Sunday, 20 November 2011

The film has been approved by my tutor, and I am currently getting everything ready for the final presentation. I am undecided when to upload the film, but it will probably be the week after the degree show. Anyway the film is finished and therefore the blog is also finished. I learnt a heck of a lot through the process and hope if anyone else reads this they will find some help in their own work.

So that’s it

All done

Wednesday, 16 November 2011

Added a new video to the website in behind the scenes, it’s a shot breakdown of the work involved in animating the one shot, from Animatic to final piece that would go into the film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzgHVG6sqS8

Also I have the sound back from Hal at Audio Mainline and the sound is superb. Very happy with it. So unless there’s any more pressing changes, I think I am nearly complete in the production of my first animated short.

Tuesday, 08 November 2011

Its been a few days since I finalised the film for sound, and have began looking over my work so far and categorising it easily for presentation. One thing I have not spoke about yet is the Facial controls I had developed for the film.

The basic UI is setup in combination from a variety of sources. The book Stop Staring by Ospia, although developed in Maya greatly helped in the creation of the floating UI system and flow for ease off use. Centring on the Complex setup of the book for blend shapes, and combing this with Paul Neale’s rigging DVDs to create the basic floating UI.



Each circle on the UI represents a joystick for the control of each section of the head and listed accordingly. All controls drive facial blend shapes (38 in all) except for the jaw control which is a combination of Blend shapes and bone movement (preventing such things as the teeth to show through the cheeks).



They work in a percentage so that for the controls working directly on a line, it moves a percentage of the blend from 0 to 100. However for the joystick controls, working in a square, they work directionally, giving a percentage on each blend dependant on location in the square. The controls also affect the tongue, but the eye controls float away from the eyes as a look at constraint with dialable pupil dilation.



Each joystick control’s surrounding shape keeps the control confined and also allows presets to be created. These are instanced to each other allowing complex blend shape setups by simply dialling in a developed facial emotion that may be reused, such as Phonemes on the mouth movement. Where any phoneme used can be saved and dialled back in at a latter time.



The setup, although using the same ui setup for each character, needs each blend shapes for each character developed independently, and any presets also saved independently. Therefore every character has a unique set of blend shapes and ui elements. With phoneme development being the last thing in the process to create, using the preset saves. This means that when developing the lip sync it can be made easier down the line by creating custom phonemes (based on Comet’s animation work http://www.comet-cartoons.com/ and the Stop Staring book by Osipa) when creating the facial rig. Of course this means more work in the build but in the long run it pays off.

Saturday, 05 November 2011

I have rendered off all the last sequences, adjusted the lip sync where it needed and sent it off to Hal to work on the sound. Good day in all. I got behind a little bit due to computer troubles but I am back on schedule again and beginning to work on my dissertation imagery at the moment. Feels funny not having anything to do on the film now!

Tuesday, 25 October 2011

Its been just over a month since my last blog post. The films coming along, I spent this month re rendering scenes with better lighting, and bug fixing. At the moment I am just creating the zdepth maps for a sequence where I changed the animation, for the character to appear more dazed. I am hopeful, dependant on render times, that I should have the film wrapped at this stage by Friday so I can send it off for sound design at Audio mainline

Saturday, 24 September 2011

I had a great tutorial on Friday which really pinned down the faults in the work or animation. After going through a new schedule I have about 24 faults to re render. The only draw back is the time it takes to render a sequence. But I am hopeful I can have these faults fixed by the end of October. Then can send it off to Audio Mainline for the mastering of the sound. The faults are generally lighting issues with the sss shader. Where around the mouth area there are noticeable red areas in the skin. Due to the backscattering working out the thinness of the mouth wall. I am compensating by adding more lights to the front of the character, thereby tricking the effect a little. So far it seems to work well. Also changing the inner mouth wall for some shots to a standard shader rather than a sss skin shader


On another note I think I need to explain the shadow workers. Someone commented the other day that am I going to change those characters as though they were placeholder characters. The shadow characters is an analogy to being a lost worker. Spending so long on the line that there real selves just aren’t there anymore. Where as George, although spending so long on the line, just sleeps through the actual work, perhaps dreaming of his time on the subs. They were characters I did create as with all the characters, although without any discernable features and just blackness to look at.

Sunday, 18 September 2011

Finished a trailer for the film and currently working on a dvd menu and poster for the film, before getting back into fixing the Ian bug. I am pretty confident that I can resolve it with better lighting around the front of Ian’s face. The only problem is how long it will take to render new sequences. Will be starting the last bug by Tuesday I think, since the poster and dvd menu renders should take all tomorrow.
Anyway here is the trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6S7EAoI16I

08 September 2011

Its been nearly a month since my last post. I went on holiday for two weeks and generally been fixing bugs on my return. Also began working on the dissertation. An area I will leave out of the blog.
Ok, so I am three quarters through the bugs. Last section of re renders I need to do then some star effects on other areas and that’s it. Its looking ok, I am going to complete this pass of it all first, then see how much time is left to re render the backscatter problem with Ian. I am currently happily on schedule. But with plans for a nice dvd layout as well for the film, a short trailer to produce also, I think I may have to crate a small schedule for the rest of the time till the final hand in.

Anyway
Onward

Thursday, 18 August 2011

I noticed today once the levels are adjusted Ian and Darren’s red back scatter from the skin tends to stand out way to much. A way round this would be to re render the sequences with it off. However I don’t want to lose the effect around the ears so a second way would be to create a back scatter map for the back scatter values. Keeping the areas around the mouth and neck quite low with the areas around the ears quite high. Since I have till December to finish the film it isn’t a problem with the schedule, and will start the new renders of those sequences after the other bugs have been fixed. Anyways onward!

Sunday, 14 August 2011

I am about halfway through re rendering buggy sequences and adjusting the colour levels of certain points. At this rate unless any other bugs are spotted I am hopeful to have this part of the film wrapped in only another week. I have 11 more sequences to re render. However 4 of those sequences are just adding star effects to the scene. Its going allot faster than i originally guestimated

Thursday, 11 August 2011

I have been bug fixing the film for the last week. About quarter the way though the bugs then will adjust the levels of the film to produce nice lighting effects and ambience. I am generally using the last shot showing on the previous post as a template for the levels to the sequences, and began working on each shot the other day. However I decided its best to do the levels once the entire film is finished so I can keep the levels consistent throughout. I tend to over expose the frames to give a nice light of the character and not the background. Perhaps if I were to make a film like this again it may be worth lighting these separately and rendering backgrounds and foregrounds separately.

I should have the film complete by mid September. With each shot needing re rendering taking about a day. With over 17 sequences that need fault fixing or affects added, I expect to have this part of the short completed soon. I would say it takes about 3 days per sequence

Wednesday, 03 August 2011

I have wrapped the animation side of the movie now and am only two days behind the schedule I had planned. I still have a lot more rendering to do, fix lighting issues and some bugs in the scenes. But all the animation work is done.
Over the next two months I will re render some of the sequences, for better lighting and some of the problems I have noticed (missing windows, missing green objects, bad lighting, hair problems) but wont now post the film online until complete.
I am also going to work out a title sequence for the film, in cg rather than added latter. With the title “on the line” attached to the door as it opens and fades out. It should look quite snazzy and in line with the rest of the film.
I had a few ideas for the titles, an animated line that went through the title, or different fonts and animations. But in the end decided sticking with the look it has now yet adding it to the scene so it appears 3d would suit best the theme of the movie. Quite simple but to overcomplicate the title with something that didn’t go with the theme would ruin the movie.

Here is an image from the last sequences

Friday, 29 July 2011

I have finished the sequence 119-129. A very hefty sequence and the last of the majors. Just one more shot to do.. well two but I am combining them again to finish off. Also began rendering off the sequence just created, and should be ready in another week.
The last sequence was very enjoyable to do, the last of the lip sync on the characters, i struggled with some parts, such as the movement of Ian’s earphones, but they work well eventually. Some distortion on his arm as it rotates but it works well enough.
First person views work well and the final poses of Darren as he enters the white.
After compiling the film for testing I noticed a few more problems, such as Darren’s hair flickering again for a frame in one shot. I have added it to the to do list, its nothing major and now I have figured out the sim better I can easily rectify the problem by rendering off the sequences again on just one camera shot. It’s the sequence where the office then Audrey then Darren fades out before the elm appears. I wanted to play more with that shot anyway since I felt he needed to disappear to black a little bit sooner.

Saturday, 23 July 2011

I have finished Darren’s body movements and will begin on Audrey tomorrow and Ian’s. Darren’s walk cycle I repeated a number of times to get it just right. Also his interactions with the door. In the end I relied on the curve editor more than hand animating in certain parts, and added a path control to the walk cycle so I could get his speed just right for that final sequence as he exits the building.
I have not added the elm moth star effect as yet since I am planning on taking all that as added affects latter. No doubt blackening off the scene so I can just work with the moth pathways, and add then as a screened layer.
Its near the end and this marks the final body movements of Darren, except for a very small sequence which I will tackle last.
Anyways Audrey tomorrow. I have a good idea of the body movements she will accomplish, and I expect it will take less than a day to create them, so I am hopeful I could have Audrey and Ian’s body movements wrapped by tomorrow night and then on with the facial.

Anyways….. onward

Thursday, 21 July 2011

I have blocked out the walk cycle for Darren toward the door, the door movement and set up the rest of the cameras today. Also I have been playing with the white effect at the end of the sequence. Using a cylinder linked to the door, it distorts as the door opens, encompassing Darren and the door with white. The effect is such that u can still see outside the windows yet Darren himself is in a white area. I am trying to portray the sense of achievement, of fulfilling the dream and a question, is he fading out to his dream world. The shot is only for 2 seconds but it leaves those questions there until Darren rides off on his bike and the Moth follows, a bond between the dreams and reality of his life.

Wednesday, 20 July 2011

With Darren moving off his chair to walk, there is a movement hierarchy between the chair and Darren, and then Darren will walk off and stand independent to the chair. To solve this I have rebuilt parts of Darren’s rig to allow for the chair interaction and for the walk also.
It’s running smoothly and I have animated George and began animating Darren. With his stand from the chair and movement towards the “it’s not about money” shot.

Tuesday, 19 July 2011

Sequence 119-122 I have decided to combine with the next sequence, so it runs till 129. Its just 30 seconds with a lot going on in the sequence. Darren walking of to his life adventure and opening the doors to white was a problem. In the end I have decided to add a sell illuminating half cylinder, (so Darren still has an area to walk outside) that is connected by a box to scale when the doors open, yet keep the same shape. Therefore I can add layers of white latter to add more glow. Creating a nice affect.
Apart from that I am taking this sequence a little slower. It’s the pinnacle point of the animation, where Darren says his “it’s not about money” bit. All that emotion and thought of the characters I wish to do justice to the action and reaction of Ian’s confusion and Audrey’s slip of anger as Darren walks out.
I guess this is the final main sequence, with just a few small fillers to add after. So I will be saying goodbye to my characters as I animate them.

Saturday, 16 July 2011

So far the render problem seems to be resolved by rendering off the shots per shot through the render instead of videopost. I have not checked them yet but looking at individual renders there doesn’t appear to be any major faults where the hair jumps. I should have that sequence finished for tonight so I am really only 3 batches of sequences behind from the actual animation.
For the animation I have finished shot 94-97 and am very happy with the results. Animating Audrey’s walk turned out well and gave me more practise in accents in walks. Hmmm also I noticed when animating Darren’s sigh it might have been better if I had a morph to bulge the cheeks. I didn’t and with the way the rig is setup I can’t add morphs this far in, so made do, but it would have been better if I had a morph for cheek bulge also.
I am learning so much with working with Visemes and am tempted to go back over a few sequences to clean up the animation after viewing it again now. Audrey’s first speech and Darren’s Elms shocked expression when the moth flies at him, and the moths angry expression as it nears. Apart from that and general adjustments to the lighting and effects, I should have the sequences animated by the end of July. Only 4 sequences to go :)

Tuesday, 12 July 2011

The patching process of editing rendered frames when the skin looked wrong worked fine. It was a little bit time consuming with about 30 or 40 frames in the sequence having the skin flicker problem. But I fixed it by patching up the frames using renders where the hair didn’t work correctly. I had yesterday off for my birthday and today and getting back into animating tomorrow the final four sequences. Next is 94-97 a quite complicated shot that I don’t think I have given myself enough time for. But I will work on it solidly for the week and try and cut the time it takes down so I can hopefully have the film animated by the end of July. This sequence involves again some character interaction between Ian and Darren plus Audrey working away supervising in the background. A nice shot but I can see the animation will be a little bit painstaking. But still as always very enjoyable.
The sequence I am rendering at present is George’s mad wake up moment… “our sub was like a ghost” etc. It’s a big shot, with over 30 seconds of animation to render and close up shots of faces plus reflections from Georges glasses. Consequently it is estimated at 370 hours at present. I am quite hopeful that it will drop as the camera pans of George. It is taking about 15 minutes per frame at present. It’s not a concern but it will be if there are any hair problems in the sequence, or shader problems. I think I could just re render frames for a skin problem, but if hair problems occur I will have to render off the sequence again.
On that note I have a thought that maybe, if instead of using videopost and rendering off each camera after each other, I could render it off using the standard render a camera at a time. This may fix the problem with the hair. If this sequence doesn’t work and there is a hair problem then I will choose this method to patch up problem areas.

Anyway heres a render of the shot as is

Friday, 08 July 2011

I am progressing smoothly with sequence 30-34. I have animate Darren, George and half way through Ian. Render wise I have managed to get through 3 more sequences but then ran into a problem with sequence 30-34. Firstly an animation problem where Ian’s arm clips through the box when shaking hands. It was easily fixable. But the second problem is Darren’s skin shader sometimes changes colour between frames. Almost like a shadow round the mouth area. I am thinking this may be caused by my reducing the spec weight of the teeth and gums. But it only occurs on odd frames. Possibly a reaction between the normal skin and the teeth inside that skin. I am going to attempt altering the settings of the renders (increasing the mem limit to 1500 from 650 and ticking placeholder objects) and see if that helps resolve the problem. If not I am hoping it would occur again on different frames. Therefore I can patch them together with the sequence rendered before.
Also another hair problem. However I believe this is due to the simulation having to recalculate when I up the percentage of the sim when he leans on his hands. I have lowered the sim values to compensate and it should work fine. If it turns out I again have the skin problem I can patch frames from the skin problem renders so it hopefully will work out ok. I am more concerned right now in getting the hair right between the renders and zdepth,

Tuesday, 05 July 2011

Finally finished shot 44 rendered only to find out I had set up videopost wrong so one of the shots was speed up to fit all the time of the sequence into one camera shot. A mistake by me but easily rectified. I am now beginning shot 80-86. One of the last shots when all the characters chat together. Also Audrey moth appears in the scene. The best way I can think to do this because of the size difference between the characters is to enlarge the background for the shot. Render it off, render off Audrey moth with the same lighting and compose them together after. Initially Audrey would speak and Darren would turn, but I am thinking if Audrey moth speaks half the sentence it would look a lot better and more amusing.
Looking back on 44 again. I had set up layers for lighting effects of the ceiling lights. Giving it more blur etc. But it just detracts from the sequence with the eyes automatically looking at the brightest areas. Sooo I wont be doing anymore ceiling light effects. It just doesn’t work well. For such a subtle effect I don’t think its worth the extra days rendering to get it right.
Here’s an image to show what I mean



My eyes look straight at the ceiling


Its only very subtle but I do think the lights with out that blur works better.

Hmmm OH!
My film so far
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BbY3LNAgN0

Saturday, 02 July 2011

I am half way through sequence 115-118. Only 6 more sequences to go, but it is taking a lot longer to render due to mistakes than I believed it would. Mainly the hair simulation errors. So with the last sequence which has taken over 3 weeks to render so far due to mistakes, I still need to re-render one of the camera shots. 200 frames. Probably another day to 2 and a latter frame where the simulation jumps. Just one frame but it is noticeable. I am thinking of trying to patch these up from the exact time the simulation has problems. The simulation seems buggy like this. Why it doesn’t recalculate from the start when rendering off another sequence I am not sure. However if the sim resets after these jumps I can go back and render the areas of problems, without having to redo the zdepth. Luckily with the same settings it does render the same sequence after being reset. I noticed some of these jumps in the hair in other areas of the animation that I will have to re render but taking out just the areas of the problem and patching up with new renders works well. Either way I decided just to re-render one of the camera shots and hope it is the same simulation as the Darren and Audrey shots I have already rendered so I can put them together.

Also I had to up the memory limit for the sequences and using placeholder objects since the scenes would crash due to memory errors.
Anyway I am currently rather worried about the render times. Realistically I need the sequences wrapped and rendered soon so the sound professional can mix and edit the levels and fit it all accordingly.

On this sequence I have animated Georges facial features a number of times now. I am just trying to get a look of just waken and saying his words of wisdom. I tended to keep his eyes and brows to closed which caused him to look annoyed. Hopefully I have changed it enough to portray the emotions I want him to convey. Also added a little twitchiness to his mouth during speech. It looks good therefore am going back over the previous George sequence to incorporate the same things (they have not been rendered yet).

Wednesday, 29 June 2011 (latter on)

Sequence 58_65 finished!!

Wednesday, 29 June 2011

I am currently working on the lip sync to Ian and Darren from the shots 58-65. Its going well and finding it easier over time to pick out the necessary mouth movements for a set of speech and then the less important Visemes in-between. George was such a wonderful character action to animate and lip sync to. With his eye movement, lip sync and body I really tried to emphasise the quick confused state he was in as he wakes from a dream. It works well I think, with the only problem being the camera timing not working to well in the final animation. I would like to show all of Georges speech on screen framed in the camera, however to do this mean I would lose Darren’s turn back to Georges speech. Therefore it looks like Darren is ignoring him and staring at Ian instead. I will play with the camera shots latter to get the best views for the sequence, but so far I am quite happy with the progress.

Saturday, 25 June 2011

Finally rendered of sequence 44-52 again yet there is a bug again in the teeth and gums for all characters when talking. It is very noticeable yet a quick fix was to lower the overall spec weight of the teeth gums and tongue for all the characters. Unfortunately this means re rendering the sequence one more time. Another 70 hours.

Here is a shot of Ian before and after the shader changes



Although subtle it is defiantly noticeable and a real problem. Something I will have to change in any new sequences toward the end of the animation.

Beginning the next shots today. Shot 58- 65> the sequence where George wakes up “it’s a lie” etc. It’s a good sequence to do and I cant wait to get stuck into it, yet have decided to merge sequence 58-60 with a latter scheduled sequence 60-65 since they flow onward. So it’s a two week sequence rather than a week. I am hoping to get it wrapped in a week and a half. My only real worry is the beginning of the sequence needs to tally from the sequence before, and the end from the sequence after. Where the characters are etc. Ian is simply working at the start, but I need to have him in relatively the same place at the end of the sequence for the clock shot where it appears behind him and Ian. Also for Darren.

Anyway onward

Thursday, 23 June 2011

Finishing off shot 36 today and 38 (before and after a clock shot)> Darren wakes from his first Elm encounter, and sighs, steadies himself, then drifts off again. The sequence works well but the sigh was so hard to get right and I am still unsure if it works. The flexing of the head eyes and mouth almost looked like a sneeze, but I think its passable now and should look good in the final film.

Anyway I am pretty ahead with it. Just Darren elm to animate tomorrow so I am pretty happy. I am planning to add Darren Elm to a nice fancy plant area, rather than rely on a just white background, and do a quick fade in and out between Darren and Darren elm. Mimicking the movements of Darren and also the same camera flow. To achieve this I am planning to import Darren and the camera into the sequence of Darren elm, and place the character in the same view and eye location. It should look pretty convincing change of character,. and ground the idea that Darren is Darren Elm,.
I have to admit i look back on my work and realise how little I know yet also how much I have learnt through the process. I can see faults in previous animations in the sequence and things I could have done better.


Anyway onward

Thursday, 23 June 2011

Finished shot 30- 32 yesterday. I expanded the sequence to be until 34, which flows on nicely and would have been the next weeks shot anyway. I have cut down the animation time again a little, just simply because I didn’t really have any problems in that sequence except for putting Darren’s arms up to rest on his head. It all works nicely anyway and there are some great expressions from Darren. Sadly not much is shown of Darren in the sequence since Ian holds the conversation, but the shots work very well and flow nicely from the shots before and after.

Next is shot 36… However I have decided to animate through the clock shot of 37 (already done) to the shot of Darren fading out to the Elmy Darren. It should be a two day shot for 36 so I am hoping with the added shots up to 37c (3 more shots) I can have it complete in 3 days at the most. Its looking promising anyway.

The shot after this will be the first time I have animated Georges facial movements since it will be the scene where he says “it’s a lie its all a lie”. The first time he actually wakes and in a half dream state talks to Darren. I am really looking forward to the shot and have a multitude of ideas for Georges maddening expressions in the shot.

Render wise things are going ok. The shot 44-52 is taking forever. Plus I accidentally wiped over some of the renders of the full sequence so that’s set me back another day. I have a long list of faults and things that need re rendering due to hair problems, missing objects, things like that, and ceiling lighting. But im getting there slowly.

Anyway onward.

Tuesday, 21 June 2011

As said on the previous post I did in the end adjust the cameras, and am quite happy with the final flow of the piece. I am currently working on the facial animation and should have this sequence wrapped in another day.
On the rendering of 44-52 I am trying to finish the sequence with some added effects, the background disappearing and then Audrey disappearing as Darren enters his Elmy world. However the renders don’t seem to tally. With the hair of the shot not exactly the same. It’s a real problem, and if the second pass with no background objects doesn’t work I will go back and render off just the background for the last shot, and then the foreground characters as a separate pass giving me the same control. I am behind in the render schedule, with this shot taking a good 70 hours in all to render. But I may have to go back and re-render in separate passes if I cant get the shots to tally exactly due to the hair sim. I am unsure why the hair sim has recalculated its physics and would have though it would be the same throughout. Perhaps when I set up the render for the night it recalculated half way through the sequence. I don’t know. Either way there is a way round the problem.
Here is a render as off now of the shot, with all the characters (with out any effects)

Sunday, 19 June 2011

Shot 30-32 is going very quickly. I had some troubles visualising Ian’s movements when he speaks, but think its nearly as good as it should be. I am trying a less bobbing action, to not emulate Audrey so much and keep that smooth flow that Ian has within himself. With the shake I decided to position the characters at that point, set keys and work between those points. The action is lovely as Ian takes his arm up, wipes it quickly on his t shirt before offering the shake, and Darren following the movement, a little nervous. Today I am animating Ian’s arms, hands and Darren’s, before the eyes then faces.
I seem to have formed a technique, following tutorials online, especially Comet Cartoons shot breakdowns (as mentioned in the previous semester) http://www.comet-cartoons.com/ to help understand and develop a process within big shots. Generally I start with the main character that holds the conversation, working on its head rotation whenf it speaks, but no actual facial movement, then the body, normally the upper chest rotation and then the arms. Then I add the hand gestures if it all looks good, then move onto the next character, and get all the body movements working on all characters before tackling the eyes, facial expression and lip sync. The problem with this sequence is there is an actual interaction between characters, with the shake, therefore both need to be animate at the same time to reach the same position. For example I animated Ian’s head first, forgetting that the chair and body would move when going for the shake, therefore I had to readjust frames of the head at the end since he was no longer facing Darren.
Anyways the shot seems much easier that I originally thought. However I may also adjust the camera that pans after. It may be better to have a still camera instead of them both in shot.

Saturday, 18 June 2011

I have not posted in a few days. The work is going very well. Shot 21-22 where Darren flicks the green object into the box in the end fit perfectly to the sound. My initial worries of the shots sound needing adjustment was short lived once I had blocked out the character and the movement of the green object. In the end another bit of trickery was adding two green objects, one in hand linked to the hand and one thrown unlinked, so I could really produce some nice bounce to the object without worrying that the hand of Darren’s keys as it moves back again would force the object back.
The last shot rendering shot 44-52 is still rendering, taken 20 hours or so, so far and another 40 to go. But in this sequence once the zdepth is added I will change the zdepth to black and readjusted the ceiling lighting, so I can really play with the glow effect of the lights. Then render off the actual zdepth after. The render schedule has been thrown up in the air somewhat due to spotting mistakes in the sequences, and having to also re-render them. I am unconcerned at the moment, I still have untill December to get all the film finalised.,
I finished shot 25 – 26 also, a small shot of Darren looking to his left at Ian and then through his eyes checking Ian out and what he’s doing. For this I imported his sequence from shot 23, where he leans on his hand, and then deleted the keys until the final moment he is positioned with his arm in hands. Therefore enabling me to work from the final pose in 23 to the beginning of 25. The camera I linked between his head and eye control, therefore giving a direct view of where he really is looking in the film , also giving the first person view a little more believability..
I also have finished shot 28-29, where Darren surveys the room. I was unsure on this shot to add some trickery of all the scene fading out and leaving the plant on its own. But after tests it works much better without. Again I purposefully imported the sequences from the previous shot so I had there starting points, and worked through the animations again. Animating all the characters in the sequence, even off camera, to allow me to move the cameras if necessary and put the characters in there positions for the next sequence. I actually spent the most time on Ian in this sequence, who is never actually seen in the shot! I tried adding the camera to the face and eye ctrls however the movements of the eyes, how it tends to dart from chair to chair, was too jarring for the camera and I wanted a smooth flow across the office to survey the scene. Lining up exactly with the sound I added one of the background workers coughing and everyone’s reaction to this. Is he ok? Is he chocking? Etc. It works well.
Now I am on with shot 30-32. A shot with a lot of speech from Ian and Darren and a hand shake at the end. This really needs to be times perfectly with the sound and I wonder if I have given enough time for the shake while talking…. Or do the characters shake while talking,,. It will be an enjoyable shot to animate, as with all the characters. I think that’s it…
Onward!

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

When adding the zdepth to the previous sequence 57 (the one spoke about in the previous post) I noticed the camera was clipping the branch. This may be a cause for the flicker problem. Either way I have re rendered the sequence with the camera adjusted. It pulls the 3 characters closer to the camera but I think it should be ok.
Looking through the whole film I am tempted latter to slow down some of the clock shots, since the amount of time spent on them is far to jarring and difficult to really think over. Its something for latter in the film when complete.
I am currently about 6 weeks behind but catching up slowly. I have done some small cheats in the next sequence to speed up the process of the 4 second shot. Instead of redoing the animation for all the background characters I have imported the best movements of flicking the objects into boxes from previous sequences and it works quite well.
This shot is when Darren flicks an object into the box from the side slowed down. I have adjusted the camera s and added sound however I feel the sound is out of sink to the movement he would portray and the camera. The sigh he does and the movement of the green object when it hits the box. So I am going to create the animation of Darren, then test it out with the sound, edit the sound to suit, then add the facial animation and edit the shot for the final. I am hoping is a 2 day sequence.
Also I had an idea for an initial poster and final image for the website.
Basically Darren sat in his chair from behind, depressed as the large clock ticks by, with Darren’s elm’s reflection in the clock looking back, warrior like. Adding the white glare around the edge of the clock. I think it would be quite effective and portray the idea of the story in one poster.

Sunday, 12 June 2011

It has been a few more days working on the shots 44-52. I should have the sequences wrapped by tonight. I am just finishing off Audrey’s lip sync. I am a little worried about Ian’s lip sync since you can’t really see under his beard before rendering. So hopefully the mouth movements are enough.
A little trickery I moved the camera of the end of the sequence of the close up of Darren so that it tallies with the start of the next sequence of Darren Elm, so the eyes and face are in the same place. It should produce a nice effect.
On the shot 57 cave sequence I had it all ready when I noticed on one shot Darren Elms teeth flicker. Looking online its possible it’s a light map issue so have increased that to 100%. Its possible this may be a fix. I also tried the lights to make sure they weren’t causing the problem with the shadow effects. Since one light uses mental ray shadows and the rest ray traced. However they do not appear to be the cause. Hopefully I will find the problem soon since the teeth flicker is quite noticeable, funnily though it doesn’t do it in the close up at the beginning only in the rest of the cameras when he talks.
I have noticed latter that it seems to be a problem with two shader’s, that use the same parameters. I don’t think it’s a light map issue which is suggested online, after rendering the same thing occurs and believe it may be a problem with that shader which was copied for the bone shader of the cowl that also flickers. Funnily though it doesn’t do it with the helmet that although in a completely separate shader set it was copied from the tooth shader to begin. So I am thinking if I redo the shader’s completely for the character it should work and it’s a bug with that shader set and those shader’s in it. Anyways I am testing it with default parameters, and if that works I am half way there.
http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/showthread.php?18801-SSS-Flickering-please-help-!
It didn’t.
Ok some looks around the web latter and trying changing the render setting to Lanczos and min and max samples to 4. This didn’t work either, another post was on final gather settings, so I am trying rendering out the final gather map every frame, with this settings it may be easier to calculate the fall off generated on the character from the omni light and its falloff. It seems to be a fall off problem of the shadows.
http://3dsmaxrendering.blogspot.com/2008/04/why-does-my-animation-flicker_02.html

this didn’t seem to work and since I wasn’t using final gather to begin im pretty sure it wasn’t the problem. However I may try it again latter if I cant find the problem, in using the map pre-calculated then rendering off the whole sequence. However since I don’t really understand the setting I am unsure if this would work with a moving object. Anyway if the next test doesn’t work I will try that.

As off now I have increased the light map of the shader to 100%, the samples to 128 and turned on scatter indirect illumination. Hopefully this may work, but since the lights differ so much in the scene, with animated light sequences and moving skin, I worry that using a final gather pre calculated map might not work. But I am a novice in those areas so learn as I go I guess.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif112&id=10061676&linkID=9241177

http://ankitsurti.blogspot.com/2010/08/creating-final-gather-map-and-its.html

Another solution online was a problem with a combination of working out the light values in mental ray while the camera moves. So each frames it works it out again and causes some flickering between frames as the light is worked out differently. In final gather there is a process where it can work out the difference between 5 or so frames, therefore stopping the flicker. However for some reason in this sequence it isn’t working, even with a fixed camera.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=13823260&linkID=9241177

I have decided to render off the sequence as is, and come back to it at a latter time. Otherwise I will fall behind more with the sequences.

Wednesday, 08 June 2011

Working on shot 44 to 52 still. Its taking a while, this is the most amount of character interaction I have done but its working quiet well. I think I tend to preview more, since I worry about working with so many characters. I think this shot would lend itself well to a nice step by step of the animation process. Block out, body movement, eye movement, face movement, etc. I think a short video of this would look really well and be useful for other students also.

Anyway the eye movement is finished. All body movements and looking at the beginning of the facial animation tomorrow. I am really happy with the interaction and think the shot will work very well. I am tempted to drop all cameras just to show all the 4 characters bouncing off each other. But then this wouldn’t fit with the rest of the film. Will leave that for the how I did it video on animation I guess.

HMMM. Ok also for note for myself I did a little trickery. I had re animated all the objects that move from Ian and Darren. However the opacity needs to change when they fall through the desk and then are re picked up by the character (it would appear in render that they fall in the box and they pick up a new object, but in the animation there is actually only one object that they flick, falls through the box and appears back in there hands). The problem was to animate the opacity I had so many other key frames for the box movements I could not really toy with the opacity keys, so added a new piece of geometry and added the material to that and worked with that animating the opacity in the correct sequence, therefore not having the woes of all the key frames for the green objects.

On the rendering side of things I am still rendering off 53- 57 and had to restart it a few times. Firstly Georges beard wasn’t animated and secondly the pipe was way to bright, almost popping out the scene with its brightness, (as shown in the previous post) so therefore added a new light just for the pipe with a lower multiplier. Now the characters with the lighting seem to fit great and I don’t think there will be that much tweaking after.

Tuesday, 07 June 2011

Still working on shot 44-52. I took a preview render of the actions of the characters on the previous sequences, to make sure everything flowed. Audrey and Ian’s body movements are great, and so are Georges and I am just finishing off Darren’s before working on the facial animation’s. I have to say this is maybe the longest shot to involve so many characters. Yet I am getting there! Its fun to work with the interactions, and hopefully this will be shown in the film. Anyway I have had some troubles with Ian’s Earphone wire. And in a latter sequence Ian takes the earphones off and on and I do worry on the movement of the wire. I can see me spending a day trying to get it right alone.

Looking at the latter shots and how I organised the schedule I think it will be increasingly easier as time progresses. I am at the moment a few weeks behind, due to illness. But I am slowly catching up, and since I began rendering earlier this year I am pretty much on top of the render schedule that I initially had planned. for the end of the film (off course some elements may have to change when the film is complete, and viewed for critique before final hand in.) Therefore it leaves me at the moment a good 4 months for the dissertation. However this may be 3 month by the end of the film.

Today I also re-worked on the lighting for shot 53-57. The cave in the tree section. Having viewed some cave shots in films I decided it would look a lot more … colder, and damper if a more blue light was used for the Elmies, and push out the Specular some more. I could have adjusted the character skin but decided to do the majority of work in post, using layers of black and Specular for the objects.

Here’s a comparison of the shot before and after light changes.

Friday, 03 June 2011

I am working on sequence 44-52 and also testing a nice glow effect for the ceiling lights in the office. However at the moment feel it detracts from the scene having the lights with glow effects.. I am currently rer-endering sequence 1 again with the name sameolthing.inc changed to same ol thing. And testing the glow effect of the lights of the ceiling. It’s a pretty simple matter changing the glow, by adding a new layer of white around the lights of the ceiling. Basically a new texture with the same light sequence on the roof with sell illum, and then blurred latter and added as a second layer with screen. So it doesn’t clip any objects I take the zdepth falloff and change that all to black except for the roof. Therefore there really isn’t much tinkering needed to add the lights. But again the brightness may detract from the rest of the scene, with the eye automatically going to the brightest spots. Anyway a test render of the sequence should show what I think.
On 44- 52 I have created George animations and facial movements and began Audrey. I think I will change some of the camera angles some more latter, since when George is woken slightly (heard in the sound) by Audrey’s snap at Darren you don’t actually see it in the scene and left to guess. Where as it would work better and the shot laid out better if not only Darren and Audrey but George also featured in that shot.

Anyway onward,. Here’s a test render with the lights on for the ceiling.



The ceiling lights seem to work in the sequence. So will go with it. But again if it becomes to distracting latter will take them back out.

Thursday, 02 June 2011

Finished sequence 43 and rendered and compiled the film and uploaded it to you tube at ..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojjlIkkDITA
the only real problem with sequence 43 were just getting the lip sync to look realistic on some visimes. But in the end it looks quite good and im happy to move on with it. Next is sequence 44- 52 a very big shot over 30 seconds of talk and character interaction. I have made a small change between the camera shots to this and the aniatmic since for Audrey to walk to the enxt camera within the allotted time is impossible, and decided to leave her where she is and in the sequence where she looks at the caravan you can also see Darren and Ian in the shot. Which in the end has more meaning I think.

As an experiment I added some lens flares to the star, which looks great I am quite happy with the effect., All I used was the preset setting in the lens flare, of some of the parameters, Didn’t change the colors or anything of the star effect, just choose the right effects such as glow, rays etc. Seems to look quiet nice and will add the same effect to the other sequences of the star latter.

Looking through the film so far there are a lot of small mistakes.
Firstly I think changing the name Sameolthing.inc to Same Ol thing is more poignant, This I am re rendering now.
Seems far to much blur at the start sequence.
There are no green objects in Darren’s box at the start
The star effect
George Elms beard in some places seems not to move. Almost stuck. And a adjustment to the sim should solve this.

That’s it so far. Going to continue on with 44-52 now.

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

Began working on the next sequence over the last few days, sequence 43 where Audrey talks to Darren about “one day…. One day”. However stalled with problems with sequence 66-67 rendering. It appears the tongue was far to shiny and reflecting light from outside the mouth. In the end a quick fix was to tone down the Specular on the skin shader, and also rework the teeth shader. Finally the tongue clipped the teeth of Ian at one point and therefore edited the animation slightly so it wouldn’t.
Onward with sequence 43!!

With teeth problem and tongue clipping and tongue lighting problem and fixed on the right

Tuesday, 17 May 2010

The Movie so far
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i_iSICQcgM

Thursday, 14 April 2011

Finished sequences 23 and compiled the video together as is and uploaded it. I will try and get some more sequences rendered in the next week but for now I have decided to stop animating while getting ready for the hand in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkhRjJsSNWc
So I guess this will probably be my final post of April, until my work is ready for hand in. And my final post of this semester.

Wednesday, 06 April 2011

Was sent this in a link yesterday, a great look at the puppetry of war horse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7u6N-cSWtY
Also finished sequence 66-67, with the clock appearing behind Ian and Daren, I think its one of the best scenes so far. I am learning more and more over time in animation, and at the beginning I wasn’t aware of what I didn’t know, yet now over time and watching animation dvds and books, I am becoming a lot more aware of techniques in animation. And applying them hopefully successfully. I admittedly maybe a bit to anal. Especially trying to keep the clock to be the right time in every shot. Even when not shown, but it’s a little quirk that adds to the atmosphere in the scene.

Sunday, 03 April 2011

Renders off a few more sequence and began animating sequence 66-67, where Ian discusses how fast the day is going with Darren. Its hard graft today, for some reason I just have not been with it and making little progress, which is annoying since I am still about 2 weeks behind. But I am going to work for another hour and see if I can get at least Ian’s body working and then work on Daren and the lip sync tomorrow.

Its been very slow and problematic with the rendering. The simulation of the light with physiques was causing a lot of different problems when used through video post in a sequences of the different cameras. In the end the easiest way was to render off each camera individually. Sometimes the simulation would get caught in the moth, or just when the camera moved it would bob more, and therefore I couldn’t add the zdepth and white layers to the sequence since they were not exactly the same. Finally I got it though however this was more with luck than anything. I doubt I will be able to get all the sequences rendered by the end of April for the hand in. But will do my best.

Anyway here is a still from the last sequence rendered.

Thursday, 31 March 2011

Finished sequence 27 where the clock appears large in front of Darren. The sequence works well and I decided to go for making the materials turn invisible slowly in the scene rather in composition, therefore being able to see reflection in the surface of the clock etc. However when rendering it comes apparent that because of the hair opacity and the gradient opacity of the whole sequence it takes way to long to render and therefore have decided to go for the second option of making the opacity blend in composition. This also makes setting up the zdepth much easier.


I don’t think I mentioned it before but I have stopped using reference videos of myself now and prefer acting out the actions then replaying them in the scene. Its just a little easier and makes me less self conscious. Of course if I come up to a brick wall in the scenes will record myself instead. But for now I am quite happy with the results I am getting with the animation. I have tried not to over exaggerate to much with the animation. Trying for a more realistic and subtle approach.