Reflection On The Week (Week 28): Starting Monday 21st April

Monday 21st April
Going Live Meeting:

• Me and Kieran going to be main speakers at Axis presentation.
• Made a list of all areas need to cover in the presentation.
• Created a new folder in the shared GoingLive folder for everyone to add all their development and final work to be included in the presentation, in order to collate everything into a powerpoint/video presentation.
• The film has now been made live online here: https://vimeo.com/92521991

Also today, had to install an updated version of the animation picker on my laptop.

Added a few things to Shot 1 in the 3D Animatic, including some clouds and 3D text for the title of the film:

Started sketching out a layout plan to work out where the characters move to and from within the environment, also sketched a new idea for the shot where the dog goes back to ask for another biscuit:

Tuesday 22nd April
Talked to Kirti - the Owner model is being aimed to be done by Monday to pass to on to Giorgos to rig.
Sent a message to Giorgos to ask about starting dog model this week as he had said before that he was interested in doing that.
I carried on work with the Tug of Biscuit Animatic, working on Shot 2 today.

Wednesday 23rd April
Spent today setting up my model for Going Live for a turnaround. It involved some re-modelling in order for it to sit flat on the turntable. Also been working on some rigging screenshots/renders for the presentation and assessment.

Thursday 24th April
As we are compiling all of our Going Live work together for next week's presentation, I wondered if there was a better way to present rigs instead of just a screenshot. I searched for a way to make rigs visible in renders and came across a relevant tutorial and article.
These are the steps I went through: Click here for relevant blog post link.

Group Meeting for Tug of Biscuit:

• Had a look over the human model Kirti is working on. We all decided a simple mouth with no lips would work well with the cartoony style. Also discussed how the scarf/snood should look - it will help cover the join of neck.
• Also looked at the dog model Giorgos has started. We were worried that it was starting to look like a bull dog again, but we thought it might just be an illusion, as it's a cartoon dog, some of its proportions have been exaggerated which might be making it look bull dog-ish.
• Sheng is going to continue working on the environment model, before starting texture tests.
• I'm continuing to work on the Animatic.
• We also agreed that a production bible should be put together before the end of this semester, so that all pre-production is completed. Need to write out a list of props and do some plant and foilage designs for the garden.
• I wrote out a calendar so I could see all the important dates in the one place:

Starting to pencil in our new up-to-date production schedule - the human model is due to be finished for next Monday by Kirti, and then passed to Giorgos to start rigging.

Discussed the Going Live Presentation with Kieran. Started by writing out a bullet point list of everything that needs to be covered. Then started putting a PowerPoint together and worked out what additional material is needed for the presentation, turnarounds etc. We've decided that I will be talking through the Pre-Production work, and Kieran will talk through the Production work.

Friday 25th April
Spent most of today collating everyone's work and putting it into the PowerPoint Presentation for Going Live:

Ran through the PowerPoint towards the end of the day to the rest of the class, to check with everyone how it was looking an if there was anything missed out.

Creating a Visible Rig in Renders

As we are compiling all of our Going Live work together for next week's presentation, I wondered if there was a better way to present rigs instead of just a screenshot. I searched for a way to make rigs visible in renders and came across a relevant tutorial and article. Link Here. I passed on this tutorial to others in the class to use for their rig renders also.
These are the steps I went through:

• Press F6 to go into Rendering mode.
• Select curve.
• Paint Effects - Curve Utilities - Attach brush to curves.

• Look in attributes, turn on 'Forward Twist'.

• Work way through all Nurbs curves.
• Select all 'strokes' in Outliner.
• Paint Effects - Share one brush.

• Attributes - change Global Scale to one.

• Modify - Convert Paint Effects to Polygons.

• Ungroup brushes in Outliner, delete the strokes.

• Group all the brushes and rename to 'Rig Visualisation'.

• Center Pivot, Freeze Transformations and Delete History.
• Hide Nurbs curves.
• Hypershade.
• Create and apply coloured shaders.

• Select all shapes of same colour and apply shader.
• Select F3, quadrangulate in polygons menu for shapes.

To make the Visible Rig move with the actual rig:

• Group all rig geometry and parent to Global Control.
• Select Nurbs control, turn visible rig back on, select rig geometry, then Parent Constrain.

For rendering, I created an Ambient Occlusion layer:

I rendered out the rig on a layer by itself with some directional lights surrounding it:

I then composited these together with a background in After Effects:

Followed the same process for the view of the back:

Reflection On The Week (Week 27): Starting Monday 14th April

Week Summary
Finish animation for Going Live and checked it with the Director, Kieran. Made a few adjustments using a lattice.
For the final piece of animation for each of the characters, I deleted everything else in scene except for the camera, including textures and render layers etc, ready to be imported into Shot 1.

Now that all of my animation work is finished for Going Live, I am switching my focus back to the Advanced Production project, which has taken a bit of a hit. Will be getting back to work on the 3D animatic. Will still need to gather all my Going Live work together so it will be ready for the Axis Presentation and this semester's assessment.

Had a programme meeting with tutor on Friday. My group's supervisor for Tug of Biscuit has changed, so will be organizing a meeting with new Supervisor.

Reflection On The Week (Easter 2): Starting Monday 7th April

Week Summary

Been mainly concentrating on animation for Going Live this week, as the deadline for this is coming up fast. The shot is made up of 3 different characters, which includes the one I have modeled and rigged myself. Met up with John and Kieran this week to discuss the animation/crossover in Shot 1. Also checked in my animation with the director, Kieran,  to review my animation along the way so that I can make any adjustments before handing in the final animation for the shot. Finished the animation for two of the characters this week and have moved onto the third in the same shot.

Reflection On The Week (Easter 1): Starting Monday 31st March

Week Summary

Advanced Production - Have set up the Maya file ready for animating the 3D animatic. This also lead me to research and learn how to use an animation picker. This is quite a useful tool to learn how to use as it is sometimes used in the animation industry. Discovering how useful this tool is, I will be integrating it into my animation pipeline for when I'm animating the final shots for Tug of Biscuit.

Going Live - Finished the rig I was working on. Picked up the shot I am animating in. Referenced in the characters, and started Layout with the characters, also adding animation for the camera. Rough animation is started and the goal is to have a more finalized animation during next week.

Monday 31st Mar
Put the Shot List up on the Going Live Board in the studio, so it is in a central place for the whole class to see it. Hopefully it will be helpful for us all to keep track of production in these last few weeks on the project.

Fixing the weight painting on the Going Live model.
Next is to add the controls. Decided it might be faster and easier to use the tutorial I followed last year. Also imported my Maya Shelf from Maya 2012 as it has all the useful scripts and buttons I created last year, which are very useful for rigging!

Tuesday 1st April
Pick up Shot 1 for animation in Going Live.

Animation research for Going Live using Pinterest.

Adding controls to the rig.
Finished it!

Wednesday 2nd April
Move onto 3D animatic TOB.
Worked on the 3D animatic for Tug of Biscuit today. Installed an animation picker, learned how to use it with a free rig, then created my own for a different rig for the dog character. Imported characters into the adjusted scene. Checked timings in animatic against the old one and the shot list, so I am using accurate timings for the 3D animatic.

The picker I created for a free dog rig to practice with in the 3D animatic. Allows for easy selection of the controls when animating.

Thursday 3rd April
Start animation for Going Live. Needed to animate the camera first though.

Friday 4th April
Working on Animation for Going Live.

Weekend
Went along to the Undergraduate's fundraiser for Animation, Dee-Con!