Met with "Women in Animation" tonight at Little Airplane productions at the Seaport. A really nice meeting re: writing with a panel of 4 children's TV writers. Met up with 2 "Academy" alumni and it was great catching up. Couldn't make it to The MIll social gathering, but I was glad I met up with some "old friends". The whole session was inspirational and I'm looking forward to thesis work tomorrow.

Partitioning my day ... the afternoons will cover all things thesis - lighting/modeling/animation.

This afternoon I will start slow and add some props to my scene like: Mushrooms near the birdbath, patches of grass, and perhaps work a little on the tree ling. I will continue to blog to keep myself on track and will add a shot list tomorrow.

The result is in, I received an Incomplete/Pass for my thesis project, but got a lot of good feedback and supportive remarks. It's been recommended I make a punch-list of items to fix or improve, so will start here and update as I go along. Here's my to-do list along with Halbstein's comments...


Here are some of the changes I think are necessary to "complete" my project. Most were brought up in the panel discussion and I agree with them.

1. Improve animation.

I'd like to go scene by scene and make adjustments, corrections, improvements where ever necessary starting with some of the more problematic scenes. (when Dee flies over, walk cycle, Dee getting mad.

Strengthen the "Bright Idea" scene where Dee decides to knock over the shovel and rake.

I think Rosa needs to show a little frustration that the Fakes aren't responding to her. Just add glimpses of frustrated facial expressions in between her smiles.

HALBSTEIN: Animation is about two things - character and weight transfer.  You will get a lot of mileage if you address these things with Rosa; her desire to be graceful and her natural ungainliness are rich fodder.  It's almost like she's two birds in one - very graceful from the neck up, but this is attached to a very uncoordinated body.  The three areas that I think need the most attention are these:

         1.  Her entrance - as she peeks over the wall, you really need to exaggerate the "S" curve of her neck and the movement.  If you accent this now, the ungainliness of her walk cycle will be very funny.

         2.  The walk cycle - here is the area where you can introduce the imbalance of her character.  The lower half is about weight transfer and balance; the top half is about grace AND dealing with this imbalance.

        3.  The "dance" - I think you need some more reference material here - we can talk about this in more detail, but I don't get the sense that her body and her feet are connected, nor do they seem affected by gravity. 

Based on the comments at the critique, I think that the most important thing to do with Dee is to make her movements very quick - fast start, fast stop, motion blur on the wings.  While Rosa has to move very carefully or she'll tip over, Dee is more of a  "Flit, flit, flit ..."; this provides a nice physical character contrast between the two of them

2. Improve lighting

Help! I'd like to add shadows but would like to keep the light warm and outdoorsy. I want the piece to stay bright and cheerful but need shadows for depth and help define the animation. (i.e. When Rosa is dancing and her feet come off the ground and then land again.

3. Environmental Design.

Add a few more things so the garden doesn't look so barren. Nothing cluttered, same simple design. just more (i.e. tufts of grass, some mushrooms under the birdbath, additional leaves near the roses, bend the tulip stems) These changes will also happen ASAP for rendering purposes. (although if needed, I can add elements in post)

HALBSTEIN: Agreed.  I really like the look of the "Chicken Little" reference, you can use that as a springboard.  I would suggest maybe using an illustration as a background - you draw so well it's a shame not to use it in your piece.  Along the lines of what Darryl did, though using your own style and maybe not so much Photoshop stuff.  I agree that the whole garden looks a little stark; it would definitely impove things to dress it up a bit.  We can strategize the layering elements so you can move forward quickly and retro-fit shadows and other elements if you need to.   I have lots of ideas as to how I can help you with the lighting.

4. Textures

Add a slight texture to the grass area. check the wall and path textures.

HALBSTEIN: The last thing to worry about here;  do it if it looks bad after all your other improvements, though I'd rather see you put most of your effort into the animation.


TIME FRAME.

I think had I been at this point in my project in March, I would have been able to finish my project, so I think 2 months should cover what I need to do. I don't want this to drag on, and to be honest, I have another project waiting in the wings, with a group effort to follow that. Ideally I'll be done by the end of June.

http://www.scottscorners.com/downloads/DebScott_ThesisWeb.mov

Here's the final. My defense is on Wednesday.
I'm going in tomorrow to watch the procedure and some of my classmate's work.

Overall, I'm quite pleased. The ending came together in a simple but fun way. Music worked and renders look good.

It's going to be close, but I'm cautiously optimistic.

I've recruited a friend of mine to help give me direction. She has a theater background and has acted, directed and written plays. She's been enormously helpful and will get a credit. She's been a director. We go over staging, timing, camera angles and we've really made the most of several shots. She's also offered suggestions that will help one scene flow into the next.

What really helps is sitting with FCP open and experimenting with the scene order. What if Dee looks at her first? What if this happens next? She's repeated many of the things I was told by David and Steve. About working "in threes" and I think I've finally succeeded in making that happen.

One nice change was in staging - where Dee gets mad and turns her back on Rosa. Well, that sets it up perfectly for her to be facing the camera while we watch Rosa try to interact/impress the fakes. We even worked in her little dance as she first lands on the fake flamingo. It's a much more balanced piece.

Now if I can just get it done.

Off at 4pm today, half days next week, and of course the whole weekend.

Opened a fortune cookie tonight:
"Determination will get you through this."
Says it all, doesn't it?
I taped it to my monitor.

Blend shapes (instead of wraps) working really well!!!!!!

Dee is very simple with a smile and some raised eyebrows, so I quickly did her facial blendshapes, edited the membership to include only the face CVs, made a duplicate of the low-poly, made THAT a target of the original low-poly and then smoothed it. Worked like a charm.

Now, Rosa was a little different. Since I already made her blendshapes and used a Wrap deformer just on her face, I decided to keep them the way they were. Instead, I deleted the existing Hi-Res Rosa that was also connected via a wrap, and used the same technique as above - duplicate the low poly, make that a target, and then smooth it. I was still able to use the existing blendshapes, just used a different deformer to effect the hi-res.

Also, I deleted the blendshape geometry and (of course) the blendshapes still worked (another Steve recommendation) so my file was that much lighter. From 24MB to 8MB. WOW!!!

The file opens up MUCH quicker!! Perfomance wise, I'll have to wait and see, but so far, it's all good.

Plan B.

Time is becoming a serious factor so I came up with an alternative.
A little editing, a little reordering of scenes and here's a new cut:

http://64.17.142.111/downloads/3_27_edit.mov

After reviewing with Steve and hearing David's concerns, I thought I'd take a stab at some
editing, while maintaining the key points - friendship between the the two real characters. It's now 52 seconds and 15
scenes. It's pretty much the same thing but without the "conflict" -- they no longer chase each
other and then reverse. The flamingo will knock over the Fakes with her exuberent dance. Truth is, you don't even
miss the middle part and staying in one corner is easier to follow. So maybe this will work for the better - a more
concise piece that reads better.

Got some good info on wraps vs. blends from Steve. Might do some stuff with Dee, but might work on it AFTER my Thesis.

David went over Render Layers, which I was really nervous about, but will give them a try. I'll test it for the program picture.

I'll render as I go, so I think I'll be OK and I've got a nice process down for AfterEffects and FCP.

Schedule-wise, the kids are away for this weekend and I'm using next Tuesday as a full work day. CADA is having an industry critique next Thursday for 3D animation that I'd like to attend, but I'll have to be MUCH further along ... which I should be.

I'm off Good Friday and told the family I'll be working on my project through Easter. (I did this last year for Digital Production and it worked out really well).

A few set backs and a few solutions.

Quick background - I have 3 files that I'm referencing. The flamingo, the chickadee and the garden (including any props).
I have 30 scenes. The referencing has been working well, until today.

Everything was working peachy keen. I updated my model and texture, had a smoothed version of it, made my blendshapes, created wraps, and it was all working nicely. I swapped out the old file with this new, updated one, and it worked beautifully as a reference file - EXCEPT for a few pesky CVs that didn't like to be scaled (50% ). If I were to do it all over again, I'd have made characters so wouldn't have to be scaled, but it's just too late in the game to change that. I'm sure there's an easy answer, somewhere in the wraps or weighting, but the easiest thing was to NOT scale the model BUT just scale up the set and props (200%). With this change, everything works. They're not ginormous, and the info isn't all that complicated. Just a time-wasting PITA.

I figured it was just easier to start with new, clean files and fresh references. The down side is that what little animation blocking I had done won't be used. The upside is that I had only done very little AND all the testing, experimentation, camera angles are pretty much set, as well as the timing and number of frames.

The upside is that everything is working. I can animate on a low-res model and render with a high res one. I can update my reference files, and they'll update all 20 scenes. My blendshapes work. My wraps work.

Maya really is an amazing program.

One other issue, that funnily enough I fixed in a old file, but am dealing with it again, is that I have a cycle error on one joint.

Another issue has to do with the low neck position David mentioned. When I went to put a new attribute on the neck controller, it wiped out my other attributes, like neck curl and "classic" flamingo pose, not to mention IK/FK switching. My work around is to have a separate file with a low neck position and use that only on the scenes that require it.

Again, I'm sure there's an easy fix or even something that demands more explanation, but I'm just going for the quick fix and this will work.

The remaining 5 weeks will be about Animation.
Strictly animation.

I've gotten a lot of good ideas watching AnimationMentor showcase Quicktimes. Especially for acting, body mechanics and facial expressions. Even though animation is my "major" I've got so much to learn.

This week's scenes - Rosa's facial expressions for scenes:
101_LookAround, 140_smellRoses, 420_Is it dead, 360_Fakes fall down, 330_Dee angry at Rosa, 510_HopOn.

I also want to work on 355_onStilts when Rosa's on the rake and shove.

I'll try to put sequences together so I'll get a better sense of how they work.

So much to do!!

Very helpful feedback in class today.

First off, HUGE thanks to Christine for recommending "delete history" to fix my rotating texture problem. Glad it was an easy fix and that it worked!

From David: Watch weighting and twinning. Also, may not need the foot poking in on the "are they dead?" scene. Jessen had a fun recommendation ... have Rosa look up at the audience in an uh-oh moment.

From Darryl - watch the framing. Going out of frame when it's not intended just looks like "bad film making". Too true. Possible fixes - lower neck position and/or camera angle.

Went over batch rendering. I'll test that tonight.

Other than that, I think we all need to be more mindful of the time. I was sorry I couldn't see everyone's work.

Schedule wise ... tomorrow I plan on finalizing blend shapes and Dee's Rig.
I need to swap out Rosa's older model with the new one and adjust the weights. I'll try copying them again, but I've had limited success with that.

Then, I think I'm down to updating and improving my animation and I'll render everything out from now on. I have my render settings down with some testing to do in AfterEffects re: color adjusting.

I feel like I've made a lot of headway these past few weeks, but I feel very limited time wise. Once I get a few of the tougher scenes in better shape with render times worked out I'll be a lot happier. I think my render times will be around 5 minutes per frame. Maybe more the ones with water in the bird bath.

Whereever I could, I went procedural. The roses are now ramp shaders. The only textures I have are the birdbath, the bricks, Rosa, Dee and the wooden handles on the shovel and rake.

I'm really pleased with my tree gobo.

A big step will be replacing the garden sets in my existing scenes with a referenced version of the latest.

One day I'll write about my adventures in ZBrush, but not tonight.

What's left to do for Tuesday? The updated shotlist, schedule, problem areas and any new animatics I can produce.

Rosa painted in ZBrush then the texture brought into Maya ...

Dee painted in ZBrush and the texture brought into Maya - I like her back a lot. I might have one version that's lighter and switch when necessary.

I like the soft water color quality of this render, but I think it might be a little too low in contrast. I'm going to bring it into AfterEffects and see if there's an color correct. That will save me fumbling around with lighting and endless rendering settings. Haven't tested ambiant occlussion, that might be helpful, but I'm not sure I'll have time for that. I might add flowers to some sections, but will leave it for now.

Here's the latest cut, 3D blocking, playblast.

http://www.scottscorners.com/downloads/3D_blocking.mov

Some of the more complicated scenes are very rough - neck roll, dancing, balancing on the rake and shovel.

Note: I changed the rake to be a more traditional leaf rake, the older scenes have a flat rake.
Will post more on the weekend, including schedule, to do list, and some render stills.

A new semester and there's lots going on.

On my to do list this week (2/10):
Finalize Rosa's rig (90% done)
Finalize Dee's rig (25%)
Update production schedule.
Update animatic

I'll be posting torture tests on Monday (if not sooner).

Bit of a bummer. I heard back from the music industry. $500 to use "You're so Cool". (yikes) I'm going to explore some other options and if nothing works out, I'll just pay it.

Found a great resource: Weta Workshop: Jane and the Dragon.

WETA

I've already gotten so much from their staging, props, backgrounds. In particular, I like the way they use plants and trees, either in the foreground or background to add depth or frame a shot. I like the way they handled the ground/grass/stone area and really like the ivy on the walls.

There's one shot that I need to change on my 3D animatic, I'm going to use an over the shoulder shot when Rosa first looks at the fakes. That would set up the POV shots a little better and orient the viewer.

I'm working on leaves and mushrooms at the moment. Small modeling work that keeps me in Maya while enjoying the winter break. I might rework Dee a little I sketched out a cuter version of her that's a bit more stylized. We'll see if it works.

Some random, end-of-semester comments.

I found 2 great inspirations while doing my Research Paper. One is Dumbo. I think I'll be stealing an awful lot from this film. Not only does it deal with scale in a seamless way (two characters of very different sizes) but a lot of the emotions are similar to the ones I want to capture, particularly from the Matriarch elephant - she has this building anger that I'd like Rosa to go through when Dee makes fun of her. Lots more, and I found a great resource for model sheets at Animation Archive.

http://animationarchive.net/Feature%20Films/Dumbo/Model%20Sheets/index.php

I think I'm going to spend time drawing my characters in these poses/expressions/gestures.

Drawing, when I get into it, really helps me understand the face muscles. I hope that will translate to my models and hopefully it won't mean a lot of changes. I tried to be careful of my edge loops - placing them where there will be movement. We shall see.

My other inspiration is Gini Cruz Santos, a Pixar animator that just struck a chord with me. I like her sense of hard work and sacrifice. Just refreshing from the "Dude, this ROCKS!!" or overly technical jargon I hear from other animators. Anyway, I loved her work without even knowing she was the one doing it (Dory and a good deal of the Incredibles), , so now it's great to put an animator behind a character and I can watch even more closely. She also is very candid about how much time goes into animation -- something I struggle with. I rush my work. There's a difference between working fast and rushing. I need to take my time, get more feedback and really get my scenes right.

Unfortunately, I found both these inspirations a little too late for me to expand on them in my paper, but I'll add them for my final-Final paper in May.

I loved working on my 3D animatic!!! It really takes it to the next level timing wise. I was very accurate on my Shot list for the first 35 seconds but the rest is a rough estimate. I'll update that as I go along.

I'm going to take one more stab at finalizing my charachters, they're still not as smooth as they should be (must check normals) and then I'll finish up rigging and blendshapes.

Ugh. End of the semester and so much to do!

Previs Final Deliverables

Research paper, includes my shot list.
http://64.17.142.111/downloads/webDebScottFinal_previs.pdf

Here's a 35 sec. clip of my 3D animatic that I hope to finish over the winter break.
http://64.17.142.111/downloads/short3D_animatic.mov

Here's my 2007 Production Schedule. Still a lot to do re: rigging.
http://64.17.142.111/downloads/Thesis_Production2007-2.pdf