I’ve been fighting for my life trying to get caught up with my ceramics class (and have almost succeeded!) so a lot of my work on this project is going to be pushed to this weekend. In the last few days, I’ve gotten the beginnings of a block-out on the tower.
![](http://charlieoconnorvfx.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/towerprevel.png)
The cobblestone tower is created by copying flattened spheres of randomized sizes to points that have been scattered onto a tube. They start far from each other (see left) and are keyframed to get closer together.
![](http://charlieoconnorvfx.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/towerpostvel.png)
A Vellum simulation is set up with a soft pin-to-target-animation constraint, which creates the look of well-fitted stones (see right).
![](http://charlieoconnorvfx.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/towerwithmortar.png)
Merging this output with the original tube creates a base for the mortar, as seen at left.
![](https://charlieoconnorvfx.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/moss.png)
Moss is created by a denser scattering of points over the base tube. A small-radius attribute transfer from the stones removes the points in the cobblestones and VDB from particles & convert VDB give volume to the points. Point jitter and a mountain SOP add noise at different points in the workflow.
![](https://charlieoconnorvfx.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/towerstairs.png)
Stairs, at this early stage, are just a cube copied around in a spiral. Since I don’t animate and have to rely on Mixamo animations, the dimensions of the stairs have to be built around the animation, rather than vice versa.
![](https://charlieoconnorvfx.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tower1.png)
This is the basic blocking for the tower, including the character for scale.
![](https://charlieoconnorvfx.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tower2.png)
A closer view of the block-out. I do plan to bring it into Maya to do more with the modeling, but I started it in Houdini for the Vellum cobblestones and discovered that I currently have no Houdini license (apparently, the education licensing is down) and while I can work with Apprentice, it does not permit me to export geometry. So, over the weekend, I will do more of the modeling for the tower, as well as getting the basic animation and camera work laid in so that I can submit a sequence on Tuesday.
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