LAUN603, EXTENDED PRACTISE, STUDY TASK 2c, PORTFOLIO BUILDING, LIVE BRIEF - 3, PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION OF BUG

AND FINAL FILM

Okay this is going to be picture based and not too much waffle about technical things just a brief story of how I made this loop.

car in viewport with green screen

solo rigged arms only as that was all I needed

lighting was all achieved using portals! basically a road hdri map attached to a dome rotating to create reflections on the car bonnet, and then a separate global light which is forced through portals into the car windows as can be scene in picture indicated by red boxes. This eliminates and random light that should not be inside the car or in scene, it gives us actual daylight coming through the windows and only that. (they look like area lights they are not the are Ai light portals)

bug rig placed on glass windscreen, this will be rendered out in an isolated fashion for comping.

Compositing

Loads of work here but brief list of what went on...

1. Match grain used to blend in the maya renders to the film footage
2. Legacy blur used to soften render edges
3. Motion blur used with legacy blur to bed everything together
4. Tons of colour grading on all layers
5. Key light used on green screen elements
6. Masks used on footage to create wing mirror reflections
7. Footage re time mapped to speed up
8. Jiggle expressions used to add movement to car

The main footage plate had to be 3d enable to move in the y axis so I could get the horizon line where I needed it in relation to the car.

The footage was then duplicated flipped and revers mapped so I could pout it int he wing mirrors! its real subtle but if you look close you will see the reflection is a frame behind the main footage and in reverse so it gives the illusion of the main footage been shown going into the distance in a mirror reflection. All compositing here is subtle but when put together as  whole makes it all bind together.

Things like the little textured sign I made and understanding of glass refractions and how to use alpha masks in Al and use of lighting are all key skills to take into my final extended film.

Here is a breakdown of the film compositing from my showreel 

VFX Breakdown of "BUG" from craig potterton on Vimeo.

Here is the final Loop submission

"BUG" from craig potterton on Vimeo.

LAUN603, EXTENDED PRACTISE, STUDY TASK 2c, PORTFOLIO BUILDING, LIVE BRIEF - 3, IDEA

loop de loop

"BUG"

For this loop continuing on with my theme of only doing things I can use on my showreel and not wasting time doing pointless gifs I chose to make this loop about trying to mix up my compositing skills and maya skills in a way that they both compliment each other.

Going all hollywood on myself I decided to ty out using green screens in maya and ten using key light to get rid of them in compositing, thus giving me the ability to render certain elements of my maya scene like skin surfaces with really high SSS samples but not have to waste hours rendering other things that do not need this many samples. Yes I have rendered things in layers to help along with this which is the easy route to rendering out complex scenes in maya but the whole point of this is that a-lot of the studios I dream to work for composite everything with green screens workflow, all the movies I love are all made using extensive green screening so it makes sense for me to practise the skills it take to be able to use a combination of them and maya together.

The Idea

Its a simple one guys, a bug on a car windscreen holding a sign saying been a bug sucks! but in true old school hollywood style I want to put in some car footage that moves about looking dare I say it really shit on purpose! Obviously there will be a-lot of work as in technical skills to blend these together but I still want it to look like the old school films where the footage is comped in on the car windscreen.

LAUN603, EXTENDED PRACTISE, STUDY TASK 2b, PORTFOLIO BUILDING, LIVE BRIEF - 2, PRODUCTION

Portfolio building animation

LOOP DE LOOP

BRIEF WORD

LUCKY

Production

Without boring anyone with hours of me prattling on about things I find exciting in maya that others probably don't, here is a brief summary of the production and what I have learnt..

Dynamic Curves

I was struggling to get my hair to properly collide with my meshes even when my meshes were converted to collision objects/colliders, after playing about I found when I was creating my curves that maya default added 5 cv points of each curve which in the relation of the long hair strands bending around a curved complex object simply was not enough cvs so I increased this to 20 per strand and it instantly solved the problem. I am mentioning this as there was no literature anywhere about this and the setting was hidden in a none obvious place in maya, so I ended up emailing the autodesk Q&A and got a good answer back from their senior xgen technical guy, I so was pleased with the response and also my own investigation to a solution to a problem that has been driving me nuts for weeks.  Sometimes you just have to dig.

Below is a clip of me driving my dogs xgen hair with the curves set to a bright colour so you can see the input attractions that each one draws on the hair and how it works. The hardest part in all of this is getting the damp and motion drag at the correct levels as again there is no set amounts or literature to how to set literally hundreds of options so it pure trial and error and sometimes frustrating as the slowdown even when cached is quite severe when driving so many curves all over the dog.

IMAGE PLANE FOOTAGE FOR THE PHONE

As for the mobile phone its not a mystery how to get footage onto a poly plane in maya using image sequences to texture a model so I wont prattle on about that but just thought id share anyone wanting to make a scene with love footage on using arnold then a trick I worked out was to plug the same image sequence into the transmission attribute of the shader and increase to about 0.500 as well as having the standard plug in to the diffuse for the basic footage! the transmission as you would presume makes the surface transmit light yet with the image sequence plugged in and to slightly overexposed then it makes the surface glow the footage from the diffuse giving a really convincing glowing phone or tv screen. As for the phone ringing footage it was just stock I took off youtube and then re sized in after effects to phone screen aspect ratio and then exported as image sequence.
A very subtle effect and you have to look close to see the phone slider ringing and the slight movement on the screen. I feel it is little subtle things like this that can really finish off an animation and just give it that final edge.

AS EXPLAINED BELOW IN MY CRAP INFOGRAPHIC : D

PLAYBLASTS

Below a trial run playblast of some animation set on the dog with all my hair settings refined, driving xgen hair demands lots of playblasts and test as you simply cannot get real time playback in your viewport so this process is essential and regular in creation.

I created sound in premiere then used that attached to my maya time slider to sync my dog barking and growling body wiggles to the intended track to be used.

Here is my final film rendered out with relatively high sub surface sampling and also high diffuse sampling to reduce noise on my hairs and especially in the volumetric scattering which gets pretty noisy when lots of lighting is used. I am very happy with the fine balance I got between high quality renders but also reasonable render times. These frames took approximately 12-15 mins per frame running on an 8 core workstation. The subtle lighting and atmosphere I created in the scene worked with the centre solo chair I think really focusing on the main object which is the dog the leading the eye to the phone. Good 3 point lighting and creating a well lit scene using light and shadow blockers and some Gobos on my lights to focus attention where I wanted really helped to get rid of that over clean plastic 3d look I have grown to hate. In a nutshell the old movie tricks of the hollywood golden era of how to set up and light a scene are more important in the modern era than we choose to 

remember, and something I am focusing a lot of my spare time reading and research to.

As for the hair dynamics not perfect but a good step in the correct direction and a huge huge help im my animation of my final extended film. Things in maya are beginning to feel more fluid for me and intuitive and a lot more fun these days.

LUCKY

"LUCKY" from craig potterton on Vimeo.

CONCLUSIONS

This process was purely to test my rig before paying for rendering on my final extended, but more importantly I feel these short competitions are a great way to use my models and rigs for promoting myself and my work online, when I put my so much work into these assets I feel I should expose them in as many places as possible. As for the dynamics 0

LAUN603, EXTENDED PRACTISE, STUDY TASK 2b, PORTFOLIO BUILDING, LIVE BRIEF - 2, IDEA

Portfolio building animation

LOOP DE LOOP

BRIEF WORD

LUCKY

For this brief I thought it prudent to combine my projects and try make use of any opportunity to problem solve and learn new processes which can be used in my major project. And as previously stated I do not see any point in churning out quick poor quality animations to pack out a showreel with as that is the complete opposite of what all advise on showreels tells me that I have researched heavily the past few months, the professionals say less quantity and more quality and so that is what I am aiming at. This all been said here is my idea or plan....

U have taken my puddin model that was part ready for my major film and spent some serious stime refining the process of driving all the xgen hairs with dynamic curves, and refining the key framing. Alos expanding my knowledge of lighting and rendering using volumetric scattering to create atmosphere, but more importantly this test was me getting familiar and ready for animating for my final film and having a clean workflow for the dynamic hair.

I took my model and adjusted elements of it and re shaded the primitives and other adjustments to the rig, I then placed her on a worn armchair and imported one of my hand rigs iI had made for my silas model and just re shaded it again to fit this scene. 

Inspiration

On researching the word lucky on google for ideas I stumbled across a famous phrase from Clint eastwood that is from a Dirty harry film which I know and love since I was young. The line is

 "so the question you go to ask yourself is....do you feel lucky punk"

This in mind and having decided I wanted to use my dog rig somehow on seeing my mobile next to me the idea just popped into my head to have a hand reaching for a mobile phone that isd ringing and the small angry looking dog is sat growling and twitching and then when the hand gets close it yaps and barks and the hand jerks away, and as this is a looping film it then nicely allows the dog to resettle keep growling and the hand come back in and the bark re initiate and so forth repeating.

The opening to the animation is a freeze card screen with the words of the quote and then it flows into the film leaving the viewer under the knowledge that it is asking the do you feel lucky to the person who is trying to reach for the phone behind the dog in the chair.

I find this humerus and sharp and more importantly will allow me to refine and learn new skills in animating hair and movement combined and also rendering techniques, and most importantly still giving me a high quality animation that is short and humorous for my showreel.

Here is the rig set up in the chair with the phone, in the next production blog I will show a few production details and the final film.

LAUN603, EXTENDED PRACTISE, STUDY TASK 1, STATEMENT OF INTENT

CRAIG POTTERTON – CP261246 LV – 6 LAUN603

 EXTENDED BRIEF STUDY TASK 1 RATIONALE

The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage

Overview of Subject / Development as Practitioner –

My intention with this animated film is to expand my skill set within all areas of 3 – D animation.
As I am still not happy to set on a specific role or skill set within this field I feel it prudent of me to enhance my knowledge of all aspects of the chosen medium. I love all parts of the production of a
3 – D film from pre-to post, so feel becoming a widely skilled animator will give me access to smaller studios where I can add an overall value as a multi skilled employee, eventually finding my feet in a set department in the studio, from where I can apply to larger studios with a more focused skill set and show reel. This film I want to show me off as a well-rounded multi skilled animator.

Story premise –

·      A sausage, a bird, and a mouse live happily together in a cottage in the woods, they are well off with many possessions.

·      The sausage cooks, the bird collects wood, and the mouse had to carry water, light the fire, and set the table

·      “He who is too well off is always longing for something new”

·      The bird starts longing for something new and fly’s into the woods and meets another bird

·      The other bird mocks him and tells him that the other 2 are at home chilling out and he is a simpleton for doing all the hard work

·      The bird was annoyed and moaned at the other 2 and said they had to swap roles

·      The sausage would now fetch wood, the mouse cook and he would fetch the water.

·      What happened next?

·      The sausage went into the woods and was met by a dog who said he was carrying

·      the wrong papers so ate him!

·      The bird flew out out see where the sausage was and saw the dog eating him

·      On moaning at the dog, the dog said the sausage was carrying forged papers and so lawfully ate him

·      He flies home finds the mouse cooking the food

·      The mouse goes to climb in the pot like the sausage use to and stir the veg with its body

·      Its hair and skin sets on fire and it is burnt alive.

·      In shock, the bird drops his wood which sets the house on fire

·      He fly’s to the well for water to put it out

·      When he drops the bucket in the well he gets caught with the rope and falls in and drowns and dies

Influences from other modules –

·      Cop - Motion capture / Facial rigging / Modelling

·      Smaller extended briefs – Lighting / Shaders / Textures / Rendering

In progress –

·      Treatment on script

·      Concept art

·      Character and set design

HERE ARE THE SUPPORTING IMAGE SLIDES  FOR THE 

PDF PRESENTATION HANDED IN ON THE DAY

COUNT 510

LAUN603, EXTENDED PRACTISE, STUDY TASK 3, PROJECTION MAPPING 4, FINAL FILM

FINAL FILM

Here is out final film for projection.

Evaluation

We where happy with the subtle 2.5 D effect and feel we captured the essence of the brief with an over colourful happy jolly xmas film. We utilised the connection with the lifting towers past as in the train, and we got in the Leeds skyline, and also the arches with the pride rainbow colours. Capturing the feel of xmas in Leeds was the brief and we feel we have ticked a lot of boxes.
The animation has a real old fashioned automaton style about it,
which we find find comical and was our intention.

LAUN603, EXTENDED PRACTISE, STUDY TASK 3, PROJECTION MAPPING 3, PRODUCTION

FILM CONSTRUCTION

Our breakdown of tasks was as so...

1. Rosie to draw the characters and train
2. Craig to draw the backgrounds and do layout
3. Together we will sit down and animate it in After Effects

This is out final layout in photoshop

2.5 D ANIMATION STYLE DECISION

Rosie was very keen on doing the project in 2.D and as this was something I was familiar with but not done for a while I thought it would be fun for us to work on this together 

and share some knowledge.

We split down all of our character layers and created the fake 3-D effect and then pre comped the heads onto the bodies in the scene and animated them all.

Finally we added snow using the red giant software at home.

I really enjoyed this collaboration again with Rosie, we have produced a great animation and had great fun with it.

LAUN603, EXTENDED PRACTISE, STUDY TASK 3, PROJECTION MAPPING 2, IDEA APPROVAL

FINALISED IDEAS

(IDEA APPROVAL)

After  our meeting with the guy from Lumen he liked out xmas train idea and gave us the go ahead  on it. And also like my idea for the hash tag xmas hats as he agreed it would not work on the tower but un be known to me he was going to be on site at the lifting tower with a portable hand held projector and wanted an idea for it.

Refined version for our presentation

I then did a cleaned up BG template in Ps for the actual animation

Leeds arches for colours

Skyline art inspiration

Colour palette

COUNT 100
RUNNING 848

LAUN603, EXTENDED PRACTISE, STUDY TASK 3, PROJECTION MAPPING 1, STORYBOARDS

STORYBOARDS

INTIAL IDEA GENERATION

(AND CONCEPT ART)

THESE ARE VERY BASIC THUMBNAILS AS WE ARE TO KEEP THEM CLEAN FROM DETAILS AND BUILD THE IMAGES FROM BASIC PRIMATIVES AS PER THE BRIEF!

STUCK AND UP SANTA

SANTA HAS A REINDEER TATTOO ON HIS BUTT

3 - D MODEL TEST 

I MADE THIS USING THE MOST BASIC PRIMITIVES POSSIBLE TO SEE HOW IT COULD TRANSLATE TO BEEN PROJECTED

HASH TAG YOUR FACE ON A HAT

LEEDS CHRISTMAS TRAIN 
(COLAB WITH ROSIE)

Rosie did these quick drawings which I then put into after Ae to make an animatic for us to work out if the timings would work on it.

It is very simple and shows us Leeds city skyline, the arches with rainbow colours and has a clear link to the lifting tower with the train connection. The characters will just be waving using simple anchor point animation Ae.

Timing Animatic

COUNT 120
RUNNING 748