Evaluation:

Right... not to happy with my work still needs a lot to be done even for a rough look..
Lighting is something I've found interesting but quite hard to match as well as getting the right look for my scene.
There is still a lot that haven't been done like proper building/houses and how they supposed to look. As for the period I wanted to go for was an earlier time were people transported different type of product and used to carry them out and traded among themselves.
I also did some reseach about the harbor and how it's changed so much over the different type of periods as well as the different type of rules it had at each age time..
Unfortunately due to the lack of time haven't been able to upload all my research material work (photos, textures, lighting reference images etc) which is quite a lot, and big in terms of sizing but I'll make sure to update at some point.
As well as other information I found on the web.

Other thing I found difficult was trying to get around my way of creating the objects as to get them right and not over complicate myself or the models so I can UV map and texture them with out any problems or any mix ups with the mapping.
Over all I'm happy I've learn how to create a water shader, it took me quite a while to figure how to get it right after looking at some tutorials but I think the water needs changing in terms of my displacement mapping and tweaking with the fractal material which I assigned to it.
Also very proud of my bump mapping which is something I've never ever tried and it enhances the texture of the model so much which is going to make my props and other models look more convincing.. But still need to work on tweaking those a bit to because the test I did as still a bit over exaggerated and could use toning down.
But I think I've learn quite a bit in these past few weeks that truly is going to help me out with this project.

Lighting & Pain..!!!!

Close to getting there..=)
Trying to get that sunset colour look on the water.


Experimentation with colours on lighting.. still a bit dark though..=/








trying to get lighting to showing on the sea and the houses











Tried using different lights to see what work better for my scene like Directional, Area & Volume lights. Each one seems to have their own unique look of lighting objects. But still need to get to know and understand how and where most of these can be used so as to benefit me best with my work.










Rough Block out..









As a lighting attempt I wanted to try and capture lighting when the sun start setting just to get those yellowy/orange/pinky/red/purpley colours.. to make my scene more interesting..!!!

These are some panoramic images I took of the harbor: Different angles..
took me ages to but these images together in photoshop.

Building Up my basic scene & experimenting with lighting and composition:









Creating a mountains using an image plane and altering the surface..






Creating the spiral shape of my composition using ep curve tool..













Water Lighting/ reflectivity:






Bump Mapping/ Texturing:






Creating and experimenting with a water shader texture:












Basic Rough model of the pilar:

List of stuff I need to experiment on

These are some of the things I want to experiment on as well as some stuff that Dan wanted me to do:

• some modeling to improve my skills in that area (e.g. Kyrenia ship, lighthouse, pilar.. etc)
  
• improve my UV mapping and texturing skills ( specifically experiment with bump mapping which I've never done, experiment on creating a water surface)
• lighting (reflection of objects onto water surface, match lighting reference of image)

The basic things I have to do :

• gather all information, research, visuals etc.
• create a basic block out of how my scene would look
• experiment on creating a water surface
• experiment on reflection on the water surface
• experiment on lighting and matching my scene to a reference image.
  

Getting started

As I was returning to Cyprus for the Christmas & New Year holidays, I had the opportunity to visit Kyrenia harbour and also the castle of Kyrenia, where I took lots of photos for the lighting as well as for textural aspects of my project.

Because I was stuck in Heathrow airport for 3 days, I wasn't able to get a head start and it was after Christmas when I managed to get to Kyrenia for the first time. I needed to pay three visits to cover all the material I wanted. It was kind of weird because going to the North, I felt like a foreigner in my own country ( you have to produce ID, pay 25 euros for 1 month's insurance to get across the 'border' into the Turkish controlled areas; all the signs are in Turkish - no Greek or even English - so navigating is quite hard ). Nevertheless, it was a great experience but I would have liked to have had more time to research my background more thoroughly.

Proposal

As an individual I hadn't had much luck working with groups so, as suggested by my tutors, I decided to do my own project. After discussion with my tutors, Dan & Mike, I wanted to focus on what I am best at in terms of 3D i.e. UV mapping/texturing and also on something I've recently discovered an interest in - lighting.

Mike suggested making use of my Cypriot background and specifically using Kyrenia harbour and Dan thought this would give me a good opportunity to demonstrate experimentation with lighting where I would try and match reference photos taken at a specific time of day to give better focus to my lighting work.

Intro

Hey Everyone..!! This is my other blog for 3 years where I'll be showing that stuff I've been experimenting on as to help my with my project.