Slow day, but effective

Today's to do list, slow one but it'll be done. Note: writing this on laptop while my scene is rendering (this will take ages so I'm gonna catch up on this thing called blog).

Here is a test shot of the bottles on the table. I'm still messing with texturing and lighting. This also not the opening shot, it's jut a test to get the feel and the look correct. It must be PERFECT! 'Well, in my mind it has to be.


The to do list: (starting to think about all the things i need to get onto the disc).

- CD must readable and well organised otherwise I am fucked
- May do a voice over (will explain this later)
- May include soundbyte from The Untouchables film (will explain later)
- Got to make the text for the scene (moving from 2D to 3D and back)
- Go have subway

The Voice Over

I was thinking about what else to add to the scene, and I was watching a TV show called Las Vegas and at the beginning of a scene they open with a voiceover. A light went on in my head, I thought 'why don't I have a voiceover arguement between two characters about how to get Al Capone. I'm going to look at the arguements in the film and use these for inspiration. I will make up my own arguement.

The Text

I am using 3ds Max to model the text (it's not Maya I know, but fuck it)

First of all I had to find the right font - this took awhile.
The first one i considered was 'Misproject'. This looked good in 2D, but when I tested it in 3D some of the letters wouldn't render properly. After this I tried 'Stereofidelic', which looked ok but there were some problems - the T had an arrow below it, which looked extremely gay. I also considered The Godfather text, but this didn't work in 3D plus it's already been used and I wanted to keep away from the Godfather at all costs. Then I tried 'Simplified Adobe Fix', which was just boring.

I found all these fonts by looking at them in 2D, so when I got to the end of the list and still hadn't found anything I went back and looked at them all again in 3D. While doing this I found 'Kodchiang UPC Bold' - which is a stupid, long name. This works because it is simple, to the point and looks good in 2D and 3D.

Color

I grouped the words 'The' and 'Untouchables' so I could apply a texture to both at the same time. I chose a white-ish grey, it's a universal color and it's easy to put into After Effects.

Background

I decided on a wall texture as the backgound - I got this from the internet, and it was the first picture I clicked on.
I started by putting a plane behind the text, I also put one spot light pointing at the text and the wall so that the text casts a shadow on the wall. When I rendered this it looked ok, but the background looked a bit flat, I thought it would look better if the bricks in the wall were 3D. Whilst attempting I had some problems with the white areas between coming forward when they should have been going backwards. I solved this problem due to my unrivalled prowess and instinctive knowledge of the universe.