Week 6, 7 and 8

So far the film is going ok. There have been some major changes over the last couple of weeks. Some people would think changes half way during a production is an unorganised production. However if anyone has ever done a project management course or has every met a project manager will know that no project will ever go according to plan. There are always people who can be sick or people can under deliver what they promised.

 (I am no exception and in not targeted at any one). Most changes that have happened have been to make the film more achievable hooray. Like making the film shorter, utilising already known technology, simpler shots and so on.

The dead line is still creeping up on us and I am happy to say that over the holidays I feel we will have a solid work flow so that everyone will be able to work autonomously. This to mean means that I will be able to get into a routine or work flow where I am able to constantly churn out animation and content for the film.

Story board

There is a new story board I think it’s the 5th or 6th draft now were we have now come to a point where some more sold critical thinking has been implemented, Just what I wanted. I believe a short sited individual would think that 5 or 6 drafts mean’s an unorganised group. But for a critical thinker it means that some solid time and effort has been put in to make the story told with quality and achievability. I am much happier with the current story board and animatic because the changes have made the film much better with how the story is being told the mood of each action, the acting choices, the cuts, Audio and Everything. I am now much more existed to work on this film because of how happy I am with how the production is now going and when you are existed to work on something I believe it shows in the final result.

Character rigs

           

A number of rigs have been made for the film; so far the advanced skeleton has been a major time saver. Our lecturer and team player Louie has been most exceptional with helping out with the project in this department. Not all rigs are completed but what is really good is we prioritised the characters based on the importance and screen time in the film. For example the mother doesn’t move much so her priority is lower that the boy Liam who is almost in every shot. With this taken into consideration we are able to work on the major animations of the film and not have to wait for other tasks to be completed before being able to work. 

The rigs themselves have all the required controls for the first pass of the animation. The face controls have not been added yet but with the power of referencing rigs they can be up dated into a scene without issues. I find the rigs are great and I have found that I may want to use the rigs outside of the film for my own personal work in show reels and such.

Motion capture

In week 6 we hired out the auditorium to create some motion capture data for our film. We tried to get a full Saturday however this is not available to the animation students. We felt that the motion capture we had was not entirely up to scratch and we also wanted to utilise a full auditorium with more acting space for capture.

           

With the room being bigger we set up the cameras equal distances in a circular pattern connecting them to the computer where we used the application motive to capture the data.

With motion capture some time has to be taken into consideration for wanding. Wanding is the process of teaching the software and cameras how far away tracking points are in 3d acting space. Each camera can only pick up 2d information so someone with a wand has to move markers around teaching the cameras and software how to calculate 3d space.

With the time spent bringing all the equipment up stairs and Wanding this left us with about 2 hours of acting time. We got a lot done however the desire for more time is always wanted. It was great day and very productive, we got a lot of scenes captured, however taking the data and applying it to a character was not as simple as open and play.   

Unfortunately the feedback we get from teachers about how to use the application motion builder is quite limited. Students have actually spent more time teaching themselves motion builder in the motion capture class. With the level that JMC’s motion capture is at the moment students don’t actually produce content they are entirely proud of. One lecturer stated that he believes the motion capture will not be good this semester because it’s new equipment but it will be great next semester once the bugs and issues have been dealt with.

I think it’s quite funny when a teacher states it’s easy to do but when you see them do it them self’s they realise they are wrong. There is currently limited number of teachers who know how to use motion builder to clean the motion capture data and produce great results.  

With these facts and circumstances there is a good chance that most animation will be keyed animation. I currently feel pretty confident in motion builder however people who have to teach them self’s how to do things can end up with a number of bad habits in the industry. If we key animate the film there are more resources and support available for us. If we use motion capture there are limited resources, and we most likely won’t be able to get the auditorium again if we need to do more shots. The smaller rooms at jmc just don’t really cut it when animating in larger environments so at this point it looks as though motion capture is not really working out.

Please don’t get me wrong I have gained a major educational benefit from learning motion capture and appreciate the work and effort jmc put into the motion capture classes it’s just doesn’t look at this point as though it will really be viable for the film. I feel as though the motion capture I have done at jmc has been an amazing educational experience but the current facts and resources are not a risk I am willing to take on this film. Maybe someone will come along and show a process that will change everything, but if we needed a shot and we could not get the auditorium then we are in some hot water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeQxyndoqfk

Blocking animation

           

Currently we are into the good stuff. With the rigs and the environment’s we have so far the animation blocking can begin the fun stuff. Animation we are going to block out the animation so far with simple rigs and have a blocked out animation next week. Doing a draft of the animation first will give us the ability to review the film as a hole and identify any areas that may need changing. Can’t wait to show the final pass as a full sequence.  

Critical Thinking

in reflection to coming up with more ideas for the story i don't think we are doing enough critical thinking upon each idea.

To many times in my life as an employee at work places i have had employer's come up with a new strategy to sell stuff or do things. i then ask "but what if this happens". there response is "trust me" and then i am left to deal with the exact problem i just predicted. 

its because there is not enough  Critical Thinking. 

from this day forward if a new idea comes up. i want to see solid critical thinking in the idea. Seeing as though we seem to be doing pre-production stuff in a production class, we should of had better critical thinking in our pre-production class so that we could have avoided the issue of having to make so many  changes. 

asking our self's the hard questions and having a solid understanding of the amount of time we have left in my opinion is a start. then tailoring the film to those restraints are ideal. 

sorry to the teachers who have to mark this but please watch this video then look at my pictures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OLPL5p0fMg  

Week 5

Week 5 - Changes in the Story

In week 5, I have been modelling more assets to the boy Liam’s house. The project is moving forward, however, the deadline is moving closer. We need to be up to face rigging and animation blocking by next week. However, the group as a whole doesn’t seem to be able to agree on a solid story at this point and what I thought was an opportunity to reduce the scope of the film has, possibly, turned into making the story more complex. I need to get my point across that less is more. The length of the film in my opinion should be around 2:30 minutes and this will make the film more achievable. Unfortunately, I was sick on Friday and I obtained my current information through Facebook so communication issues may have occurred. Nevertheless, I am concerned that the scope of the film is too big to be more achievable and I feel I need to get the group to stay on track with what is really achievable in the time frame. This brings me to talk about compromising.

Compromises

           If you have an idea for a film and you want to pitch it to Hollywood or Fox.

They may like the film but you always have to make compromises. For example, “We can’t have that scene because our sponsors won’t like it” or “Your film can only be 1hour 30 min not 2 hours because we don’t have the budget”. The ability to compromise as an individual or artist is important in this industry especially in team projects.

At times, when working in a group, you have to make a compromise about what you are passionate about. I have to deal with the fact that the fight scene, which I feel proud of in the draft animatic is being taken out. The film needs to be more attainable and I’m good with this, but I think at this time the group needs to make more compromises which they may not like. In my opinion, the ability to make compromises makes you a better team player and we, as a group, have to make compromises for one another to make a viable film in the given timeframe.

What compromises you might ask? No Sacred Cows

The film needs to be shorter and achievable. Some people in the group are attached to certain scenes or ideas which may have to go. Hopefully as a group we can make compromises that we can all agree on but still be proud of the final result.

This concludes my thoughts in week 5.

Render Wrangling

Render Wrangling

In week 5, I managed to help Semester 6 students with their film by being their render wrangler. With my knowledge from having completed Cert IV Information Technology and Networking prior to my education at JMC, I knew how to set up servers and network computers. I was able to set up a render farm on Saturday with 2 rooms where all the computers were rendering scenes. Believe me, with about 30 computers to the render farm, the render times where fast. In this post, I am going to explain my process and I intend to use this rendering process to my production.

I will now explain my process in a brief tutorial. I do not want to turn this post into a lesson in networking and I.T.

The first step was to set up the manager computer so that the project files are shared over the network.  I moved everything to the projects folder.

To make the files sharable, right click on the project folder

Right click on projects folder àsharing àAdvanced Sharingàtick “share this folder”, à “permissions” tab àthen set everyone to full Control.

If you used a project file correctly all textures and references are now accessed over the network.

Step 2 Open manager, monitor and server on the central computer which manages the render farm.

Then use CMD, also referred to as “command prompt” and run the command ipconfig. The ipconfig command gives the user the ip address of their computer.

You can then set the manager monitor and server with the same ip address as the central computer which manages the render farm.

Then in Maya, you can set the project folder location to have the ip address in its directory pathway or any pathway that will work over the network.

On all the other computers, you need to run Server and set the ip address to find the manager computer.

Then when in Maya you can create the back burner jobs with the ip address added in the manager name field and set an appropriate task size and job name.

It all went well and the monitor showed that the computers were rendering.

Make sure that all referenced rigs, textures and files are in the Project folder and therefore can be found over a network. No texture should be on C: drive or any other local location or it will come up with error 211 because it cannot find the files.

When the rendering is finished, all the computers should be restarted so that the configurations are set back to normal.

Self-analysis

One of the semester 6 students said to me, “We would have not made the final film assessment deadline if it was not for you setting up the farm”. There are a number of procedures that can be done to improve the work flow but the important thing to me is it works. I am pleased that my production now has a render farm. As there are less students at JMC on Saturdays, this would be the best day to set it up as there are more computers available. 

Production schedule

Our group has reevaluated our production schedule.

I made the first gant chart and it needed quite a bit of work, our new one is something I am more proud of especially now that we have documented everyone based on what they want to do and there skill set. = )

Sun Tsu the art of war.  "If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles." our first gant chart did not reflect the knowledge of out self's. it was not tailored to utilize our team mates individual strengths. eg Ed is the best illustrator  give him the most time-in photo shop. josh is a talented environment artiest give him the time he needs for environment art and so on.  if you are wondering who our enemy is its the dead line for the project. 

Modelling the mother's body

Modelling the mother still draft stage

Over week 3 and 4 I had started the model for the mother’s.  So far things are ok. I decided to do the mother for the group because my girlfriend Amie Baldwin is quite skilled in the art of female anatomy and character modelling. To me she is an available resource for achieving quality in this character by providing feedback and identifying areas witch needed changing like the base mesh and good hand topology for a character with finger nails. 

So keeping in mind this mother is around the age of 40 ish her female anatomy is not what it used to be with a slightly hunched back, bit of a gut and not so perky breasts this character is not your conventional perfect anatomy female. She is aged. Her breasts and buttocks have been dropped to show ageing and if over analysed one could say to show her drop in youth. Stretch pants and slippers for the intention to show she is at home relaxing but well-kept finger nails to show she still care’s about her appearance.

Self-analysis  

When getting feedback from the group she may actually be a bit too old. If someone is to look at the side view some scaling needs to be done to the hands but the topology in the hands and finger nails I am quite happy with . More work still needs to be done.

Changing the fight scene week 3 and 4

During class in week 3 and 4 Ed and Steve have decided they would like to change a major section in the story. They would like to change the fight scene, a scene I made in the animatic to a scene which involves the family using the platform as a counter wait to defeat the transformed alien. This is a major change to hear from my group when we are in week 4 and they want to change about 30% of the film half way through the production.

I spent time working on the fight scene in the animatic and if they didn’t like it they could have told me (I am not upset) before waiting till this late for a change. Now something I have always believed in and am now quoting from the best animators of all time, Chuck jones, Richard Williams and so on. "Never get attached to your drawings".

Never get attached to your drawings.

What does "never get attached to your drawings" mean to me? It means that if I draw something and it looks bad I start over and stop wasting time polishing a turd.

 If I spend hours drawing a turd it’s still a turd. It also means that when I have an employer and I animate something and my employer doesn't like it, I don’t cause a fuss and don’t get all defensive. I just start again and make changes as requested. If you are sitting there saying ‘I disagree with Stuart's opinion about not getting attached to my work’, then watch the DVD with the Animators Survival Guide. If you still disagree, then you also disagree with people from Pixar and Disney who deal with change every day and this guy who probably has more experience than you, Rick O’Connor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3Phk-78SWo&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL2AE100D729D4068E

I think my fight scene I made in the animatic looks great. Nevertheless, I am not getting attached to my work and am fine with  a major change to the film. There is only one thing that is not allowed by me. It is expanding the scope of the project/film. If they want a change that makes the film longer and give the film more work than I have to say NO, but if it makes the film shorter and easier and more achievable then that would be fine.

Some people would think negatively if their work is removed from a film. I am looking at this as an opportunity to make the scope smaller which is probably necessary. I am turning what people would see as a negative into an opportunity to improve the film. As long as they don’t expand the scope of the project/film.

PS. "Scope", yes, I said it. And I’ll keep saying it.

Motion capture

Quite some time ago I thought I had posted about the motion capture equipment. Today I logged on to blogger to find I forget to publish it and I lost the post I intended to make last week. This is what I tried to post last week.

Today we started our motion capture assessment 1 which is being incorporated into our production. Steve and I got to wear the suit to test out the sensors, software and hardware. It is great fun. So far the way we have been working has been recommended by Jon the motion capture teacher at JMC. Jon recommends a shot break down sheet where we list all required shots for the production. This provides good organisation and I find make’s sure that an individual or group don’t forget any shots or props required. Steve did a great job with this basic one. We had to do this outside of regular JMC class time but that’s life.

A number of our shots involved the boy Liam with a toy gun.

So we added tracking markers with electric tape to a toy gun of our own.

In the software we set up these points so that they would be recognized as a separate object. So far no issues have been found and the markers were tracked with no issues.

At this point in time I don’t feel I can give a full self-analysis of the motion capture until I get a rigged and skinned character moving in a scene. However I do feel that there is one thing that I would like to say. If I could do anything different it is that I would not use a small room. Having a small room gives the motion capture actor a limited amount of room to move. This limits the potential of the quality of animation. For e.g. if you have to have a scene where a character has to walk 7 meters and you only have 5 meters of acting space to do so it’s actually quite impossible to achieve quality. I believe jmc are aware of this and are considering moving the equipment to the auditorium. I want to help push this decision to move the equipment so that the quality of our motion capture is to its best. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfGqTVf5nkk

2D Animation Scene

2d Animation

One of the first takes for the production is the scene or shot of the main character Liam (the boy) watching his favourite action hero on television. This hero is your typical macho alpha male, the kind of guy who was the captain of the football team. A jock type character who grew up to be a successful space captain.

Liam idolises this hero and the production requires a short animation of this hero in his prime and glory. The group decided to go with a 2d animation to create a contrast between the 3d world art style and the 2d art style. Also, the intent is to give it an old 80s or 90s cartoon look. Using flash symbol based animation, the 2d animation has reached the completed stage. If I feel that I have enough time, I may refine the animation more before the rendering stage but moving on with the project at this point is a more pressing matter.

The reason for choosing a symbol based animation is because of the time constraints and the design of the character. When it comes to 2d animation, this character is quite complex for one individual and would be far more time consuming if done frame by frame, which I actually love. However, time is a major cost in this production, especially a 4 min production, so symbol based animation may not have as much appeal as hand drawing animation. Besides, it does give time for other more pressing matters like the vast amount of modelling and 3d animation required in the production.

When it comes to self-analysis, I would say there are some positions which make him look off balance and quite like a chicken pose. I was a student of Ian Lacy, former animator of The Lion King and other Disney films, and it really pains me to say the character has shots where he is off balance. This is one of the flaws that Ian would be determined to remove from a student’s. However, the horizon line of the background which is dropped is something I am hoping people take into consideration. The fact that the horizon line is dropped off camera gives the audience the sense that we are looking up at him and that the crouching awkward pose is actually the up angel shot of the mountain he is climbing.

Also the animation is on 2’s ( 2’s is when animation is done on every  2^nd frame )

Animation on 2’s can make an animation not looks as clean with its interpolation (inbetweening). However, it is one of those things that was popular in the 80s and 90s cartoons to save time back then so hoping it creates an old low budget aesthetic.

I also wish I had the time to get up to production quality knowledge with Toonboom. Flash is regarded as an application which is on its way out and a number of 2d feature films and television shows are now produced using the Toonboom application. During the creation of the scene I am reminded of Flash’s limitations and difficult vector calculating for brushes. 2d animation will always be a passion, love and practice of mine but I think it’s time I migrated from Flash to Toonboom.

Also, big thanks to Edd for creating the ground for me as his skills in illustration are amazing which gave the environment a more readable understanding. To keep the style consistent, I had to vectorise the ground because Flash works with vectors not pixels and more Flash’s options are available with vectors.

Link to 2d shot.

https://vimeo.com/77277298

Week 2

Week 2 A major improvement in productivity this week. Edd has created an impressive looking Zall and Zeet Character and josh has made a excellent environment house model. Steve is putting together the shot break down and has begun modelling the boy and I have completed the 2d flash scene and beginning creation of the mother character. The concerns I had in week 1 have gone and we may not have completed a finalized animatic but I can see its getting done and feel more confident it will be done soon.

Week 1 The Begining

This is a post of the progress of week one. So far things are not good in my opinion. I remember during pre production I said time and time again that I am concerned with project scopes and how people don’t realise that less is more. I even asked my lecturers about their thoughts on the fact that I have concern. One lecturer stated in week one of pre-production “don’t think about the scope in your project at this point because it can effect creative out comes”. I totally understand, yes don’t let concerns of scope let a quality film suffer. However now that we are in week one of production and we have those same lectures now telling us the project has too much to achieve the same lecturer said “I don’t understand why this happens every year students always make animatics which are too big for themselves” If it happens every year why don’t you improve preproduction to avoid it from happening year after year. I don’t currently feel confident in my lectures ability’s to manage a project. They are talented in their own fields modelling animation and whatever but they show very limited knowledge of management. I am taking a big risk in saying this in a blog which is to be assessed by them but I have to express my opinion.

This brings me to another point. They are also the cause of major procrastination in the project in my opinion. We had an animatic to finish which was due last semester but for some reason we spent one and a half hours talking about motion capture equipment which has not even been tested and talking about the technicalities of it when we still needed to finish the next draft animatic. We ended up having to do the animatic over the week end when we could have done it in a group during our class with communication not having to be digital over face book which takes more time.

Here is a great piece of advice I got from the former project manager of a hospital in Brisbane who was my teacher during cert 4 information technology during a project management class. He said ‘Murphy’s law’ if it can go wrong it will go wrong. So if motion captures doesn’t work have a back-up plan. It goes without saying motion capture is just a tool if it doesn’t work use 3d traditional animation instead. That should have been the end of the motion capture conversation. And we should have then got back to work and had a finished animatic by now. Instead there was major procrastination, and the group is no closer to their goal. Especially if the motion capture equipment had not been tested yet and we had more pressing matters like the need for the animatic.

There is also the issue of incentive. What I mean is if the film project fails the people who are affected are the student’s not the teachers. The teachers still get paid and still come back next semester. While if the film fails the students have to pay another 7000 thousand dollars and fail the course. If you’re thinking “but in the industry” well guess what this game proves my point ET on the Atari. If you watch this documentary you will understand that it is considered the worst game ever made because the staff had no incentive to do a good job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZxXEidtxHk

The programmer for the game was paid a massive sum of money now matter how good the game was. Sorry to say the teachers are going to get paid no matter how good the film will be. This is why incentive is required in order to manage a project. What incentive do the teachers have to do a good film none and I don’t blame them there responsibility’s lie elsewhere. They are not here to do the job for us. But my point is they should not manage the project or even what is done in class time for example could have avoided wasting time about motion capture. It should be us who manages the daily roster so we don’t have procrastination.

Other than that I am now in the stage of creating the 2d animation scene I am up to the long hours of clean-up and in betweening and will post a breakdown of the scene.