to render the passes....

2009-03-19T00:23:00.002Z

anyways after having the weekend off to spend some time with the mrs ive been powering through yesturday and today and been churning out some little dodads for my film. updates so far:

we have... arrows, bout 100 polys each. i can max my pc out at about 1.3million, and i dont need THAT many so all is alright for that. shader is just quick but what id like it to look like-ish

a shiney sword, just on doing the map for the cross guard

and a bearded character. not too sure about the beard though, its going to stay until i can see it with the hair and if it doesnt impres me il shave it off.

done with hair and fur, not too bad from a far, really obvious from extreme close up...

also, tattoos anyone? i got the inspiration from constantine - keanu reeves, not the biblical figure. i felt the character itself needed something to add interest and a little mystacism, even more so.

quick clouds test using afterburn. i wont take credit for this il admit i used a tutorial file and just played around with the settings, but just an idea as to how id like the roof of my war scene

Colour and a Rose

2009-03-11T02:09:00.001Z

Right.... time for some hair

2009-03-10T02:22:00.001Z

woman final sculpt. im pretty happy with it, i dont want to keep going over this piece until its perfect model, i might be able to hide whatever is wrong with lighting. all in all im pretty happy with it so far. had some feedback from neil today about it and ive fixed some issues such as the fingers looking tense and the head being abit far forward (you were right guys)

i wanted the cloth to be very renaissance, not so much photorealistic but to have a sense of venus to it, as if its fraily just being draped around her, only just covering her, very suggestive and wavey. at the time the origional painting i did was based around the idea of the perfect beauty, highly inspired by greats such as Bernini, Bottichelli, Guido Reni and Angres, and such modern artists as Mary Jane Ansel

all in all... im rather happy with this piece

stranger shader i decided to use for the render, i went on a matcap download frenzy.... either way - enjoy....

Texturing Female Character

2009-03-09T01:13:00.004Z

texturing going well. had to model the whole thing again in zbrush because of my stupidity exporting out of max *Swearing frantically* but none the less ive caught up and got abit further with woman mkII

ignore the textured eye for now that will be a seperate entity eventually. its strange seing my 5ft 3 girlfriend stretched over what would be a 25 ish year old 6ft leggy model

Woman Character for love scene

2009-03-08T03:58:00.003Z

started on this character today. . i built the mesh in that pose because there is not alot of animation other than the neck and head, no flailing arms so i figured i would be able to get more detail in the sculpt rather than make a rig that would never get used..... total work time SO FAR 15 hours.

got the basic idea and shape down following an amazing tutorial i will try and find the link again for and post up

the whole imagery of this piece is based on a painting i did for ND as seen below.

2009-03-05T12:14:00.001Z

Faust ALPHA

Faust Alpha from mark ranson on Vimeo.

alpha. film starting to come together now more and more.... have a much clearer understanding of what the camera should be doing and how i am going to do the effects. animation and lighting is at a bare minimal at this stage

Pre Alpha

2009-03-02T02:10:00.001Z

Pre Alpha video. terrible animation and block characters but timing is better... alpha soon to come!!

Pre Alpha from mark ranson on Vimeo.

Animatic

2009-03-02T02:06:00.000Z

Animatic for film. Animatic timing is way off, roughly about 40 seconds longer than actual film but a nice art piece in general i feel. music is fully liscenced to use, special thanks to globus www.globusmusic.com

Animatic Full from mark ranson on Vimeo.

General info

2009-03-02T02:05:00.001Z

basically, i am obsessed with how and why the world, universe and everything in a whole.. .works! i am very philosophical, and i used to be highly religious, and believe me when ive done my homework on this. so in a way this film is about my passion and almost like a self reflected project. or so it could be seen that way, which is fine by me...

in a nutshell, my film has 1 main character, who at the moment doesnt have a name (doesnt really need one). all you as an audience needs to know that he is forever troubled by the questions of "what if" and "how" and "why", it is his passion and it drives him as a human to question everything. almost like a new-age faust just after he makes a pact with the devil for knowledge, and hes slightly regretting it...

There is absolutly no dialogue from the character, everything is pushed along by "a narrator" who is essentially his thoughts, speaking as he acts out whats on screen, driving the visual.

we join the character in his study, awake late in the hours of the morning, reading books and studying scrolls by candle light (rembrandt painting of the philosopher springs to mind at the moment), accompanied by the narration. and the idea is that we almost enter his thoughts. he snubs out the candles and it turns pitch black. at this point, we enter his mind. this takes over roughly 9 different scenes, maybe more or less depending on time deadlines. each of these scenes are going to be visual representations of what is in question. for example, i can question science over religion, time, love, war, mans ability to create (art), the fact man is still an animal, nature, good and evil, what it is that makes us human etc.... sooo many more i wish i could do

"Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici"
By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe...

Wolf

2009-03-02T01:42:00.000Z

Werewolf so far, coming along ok. fur isnt too bad, i didnt want to spend too much time on the details when the wolf itself is going to be very black and contrasting against the background, also fast moving

nature scene

2009-03-02T01:18:00.000Z

Nature scene on its way, playing around with the grass and foliage. textures and models not complete yet 100% but a good representation of what it might look like

Back Track of work, watch for scene 1:

character development

2009-03-01T19:50:00.000Z

character design and development

Old Design of study

New Design for Study

more back logging...

2009-03-01T08:45:00.000Z

Environment Concepts:

Blog Created - work so far...

2009-02-28T22:10:00.000Z

Character Design: