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...

FurTests

Fur Tests *
Over the past day ive been working on learning the basics.. and basics i mean basics of houdini fur.. ive been using the self tools and trying to figure out the combinations of lighting and rendering controls that create a decent looking fur.. so far i have reached failure.. but i am stil testing different combinations and hopefulyl will be able to complete really nice looking fur this weekend.. i feel as if im close and that itis only a matter of time.. Also I have been using the self tools to get a feel for the fur tools them selves ( the painting and texture work) I do plan on using my own set up system that will compliment my workflow once I figure more on the rendering aspects of the fur.

Below are tests i have done , wellthe better of the ones..



The Above fur tests are simple tests of just getting the feel for the texture maps and how to apply different techniques to then to get a different feeling

This was a test that i feel as if i learned alot on.. even though it looks bad.. I tested out alot of the density settings and working with different paint tools to get a feel for how multiple fur descriptions will go about working.

I do have to say this is harder than i expected.. mayas fur set ( whcih i am used to) is completely different, but this intrigues me even more the work on this project.

* i know the ears arnt furred..* :)

Model Update *

My modeler has started the blocking process of the hamster i do not have any images to clarify this just her word.. i will get posts up on this as soon as i can, as well as get a definate ETA

Fur Test.

I plan on completing another project along with the animation project.

I will be learning the ins and outs of Houdini's fur tools and the rendering process. For this I plan on creating a photo real hamster, and if there is time placing it in a life action plate. I do plan on having time for the incorporation of the live action, but if it shows to be to much, I will produce high quality renders and a camera move.

I have chossen a hamster becuase it is smaller yet still has a variation of fur consisting of both long and short hair, as well as a decent amount of color variation. This will push the envilope in my eyes seeing I have not used houdini's tools before and jumping right in. I have a friend lined up to model the hamster while i work on learning the fur tools, so I wont waste time modeling the character. I will hopefully be able to convincer her to rig the character as well so I can animate and use dynamics on the fur. Below are refernece images of what I plan to create.





I have gathered a pretty hefty collection of reference photos.. as well I actually do plan on purchasing a hamster in the next week as a pet so this project works out perfect so I will have an actual reference right next to me to examine.

Finished Character, and Test Lighting

Characters *
Ive recently finished the characters for the animation project. I continued to talk to the director or the project, and we decided to leave the moms neck how it is. I also finished the Ice Cream Man. It was easier than I expected, for I only had to change the shirt and face, the director said I could leave the pants seeing the characters pants will not be shown. Below are images of the character:


Aside from finishing little touched on the characters (such as finishing up spec and bump maps) i also optimized the size and quality of the maps them selves to save on render time when we get there.

SubSurface note *
. I talked to the director and told him the options and showed him the progress i made on the actual SSS effects on the character, and then explained to him the time that would be lost compared the what would be gained if we still continued with this plan, and we both decided to go without SSS for the project, he is still deciding if he wants me to paint small amounts of skin color variation, Hopefully I will know soon if this needs to be done.

Test Lighting *
I slapped together some background images, to give the bg some textures for lighting and seeing how it woudl fit together.. I was told this weekend that he is having an illustration major paint his background based ont he UV's I had layed out recently. So this saves me time and hopefully I will be reciving them by the end of the week . Below is a test lighting set up i did to see how textures would look under actual light.


This is the only scene file i could find that had a blocking stage of animation, unfortunatly even thought the cameras are set up there is no characters / animation in the other files.. I am going to get an ETA on when he will have more completed.. I plan on trying to push the director to get these done ASAP. A 90 frame test movie of the blocking is in the dropbox.

For the time in between I will be working on my Fur Tests.

Day 2.. Week 1

Since Monday:

I have started and finished the texture for the mom, there is a little that still needs to be tweaked but that can be done in a few minutes. I have also talked with the animator and done some changes to the boy that made it look cleaner.. Below are images of all three of the characters :

There are Few tweaks that need to be done on the mom, such as the collar has been giving my a problem due to the geometry. The head and neck are detached so I am not able to paint a full collar, or you will be able to see a crease where they intersect. This is leading to problems, Soon to be fixed.

The Mime Has not changed, A specular map will be added tonight well Wednesday night to add the highlights to the shoes as well as clothing.

As for the boy, i changed the coloration on the ends of the sleeves as well as the collar, it brings the character more together visualy, in my opinion. Also socks were added and reconstructed.

* TurnTables for the characters are also in the DropBox. *

This evening i was also informed that I have to texture another character, that is based off of the mime, the IceCream Man, so i will hopefully have that done by monday as well as all of the finished textures and TurnTables. So i can start lighting come next week.

I have also been working on the SubSurfaceScattering.. It has been giving me major problems.
Even with the weight maps, set to zero i am still getting the addition of SSS on the clothing, i will be talking to Ken Huff, and well you as well professor, to see if you know anything about why this would be going on... Since i scrapped that i kind of went on to the coloring aspect to get some ideas for what the SSS would look like.. Below is an example.

I am going for a more backscattered feel, to give the feeling of a more lively character, as well
as pump up the subltle red coloration to a nice milky / off white skin color

I have also received all of the camera setups for the piece in general, not all have the characters placed, but more than half do . I plan on starting the lighting process ASAP, when i finishes the last remaining changes to the character textures

As for the hair, I have talked to Rose ( our hair artist) and she has been doing her part so we should have some more hair info to post soon.