willmayo.com

Hi I’m Will, entrepreneur and designer. Welcome!

That Is Big

Holy. Shit.

Read more…

Posted on December 17th, 2006 with 50 Comments

Progress Report

Made lots of headway this weekend, good job as the deadline is Monday. Since the first scene the next few were a doddle, as everything was set up the way I needed it.

Young Child’s Room

Teenager’s Room

Broken Pig Glued Together

In The Attic

Next came the death of piggy, boxed away and all alone in scene 5. This was a little trickier because I had to build a whole new environment for it.

The lighting was very important on this one, I built the set with a fake door which blocks the light and will be used to simulate the light of the door opening in the animation.

Added props, boxes, suitcases, you name it.

Posted on December 10th, 2006 with 0 Comments

Making of the First Scene

This is for the baby boy’s room.










The final render


The animation will have the shadow of the mobile hypnotically spinning, and some lullaby music coming from a music box in the background.

Posted on December 10th, 2006 with 0 Comments

Setting The Stage

With the basic concept for the short story down, it’s time to start padding out the scenes. With each cut you will see the environment and the piggy bank changing, from the child’s early years to adulthood.

  • Scene 1:
    Begins in a small baby boy’s room, with a cot and rotating mobile. The camera focusses on the piggy bank, wrapped in a bow as a gift to the new born child.
  • Scene 2:
    Cot has changed to a small bed, and other props appear. A hand extends out to put coins in the piggy bank. This represents the young child caring for the object.
  • Scene 3:
    The room has changed to a teenagers, and loud music is playing in the background. The bass from this begins to shake the piggy bank off the table, when it falls and smashes on the ground
  • Scene 4:
    2 hours later. Same scene as before, just with the smashed object glued together, looking brittle and worn
  • Scene 5:
    The piggy bank has been neglected and put away in a box, left in the dark surrounded by clutter.
  • Scene 6:
    Rebirth of the object. Brought back into the light in a new baby girls room, as a handed down gift.

I’ve decided on a name for the short, forgotten. But piggy is remembered in the end, so all is good.

Posted on December 8th, 2006 with 0 Comments

Wee Planets

This set of photos is an ingenious twist on the fish eye lens. The stitching together of anything up to 80 photos gives the illusion of planet like globes.

Wee Planet

Posted on December 8th, 2006 with 1 Comment

Work In Progress

To get it as realistic as I can, I will be basing my model on a blueprint I found on turbosquid.

It wasn’t exactly the look I wanted, so I used it as a guideline for the initial mesh only.

The modeling and animation software I’m using will be Cheetah 3D, a great little app for the mac that does exactly what I need it to, and no more.

Here is the setup:

So lets begin…

Blocking out the mesh

Applying subdivision


Those ears are too big!

Shaping the face


What was I thinking.

Adding in eyes


I can see!

Beefing up the legs


If this piggy does one thing well, it is standing still.

Adding in the slot


Thats gotta hurt.

Adjusting the lighting and testing radiosity


Quick rendering test in an environment.

Radiosity light map


Its like dot to dot, but I wouldn’t give it to my kids.

Changing the colour


Mmmm, sweet porky pink goodness.

Finishing touches


I then created these materials in Fireworks 8 and used them as a bump map and spectularity map. Those are just small samples.


Modeling complete, added in hair line scratches and dirt marks for ultra realistic material extravaganza.

Posted on December 7th, 2006 with 0 Comments