The Cog Project

an independent film by Colin Litster produced using BLENDER

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This is the website of an independent 3D animator, and film producer, whose main project is called 'COG'. Over the coming months I will post images, movies, explanations and tutorials about all Cogfilms productions.
My ageing hero's will take you to the beginning of creation, the 4th dimension, and through to love and retirement. ...... and hopefully make you laugh.
The projects are being produced in Blender, the OPEN SOURCE & FREE 3D creation suite, developed by Ton Roosendaal et al.

UPDATE

Nov/Dec 2007 Well things have moved on considerably since I last updated in October. I am now actually retired and about to move to the Yorkshire Dales. The real world rather than a photoreal one has been my priority over these 2 months. I have de-cluttered my house, painted walls, and cleaned to perfection, which has produced a great place to live and work (Blending). Rather than down sizing my wife and I are moving to a much bigger property which will give much more space to develop our creative talents.
That's not to say I have been totally Blenderless. After almost a year of little Blender work I have started again on my Cruel Sea short. I needed a lorry as a main prop to take Buoy to the coast. The lorry is based on a Bedford lorry of the 1950's and is being modeled using a workshop manual I found on Ebay. The Model needs to be quite accurate because of several close-ups so I am modeling to high detail for the entire model but will use simpler meshes for distant shots. Interestingly one can learn a lot about good mesh construction by modeling a relatively simple shape such as a truck body. You still have to learn to use quads rather than triangles to produce smooth surfaces. Knowing how to do this is much easier on a simple model rather than a complex face mesh for instance. I can recommend it as a easy exercise before you move on to your complex humanoid creatures with full face muscle animation.
Have a very happy Christmas and see you all in the new year, invigorated by new locations and challenges.
October 2007 Many of you may have wondered where I have been over the last 5 months. No updates on the cogfilms website. No tutorials that I had promissed. And no new work on any of my films!
Over those months the University, where I have been employed for the last 26 years, has got itself into finacial difficulties. With redundancies threatened and the prospect of possible financial failure of the university I thought it prudent to take a severance package while an opportunity was offered. As a result I am now officially retired from full-time work.
What does this mean? Well I have had to be focused on the fast changing situation at my old work and as a result Blending was almost totally abandoned. Although I will theoretically have more time to complete my Blender projects I have many more urgent things to concentrate on at the moment. I will need to cut down on some of my expences so this website will be scaled down somewhat but I still intend to document Cog and the Cruel Sea projects. I also intend to write more tutorials and perhaps even a book.
The Complete Blender Materials and Composite Bible

Thats if anyone would be interested?
The sadest thing is that I will have to miss the Blender Conference this year. I know it will be fantastic and hopefully next year I will be there again. More news as I get it.
Cog
May 2007 Its been a slow month but I wanted to put something here to celebrate the spring month and also to kick-start me into new Blender work for the summer. So time to get on with some Cog's Quick Tutorials. First up will be a more detailed look at using composite nodes to create 3D stereo views. That's both, Red/Blue, and cross eye, methods of producing a stereo image, or animation, in Blender. This tutorial will go much further than my presentation at the last blender conference. Look out for it next month.
To wet your appetite click the image to see a 3D stereo image of a kit town I am building for the Cruel Sea.
April 2007
I am frequently asked. What's the best way to support Blender development if one is not a programmer, or tutorial writer? Currently one of the best ways is to invest in the upcoming, Essential Blender Book. This book has been created by well known Blender authors and all profits go to the Blender foundation to support its continued development. So not only will you be able to support the future of Blender you get an extremely useful book packed with the latest information on creating 3D masterpieces. Roland Hess has had the difficult job of editing this valuable textbook so I know it will be both readable and informative. You can pre-order the book from the Blender shop

UPDATE:- BOOK SHIPPING JUNE 12th 2007.
March 2007 In my endeavors to create the sets and characters for the Cruel Sea, someone said to me that it would be easier to build a real battleship than try to recreate one in 3D. They had a point but I need a detailed flower class frigate for several shots in the short. So following on from last month I have now created a 'windlass' to go with the anchor chain. Based on large scale plans this representation is meant to show an illustrative look, as though from a book of the period. For those fascinated by 3D click the image above for a red/blue stereo viewable image. Now back to the computer to paint another 2 million rivets, a crows-nest, a lifeboat, etc etc............
February 2007 BLENDER VERSION 2.43 is published and what a fantastic update it is. If any of you followed the hectic irc conversations as the countdown to the release and update of the Blender foundation site, you will know how exciting it was. Better than any reality documentary. To celebrate the new Blender release I thought I would create a simple scene using several of the new features offered by v2.43. So this anchor chain is based on the new modifier stack options, to produce the chain as ably demonstrated in the demo video by zanQdo on the site. I have used render baking to create the AO pass, thats applied as a UV texture to the materials, and finally I have used the composite defocus node to produce accurate depth of field.
January 2007 Further work on the Essential Blender book involving some interesting and very interactive use of RGB Curves and Mix methods in the compositor. The possibilities offered by the compositor are truly fantastic. Over the last month I have had the opportunity to delve really deeply into its possibilities and have a vast range of exercises beyond the Essential Blender book. I will gradually create tutorials for these over the coming months although I need a short break after such a hectic writing period. However, I still have lots available for future updates but for now I thought I would give you one illustration from the book that might not be in colour when its printed. Click the image for a larger view. Very pop art and steam punk this month.

A very happy new year to you all. Progress on my contribution to the forthcoming Essential Blender book has been racing forward. In fact I have done more writing than Blending over the past few months. However, the development of Blender has been even hotter. One of the examples, in my composite nodes chapter, is a boiler room gauge that is transformed in post process to create the image to the right. I show how composite nodes can be used to reduce animation render-time while giving you total control over the result. In other words a tool that any striving 3D artist needs to understand to complete a masterpiece.
Click the image for a larger view.
For an example of the time saving power of composite techniques, utilized in an animation, go to the movies section to see the steam gauge in action.

The film is dedicated to my great friend Roger Finch who tragically died in 2003. Roger was an inspiration to many non-professional film makers encouraging them to dream, persevere, and achieve the impossible.