Episode 20: The Beginning Of The End, Or Is It The End Of The Beginning?!

Ok so here it is the final Blog for 2013!

What a year it's been!!!!

Made a couple of animations, worked on some films, took some photos, I turned 30 and my son turned 2. I even managed a few days on the water fishing! check out the website to prove it!
http://aperturejames.wix.com/aperture

I though for the last blog I'd talk a bit about the journey I've been on bringing Albeit to life.

 It was a wild ride of stress and despair followed by a euphoric feeling of what just happened and is it even anything?  So below I've got my original 2D concepts followed by their 3D outcomes.

So here we see Albeit in all is 3D glory! I was pretty happy with how he came out, there where some issues with his rig ect. But nothing you don't get used too or can't work around. 

Overall I was happy with how the animation came out. I didn't quite realise just how much time is needed to go into an animation. I'm so exhausted after getting it all done I just don't know what to do with my day any more! 

 Here is Archee in all his 3D fuzziness! I was really pleased with how Archee came out! he had a lot of character for a wee ball of black fuzz. I had several comments about what a cute character he was at the "Flicks" screening the other night. I was pretty happy with the feedback I think I succeeded in making a spider cuddly.

So yea done and dusted, below I've got my website and trailer for "A Quest For Knowledge" check them out!!

Part of our last assignment has been to create a website for either promoting our animation or ourselves
I decided to make "A Quest For Knowledge" website! check it out
http://albeitaqfk.wix.com/aquestforknowledge
Here is the link of the week!
It's the trailer for "A Quest For Knowledge"
https://vimeo.com/79365114


I'll leave you with a mock style frame I made quickly with toon shaders this morning. It's a frame from my next 3D animated short "Forgotten". A story about a creature with some un answered questions about his existence, what he discovers will change his world forever.......

And my next short Film "Click Clack Click" which will be shooting in April 2014......

Have a good Xmas and I'll be back next year as I blog my 1st year in the real world........

Episode 19: So Close To The End I Can Taste It......

Well I haven't posted in ages! So yea lets just say things have been pretty stressed with the dead line only 9 days away!!!
I've been busy with all the animation, rendering and composting. I'm hoping to have the final render finished by tomorrow to start the soundscape.

The Flicks Film Festival is also coming up which will be the cast and crew screening as well as an audience test screening before final tweaks and submitting to festivals.

So one of the stress causes has been the epic task of creating a complete graphic novel for a life drawing assignment, so today I thought I'd break down my process for the creation of "The Hermit" a graphic novel based on a screenplay of mine.

First I took the script and worked out how to change the medium for film into a illustrated form, this wasn't too difficult as I approached it the same way I would if I had of storyboarded the film.

The main trouble was with film you have sound which can be a powerful story telling tool, so it was a process of figuring out how these aspects would play out in picture form.

So I layed out the script into pages, working out where the beats in the story and it's pivot points needed to fall so as a suspenseful shot would end at the page turn etc. Then came the thumbnails process.

After I thumbnailed it I spent a weekend photographing Steve Woller as the Hermit

Jasper Hayward as Mickey and Adam Brown as Sam. 

It was a fun couple of days and I was really happy with the shoot.

From there I took the photos and layed them out in photoshop, this process took the longest 

of the whole thing.

After it was all layed out, I sketched over top the photos. I made a rule I wasn't allowed to ctrl+Z 

so this maintained a rough sketch look rather than a polished style.

Then I painted over top the photos and placed that layer in a masked group to give it 

a water colour effect. 

I was pretty happy with the final result. 

So next week I'll do a break down for some of the compositing on A Quest For Knowledge. 

Here is the link of the week! 

I just watched this and didn't quite know what just happened but I was happy about it. 

https://vimeo.com/78442636

Directed by: Koji Aramaki

Mesmerizing, I loved the digital style but the organic colour palette. 

Enjoy 

episode 18: The animating begins

So finished modelling and texturing the set, just starting to animate now.

Not long left to get it all done now!

And fishing starts up tomorrow so yea.....

A couple of shots from the scene.

link of the week! 

Tidy little papermation, very slick 

https://vimeo.com/75196023

episode 17: Revenge of the Toddler

So yea been awhile from my last post. My wife went away to Australia so I had to play Dad for a week.
It was a whole new set of challenges for me to try solve. A lot of film making and Animation is problem solving but trying to figure out what a toddler is crying about had me beat!

So I think I decided I wouldn't be a stay at home dad, an massive props to all the mums and dads that are looking after the kids!

On top of that kids are a breeding ground for disease I've discovered and last week was spent fighting a rather nasty bug.
So now I'm back and trying to fire through the pilling work load! Also Fishing season starts back up in couple of weeks and I already have photography shoots lined up. So need to get it all sorted and start rendering so I can get some more time on the water!

This week I've been texturing some of the larger pieces of furniture in the Lab and experimenting with shaders vs's texturing. long story short I'm using some shaders on a some metal things and Glass then texturing the rest. I just couldn't find or make a good enough rock and wood shader.

So it should save some time using shaders on some things but the time spent finding them and experimenting, I probably could have unwrapped and textured the objects.

Here is a wee render of my scene thus far but still loads of assets to go!

Here is the hero potion book "1001 Potions To Make Before You Die" So I've modeled and textured to book in it's main stage but am currently working on experiments for the best way to have the book unfold from the shelf! Rachel showed me some great deform tools which can be animated and the other idea is cloth sim. At this stage if I can get the deform tools to look good I'll go with them.

and Archee finished!!

So the link of the week!
"Loom" tells the tale of a moth being caught in a spider web.

https://vimeo.com/24069938#

Seeing as how I'm attempting to do some web simulations I came across this clip while looking for examples, I think these guys nailed a realistic web. Now to try and achieve a similar but more toon style web!

Episode 16: With Fresh Teeth

So here we are another week down and an ever pressing deadline approaching!
This time however there are no extensions.

I'm just back from a week 1st ADing a short film in Dunedin, was awesome and a nice break from the
computer screen. But I do feel like I have to play catch up now! But I've got sharp teeth again, ready to sink them into the several assignments due soon.

Thought I'd chuck up a few renders of where I'm at with my major and also my 1st finished panel for my Graphic Novel!

Here is the initial Lay out of the Alchemy Lab just basic blocks for most stuff, Starting to model all the assets now.....lots of assets! 

Here is Archee finished modeled.

And Archee again but now rigged! Just the Fur to go! 

1st panel of Graphic Novel "The Hermit"

based of my short film idea of the same name. A dramatic western set in the Gold rush of 

Central Otago.

And here's the link of the week!
Saw this and thought it was pretty funny.
Also looks cool!
https://vimeo.com/72625639

Episode 15: The Return of The Wizard

Thought I'd better post about my Major 3D assignment which is underway and a massive part of this semester!

First off the first installment of "A Quest For Knowledge- Mandrake Madness" was finished!!

So I thought I'd celebrate with another couple of finished frames....

 Opening Title

The Mandrake! 

And so on to the next installment, continuing from my first semester character and world....Blistering Brew

In this tale Albeit tries to make a potion in his alchemy lab but as usual his terrible luck back fires and it all goes wrong.

Here is some of the pre production work for the short. The story is also introducing a new character to the world..... .Archee!

This is one of the style frames for the opening where Archee descends from his web.

And here Albeit nervously mixes an ingredient into the potion.

So yea moving into modelling and the animatic stage of the short now!

Episode 14: The Breakdown of Charlie

Ok so Charlie Floyd's Visionarium has had a version handed in, it's not the final by any means but it's getting places. I'm sure there will be more work to come on it once the feedback comes in. Also the sound, music and grading are still getting done.

So today I thought I'd reflect a little on the project and talk about some of the shots I worked on. For obvious reasons I can't talk too much about it and also can't show too much but I will talk about one shot that doesn't give too much away.

Overall I'm pretty happy about how the VFX and compositing came out. Again I feel there where a few of the crew didn't do as much as others but we won't linger on that....

So a wee VFX breakdown for a greenscreen shot from scene two.

Here is the finished shot......

 Here is the original plate of INT Charlie's Shop, Charlie was looking across the street to Eve's shop which wasn't actually across the street.

Here is the plate that was got for Eva's shop front. As you can see was quite a lot closer than ideal, due to the street being full of cars and not wanting to put the camera on the road, this was the best result.

So the Shot was masked and scaled down to fit the clean plate photo that was taken.

This is the footage on top of the BG plate photo 

This was then painted by Brandon Dunn, who added her shop sign the curtains next door and the flowers out the front.

Charlies plate was then Masked and keyed and a lens blur added. 

 Finally the Glass was put back in and some atmospherics where added to the street and dust added inside. The shot was then colour corrected to match each other as was the grain structure matched for the two elements.

So yea a lot of work went into some of the shots, these shots didn't come out amazing but it was about trying to find a balance between the time and the quality of the plates given. I put a lot more time into the "money" shots where the VFX made the shot. Unfortunately I can't go into those shots until the film is released! 

Overall there was about 90 odd shots in the film that had some sort of computer generated element, this ranged from dust to a fully CG modeled 1920's street with period cars! So yea, of those 90 I worked on about 60 odd and of them about 45 I personally did all the VFX and compositing for including a lot of ROTOing. So yea a heap of work went into Charlies.

In hinge sight there would have been a lot of thing Jasper and I wouldn't have agreed to fix as a lot of shots really ate into the post production time that didn't really need done if there was better planning.

But hinge sight is a wonderful thing and I learnt so much about VFX work flow from this experience!

SOOoooo now to my Major 3D assignment!! just a wee segway here is the link of the week.

Contre Temps- Directed by Jérémi Boutelet
https://vimeo.com/71695621

A sumptuous visual world with fantastic toon shaders , love the colour palette and caustics! great story and nice sound design. Enjoy!

Episode 13: The Looming Deadline

So my tutor was wonderful and I've been given another extension on my 3D character animation.
I've been plagued with IT issues and then often just my own stupidity (those are the most frustrating ones).

So as it is I'm sitting waiting for the last 41 frames of "A Quest For Knowledge" to be rendered.

I can see the finish line but just can't do anything to get there faster.

I thought I'd talk a little about my assembly process. I think that my renders came out pretty good, but I've further improved the look of them and added in Background plates to get the final look of the short.



Here is a screen grab from Adobe After Effect (the compositing program I used to put the short together).

And here is a screen grab of the original out of Maya.

So as you can see quite a bit different.

The layers on the right are the various adjustments I made. 

Basically I put a contrast curve on and lowered the Saturation 10%

Then the second layer consists of two lighting effects, a slight lens flare from the crystal and then "godrays"

beaming down from top right. 

next is a white layer, this has a glowing particle effect which resembles glowing insects or magic dust.

These glowing orbs float around in the background, glowing on, then off as they travel.

Below them is the Targa sequence from Maya.

Finally the Back ground plates, the reason for two is simple, by duplicating a layer then putting it in Multiply mode the layer bellows contrast and saturation are boosted.

And there you have it, my process for putting Albeit together.

So for our other assignment, Charlie Floyd is tantalizingly close to having the VFX done. 

There is still the CG street to be comped and then the film is need of a good grading.  But so close! 

I'm pretty happy with how the first VFX watch through went. It has been a busy last few weeks, especially with a couple of animators going home for the holidays. It meant I ended up trying to smash out a load of shots that never really got the attention they deserved. I'm looking forward to handing in my animation tomorrow so I can go back and fix up a few more of the shots from Charlie Floyd 

So for the link of the week! I've gone with a tribute to Charlie Floyds pre-production, for those in the know I'll just say "Macro, Stamen........ Pollen"

http://vimeo.com/69225705

Episode 12: The Render Wars

So been crazy busy last two weeks with finishing the animation an now over a week of rendering.
Been difficult to get through the renders, IT have had three server outages with another planned to night then next Tuesday. I've had a great time logging back into 12 computers and setting the render going again from the frame it dropped.

Being not the only person round tech wanting computers has had it's draw back too, twice now I've come in to find people have logged me off, and just yesterday I came in to find the power cable had been yanked from the back of one of the computers. I mean who does that? could have only been some one either really ticked off I was on that particular machine or Someone who doesn't know to just hold the power button down to turn a computer off? Either way I was pretty ticked off.

I can only imagine tensions will reach boiling point next semester when the other 3rd years  begin to render as well.
Anyway enough venting...... ah

Here is my playblast edit.

Password is: albiet

https://vimeo.com/70020247

Episode 11: A New Danger

Ok so wow been crazy busy getting my Fresh Shorts Funding Application into the New Zealand Film Commission! fingers crossed. So haven't updated the blog in awhile.

I've started animating now which is fun, time consuming, but fun.

Here is a couple of stills from my animation.

Albeit POV of Mandrake

Albeit grabs Mandrake

CU framing for Albeit's responses

WIDE of Albeit finding Mandrake

So it's been busy on these shots and also been difficult finding the limitations of my characters designs.

For example he can't touch the ground that easy so making him grab the Mandrake was a bit  tricky had to think of a work around.

Here is the shot (still without final lighting).........and

Here is the work around. a wee bit funny but it got the job done!

So I'm hoping to get everything finished animated by Friday so I can start the renders! 

I'm slightly concerned at this point I wont have enough time to do the sound and BG plates properly. 

On the other hand I'm happy with how the 3rd year group project is going I finished 4 VFX shots fully comped as well. Really happy with how they are coming along. 

Link of the week "month" http://vimeo.com/66599774

I thought this was some mean texturing! 

Episode 10: A Deadline Approches

So wow! Things have been going full steam at the mo!
Today is the deadline for our 3D Character Animation Assignment 2. We have to hand in our character textured and rigged ready to weight next week!!
So this past couple of weeks I've been frantically trying to unwrap and paint my character. Luckily for me we did the majority of the rigging in class.

On top of that we have started doing some experiments with the final footage for the 3rd Year Group Project. In short they are looking banging!
I'm also submitting for fresh shorts funding which has absorbed the rest of my limited time. But It's all coming together!

So I'll put some shots of the texturing up!

The modelling getting close

Checker City, nearly ready to paint.

This was the 1st slap on of all the painted textures but no bumps.

Here is the hand in texture, bumped model. Still maybe some fine tuning after I get some feedback.

Here is a Close Up on the hand in model.

Yea so bring on the weighting! 

So this weeks link.... "Obsolete" from Smoking Robot  

https://vimeo.com/65976376

Stunning use of light and texture to convey story and emotion.

Episode 9: The Micro Wars

So been a while since my last post! one word slack. But I've been battling time most of all, which has finally caught up and I crashed hard end of last week. The most time spent from my previous post would have been on the shoot of the 3rd year group project! I came on board to help as a 2nd AD due to the large number of extras. Really enjoyed my time on set and feel like the films going to be awesome!

Just a little worried about the amount of times it was asked on set "You animators can paint that out ah?"
I guess we will find out over the next few weeks!!

The other time was spent on 3 photography shoots for fly fishing which is paid work so pretty happy about.
But made it difficult to juggle my 3D character assignment!

So today I'm going to finish the modelling! Ready to start unwrapping.

I've finished modeling the Staff and Mandrake just need to texture them. I had a play with the staff just using maya defaults.

I did manage to make my animatic over the break so here is my link for the week.....enjoy

A Quest For Knowledge - Mandrake Madness

https://vimeo.com/65491159

password: mandrake