Maya Tasks Week 18 - Dynamics - Games Modelling

Here are the third weeks tutorials completed.
We learnt about a few other functions with the standard particle system.

Here we created fireworks, by creating particles that emit more particles. The first set of particles created the trail, then the second created the bang. The usual attributes control the colour etc.


Then the second technique learnt was how to emit particles from a surface, with a texture controlling where the particles emit from the surface.
It was also an opportunity to create a fire effect as well.


The second barrel of fire, is the same as the previous render, but edited in after effects. It's surprisingly very different and a bit over the top!


The last example is demonstrating how particles can inherit the colour of the surface when they emit from it.

With the coke can, an animated ramp texture was used to control the emitting particles, which gives the impression that the can is disintegrating from top to bottom. Dynamic fields were controlling the motion of the particles as they disperse.

Here is the video of the above effects.


Here is the progress made on the game character.

His body is now completed, and the edges on the entire surface have been hardened or softened, based on where creases should be in the mesh.








A Flock of Pixels.

Transcription - Quick Update on the Bear

Just a small post this time.

I've got a little bit further with the head. Although I'm still convinced something could be done to improve the edge flow.
I think the shape of the bear has come out well in 3D, especially considering this isn't even smooth previewed.




I will be continuing with this tomorrow.

A Flock of Pixels

Transcription - Modelling the bear (and Question for Alan)

I've started blocking out the bear character for my animation.







So far the main body is blocked out. He is missing his hands/paws, and the soles of his feet though.

Here's the drawings I'm modelling from. I've lengthened the legs slightly to enable better control for walking etc.


The head is in the process of being modelled, although I've been finding it tricky to figure out the correct flow of geometry. Unfortunately his ears aren't by the side of his face, so I can't follow the basic human head edge flow. I can't even follow a CG bear model as I can only find realistic CG bears, i.e. my bears neck is coming out of the top, where as a standard four legged bear has his neck coming out from the front.
I have a rough idea how it should work, but am not totally sure.





Alan, if you could take a look at this and see if I'm going in the right direction, or if not, tell me where I'm going wrong, I would be most grateful.


The second animatic is on its way!

A Flock of Pixels.

Transcription - First Draft Animatic

I don't know why but I find it so difficult to write a short post!
Perhaps it has something to do with less frequent posting. Hopefully as I move into production there will be a more consistent flow of work.
For those of you who just want to watch the first draft animatic and skip 1000 words, scroll downwards to the embedded video!

So over the last few weeks I've been refining the story. Drawing the story boards and compiling them into the animatic.
The story boards would all seem rather random by themselves, so its not until now that I have something that is in a semi finished state to present.

Although before you watch the animatic, here's just a quick reminder or update on the idea.

_________

I'm transcribing the song, 'It must be Love' by Madness, into a short story about a bear who loves his pillow. They do everything together. The animation mostly show all their happy times together. The animation takes place in a sort of dreamscape land, constructed out of bedding. Yep, the whole world is a giant bed.
The sea is made of feathers, the land is made of a mattress, the hills and sandy beaches are the bedsheets. You get the idea. The only realistic things are the bear, the pillow and the amusement rides.
Again, although the world is a giant bed, the particular place is a sea side. (Which explains the amusement rides.)
Reasons for theses choices will become more apparent when you watch the animatic.
_________


Now because it isn't finished, I already had in my head, some changes that I wanted to make before I was able to present it at this weeks tutorial.
I'll explain mine first, then say what was discussed in the tutorial.

In fact lets watch the animatic now, and I'll explain the rest afterwards.






So there you have it. The first draft animatic.
There are basically three things which I know I wanted to change.
One. Nothing happens with the ice cream.
Two. The second golf scene, nothing new happens. (we don't learn anything)
Three. I don't like the idea of the bear just running to save the pillow.

So with the second golf scene I want to establish that he is consistently failing to pot the ball. He didn't use enough force on the first go, so it makes sense that he over shoots this time. I can also show a few other golf balls on the ground.
This way it is also emphasising the third shot.

The pillow is drifting away and at the moment he is just running in to save him.
I would actually like it if the bear has a fear of open water. (or in this case, a fear of falling off the edge of the bed.) So I might have the bear test the water, (dip his toe in). or he could just hesitate before he runs in.

However I thought it would also be even better if I could suggest this fear earlier on. It might not be totally obvious, but enough to show the possibility.
This is the change I want to make to the ice cream scene. If I shoot the bear and pillow from behind, I can have them sitting on the beach and the water splashes his feet. He can retract and scrunch up with the ice cream out of shot. for a brief second. then when he goes back, the chocolate flake could be missing.
It would be yet another trick of the pillow!


At the tutorial I showed this animatic and explained basically the above.

It is to be expected that I can't pick up on all the problems there might be. The most important part of any animated short is that it reads well.

And Alan really focused on directing my attention to the ending. The part that people remember! The scene where the pillow is drifting away and the bear goes after it, didn't read well. Not as well as in some of my previous ideas.

It just looks like they go off into the distance. It probably didn't help that the feet were represented by two circles, but I don't think that was the point he was making! Basically, the bear and pillow need to be falling down out of sight, with a dreamy fade to white. I was then thinking that it would mean that he would have to fall right off the bed in the real world, but Alan said I shouldn't match the events so rigidly, after all, it is still only a dream.
There were a few other minor things mentioned too and I won't go into all the details.

Perhaps the only other major thing to consider were the ghost train scenes.
And I think I might need some other peoples views on this as I'm really kind of unsure.
The one fundamental gag running through the story is the pillow messing around at the bears expense.
The one thing which I want to achieve with this animation is a performance. A bear that has as much opportunity to act as possible.
This is why the gags in the ghost train are all about the bears reactions to the pillows mischief.

It was suggested that the staging of these shots could be better if they were completely side on. (front of the ghost train)
And I can see exactly were Alan's coming from. I've seen this type of thing in Scooby Doo, in the mine chases, where there are three platforms with mine carts dashing across the screen and the characters are switching places etc.
The only problem I can see in something like this is that you will only see one character in each car as one will be behind the other. Also it then wont be possible to show the reactions of the bear. Instead it would be the cars rapidly going in and out, with perhaps the characters switching places or some other gag etc.

I'm not going to dwell on this, and instead plan to start production once I've tweaked the other elements of the story. If anyone else has any suggestions they are most welcome.

A Flock of Pixels

Maya Tasks Week 17 - More Dynamics - More Games Modelling

Here are week two's dynamic tutorials.

First is a ring of fire works. In this particles were emitted from a circle curve, with the emitter set to 'omni'. This meant that particles were emitted from the circle's eight control points. The the particles themselves were controlled be ramps and expressions. Lastly per particle emission rates were used to vary the amount emitting from each point. (I don't think mine is a good example for showing that though, as they all look identical!)




The second effect was a shock wave. Again, particles were emitted from a circle, but this time the emitter was set to 'curve'. This allowed for a ring of particles to be emitted from all around the curve. The circle itself was animated to grow outwards.




This example demonstrates a preset effect called curve flow. As the name suggests, particles flow along a curve path.




Lastly for dynamics, particles are emitted from a curve that was created, based on two bits of geometry intersecting. In this case the island and the ocean.



Here is a video of all the above effects.





So in the second week of games modelling I have refined the head of the character. The only thing I've just realised that I have missed out is adjusting the normals. At the moment they are soft all over. I'll sort that out when I present next weeks tutorials.

(Don't worry, he does have eyes! They've just been hidden to show the geometry)









One final thing. I haven't forgotten about transcription. I'm slowly but surely working my way through storyboarding at the moment. Although remarkably I think I've spent more time on the 'framing practice' essay. However, having done most of week three's Maya tutorials, I intend to spend the next three days working solidly to get to a stage where I have a completed animatic. Before then, I will probably post 'the final idea' for the project. The ideas for it have kind of evolved slowly over the three weeks, but now I have everything worked out in my head.

Transcription - Storyboarding has Begun

Today I started story boarding, although not straight away. I spent the firstly half of the day drawing bears, desperately trying to come up with the right kind of bear, while also learning how to draw the same bear consistently, and in different poses.

Once I'd got past that, I was ready to begin story boarding.

So far I've managed to do the very first part of the story, and in seven boards.
I'm certainly pleased with how the drawings came out, and was worth practising. Unfortunately though, the drawing phase didn't last any longer, as I struggled to draw the bear again. I never should have taken that break!
Although I think it was mainly because I couldn't draw the bear at a certain angle, and I wanted to be very specific.

So instead of that, I finished by scanning in the boards, (and the sketches for the blog) and assembling them into an animatic. So as of now, the first 13 seconds are done and in the animatic.

Here is what I've boarded so far.


And exclusive to the blog, some of my other sketches. The practice ones!






I hope to continue boarding over the weekend, adding to the animatic as I go along. It's probably best done that way, as it is a music piece, so timing to the music is crucial.

One last thing though, because my film does use a song by Madness, I'm a little concerned about putting it on Youtube. The music video I blogged (off of someone else's Youtube account) was shortly after, removed, and the account deleted. I've also seen on other videos with just music in, have their audio removed from the video. I'm just wondering what might happen if I ever post the animatic or final piece with the music in on Youtube.
Admittedly though it isn't the full song, but still, I'd rather not risk my account being deleted or anything like that. Does anyone else know more information on stuff like this?

Transcription - Story Progress

During the 2nd tutorial with Alan, I discussed yet another idea. Having already gone through a phase of scrapping the first song and staring from square one, then back to the first song again, I was hoping that this time I had something more concrete. I got a green light of sorts. It was decided that there were just a few things that needed resolving, but the core idea is there. And yes, the bear is in it, but not with slippers. No, this time, its with a pillow!

Anyway, I have been working on (as suggested in the tutorial) a detailed storyline of events, which have both the lyrics and timing synced with the new story. It also has some basic camera and compositional notes next to it too. Its in the form of a table.

While I have typed up everything that I was thinking of (with a few of the suggested changes from the tutorials too), it is incomplete. There are a few gaps where I'm undecided of what or how the action on screen will take place. Some parts in in greater detail than others.
Over the next day or so It will gradually become more complete. Of course feel free to post your thoughts on what's here so far.

This is what I have so far.

Transcription Story 1st Draft


I'm thinking that while I try to fill in the gaps, I will begin storyboarding some of the other scenes. Particularly as the last few posts have been rather wordy and is about time I blog some drawings. Any other suggestions for the story are most welcome.

Maya Tasks Week 16 - Intro to Dynamics - Game Modelling

For the next few weeks were are learning about the various dynamic systems in Maya and also how to model for games. ie low poly modelling, starting with a character for a game.

To start with, all these dynamic simulations are achieved with the standard particle system in Maya.

First is a cloud, constructed from drawn particles on a wavy surface (its hidden). Then an air ship runs through it and the cloud particles collide.


The second effect is smoke. This time the particles were emitted from a volume emitter. The look of the particles are much the same as in the previous example, except a few extra things were changed to create the different behaviour. For example, they fade out and grow in size as they are lifted into the air. OK, this is shown slightly different in the tutorials, but I experimented a lot before I settled on this effect.


Then there is the fuse on the cartoon bomb. The sparks were emitted from an omni emitter, attached to a curve path that was animated with the fuse.


The last one is an explosion. I spent quite some time adjusting attributes in the sim, so in the video there are a few variations. Basically particles were emitted from one point in all directions, and the colour of the particles were changed over the total life of the particles.


Here is the video of all the effects.




Modelling for games is slightly different for films as you are limited by the amount of polygons in a model. In the first lesson we have started modelling a characters head.
Much of the same rules still apply with edge flow etc.
I didn't follow the tutorials as much with this example so the results are very slightly different.





That's it for now.

A Flock of Pixels.

Transcription - More Ideas

Hey everyone reading. You know sometimes while brainstorming you just can't think of anything, then a few days pass and suddenly an idea will just pop into existence. Well I just listened to the song that I am transcribing for probably the millionth time and this idea just came to me.

If you haven't listened to the song, you can hear it in the previous post.

OK. For starters, lets presume I'm sticking with the bear as the character that is in love.
This bear has this car. A car that he loves so much.
Unfortunately, the car was involved in some sort of crash and is probably better off as scrap metal.
Nevertheless, this bear is determined to fix his car and get it looking good as new.
The film begins with him and his car that is in disrepair.
We see him going through all the trials and tribulations of fixing his car.
Several attempts are made at starting the car as well.

Then when he really thinks it is all finished and ready for the final test, he has now gone and lost the key.

He then goes through this process of retracing his steps, trying to remember where he left the key. He ends up falling asleep. (so much hard work!)

He wakes up, having remembered that it was in his pocket, or something like that.

Rushes to the car, and checks everything else is all ready to go.

He turns the key in the ignition. It's not working, so he keeps re turning the key.

The car starts up. Hurray... except it zooms off in reverse and crashes! (off camera)

The end

In effect, you could watch this all over again as he is right back where he started... with a broken car!

In terms of transcribing the song, I think this idea fits better than the last.

I was also thinking that in the lyrics, I could take some of the words more sarcastically. E.g. "how can it be that we can say so much without words" And we see him trying to fix the car by understanding the cars problem, but nothing is working.
Then, "bless the bees and the birds", birds could be dropping thier mess all over the car, while the bees are buzzing around the other character. (ok, this is just me thinking off the top of my head now, but you get the idea anyway) Perhaps in this universe the bears car runs on honey!


So... any thoughts on this idea? Please leave a comment.

Transcription - Initial Ideas and The First Tutorial

Got a few things to post today. Firstly, I have created a project timetable, which breaks down all the tasks ahead, into manageable chunks.

Note that it is only in list form, and is subject to change. As soon as I've put it into a table, I can re post it.
___________________________________________

Not including Saturdays and Sundays (reserved for Maya tasks first)

2 weeks pre production - 1st week ideas done + story board done
2nd week animatic done – character designs done

2 weeks production - 1st week characters modelled
2nd week characters rigged, skinned etc

3 weeks animating - 1st week
2nd week
3rd week

1 week rendering - 1st week – lighting and texturing while setting off renders

1 week post production - 1st week – finish off renders while post editing what already done

Last week - 3 days - other bits that need doing
___________________________________________



Secondly, after a chat with Phil, I finally settled on a song to transcribe. So for this project I am using It Must Be Love, by Madness.

//Edit: Can you believe the music video I posted here has been removed from YouTube due to copyright infringement! Lucky it was on someone else's account!//

The lyrics are as follows:
___________________________________________

I never thought I'd miss you
Half as much as I do
And I never thought I'd feel this way
The way I feel
About you

As soon as I wake up
Every night, every day
I know that it's you I need
To take the blues away

It must be love, love, love
It must be love, love, love
Nothing more, nothing less
Love is the best

How can it be that we can
Say so much without words?
Bless you and bless me
Bless the bees
And the birds
I've got to be near you
Every night, every day
I couldn't be happy
Any other way

It must be love, love, love
It must be love, love, love
Nothing more, nothing less
Love is the best


--Long Bit of Music--


As soon as I wake up
Every night, every day
I know that it's you I need
To take the blues away

It must be love, love, love
It must be love, love, love

It must be love, love, love...

___________________________________________



Thirdly, the evening before last, I was discussing story ideas with my brother and dad. I decided first that I would like to explore the possibility of an animal and its connection with some inanimate object.
The first and only thing I was thinking of at the time was a bear and his slippers. I don't know why, but I guess that there were a few cue in the song that caused this to pop into my head. Like where the singer says "every night, every day", the slippers came to mind. Reinforced by the fact that it kind of needs to be a love for something trivial. The line "and I never thought I'd feel this way, the way I feel, about you", as if he wasn't expecting it.
The choice of a bear came second, and I think was caused by the line, "bless the bees". Bees = honey = bears.
Anyway, it was a starting point, so my initial ideas centred around this combination.

A draft story was formed.
___________________________________________

It starts with a bear in his bedroom, waking up. He finds his slippers next to his bed and puts them on.
Then we see all the fun times with the slippers, but at the end of each night, when they are taken off, they are gradually seen getting more worn.
They are too old, so he gets some new slippers, but they are not the same.
As soon as he wakes up (for the last time in the song), he goes for his favourite slippers, but of course they are not there as he has a new pair.
Then at the end he decides to chuck out the new pair and rescue his old pair, even though they are old and worn.

The main part of this story is that in the song, it goes "every night, every day," and I wanted to show at the end of the day, the slippers looking a bit more worn, until he comes to the hard decision to get new ones, but then goes back to the old ones right at the end.
___________________________________________

That is the basic story, although I thought of many variations, and the ending isn't exactly concrete. For instance, were the old slippers put in the bin, or at the back of the closet. Then there is also the problem that the new slippers get thrown out, so they don't get their happy ending :( Which I kind of want. Although I did think up a partial solution by introducing another, younger bear that likes the new slippers, and then at the end, they are given to him.
Exactly what condition are the slippers at the end. Just tatty, or almost dangerous. If the latter, then he needs them fixed before he can wear them again. As you can see, what was a simple story, still has many unsolved parts which kind of make it overly complex.

It's also less of a comedy too. While it might have its humorous moments when he is enjoying his slippers, it isn't exactly a laugh out loud comedy. Although I'd rather it has more a happy ending regardless of any twist at the end.


Anyway, yesterday morning, I knew that my main Idea, (which had been adjusted and re adjusted four times already!) was not a perfect story. With a one to one tutorial this afternoon, I thought it would be sensible to wait and see what was thought of the ideas. In the mean time, I looked at some images of bears. Both real and cartoon.














I did a few sketches of bears, hoping to generate more ideas for the current story, but it was also good drawing practice too!




So, yesterday afternoon was the first official one to one transcription tutorial with Alan. I took this opportunity to present some story ideas, generated the night before.

Although I've set the deadline of storyboarding done by the end of the week and animatic by the end of the following week, I suppose I should really be more realistic. Alan reminded me today that this bit cannot be done quickly, and is something that evolves over time. The main problem I face with my first story idea is that it simply doesn't have an ending that works well. There are too many loose ends created in the first half that don't draw to a close. A common symptom of thinking up the story in one go from beginning to end... in the course of one evening!

Anyway, a few suggestions to take away from this meeting is to just experiment with anything. Replace the animal, replace the object and to switch who's perspective we are seeing the story from. This all merely as a way of generating lots of ideas, so there is more to work with.

I hope to come back with some more ideas by the end of the day.