Category: Advanced & Experimental

This week I have implemented some feedback I received last week. I have also completed the missing shots I have skipped last week.

Feedback

• The first feedback point was around the camera panning shot. We need to zoom in the camera enough so that it only focus on the last benchers
• Cut the camera shift and zoom from panning to focusing on the character. Make it seamless.
• When the character falls in the dream, keep the falling position of the character upside down so that it shows the continuation from going inside the paper to coming out of portal.
• When the character lifts his head we should add a closeup shot.
• Make the camera panning smooth and it should appear smoothly. Add ease in and ease out.
• When the character is jumping over the platforms, cut that shot to a simpler one. Just show character jumping on first three platforms and last three platforms.
• The jumping shots should be zoomed in.
• Add a camera shake when character falls on the plane.
• Show the character shifting his body on the plane.
• Extend the scene where the character is falling off the plane.
• In the last classroom shot, make the camera angle same as the begining.

This week I completed the second half of the pre-vis and got feedback and improvement points on it.

First Variation-Second Half

Feedback and Improvements

• In the first shot, I got the feedback to zoom in the shot where the character realized he is about to fall.
• We also need to add a camera shake when the character falls on the paper plane.
• In the paper plane sequence, we need to abstain from extra shots and cuts.
• There is a missing shot when the character jumps on the platform.
• I receive another important feedback around running and jumping to grab the star. We need to zoom onto the feet to show the run and jump and then show the hands going to grab the star.
• In the end, we need to show the character in the same camera angle he was before falling asleep.
• I have also received the feedback around keeping the frame rate consistent in every shot.

Apart from the feedback, I have been told to complete the missing sequences.

This week we learned how to make hydraulics, adding controls and do rigging of the arm.

Finishing the Modeling of the Arm

As we are moving towards the rigging, this week I finished the modelling of the upper arm. Firstly, I made the inner structure of the upper arm and made connectors to attach the whole together. Later, I made covers to wrap up the model.

Adding Controllers

After completing the modelling, I made NURB controllers for the shoulder, elbow and hand. I have attached the controllers with the geometry by using the parent constraints.

I have also made sure to name everything properly, freeze the transformations and organize everything in a hierarchy for smooth rigging process.

Work in Progress Renders

Here are some work in progress renders. I will enhance the textures next week and will work on the final renders.

This week we started on making the pre-vis of the selected idea. We shared the pre-vis progress with our mentor and received the feedback.

First Variation

Here is the first variation of the first half of the pre-vis

Feedback and Improvements.

• In the establishing shot, make all the windows in the school’s building symmetrical.
• Add delays in the noticeboard sequence to make some space for narration.
• Change the angle of camera panning shot where we are showing children filling the sheets
• Add some sort of particles that shows the star portal or the character going in the star portal.
• Add some breathing space in all the animation sequences.
• Make sure all the camera transitions are smooth.
• Don’t make abrupt camera movement.
• Change the establishing shot of the star. Instead of zooming out of the star to show the platforms. Show the star from over the character’s shoulder.

This week we focused on adding more details to the arm and do the rigging of the fingers. We used the method of driven keys and drivers to do the rotation of fingers.

Adding Attributes

We have now moved towards rigging the fingers. We first made a NURB controller and then added finger curls attributes in the channel box. We made the attributes for all the fingers with maximum curling value 10 and minimum 0.

Drivers and Driven Keys

Once we made the attributes now it is the time to attach the finger curl with the attributes in the channel box. For that, I used set driven keys.

• First we will loaded the driver which is the NURB Control.
• After that we loaded the driven, in this case the fingers which needs to be rotated will be the driven.
• Then we selected the transformations we needed and keyed it
• We first keyed on 0 and then curled the fingers on 10 and keyed them

In the end, I attached all the finger curls with the NURB Controller so that if we rotate the controller the fingers automatically curled up.

Introduction

This week we continued working on the arm. The main focus of this week was on adding details and functionality to the arm.

3D Modelling

Wrist

As we have made the hand last week. This week we started with the wrist. Our main agenda was to design a a wrist that is functional and serve the purpose of rotation. During the process of making the wrist, I learned how to use sub divisions to smoothen the mesh and achieve different shapes.

We also made sure to use extrusions and bevelling to add details in the model.

After making the wrist, we moved on to make the connector component which attaches the wrist to the lower arm. For that we needed to make bolts.

For that connector component, I designed a circular model and modelled small holes inside it for the bolts and nuts. I have added the holes by circularizing the faces. After the mesh is circularized I deleted the mesh to make the holes.

Then, I added some details and combined all the models together to make this component.

Lower Arm

Now that I have modelled the wrist, I will start building up the lower arm.

Later on, I modelled the covers for the lower arms. I repeated the same process of adding extrusions and bevelling to add details in it.

Render of the Lower Arm

After combining all the components together, this is how the arm looks. I have done the basic texturing and shading on it. Right now I have kept the lighting simple but I am planning to change the textures on the later stage.

Introduction

This week we finished modeling the hand and adjusted the naming convention of the fingers and the parts of the hand.

Naming the Models

First thing I did was to name everything properly in the outliner so that the outliner looks clear and easy to understand. Naming also plays an important role during rigging. So, it is necessary to follow a good naming convention.

Hand Model

I used cube shape to make the back of the hand and then scaled it from one side to give it a hand like look. After that I bevelled and extruded some faces to give it an interesting look.

We then divided the back of the hand in two parts to make it flexible for the animation part. I also added some extrusions and bevelling in the hand. Later on I added some nuts and bolts as well.

Introduction

This week we studied how the camera plays an important part in animation and cinema. We also discussed how important the rule of thirds and golden ratio are in cinema. It makes or breaks the scene.

The rule of thirds simply suggests that you place your subject on one of the places that those lines intersect. So, instead of putting the subject where you’d place the Xs and Os in that game of tic-tac-toe, place the subject directly on the grid.

Moodboards

This week we also shared the moodboards of the ideas we were working on before.

Moodboard 1: The Dream

The moodboard I am sharing below is for the short film, “The Dream“. This short-film will be showing two worlds, a real world and the other will be the dream world. So the moodboards will show the contrasting themes and colors for each world.

The character I am planning to model for the final animation will be stylized but for the pre-vis I will be using the Bony Rig.

For the real world environment I am planning to choose a stylized artstyle with colorful and vibrant theme.

For the dream sequence, the idea in my head is to make an abstract or symbolic environment with mainly white color with hints of vibrant colors in the interactive objects only.

Moodboard 2: The Gift

The Gift is the story that revolves around Overbearing and Toxic Parenting. The artsyle I am planning for this short film will be stylized and color themes will be see a gradual shift from bright color schemes to dark.

Moodboard 3: The Scar