Showing posts with label CAA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CAA. Show all posts
Monday, 14 May 2018
Tuesday, 24 April 2018
Major Project - Taste - Impromptu Maya update
Just thought I'd post this. Finished skinning him today and decided to play around with lighting just to see how it interacts with the models hard edges. Sorry if it's a bit Lynchian, it doesn't reflect the aesthetics of the project at all. I just enjoy red and blue gel lighting in films.
Monday, 23 April 2018
Major Project - Taste - Designing Rob
This is Rob.
Fortunately, both of us have styles of clothing that are commonly associated with us, so designing a 'costume' isn't such a task. And since I'd already established the rules the art must follow whilst designing myself, it was a much faster process in designing Rob. I began again, by throwing down shapes and seeing what I felt was closer to Rob. I am fortunate that he has a lot of patience because he most certainly doesn't look like that first thumbnail. But again, as I progressed I steadily moved closer to something that I could recognize as him whilst looking like it fits with my other design. 
I then progressed to designing his clothing and build. I couldn't resist then also drawing him in a needlessly fabulous pose, like something out of Sailor Moon. But once I'd had my fun, I again resorted to the lasso tool method I'd used with my design. Of course the magic of me posting these in a linear fashion makes it seem like I'd had this realisation way before I started designing Rob, but in actuality, I was designing us and working things out in tandem, and as such, came upon that method all at once for both characters.
Shape wise, again, you'll notice that I initially draw things in a needlessly stocky or disproportionate way, and I can tell you here, that this is unintentional. Fortunately I have the gumption to carry on and fix these things in post. As you'll again see on the right.
After this design was more or less settled in my mind, I moved on to more formal orthographs for use with Maya.
Major Project - Taste - Further outfit development for Joe
After deciding that I was progressing in a direction that didn't reflect my wants for the project again, I took a different approach to drawing the shape of the body. Opting for a more angular look that would really help to create this angular look when working from the orthographics in Maya. So I employed the lasso tool and proceeded to shape the body and outfit over a series of versions. Starting in a place that was fairly abstract and straight, and ending in a place that maintained a bit of shape to the legs in particular.
Major Project - Taste - Joe development
Firstly, here's a design I forgot to include in the previous post. Again, whilst I think there's some merit here, it just felt far too 2D. Although I'm happy with the painting on the jacket, I've really been trying to improve my painting over the course and recently have changed the default brushes I've been using and found myself escaping the plateau I'd found myself in.
There was a sort-of eureka moment during the design process, where I wasn't really satisfied with my previous designs and went back to my pinterest album I'd created to gather ideas.
There was a sort-of eureka moment during the design process, where I wasn't really satisfied with my previous designs and went back to my pinterest album I'd created to gather ideas.
One illustration in particular stood out to me, featured below.
I think it was after looking at this where I really found my feet with the style I wanted to shoot for, as although there's some flatness here, it's effective, likewise the large eyes and slight "Disney" vibe they give off was really appealing to me. Leading me to draw the above image as a response. Then, sufficiently satisfied, I took the designs and began trying to work out colours that would be striking to further push the idea of a vibrant 2.5D world. Whilst doing this I also began trying to work out the side view of the characters head. Starting off very abnormal and honing it in later drawings.
I then moved on to designing a new body for the new art direction. And for some reason decided to draw incredibly thick necks. I'm still a little confused about why exactly, but as you can see, later on I began to fix the proportions in order to make myself look less like I've exclusively worked my neck out.
I decided that this style was far too 'soft' and worked on trying to achieve that rigid low poly look after this, which I'll detail in the next post.
Major Project - Taste - Initial thumbnails
Being that ultimately, the characters would end up being myself and Rob, I'd already had more than enough information in order to design us as characters. The challenge here now being if I can find a suitable art style to render us in based on the visual tenets of my influence maps. I began by detailing what exactly it was that I enjoyed most in the second character influence map.
After this, it became apparent that I still wanted to try for 3D animation, with the idea to then make the background 2D in order to compensate for the added work lent by choosing that particular pipeline. The closest picture to this particular avenue of design is the image of the girl sitting on the 2D line art rocks. I enjoy the interaction between the two planes, and how simple and effective it is, also noting how dynamic bursts of colour create interest in these simplified designs.
I began by throwing down some rough shapes in my journal. Playing on the idea of simplification, and really, just working out how it could be achieved in a way that actually looked appealing without losing the ability to impart character through expression. Some designs I like better than others, and to be honest, this was at a point where I hadn't drawn for a while (after being in the grips of the dissertation writing process). So this was very much a process of finding my feet again and recalling Justin's character design lessons, whilst also allowing myself the opportunity to play with the angular style I had chosen.
Here's the kicker, I thought I had settled on a style for a little while, and followed it through to a semi-developed state, only to change my mind right at the end of it. Ultimately I don't feel bad about it as during the process I ended up doodling something that lead to being closer to the final design I have today. I'll detail that development in a later post.
This refined design has some appeal, and really did inform design choices I made later down the line. The surviving aspects of this particular trail is the nose, which I just enjoy, despite it not looking correct in any way. I also lost the hat, which, despite being iconic, needed to go. To be quite honest, I just felt that this design was lacking in something, perhaps the eyes were a little off, or I just felt that this was a little too flat and reminiscent of a cutesy South Park.
Major Project - Taste - Character influence maps.
I knew early on that I wanted to do some form of work in 3D as opposed to making 2D rigs, but I wasn't deterred by that stipulation, still seeking out inspiration in mainly 2D areas. In many ways, I wanted to utilise a clean and simple art style that would be easy to produce, in order to test out whether this would be a viable methodology for creating perhaps weekly content if this were to become some form of "show".
It has definitely been important to me to maintain a simplistic style, but still allow for visual interest as there will need to be some complexity in order to visually engage the audience through this largely sitting conversation. This of course will be partly achieved through varying shots to keep things moving, but I also need the characters to be complex enough to carry the viewer through too.
I looked at things that varied in their complexity and largely settled on images present in this second influence map, as they retain a simplicity that still looks pleasing, as well as showcases the possibilities of 3D design that looks 2D. An idea that I later progress with.
Major Project - Taste.
As such, I've decided to go about this project non-uniformly. Employing a different (to me at least) way of assembling a script, following through to the design process of the character models, which are still very much in play even in Maya, as I've elected to follow a low-poly methodology when approaching the aesthetics that this project will have.
As such, I began this project by trying to find the format first and foremost. Beyond what I knew I wanted to reflect from My Dinner With Andre and later when I discovered Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) by Jim Jarmusch. Using the former as a way in, and the latter as a way of informing myself of what I really enjoyed about this methodology. Coffee and Cigarettes was perhaps even more influential to me, as it's style is that of the meandering conversation where two people are placed in a hyperreal setting and discuss around a topic in a dreamlike way. Less of the more brusque and direct style of podcasts that I feel lend an air of inauthenticity wherein speakers are generally prodded into saying things as a through line to generate content, which is ironic when the situations within Coffee and Cigarettes are so obviously staged themselves. Why then, do they read so authentically?
It's somewhere in those thoughts that I settled on where I felt this project should sit. On the edges of what I feel the players are actually speaking about, set within a space that is so obviously crafted, yet it will be the conversation acting as a throughline that will serve to settle the viewer into believing in what they are seeing, despite the look and feel of the low-poly designs.
Below is a cleaned up mixdown of a 2 hour conversation between myself and Robert Lindsay, where I have sought to create a conversation, piecemeal, out of varying slices of the conversation. I found that by doing things this way, it's possible to create entirely new interactions within the recordings whilst not betraying the naturalistic qualities you get from simply sitting down and talking with someone. As such, there's a distinctly low-fi feel about things which, when paired with the visuals, I feel are entirely appropriate for this piece. There's a rough objective for the recording, which ultimately boils down to being about art, elitism, taste, culture & segregation/exclusionary behaviour, but this is filtered through in a very natural and flowing way, despite the patchwork means of its creation.
The pace of this audioscript will further change in the pre-viz process when timings are altered to lend a bit more dramatic pause to the audio and the delivery of the lines, so as to belay the sometimes rushed delivery in some parts, but I am largely happy with the way that this has gone, feeling that it doesn't betray my initial criteria for this project.
Monday, 12 February 2018
Major project - Ideation and summary.
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| "My Dinner with Andre" (1981) dir. Louis Malle |
It is my hope that I can prepare a showcase of the skills learned during the onward motion of the course; that I can effectively produce a piece of work that both speaks to me as a creator, and highlights a professional sensibility.
The inception of my idea came out of my work on the extended dissertation, which - broadly speaking - focused on the discourse between high and low artforms. This difference, or lack of (depending on your viewpoint), has always interested me as it forms the basis of the way in which we as individuals build up our own assertions of taste, through our subjective consumption of art. This is evidenced in its simplest form in conversation, where there are often as many disagreements as there are agreements. As such I've elected to keep my animation semi thematic to my work on the dissertation and pursue a more conversational end product.
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| Marvel Studios, and the death of Cinema? |
It dawned on me, as I watched, that this film was doing everything it could to immerse you in the reality of these two friends, sharing a sometimes awkward, sometimes riveting conversation. Aesthetically, it's steeped in naturalism, almost shot as if a documentary, and there's a decidedly lo-fi sheen to the picture, very 70's grainy. Conflating this further, the actors walk a fine line between playing themselves - they share names with their characters etc. Despite this, the film obviously conflates time in the attempts to shoehorn an entire 3 course meal into the runtime, as it's implied through proceedings that the two arrive at the restaurant near opening time and are the last customers to exit.
The crux of my ideas generated by viewing the film really centered on the representation of reality and the content of their conversation, which too, felt very real, almost ad libbed. And, as far ranging as it is, there also seems to be this air of control too, where the conversation is consistently entertaining - whether this is through a large amount of observation of real conversation combined with cherry picking, or entirely spontaneous seems moot. From thinking on all of this, I really hit on the need to situate characters in a similar setup to chat about film, perhaps extending some of the discourse Wally and Andre share about art, but in animated form. The need to justify the need for this to be animation seemed to be as moot as it was for Louis Malle when he made this film when it could have easily been something else.
After relaying this trail of thought to Phil - with attempts to justify why I would use animation on this project, where I cited that the immediacy of animation makes it easier to identify with events on screen - we centered on the idea that I could perhaps produce a proof of concept series of shorts that focus on film itself, perhaps showcasing peoples genuine reactions to seminal moments in film and pairing high/low arguments in an immediate and naturalistic way. This would allow me to showcase my work in all of the ways I would like, whilst also allowing me a means of production that allows me to produce something within a framework that doesn't shift, with beneficial limits in place to aid the speed of creation. Initially this worried me as I still feel compelled to create something with a traditional narrative, akin to short film making, and I do feel that the initial state of this particular idea threw away a lot of what I enjoyed about My Dinner with Andre; it would involve breaking a fourth wall with visual elements that sit outside of the reality of the recorded conversation (much like a youtube video essay does) and whilst I like the idea of creating a quasi infographic/narrative series of shorts, I would like to progress in a direction that tries to maintain the illusion of reality, much in the spirit of MDWA, so I would like to rely on what happens "in camera" or in sound, or at least, just avoid breaking the illusion that you are an observer. Perhaps more Creature Comforts than a Collider Top 10 video.
Going forward then...
The obvious component needed is the audio content as it's the element that everything will hinge around. I'm aiming to keep things semi focused on films, but I really want to maintain that documentary feel, so I'm trying to record things in a very candid way - either by doing quick "hot takes" or spontaneously electing to record a conversation between two people after showing them a certain film scene etc. This is in response to the initial idea of just going into a recording studio and performing in a way that's similar to recording a podcast. I feel there are drawbacks here as there is a certain amount of 'playing up to the camera' with those methods of production, where I feel people tend to be a tad more outrageous and therefore, staged, than they would be in a different setting. I want to absolutely nail that naturalistic feel after all.
I'll be writing a post that will further detail the process and the criteria for recordings soon.
Wednesday, 8 November 2017
Arnold - Sylisation Toon Shaders & Cartoon FX, Override Sets & Stand Ins's
Stylisation Toon Shaders
The image below perhaps best displays the power of stand ins. Rendering something like this would be incredibly intensive if the object was merely duplicated. Instead, when using stand ins, it drastically reduces the render time whilst allowing a vast amount of objects to be displayed.
I'm really glad to know that there is a way of achieving this kind of stylized effect within Arnold. Though it seems like I'd need to have a custom texture for each segment of this object in order to retain greater control over the effect.
Below is the node graph necessary to achieve the effect above.
Override Sets
This technique greatly reduces render time within Arnold, in essence, being a workflow optimisation, allowing you to render out smooth without having to manually set each object's subdivision.
Stand Ins's
Again, this is another way of reducing the amount of processing power it takes within a scene, in this case, when the need arises to display multiple instances of an object.
Importing the exported ASS file. This file is created by selecting the object, going to "Arnold/StandIn/Export" with the object selected.
The image below perhaps best displays the power of stand ins. Rendering something like this would be incredibly intensive if the object was merely duplicated. Instead, when using stand ins, it drastically reduces the render time whilst allowing a vast amount of objects to be displayed.
Wednesday, 11 October 2017
Arnold Sessions 01
I found this selection of tutorials invaluable to understanding the differences the Arnold renderer has to offer over 2016's Mental Ray. There's a real breadth of changes which I'm still yet to decide if I'm entirely on board with. Though I must say, they have made the process of creating convincing looking skin look simpler and more intuitive, and there's no denying the sheen it adds to materials. Plus there's a lot of customisation options in there which really do invite further experimentation.
In particular, the addition of a "roughness" slider in the material options really surprised me. Allowing light to react differently depending on how rough the material is in "reality", It really invites the notion that you're not simulating the materials anymore, but rather, actually using them.
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| AO With Wireframe |
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| Detective's desk with aiStandard |
In particular, the addition of a "roughness" slider in the material options really surprised me. Allowing light to react differently depending on how rough the material is in "reality", It really invites the notion that you're not simulating the materials anymore, but rather, actually using them.
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| Arnold Sub Surface Scatter |
Friday, 19 May 2017
CG Toolkit Submission: Film Reviews, Maya Tutorials & Sculpting
World Animation Film Reviews
Lighting & Rendering
Pipeline 1: UV Layout & Maps
Pipeline 1: Spine & Skinning
Pipeline 1: Body Rigging
Pipeline 1: Facial Rigging (Part 1)
Pipeline 1: Facial Rigging (Part 2)
Sculpting Class
Dope Sheets
Pipeline 01 - Part 6: Adding Teeth & A Tongue
This is how far I've progressed with JPJ. I'm obviously retreading things I've completed in my Olga model at this point, but I want to make sure he's complete too, regardless of missing the deadline. Once he's done I'm going to go back to work on Olga to work out and residing issues.
World Cinema - "Kubo And The Two Strings" (2016) - A review
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| Fig 1. |
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| Fig 2. |
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| Fig 3. |
The bespoke design work features incredibly attention to detail. In one sequence, where Kubo and co journey over the "Long Lake" in a ship made of leafs, the design crew mention having "to map every leaf — thousands of them, each individually laser-cut and about the size of a human thumbnail — and reproduce the exact same pattern on both ships, so they'd match from shot to shot within the film. It's a lot of effort for something most people wouldn't notice. "God knows," Pascall sighs, "there are easier ways to make movies." (Robinson, 2016) But for Laika, and certainly Knight himself, easier ways aren't as worthwhile. It seems even during this projects inception Knight knew what an undertaking it would be. Knight, " A sucker for fantasy and a fan of Japanese culture" (Giardina, 2016) admits that "I bit off more than I could chew" (Giardina, 2016) though this isn't a problem. With critics and audiences alike serving as proof that the gamble paid off.
The distinct flavour possessed here isn't wholly 'of' any particular culture, although the film's director was a self confessed fan of Japanese culture, and the story presents a melancholic and mature take on the themes of loss and acceptance that evoke the complexity and maturity on display in Studio Ghibli animations. This represents a heady mix of Japanese influences and American sensibility, though it's sensitivity and patience can definitely be ascribed to the works of Ghibli.
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| Fig 4. |
Bibliography
Giardina, Carolyn. (2016) "How 'Kubo and the Two Strings' Merged Stop-Motion Animation and 3D Printing (Plus a 400-Pound Puppet)" hollywoodreporter.com At: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/how-kubo-two-strings-merged-stop-motion-animation-3d-printing-a-400-pound-puppet-955406 (Accessed 20/05/17)
Ide, Wendy. (2016) "Kubo and the Two Strings review – lyrical stop-motion tale" theguardian.com At: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/sep/11/kubo-and-two-strings-review (Accessed 20/05/17)
Robinson, Tasha. (2016) "Inside Laika studios, where stop-motion animation goes high tech" theverge.com At: https://www.theverge.com/2016/8/18/12500814/laika-studios-behind-the-scenes-kubo-and-the-two-strings-video (Accessed 20/05/17)
Illustrations
Fig 1. Kubo Poster. [image] At: http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/kubo-and-the-two-strings-poster-the-far-lands.jpg (Accessed 20/05/17)
Fig 2. Kubo and Monkey. [image] At: http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/moviemom/files/2016/08/kubo-and-monkey.jpg (Accessed 20/05/17)
Fig 3. The Sisters. [image] At: http://www.indiewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/kubo-the-sisters.jpg?w=780 (Accessed 20/05/17)
Fig 4. Kubo with wings. [image] At: http://www.rotoscopers.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/FB_IMG_1457541105678.jpg (Accessed 20/05/17)
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