University of Portsmouth - Animation Yr. 2 - Animation Group Project
Thursday, 9 February 2017
Wednesday, 8 February 2017
CT5ANIGP - Wendigo - Post-production
University of Portsmouth - Animation Yr. 2 - Animation Group Project
The post production process implied editing the sound and the rendered animations that I have received from everyone.
The first sequence was edited in After Effects. By using the Warp effect I managed to mimic a fish-eye lens effect. That image was then masked inside the crow's eyes.
For the last shot, where the crows get scared by the gunshot, I rendered the foreground, mid-ground and background separately, and inserted, in After Effects, a loop of a crow flying. That loop was then keyed to move, resulting in a crow flying away. I then duplicated that animation until I reached a good number of crows flying away.
The post production process implied editing the sound and the rendered animations that I have received from everyone.
The first sequence was edited in After Effects. By using the Warp effect I managed to mimic a fish-eye lens effect. That image was then masked inside the crow's eyes.
For the last shot, where the crows get scared by the gunshot, I rendered the foreground, mid-ground and background separately, and inserted, in After Effects, a loop of a crow flying. That loop was then keyed to move, resulting in a crow flying away. I then duplicated that animation until I reached a good number of crows flying away.
CT5ANIGP - Wendigo - Production: Sound Editing
University of Portsmouth - Animation Yr. 2 - Animation Group Project
Many of the sound effects in the movie are taken from the internet and games like Skyrim and Metro Last Light, but some of them were actually recorded in the university's studios.
Because one of my friends, Robert, was in the sound engineering course, I was able to record myself with professional equipment in the studios.
Some of the sound effects that I have made were those of the crows, the grunt sounds of the hunter and also some of the wind effects.
Many of the sound effects in the movie are taken from the internet and games like Skyrim and Metro Last Light, but some of them were actually recorded in the university's studios.
Because one of my friends, Robert, was in the sound engineering course, I was able to record myself with professional equipment in the studios.
Some of the sound effects that I have made were those of the crows, the grunt sounds of the hunter and also some of the wind effects.
CT5ANIGP - Wendigo - Production: Animation
University of Portsmouth - Animation Yr. 2 - Animation Group Project
For the sake of being organized, I created a planner.
According to the planner, the workload, again, was split and it was decided that I was to work on the first shot of the movie, and the ending sequence, as those were featuring my ideas/ models.
Animation, this time, proved to be more of a matter of trial and error for me. Especially while working on the Wendigo.
The first scene was fairly easy to make. Because of the transition from the background to the crow, through its eyes, I decided to make it out of 2 shots, later composited in After Effects. Even though it was a little hard to pose the crow at first, I knew what kind of character I wanted to get out of it: alert, curious, making sharp movements.
While animating the Wendigo, though, I was not sure what I wanted to achieve. I had a vague idea about its character: tall, top heavy and wobbly. The most problematic parts to animate were the hand that was pushing against the rock (because I didn't have an IK handle available) and the jump. For the jump I tried different poses, and speeds, but I settled for a fast skip-like motion, that was more of a combination between a human's sprint and a deer's jump. Because i couldn't get it to look as I wanted, I knew that I had to cheat somehow; moving the camera, like it was the hunter's point of view, worked just fine. The problem with the Wendigo's animation was the change in momentum, which was really hard to make get right in that time frame.
For the sake of being organized, I created a planner.
According to the planner, the workload, again, was split and it was decided that I was to work on the first shot of the movie, and the ending sequence, as those were featuring my ideas/ models.
Animation, this time, proved to be more of a matter of trial and error for me. Especially while working on the Wendigo.
The first scene was fairly easy to make. Because of the transition from the background to the crow, through its eyes, I decided to make it out of 2 shots, later composited in After Effects. Even though it was a little hard to pose the crow at first, I knew what kind of character I wanted to get out of it: alert, curious, making sharp movements.
While animating the Wendigo, though, I was not sure what I wanted to achieve. I had a vague idea about its character: tall, top heavy and wobbly. The most problematic parts to animate were the hand that was pushing against the rock (because I didn't have an IK handle available) and the jump. For the jump I tried different poses, and speeds, but I settled for a fast skip-like motion, that was more of a combination between a human's sprint and a deer's jump. Because i couldn't get it to look as I wanted, I knew that I had to cheat somehow; moving the camera, like it was the hunter's point of view, worked just fine. The problem with the Wendigo's animation was the change in momentum, which was really hard to make get right in that time frame.
CT5ANIGP - Wendigo - Production: 3D background models
University of Portsmouth - Animation Yr. 2 - Animation Group Project
Because I was the first one to finish my animation, and because the deadline was approaching quickly, I started working more on the backgrounds.
I started making the first scene, as I was supposed to animate it anyway.
Some of the assets, like the trees and rocks were made by the other team members, and I only had to create some textures and set up the renders.
In one of the lessons we have been told that we have strayed away from the original concept art. That was a good remark and determined me to redo some of the items.
Render times were one of my biggest concerns. For that I had to cheat as much as possible, so for the elements further away from the camera, like trees and hills, I reduced the poly count and compensated with textures.
3D trees:
After receiving the 3D models, I have textured them in Mudbox.
Tree planes:
I rendered the trees and used the resulting image on basic poly planes to quickly populate our backgrounds.
Ledge:
To create a little more height, which could help in hiding the lack of the actual ground plane, i created some ledges. These were mostly placed on the sides of the hunter's walking path.
Distant Hills:
Mountains:
Sky:
Final environments:
To make sure that the continuity of the animation will not be broken, I made 4 complete environments. Those included the background elements above, but also the necessary lights. The environment's lighting changes throughout the animation so i had to carefully think about that evolution.
Because I was the first one to finish my animation, and because the deadline was approaching quickly, I started working more on the backgrounds.
I started making the first scene, as I was supposed to animate it anyway.
Some of the assets, like the trees and rocks were made by the other team members, and I only had to create some textures and set up the renders.
In one of the lessons we have been told that we have strayed away from the original concept art. That was a good remark and determined me to redo some of the items.
3D trees:
After receiving the 3D models, I have textured them in Mudbox.
Tree planes:
I rendered the trees and used the resulting image on basic poly planes to quickly populate our backgrounds.
Ledge:
To create a little more height, which could help in hiding the lack of the actual ground plane, i created some ledges. These were mostly placed on the sides of the hunter's walking path.
Distant Hills:
Mountains:
Sky:
Final environments:
To make sure that the continuity of the animation will not be broken, I made 4 complete environments. Those included the background elements above, but also the necessary lights. The environment's lighting changes throughout the animation so i had to carefully think about that evolution.
CT5ANIGP - Wendigo - Production: 3D Crow and Gun Models
University of Portsmouth - Animation Yr. 2 - Animation Group Project
CROW:
After receiving the 3D model from Mo, I began working on the textures.
Because the model was made out of simple shapes and also because it was not going to be shown too often, I decided to just create two textures, one for the head and one that was going to be used for the rest of the body elements.
While rigging, I encountered a few issues. Either the wings wouldn't bend properly, or the feathers would stick out.
To fix those issues I decided to add additional bones and controllers to the wings.
GUN:
The gun was inspired by the 18th Century Flintlock Fowler.
I started this by blocking in the main shapes.
During the production, the team and I thought about customizing the gun. After adding the details, I was told that it was too unrealistic for the hunter to have a long range scope, bipod, laser and a silencer on the flintlock rifle, so I had to compromise and just used some wrapping instead.
The textures were made in Mudbox. For the wrapping I used an image that I found on Google.
I also added basic patterns on the body of the gun to mimic the look of the guns of that time.
CROW:
After receiving the 3D model from Mo, I began working on the textures.
Because the model was made out of simple shapes and also because it was not going to be shown too often, I decided to just create two textures, one for the head and one that was going to be used for the rest of the body elements.
To fix those issues I decided to add additional bones and controllers to the wings.
GUN:
The gun was inspired by the 18th Century Flintlock Fowler.
During the production, the team and I thought about customizing the gun. After adding the details, I was told that it was too unrealistic for the hunter to have a long range scope, bipod, laser and a silencer on the flintlock rifle, so I had to compromise and just used some wrapping instead.
The textures were made in Mudbox. For the wrapping I used an image that I found on Google.
I also added basic patterns on the body of the gun to mimic the look of the guns of that time.
CT5ANIGP - Wendigo - Production: Hunter 3D model
University of Portsmouth - Animation Yr. 2 - Animation Group Project
MODELING:
When we initially split the workload, the hunter was assigned to Alex.
Because I was the first one to finish my modeling stage, I also offered to help with the creation of the hunter.
I thought that the model that I have received at first was too blocky, but it was easy to fix since the main shape was blocked in already.
Mo wanted to work on the head, so I received that as a separate object.
Retopologizing has been my second priority, as the model needed a lot of optimization.
As work went on, I added the rest of the features, like the belt, the strap and the bag.
It was around Christmas when I was working on the model so I felt the need to mess around with the model. Telling myself that it's for the sake of my creativity, I made a Christmas special scene, featuring an other model of mine, the Mustang, and the Wendigo as the reindeer.
By that time, the modeling stage was done, so I sent the model away for texturing and rigging.
RIGGING:
Later on, because of some rigging issues, we couldn't get the hunter to hold the gun properly, so I updated the model. Mostly, I only added bones for the clavicles and made some other minor modifications.
Original:
Updated and with textures:
MODELING:
When we initially split the workload, the hunter was assigned to Alex.
Because I was the first one to finish my modeling stage, I also offered to help with the creation of the hunter.
I thought that the model that I have received at first was too blocky, but it was easy to fix since the main shape was blocked in already.
Mo wanted to work on the head, so I received that as a separate object.
Retopologizing has been my second priority, as the model needed a lot of optimization.
As work went on, I added the rest of the features, like the belt, the strap and the bag.
By that time, the modeling stage was done, so I sent the model away for texturing and rigging.
RIGGING:
Later on, because of some rigging issues, we couldn't get the hunter to hold the gun properly, so I updated the model. Mostly, I only added bones for the clavicles and made some other minor modifications.
Original:
CT5ANIGP - Wendigo - Production: Wendigo 3D model
University of Portsmouth - Animation Yr. 2 - Animation Group Project
MODELING:
As said before, the Wendigo became my pet project.
The modeling part began by setting up my work space. I have used the concept art as image planes and quickly after I blocked in the shape of the skull.
Making the horns was challenging in the beginning and I considered leaving all the pieces of the horns as separate objects, but then I found a way to connect them properly. All i had to do was to create a hole in the main object, bridge the two elements and then use the sculpting tools to relax the topology in that area.
The skull was followed by the modeling of the body:
To create the hair and skirt I used a different technique. First of all, I blocked the main shape of those elements, which then were turned into live objects.
That allowed me to draw curves straight on the object. I assigned the ink effect from PaintFX to those curves, which gave me strands with clean and evenly spaced topology along those curves. Those were after converted into polygons.
I have planned initially to simulate all these elements, but because of the increased difficulty, I had to drop that idea.
TEXTURING:
MODELING:
As said before, the Wendigo became my pet project.
The modeling part began by setting up my work space. I have used the concept art as image planes and quickly after I blocked in the shape of the skull.
The skull was followed by the modeling of the body:
That allowed me to draw curves straight on the object. I assigned the ink effect from PaintFX to those curves, which gave me strands with clean and evenly spaced topology along those curves. Those were after converted into polygons.
All the texturing work was done in Mudbox, apart from the more linear elements, like the hair and skirt strands, which were done in Photoshop.
Working in Mudbox allowed me to achieve that 'organic' look, while avoiding seams.
A lot of the texturing work was inspired by The Walking Dead game and we also used brush strokes to emphasize certain features.
RIGGING:
The rigging process was pretty straight forward. For the simulated elements I ended up using bones and IK Handles.
