Wednesday 29 June 2011
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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)
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
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.
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
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!
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.
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
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.
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 8 June 2011
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.
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 7 June 2011
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.
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 3 June 2011
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.
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 2 June 2011
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.
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.
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