Diner Modeling

Although I've not had nearly enough free time in the past week as I would of liked, I started on the modeling of the diner itself. Not much to say really but have the blue prints for where everything will exactly go and also a few early shots to show.

Latest and hopefully last animatic

So just been working on the animatic lately, had a review by tutors and peers on thursday, had some good feedback and also some ideas for improving.

Taking those into account i added the reverse part of it, which would need heavily fine tuning for the final thing but for animatic purposes i think is okay.

Bonus: added sound

Idea change and blocking

So first of all, i was really struggling with the original idea of following the mysterious man. I had a talk with Sean and have developed a great idea, however it involves a lot more work as i have to model several human characters although hopefully shouldn't have to rig them.

I'm basing it around the cluedo concept, you go through the scene seeing several characters and at the end you see a body, you mind then wonders who it could be. On top of the story it should work great as a portfolio as it shows, organic modeling, lighting, rendering, composoting and texture work among other things.

I have been blocking the characters out with the basic Norman rig however i have found a chef and girl one (which are actually variants on the Norman rig anyway) to temporary show the characters in the scene. I found the chef and girl characters here:
http://www.romanim.com/norman_database.php

The waitress


Sheriff


Chef


Mysterious guy

*Generic update title*

So I've been working on getting the telephone finished in terms of modeling and UV mapping. Which I have done (except for the cable which i forgot to add).

I did a very very quick texture in photoshop to test the mapping and applied a anisotropic shader which gives a nice effect, however would need tuning to look bit old and beaten up.

Currently just refreshing my mind with basic lighting skills so just a simple 3 point lighting system

Things to do.

I seem to keep being distracted by the more fun stuff in my project such as the modeling. (That is all fine but not if i haven't finalised my animatic just yet)

So i need to focus on animatic first. Then some more concept work and turnarounds for objects, followed by modeling.

However on a random note. A lighting shot...

Some inspiration

Stumbled upon this video today, Some of the elements in the film are extremely jarring, however overall its fairly nice. It combines 2D characters with 3D backgrounds and environments. However i mainly posted it for one scene at about 1:47 which shows a dark saloon with high contrast and bright light shining through the doors.



Another reason i posted the above image, is to show the similar effects i would like in my film. For example the particles in the air that catch the light well. It really brings the environment to life and is more realistic as a dusty and old saloon

Some concept sketches

Had some spare time this afternoon before work so drew some quick concept sketches of a booth and the counter and cash register. I have barely drawn anything for this project and i know that in order to model well, i need good blue prints and reference so started on these.

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Update to the previous video, Slower movements as per some feedback from a peer, but probably not still quite there.

Animatic Shot Experiments

Based on tutor feedback from Sultan, Sean, Simon and Peter all have told me that the one 'floaty' camera movement in the animatic is boring and slow. However a few understood that with textures and lighting and better models it might still work, although they did have suggestions which I have tried to follow recently in the past day or 2.

Instead of the 1 camera, I have added in shots of different aspects focusing on details around the diner. 1 is stationary however i think it looks odd on its own so will add some more locked cameras.

Peters advice was also good about the story, for example still with the theme of the mysterious character, the camera more closely follows the characters movement, such as when he puts down a whisky bottle or moves a chair across the floor. The camera is one step behind.

The general talks with all tutors have helped. I will see if Peter is around tomorrow so i can hopefully show him my experiments above.

Modeling

Some more modeling on my phone. Have my animatic showing tomorrow, I have already had some feedback for it about it maybe being a bit too long, so i might alter the camera angles and also time of the video.

Audio for animatic and modelling for final piece

So today I've been working on my telephone for the final piece*, seeing as it was something i knew would be definitely in the final thing I knew I could safely model it knowing I will always include it.
After the phone is complete i think i will move onto the jukebox or possibly work on the booths and do some sculpting in Zbrush/mudbox (whichever is available)

I spent this morning working on audio for my animatic in final cut express, however i later changed, i thought it would be best to start in garageband for animatic purposes. Due to technical problems i didnt get as much time on this as i was having trouble exporting my playblast/render out of maya into a usable format for the post production programs.

Another thing i would like to talk about, I am thinking of including a song of the 1950's era on the jukebox to play throughout the scene or partly. My inspiration is any 1950's music and also music similar to those played in The fallout series (3 and New vegas). However I want to make sure i use something NOT from the fallout games, to steer away from being such a copycat as much as it might be tempting to use certain really fitting songs.

Hope my tutors are happy with my animatic once its done, according to the timetables mine will be reviewed next week instead of this week so it gives me a bit more time. But I'm not rushing for it, its practically done, hence why I'm moving on to modelling the final assets.

Updated Animatic

This is my most recent animatic, bit lengthier, which I wanted, so i could show off more of the environment. I'm still not able to get the right angle i want with some parts of the playblast. I'm not sure if its Maya 2012 being buggy and glitchy but sometimes the camera really gets messed up and its a bit of a chore to maintain it while I'm trying to edit a different point on the timeline.

Nice Surprise

I was walking by a shop today and noticed this in the window, perfect for me to base my phone model on. I took a couple of pictures. Its exactly what i want and fits the era, except i would roughen mine up a bit to show its been there for a few years or so.

edit: Would of been nice to buy this to keep as reference, unfortunatly my student budget would not stretch to the £50 odd for it.

Current Animatic

Although this is rather crude and there are still many things wrong with it, such as timing and horrible camera movements and no ease in and outs, its a rough idea for the camera movement. I will make it a lot smoother, easier on the eyes and add in some sound when I've got it looking nice then i can get it approved and start on the real thing.

Not a large update

I've done a tiny bit more modelling on the scene. It has some details but not too many where i have wasted time. Want to try and get the right camera path set up and done this week, along with rendering it out (or playblasting) and adding sounds and tiny bit of editing to finish up the animatic a week ahead of scheldue (from when tutors want to see it anyway)

Story and Blocking out

Although the animatic doesn't require lighting, i thought it would be good to show a similar lighting setting i would want for the final piece. So i have tried to create what i want. The lighting is still quite wrong and doesn't work for example the ceiling being too bright, but i am just fiddling with settings to get it looking okay and can hopefully just create an animatic from a camera fly through the scene.

I may also aswell talk about the story of the scene. The story will be told by the way the camera moves through the environment. It will first focus on a shot showing a closed back door and also the telephone on the hook. the camera will go back on itself focusing on the kitchen and bar area. Round the corner you will see the jukebox and then turn around again to see the far side of the diner then it will come back slowly along the long straight section. During this time the phone will ring and foot steps can be heard, leading towards it being picked up and maybe a voice. However the camera will stay focused on the enviroment going along the tables and seeing the lit cigarrette. Eventually the the camera focuses back on the original shot showing the phone swaying of the hook and the backdoor swinging like it just had someone rush out.

Some concept images

Just to clarify, I have assigned amy and hollie to do some concept work for me, so the following is none of my own work, however i am proud to say i like what they've done and are very similar to my vision and actually what i want to make.

Amy:
She has nicely made me a logo with a good old cliched american diner name. Sweet



A good piece of concept showing the harsh blind shadows and generally the dark ish lighting.




Hollie:

Bit more colorful and detailed shots of possible settings for the phone area.



Although the blue is not my idea for the colour of the background its a nice stool, with slightly ripped leather, Ideally the stool would be slightly more burgundy, but the rust is good, not too much or too little.

Some more on the blocking

More on the blocking done tonight. Not a massive amount, i know its important to not get caught up on details, however i did add some cups and plates and also a couple of tills just for my sake, it just looks a bit nicer of an environment, even if it is just for animatic purposes.

Diner Update

I have enlisted the help of amy and hollie to help me with concept work, I have already seen some of Hollies pictures and there looking good, i just suggested a couple of things i wanted different in them.

I also managed to work out the main story of the piece (even though its an environment showcase, i want some kind of a story through it)I think i will go into more detail about this soon. Because, i worked out the story or the main camera movement i can do a shot plan and have worked out the rough movement of the camera through the environment and have finalized the diner (ish) So i started to block it out in maya so i can create an animatic from it.


Its early days for the actual environment itself, however this would all be completely rebuilt from scratch for the final scene.

edit:Forgot to mention, I've been extremely busy last week and weekend, but this week i want my animatic done possibly with sound, it should take a good night or 2, but getting the camera right will be tricky. Also hopefully want to see amy's concept work, she is busy with her group so i cant depend to much on her but would be good to see something, the sooner the better and i will make sure all who have helped in my film get credit for it.

3rd Year Idea

Okay, so i admitted that the last couple of years I haven't really specialized in any particular area so i was struggling to work out what i was going to make in the 3rd year.

Luckily just this week i had a chat with sean, and helped me get on the right path.

I plan to create a fully CG environment which would be used possibly as a small level in a game engine, but primarily to make a short film with, telling story through subtle objects in the environment (which i have many ideas for)

I really liked the idea of having an abandoned diner that could be deserted for a couple of years but also slightly damaged and wrecked but nothing as bad as say something from Fallout.

Because there is only me producing this, I decided to work out what i enjoy and do best and what i would need major help or collaborated work from someone.



I made this 'confidence' chart (I call it) just to see which I am happy with (5 being most confident). For example the animation that i would require in the scene would be fairly easy and i am very confident that can all be done by me, whereas background/s i will definitely need some help with from someone good with painting. And all the ticks in between vary between 2 and 4. Most of the 2's mean I'm not completely confident with making them but i know exactly what i want for them.

This week I'm starting on some design ideas for the diner and also need to develop the storyboard, which is gonna be quite tough seeing as i have about 4 ideas

I also drew some very quick thumbnails for the blue prints of the diner.


On top of the story development and storyboard, I'm going to try and make mood boards for various areas, Such as i want to create one just for textures that could be used, one for colours used and also one for objects and the overall feel of the scene. However this may all be brought into one big board

3rd year has begun

The year has officially started, lots to talk about so i will try and be detailed without droning on and on.

First off to get it out of the way, I have a job working for the Engine shed and tower bars Student Union, this is to earn some money for my third year living costs. Hopefully this shouldn't take up too much time from my week and should rarely ever interfere with lectures.

Secondly, had our first few lectures with tutors for our final film and dissertation which was interesting and good to meet our new lecturers who seem great.

Third and most importantly, I've finally got an idea for my third year 3D work which i will discuss in a following post just to keep things a bit better organised.

Thoughts

It is becoming increasingly closer to my 3rd year at uni, now with this there is excitement for new projects but it also comes with tons of stress. Hoping to minimize that last bit i need to do as much as i can before uni starts so my idea is solid and already in pipeline.

I've had a couple ideas of a film that i could make, some ideas were pure crap and some had something there but still not great.
I would love to animate a music video, only a couple of minutes so perfect time for 3rd year project.

It would be really nice to animate a video to any songs by Matt Berry from the album Witchazel. This in particular has been some very inspiring and relaxing music to work to and have always had a few ideas for them.

Another idea i had was to create a train (again with the trains!) where all the windows were a gateway out to a different landscape. Such as a snowy mountain caps, camels in a desert, jungle waterfall, rainy city... etc. I've already thought lightly into this project if it might be viable. Problems that are around; No story to it :/ terrible problem that is.

Update on the pistol model

Nothing fancy with the rendering settings, But this is the latest version of the pistol model I'm working on.

I was bored

I am very bored and very hot thanks to the summer weather, Not as hot as my free holiday in Ibiza but I won't get into that.

I haven't done any pure maya modelling in a while so started on this revolver. Hoping for it to be something i texture aswell and doing a few more advanced techniques like baking textures along with using normal, bump map and specular maps.

First Public Showing

So Thursday night I had the pleasure of seeing my 2nd year film among many other locally made videos at the very first Lincoln Shorts Festival.

The night was really enjoyable, I'd say there were approximately 20-30 short films most no more then 5 minutes. Had some great live music by some talented people and one extremely talented guitarist/singer.



I was nervous when this screen came up, I knew that it went down well in the odeon to animation students and there families and friends, but this was completely public and open to anyone so was unsure of there reaction.

It seemed to go well and people understood it (i hope) had a few laughs and smiles on the final reveal.

Overall the night was thoroughly enjoyable and its aim to show people how much film making talent there is in the local area I think was definitely achieved. Just gotta beat down that competition when it come's to any jobs :P

Blocking

Finished on the blocking. Gonna work on it tomorrow hopefully, adding some inbetweens and adding a little more character and smooth motion.

We have made Contact!

In all honesty today hasn't been as productive as i thought. However I've been getting familiar with the new 2012 version of Maya which was some bugs which I think I've worked around. Also taken a short while to refresh my memory on animations tools. Suprisingly the graph editor hasn't had any kind of impact and as it was before was a breeze to fly through and adjust key frames.

The picture is just the contacts for a walk cycle to be done on 2 beats (steps a second) its been a while since i attempted maya animation never mind a walk cycle so just picking it back up and can hopefully fly through the next couple of poses.

Update

So it's been a short while since officialy finishing my 2nd year and not too long from officialy finishing work on our 2nd year film show for the degree show, However lately I have had a break and now i plan to get back into the flow.

I am still unsure about what I'm doing for a 3rd year project but i know i want to do it in 3D so Modelling and animation is what i am focusing on this summer. Animation will need more attention and projects, as it has been a fair while since i last did any.

I'm starting right at the basics again to get me back into the animation mindset (instead of the rigging/modelling/compisiting one i've had the past year) so I'm going to use the norman rig for walk cycles and other type animation.

I will start with poses and body animation work using normal pose to pose methods and will leave lip syncing out for now.

Degree Show

Well yesterday was the degree show for all years that took place at the odeon right in the centre of lincoln.
I didn't get chance to visit last years as i was busy working however this year i didnt know what to expect. I was suprised to see the biggest screen in the odeon packed and we were struggling for seats. How cool is that. I later found out people from a local newspaper and college were there so thats pretty impressive.

The show was great everyones work looked stunning on the big screen and i was nervous when ours came on. However when people laughed at the imp reveal i had a big smile on my face and was so pleased.

After the show our lecturer sean wrapped it up with some awards for best 1st, 2nd and 3rd year films. I am happy to announce that our film won the 2nd year best film along with another group. SO happy :D

Simple screenshot, showing most of the layers used for editing and compositing.

Blogger has been down, so its only now i've been able to post any updates, after our deadline.

On the thursday me and aaron stayed overnight in order to get rendering for the imp and train sections done. Thankfully there were not too many problems and thanks to rendering on several machines at once it was done in no time.

The morning of the hand in, i was mainly working on the compositing and editing. It was a bit of a rush and last minute as i was also waiting on some other scenes which just had to be coloured.

Finally handed it in and i went home with the intention of sleeping.

(I shall post some screenshots of the after effects work in the next few hours/day)

Finally Finished

The Imp Express from Liam Kirkman on Vimeo.

I've spent numerous hours editing and testing, and once some of the finishing touches were done and the sound added, i think it looks awesome.

Its going to be tough

So while i write this, it is the day before hand in and were virtually no where near finished.

The way of looking at it at the minute, is that we have all the individual Elements but its not together yet. Today is gonna be a long day.. and night... and early morning.

Various after effects shots are easy to do, but i just need the scenes off the people creating them. Hopefully this can be all done and dusted.

There might be a few things that we have to leave out for the hand in but put in for the degree show. One of which being the Imps painted texture instead of his plain red shader.

Quick Post

Cloud Sequence 4th Draft. Alternate Version from Liam Kirkman on Vimeo.

Updated umbrella scene as promised
Group response is good and they are pleased with the result. Minor feedback about the clouds fading at the end should be shorter so i will do that in order to make it better.
I am quite happy with it and with some tweaks can look even better.

Although this may go against the title name "quick post" i feel better for including this image here instead of a new post. Anyway its a current render of the scene with the imp included. The shadows have been softened according to feedback from Aaron.

Updated First Train Shot

1st shot with added motion blur and shaky cam from Liam Kirkman on Vimeo.

An updated version of the first train shot.
A suggestion from a group member was to make the background shake aswell, because at the minute it just looks like the train shakes. So i will change this.

I've been working on the cloud transition, the first train (over camera) shot, the level crossing shot and also playing with the lighting in the imp scene. More updates to follow

3rd Draft

Cloud Transition to Imp Second Draft from Liam Kirkman on Vimeo.

This is the 3rd draft of the cloud transition. This is much better then the previous versions however it has been brought to my attention that it should almost be the exact opposite of this. so the next version will probaly look completely different.

Just another scene shot

The Imp is lit, however a bit more work is still needed on it.

Lighting

Today I've been experimenting with the lighting and hoping to get a nicelit scene for rendering out. The image below is using 4 lights currently, a main one above the scene, a yellow tinted fill light aswell as 2 others to help bring out the scene.



The scene looks much better and a lot less blown out when Ambient occlusion is added



And just for fun and because i like the look of it, I've included just the ambient occlusion layer.

Draft of Umbrella in clouds

Cloud Transition to Imp First Draft from Liam Kirkman on Vimeo.

First draft of the umbrella and cloud transition.

After manually saving every frame out of photoshop I imported them into after effects as an image sequence. Added the clouds and some movement and opacity keyframing. This is the current version so far, but awaiting some feedback from the rest of the group.

Textured Train Shot

Textured Train Shot#01 from Liam Kirkman on Vimeo.

Receiving the textured train I Re-rendered the first shot with the lighting and adding the background in after effects. This currently looks not as nice as I'd hoped and Im spending more time playing with the lighting and rendering options in maya. However, this is an almost near complete shot, as once i've got it rendered beautifully its a couple of things to do in after effects such as the rain and it should be good to go.

Been a long time since I created a new post, Currently working on a fair few different things to contribute to the final film. I am responsible for the After effects compositing and first couple of train shots aswell as some features in the 2nd half of the film.

Pictures and/or video will be posted in the next few days.

Rain Test for 2nd shot from Liam Kirkman on Vimeo.

Nothing particulaly new to see. Just re uploaded to Vimeo for higher quality.

Something else...

Something else, I worked on a little while back was the first test shot once again. But this time with the carriages added and a higher quality on rendering and lighting so its looking fairly nice. Unfortunatly I only have the image files and have nothing to composite them together with but shall do this tomorrow and upload.

However, despite this not being uploaded as of yet, the team really seemed to be impressed with the effect and the shadows work well how the light disappears and reappears between each carriage. Its really nice and I was certainly impressed.

Untitled from Liam Kirkman on Vimeo.

Experimenting with Rain for final composition

Today, I was having a little fiddle about in After effects trying to get a good rain effect. It involved a few effects added into the composition; a basic rain effect, plus particle effects added to make the splashes and to add to that I masked out some of the foreground under the umbrellas. More time is being spent on trying to get the splashes and splatters the right speed and not too floaty or fast.

Due to the upload system of this. The video is low res and quite hard to see the rain. Best viewed in full screen. For now test shots are okay (but not great) with this system but I am contemplating a Vimeo account.

The controls so far


The result of all controls on 1

Mouth Closed blendshape

Some Simple blendshapes..

Made some eyelids yesterday or day before i think



Suprised look, Eyebrows up and eyes fully open


Quick test of eyes blinking

More to follow, working on more blendshapes today and also attending the after effects help session this afternoon with matt, hopefully he can help me with compositing my test shot of the train. Its a simple enough job but I'm not very familiar with after effects software so a a refresher session is what I need.

Thought I would post an update. I'm currently trying to work on the blendshapes for the face. Luckily I don't think I will need to make many.

However, there are no eye lids for the imp model, So i have to try and create some and on top of that the eyes arent perfectly round, there kind of oval shaped so its difficult to animate the eye lids properly.

I have also researched a bit into how we blink, such as how often and how fast, Using reference material (video of me blinking) and also some articles found on the net explaining what happens when we blink and why.

Hey you guys!

Baby Imp would like to say hello!

Today I managed to get nearly all of the weighting issues sorted and Paul gave me some good advice for weighting and rigging in general which I am grateful for. He also advised me certain parts don't need to be perfect because we will never see the Imp stand up or walk for example, however should we need to make him stand up it will be fine.

Just a quick update, I'm reworking the rig from scratch, Loading from when i had just worked out where the widgets should go on the body for the imp and then rigged it.

No pictures neccesary, but, I thought I would just say I'm currently working on the exclusion points again (nothing more tedious then this job). After that painting weights again.
Moving onto blend shapes sometime maybe starting tomorrow and working on it at the weekend.

...Continued

I can't find out anywhere how to change the elbow joint so it is working properly. I did find out, that because it is yellow it means it is a linked control, which makes sense but still can't figure out how to 'unlock it' so to speak to change the value.

Unless I find out how to do this soon, What I'm going to have to do is to re rig it from an earlier save (thank god for paul and simon teaching us to save incrementally) and then to go ahead and exclude the points Again! Then paint the weights Again! and maybe just maybe I can finally get on with some blend shapes.

The only silver lining is that, I now know all the problems that exist with this method so I can avoid/fix these as I go through the process of the set up machine rigging.

Solve one problem and another one is created -__-

After a short while and some assistance from Simon, I finally managed to sort out the weighting issue. I managed to get it so moving the elbow and shoulder joint didn't affect anything like the waist or head. However in an unusual turn, quite literally the elbow joint decided to flip itself on the rig for which I cannot actually change back. I worked out the problem and how it needs to be solved, all that needed to be done was entering value 1 into a settings box instead of the negative 1 that was there and it would be fine. Although I cannot physically change this which is an annoyance.
Its extremely unusual as a keyed value would be orange, a locked value would be grey, but this one is yellow and I don't know what that means.

TO GOOGLE

Arghhh Rage!!!

Seriously annoyed with this now. Having major issues trying to paint the weights for the character. Everytime I take the influence off 1 part of the arm it moves to another part of the arm and its a vicious circle I dont know how to get out of.

The orange circles show the points I'm trying to remove from being influenced by the left arm, But I can't for the life of me get it to work. Going to ask Paul tomorrow if he's around to see if he can help me out because this work needs doing asap and I'm worried how much longer its going to take :/

Just been working on the Imp today using the set up machines built in tools for exclusions to help with realistic deformation. Managed to get the imp sitting down looking quite sweet.

Next stage is to get it so I can move the arms without the head deforming extremely badly, so i think that will require weight painting to be done during this week ready for tuesday. Once weight painting is done and everything moves okay, i will create some blend shapes of the imps head for opening and closing mouth, eyes blinking etc (however more in depth then just the few i just said)

Update

Today Neil and Paul seemed to like my progress with the train completed and the preliminary test shot put together. However I am still a bit behind with the rig being completed so that is number 1 priority for this week. If I get nothing else done but the rig is ready to go then I will be happy its finally out the way and Aaron can animate it and Erica can UV map and texture it.

So going on what I've said I'm no just editing the joints so that it doesn't deform in an usual way

Current state: Bad Deformation

Getting Better: Not as bad a deformation on the top of the legs joining the nappy, Still needs work though

Thats me for today.

Test Shot

This is a preliminary test shot for our animation sequence. Somethings need to be refinend like timing and the camera movement. There is some flickering of the tracks which may not be shown in this low res video, however it is an issue. To resolve this it may be necessary to remove some of the sleepers towards the far end of the track.

Train more or less finished.

Here it is. The more or less finished train. I posted a few stage by stage shots on facebook for the rest of the group to see and they approved which I'm happy about. This may still need a few small changes, for example the underside may need a tiny bit of detail but that depends if were still using the original shot.


I believe Erica had not alot to do so as far as I'm aware she is modelling the carriages so she can use this for reference for the size.

An overdue post :/ Sorry.

Today we had a feedback session with sean about the course overall and any problems we can tell him about in order to make the course as best as it possibly can be, Hopefully any issues can be resolved and make it better overall.

Yesterday we had Neil's weekly feedback session once again. He seemed to like the train progress, However the rigging is still a small problem at the minute. Despite being new to the whole idea of rigging and using the set up machine, the most complicated bit for me so far is the weighting and that is what I'm going to be trying to sort out (Ideally for next week, fingers crossed)

Realistic train in its current stage. Main body is smooth preview and pipe and chimney is polygons as you see. Alot more work to be done, however a good chunk of detail should be textures.