Showing posts with label 3d. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 3d. Show all posts
Friday, 1 May 2015
Friday, 24 April 2015
3 Days to Go: Because We Are Awesome
Today is a great day...
Today at 8.30ssomething pm we finished our animated short (before being swiftly asked to leave the building...the building was meant to close a 8pm. oops).
It was a long process (we almost lost Sushma to the troll and sound along the way), but eventually after effects / premier pro co-operated and we we made it.
Most of today was spent making final tweaks to the audio and re-editing it to fit the final animation. We were all able to make final decisions on extra foley sounds as well as tweaks to pitch - and we think that this has definitely made all the difference.
This was probably the first time all of us have seen the final thing with all the final sounds and for most of us this is also the first time working on an animated project so we're really happy with the end result.
These characters have taken over our lives and we're more than excited to get them back, but definitely sad that its almost all over (cheesy but true cause we're cool like that).
Our final presentation is all finished, so we're pretty much prepared for the final meeting with Axis on Monday :)
These characters have taken over our lives and we're more than excited to get them back, but definitely sad that its almost all over (cheesy but true cause we're cool like that).
Our final presentation is all finished, so we're pretty much prepared for the final meeting with Axis on Monday :)
 |
| 100 rendered and feeling smug |
Wednesday, 22 April 2015
5 Days to Go: Composites and Corrections
The end is definitely in sight...
All first and second round compositing is now COMPLETE and is ready to go over to Sushma and Kaitlin for editing. This is also the first time the 2 of them have looked through all the composited shots which is VERY good for one main reason - we get a fresh pair of eyes on the animation as a whole.
As the rest of us have had a hand in compositing we've seen what effects and changes have been made etc, but this was the first time the both of them would be seeing this, and therefore could give some initial first feedback!
As a result we've tweaked a few shots to make sure they stay in line with the rest of them - but also to avoid them looking too after-effecty. Kaitlin made a good point about not hiding behind the compositing. We should be showing of the animations and the work that has gone into the models and textures.
All first and second round compositing is now COMPLETE and is ready to go over to Sushma and Kaitlin for editing. This is also the first time the 2 of them have looked through all the composited shots which is VERY good for one main reason - we get a fresh pair of eyes on the animation as a whole.
As the rest of us have had a hand in compositing we've seen what effects and changes have been made etc, but this was the first time the both of them would be seeing this, and therefore could give some initial first feedback!
As a result we've tweaked a few shots to make sure they stay in line with the rest of them - but also to avoid them looking too after-effecty. Kaitlin made a good point about not hiding behind the compositing. We should be showing of the animations and the work that has gone into the models and textures.
There has been some initial hiccups in getting all shots from After Effects (as they are) into Premier Pro for editing - we're wanting to import the shots this way so Amit has more control in the final round of compositing (which will include grains, vignette and all that snazzy stuff) - but after hunting down Malcolm and stealing his After Effects / Premier Pro knowledge all is once again right with the world.
 | ||
| Sushma stealing Malcolm's mind
One key thing we've all probably learnt from this project is that it is important to find a clever (quick) work around (/cheat) for any visual issues that may arise. Our favourite case study is one again the Troll. Reverting back to a much older model to quickly render off the final couple of shots meant that a re-test of that rig wasn't done, and with textures turned off (due to lagging) a couple of deformations were missed in his lower half.
Luckily this was only really obvious in one shot. Firstly Yannis attempted to block out the issue with some of the surrounding plants on the bridge (which is something we've done in a previous shot for a different issue), but this didn't look right. So we turned to Photoshop!
Bimpe took the effected rendered TIFFs and painted over the problem areas (100 frames.... fun times), and thanks to the magic of copy and paste this shots we're cleaned up in 30 minutes.
After - Booty Free!
Success!
Now all that's left is for Yannis to finish up the credits sequence which is still looking awesome - Cristina has also added a great personal touch #nospoilers
|
Monday, 20 April 2015
Week 15: 7 Days to Go: Banter and Bold Declarations
Yep, that's right. we have a week to go until the final deadline and things are still ticking along.
The last couple of weeks we've really been bogged down with rendering - renders taking much longer than expected, renders coming out incorrect or renders not coming out at all (being held captive by a hungry render farm).
But our spirits have remained high! This is a really important stage and one of the key things to making sure we complete this with some sanity is to stay calm and full of humour (which we definitely are - there was also a game of chess to stretch our creative muscles and assess our next plan of attack).
All the scenes are almost rendered - although due to time constraints we've had to drop the AO passes - and for some scenes where we haven't had time to re-render the diffuse/indirect passes we've had to just use a beauty pass - which sadly gives us a bit less control during the compositing stage - but we're still trying to ensure that it all looks good.
In terms of compositing, we've got a little pipeline going on, so were we're going through 3 key stages:
Upon reflection there are definitely a few things we would have done differently had we had the time - such as making firm decisions on what would be rendered out (for example where there is no camera movement we only need 1 still shot, not up to 100 extra frames of the same thing :( ). But these are definitely good lessons to take with us for future works.
But on the great plus side, we're still coming up with new and simple ideas to create short cuts for ourselves. For example Ritchie had the great idea of creating 1 generic After Effects file with the heat haze effect to be imported into whatever scenes need it. This definitely saves us a lot of time, especially for those who don't yet know the technique for creating it!
Thank you muchly Ritchie!
In terms of compositing, we've got a little pipeline going on, so were we're going through 3 key stages:
- The initial file set up where all layers are applied
- The more snazzy effects like heat haze are then added
- Finally after editing, the whole thing will go to Amit for one last round of colour corrections and a couple more snazzy things
Upon reflection there are definitely a few things we would have done differently had we had the time - such as making firm decisions on what would be rendered out (for example where there is no camera movement we only need 1 still shot, not up to 100 extra frames of the same thing :( ). But these are definitely good lessons to take with us for future works.
But on the great plus side, we're still coming up with new and simple ideas to create short cuts for ourselves. For example Ritchie had the great idea of creating 1 generic After Effects file with the heat haze effect to be imported into whatever scenes need it. This definitely saves us a lot of time, especially for those who don't yet know the technique for creating it!
Thank you muchly Ritchie!
Wednesday, 15 April 2015
Tuesday, 14 April 2015
Week 14: Compositing Crew
So it is all hands on deck for compositing our film! Luckily we have another week - which has definitely been needed as we're having a few issues with our renders - some of them have been coming out blank and some of them are failing in the render-farm which isn't cool.
We have about a quarter of our shots left to render - and the priority is to get these out asap. In the meantime Amit has also given us all a crash course in compositing in After Effects - as we felt this would be the most user friendly for us all considering the time we have left.
Now to the not so good news... the troll has turned on us and he is deforming in Maya, we're not sure if its the reference of the model etc, but he's been deskinned and reweighted a number of times and he's still not liking us much.
In some cases it's ok, but in other's where is stomach is visible the deform is really obvious... it's working fine in playblasts, but when its rendered out the issue remains. Bimpe, Sushma and Natasha are doing a couple of tweaks to see what can be done animation-wise, but with the time constraints will will probably be something that we have to mask in post-production.
Woe is us.
We have about a quarter of our shots left to render - and the priority is to get these out asap. In the meantime Amit has also given us all a crash course in compositing in After Effects - as we felt this would be the most user friendly for us all considering the time we have left.
 |
| Amit feeling triumphant with the new 4K monitors |
We're pretty much following the same set of instructions and modes etc so every scene is consistent. We also have a few extra effects to add in likes dusts and particles which Yannis will talk us through as this is something he's added into the credits - which is looking pretty damn awesome.
There's still lots to be done effects wise, but we're getting through these as quickly as possible.
Now to the not so good news... the troll has turned on us and he is deforming in Maya, we're not sure if its the reference of the model etc, but he's been deskinned and reweighted a number of times and he's still not liking us much.
In some cases it's ok, but in other's where is stomach is visible the deform is really obvious... it's working fine in playblasts, but when its rendered out the issue remains. Bimpe, Sushma and Natasha are doing a couple of tweaks to see what can be done animation-wise, but with the time constraints will will probably be something that we have to mask in post-production.
Woe is us.
Friday, 10 April 2015
The attempted art of Sabotage
It's safe to say that we've had a more than semi- successful week of rendering! Amit, Bimpe and Natasha have been setting up the passes - we're using Indirect, Diffuse and reflection - as well as a couple of custom ones - ID, ZDepth and AO.
All pass have been completed and have now been thrust gracefully into the render farm.
A couple has gone through earlier in the week, but Amit had spotted some issues with the outputs - some of the passes weren't showing what they should have shown, and them some weren't showing anything in After Effects, but were working fine in the glorious Photoshop. He's gone back into the render settings and saw a couple of things that may have caused the issues, so fingers crossed they should be fine now.
 |
| we are organised and ready to render! |
 |
| A very happy compositing Cristina |
With all the technical stuff rolling along, we're turning some of our attention to our credits. We want these to have as much thought and care as we've had with the film, we also want t have fun with it! We've been throwing around some ideas, and settled on a really good one from Yannis which will involve some 2D animation (his speciality). With that said.. no more spoilers
Oh and we also attempted to spread the good word of Team Juan with Team 2... but they were having none of it.
We can't be held accountable for our characters actions...
Tuesday, 7 April 2015
Week 13: We Reserve Our Right To Render
T-Minus 2 weeks...
Key things to do this week:
We've run into a couple of tweaks of scenes which was to be expected, but nothing to major, if anything its been extra useful to make these changes to make sure the film makes sense and fits together.
One of the main points of discussion has been the 'hero' shot for the biggest goat - to try and get this to fit better Natasha has been tweaking the camera angles to establish the best shot, one that works well for the film, narration and the over all introduction of the character.
All in all it has been decided that the Loreal advert look wins every time, and so far #3 (the combination between #1 and #2) is winning.
In terms of music and sound, Yannis has done a great job of getting all this together, and all that's left is to do a final bit of production and our sound will be ready to be edited to the footage.
As we know that there's only a bit of time left, we're going to split the team slightly to do different things - hopefully by Monday all scenes will be completely rendered (and ok!!), once this has happened Amit, Bimpe and Ritchie will be compositing, with Sushma and Kaitlin ready to start editing all the scenes that come through. In the meantime Yannis, Natasha and Cristina will be working on our logo and credits design. They've got a strong background in this so the aim is to have that done in a day so they can jump on to compositing.
Key things to do this week:
- Completely finish and sign off all animation
- Set All scenes to render
- Start compositing completed renders
We've run into a couple of tweaks of scenes which was to be expected, but nothing to major, if anything its been extra useful to make these changes to make sure the film makes sense and fits together.
One of the main points of discussion has been the 'hero' shot for the biggest goat - to try and get this to fit better Natasha has been tweaking the camera angles to establish the best shot, one that works well for the film, narration and the over all introduction of the character.
 |
| Loreal's finest #1 |
 |
| Loreal's fines t#2 |
 |
| Loreal's finest #3 |
All in all it has been decided that the Loreal advert look wins every time, and so far #3 (the combination between #1 and #2) is winning.
In terms of music and sound, Yannis has done a great job of getting all this together, and all that's left is to do a final bit of production and our sound will be ready to be edited to the footage.
As we know that there's only a bit of time left, we're going to split the team slightly to do different things - hopefully by Monday all scenes will be completely rendered (and ok!!), once this has happened Amit, Bimpe and Ritchie will be compositing, with Sushma and Kaitlin ready to start editing all the scenes that come through. In the meantime Yannis, Natasha and Cristina will be working on our logo and credits design. They've got a strong background in this so the aim is to have that done in a day so they can jump on to compositing.
Friday, 3 April 2015
Playing and having a Blast
We are nearing final stages of this projects, and we're still finishing/tidying up animations, but its really important that we get a look at how all the shots look together!
We'v been working on the shots individually, and we're aware they everyone has slightly different styles/experiences so we''ve playblasted the shots (the ones that are finished atleast) to see how it all looks!!
Yannis has almost finished working on the music - its in the final editing stages, but Sushma has edited this all together for now.
Still lots of bits to work on, but so far we're all really happy with how this is turning out and the renders are looking good! Amit's planning on doing a test composite of one of the shots over the weekend to get a feel for what we'll need to do, and he'll feed this back to everyone so we can start work on it.
We'v been working on the shots individually, and we're aware they everyone has slightly different styles/experiences so we''ve playblasted the shots (the ones that are finished atleast) to see how it all looks!!
Yannis has almost finished working on the music - its in the final editing stages, but Sushma has edited this all together for now.
Still lots of bits to work on, but so far we're all really happy with how this is turning out and the renders are looking good! Amit's planning on doing a test composite of one of the shots over the weekend to get a feel for what we'll need to do, and he'll feed this back to everyone so we can start work on it.
 |
| Sushma looking happy before the Troll turned on her... |
It's all plodding along, but it will probably hit overdrive in the next few days are we whizz around (and sleep very little) in order to get everything finished! We know it's important to get as many hands as possible on compositing so we avoid it all ending up in Amit's lap!
Tuesday, 24 March 2015
Week 11: Render Me This
Soooo were are definitely nearing the stage where we can start rendering our first shot!!
Also now that the scenes are coming together we've been re-reviewing the goats textures - as the troll now compliments the environment almost perfectly. We've been tweaking the saturation so that the goats still pop, but don't look missed matched with their setting.
We're churning out animated scenes like theres no tomorrow (a slight exhaggeration but one that definitely one that fits the context) and should hopefully be done by the end of the week.
Sushma has suggested everyone playblast their animated scenes so we can then stitch theme together and view them as a whole. This is definitely a great step to take as we need to make sure all our animation scenes are consistent and that our individual animating styles don't differ to much from the scenes that follow each other. We've already noticed a couple of instances of this with the troll so we've been working together to tweak these.
HAPPY FACES!
This will also be useful so timing - to see what shots we need to cut down and so the music and narration can be edited to it. Annnnddd this. Also works as a second animatic. Huzzah.
Bimpe and Natasha have pretty mych finished their scenes so Amit will now be talking them through the render set up process so he isn't left to tackle this alone once all the shots have been completed.
Also now that the scenes are coming together we've been re-reviewing the goats textures - as the troll now compliments the environment almost perfectly. We've been tweaking the saturation so that the goats still pop, but don't look missed matched with their setting.
Feel free to stay tuned for the stitched together playblast when its ready!
Thursday, 19 March 2015
Our animations bring all the rigs to the yard...
Another solid day of animation, with lots done and our first rendered scenes coming through!
So lots of visuals to swoon over.
Everyone's working through these quite quickly, which means Amit will be getting a lot of shots to prepare for render/compositing - so Bimpe is aiming to have all her shots done by tomorrow to start helping with this process, Natasha will probably be helping too as she has almost finished her shots.
The scenes are shaping up really well, and we're making a few camera tweaks where we feel is necessary and Ritchie is wooing us with his animated shots.
This is definitely an animation eye-candy day...
After Maya trying to betray us, we're making triple sure that we're backing up all the files on our master hard drive and our own uni-servers.
We would like to top this successful day off with a quick tune from our mascots / Team Juan theme tune (thanks Taylor)
So lots of visuals to swoon over.
Everyone's working through these quite quickly, which means Amit will be getting a lot of shots to prepare for render/compositing - so Bimpe is aiming to have all her shots done by tomorrow to start helping with this process, Natasha will probably be helping too as she has almost finished her shots.
The scenes are shaping up really well, and we're making a few camera tweaks where we feel is necessary and Ritchie is wooing us with his animated shots.
 |
| Look how shiny!! |
After Maya trying to betray us, we're making triple sure that we're backing up all the files on our master hard drive and our own uni-servers.
We would like to top this successful day off with a quick tune from our mascots / Team Juan theme tune (thanks Taylor)
Thursday, 12 March 2015
Welcome to the Pinata apocalypse
And another chapter of our glorious 3D animation saga begins!
This next week is gonna be a really key week for us, to make sure that we're not rushing rendering / compositing (and basically finish everything), all animation needs to be completed and finalised by the end of next week.
No pressure there. We've got this.
All texturing for the assets and landscape is finished (no more tweaking!! We hope) and the same goes for the Troll rig despite Sushma and Bimpe's best efforts to keep perfecting him. He has the most complicated scenes so he really needs to be handed over to the animators now so they can start work and so we can all sleep easy.
Kaitlin was having a couple of hiccups with the UV maps and textures for the plants, but she's managed to sort this all out with some really good results.
She and Natasha have been dressing the scene ready for Amit to add some lighting and Gamma correction (woo Gamma!)
Now... this has had some very fun (apocalypse-esque) results.
Prepare your eyes for the GAMMA GLORY!!
Glorious.
In terms of sound design, Yannis is in possession of a glorious guitar and will be working on the music over the next week - he's already played us a little demo of what he's thinking and we're all really happy with it! So it's allll coming together.
One of the key things this week was figuring out a way of copying an animation sequence from one scene to another without re-keying everything. We'll really need this for scenes like when the goats walk past the troll - it means we can just copy the walk cycle from the chief animators and key frame the extra character in the scene around it.
After a bit of searching, confusion and general hunger, Yannis came up with a great way to do this. He's also tested this quite thoroughly which means it should work with the animations we're attempting.
This next week is gonna be a really key week for us, to make sure that we're not rushing rendering / compositing (and basically finish everything), all animation needs to be completed and finalised by the end of next week.
No pressure there. We've got this.
All texturing for the assets and landscape is finished (no more tweaking!! We hope) and the same goes for the Troll rig despite Sushma and Bimpe's best efforts to keep perfecting him. He has the most complicated scenes so he really needs to be handed over to the animators now so they can start work and so we can all sleep easy.
Kaitlin was having a couple of hiccups with the UV maps and textures for the plants, but she's managed to sort this all out with some really good results.
She and Natasha have been dressing the scene ready for Amit to add some lighting and Gamma correction (woo Gamma!)
Now... this has had some very fun (apocalypse-esque) results.
Prepare your eyes for the GAMMA GLORY!!
Glorious.
In terms of sound design, Yannis is in possession of a glorious guitar and will be working on the music over the next week - he's already played us a little demo of what he's thinking and we're all really happy with it! So it's allll coming together.
One of the key things this week was figuring out a way of copying an animation sequence from one scene to another without re-keying everything. We'll really need this for scenes like when the goats walk past the troll - it means we can just copy the walk cycle from the chief animators and key frame the extra character in the scene around it.
After a bit of searching, confusion and general hunger, Yannis came up with a great way to do this. He's also tested this quite thoroughly which means it should work with the animations we're attempting.
Huzzah.
Monday, 9 March 2015
Week 9: Landscapes and Leaping Goats
We're tying up some loose ends the start of this week and hoping to leap back into animation so to speak! We want ton have all texturing for all landscapes and assets complete, as well as all rigs - which includes the assets like the guitars (which will just need controls) and the burst big pinata.
After our studio session last week Yannis has updated the animatic to include the new narration and sounds (music is still a place holder).
The music is definitelystill on our mind and we want to make sure we're not rushing around for this towards the end! Plus its rather important to the intro scene with the mariachi's strumming.
Yannis and Natatsha have been blocking out their animations for the goats and Yannis has been working on the shock scene - we're all trying to figure out the best way to make a 'trembling' effect which is proving to be a bit more difficult than we'd initially expected, but he has been trying out a few things to see what results we can get.
The environment was definitely a focus last weeking - making sure they are as detail as the models - the mariachi's in particular. Natasha has been workong on the landscape and mountain in Mudbox and we're really happy with the results. Its still needs some gamma correction and a slight bump map, but so far we're really happy with the results and Natasha is feeling happily smug (and rightfully so >_<)
We also now have a completed exploding pinata rig courtesy of Bimpe and Sushma. RIGGING IS DONE.
After our studio session last week Yannis has updated the animatic to include the new narration and sounds (music is still a place holder).
The music is definitelystill on our mind and we want to make sure we're not rushing around for this towards the end! Plus its rather important to the intro scene with the mariachi's strumming.
Yannis and Natatsha have been blocking out their animations for the goats and Yannis has been working on the shock scene - we're all trying to figure out the best way to make a 'trembling' effect which is proving to be a bit more difficult than we'd initially expected, but he has been trying out a few things to see what results we can get.
The environment was definitely a focus last weeking - making sure they are as detail as the models - the mariachi's in particular. Natasha has been workong on the landscape and mountain in Mudbox and we're really happy with the results. Its still needs some gamma correction and a slight bump map, but so far we're really happy with the results and Natasha is feeling happily smug (and rightfully so >_<)
We also now have a completed exploding pinata rig courtesy of Bimpe and Sushma. RIGGING IS DONE.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)