Compositing

The rendering of the shoes took a lot of time. I hit batch render several times but except the Beauty Pass of all the render layers, all the other passes were pitch black. Two days of trying any permutation and combination that Maya or my peers could offer, I was contemplating of just submitting the file with the Master Beauty only.

Then,Rebecca helped me out in this. She said that she was having the same problem and when she changed her file format from Open Exr to Tiff,it worked. On the first try,my laptop gave up. I had been overworking it for quite some days. Then,even after several tries it just wouldn't render the files. I transferred all the files to our Studio's Computer and then tried rendering again. This time the light settings had some problem. Maya couldn't detect the spotlights that I had set up in the scene. I set up the light again.

Finally,it rendered,this afternoon! Here are some of the passes and final compositing in Photoshop.

Ambient Occlusion

 

Direct Light

Diffuse

Specular 

Master Beauty

Final Compositing

The Shoe

Since,there was little time it was easier and faster to composite how Kieran had showed in one of his compositing class.I am still unfamiliar to Nuke keys and nodes. So, as Kieran said Photoshop can still do the trick, I used it.

Polygon_Lighting and Render

Using raytrace shadows, mental ray and ambient occlusion I created the shoe below.It does not look realistic at the moment. Some tweaking of attributes here and there will hopefully bring about the desired effect.

A Basic Render

Ambient Occlusion

Merged the two images in photoshop. 

Polygon _texturing

Texturing just in Maya became quite difficult and time consuming. Jin had adviced to use a different software called UV Layout. At first,it seemed confusing but after a little help from here and there, things started to fall in place. Some of the UV maps that I used to complete my shoe.

Side-portion of the shoe

Pocket

Whenever I tried the photo-shopped texture on the mesh, the brand name would always be its mirror image. So,I had to flip it on the texture map so that it appeared the right way.

Sole

The sole of the shoe was done using Maya UV Texture only. It took a lot of time but I got there at the end.

Research Poster

When Jeanette mentioned a Research Poster in the class, instantly, I had the thought of a Hollywood style film poster announcing the release of our short animation film. However, even after much thinking and group meetings we were unable to decide on a story until very recently. It was impossible to make a film poster without any character that might have been in the story. The theme of the film had not been decided either.

Finally,I planned, to make a kind of 3D Poster. As I have mostly been associated with 3D Animation,I thought why not stick a cut out from a second print on top of the first with a thick double sided tape which will elevate some parts of it giving it a 3D look. Then, I researched for related articles and approaches of the psychological theory. I came across quite some interesting facts that I have mentioned in the poster. I even found some excellent photos that portray the evolution of story-telling and even its structure. At last, came the time to assemble all this material.

After a class with Phil,I thought Indesign is not all that difficult. However,it was the unfamiliarity with Mac machines that made the whole experience difficult. After using Mac for a whole day my hands got used to its shift,control and command keys and then in the evening while texturing on my laptop,I kept trying to find the command key. The situation was quite hilarious until I noticed how little time I had till the submissions deadline. 

Posters are ready for printing. All might go according to my plans if I have enough time on my hands.

Polygon Project_Modelling

 The Polygon Project consists of modelling,texturing,lighting and compositing a shoe as realistically as possible. I chose the shoe below. When I was clicking the images I thought I was being lazy(as Jin had warned us not to be)by choosing a very simple shoe. Modelling this did not turn out to be simple at all. It is taking more time than I had expected. 

I started with the sole as Jin had showed us in the class. However, when I reached the side portion of the shoe I could fine many flaws with the sole. It did not look like its reference image. I made it again. After being in the 'NURBS Mode' for days it was quite difficult to suddenly shift to polygon. I kept searching for the tools that belonged to NURBS Shelf  instead of reminding myself of the polygon tools.

With a lot of 'trial and error' and 'modelling and remodelling', I have near about finished modelling the shoe. However,when I reopened the file today, the entire shoe can be rendered except the lace.It exists in wireframe but its mesh is not visible. If it takes a lot of time to ascertain how I can get it back,I will have little choice but to remodel it again. 

 

Something that I really liked when I was clicking the images of the shoe was the shape it had on its back profile. Though, I had imported the 'front' profile on the image plane, I went back and forth to see how it looked from the back.

I enjoyed making it a little bent. When Jin had asked us not to get 'new and blingy' shoes for modelling, it did not make any sense to me. Now,I think its more fun and creative to make things not 'normal' or in their perfect state.

Topology

NURBS Project_ Ends

“There is an end to everything, to good things as well.”

- Geoffrey Chaucer

Ambient Occlusion Pass

The NURBS Project demanded a lot of patience but it would be dishonest to say that I did not enjoy the process. I have always enjoyed background modelling more than character modelling. At first, some parts of the scene seemed more appropriate for Polygon Modelling but it came as a challenge to complete them in NURBS.

As the scene required so many NURBS surfaces, it was becoming quite difficult to even rotate about the perspective window to check how it looked from different angles. Then,came the problem of making the foliage on an already heavy scene. Nonetheless, I thought that it added to the beauty of the scene selected, so I started making them. My Maya software stopped responding thrice!

Topology

The first time it stopped, I had not saved the other surfaces that I had made just before the first portion of foliage. I had to remodel them again. Carefully saving them this time, I made a second attempt at making the grass. Then,after the third time,I thought of submitting the project without them. However, I thought why not use paint effects and convert them to NURBS. This did not hinder the mobility of the scene and helped retain the beauty of the scene too. However, to show that NURBS grass can be made, I made a very small portion and hid it in the scene in a layer.

With Physical Sky and Sun

As lighting was not an essential component of this project(and I had to get on with my Polygon Project), I simply used the Physical Sky and Sun Node in the Indirect Lighting of the Mental Ray Menu.

Video file at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj-ObHye4x4&feature=youtu.be

Programme of Study Update

It has been a couple of months since I last updated my Programme of Study. So much has changed since then. I have come quite far but I feel like some factors are still being elusive.

My research is based on effective story-telling techniques and animating stories based on Human Behavioural Psychology to generate a response from the audience. According to the theory 'The Strategic Use of Gain- and Loss-Framed Messages to Promote Healthy Behaviour : How Theory Can Inform Practice’, the result whether a particular individual responds to it is dependent on how the message is presented.

The gain-framed or the loss-framed messages as I have come to understand is result-driven. If people can know what the consequences of their choices might lead to, their behavioural response towards certain aspects might/might not change. Thus,my intention was to test this theory by creating two stories on both the tenets of this theory and do a primary research on which of the two tenets was more capable of getting across to the audience and whether a change was possible in them.

Mark's Script-writing classes turned out to quite helpful as that's the basis of my research-story telling. One of the key thoughts that might play an important role in my research,Mark pointed out is the 'tone' of the story. The way a message is projected and how much of it is retained in the audiences mind,not only depends on what the message is about but also how it is said. The tone of, 'you must' to 'you should' to 'you might' or to 'you could' sets how much will be accepted by an audience. Keeping this in mind,I had planned to make two stories with a variation in not only the tone but also colour hues in the environment setting of my stories.

A meeting with my Supervisor made me think again. Sharon,said that as I was using this psychological theory to research,it would be a waste if the tone and environment settings were different in both the stories as I would already be manipulating with the audiences perception of what they see. She adviced that it would be better if the tones and environment be the same in both the stories.Instead how the two different characters respond to the same environment differently would bring about better material for my research.

My team members George,Sheng, Lilly and I stated coming up with stories on different themes like environmentalism, pacifism,co-operative behaviour, etc. based on our discussion with Sharon but we still couldn't come to a decision as to which story would suit our purpose.

It was time for some peer review. A meeting with our peers made us think about the patronising aspect that each of our stories carried. What we needed was an abstract story with the message hidden in it that the audiences needed to work out themselves. Thus, we came back to square one- effective story-telling. Fraser's advice of not dealing with bigger issues like environment and wars and making stories on smaller but still relevant issues, was something to think about. 

Last week,we were scheduled a lecture with Donna which turned out to be a peer review again. I told her of what variables I was thinking of and how difficult it was becoming to make two stories with all the permutations and combinations. As Mark had said story-making is so much like cooking. You might have a cupboard full of ingredients but you still use what is in the recipe. You don't use all of them. 

Then,there is also the mammoth task of making two animated versions instead of one within the given time and then showcasing it to an audience for primary research. Donna was very kind in pointing out that what I intend to pull off is in itself is a research and I might not need to test it on an audience. Now that I am in the process of this research I think what she said is absolutely true. This has somehow taken the time-constraint burden off me.

However,all said and theory discussed, writing a story is becoming a big bone of contention. When any of us does come up with a story it doesn't suits with everybody's set course aims. So,we still need a story!