Jack in the Box | amberevans43

Jack-in-the-Box

This web page displays the results of modelling and rendering using Pixar's RenderMan Studio.

For this project, we were given the assignment of creating a Jack-in-the-Box with the theme of

"Fools and their money are soon parted."

The interpretation is left up to me and the jack itself could be any shape or form. I chose to do the medival tale of Man versus Dragon.

Dragons are mythical creatures known for collecting gold and jewels. Many men have been known to want to kill the dragon and take his spoils, even though it is a dangerous task. My story is that the man was eaten by the dragon and his money taken from him, thus the man becomes the fool.

Final Renders

Final Render - Full Shot Here is the final render of the Jack-in-the-Box.	Full Shot with different lighting. This is the final rendered image of the full Jack-in-the-Box with just the envorinment lighting.	Close Up A close up of the Dragon.
Dramatic Angle A close up of the Dragon at a different angle.	Close Up 2 A close up of the Dragon with the final lighting.	Close Up A close up image of the dragon with the environment lighting.
Front View of Dragon Front view of dragon with final lighting.	Frontal View 2 A frontal view of the dragon with the envorinment lighting.	Aerial View Here is an aerial view of the dragon and the cave.
Crystals A close up view of the crystals on the cave.	Close up of Coins Here is a close up image of the coins and bag.

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Occulusion Renders

Occulusion of Jack-in-the-Box Here is the occulusion render of my Jack-in-the-Box. *Note: If you look to the left of this image, you can see "floating" grass. See Problems section for more detials.	Occulusion: Back of Jack-in-the-Box Here is the occulusion render of the back of the Jack-in-the-Box.	Occulusion: Close Up of Dragon This image is an occulusion image of a close up of the dragon.

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Process

I began with box modeling the dragon. I have never been very good with modeling, so I started two weeks in advance before the first day of class.

Once the dragon was semi-done, I began adding other elements. The cave came first, followed by the grass, crystals, bags, and the coins.

Simple Render Image includes the dragon, cave, bags, crystals and preliminary coins. *I tried to add rigid body dynamics to make the coins pile up, but Maya froze and crashed every time I tried everything of the sort (I believe I already had too much geometry)	Adding Grass and Textures This image shows the beginnings of texturing.	Close up of the Bag Here is a close up image of the beginnings of a bag.

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The Dragon

The dragon proved to be more difficult than I thought. Like I said before, I am not fond of modeling, so creating the dragon was a lot of extrusions and "in the moment" decisions. I wanted to create my own dragon, and I felt like I accomplished that goal.

Reference Image 1 This is the image that I used to model the contours and shape of the dragon's face.	This image was used to model the dragon after.	Hard Edges The is the first dragon model with hard edges. (Number key 1 in Maya) *Note that small changes have been made to the final dragon model.
Smooth Edges The is the first dragon model with smooth edges. (Number key 3 in Maya)	Dragon Model with RenderMan Shader This is the finished dragon model with a plain RMSGP Surface set to surface color white.	Dragon with Displacement I had some problems with the UV texturing mapping. *See Problems below for more details.
Fixed UVs - Checker Mapping This dragon has "fixed" UVs with a displacement procedural checker texture map, with repeating UVs. The horns are a RMS Glass shader and the horn is a metal texture. *Note, I was just playing around with the eyes.	Correct Displacement Map This dragon has a displacement map of scales I found through Google. From here it was finding how much to increase the displacement for a better look.	Dragon Scales This is the texture map that I used for the dragon's displacement.
Close Up Here is a close up of the dragon's face after the eye texture was placed.	Dragon Eye Texture Here is the texture file that I used for the dragon's eyes.

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Problems

The very first problem that I encountered was with the grass. I have never used Maya fur before, so I did some research to figure out how to apply fur to an object. I started with the ground plane, and applying the grass was easy, but figuring out the settings was a little confusing. I changed the color, the length, and played with the baldness, scraggle, and thickness. At first, I barely had any grass and when I rendered the image, I had trouble with the viewport showing more grass than the rendered image. I finally figured out that to have more grass in the viewport, I had to up the Density in the Grass FurDescription and to have more grass in the render view, I had to up the UV samples in the FurFeedback Shape.

I ended up having more Density for the cave grass because there were more UV's.

The other problem that I had with Maya fur was that the grass was interpenatrating other objects. If you go to the slideshow below to the "Problems with Coins and Grass" image, you can see that the grass in going through the coins. When I looked this up, I found that you cannot get Maya fur to interact with other objects, only Hairsystems. I did not understand how to fix this, so I made the decision of moving the coins from the ground to on top of the bag. This way the interpenatration was less emphasized.

Another problem I seem to have is floating grass on the cave. For some reason, in a couple of spots there is grass that is disconnected from the cave, even though I have not set the parameters to make them "float". The length of the grass is very small and with little noise.

I still have these problems and will eventually fix them.

The Beginnings of Grass Getting the grass, started and figuring out the right settings was very difficult.	Getting Grass on the Cave I finally figured out how to get more grass on the cave. Now all that was left was playing with the settings to get a mossy look.	Playing with the Grass Settings I wanted to get a moss look to the grass on the cave. That required playing with the settings. This here shows me playing with the baldness, and inclanation. *Note, I have never used Maya fur before, so all this is new to me.
Final Grass with Final Lighting Here is just the cave and the grass.	Final Grass with Environment Light This image is the grass and cave with the environment light.	Lighting the Grass Upon lighting the cave, I ran into some trouble with the left side of the cave. The grass apears lighter and lit differently. I updated the RIB archive for the grass as well as the Shadow Passes for the lights. I finally figured out that it was the position one of the lights.
Problems with Coins and Grass At first, I wanted to have coins on the ground, but interpenetrating with the grass and coins caused me to rethink that.	Final Render of Coins with Grass I still had some interpenetration, but with the coins moved to on top of the bag, the emphasis is moved, so the "problem" is less noticeable.

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Depth of Field

I had a lot of problems with Depth of Field. At first, it was figuring it was just figuring out what to set the F-stop, F Distance, and Focus Scale at. Once I had the right amound of "blur", I had to deal with the small black squares on the cave. No matter what I did, they kept coming up. I set the pixel samples higher and higher, but I could not get rid of these black squares, so I scrapped the idea of Depth of Field. I do not think that it affects my final Jack-in-the-Box at all.

*Note: The image is smaller due to the fact that it takes longer to render images with Depth of Field, so I made the image size smaller to cut back on render time.

First problem with Depth of Field. Once I switched on Depth of Field on the camera, I began to have these black dots appear on the cave.

Conclusion

In the end, I feel that I succesfully accomplished the goal of creating a Jack-in-the-Box with the theme of "Fools and their money are soon parted." This project pushed through my limits of using Maya and figuring out how to correctly obtain the right look for the textures and lights using RenderMan Studio. I have definitely attained more knowledge about Maya and RenderMan throughout this whole process.

Jack-in-the-Box

Final Renders

Final Render - Full Shot

Here is the final render of the Jack-in-the-Box.

Full Shot with different lighting.

This is the final rendered image of the full Jack-in-the-Box with just the envorinment lighting.

Close Up

A close up of the Dragon.

Dramatic Angle

A close up of the Dragon at a different angle.

Close Up 2

A close up of the Dragon with the final lighting.

Close Up

A close up image of the dragon with the environment lighting.

Front View of Dragon

Front view of dragon with final lighting.

Frontal View 2

A frontal view of the dragon with the envorinment lighting.

Aerial View

Here is an aerial view of the dragon and the cave.

Crystals

A close up view of the crystals on the cave.

Close up of Coins

Here is a close up image of the coins and bag.

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Occulusion Renders

Occulusion of Jack-in-the-Box

Here is the occulusion render of my Jack-in-the-Box. *Note: If you look to the left of this image, you can see "floating" grass. See Problems section for more detials.

Occulusion: Back of Jack-in-the-Box

Here is the occulusion render of the back of the Jack-in-the-Box.

Occulusion: Close Up of Dragon

This image is an occulusion image of a close up of the dragon.

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Process

Simple Render

Image includes the dragon, cave, bags, crystals and preliminary coins. *I tried to add rigid body dynamics to make the coins pile up, but Maya froze and crashed every time I tried everything of the sort (I believe I already had too much geometry)

Adding Grass and Textures

This image shows the beginnings of texturing.

Close up of the Bag

Here is a close up image of the beginnings of a bag.

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The Dragon

Reference Image 1

This is the image that I used to model the contours and shape of the dragon's face.

This image was used to model the dragon after.

Hard Edges

The is the first dragon model with hard edges. (Number key 1 in Maya) *Note that small changes have been made to the final dragon model.

Smooth Edges

The is the first dragon model with smooth edges. (Number key 3 in Maya)

Dragon Model with RenderMan Shader

This is the finished dragon model with a plain RMSGP Surface set to surface color white.

Dragon with Displacement

I had some problems with the UV texturing mapping. *See Problems below for more details.

Fixed UVs - Checker Mapping

This dragon has "fixed" UVs with a displacement procedural checker texture map, with repeating UVs. The horns are a RMS Glass shader and the horn is a metal texture. *Note, I was just playing around with the eyes.

Correct Displacement Map

This dragon has a displacement map of scales I found through Google. From here it was finding how much to increase the displacement for a better look.

Dragon Scales

This is the texture map that I used for the dragon's displacement.

Close Up

Here is a close up of the dragon's face after the eye texture was placed.

Dragon Eye Texture

Here is the texture file that I used for the dragon's eyes.

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Problems

The Beginnings of Grass

Getting the grass, started and figuring out the right settings was very difficult.

Getting Grass on the Cave

I finally figured out how to get more grass on the cave. Now all that was left was playing with the settings to get a mossy look.

Playing with the Grass Settings

I wanted to get a moss look to the grass on the cave. That required playing with the settings. This here shows me playing with the baldness, and inclanation. *Note, I have never used Maya fur before, so all this is new to me.

Final Grass with Final Lighting

Here is just the cave and the grass.

Final Grass with Environment Light

This image is the grass and cave with the environment light.

Lighting the Grass

Upon lighting the cave, I ran into some trouble with the left side of the cave. The grass apears lighter and lit differently. I updated the RIB archive for the grass as well as the Shadow Passes for the lights. I finally figured out that it was the position one of the lights.

Problems with Coins and Grass

At first, I wanted to have coins on the ground, but interpenetrating with the grass and coins caused me to rethink that.

Final Render of Coins with Grass