Layout Deadline #1

Here's what I have so far in terms of layout; the files are available now in the "Layout" folder on Dropbox:



For one reason or another, I can't really get Larry's rig to work. I'm using Maya 2013, but I can only move a few things, like his legs and his eyes. Everything else is stuck. The timing and the camera positioning here are right, even though it probably looks weird. I can continue on, but to anyone unfamiliar with the story, it'll look really odd.

Any suggestions as to how I can get Larry's rig to work are very much appreciated.

A Day in the Park - Story Reel

Some more sound effects added, and a few minor timing tweaks. Enjoy.

Pipeline Structure

It is extremely important that everyone understands the following pipeline rules, naming methods, and how to use dropbox. If you do not have dropbox, please email me, I will send you an invite. It is extremely easy to upload and share files amongst the group. Become familiar with this method.

Folders and organization will be shown in the following example:

The symbol ">" signifies a folder/subfolder).

A,B,C etc is the Letter of the Shot. There are 26 shots, one for each letter of the alphabet A-Z. 

F stands for Frame and will always be followed by .000 (3 decimal places). For Shot F's final renders it will look like this: " Shot_F_F001.tiff "

Things to note: All assets have a shading network. That shading network is attached to the object in the scene. Do not export or import an .obj or that information will be lost. This is especially important for Larry and the Pigeon. Use the .mb files for referencing models and rigs. 

The biggest problem could be that we don't backup our files. YOU will be responsible for backing up your files, always saving them as different names (don't overwrite your files!!) and uploading them to flash drives, hard drives, dropbox, google drive, sending them to yourself in an email, or whatever means necessary. Computers crash, hard drives fail. Be prepared. Once every 2 weeks files will be backed up on a 1TB Hard drive. So be sure to keep your files. Don't delete things until we tell you to. 

Pigeon_Film

>

Models

>

       Larry.mb

       Park_Bench.mb

       Fountain.mb

Layout

>

   Layout_A.mb

   Layout_B.mb

   Layout_C.mb

Rigging

>

   Larry.mb

   Pigeon.mb

 

Animation

> 

   Rough

      >          

       Anim_Larry_A_01.mb

       Anim_Larry_A_02.mb

       Anim_Larry_B_01.mb

       Anim_Pigeon_C_01.mb    

 

   Final

      >

       Anim_Larry_A.mb

       Anim_Pigeon_A.mb

       Anim_Larry_B.mb

       Anim_Pigeon_B.mb

       Anim_Larry_C.mb    

       Anim_Pigeon_C.mb

          

Lighting 

> 

   Rough 

     >

       Light_A_01.mb

       Light_A_02.mb 

       Light_B_01.mb

       Light_C_01.mb

   Final

     >

       Light_A.mb

       Light_A.mb

       Light_B.mb

       Light_C.mb

Textures

>

    Larry_Suit_and_Pants.tiff

    Larry_Hair.tiff

    Pigeon_Feet_Burnt.tiff

    Paper_Sack.tiff

Shaders

>

   Cookie.ma

   Alka_Seltzer_Tablet.ma

Temp Renders

> 

   Passes

                    > 

                         Larry

                                   >  Shot_A_Turn_F111.tiff 

                                       Shot_R_Crouch_F043.tiff

                         Pigeon

                                   >  Shot_K_Swallow_F012.tiff 

                                       Shot_T_Waddle_F043.tiff

                        Small Assets

                                    > Shot_B_Sandwich_F003.tiff

Final Renders

> 

   A

      >

        Shot_A_F001.tiff

        Shot_A_F002.tiff

        Shot_A_F003.tiff

 

   B

      >

        Shot_B_F001.tiff

        Shot_B_F002.tiff

        Shot_B_F003.tiff

Direction to Layout

1. Open empty maya scene

2. Reference Dropbox > Pigeon_Film > Models, Rigging

     - Choose the models you'll need or choose Reference_All_Models.mb

     - Reference Larry's Rig, not his model, you will need it for positioning him. 

3. Before saving be certain to uncheck the checked box in the Reference Editor on all the models and rig or remove the references. This will keep the maya scene clean in the pipeline. To use the reference editor see the images below. 

4. Save the file in "Layout" as Layout_A.mb etc. with only the animated cameras in the scene. 

  

Direction to Animation

1. Open empty maya scene

2. Reference Dropbox > Pigeon_Film > Models, Layout, Rigging

 - Create a reference from Layout and import the rigs from Rigging for whatever shot you're working on.

3. Save the file in the "Rough" folder if not finished and do not remove the references. 

4. Once finished with the shot save the file in the "Final" folder, do not remove the references. 

Direction to Lighting

1. Open empty maya scene

2. Reference Dropbox > Pigeon_Film > Models, Animation, Textures, Shaders

- Choose the models you'll need or choose Reference_All_Models.mb. 

3. Save Lighting files in > Lighting as .mb files. 

4. Save cached render passes in > Temp Renders. 

5. Save approved final render passes in > Renders. 

- Theres a lot more to lighting than you think. Be prepared to spend some time with the reference editor and making sure things that are suppose to work, do work. If something is not working because someone else in the pipeline messed up, finding a solution with them is best, but if it is not possible, creating your own solution is pivotal, even if it means doing something other than what a lighter would normally do, like writing a script or working around a problem so that we won't have to backtrack. 

Cookie and Briefcase

I figured the cookie would be a great thing to test out mental ray on. I think we can get this quality throughout the entire film with the appropriate render settings as seen here. (not the 1.4 f/ on the camera lens, thats just for fun). Render time: 9 minutes 24 seconds.

Briefcase will look better in an actual environment with light and color reflections occurring.

Alka-Seltzer

As I await feedback for Larry and work on him, I pumped this out real fast. Up for Review...

Some Paint-overs for Garrett

Here are some paint-overs. Tried to make the sculpt more closely match the hairdo from the original design. Hope they help

I think we could get a cool look if we sharpened the silhouette. Really emphasizing those straights versus curves

I tried painting on eyebrows. I think we need to have really simple eyebrows. The more detail I added, the bushier they looked. But who knows...

One more paint-over. Lightened his hair color...blackened glasses...and made his eyes blue. What do you y'all think...?

Hair

So before I embark in a journey that might take me several unplanned hours, I would like some feedback on Larry's hair style. I felt like when I textured his hair with a simple diffuse (color) map, it felt too much like a melted chocolate chip on his head. So I sculpted this and exported it as a normal map (so its not actual geometry, its like a xyz bump map)- but I'm having issues- So I want to know what the final design for his hair should be- It can't be how it is now because it doesn't feel like hair. Is this too complex? Should we go for more Estefan like hair where its just a few stripes bumping out and painted on? Or more like actual strands of hair?

I apologize for not being done. I should be... I will be... Soon. Very soon.

The Kelly Loosli-flavored Angel Statue

Larry Almost Finished

The old saying of 80% of the work is done in 20% of the time, and the last 20% of the work is done in 80% of the time is so true when it comes to shading. Rendertime is what kills it with subsurface, it takes 10 minutes on some renders with the quality up. Alright so his hair and teeth have yet to be reckoned with. I have done a few versions of the hair but haven't liked any of it so I'm starting over again. What color should the glasses be? I made his eyes green, what do you think? Oh and I did make his iris's smaller than this- it will be in the next render I put up. I hoped to have been done by now- For sure I'll have a final product by the first day of classes. :)

80% of texturing will be done by Aug 30, with a few leftovers to be had as we finalize a few other things in the film.

*NEW* FOUNTAIN

THE FOUNTAIN

Background

hi guys.  I am in the process of packing up and moving right now, so I'm doing my best to work on the painting as I can.  Wesley and I talked and we decided it was important for the background to have good shapes, so I spent a while trying to find shapes for the trees and bushes that were interesting, but wouldn't draw away from the bench/larry. I'm pretty happy with what I ended up with shape-wise, but I will probably tweak it a bit as I start the painting.

This first image is just so you can see the shrubberies by themselves.  Also- I may need to play around a bit more with the values, but we shall see. Give me your opinions.

And I've been sketching out some tentative buildings to go in the background- we are going for old looking apartment buildings with cool architecture instead of boring flat skyscrapers.  

Let me know what you think or if you have any ideas.  I will start the painting tomorrow, but after that  I wont have time to get back to the painting until school starts.  I can't wait to see you guys!  

Bethesda Terrace

So, I've been to New York three times...lived there for the summer...but I was always doing ballet. Like, all day everyday. So I dare say that I STILL haven't seen much of New York...just the inside of ballet studios. Anyways, that being said...I finally tracked down the area in Central Park where I envision this story taking place and even tracked down the fountain! It's Bethesda Terrace and the fountain is called "The Angel of Water". Here are some pics for reference and what not.

Hahaha, how coincidental. There are PIGEONS sitting on the statue!

 This image is REALLY good. It has the back ground trees and a nice view of the ground and the designs in the brickwork

This image made me smile because it's so perfect for us. It's almost EXACTLY the view I was going for. Just imagine a little pigeon sitting there....exploding.

Background Size

Sorry guys, more annoying questions about the background.  I just want to be sure that I get the size right before I start!

This is a little tricky to explain, but hopefully it will make sense. Here it goes...

So I took the frame that is zoomed in the most (19) and put it into a box that was the correct size ration for the final render size.  Because we did not storyboard in the correct size boxes we will have extra space on the right and left edges of the frame that will end up being filled up with whatever's there I guess.

I then took the most zoomed out frame (59) and put it into a box that is the correct size ratio for the final render size.  On top of this I placed the most zoomed in frame and outlined the space it took up in red.  (this is the small box that says 1333x720).  I measured out how many times the sides of the zoomed up box now fit across/down the big box.  It ended up being 4x the width and height.

Therefore I conclude that the background painting needs to be  2,880 x 5,332.  Does this sound right to you guys or am I crazy?

Larry with medium sized Irises

What do you guys think of the smaller iris?

Larry Update Skin Shading

Shading skin takes forever!!! Haha. It's going well, I am going to add more detail and make him look legit, putting a normal map on his hair, adding more detail to the skin and make him feel more solid, give him some type of  eyelashes. I have this comparison/reference from Megamind that is helping.

A couple questions: First- the eyes. Right now to me they feel like perfectly white cartoony eyes with a pupil. We have the option of putting in the iris. Perhaps I shall post up a comparison of what he looks like with an iris so you can see what I mean. And his teeth, should he have teeth like Hal and Metroman? Or should I keep them all one solid piece? Give me some input and I'll tell you my opinion after.

Jarom is shading the paper bag right now, learning how to do it procedurally while Jedi is shading the bench and has made some tweaks to the model. Here's what he has so far. (the old model has the first layer of the bump map applied so far while the new model of the bench (which I think looks stellar, doesn't have a bump yet).

I have a ways to go, I'll finish him this week ( a few days late), and my small shading crew will have all the shading done by the first day of classes.

And here is Larry with an iris.

Rendering

Film Production Specifications: 

Resolution: 1333x720 HD 

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Frames Per Second (FPS): 24

Questions

I have a few things about the background paintings that I would like to run past you guys.

As of right now, I think I will be doing two paintings - one of the scene behind the bench, and one of the scene behind the fountain.  Do I paint the brick wall that is behind the bench or will that be modeled?  Also, do you want everything on one plane, or different parts on different planes (trees, buildings, sky, etc).  I personally feel that it may work best that way, but that's just me.

This is a more detailed question, but how large of a painting do you think I should do.  Any recommendations would be appreciated.  I just want to make sure that it is high enough resolution so that it will not pixellate.  It would be helpful to know what resolution (width, height) the film will be so that the painting can be proportionate.  Thanks guys.  I'll be getting the painting done as soon as I can before school starts.

Timing Charts

This is so we can see the end and how much work we will need to be doing throughout the semester. It's a little long which kind of scares me because it's a little more work than I was expecting- But the story is just too solid to eliminate anything in my opinion. As far as timing does everything look good? What would you fix? I think the only way to finish this bad boy by the end of November (which is kind the goal in my mind) we would have to have 1-2 additional animators, 2 additional lighters, and someone else to help out with compositing and rendering.

 

                         

The Fountain

Hey everyone. As you can see from the storyboards, there's a shot involving a large fountain in the center of our mall area in our Central Park-esque park. Now then...if someone WANTS to model it in 3D, I'll design it and post it up. IF that happens, I think it'd be really cool to have it actually move water. I don't know a darn thing about visual effects and making running water in Maya, but I think it'd be really cool and one more thing to add to that demo reel.

If no one wants to do the fountain, it'll become a matte painting like the background...so no worries. I'm just wondering what y'all thought...

Modeling

Thanks modeling team for your hard work

Eliza, David, Jedi, Jarom, and Aaron.

Shots A + B Rough Layout

Here's the first 10 seconds of rough layout. I'm still figuring things out with this stuff. But it's kinda cool. Aaron the rig is so much fun, it's incredible actually.

Larry's Clothes

After many countless hours of learning what not to do with texturing fabric, I think I'm finally figuring it out. I thought I did things okay and just when I thought I was done I stumbled upon some cool shading tips in maya and I started all over, haha, just like always. I still am trying to do some things with his suit coat so that the lines criss cross, I had them like that before, but then I tried this other method and this is as far as I got. I'm still solving this issue- but I think it looks okay right now. The renders are high res but not the right settings, so thats why theres some artifacting and aliasing happening. Lighting obviously is awful. This week I'll be finishing Larry's skin- I've never done skin before so this should be fun. Any feedback from you guys? Tear it apart.