Final blog post.

Final blog post for the BSA 225 and 226 animation assignment.

Okay, I'm bad keeping a consistent blog. I admit it.

Weird bug where key frames apply to the whole rig. Not harmful to the work, just bloody annoying. Not sure how I can fix it as I don't know what is causing the problem.

Strange problem with the red ring (Effector) around my character's left hand where moving it will cause the character to teleport to a random place in the scene. I am able to work around it by using the IK.

Problem resolved after deleting strings and string rig.

Hips started behaving differently since I removed the strings. Hip effector no longer seems to be the main setting point for the character, the feet effectors seems to have taken over that role.

Marcus's IK and control got moved slightly in front of him when being scaled to size. Rig still works fine.

Having an issue where my character is meant to perform a move or rotation, over shoots the target then rubber bands back. Problem shows up on the graph editor as a sudden cliff on one line and is not created by key frames.

A solution seems to be going back and fixing the x and z values (if aiming to rotate on the y axis) on the rotation. The values change despite not being told to and start competing with one another. Returning both rogue value to 0 seems to resolves the problem but I'm  still not sure what causes it in the first place.

Not satisfied with how the animation looks in some parts, but it is 1 am on Friday, so I don't have the time to be picky. I'll come back to this project once I haven't had a nice long break from it. Need to be able to look at it with a fresh set of eyes and an eager attitude. Currently I'm kind of sick and tried of it. I don't want to abandon this project, but I think I need some time to get more experience in 3D animation.

I know there are parts of the audio and animation that lets the rest of the work down, but I was running short on time, brain cells and sleep. I'll probably keep the audio clips I have now and redo them for the Flicks version  I will produce later in the year, that is unless a better option presents itself. Some of the animation clip however will probably need to be redone from scratch and the model for Marcus will need to be completely redone too (He looks pretty awful at the moment).

With that said, I am somewhat happy with how the model of the Dancer turned out and some of the animation for her is looking nice. I think I'll make it a personal project to update the Dancer's model at some point, possibly during the summer holidays. I think she is a good character and she would be a good piece to add to my portfolio (Both her 3D and 2D models/images).

Week 6

Week 6

Adding blend shapes to the dress to make the baubles move. Not a perfect system as the computer creates a straight path rather than the wanted pendulum effect. Should get by if I use the system sparingly.

Rather odd problem of a infinitely inflating blend shape. Increasing the blend shape would cause the controlled object to move, but decreasing it did nothing. This resulted in one of the baubles on my characters dress to grow bigger than the character. (No picture, reverted to an old save to avoid a crash). I think it was caused by accidentally moving the wrong slider while edit was enabled on another blend shape. Kind of funny, kind of frightening.

Maya keeps crashing when I try to import my character into the scene. Seems to overload the computer.

Finally got my scene and character in the same work space after an hour of Maya crashing. Nina suggested I try importing the scene into the character file rather than the other way around which was what is was doing. Seems to  have worked. Computer is lagging badly though.

Scale the character to the scene doesn't seem to work either. Had to scale the scene to the character (sitting around times 16 - times 17 the scale of the original)

Spent an hour reworking the lighting set up for the first few shots

Term 2 week 4 and 5

Animation problems

Making the skirt move

Mixed both ncloth and blend shapes doesn't seem to work.

Ncloth might prove a simpler method for animation but I'm worried that it could cause problems. Already there is a small seam or gap between the ring on the bottom of the dress and the cloth of the dress. On the plus side, the cloth actual looks like cloth and cloth responses well the physics.

My other option is to use blend shapes to create the movement in the skirt. This will take a lot more time in the animating stage (And I'm running short on time as it is). The other problem with this method is that the Baubles deform when I set both the left/right and forward/back to active.

I feel like the NCloth model works better for my desires for the character. Blend shapes is simply to fiddly for this task and doesn't provide the result I want. I seem to have the functions sorted, but I'm sure something will turn up to bite me for my decision.

Turns out I was wrong, I couldn't get the ncloth to play ball. The Ncloth objects refused to stay with the solid object I attached them to. Even after hours of research and attempts I couldn't get it to work. This little science experiment cost me about a week of work on my character, but "Nothing ventured, nothing learned and nothing gained"

Thankfully, Rachel was kind enough to spend the time to make me a custom rig for the skirt. Even after all the time I spent researching the subject and watching Rachel do it, I still wouldn't be confident in making one myself. There are some steps I still don't quite understand. After some trail and error, I have the rigged skirt working properly. I will try adding some blend shapes to make the baubles move with some of the more pronounced dress movements.

Started modeling Marcus outside of class. He shouldn't take too long to make as he doesn't need to be very detailed. The most important part (the hands) can be imported from the dancer's model and reconfigured to fit my needs.

Did voice recording on June 4. Had some troubles as the recording board wasn't working properly but I managed to record. Don't know how it sounds in post yet but if need be I can re-record. Either way, a big thanks to Morgan M and Luke Page for doing the voices and putting up with my constant 'artistic' pushiness. Still need foley sounds. Will have to use the Zoons so I can do the recording by myself (none of my classmates seems to be willing to help with foley, or indeed record their own)

Week 9 and the Holidays

Maya Tutorial and learning

Progress

Didn't do much work on The Dancer during the first week of the break. Just finished up the bottom of the skirt and tweaked its general shape.

Did a bit more of the scenery during the first week, but still not a lot. I was kind of busy that first week.

April 24

My first attempt at a breast plate/metal corset didn't go well simply because the topology didn't work as I though it would. In the end I just decided to start over. I feel that it is important that I get the topology for the Dancer correct as she is the center piece of the whole story, so I want her to look as good as possible. Because the topology of the chest piece was wrong I couldn't insert loops correctly or add the edges/rims on the metal.


My second attempt at the breast plate went much better than the first. I'm a bit uncertain about the part that goes under the arm, but that is probably just me nit picking. It should function fine. This is my progress as of April 24, will add more detail tomorrow.

April 25



Started modeling the scissors, going fairly well.

Added bevel/ planes in the breast plane. Will create a more solid looking object when I am happy with the geometry.

Really starting to like 3D modeling. Learned a fair bit just by poking around the program. I also really like how my character is starting to look. Hopeful I can get a good quality of animation in this assignment. It would be a good starting point for my portfolio.

Possible changes

Not sure how I feel about the Dancer's joints. I drew her with universal ball joints but at this point it would take a lot of back tracking to give her those joints now.

Change the hand to look more like that of a puppet.

Overview

Sadly I didn't get nearly as much work done as I had wished. This is probably just because I was home and in holiday mode.

http://area.autodesk.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/MayaHowTos

week 8 2d

Finishing the animatic

I spent most of Friday evening trying to figure out how to get Maya to animate my characters. It took me 3 hours but I finally figured it out and got my first shot (Opening shot) rendered. Seems like the rigging doesn't like it when you try set the character as a whole. Rather it wants each individual aspect of the character to be rigged one piece at a time.

As of April 1, Marius and I are recording our placeholder foley. I don't know how Marius feels about it but I see myself re-recording a lot of the audio I want for the finally piece.

I think my biggest obsolete to learning movement in Maya is the graph system. While I have a decent animatic going, I haven't been able to nail down the movements.

Monday April 3rd: Anger, lots of it.

I was working on the animatic, from 5 pm to 9:15 pm on Monday 3 of April. I had everything finished on the animating side and was about to take it into after effects. I copied the file to put it onto my portable hard drive, so I would have two copies in case one got corrupted.

This ended badly. I don't know why but an error came up saying that the copy process failed and when I returned to the original file that was on the computer's D drive it was gone. All attempts to recover my work failed and I couldn't get any information about the error from the computer. In short, I lost 4-5 hours work because my working file on the D drive self destructed when I tried to create a back up. As Luke Page and Morgana Penrose can tell you, I was not happy."

This is part of the email I send to my tutor about a self destructing file bomb that deleted 5 hours of work that I did on my animatic. Needlessly to say, I'm angry. Really angry.

I don't get it, I was finished, I was relieved. All the animating was done, all I had to do was edit the shots together and added the music and sound effects. One little copy glitch and poof. Work gone. I don't know what I'll do if I don't get an extension. I was so on course for completion and now it has exploded in my face. I don't have Maya at home yet, so I just lost a lot of production time.

Recovery

I had to remake half my shots (all the ones i lost after the computer error). This took most of Tuesday to do, including getting up early and going to SIT at 7am. Managed to get everything back to where I had it and even started putting it together. Needless to say I was a bit stuffed.

Ideas after making the animatic

I think that the beginning sequence with The Dancer waltzing around the stage needs more dynamic shots/ camera angles. I think maybe some shots that are closer to the Dancer. If necessary I could extend that opening sequence to suit the change of camera angles and shots length.

Just looking at how my animatic played out, I might have to model Marcus (The old man/ puppet master) after all. While this means more work for me, I think it would be a good chance to practice my 3D modeling. I am working on The Dancers model in class as it is important that her model looks good, as she has the most screen time out of both characters. Being able to ask Rachel for assistance when necessary is a good safety net in that regard, but I need to test what I learned without that safety net.

Week 4,5,6 and 7. BSA 225 and 226

Week 4,5,6 and 7. Concept hand in, 3D modeling, audio, speedpainting and more...

Yes. I'm aware the idea of blogs to show consistent research and reflect. I just got so caught up in my concept work that I forgot to update the blog. I feel like it is better to show that I forgot than trying weakly to hide it.

Speed Painting 

I'm really not happy with my pace of work. I need to spend more time learning to speedpainting and digital painting techniques. I'll probably practice this as much as I can after the first assignment for BSA226 is handed in. I need to start putting together a portfolio and this seems like good place to start. I want to be as good as the people I see on YouTube as that is a standard I think I should aim for if I want a job as a concept artist.

A really helpful video is Blender Guru's "Understanding color"(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj1FK8n7WgY). While I had a basic understanding of color theory, I didn't realize some of the screw ups I was making with my color choices and uses. I have started applying the color rules suggested in this video and have noticed a big improvement.

Below are some examples of recent attempts. Still not happy with the quality, but I'll keep trying. Feedback is appreciated.

Concept art done for the BSA226

-(Very) quick silohettes drawings
-Quick colour sketches
-Pose sketches
-Front and side sketches with skeleton

Having looked at the finally work for the first assignment for BSA 226, I am slightly unhappy. This is mostly due to the fact that I think the final piece is too dark even though I could easily see my character on the Photoshop painting. Will talk to Rachel about it and see if I can get it reprinted.

Time management problems

I have been having trouble finding time to fit in all the work I need to do. I would try a timetable but having used those in the past, I don't think they be a great help. If you have anything to recommend, I'm all ears.

As you can probably tell from the fact I have tried to compress 3 weeks into one blog post. Shit happens.

Sound required - General audio/Foley

- Feet/ wooden tapping on wood or marbel
- Record stopping
- Fists slamming into a table
-Scissors opening and closing (Metal scrapping against Metal)
-Ambient sound

Sounds for the Dancer

- Pantings/Breathing
- Running and footsteps
-Cloth movement
-Metal/ Brass contact
-Expression sounds, pouting, snorting

Sounds for Marcus

- Muttering
-Grumbling
-Door slam
-Heavy footsteps

Foley

3D animation: Maya

Now that we have moved on from concept work and I have a basic grasp of how 3D animation actual work, I am really enjoying myself. There is still a lot to learn (especially in Zbrush) but I'm start to get a hang of it. Building my character is very enjoyable, as I get to see my character take form. As of Wendesday 29th of March, I have put together most of my scene and I'm ready to start putting together my animatic.

3D Model with reference

3D Model

3D Model

Top view of Scene

Perspective view of scene

Zoomed out Perspective view

The biggest problem I'm having with 3D is trying to figure out how I want to make my scene/ environment. I wanted to use 2D flat planes, but now I'm wondering whether that was a good idea or not. I think maybe I need to think about a 3D environment instead and how I would implement that. A 3D environment would also give a lot more visual content for the story and character.

I think something more akin to the setting of 'Waltz Duet" by Valse a quatre mains, would be suitable for the stage on which the Dancer (and the short film) starts. Firstly this would present less problems than the 2D background idea.
(Examples of what I'm thinking below)

As I mentioned before, I think Waltz Duet is a good reference for my own short film. One thing I need to consider is making the background less complex than Valse a quatre mains has made theirs.

Waltz Duet By Valse a quatre mains. The color palette of Waltz duet is also something to consider. My main character (The Dancer) has a color palette of White/pale, deep purple and gold/brass. I need to think about how I would use similar colors for the environment and if I need to change the Dancer's design slightly to bring everything together (Aka: Color Harmony in the final piece)

Music

I need classical/ piano music for the short film score. So I have been looking into copyright free pieces I could use. In addition to the songs I have found on the internet, I have been searching through the Y Drive for sound effects and music I can use.

Mattia Cupelli: Touch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JYHk_D5A44

Ghilbi's Waltz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbOiqJJ5RxU

Bed Time Stories
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVHVFwwuOa0

Pirate Crew (Use the soft beginning paino section)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVBgKCYrI-c


2D artist
https://www.artstation.com/artist/zackcy

https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=carlos+ortega+elizalde&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJgbKUnOnSAhWHVLwKHbl9CysQ_AUIBigB&biw=1920&bih=1094#imgrc=lC0Jy7PC-5jUvM:

Videos to watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7b3HONIqfE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMxir6VFy40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM39qhXle4g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj1FK8n7WgY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0ufz75UvHs

Week 3: Concept art, Treatment, Storyboarding and Character design

WEEK 3

Things are starting to get turbo charged. Vaughn's BSA225 assignment 1 is due March 8, aka very soon. So it is time to kick my butt into overdrive and start ticking requirement boxes.

It is a bit annoying that I still can't get into the downtown campus with my ID card though. Hope that is fixed soon.

Treatment/ Script

Draft 1 of the treatment has been finished. I'll do several sweeps over it to look for errors or improvements and I'll run it past my classmates.

Looking at multiple possibilities for my Dancer character and the character of Marcus (although he is planned to be mostly off screen at this point).

Week 3 draft of character designs
Still in Progress

End of week 3

Work in progress

Music Choices

There are several sets of music in the short film and I have been taking the time to explore my options for all the different possibilities. I want to stay away from things like rock anything with heavy use of an electric guitar.

Everything I use needs to be copyrighted, so simply using my personal favourite music is a no go (it would be pretty lazy anyways.

For the part of the film where the music changes and the Dancer responds accordingly I wanted to look at maybe using electro swing. This due to the fact that I know it is a music genre meant for dancing and also because it is something I have gotten into recently.

Electroc swing

Gee - Electroswing Revival

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkkNgbkcvog

Gee - Electroswing 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MwJg3iDtg4

Helpful info/ miscellaneous research 

I have been looking at the music videos for the popular French electroc swing band Caravan Palace for the dancing used. 

Rock it for me - Caravan palace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBGSJ3sbivI

Dramaphone - Caravan palace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7lxd7RL1To

Animation Style choices

While I have mentioned some of my personal influences in the past two weeks, now that I have the idea and treatment down I feel like it is time to do some hardcore research on 3D animation and how I intent to pull this off.

I think the "Waltz Duet" is a animation I should continue to 

CGI 3D Animated Short HD: "Waltz Duet" - by Team Valse à Quatre Mains

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUcRdKdGMxo

CGI 3D Animated Shorts HD: "SpellBound" by Ying Wu & Lizzia Xu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuNdTpjXkJ0

Disney Pixar

I feel like a good place to start is Pixar/ Disney Pixar. Their work has mass appeal and is reasonable simplistic. They use bright, interesting and expressive colour palettes and character designs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_oCx6w7cpQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEl__CfOT7U

http://b-dunn.deviantart.com/