Overview of the last year

I’ll start off by admitting that this is going to be hard for me. In the beginning I had high hopes for our group. We all wanted to create something that when you look at it you could tell we did it. Now that it’s all finished I can see my personality all over it, but it’s hard to tell who else worked on it. I always thought that if you put a bit of yourself into your project then it will show more life. This is what I at least tried to do when creating all the characters and sets, I guess in a way it’s like cooking. You have to put love into it or else it fails and no one will appreciate it.

So I guess I’ll start from the beginning, the first week of pre production. I came in with a few ideas after having 4 months to think it over. Though not everyone was keen on my ideas, this was ok as not every idea is gold. Trish had some ideas, which I never really liked. Drazen and Jordan had maybe one or two, I can’t really remember. I do know that from day one the boys were all about animation and that didn’t bother me as I don’t like to animate as much as I do model. Trish and I had creative differences which lead to her working on her own. Something I should have done from the start.

We ended up getting a base for our story, though it never went in the direction I wanted. Our producer (Mark) didn’t understand any of our ideas, not every one thinks like me so that’s ok. I wanted something simple, I didn’t want a story. I wanted to create something that was exciting and looked good. This was not what we ended up with by the end of pre production.

All throughout that semester the boys seemed to lack interest. I had started designing the characters in 3D; I thought it would make our lives easier later on. I was right, but I’ll explain later. I tried to get them involved with design, ideas for shots and all that jazz. But most of the time I got no response. I asked Drazen to design our weapons; this took him 16 weeks to complete. I asked Jordan to design costumes and sets. He managed to design costumes (which I didn’t like at all) but I never got set designs. It was frustrating to get anything out of them. The conversations always lead back to League of Legends, they game they played instead of doing work. My frustration started here. Our story boards were so so, by the end of the semester I was bored out of my mind with our story. 1 it was too long, and had so many costumes. 2 it was incredibly linear, this leads to bad story telling. So I thought about it while on holiday.

I had an epiphany, why not keep all the characters, but drop the story. Make a cinematic. I watched the latest one from LOL and it hit me. This would get my team interested, it would be more fun. So with 1 week until we got back to class I put together a short cinematic story board and animatic. I was pretty proud of myself for doing all that in short notice. The boys were keen and production began.

Now this is where things got interesting…well sort of. Thanks to my thinking we had our characters ready for rigging and texturing. See I told you it would be in our favour. Though I wished that in pre production I had decided not to listen to our teacher and not add a dragon into the mix. Not that I’m unhappy with the way he turned out. It just would have been one less rig to create. Which would have led to more animation time. The rigging process took far too long. I had made it so we had 2 weeks for all aspects. This was ignored. We were told to use the advanced skeleton auto rig for all the characters. Louis our technical support rigged the dragon and gave to me for skinning. I was fine with that, though I got flustered with the wings. I had no idea what joint belonged to what. But I worked it out in the end and added some face controls and a belly jiggle control. The dragon was ready to go in under a week. The other three rigs took a bit more time. Drazen had managed to set up the skeleton so it was ready for skinning, which we thought was great at the time. Due to issues with the center of the world and such we had trouble with the faces. Even after we managed to sort all that out the auto face rig was difficult to understand. It was taking too long for my team to sort out. So one day while trying to find a tutorial on how to weight paint the face joints. I decided it was taking too long and went in search of something faster. This led me to the ‘slap on auto rig’ on creative crash. It isn’t the best auto rig out there but it was a quick solution. My team complained about it not having as much control as the other, but I wasn’t about to revert back to our past problems. This was a fix and we all had to deal with it. So I managed to rig 2 characters which also led to them being bigger in scale. I didn’t think it would be a problem as we just scaled the other 2 rigs up to match. The last rig was Drazen’s responsibility. Which he was fine with, I wasn’t impressed that it took so long for the final result. We had a slight argument about the facial rigging on the rig. I refused to create the blend shapes as I had already picked up Jordan’s slack. This ended with the last rig having poorly done face shapes.

The thing I would do differently about this situation is that I would have just rigged all the characters with the same auto rig, or just create a rig ourselves. Too much time was lost due to this step, time we did not have. Causing me to make the decision of dropping the first 30 seconds of our animation. This was the majority of our action. My team was not happy with this, but they soon came to realize that it was unavoidable. I constantly think that if I had of just done everything myself I wouldn’t have been in the messes I was in.

The next step was getting all the sets ready to start animation. I was pretty confident that my style was a good way to approach this. My team had no opinions on my choices, which was sort of irritating as I would have loved some help. When I managed to get the bases for all the sets done I passed them on and had the boys start animating. This was not my field and so I continued on with all other aspects of the production. I found some great tutorials on lighting, and even one on creating rays of light in mental ray. I wanted to use it for the forest dash sequence but decided to cancel that as it would take too long to sort out.

We ended up using cloth for our hair and parts of clothing. I really wanted to give it a try. The initial set up wasn’t hard to grasp at first, but we had trouble while animating with it. In some scenes it is obvious that the cloth was whacky. But this was still a new area to tread and I am glad I got to do it. Mostly because when it did work it looks awesome.

Animation was taking a long time, time we had lost due to rigging. I was getting anxious and trying to keep my team motivated. Though it ended in me nagging like an old house wife. There were times when I just wanted to pack up and quit. I was being ignored by my team and this stressed me out. Which led to them getting annoyed. It was a vicious circle, and just kept spiralling. I ended up having to step in and do some animation, which isn’t the best but at least it was done. I told my team that ‘THEY’ would need to clean it up come render time. The only time we agreed on something was when someone said the word ‘coffee’. If not for coffee this film would not have been made.

Rendering time came round and things were looking bad. I had been away for 4 days and left my team to render scenes in my absence. This did not happen. I found out when I returned as I had no phone connection or internet. This made me angry. I managed to render all my scenes before I went away. All I got was ‘we were busy’ (playing games) I went into full panic mode and decided enough was enough. Bitch Amy was coming out (excuse my language) I ordered them to give my everything by Saturday, this however did not happen. My team complained that they had so much to do, and not enough time. Mind you I still had effects and credits to figure out.  I also had to get in touch with the guy from the audio department. None of which my team helped with. This all led to a massive argument where we all ambushed each other. I was told to get off my high horse and well a lot of other things were said that I won’t repeat. I just told them that without me they wouldn’t have a film. I don’t mean to sound cocky but this is the truth.

We managed to get everything rendered by Sunday morning with the help of Stuart Charlton, who set up a massive render farm over 30 computers. It was impressive. I think if he didn’t help us out we would have been screwed. I am grateful to him and his awesomeness. So with all the scenes rendered and given to me for editing I was ready to start. From 10 am on Sunday until about 6.30 pm I was glued to my computer screen. Adding depth of field to all scenes and putting them in order. By the end I was tired. And who wouldn’t be after that amount of time. I edited the entire film with credits on my own. My team did not protest (why would they) as they got to finish a day early. When I went to line the audio up with the film I noticed the new version is heaps longer. This had me worried at first. I contacted the audio guy and he wasn’t too happy. He had to start again with all the syncing and couldn’t understand why. I apologized so many times but it just wasn’t enough. I am still waiting for the final audio today. I hope it gets done in time for the showcase as I want everyone to see my film.

In the end I am kind of disappointed in the final result. So many things I wanted to show didn’t get shown. My team also changed all the camera angles which made it lose the impact I was going for. But these things happen. It’s a student film after all. It’s rare for students to create something amazing. I was just hoping to be one of the rare. The things I would do differently is I would work alone, find some one to do my animation who is good at keeping to a deadline, a higher level of work ethic and most importantly passionate about the industry.  Not people who prioritising gaming in their personal time.  I would also drop the cloth, and use the same rig for all characters. This would make my life easier and I would possibly come out with a better result.

So this is my last post about this project. I am so thankful it is over and I hope that you enjoyed my journey as much as I did (no seriously I did) though it was stressful at times. 

Week Sixteen

And it's DONE, 16 weeks later and My final film is complete!

Though to be completely honest I wish it could have been better. Currently we have no audio as it did not match up from the draft to the final. But it is most definitely on it's way. YEY.

Well here is the link. I will save all my rantings for my final post which is the full fledged analysis.

https://vimeo.com/79023128

Well hope you enjoy my final film. And yes I am calling it MINE. 

Til Next Time....

Week Fifteen

So this week or I should say last week was all about getting all our assets finalized for rendering. I managed to complete all the textures and finish the lighting for all the scenes. I am really pleased with how all my textures turned out and can't wait for the finished movie.

This was supposed to be all I needed to do until it came to editing....but it didn't end up that way. I started rendering the beginning scenes for our film. And they look great. I am really happy with how all the elements have worked together.

On the weekend I was going away to Stradbroke island for a wedding, There would be no phone signal or internet for 4 days for me. This was painful, mainly because I had to just put my hopes into my team that they would get some work done. Meanwhile I was working on a poster for our film, as it is being shown during the Martini Awards on the 28th. 

I tried to think of a name and it was hard so I just decided to name it 'Lake of Legends'. Since my team is obsessed with League of Legends I thought it seemed fitting. 

In my next post i shall talk about this week, and since they are sort of linked I can do a better analysis of what happened.

Til next time...

Week Fourteen

Where to begin...

This week was one heck of a stress filled one for myself. I was in complete panic mode when I turn up to uni only to be informed five minutes prior to class starting that my group wasn't coming in. I was left with very little to do as I had all these plans to sort out what we needed to render. And I wanted to get started on that. This did not happen. Instead I got laughed at by our 'technical support' for assuming my team would do work. (which they do) I also got a lot of negative feedback from him about our characters and how I have textured them. I could go on all day...but I won't.

Sooo.... I decided to work on the lighting and textures (yey) again this week. I have two of three sets perfectly lit and ready to roll. I also have all set textures complete and almost all character textures finished. I should have them all done by the end of week fifteen.

I also did some render tests with Tammy (our lovely elf) in the lit scene to see how well the skin shader works out. And I like the results. My curiosity has paid off, and well so has all my Google searching. 

Take a look.

I rendered a close up first to see how the textures look before doing a full view of the scene. I was told that she looks dead in the skin area, I don't agree. I think she has nice porcelain skin, Which goes with her red locks. 

The set was being a pain in the butt as you can see the trunk sticking out of the leafy section on the trees. This is just a minor problem which I am 90% sure I have fixed. I shall find out once I start rendering tomorrow. Drazen has given me all of Tammy's intro scenes to render which is great as that is almost 20 secs of our animation. Even if we don't get it all done we will at least have a cute animation of a girl fishing and then running off after crazy birds. 

Set 2 is only shown for maybe 3 secs but it is my fave. I wanted to make a really cool fantasy fairy tale looking environment and I believe I have created one. I am hoping to put some awesome sun rays through the trees into it, Just not sure if it will be with Maya or After Effects. I'll figure it out over the next couple of days.

I was told by a fellow student that there should be a bump map on the trees, this was a good point but my group and I feel that it would take away from the simplicity of the sets and textures. The only thing that has any for of Bump/Normals is the dragon. As he needs to look scaly and such. I also managed to place the dragons textures onto a skin shader and it looks great. He has nice sub surface scattering instead of a flat Lambert. 

I will have more on him later. Today we worked on what the matte painting will look like behind our scene. I was happy with just simple mountains, but Drazen said we need a tad more detail. This is no problem for me, also we decided last minute on a slight colour change. It's still in the works abut here is what we have come up with so far.

This is the painting that was created by Ed Deasey, I didn't want him to do anything elaborate as he is a busy man. But it's a solid base for me to work off.

We are thinking a nice orange tint towards the top of the mountains would be nice. More sunset looking. With a few more details we will have an awesome comp. 

We will also be using a MEL script which turns a camera into a depth of field rig (made by Stuart Charlton) to get a more natural look to our scenes. this will also make blending the back drops easier.

Well only 2 weeks left of production and things are looking up. I'm trying to maintain a positive attitude and be a supportive member and leader for my team. Though I know I never want to be in charge again. Too much responsibility for one such as myself.

Til next time...

Week Thirteen

So this week was a big one. We all rushed around trying to get all our shots fleshed out for the draft submission. I will say I was beginning to think we wouldn't make it. But we did. I have made some rough 2D effects that will be replaced when it comes to render time. I am pretty tired, but overall pleased with the outcome so far. Even with my not so amazing animations. The boys will be able to clean up the shots that I have done for the final render. So yes this was all that got done this week.

Oh and we did have trouble with some shots not loading textures without crashing and the fire had to be changed as the simulator was lock (for some stupid unknown reason)

https://vimeo.com/77326620

Hope you enjoy

Til next time...

Week Twelve

This week I have been spending time picking up slack of my team mates. Of course I am not very happy about this as the only job they had to do was animate while I do everything else. So I have have had to dive into the world of animation (which I personally don't enjoy) to get some of the smaller (missed) shots done. 

The final draft of this production is due next Sunday and I feel that this may not get done, I have tried so hard to keep everyone happy and motivated. But this is hard when I am the one who suffers from it. If something doesn't get done I stress and if I speak up I get abused by my team mates. I do not believe this is how it is in the industry, and if it is I don't want any part of it. I am tired and getting ready to just give up. the only thing keeping me going is the fact that I only have 4-5 weeks left. That's the plus side in all this horror.

I also got an email from the audio group stating that all but one of them have up and quit. What am I supposed to do about this? I have almost reached my limit. If worst comes to worst I shall ask Stuart Charlton to create a simple tune on his electric drums for us which he had done for my title montage in the first year. It may even sound better in the end.

So on top of all my texturing, lighting, effects and rendering I have animation to do in one week. Here is hoping it all works out. I know next time I do a project I will work on my own. it was what I wanted in the beginning but I felt I would give a group another shot. Boy was I wrong haha. 

Well wish me luck, I am going to need it.

Til next time....

Week Eleven

This week has been a tad slow on my part, mainly because I have been working on my show reel. Getting some nice renders ready for when I have my mock interview at uni. 

I did however manage to finish Tammy's textures and she looks great. I don't think there is anything I would do different. Though I was a tad bummed that I couldn't figure out how to make her lashes move with the eye blinks. But this was OK as I managed to fix it with a nice dark texture around her eyes to make it more noticeable when blinking.

This is the full colored render for the turn around.

Then I did a contour render of the same render.

Though I may look into finding a way to make the poly's low while still maintaining my smooth preview. Just as you can't really see the detail.

And here is a link to what it looks like so far. 

https://vimeo.com/76388278

It may not be relevant to my final production but it is something that I do need to work on, plus I like to think of it as render tests for the final movie.

Til next time......

Week Ten

This week I was working on lighting for our first scene. I first started to play with setting to see what I got. This wasn't working for me, so I went online to find a nice simple tutorial. And I did, the setup only had one light in it.

This was the render I did first with a purple glow. I liked it, but it was missing something. So I took the purple down and got this.

Still wasn't right. So I added an area light in and off to the side which I gave the purple glow to.

This turned out great. Though I had to re position my area light as it was giving too much brightness to one side. After I pulled it back, and set up my render properly. i did a batch render which I will be using for my show reel.

I am happy with the out come. My next step will be having my character in the scene to see how well she is lit.

I also had to do some minor details on the rigs as there were some skinning issues. This has all been sorted out. Had a slight tif with a teacher over the auto rig I used. I don't believe it is wise to say that because one thing works for you, it has to work for everyone. I had a problem so I fixed it on my own. 

I have also downloaded a free version of the 'pulldownit' plug in for Maya and will do some tests to make a crack in the ground for when the dragon falls. My teams is a tad skeptical about this method, but I talked with one of the lecturers and feel that this will be the best looking option.

Well that was my week so far.

Til next time...

Week Nine- Part B

This post is a tad delayed but it is from last week. I have compiled together all the scene we have so far to send off to audio.

There are some elements that need to be worked on, but at this point I would prefer my team to move on and not focus on the little things that need polishing. The more we have fleshed out the better it will be for us in the end. As then even I can do some polishing work if need be.

I'm looking forward to what Audio comes up with for this little scene.

Well Til next time.....

Week Nine-Part A

This week I have been focusing solely on textures. As I have many of them to do and not much time. I think my biggest struggle is getting the exact look I want. I have been looking at many types of reference but what I thought would be easy and pretty cool was they way they textured the characters in the game Kingdom Hearts.

To me it looks really cool, almost like they have covered up the seems with a darker colour giving off a sort of outlined look. So I did my own interpretation of this. As I am still learning and no where near Square Enix's quality....Yet.

So I have completed Jimmy, the Wizard but he just isn't complete without his staff. So this is what I have been trying to figure out. Mostly because his staff has a magic orb in it and, well that need to be extra special. I tried to find some tutorials on nice transparent texture but found nothing. 

What I really wanted to go for was a jelly looking shader. Something with depth yet you can see through it and it has a bubbly inner. 

Like Bob the Blob from Monsters vs Aliens.

Or something really cool like these images I found on Google images.

These really caught my eye, they remind me of pretty marbles. I guess you can say after all that, this is what I meant. I couldn't find something to do what I wanted. Then I remembered we could outsource some of our shaders, So to Creative Crash I went. I searched through all the pages of free shaders to find the one I loved. I actually downloaded several and tried them all out. I narrowed it down to 4 that I really liked.

This one was called Denfo_CyistalGlow

Blue_Glow

Gie_Shiny_Sagala

Red_Jade, I just made it blue as that is our theme for our Wizard.

I liked them all but my ultimate fave is the Gie_Shiny_Sagala, the way it glows and has that really cool transparent sections. Almost like ribbon wrapped around a bubble. I will have to show my team and see what they think, but I am happy with it.

Well This is what I have done so far, my next post will be about our first scene. 

Til next time...

Week Eight

So I have been very busy the last couple of weeks, Tis why I didn't post anything last week. I was basically given no choice but to take on rigging tasks so that my team could start animating. We are now 3 weeks behind and I'm not confident we will get a quality product in the end.

Since there was so much drama with the Advanced skeleton rig system I took it upon myself to find a new auto rig. I came across one on creative crash called Slap on Auto Rig. It was awesome, the face set up was simple and really fast to install. I managed to Rig 2 characters in under a week. This is what I did last week.

This week I have been working on textures, which is my actual job during production. I have been working on Jimmy, our Wizard character.

This is a render of his texture so far, Still have some items to finish. But I am pleased with the out come so far. I have also been finishing the final set. Which is the place the battle will be held. I was going to wait to do it, but I hope to get the boys to start Animating the next scene tomorrow. So I needed to finish it. I am happy with how it looks, and that's all that matters to me.

Take a look.

The bottom image is a test to make sure scale is all good. I was spot on this time round. These are not the final lighting renders just a test. Just as I haven't finished the textures on all trees.

The next thing  I wish to do is Tammy's textures. As her main scene is coming to a close (I hope) I would like to do some test renders.

We also managed to get all the cloth working nicely. I am looking forward to the final result, if we ever get there. Only 5 weeks til all animation comes to a stop. Here's hoping for the best.

Til next time....

Week Six

This week hasn't been too productive on my part. Though I have almost finished the second part of our set. I have yet to do some renders as I have been busy with another class's assignment. 

I have also been working on Tammy, she is almost ready for full animation but there have been many set backs. One is that the auto face rig is un cooperative and is testing my every nerve. It doesn't help that I don't know what it is called, so I can't find any tutorials on how to weight paint it. this is my only problem. I feel like I just want to scream at it. But I won't. The cloth simulation on her hair and clothes look great, this is a plus. I am however contemplating re doing her face from scratch and just make some awesome blend shapes and curve controls. This I know will work as it's how I did the dragons face. It may look amateur or silly but if it works I don't care. We need to start animating tomorrow as we only have 7 weeks left til the final film needs to be submitted (the first draft anyway). 

No images this week sorry, just a little rant on how things are going.

Til next time.... 

Week Five

This week I was working on Our dragon character Rig. It took me some time to get some things sorted out with him, but now he is done he looks great. I haven't finished his textures yet. And well I had some troubles about that, (not going to explain) But it is all fixed now. Thankfully.

So now that Petie (tis what I named him) is finished I have created just a really basic, and not the best walk cycle to show his deformations. I didn't put much effort into the walk but you get the idea.

And here is just a render of him looking all cool and what not.

Cheers and Til next time....

Week Four- Part B

Today I'm writing about my set, yet again. I have textured the entire scene and worked out my placement of items. First up was texturing the trees, this took a fairly long time. But I am pleased with the results.

 I was actually just playing around in Photoshop, trying to get the same feel as I have on the peer and rocks. Overall it turned out to be effective and really cute. My group agrees, I made a lighter and darker texture to have some variation in the scene.

Next up was the lily pads and I was using Google images as reference. I simplified them as realistic wouldn't look right. This was my first render of them, It was OK. Drazen (my team mate) mentioned the leaves should be darker. 

So that's what I did, and they looked heaps better. The flower was really fun to make, I had never modeled one before so I was excited (I'm a total Polygon nerd). And to texture them was rather easy. I took a few renders at different angles to get an overall feel of the comp.

The next thing I worked on was the grass, I got some feed back from a class mate that it was too fine. So I upped the ante. I made the base width a 4 and the tip width a 0.5, this looked great, I did try a tad bigger but it started to look really chunky and un-grass like.

After I was happy I made a sign for the scene. Every little lake/pond has a name. I wanted something that my team mates would love. And since all they talk about is League of Legends I made this.

I used the logo as reference, But changed the way it was shaded. I also tweaked the font so I don't get done in for copyright. I used the eraser tool to give it a wear and tear feel. The default lighting does not do it justice.

This is just a few renders in various angles. I brightened the water colour as well to make it more pretty. I would love to have it actually sparkle but that's just wishful thinking.

After I had played around with my angles it was time to see how my character fit into the scene. I was surprised at how closed I was in scale. I only had to scale the set up a tiny bit.

I also scaled the trees down, They are meant to be big but they were monstrous. Tammy fit in nicely, granted I used everyday Tammy and not Elf Tammy, but they are the same size.

All in all I completed what I set out to do. I have just the lantern to finish but other than that, This set is ready for animation next week.

Til next time.... 

Week Four-Part A

This week I am still working on my environments. So far I have placed in my final water (a.k.a. ocean in Maya) and grass that will be around the tree line.

For the grass I used the paint effects fur grass. I played with the size and arrangement before I found something that I liked.

Here is a preview...

 

Obviously I have taken the trees out (for texturing) So that I can basically work my way up the comp. I like to treat it as if I am working with layers in Photoshop. My team mates seem to happy with my work so far. 

I still have yet to place proper lights in my scene, but feel that The default works for preview sakes. I need to make an alternate texture for the rocks, so that there is some variety. I was thinking a slight brown tinge to it, almost to make them seem a tad dirty.

I have also been working on some pebble shapes, so far I have a rectangle shape but they look like wooden planks. I have made a hexagon shape which looks better, once I texture them they will form nice swirly patterns on the ground. Yes I am sticking to my theme.

So that is what I have been up to, now I must get back to it.

Til next time....

 

 

Week Three

So this week has been a stressful one for myself. I had been working on another project which is not my own. I did however sort out one section of our set. I worked on the section in which we will start animating first as the character has the least amount of scenes and no dynamics, except the pond.

So I did a quick render with just a default sun and sky light, and base lambert textures. The pond is not in the images as of yet.

This is one view, as you can see the lighting gives off a grid like effect which I do not want. nut it serves my purpose for now.

And this is the other view I rendered. (not that different I know) 

I shall be working on sets a whole lot more in the 4th week as they will all need to be done. Keep a look out for my updates. ^_^

Til next time...

Week Two- Part B

So I said I would post about some designs I had done, and well here they shall be. I spent a full day working out some small environment pieces that will give our scene more character. 

So below is an image of what I would like the set to look like from top view. 

The set needs two separate areas for the animation. Though you will only ever see one at a time. I have hopes to have it done before the end of week 4. 

Here are some assets designs. The theme I am going for is stylized with swirls, My team mates have agreed with this look. I'm trying to give an organic sort of feel to the environment and nothing says organic quite like smooth and rounded lines. A.K.A. swirls. Plus it's meant to be a fantasy land where nothing is quite normal.

The first asset I made was the dock. It was really simple as there was lots of duplication and the textures were nice and easy. I only needed to texture one plank and one post, the nails are done with a mental ray metal texture. It seemed to fit perfectly.

The second was the rock, which will be around in random places of the set. I kind of for the idea from looking at Chinese water paintings. They always have nice swirly designs and it makes me feel calm. The texture again was easy, there is no bump map the swirl was modeled into the rock. It is still low poly and wont take up much render time.

And the last model I created this week was the lantern that will light the dock for our little elf. I have yet to texture it, but it will look just like the concept. I haven't decided if I want to make little flowers on it yet. I probably will to give it some extra colour and cuteness.

So all these items are ready to be placed in my scene, All my assets will be low poly and there will be high quality yet simple textures. I want to keep things as simple as I can so that we don't overload the computers when it comes to rendering. As I still need to work out particles and such.

Til next time....