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.