Perspective and field of view tests

Some more tests and referencing done in my college's AV room. Here I created a set against a bluescreen and did some perspective and field of view tests.

Eye Loop Tests

Before I went into college to conduct some experiments with the magnifying glass I did a few experiments of my own at home using an eye loop. Here is the video of those tests.

Poor Mans Macro Lens

For filming of small detail what is used is a Macro lens, but unfortunately for me a macro lens is very expensive. So I had an idea to put a madnifying glass in front of the lens to see if that would produce some good macro results, and it did! Here are some pictures taken during the testing of the magnifying glass.

Location Scouting

I went location scouting for my video down by the river that is located near my house, each picture below is taken from clips that I filmed. I got some really good shots and some of them might even make it into the final video.

Texture Response Video Version 2

Here is a little video that I made so that I can see how the texture react to the lights..

Insect Mech Version 2

I reopened the Insect Mech Maya Files and had a revamp of the mech I thought that it needed an little bit extra of a propulsion system other then that generated by the wings so it could get away from something in a hurry, I also wanted to do a little more with the textures. Here is an image of the revamped Mech.

Insect Mech Version 1 Texturing

These images I compiled together, they are starting from the top;

1. The Color, Specular and Diffusion texture maps for mech version 1 excluding wings.
2. The Color Specular and Duffusion texture maps for the wings.
3. The UV snapshots that I used to create the textures in Photoshop.

Insects Composite Video

here is a little video that I did that is taking the compositing test further.

Version 1 Composite Test

This is a composite test that I did to see how well the mech fit into a photographic background. I uploaded this image onto CGnetworks Forums and got some great responses from it, so I figure the composite turned out well.

Insect Mech Version 1

Before I started college I have been wanting to make a film based around this insect mech idea. One of the first things that I created in Maya was this insect mech version 1. Below you can see the subtle stages that version 1 went through. This is the mech that I am thinking about using for my video but I am still thinking about creating another version of this.

Insect Mech's Moodboard

Now to start creating the insect mech that flies around in my video. First thing is I decided that the dragonfly is the type of insect that I wanted to model from so I got all the mood board images of the dragonfly's and placed them together. Then I would like the Insect Mech to have a look and feel of military jets so I searched and found a few photos that inspired me.

Storyboard images

Here are the Storyboard frames for those who would like to have a closer look at them

Storyboard Revised

Well I had a think about what it would take to make the storyboard that I just produced and the whole approach from outerspace would be to much to undertake with the resources that I have. I would either have to purchase some stock footage from space and from swooping from the cloads to the fields of I would have to create it all in 3D which can be done but not in the time frame that I have. So I decided to simplify the storyboard a bit and drop the beginning part.
Here is the revised Storyboard.

Insects Animatic 1

Here is the first storyboard for the insect video I am creating

Guyana Moodboard

Well I had a look around on the internet again and found some picture of Guyana, which is what I am thinking the backdrop of this video should be based. I the reason that I choose Guyana over the rest of the countries on the list is because I wanted a place that was foresty in nature and Guyana has loads of rainforest. Rain forest if dense and thus making it easy for these little people to hide in and remain unnoticed for all these years. Here are a few pictures that I took from the net on Guyana to serve as another cinematography mood board

About the Story

I have been doing some thinking behind the story to these little people that fly around in insect like machines and I think that a few questions come to mind.

1. Why do these people exist in the first place?
2. How come they have not made themselves aware to us humans?
3. How long have they been on earth, have they been around as long as we have?
4. If they chose to hide from us then where in the world would be the best place to hide, being the least population of humans.
5. Or are they right under our noses and we havent been aware of them at all?
6. Who are their enemies, and who are their allies?
7. What is their purpose or reason for flying around in military like insect mechines?

I think to answer these questions would be a little beyound the scope of what I am trying to achieve for my Final Major Project because I am aiming to achieve a display of skill as a special effects artist and not as a writer. So the important question is; Where would they live? this would determine the look and feel of the video because it involves they main charector flying an Insect Mech in and around plants and wilderness.
So I had a little look around on the internet and found out from several sites that the least populated areas in the whole world are Mongolia, Nambia, Australia, Botswana, Suriname, Iceland, Mauritania, Libya, Canada, and Guyana!

Some of these places actually surprise me because I didnt think that Australia would be the third least populated place in the world, and I certianly didnt think that Canada would be on the list! LOL. Below is a little chart that I snagged from the net.

Cinamatography Moodboard

Here are the mood board images that I have gathered from the Internet pertaining to the type of cinematography that I would like in my video. I find the world of the macro fascinating and see that this sort of photography could easily become a hobby for me. The next step would be to do some test on the compositing of the Mech onto an image and see how it looks

What should the Insect Mech look like?

I decided that in order to get an idea of what type of mech these small people would fly I needed to look into some of the insects that interested me, to model the mech off of. Here is the mood board that I created to give me ideas. In the end I went for a mixture of a few but mostly stuck with the looks of the dragonflies.