so its class 19...

Well... Its class 19.. and this is where im at

Since wendsday I have been tracking down a problem that has been caused by rigging and blend shapes.. There was a deformation in the arm of the mom geometry only at render time when batched and put on the farm. When you render a still its fine. Unfortunatly the deformation was big enough to be noticed and would effect both arms so it wasnt able to be hid. We thought you would not be able to see it in the first two shots. which are at a birds eye view but unfortunatly due ot the movement you do see it clear as day. So I was "since wendsday " troubleshooting that. and with cheryl's help we fixed it friday night.. Sat morn when i went to render I logged up the files to find this..
This was the new geometry deformation that started at sat morning and was plaguing me till sunday morning.. when i finally fixed it. So low and behold this weekend.. instead of rendering finals shots and finishing the project.. i was troubleshooting rigging and blendshape issues.. I found out that this problem was formed due to baked out keys on the geometry and joints and then affecting the face geometry and blendshapes. Due to the nature of the model with the neck and head detached ( i have no idea why the models are like this , it jus causes more problems in my eyes.. and experience) I did however miraculously fix the problem in two of the four mom scenes. it was a mixture of baking out certain pieces of geometry and specific joints... Was a fun journey that forced me to wait till this afternoon to start rendering..
For the newest mom scenes They also include a "icecream man " and unfortunatly to put it bluntly his hair looks like crap.. becuae its "fur" instead of "hair" it changes the whole look of the shot and doesnt flow copmletely.. so i am going to have to complete it and do hair for him myself. Aside from the hair the mustash didnt look anything like what it should of when rendered. Other than that.. and the complete disapointment of not having a final project finished.. ( even thoughi found out we just needed 1 rendered still, for Alex's class) i feel as if i had failed due to t issues i have no clue about " rigging and blendshapes" but still wish i could of fixed them faster.

below are stills . in order of their final shots... We are missing the first 2 establishing shots and the icecream mans hair in the two mom shots...

10 1/2 - 13 shots...
To be continued

Holly Problems!

So... As you can tell from the title.. I am running into problems galore on both projects..
here is a list

Sucker:
1) hair referencing and scaling problems
2) Fur referencing and scaling problems
3) flickering and more flickers
4) corrupting files :)
5)time
6) etc.etc..

Hamster
1) paint weights
2) scaling issues
3)time
4) etc.. etc..

but there are plus sides!
I have succesffully set up around 8 scenes for render.. setting up lighting, passes, and everything else.. Now i have to continue setting up hair and eyebrow passes.
We recieved the hair on time so this is a good sign and now its just getting stuff set up to rendered and then getting rendered

Mostly its the farm that has been giving me problems with this project. The farm is bumping my render times up due to the fur, and it will just for shits and giggles not show textures every once and a while.. so you nkow 60 minutes later bamn i find out its not working and have to set up again.. Althought things are hectick things are getting done, This will get done.. well I hope
below are 2 frames on a rendered scene we have.

Note the fun dust we added :)

As for the hamster i have set up a comp of and learned a ton.
A) DONT DO PASSES WITH FUR.. based on what I have recently read my and own mistakes.. fur passes are not the way to go.. It causes premult and you loose ALOT of detail in the needed detail fun areas!..

Now.. As for the rest... I have a rigged hamster but needs paint weighted and i am rushign the guy but dont know when thats coming to me.. As for animation we have dynamic test animation but this is where the problems arise.. Scaling issues from when i set up to the fur to the scale of the model now have arose. Fur in houdini doesnt like when you scale you objects.. all the maps drasticly change even if the topology doesnt change on the object. So this means i have to go and repaint all of my maps based on the new size.. so pretty much redo the whole hair set up again along with rendering and animation

Comp'd shots are below :


so here is my predicament.. I feel i wont beable to get both of these projects done in time for the end of the quarter (2 weeks. ) I really want to finish this hamster and push it to its fullest so i hope next quarter to finish it and leave it behind for this quater.. Along with this fur proect i am staring another one so i will be able to work on both together and learn a heck of a lot more..
plus shoot bg plates etc.. all at the same time... Hopefully this is all possible slo i can atleast have one finished piece ( the animation piece) By the endo f the quarter

More Info

So.. its been a week since a post.. I apologize for that.. just been.. well ok i plane forgot :)

anyway... over the past weeks. been continuing to work on both projects equally. But unfortunately luck hasn't worked out that way on both. The Animation project has been putting me through hell, and the hamster project is coming along slow but smooth with minor bumps in the road.

As for the animation project. we received the hair for the finished models of the boy, and mom. They are looking nice and we are just now waiting on the mime, which i should be receiving soon. and the ice cream man is mia. We ran into a problem referencing the hair in to the scene, and also importing the hair, It would loose density and clump far more than expected. We fixed it temporarily in a round about way via importing and parenting techniques. But I realized that it still lost density and clumped. I figured out that it is based on the time line. So as far as i know it is working. i am currently waiting on a render to comp on boy scene.

Speaking of the boy scenes. 2 scenes have become ( as far as i know) fully currupt. I have back ups and thing are still going wrong. I realyl cant figure it out, and it doesnt help that all maya gives me is " Signal 11 " error and crashes. So i still hope to get a hair post up soon.. aka today in a few hours during class..

As for the hamster project . I have been working on working on the hair density and thickness to come up with a nice alpha for comping as well as still looking how i would like it too.
I was planing on using a full RGB lighting set up to complete this project but the more i look into and run tests that is not going to go well.. So i went back and am taking on rendering a beauty pass in houdini sans shadows and comping just the shadows in later.

I have set up most passes and am almost ready to work with an animation. Which i am still waitin on a rig for.... i havent seen steve in a while and i hope to see him today with good news so alex can get to animating and i will not long have to wait on pieces of this puzzle.

Below is a real rough comp of where i am at so far.. it consists of the base Subsufrace, and Beauty Fur pass.. 4 shadow passes, an occlusion pass, and background... As said alot of work is still needed. such as coloration and some more fur description tweaking but its coming along as planed.

MoreShots, and More Fur.. Class 10

For Class 10:
I have completed the fur on the hamster. I concluded it was mainly a grooming and styling issue that I was having, trying to get it less like a box and contour more to the curves of the geometry. I started looking more into how hamsters moved to get the styling down, looking at wear on the fur and where abouts the hamster would scratch to get the right look. Compared to the images below ( on mondays post) i feel as if i have made significant progress on such descriptions.




For this project ihave also decide to just a still image as my background plate instead of a actual video file. As much as i would like to use a video plate i feel as if time is against me and to get all of that together will hinder my progress. I will plan on coming back to this next quarter to place the hamster in a moving / life action plate.

Also a turntable is in the dropbox.

Along with the fur.. I have continued work on "Sucker".. the animation project i am working on. I have competed 2 shots as closely as I am able to at this point. One is the boy squinting.. I have reworked it from the previous posts to come together for a more cleanly lit, and looking ( skin wise) shot. With this shot done.. the rig can be used to light and fix the skin problems on 3 more shots.. There for in reality I have more done than expected. I am just waiting on rendering them for finalized animations..


Along with the squint I have rendered and completed a rig for the "Violin Playing" scene. This is the longest scene in the short, and is almost completed animation wise. I have a feeling this is going to be our first fully finished shot. Then this will put us ahead of schedule in a way..

Unfortunatly we have been having issues with file clean up and crashes due to it.. There are of problems we have encountered as of right now based on these issues.. and working to solve them. I have begun the process of cleaning all of the files but it is a larger task than expected.

Also the hair systems are being reworked.. i was planning on having the boy hair rendered and comped into the shot.. but i was having difficulites attaching thehair to the rig and having it scale properly.. seeign this is not my specialty .. nor do i really know anything about it.. i will be talking to a rigger / our hair artist ASAP to figure this problem out.

Both rendered scenes are in the drop box...

More On Both Projects

So, this weekend has been .. well to say the least really busy.. and never ending.. sleep is going to feel quite good come monday night.. maybe if i am lucky...

anyway..This weekend I continued working on the hamster project placed a a new fur set up on the final model.. As of right now I have 5 fur descriptions on it.. some need to still be tweaked but its coming along. I hope to get the skin on it with subsurface relatively soon, that is once i learn subsurface in houdini... or figure out a way to export in maya and go that route... Below is a breakdown of some images starting Thursday to Sunday night.. to show the progress of the fur work.

Final ( below) as of right now.. Work still needs done on the wiskers and ear fur but its coming along

Along with the fur, I went ahead and started lighting a new scene, the longest of the scenes, for alex's animation project. I do have to say I am very happy with where this shot is going. Getting this shot to this point has set a color scheme and style for the piece and it will make it easier on the rest of the shots... below are two images of the shot..

( Shot 4b : Frame 179 )

( Shot 4b : Frame 491 )

Alex hopes to get the shot finished by Tuesday so I can go ahead to render the whole shot out.

Along with both those projects.. I also figured I would state , I finally fixed the flicker problem on a project I started last year, I have been working on other projects to get together a reel for the career fair and other opportunities ..

More Animation Stuff

So.. As of now we have a few shots animated .. well make that 2, a squint and a clap sequence. as of right now i have done a rough lighting / fixing texturing / and messed with a technique that Al has shown me to get a nice feel on the skin. I have also re-lit the main background to an almost final version.. This is the feeling i believe we are going for. Alex , the director / animator, really likes it so i guess that means its good.. As for the rough lit scene for the squinting boy. I need to up the intensity of all lights as well as fix some placement to get looking the way it should . It is quite dull right now and needs a little work. Other than that things are coming along.

I plan on working on the fur project for the remainder of the week and touching up on this to keep my sanity. Its just amazing how fast time is flying..and i keep wondering if I will get all this done.. we will soon see!.. oh more on the hamster project. The rigger has started on it yesturday.. there is still no ETA as of yet.. but shouldnt be too too long...

Below is a still from the rough lighting scene.. as well as the finalized Background.. well some hotspots need fixed.. so semi-finalized..

Weekend of Week3

More On Sucker Project..

I took a break from the hamster this week to A) stop looking at fur, and B) rework the Background of the Sucker project.. We received the new tree and building textures, and we are still waiting on the new ice cream stand, which in my opinion right now is what we need. When i look at everything that has changed and how much better things are looking then i see the old one still in the scene it takes away from everything. Anyway.. This weekend I re-lit the background and started on a right for the entire project.. I will be testing it on the actual characters relatively soon. As well as create a new background for the boy shots which we neglected to create. Still over this weekend I modeled a new fence and made a new sidewalk / walkway texture. Things are coming along smoothly and the progress is coming quicker than expected.. below is a sideby side of where we were mid last week, to where we are now on the Background and lighting.. both need to be tweaked but it is coming along nicely..

Mid Week

Now

My plan for Wednesday is to start working on the hamster descriptions for I recieved the final model, and it was also handed off to the rigger, he will hopefully be starting to rig it soon. As well as continuing work on the sucker project and get the new bg done for the kid shots and start lighing some full shots.. and see how that goes...

Class 5 - Presentation One

Over the past week, as stated before, ive been working on the fur description on the hamster, since the last class , Wednesday, I think I have made significant progress...

The progression involved usage and playing with clumping, as well as the painting the root and tip color. The different coloration added extra depth as well as style to the character.. below are four renders along with my render from last class to show the progression :

Style from last class

I was planning on having a turn table for this class, but around 2 in the morning I was having problems with the farm, so this is going to be another issue I am going to have to tackle if i plan on completing this project. I am not fully sure why this project wont render on the farm but i will hopefully be fixing this up relatively soon.

I have also received the new model, yet things are going to be changed. When my modeler added the a neck to the hamster the geometry went a tad to long, so we are going to be shortening the model from the neck back to make the hamster smaller.. but below is what i have received as of now
Lastly I finished the grass set up and fixed the density problems I was having when I rendered before, Getting this done saves alot of time for now I can complete the background in its entirety by monday, and start lighting shots.

Fixed density

Also i have received the play-blasted cut sequence of the movie it self.. this contains blocking 1 and 2 setups of the shots to be lit... now that this is coming along smoothly I will be starting on the lighting process more along with the fur.

More Stuff

Ive Been Learning.. redoing.. learning.. redoing.. and learning.. and once again redoing..
I feel as if I have recreated the fur style and fur set up more than countable times... but hey its worth it.

To start off with I continued work on fur on a sphere to get the somewhat base coloration ( without painting maps right yet ) and the texture and style. These took me longer than expected to complete but it was worth the time.. Below are the fur tests.



Im looking for actually a combination of all of these.. and i feel as if I can achieve it now.. but thats on a sphere.. when we talk about putting it on an actual model we are talking a whole different story. The final "high-res" model is still in progress but I have a proxy model I've been working on :

Above is the view port smoothed version of the proxy model. This is what ive been using to test fur on the model.

Next was to complete tests on combing, and painting maps such as Length, and Density, etc..
Thsi wasnt the hardpart.. right now the hard part is getting the fur on the spheres to look the same on the model. Ive been testing multiple render settings and types of lighting set ups as well as shadow tests.

I think I have completed the grooming process about 10 times now , and to say it is getting better everytime I complete it. The rendering is still not what I would like but I have made a drastic upgrade since I started working with the actual model. Below is the progression


Grooming Process :

The Above Images are tests of grooming to see how and where the Fur will lay.

Test Renders:

This was teh First render i did ( do you like his semi unibrow?)

More improvement on the render and grooming process
Shadowing, lighting, and overal look of the fur is comming together but far from where i want it

This is the most recent render. The Softness is there, and the grooming is alot better than before
I need to do more work on the length map, and color attributes.. Once i get the final model
i will be painting color maps based on the models UV's to import for more controll.
Also i plan on creating / obtaining a file to base the curvature of the fur based on the camera facing ration to stop the direct viewing down the hair so no black spots / skin spots that shouldnt be see wont be seen.

When i needed a break..

when i needed a break from the houdini fur i went on and started the look for the grass on the animation project i am working on.. the grass / fur is in its final stages just some density fixes need to be completed...