Pre-Visualisation: Diner Props and Diner Set Update

 I decided to start created some of the props for the Diner scene. When deciding what props I would physically create in the scene, I need to consider a few things. First, with the current pandemic and many of us working mostly from home for this project, I needed to ensure I didn't make a very heavy scene that my personal computer would then struggle to process. Secondly, the props selected needed to be the ones vital to the story. For example with the mess created between our Moom characters, I had initially thought of food items like burgers and fries. However to create the mess, this would involve a lot of modelling individual elements of the meal and might be too much work for the time I have to actually make it, as well as adding complexity to what my graphics card would be able to handle. 

I decided to stick to drinks, something thats easily identifiable in the scene, easy to model and would definitely create a big sticky mess. So perfect for the storyline!

Alongside the drinks, I also decided on some classic mustard and ketchup bottles as table decoration and I had wanted to create some Neon lights for the diner walls. After speaking with Alan about how I would go about creating a type of light like this, he suggested it might be better to model them and apply a Lambert shader with the Emission turned all the way up to simulate a 'glow' since we wouldn't see any special lights in our playblasts anyway. (With the pandemic, we will be playblasting out our animations instead of struggling to fully render from home.) 

After creating the basic orthographics, it was time to take it into Maya. I actually really enjoyed modelling these, I feel like my skillset for modelling has improved so much since the first year and I was able to work out the best way of creating my props using my custom toolbar, working through it like a puzzle. While I was creating these, I also thought to make a basic tray for Moom Jnr to carry around the diner scene. 

For the wall texture of the Diner, I started creating a live music poster with a very 80's design to give the walls a bit more extra interest. Its instantly recognisable from the colours and shapes used that it's of the 80's era and I think it really helps give the set what it was missing. 

I decided to test render out another shot now with the changes made. It's looking a little dark here so perhaps I need to work on the lighting. But I'm pleased that the round lights that I used the Lambert + raised Emission technique on, really work here, showing a very subtle glow on the walls. 

I decided in the end to incorporate the neon lights into the wall texture, since modelling the signs added extra complexity to my scene and I wanted my computer to be able to run it without struggling. I felt the technique of the Lambert shader with raised Emission didn't add much interest to the scene anyway so there wasn't a huge visual loss by making this element 2D instead of 3D.