Telling Tales: Maya lighting test

lighting in our story has an important place. we decided to set our story in sunset and midnight therefore   we need to make sure we have the similar light source in all the scenes. We use day light and tilt it make it a sunset and glowing lighting bulb inside the barn in order to give the pigs more extra light when they are inside the barn. The warm lightbulb light make the scene looks more cinematic and casting shadow to show that they are digging secretly. However the light takes ages to render and there are crashes happening all the time as well, it takes a lot more time to render that expected…me and Joe have already using over two computers to render at the same time but I am still a bit worried about the time issue.

Here is a peeking camera angle act as if there is someone spying on those pigs which I think will be visually interesting and interact more with the audience. The barrels and the grass are going to take so much time to render and also the complicated moves of the three pigs. It might be better to simplify the backgrounds and the light sources in the coming scene in order to safe time and the ease the rendering process.

This scene is to peek at the young pig and follow by a scene where the young pig is turning out his pocket outside the barn in order to transfer dirts.

A few light test on the escaping scene. I am using a wide angle shot and zoom in while the strong pig appear. I like the lighting and the shadows casted on the ground which makes a beautiful scene and also   I am going to draw dirts and dust around him in Aftereffect so the whole action could be more realistic and cohesive. 

I also learned to use graph editor to make an action loop of infinity that is very useful and guarantee the perfect same actions over and over again so no need to key every frames at the timeline. By doing this, the timing can be measured easier when having more than one moving character.

More lighting tests on the digging scene. The first one is too bright because the light bulbs intensity are set 20 which is causing this problem. Lowering it down and tilt the sunlight to make it become sunset instead of noon and the result looks a lot better. 

This is the final lighting I am using. I love this scene because it shows a lot of skills of animating using maya and the environment so beautiful. The issue is still the same, rendering. There is nothing I can doing to accelerate the rendering process and the only thing I can do is to simplify the scene but it is difficult to take the balance between the quality and speed. In order to have good result during hand-in, maybe it is better to render scene overnight and do scratches at home.

Greensceen Induction

 Base on the image sequence we did at the last green screen induction, this time we are editing the stop motion through After Effects using different tools such as keying to make it becomes cinematic.


First of all, import the image sequence and remember to check the frame rate. It is important to have the correct frame rate both the sequence and the composition otherwise the frames would be messed up in terms of the timing.

 

 Go the Effects&Presets and select Keylight which is a tool to make the background goes away by choosing the dominate colour and wipe it off. There will be left with a lot of different colours and we can see that by turning the view option to Screen Matt.

White is what it is left in the screen while black is the colour that is keyed away. Since there is still a lot of  background left in the comers, we are using pen tool to draw around the windmill in order to make a mask.

Also it is useful to give it a coloured background to aid adjusting the image.

By carefully select around the edge of the image, there is nothing left but the windmill.

Find a suitable background for it and instead of the suggested land flied, I decided to give it a graveyard background because the twilight really suit the windmill and the material have a spooky feel.

Apply another mask to allow the windmill to hide behind the grass, press subtract to make it do so.

At last, I also apply Toner to allow the windmill reflects blue light so it gives a more cold and gloomy atmosphere which I am very happy with.

 

I have learnt how to mask the image and to use different keying tools and I think it will be very useful in later project while we need to use After Effect. This can achieve so much like applying different backgrounds and mood efficiently.

Telling Tales:Digging scene

I have been watching this weirdo digging for a good 10 minutes to study the digging action. I found that I could not think about the action just in my head and this is actually an excellent reference because he is digging so hard for nothing.

After that I drew out some key actions of digging. To me, it is the most efficient way to learn to draw or to animate the action and I understand more about the movement of the body when drawing them out. The whole body move when digging especially the shoulder and the waist move viciously in the same direction with the spade.

The action is very difficult to animate because every little details counts especially when he has the shortest arms and legs in the world. It is maddening to make him step on the spade and dig while making him look cool and strong.

I experiment the action with in different time line and pick the one looks the most natural. Most of the animating process is experimenting the timing of the action since I am not really good at it and this is why computer is good as the model can change anything just by clicking whereas you have to draw another frame when animating traditionally.

Finally with a lot of care and time, he is not acting stupidly but shovelling bravely.

As it is mentioned before, the background is going to be added on at the end of all the animation through Aftereffect so I decided to render the sequence in PNG which allow any background to apply to. I am quite happy with the result but it is really not neat so it is not that perfect. However, since me and Joe are barely up the schedule, I decide to finish the key actions as soon as possible and go back for cleaning up if available. If I could improve this scene, the thing definitely need improve is the shoulder and the feet because they really do not move much which make the action stiff.

Telling Tales: throwing ball sequence

Me and Joe have both agreed to work on different scene and the first scene I worked on is the throwing ball scene. I started this first because it might be quite difficult and time consuming which it does take me about half a day to animate and render. The throwing ball scene's idea is come from the movie "The Great Escape" where the main character is killing time by throwing a ball against the wall in the cooler which is also going to be the moment when the pigs are planning for the escape.

What is difficult about animating this scene is to making sure the actions are smooth and natural which is done by study the movie many times and create a smooth loop. There are problems like the limbs of the pig are too strong to achieve some poses and actions like bending arms and knees so actually he can just barely sit on the floor. Also the bouncing ball sequence is quite difficult because the route of the ball needs to change, throw by the right hand and catch by the left hand. What is more, matching the timing of both the ball and the body is quite hard when the anticipation of the actions need to be taken into account.

I am very happy with this scene and I think the actions are naturally animated. What I want to improve is the model itself because it has no forearm and it cannot afford to do certain movement beautifully and having short limbs. Next time I will definitely remember to create more functional character by elongate the hands and legs and more carefully rigged.

I give an anticipation before the loop of the throwing sequence because it looks more natural to me and really suit his character. We will edit the lighting through Aftereffect later on since we are combining all the scenes at the end therefore I want to focus only on the animation rather than care too much on the background.

Responsive: Penguin Children's book cover design competition

The story of this year competition is Emil and the Detectives which is a German-based story that apparently is very famous worldwide? I have never heard about the name before so I wiki the story and found out that it has musical and a lot of different versions of books. The story is about the little boy Emil's money is stolen and gathered a group of children who call themselves detectives, searching for the thief.

Here are thumbnails and quick sketches of Emil in my mind. He is quite thin and tiny due to the poor situation of his family but very curious and lively at the same time. The clothes he wears would be patched with different fabric with a typical German hat.

Different thumbnails illustrating the composition of the book cover. Ideas like coins on palm, staring out of the window in the train and flowing with important props of the story. Looking at the previous winner's work, it can be interpreted that Penguin is looking for simple but striking illustration that can attract customers from book shop or stores also have big title and clear introduction of the story.

A little worried if my style is what they are looking for but I will give it a go! Challenge!

To start off, I play with the type first since it is vital to a book cover and I am not good at type... I cannot write beautifully and I do not get that sense of beauty when looking at type therefore it takes a lot of time to experiment with various type by changing the brush setting in photoshop.

At the beginning I really like this style of type because of the uniqueness and playfulness the shape of the alphabets have.

But when I pull them together, they just seems like a Halloween title that really not suitable for this story.

Therefore more experiment on typography!

I sort of interested in the hand-written style on the left although I need more practice to write more define. I think it might be lacking of impact in terms of the size and the appearance which could be improved by placing differently and write more carefully.

After that I create Emil with really simple shapes and colour in order to simplify the book cover. I especially like the reflection in the eye which is the silhouette of the thief flipping the coins on his pam and that show more information of the story just by looking at the cover. It is a bit bland so I might add some light using ''soft light'' so as to present gradient of colour of the hair which might introduce some drama to the illustration.

Originally, I am going to use these patterns as the background however they are too dark and really not functioning well at the background when all the types are only barely visible. I decided not to use them but plain white background instead which surprisingly make a good composition and allow Emil and the texts stand out.

Here is the required text to put at the back cover, I write 'After him!' instead of typing because it is more influential and lively seeing hand writing than text from computer. I enjoy writing than typing like how I like drawing on paper than in the computer because I can transfer my feelings better through the warmth on the hand than using cold machines. 

Eventually this is the final look of the title I decided to use. I am happy with where they are placed and the style of the typography especially the writer's name. I learn not to think too much before writing, these words are written down very quickly without much corrections and it is funny how I redo and undo hundreds time when trying to get the perfect Capital E at the beginning. 

This is how it looks at last...not really!

The last element I want to add is this watercolour background as the white is a bit too plain.

Finally, this is the book cover I design for Emil and the Detectives. I could not find any information about the width of the spine so it is left behind until Mike replies my email. Other than that I am very happy with my first book cover in my life and a lot of great challenge during the production like making own types and fulfilling customers' need. It is not easy to be simple but informative which totally changes the way I look at book covers now. I can not wait to finish this!

A Butterfly's Dream by Transistor Studio

A Butterfly's Dream by Transistor Studio

Making of Kyoto Gakuen University TVC ~A Butterfly's Dream~ from Kohta Morie on Vimeo.

This video absolutely blow my mind because of the delicately animated facial expressions and the half anime style CG style which is what I love. There are behind scene shows that the animation is done by maya and combining some drawings with the CG in amazingly matching result. Instead of having strands of hair, the animator keep the simplicity of the anime hair and make them flow beautifully with the wind which does not look awkward at all! This pushes the boundary of 3D animation that it can be extremely flexible in terms of applying with different aesthetic style and cross dimensional animation.  

The 10 Worst CGI Movie Effects

The 10 Worst CGI Movie Effects

I laugh so hard looking at this video because some are really badly made (Although I should not laugh because I can not even model a perfect character). That shows a lot of limitation using CGI effects, some are due to the limitation of technology in the past and some are just simply was not well-thought about using CG in the movie. Filmmakers can some time over use CG in everything which could be replaced by real acting, depending too much on special effect could ruin the movie by having not matched characters or background and more importantly disappoint the audience. Most of the bad scene shown in the video are all about the bad lighting. To allow CGI character to seem realistic, it is better to show them under the moon or almost dark conditions because the lighting might expose the weakness and the unnatural looking texture or pixelated characters on the screen when interacting with life action. 

Beyond Two Souls Motion Capture

Beyond Two Souls Motion Capture

This is an amazing game which the main characters are all created based on real life actors and they basically have the simulators attached to their body and act the scenes out as if they are in the game. This is the first time I understand there are techniques like this that can transfer real motion into CG and hence make the game character look and act so realistic. This solved the problem of not smooth looking CG motion and over exaggerated characters while combining both acting and engaging real people into the game which I think is a brilliant idea and chance to exchange experience with both actors and animators. I will say there are not much limitation using this method. The only limitation might be the physical and logical movement of the real person but I do not think this is relevant in this case.

John Lewis Christmas Advert 2014 MontyThePenguin

John Lewis Christmas Advert 2014 MontyThePenguin

This is one of my favourite advert so far I have ever seen. The beautiful story, plot and character all combine into a touching story in only less than three minutes and I believe this could be only done by CG since the boy has a penguin as a friend. However, the motion at some scene could be very hard to be realistic like bouncing up the trampoline and swimming in the park. I understand this is very difficult to achieve perfect motion of the character in 3D and audience would not really accept hideous looking animated characters especially when they are in 3D. They kind of expect high quality character from these 3D programmes which could be very intimidating when modelling a character for public use. Nevertheless, there are something that can be only done by 3D for instance an idea like MontyThePenguin where an imagined character or an object interact with people in real life and show a lot of possibility of CG characters in the future.

Limitations in 3D

Modelling an anime character using maya

I was searching for tutorial on youtube of adding scar on my pig character and jumped into this speed modelling tutorial of one of my favourite anime character Miku Hatsune. I am surprised to see an anime character in maya because of their genre and the exaggerated features therefore I clicked curiously. The steps are very much similar to what we learnt during the lessons and to make her eyes looks insanely big, that person delete certain faces on the face according to the reference image and add extra geometries in order to achieve the natural looking eye sockets also other parts of her head. 

Companies only choose the 3D characters sadly is all depend on the quality of the model.(well pretty obvious) and Some badly model and OK model found online compare to the professional's work.

3D model from SEGA and TOY'S FACTORY

3D models are absolute capable to do anything from swimming to flying. For example, Miku in 3D can look more realistic alongside the CG or real photos and build up a greater character when it can interact with real objects. However, the original design or aesthetic of the character might also gone with the 'over-realistic' body which would be difficult to maintain both simultaneously. Just like Mickey Mouse in the drawing and 3D, I see them in totally different character. Although 3D is more realistic and interactive, drawing in more organic and heart-warmed because they are not computer generated and even the strength used on the pencil could be seen in the old animation. However, the technology has improved so much and CG animation is more nicely done and can achieve a lot of more than before like Inside Out from Pixar.

Responsive:Finding Brief

MANGA JIMAN

I want to do this brief however it only for legal UK resident so it is very important to make sure the competition I enter is open globally or for international students.

Royal Watercolour Competition

For this brief I can produce whatever I want and there are no restrictions or requirement on the final piece since this is just a 'beautiful painting of water colour' competition but this interests me due to their flexibility and the allowance on the type of style. The main element the competition looks for is to  push the boundaries of watercolours and produce some creative illustration outside the box. The deadline of the brief is January that I can finish this during December. I want to experiment with different materials before submitting the final one for example painting on different textured paper and various painting tools etc. I want to find a theme for this brief from what I have experienced and feelings I have when painting and try not to make it too specific so as to keep the idea abstract.

Penguin Children's Book Cover Competition

I have looked at the previous winner's work, knowing what kind of format and style the company is looking for and obviously use my own illustration to fullfill the brief. The brief has explained the requirement clearly and allow a wide range of media for the final piece which I am wishing to make a mix media illustration in order to experiment with different materials. The deadline is in March but our responsive deadline is in January therefore I need to start drawing ideas now so as to spread out workload. Before starting, I have searched online about what kind of story Emil and the detectives is and decided on a theme the book cover would be based on and in this case I want to keep the illustration as simple as possible, have bold typography and a profile of Emil. It is quite challenging because this is a brand new experience to create a book cover for a big company, the illustration has to take the format of the book into account and include the important information of the book as required onto the book which all new to me.

Loopdeloop

The main idea of the competition is to loop an event over and over again which personality do not want to make it too serious but have fun and meaning at the same time would be my aim doing this brief. Loopdeloop is a bi-monthly brief and I want to enter the Dec-Jan competition but still the new topic has not be announced yet therefore I will finish the other two briefs first and the loopdeloop when the topic is there.