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Recreation of the Doctor Who Title Sequence Vortex, used from 2005-2010.
The sequence was created inside Adobe After Effects, using Trapcode Particular, fractal noise, vector blurring and expressions. These include valueAtTime() and wiggle.
The sequence has been used by other people on YouTube as part of their work, with examples found here
As a personal project, the TARDIS was recreated in 3D. The TARDIS was modelled and unwrapped inside Maya, textured using Photoshop and then rendered from Maya. The model was rendered in passes and layers from Maya, and then brought into Nuke where it was composited. The personal project was to work on modelling and texturing skills and to learn the basics of compositing in Nuke. As part of the project, a still was taken from the personal project of recreating the title sequence for Doctor Who, found here, and the TARDIS was composited into this.
Renders of the TARDIS model and composite can be seen below:
Recreating the Doctor Who Title Sequence: Compositing the TARDIS with the Vortex
Test video showing parts of TARDIS Model
RENDERING FOR DESIGN PRESENTATIONS
Overall grade received for module: Still to be marked
Grade received for practical: Still to be marked
Lecturer's comments: Still to be marked
The assignment was to take a pre-modelled Bike, unwrap and texture it and then render it with as much realism as possible, both in a studio environment and compositing into a photograph. The table below shows images and renders from various stages throughout the assignment. The given model was unwrapped, with the different sections of the frame split into separate UV maps, where the diffuse texture maps were then created in Photoshop, along with bump and specular maps also created for the seat. The materials were created, nearly all of them using the mia_material_passes material, and a lighting set up was made using area lights with mental ray shadows. The scene was rendered in multiple passes, including diffuse colour, specular, reflection and ambient occlusion, and composited in Nuke. These were then sent off to a contact of the Lecturer's in the industry, who gave their feedback. Based on this feedback, the materials and lighting set up was changed for the final submission. The Final Submission shows the four studio renders along with the composited render, which was set up using the matte_shadow in Maya and then composited in Nuke using Grade and Colour Correct nodes.
| Starting Object | First Render of Tyres | Unwrap Layout | Checked Unwrap | Frame Diffuse Map |
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| First Test Render | Second Test Render | First Final Composite Completed | Changing the Materials | Compositing in Nuke |
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 View a video breakdown here |
| Final Submission | Studio Render 01 | Studio Render 02 | Studio Render 03 | Studio Render 04 |
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Overall grade received for module: 73.6%
Grade received for practical: 76%
Lecturer's comments: You've completed everything and in each area your work is technically very good or excellent. Your modelling is good and considers detail and scale (mostly, although the stairs on the left look a bit chunky); similarly the texturing work is considering the placement and size of texture in the painting well [...] So given all these elements, I can definitely give this piece a first. However, I can't help feeling that the end result is somehow less than the sum of its parts. [...] Overall: I know this comes over as a harsh critique, the mark shows you that I thought it was a very good piece of work.
The assignment was to model a scene in Autodesk Maya which could then be projected onto, with the projections created in Adobe Photoshop. The scene had to follow a basic design, however could be changed and extras added as wished. Once the projections had been painted and the animation rendered from Maya, it was brought into After Effects, where the colours were graded slightly, the noise, chromatic aberration and lens distortion were added. A breakdown of the stages taken to create the final animation, before it was brought into After Effects, can be found here, before any changes were made in post production in After Effects.
Short logo animation created for The Gamer Studio to go in front of their videos on their YouTube channel.
The animation was created entirely inside After Effects, using multiple 3D layers, lights and Trapcode Shine.
Feedback from company: “Thomas works well and kept to his deadlines. He was creative during development - suggested ideas to further improve our suggestions and also strived to provide us with the best possible results. Very happy with the way Thomas worked and also happy with the video design he produced. Would work with him again.”
3D PROJECTION IN AFTER EFFECTS
Overall grade received for module: 80%
Grade received for videos and creativity: 81.4%
As part of the Visual Media Applications module at University, one of the tasks set was to follow a tutorial on projection and 3D layers in After Effects. After completing the tutorial, the following extras were added: dust particles using Trapcode Particular, blur effects using multiple adjustment layers, a lens flare using Video Copilot's Optical Flares. A breakdown of the video can be found here.
Grade received for module: 80%
Lecturer's comments: An excellent detailed model that shows a variety of modellign techniques being applied, good scale and proportion have been achieved as has the application of textures and the use of composition. Reference and render images are excellent and only the lighting needs attention.
The assignment was to take a door in context and recreate using Autodesk Maya. Using photos taken for reference and to include in the materials, the scene had to be recreated with enough detail equivalent to film standards. The video contains 5 still renders showing different angles and details of the scene and also contains a short camera animation around the scene. Each image was created using a diffuse render, a second diffuse render with a sun in the scene, an ambient occlusion render and a depth of field render. There are also 3-D renders of one of the still renders and the video short, using Red-Cyan Anaglyph Glasses.
A personal project to experiment with altering film to make it look like security footage. Using the tracker tools to track the icons and numbers onto the heads of the character, and using Levels, Tint, Noise and Displacement inside After Effects to create the overall look and feel of the piece. Video Copilot's Twitch plugin was used to create the twitch effect, and used on multiple layers to create the transitions between shots.
The teddy bear was modelled and rendered inside Autodesk Maya, with the texture and furs maps created inside Adobe Photoshop.
After the bear had been modelled and the mesh had been unwrapped, the different fur maps were used to determine the colour, the length and the baldness of the fur when applied to the model. The different stages of the bear (the basic model, the model with a jumper and then the complete model with fur) were then rendered, with the wireframe renders being produced by using contour shading and everything finally being composited inside Adobe After Effects.
The sequence was created using The Pixel Farm PFTrack, Autodesk Maya and Adobe After Effects.
The footage was tracked inside PFTrack, with the solved camera being exported to both Maya and After Effects. The lamp was modelled inside Maya and rendered three times: diffuse render, ambient occlusion render and a diffuse render of the lamp upside down, to be used to create the shadow/reflection. The renders were brought into After Effects where they were composited together and the camera exported from PFTrack was used to create the text used in the breakdown of the shot.