Week 37 - Starting Monday 23rd June

Monday 23rd June

Tidied up the Outliner as all the blendshapes had the previous file name before it due to being imported, then put all the blendshapes into a group in the Outliner. They are also grouped in the layers so that the blendshapes can be hidden:

Handed this file to Georgios to bind the rig to the model.
I then copied over the skin weights (using the same methods I used in last week's post).
Testing the scale with the blendshapes on - is it working?... Yes it's working! :D

The dog is officially ready for animating!!

Things I've learnt:

• To avoid problems applying and scaling with blendshapes - apply blendshapes before binding the rig to the model!

Tuesday 24th June
Updating parts of blog today.
Found and read through a pdf file on my laptop which I had from a while ago which explains what Animation Layers and some tips on how to use them.
Found a tutorial on Digital Tutors which talks through how to use Animation Layers:
http://www.digitaltutors.com/tutorial/3577-Animation-Layers-in-Maya

Created the background for the Animation Picker for the dog as I will be the main animator for this character. I've found using an Animation Picker to be a very useful tool for efficient animating, through using one in the animatic:

Wednesday 25th June

Finished creating the Animation Picker for the dog character today:

Using the animation picker will allow me to switch off the Nurbs curves controls whilst animating, which should make the animation clearer to view whilst working on it:

Drew out the blendshape expressions for the Human character, divided up into categories, which Georgios can use for reference for creating the blendshapes:

Expressions for the Dog Owner

Also drew out what blends I would need for the Bird character which I will be starting to work on next:

Thursday 26th June

Started on the bird blendshapes today, experimented with some blends to add some movement to the feather on his head. Also created some blends to add some curl and stretch to his toes as there is no joint there to do that. Then I created a blend to try and fix the beak to allow it to close:

Looked over Sheng's textures for the environment:

• Think the textured characters should be imported into the textured environment to see how everything is looking.
• For the grass texture, we may have to turn the texture around in different camera shots so that the grass that is draw on is in the right direction.
• The grass is going to be made more green as the yellow is coming across too much in the renders.
• There might need to be some more variety (different texture maps) amongst the bushes and plants as they are all blending into each other at the moment. Drawing some rough leaves onto the bushes might help the look as well.
• A painted texture on the pumpkins may be needed as they will be in a C/U shot with the bird. The pumpkin vines might also work better in more of a green colour.

Also had a look over Georgios's rig for the Owner character:

• There's a few places where the weight painting needs fixed slightly - fingernails, feet, knee and ponytail.
• The waist control when used makes the top half go through her trousers. Discussed this with Georgio and both decided that the control isn't needed for what we need the character to do, so the control will be removed.
• Wrist controls need fixed as they are bending the fingers instead of the wrist.

Friday 27th June
Meeting with Sang:
Showed the concept art work to show how I would like the film to look as it's not quite looking as it should at the moment. Sang suggested simplifying the rendering and adding in more detail with the textures. maybe look in toon shader? Such as drawing lines on the textures to give everything the hand-painted 2D effect. Focus on the textures. This means the fence needs UV-mapped. I suggested UV-mapping one and then transferring the attributes as this is something I have learned to do before.
An example that might be relevant to us was suggested to view, an animation called Short Piece:
It is an example of 3D animation but rendered and textured to look 2D.

This let me to another example of 3D that is made to look like 2D, this is the making-of (link to original film):

Bet She'an - Making of from Bet She'an Team on Vimeo.

I was also reminded of the work on Disney's Paperman, 3D rendered to look 2D with the aid of adding sketchy lines on top of the animation:


He also advised to keep 'setting project' which should help with opening up files on a different computer to keep the textures linked.
If we aren't using mental ray, don't need to use Mia Material X Passes shaders.
Will probably be easier to use Lamberts for the look of the film we're trying to achieve.

Working on Bird Blendshapes continues, worked out which head feather blends to keep, fixed the close beak blend, and created a happy and sad mouth, plus an extreme wide mouth for when the bird quickly eats the biscuit:

Week 36 - Starting Monday 16th June

Monday 16th June

Working on blendshapes for the dog today:

Smile!

Later on I did some research for the film's soundtrack and searched the web for examples and inspiration. Found some music on the website SoundCloud - was looking for ukulele style music:

This piece had quite a good background music sound to it, not as upbeat, maybe good for parts of the film where there's more tension between the characters:

http://audiojungle.net/item/folk-ukulele/7861153

This one I thought was a quirky and upbeat piece of music. I also quite like the whistling in it, which almost sounds like the bird making fun ad being mischievous:

https://soundcloud.com/soundroll/smoking-club

The middle of this tune has a part where it is just ukulele:

https://soundcloud.com/soundroll/quirky-afternoon

Credit music? Half way through this piece it is just acoustic (no xylophone), maybe a mixture of acoustic and ukulele would work:

https://soundcloud.com/soundroll/flying-on-the-cloud

Tuesday 17th June

Had a team meeting to discuss the soundtrack of the film:

We each brought in some examples, either edited to the animatic or links to pieces of music online.

Georgios found this piece of music which we all thought suited well with the film, but just the first 10 seconds with a banjo:

http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/track/funny-song

We all agreed that there should be a dramatic pause when the biscuit is stolen, and more upbeat music at the end.

There should also maybe be a change in pace of the music during the Tug-of-War fight scene.

Think we need to find someone to re-create the music for us, so that it is timed to the film and the story beats.

Also discussed what we are all working on at the moment:

K = Making the environment less heavy and looking at IBL.

S = Textures - fix Owner's ear muffs texture, and finish the Bird's textures.

G = Human rig.

L = Finish Dog blendshapes and move the Dog rig over to the new uv-mapped Dog. Advising Kirti where to downsize the environment file.

Had a look over the Bird rig Georgios has been working on - the tail needs some rotation so it isn't so straight. Suggested using blendshapes to help solve these: Closing beak fully; moving feather on top of head; curling toes.

Took screenshots of the new environment with the animatic shots to evaluate where the environment can be downsized and if there are any changes to be made:

Shot 3

Suggested making the background houses geometry more simple, so that there are less polygons in the scene.

Shot 6 - Suggested the addition of more bushes and plants behind the fence in the neighbours garden so the audience can't see through as much of the fence.

Tried moving some vertices around on the bushes that surround the garden to make them more grown in and less straight.

Also decided it would be best to remove all the paint effects plants as they were slowing the file down and did not quite fit in with the look of the rest of the environment.

Wednesday 18th June

Had some technical support provided by Sang today in the studio. Asked about transferring weight paints from one model to another and was shown how to export and import weight maps.

Also as I should be starting to animate the dog soon, I asked about walk cycles. First they can be created on the spot, then imported into a scene and use the global control to key them from A to B, adjusting frames if needed if there is a case of sliding feet on the ground. He also mentioned using animation layers, to add details and variety on top of the walk cycle, such as making the dog turn it's head whilst walking.

Will definitely be looking into animation layers as this is something I haven't used before.

Sorted the dog Outliner out. Opened up the file which had the rig binded to the model to look at how the Outliner was arranged and named. Went back to the new file and renamed and ordered everything to match the old file, which should help avoid confusion, keep the file clean and organised, and make it easier for Giorgos to re-bind the rig to the dog model:

Created some more blendshapes for the dog:

Mouth-Sad

Mouth-Grrr-Left

Realised the part of the film I had figured out where the dog would be grrr-ing, it was actually the other side of his face that would be seen. So I created a Grrr Blendshape for the dog's right-hand side. Then I realised that I had duplicated the main head with his angry eyebrows blendshape switched on, so this blendshape was created:

Mouth-Angry-Grrr-Right

Decided to keep it in case it will be of any use, at least the angry eyebrows matches with the grrr mouth!

Created a grrr mouth blendshape with just the right-hand side as well:

Mouth-Grrr_Right

Tried to use the Blink blendshapes I had created with the old version of the dog, but they don't appear to work with the new model, will try to re-apply them after the rig has been transferred to the new dog.

Thursday 19th June

Supervisor meeting with Sharon:

• Sort out who will be animating which shots
• It's maybe an idea for one person to take charge of one character, this will allow that person to be familiar with the rig and produce a higher quality of animation. May also contribute to a more efficient pipeline.
• Quick discussion about the soundtrack and who might be able to help with that. Getting the soundtrack done will help with animation timing.
• By next meeting in 2 weeks, all characters should be rigged and moving with initial tests. Have a rough soundtrack to the animatic.

Had a quick look over the environment and made some suggestions to Kirti about the position of plants in the garden to not look symmetrical and be a bit more grown in. 

Gave files to Georgios to rebind dog rig to the model.

Then went off to a Graduation celebration all afternoon!

Friday 20th June

Tried to export and import the skin weights for the Dog again, but no luck. So I tried a different method:

I imported the dog with the correct skin weights into the file with the incorrect skin weights Dog, so that they are in the exact same place. I then selected the body mesh with the correct skin weights, shift selected the one I wanted to copy the Skin weights to, then selected 'Copy Skin Weights' from the menu, and it appears to have worked!

However, then the old version of the dog's head was not combined with the teeth, so copying over the weight paints to the new dog produced... Vampire Dog!

I tried copying over just the teeth wight paints but that didn't work, so I just analysed how the teeth were weight painted on the old version and reproduced this by hand on the new dog. Vampire Dog no more!

Team meeting to discuss the Shot List:
Discussed who would like to be in charge of which character for the most part, as discussed with Sharon yesterday. I will be animating the dog, Georgios will be animating the human, and Sheng will be animating the bird.
We then went through the shot list, again based on Sharon's advice, we picked out shots mainly from the beginning and end of the film to animate first, as these should be good quality animation. We wrote down our initials as a reference so we know who will be working on each shot (in pencil as they may change/be given away to someone else to animate depending on time):

The collaborative scene we will all be working on is Shot 18, which will also prove to be a good test at bringing in animation from different people into one shot. This shot will include Dog, Human and Bird animation:

We also decided that any shots which had more than 1 character interacting which would be more difficult to split would just be animated by one person. For example shots 13 and 15 where the human is holding onto the dog.

In shot 11, the dog and bird are in a Tug of War with the biscuit, so they will also be animated together by one person, however someone else can animate the Human who is standing in the foreground separate from the action.

One of the first things I would like to start animating is the Dog walk/run cycle, which will then be able to be used in many of the scenes.

Weekend
Had blendshapes for dog to finish and work out.
Re-done the Blink blendshapes as importing the previous ones was causing parts of the dog's face to twitch... After I applied the new ones and tested the scale, all the previous blendshapes were working fine apart from the new ones - the Blinks!

A terrifying sight...

After trying to re-order the inputs for the main head, which didn't fix the issue, I realised that it would probably be quicker to take a few steps back and apply them before the rig is binded to the model.

For the Full Blink, I had to create a half-way Blink as just the full one was going straight through the eye from it's starting position to it's finishing position (as the eye is very round and sits out of the socket a little way). This half-way Blink helped out. I created a Blend which includes both of the Blendshapes by ticking the 'In-between' box:

After looking through a few cartoon dog examples, I thought a Nose Scrunch blend would be a nice addition for when the dog is sniffing, happy, growling etc. These are the drawings I looked at in the book Disney Dogs, the nose scrunched is included in quite a few of the expressions:

Disney Dogs - p.58

Disney Dogs - p.70

Here is the nose scrunch blend I created for our Dog character:

Nose-Scrunch Blendshape working with blink and smile blendshapes

For re-applying the blendshapes, I organised them in a more convenient way. They are now grouped together, such as an Eyebrow group and a Mouth group. They were all applied in parallel so work with each other:

I also checked the input list to make sure everything was in the correct order and all blendshapes work with each other:

Also cleared up my laptop files to make some room, as it was rapidly running out of space! Wishful thinking that it will make my laptop literally lighter though... :/

Week 35 - Starting Monday 9th June

Monday 9th June
Supervisor meeting with Sharon.
Had a lot to catch up on!
Points from the meeting:

• Arrange a group meeting to discuss sound - but each team member bring to the meeting the 3D animatic a sample soundtrack on it that they think would suit or work for the film. That way we'll have four options to pick from and some ideas, and also have something to show a sound person as an example. Unless we find suitable royalty-free soundtrack to use.
• Soundtrack ideas - ukulele, acoustic, mandolin?
• Sort out soundtrack before final animation, as the animation might be timed to the music.
• Arrange a team meeting with Sang to ask technical questions, better to sort this out now to avoid trouble ahead.
• Arrange our seating plan in the studio so our team is sat nearer to each other to help produce an efficient working environment.
• Which shots to animate first? Start with the first and end shots as they should be the highest quality. The last shot is not very close-up so the animation would have to convey well the dog and bird being happy and eating. Then move onto the tug-of-war shot as it's quite complex.
• The dog and bird in the tug-of-war scene need to be at least twice as big. Make it into a panning shot?

Back in studio:

Re-edit Shot 11 (Tug-of-war shot) to bring the dog and bird closer to the screen. Also added a camera move to help reveal the dog and bird:

However, I then thought the shot would work better as a still shot as it adds to the humour of the situation. We're in the Owner's space for this shot, and at this point her world is calm and uneventful, which the still camera mirrors. And it's more funny that the camera stays still when the dog and bird enter the shot as this allows the audience to spot them themselves and not be guided by the camera, and then share the owner's reaction at the same time, allowing for a more immersive and interactive shot for the audience to be with the story and film.

Plus the shot before has a camera move in it.

Also reviewing and suggesting some slight adjustments to Kirti's model of bird, before passing to Giorgos to uv-map:

Straightening out the bottom beak so when the beak is closed it matches up with the top beak.

Splaying out the toes more and making slightly rounder.

Tuesday 10th June
Whilst working on the blendshapes I noticed that some volume was being lost in the front legs of the dog when the foot was moved:

Adjusting the weight paints to fix the volume in the leg when bent:

The wrist had a similar issue:

The weight paints just needed to finish before the sleeve of the jumper:

Worked on the 'blink' blendshapes today. This was the start creating the full blink:

However it travels right through the very round eyeball...:

Tried creating a half-way blink to help:

Wednesday 11th June
Sheng and Kirti have now moved to the desks opposite mine, hopefully this will aid to a more efficient working environment now that we don't have to call on each other from opposite sides of the room :D
Had a team meeting to discuss the soundtrack (we have set ourselves homework for next Tuesday to all bring examples of music that might be suitable for our film), sent an email to arrange a technical support meeting, and discussed what we're all working on.

The weight paints on the Dog's front legs are now fixed. Showed Georgios what I had been doing to try and fix it, then handed the file to him to finish.

Discovered a UV mapping problem with the dog. The dog was rigged on the non-UV-mapped version. So have halted on blendshapes until this is sorted.
I have been testing how to transfer uv's to the rigged character, no luck yet.

Thursday 12th June
Today I've been working on sorting out the Dog and Bird models, to make them ready for rigs, as there's been some problems with UV maps and Normals.
I imported Georgios's uv-mapped dog into a new scene in Maya and there's a problem with the normals on the eyes. Just one ring of polygons shows up black, which was telling me the Normals were the wrong way round. However, when I revesed the Normals, the UV map then showed up those polygons as the wrong way round:

Unsure how to fix it I moved onto the Bird, however there seemed to be the same problem here but on a slightly bigger scale. Decided to try and fix the Bird first before going back to the Dog. Went back to original model and checked all Normals and reversed ones that were the wrong way round, resent to giorgos to uv-map:

I suggested that the quickest way to UV-map the feathers was to UV-map one of each type of feather, then transfer the attributes to the others. Got transfer attributes to work by using these settings in the tool:

 The outer eye on the left was correct but the outer eye on the right was not acting like it should (Normals wrong way, then corrected, but then started looking weird). I then decided to duplicate the correct outer eye and replace the one on the right. This lead to learning a tool I hadn't used before called the 'Align Tool' (found under the Modify menu):

Every piece of geometry on the bird I checked for correct 'Normals', Deleted History, Froze Transformations, cleaned up the Outliner and the Hypershade. It was then ready to pass to Giorgos for rigging:

Going back to the Dog, I opened the original model file and found where the reversed Normals were and corrected them:

Sent back to Georgios to UV-map the inner and outer eyes. Then I imported them back into the file and cleaned the whole file up like I did with the bird:

Friday 13th June
Finished all of the eyebrow blendshapes, plus a nose sniff blendshape, for the dog: