Final video

Here is a link to the final video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjRh3N1JuQA&feature=youtu.be

My input to the project was:
-Creating couple of jellyfish designs to choose from
-One color study for the jellyfish (concept work)
-Idea of adding a giant turtle
-Model of the jellyfish
-UV layout of the jellyfish
-Rig of the jellyfish
-Visual effects for underwater environment
-Plankton particles
-Plankton texture
-Model of the main character
-UV layout of the main character
-Rig of the main character
-Textures of the main character
-Lighting for 2 city scenes
-Modeling the lamp posts
-Buildings cleanup
-Textures cleanup
-Glow textures for the buildings
-Layout the jellyfish scene
-Animation of the jellyfish
-Adding city lights to the jellyfish
-Render of 3 scenes

City lights in jellyfish

As we got closer to the deadline, we didn't have time to fit every building we've modeled into jellyfish. So instead, I've created lots of cubes and applied the surface shader on them with some glow.

Here is a close up render:

Then I've parented the lights to the root joint of the jellyfish and imported everything to the dynamic scene. In the scene I've made quick animation. We needed a lot of animation and I've done as much as I could, so I ended up with 12 seconds of animation. The animation still requires a lot of tweaking and refining but as I had only one day to finish everything I rushed and the result isn't fully satisfactory.

Here is the animation with the plankton dynamics:

Lighting scene 3

As a base for this scene I've created four directional lights coming from four directions. The same as in the previous scene, the light from the right is pink and the light from the left is blue. They both have quite high intensity. The other two have colour between blue and pink and have low intensity just to get rid of black shadows. As this part of the city is the furthest from the tube in the middle I didn't really need any decay in the main lights.

Here is the render with only those four lights:

Then I've imported the lamp post and experiment with its size and light intensity.

Here is a test render:

Then I've duplicated the lamp post and placed the copies in a sensible places.

Here is a render:

By looking at this picture, I've decided to add some light coming from the glowing tubes to cast some shadows. I've created 5 pink point lights along the tubes.

Here is a render:

Then I've added textures to the rest of the buildings.

Here is a render:

And lastly, as in the previous scene, I've decided to apply the glow map to the windows.

The team agreed that this can be the final image.

Lighting scene 1

I was asked to do the lighting for two scenes. However, the only light sources in the scenes were the tube in the middle and the sun light. The light coming from the right is a pink directional light. But as this layer of buildings is the closest to the tube in the middle and I need some decay. So I've created an area light with linear decay on it. From the left, there is only one light coming and this is another directional light but with blue colour. I've also added one more directional light coming from the camera with very low intensity. This will get rid of any pitch black shadow. With only those lights the scenes looked quite boring.

Here is the render of the scene with only those lights in:

As you can see, the scene is very dark and definitely needs some more lights. Also the buildings need some textures.

I've decided to model some lamp posts and fit them in the scene. I was speaking about this idea with Simone. We've decided on the size and colour of the lamp posts. They will be very small compared to the rest of the buildings. They will be floating in the air and cast blue light.

Here is the model of the lamp post:

I wanted it to follow the concept of the jellyfish. I didn't lay the UVs for that, because it will be so small that no texture will be visible. Inside of the lamp post there is a cylinder with a surface shader applied to it with some glow.

Here is a render of it:

I've duplicated it and put them into positions we've decided with Simone.

Here is the render of the whole scene with the lamp posts in it:

Then I've noticed that the bump depth on the floor is too deep and the floor looks like water. So I've lowered the bump depth.

Here is the render:

After that,I've applied textures to the buildings.

Here is a render of that:

By looking at this image, I've decided to create glow maps so the windows are glowing creating an effect of the light inside of the buildings. I had small problem with glow maps. I thought that they are driven by black and white values of an image. But when I darkened the image the glow didn't change. I've figured out that the glow is driven by the opacity. I've set the window opacity to 20% and deleted the rest of the image. This has given me this result:

Everyone in the team likes this image and we've decided that this is the final one.

Rigging

After I lay the UVs, I've rigged the character. The rig is very simple, but will allow to animate the character according to the storyboard. For arms and legs I've used IKs. There was no need and time to make a switch between FKs and IK in the arms. Legs and feet are fully rigged as the character will be walking a lot. For the sine I've used spline IK. The hands are very simple. They have only one control to make a fist. All fingers move together as we don't need to move them separately. This has saved a lot of time. Also there is not many blend shapes. I've created few simple expressions: open mouth, blink, angry and surprised. Those blend shapes can be mixed together so they should be enough to follow the storyboard. I've also created additional skeleton for her hair. I want the hair to follow the body in natural manner. So I've attached the skeleton to the tip of the head joint and applied a spline IK throughout the hair. Here are screen shots of the rig:

UVs

Before I rig the model I want to lay down the UVs. This will allow the animators to animate the character before texturing it. This will allow the animators and texturers to work simultaneously. The model of the girl is made of five objects, so for each object I've lay the UVs separately. Here are UV snapshots:

Finished Model

I've added the eyes and the eyebrows to the existing model. Then I started working on hair. The hair was really time consuming and was difficult to keep everything in quads. But eventually I got it. Here is a clip of the wire frame:

And here is subdivided model: