Updated

shot with lights

is this correct lighting?

rendered out shot 2

scene 3- done?

heres my latest version! last minute crits?
I put this version on the server in the movies folder and i put the .mb file in the scenes folder so melvin if you want to check it out feel free

Shot 2 polishing, looking for crits!

Worked on polishing up overall, and really nailing the silhouettes. But what do you guys think? What could i do/push to get it to that next level?

Hope your weekends went well!

Edison

Alright, I tried to adjust the twinning a bit and the fingers, also added another blink or two.
Let me know what the next critiques are.
Melvin- maybe I'm just being crazy but I didnt see a lamp group in the outliner. Looks like theres a light shining down from above and an area light. If I tun either of these off it either is pitch black or theres hardly any change. Again, maybe I've just lost it and I'm not understanding.

Scene 5 - Current Polishing (10/8/13)

This is my shot so far.

This is on polishing phase.

Any new critiques? Let me know.

This is a copy and better quality of this playblast on the server.

Edison near finish

Hey guys, heres an update.
Let me know what you think.
I still need to add time at the beginning and end and animate the lights-
Melvin, I couldnt figure out exactly which lights to turn on/off?

Overall Project Update

Hey everyone.

This is about where we are on the project and what needs to be done before the midnight deadline on Thursday.

This is the current sequence with the most recent playblasts submitted.

The entire animation must be completed soon and that includes the final polish.

Everyone, start having playblasts (if you need it) with the clothes visible. If there are still deform problems, you could try moving some of the controllers around with the clothes on to see if it the overall appearance looks better. If not, let me know where you are having problems and I'll try to work more on the rigs. On the Edison rig, I'm still fixing the stomach problems.


Also, Kendrra, please have a new playblast soon, with the lights animated.


Is anyone available to make a Scene 6 with both Edison and Tesla and make a new camera? Don't worry about lights. Use the timing from the animatic.

For scene 6, do you guys want a crushed radio, or should the radio just be lying flat on the floor?

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I was talking to Lauren and we agreed we need to start rendering by Wednesday. Starting to render on Thursday is going to be super risky. But if you're able to render before Wednesday, that would be super awesome.

But, BEFORE YOU RENDER, give me your scenes. I need to review your shots to make the changes in the light setup. So if your done animating, put your final .mb final to the Projects Folder on the server, and send me a text when it's up. I'll send you back a copied .mb with the updated lights. After that you can start rendering. If you find me during the weeknights at the Maya lab, I'll change the lights for you in person. (I will definitely be at the Maya lab every night)

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This is the lighting setup so far.

Scene 4 - frame 88 

Scene 4 - frame 155

 Scene 4 - frame 221

 

Scene 5 - frame 1

Scene 5 - frame 46

Scene 5 - frame 83

Scene 5 - frame 108 (dark shot for Scene 3 - light turned off, Scene 5 - lamp crashing. There is a cool purple fill light to hint that it's nighttime.)

Scene 5 - frame 143

 

Kendrra and Anna. I adjusted the position of the Edison Camera. Could you unlock the camera on your scene, and put these settings on the Channel Box: Translate XYZ: -67.786, 91.936, 180.752

 

So what do you think about the setup? I'm trying to figure out why in the Tesla camera the scene is more illuminated. I'll get back to you on that later.

 

---

 

There is a high possibility of doing some cutbacks on the environment. The reason is because there is too much information going on and its slowing down the render. I have some suggestions to make the render time faster: remove the reflective shader on the lamp base, remove the metal dots on Edison's chair, and maybe remove the reflective shader on the table.

 

One detail that we definitely need to remove is the motion blur. We don't really need the blur, do we?

 

I did a render test with the motion blur:

 

 

This frame took 8 minutes and 54 seconds to render. This is with the original setup of the environment. There were quite a few frames that I tested earlier where there was not a lot of motion, and the frame renders would range about 2 to 5 minutes each.

 

Tony McKee made a guess how long my shot (with 140 frames) would take with motion blur, it would take around 12 to 17 hours. That's way too long. And especially with everyone else's scene because everyone's shot is way longer than 140 frames.

 

In the next image, this is the same frame but I removed the motion blur and the reflective shader on the lamp base.

 

This frame took only 52 seconds to render.

 

 

Do you guys have any questions or comments? Please reply soon.

 

Edison

Here's a recent playblast. I still havent gone through the part where he turns and clicks on the light and I still need to address his face for the last part of the scene (it doesnt change). Let me know what you think! Love the honest critiques.

First Shot Blocking Update

Here's my update for the first shot blocking. I took the critique from Friday and Sunday and I toned down the action and movement by a lot, from anger/surprise to mild annoyance. Facial animation is still really rough and I am expecting to pull through with that and with any body mechanic/timing fixes for Friday. Same with hands - they're blocked in terms of where they are, but I don't plan to do individual finger stuff until I'm totally sure of where the hands will be, during polish. But if you see anything that needs to change regarding face and hand stuff, please let me know anyway.

Please critique away!

Final push. Tesla dance

So, looking for some last minute crits.

What time do we want to be all done, and be putting these together? 

Also not sure who requested it but i have a scene in the animation folder on the server.  Thought it was up already, but i think it was a corrupted file.... So! a new one is up now!

Scene 5 - Recent Blocking (update 10/1/13)

This is my recent update on my blocking

My main focus was to get the expressions fixed for both the first pose and the last pose. The first pose is to look like Edison is psychotically enjoying slamming Tesla's radio from the end of Lauren's shot. The last pose was to make the expression more angry after Tesla tosses the lamp.

The right hand can now release the book and make the hands relax towards the end.

Any critiques?

I'll start polishing this soon.


Also, everyone: please make sure you are playblasting in the correct ratio. The Render Settings should be set to HD 720. Before you playblast: make sure the film gate, resolution gate, and gate mask should be turned off.

On Playblast Options the quality should be at 100, display size from Render Settings, and scale 1.00. If you're able to playblast the qt format, use the H.264 encoding.

If the window is smaller than 1280 X 720, the playblast will match the window's largest dimension but it will stay on the correct 16:9 ratio. If you want to playblast to the 1280 X 720 size, you could try Tear Off Copy of one of the cameras and maximize the window and then playblast.

Edison light

Hey guys,
Heres my progress, please give me brutally honest critiques since I didnt get anything yesterday. Thanks!
And tomorrow the Edison people plan on meeting to sort out continuity between our scenes. See you guys then.
Kendrra

Tesla Conducting. Blocking Progress Again!

So I went and saw Raquel during her office hours, and got some great feedback along with what you guys said on the last post.

But here is what I have so far.  Overall I think it is much more successful, and I still need to do a pass with just the hands, with the suggestion Kendrra made, so thats next on the agenda, but what do you guys think?

Input please!
 

Progress so far, looking for some crits!

So what do you guys think about the overall look so far?  I applied all the crits i got on Friday, so wanted to get some more feedback.

How can I push texture more, and Lauren what do you think as far as how it will flow into your amp up in your cut?

I know we briefly talked about having him and Edison cut more within my scene and Melvin's but I wasn't sure if we had given much more thought to that?

Comments please!  I would really like to push this to the next level by Friday.  Thanks guys!

Meet up

Hey guys, I just wanted to check in and see if anyone wanted to meet up before Friday?
Heres my work/class schedule:
Monday 12-3 (class) 4-8 (work)
Tuesday 12-8 (work)
Wednesday 12-3 (class)
Thursday 12-8 (work)
Friday 9:30-12:30 (BFA)
Saturday 12-8 (work)

I'm free to meet up/skype anytime around that schedule. Otherwise I can be contacted here or email.
I think as a group we should talk about intensity levels and internal dialogue.

And I know the Edison people need to talk about the book prop and posing.

Second pass

Hey guys, redid my shot. This is the version I'll be turning in tonight.
Let me know what you think- I know the timing is still pretty even.
Thanks!

Scene 1 First Pass

Hey guys! Here is my first pass at scene 1. I'm still having a little bit of trouble with the book prop parenting but I can talk to you guys tomorrow if I don't end up getting it to work tonight. Just assume there's a book in his hands for now.

Critique away!

First Pass, scrapped the old one

feel free to give me input!  Going to put in a lot more work this weekend. :)

Im struggling with his reaction moment where he is confused.  I have tried having him look around more, having him pause longer and just freeze... Still having issues with communicating it.  Suggestions?

Edison first pass

Hey guys,
Heres my first pass.

I already got some notes- it needs big, funny reaction to the light turning off, some movement in the lower body, etc. Let me know what else you guys think!

Also, FYI, Annabel mentioned I should really push the pose where he leans into the light. The reason I didnt was because of the clothes pinching. She said we should care about the acting first and not worry about the clothes.

Scene 4-First Pass

Okay, here's my first pass! Critique away, and don't be afraid to be harsh. This is the time to really flesh things out while it's still rough :)

Scene 5 - First Blocking (9/18/13)

This is my first blocking of the shot. This video is also on the server.

I already have some critiques. Towards the ending the head should just do a straight turn instead of doing a small dip with the head. My initial thought was that I wanted to add some arc motion in this part. But now thinking about it, the straight motion could be a better acting choice. I could probably add eye darts and a hard blink as he turns.

Another critique is to exaggerate the hiding from the book pose a little more.

Any more critiques? I'm not sure if I can address any of these critiques tonight because I will be spending today and tomorrow preparing for the Ottawa trip.

Environment / Lighting / Book Prop Update

Hi everyone,

I made an update again on the EnvironmentScaled.mb file. (Monday 9/16 at 8:45 pm)

First the lamp

 I added a double chain setup on the lamp: one chain for Edison and one chain for Tesla. But the original texture on the lamp shade was transparent, exposing the floating chains. I went ahead and removed the transparency on the texture.

This wasn't enough. It didn't look like light was going through the lamp shade, so I tried this trick: adding an areaLight above the lamp.

This is the result.

Each chain has been freeze transformed so the transform attributes are now set to zero.

---

Here is what the lighting looks so far on each camera. The update has new lights because the original environment had ambientLights that were preventing the Morpheus skin texture from being lit on render.

---

A book prop is now being referenced in the updated environment file. The book is not flexible. If we need a flexible one, let me know and I'll try to find one.

Instructions to parenting the book to the hand:

Set your hands to either IK or FK.
Pose your character including the hands and book.
The book has a locator attached. For FK: select the locator and the wrist (circle) controller and then parent it. For IK: select the locator and the hand (cube) controller and then parent.
You should be able to move the book with the hand now.
This is for only parenting the book to one hand.

Kevin Maier found me a tutorial on how to parent a prop to both hands: http://vimeo.com/35580686
and http://vimeo.com/35580808. If you need to parent the prop to both hands, follow the instructions on the video.

If you have already animated on the EnvironmentScaled.mb file, DO NOT overwrite your file with the update. If you overwrite the file, you might lose your animation progress. Save the .mb file update as another name and I might need to add the new stuff in person. Or I'll send you step by step instructions on how to add the new stuff.

If you have not done any significant progress yet, or if you have been referencing the environment file, go ahead and download again the EnvironmentScaled.mb file to the Scenes folder. And please download the new Edison_BookProp.mb to the Assets folder.

Just for Funsies

Hey guys
Just for fun I started painting in one of the sketches I did, thought I'd share with the group. I probably wont finish it because I'm really bad at digital painting, but there ya go.

The Edison Rig (update 09/12/13)

The rig is now on the server. Sorry I took so long on it. There were a lot of problems that I was trying to address on the rig.

Note that the rig is starting out as a sitting pose.

There was no way to properly put him sitting down from the rig with a standing up pose. As you seen in the previous post, the pelvic area gets twisted badly when the rig sits down.

I had to repose only the Morpheus rig and remodel the clothes with the rig in a sitting position.

I think this is better since all of the shots of Edison have him sitting down anyways.

---

Also, I have to slim down Edison's torso. The reason is because the geometry was not functioning properly when the shoulders were bending. (The images are from an older version of the rig)

 

When the arm goes up, the armpit bulges up too much. When the arm goes down, the ribcage gets squashed.

 

My solution to fix this was to get the geometry of the clothing much closer to the Morpheus geo.

 

 

 

 

It is now much cleaner when the arm is up. There is still a little bit of compress when the arm goes down, but it is not as extreme as before. I think this is good enough for now with the Edison rig. I can try to improve upon this later on.

 

Also, if you want an Edison rig with him standing up let me know. I have to fix the clothing geometry if you want him standing up.

Video Refrence

Good Morning!

So there really isn't anyway for me to download videos off of blogger to put the reference together for today. But that should be fine. I think some of us may want to shoot some more reference after we've discussed the characters more anyway. This is good we all tackled it early, now there's time for us to make suggestions and really make our reference GREAT. For tomorrow I'd like everyone to e mail me a downloadable version of their video reference, so I can import it into premiere and have the final put together for friday.

Thanks guys!

Edison Video Reference

 

The Edison Rig (Update 09/11/13)

Here is the Edison Rig so far...

 

There are still problems (as with the Tesla Rig) where the Morpheus geometry is crossing with the clothing. I'll try moving around some polys. Maybe that will fix it.

 

Also, I tried posing him on a sitting position. It doesn't look good.

 

 

I'm thinking of duplicating the Edison Rig and remodel the torso with a sitting pose. This might work since Edison is sitting down during his shots and not being seen standing up.

 

 

 

 

Character Sheets

I made up some character sheets of Tesla and Edison. They include facial expressions and notes on their characteristics. We can further discuss their personalty types on meet ups. It's really important that we use this week to really get inside their heads. But I thoughy this would be a good general sheet to refer to when we're working.

-Lauren

Edison Reference

Here's a few of the better reference takes for my Edison reference for the first part of the animation.

Edison Ref

Hi guys

Here's my 2 ref shots that I like, my boyfriend is acting for me.
I liked the idea that his face would be right in the light when he clicks it on.
I do think these shots might be a little too aggressively angry, so let me know if its too intense.

Oh, and to clarify: he gestures turning off the radio first, then goes into acting out the scene.
Kendrra

Environment

Tesla top.  Edison Bottom.  May want to find a new chair for Tesla.  This one is super low poly, but i don't know how much we would really see of it.

Also have the cameras made, and lights put in.

hope you all like.  Feel free to edit them if you want, but make sure to let us know, and update the file on the server.

Going to Keep my Day Job

Final Reference, and crazy bad bloopers.  Hahaha oh goodness.

Above is the final for the reference.  Spliced in a professional, Because i am NOT a conductor.  Jimminy christmas!!!

Below is just me lame attempting for your viewing pleasure, if you wish. :O

But you have been warned.  Its B.A.D.

Dance Segment, References Pt 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJU0lC3iHaY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBpmQdlLOXk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJmhTlRIRKI

different references of the conductors.
Im going to do a basic timing one and try to get really into it shortly.
Because mine is really definitive on the music, i think we should keep the original music, and i will keep my little segment of song too, so that i can choreograph it.

The Tesla Rig (update 09/10/13)

Here is the Tesla rig so far...

The clothing is made of multiple polygon objects on "3" smoothing. The pants and feet are from the Morpheus bodysuit texture. Should I model separate shoes and pants, or is this okay?

I then used [Create Deformers > Wrap] to attach the clothing to the Morpheus geo mesh. The clothes are now moveable with the rig.

There is a problem that I am still figuring out. On some areas of the rig, a little bit of the Morpheus skin can pass through the clothing when the rig is being bent. This is one example on the right arm:

I am still working on the Edison rig but I think the wrapping method will make Edison's round and large body to work.


- Melvin Cunanan