Beach Day and a short Hike
Anyway final video uploaded on vimeo
http://vimeo.com/32643995
Friday, November 25, 2011
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Day57: My Presentation
Today is the day, the day to present our final work.
To our superior and comrade.
To our superior and comrade.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Day56: Shots Breakdown
So I've been working on shot breakdowns, basically showing the separated render passes and how they are put together as a final shot.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
Day55: Preparing for presentation
So I've been preparing the presentation.
Gathered all my RnD images and test renders.
Prepared my power point slides.
Gathered all my RnD images and test renders.
Prepared my power point slides.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Day54: Fixy fix
As usual there is always some last minute problem.
Be it missing frames
Final touch up
Output compression messed up
Wrong file format
Sound off sync
so on and on.
But it's all under control!
Be it missing frames
Final touch up
Output compression messed up
Wrong file format
Sound off sync
so on and on.
But it's all under control!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Day52: Tools of the trade
Since I don't have much to post on my project, I'll just post something more general on the CG topic.
A general production pipeline
Model
Character Rigs and Props
Layout/Blocking
Animate
Light
Render
Composite
Effects would come in between layout to composite stage
Particles and Dynamics
Simulations
Lighting
Render
In depth look:
Start from story/concept art
Preparing assets includes
Modeling
UV Layout
Texturing
Lighting
Rendering
Compositing
So once the art is done, it's passed on to the modellers/sculptors to prepare the 3D models. It could be a hero character that is gonna save the world, a sexy partner, cute little pet, weapons of mass destruction, a barrel that's gonna roll down a hill and so on. Basically anything that is needed in the 3D world depending on the project/shots.
Once the Character or Prop is modelled it needs to be Textured in order to see colors, patterns or whatever the details that is needed for that character or prop.
Before texturing that is also a process known as UV layout, where you specify how the texture is gonna be paint on the character or prop.
As technology progresses we have a new workflow which doesn't require UV layout. The format is known as PTEX, basically the texture artist could just paint on the 3D model itself.
Rigging, doesn't have to be a character rig. It could be any 3D object that is needed to be hand animated. It could even be a awesome camera rig to simulate real life camera movement.
The process of setting of bones, controls and UI for animators to use em to animate.
Making characters come to live.
Comes lighting to give the scene more live, a sense of time, a feel of mood and so on.
Lighting is really important as it's kinda driving the look and the end result would be quite dependent on it.
A good workflow for lighting would be the HDR image base lighting.
Future lighting workflow should be the Linear workflow, which is another deep subject.
And if you're working with moving background plate, you're probably gonna include tracking.
If background plate needs cleaning up, you're probably need to handle rotoscoping.
So what are the tools?
Houdini
Maya
3Ds MAX
Modo
Blender
ZBrush
and any other 3D software packages.
Nuke
Mari
3D Coat
A general production pipeline
Model
Character Rigs and Props
Layout/Blocking
Animate
Light
Render
Composite
Effects would come in between layout to composite stage
Particles and Dynamics
Simulations
Lighting
Render
In depth look:
Start from story/concept art
Preparing assets includes
Modeling
UV Layout
Texturing
Lighting
Rendering
Compositing
So once the art is done, it's passed on to the modellers/sculptors to prepare the 3D models. It could be a hero character that is gonna save the world, a sexy partner, cute little pet, weapons of mass destruction, a barrel that's gonna roll down a hill and so on. Basically anything that is needed in the 3D world depending on the project/shots.
Once the Character or Prop is modelled it needs to be Textured in order to see colors, patterns or whatever the details that is needed for that character or prop.
Before texturing that is also a process known as UV layout, where you specify how the texture is gonna be paint on the character or prop.
As technology progresses we have a new workflow which doesn't require UV layout. The format is known as PTEX, basically the texture artist could just paint on the 3D model itself.
Rigging, doesn't have to be a character rig. It could be any 3D object that is needed to be hand animated. It could even be a awesome camera rig to simulate real life camera movement.
The process of setting of bones, controls and UI for animators to use em to animate.
Making characters come to live.
Comes lighting to give the scene more live, a sense of time, a feel of mood and so on.
Lighting is really important as it's kinda driving the look and the end result would be quite dependent on it.
A good workflow for lighting would be the HDR image base lighting.
Future lighting workflow should be the Linear workflow, which is another deep subject.
And if you're working with moving background plate, you're probably gonna include tracking.
If background plate needs cleaning up, you're probably need to handle rotoscoping.
So what are the tools?
Houdini
Maya
3Ds MAX
Modo
Blender
ZBrush
and any other 3D software packages.
Nuke
Mari
3D Coat
Monday, November 14, 2011
Day 51: Tricks of the trade
Tips for compositing CG into live background plate.
Try to almost always add a little bit of blur to the CG, CG renders tend to be too sharp where as in real life what we capture from the camera is always blurred somehow, motion blur, depth blur etc...
After importing the CG render good idea to add a gau blur of less than 2 px, but it really depends on the scene. The bigger the scene the more blur and if it's moving super fast compare to slow movements and so on.
Lightwrap, this will help integrate CG into the background plate by blurring out the edges of the CG and letting light from the background plate affect the CG render.
Adding grains to the composition or the CG renders itself can help sell it better. It's little imperfections that helps CG integrate into live background and sell the effect.
Lens Distortion, this is a more complex technique which could be used to help enhance the shot. Basically the live background plate have to be undistorted first, comp all the CG stuff and add a final lens distortion.
Edge blur, sometimes the edges of CG renders are just too sharp so you might wanna blur out just the edges to help soften the edge and make it integrate better.
Try to almost always add a little bit of blur to the CG, CG renders tend to be too sharp where as in real life what we capture from the camera is always blurred somehow, motion blur, depth blur etc...
After importing the CG render good idea to add a gau blur of less than 2 px, but it really depends on the scene. The bigger the scene the more blur and if it's moving super fast compare to slow movements and so on.
Lightwrap, this will help integrate CG into the background plate by blurring out the edges of the CG and letting light from the background plate affect the CG render.
Adding grains to the composition or the CG renders itself can help sell it better. It's little imperfections that helps CG integrate into live background and sell the effect.
Lens Distortion, this is a more complex technique which could be used to help enhance the shot. Basically the live background plate have to be undistorted first, comp all the CG stuff and add a final lens distortion.
Edge blur, sometimes the edges of CG renders are just too sharp so you might wanna blur out just the edges to help soften the edge and make it integrate better.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Weekends 11: We stumble, we fall but we keep moving!
Read others blog, cause it's pretty much the same.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Day50: Five to Nill
Have been working on compositing shots that are rendered out.
Some tips that I've picked up from video tutorial.
OpenEXR format
4 X 16 (Half): Usually good enough for passes that deals with colors, like the diffuse, specular and reflection.
4 X 32 (Full): Pretty much a must for data passes like Z depth and motion vector. Because you want these datas to be as accurate as possible.
So when rendering in Houdini, to render out un premultiplied images be sure to set the pixel filter to Closest Sampling Filtering (minmax min). Important to set that filtering for data passes!
Multi-layered EXR can slow down compositing softwares such as Nuke.
It might be a good idea to render out those layers as individual sequences.
Eg Nuke: Read in the file > Shuffle out the layers > Write Out
Using Nuke to write out the EXR files can be a good idea as well as Nuke is better at rendering openEXR format and the compression type is ZIP Scanline which is very efficient compared to tiling base compressions.
Some tips that I've picked up from video tutorial.
OpenEXR format
4 X 16 (Half): Usually good enough for passes that deals with colors, like the diffuse, specular and reflection.
4 X 32 (Full): Pretty much a must for data passes like Z depth and motion vector. Because you want these datas to be as accurate as possible.
So when rendering in Houdini, to render out un premultiplied images be sure to set the pixel filter to Closest Sampling Filtering (minmax min). Important to set that filtering for data passes!
Multi-layered EXR can slow down compositing softwares such as Nuke.
It might be a good idea to render out those layers as individual sequences.
Eg Nuke: Read in the file > Shuffle out the layers > Write Out
Using Nuke to write out the EXR files can be a good idea as well as Nuke is better at rendering openEXR format and the compression type is ZIP Scanline which is very efficient compared to tiling base compressions.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Day 49: Nth = Nothing
So my files are set up and ready to render in the render farm.
Nothing much to update because I have to wait for the renders which is gonna take awhile.
Nothing much to update because I have to wait for the renders which is gonna take awhile.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Day47: Everyday I'm rendering...
So still rendering out shots...
Nothing to show yet.
Slap comps would be out by tomorrow.
James suggested that I add more whipping motion to shot where the bboy is handhopping.
Wire dynamic sim for my end shot where the bboy freezes and then the shoelace collapse as an end.
Nothing to show yet.
Slap comps would be out by tomorrow.
James suggested that I add more whipping motion to shot where the bboy is handhopping.
Wire dynamic sim for my end shot where the bboy freezes and then the shoelace collapse as an end.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Day46: Hell, It's about tyme...(Render Time)
So in total I have about 8 shots.
5 Main shots and 3 short shots.
Rendering my sh040 on the render farm.
By end day I should be able to comp out the sh040 and starts rendering my sh050.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Day43: Keep the core tight!
Updated my shoelace shader with variation markings.
The first problem was there isn't any rest position so the markings doesn't stick.
In order to help see the markings clearly, I've change my colors temporary
To a higher contrasting colors
So once the pattern is what I wanted, I started changing back to the original colors to see if it still works.
Tweaking it to make it subtle so viewer kinda see the markings but then again not see so much.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Day42: Crunch Tyme!
Mentor James have us list out the things we left to do and give it a date.
This Week
Secondary Motion by Thurs (3/11)
Shoelace Shader by Fri (4/11)
Finalized backdrop by Fri (4/11)
Next Week
Pre-Viz by Mon (7/11)
Lighting (8/11)
Finishing Shot (10/11)
Rendering (8/11)
Week after
Compositing (14/11)
This Week
Secondary Motion by Thurs (3/11)
Shoelace Shader by Fri (4/11)
Finalized backdrop by Fri (4/11)
Next Week
Pre-Viz by Mon (7/11)
Lighting (8/11)
Finishing Shot (10/11)
Rendering (8/11)
Week after
Compositing (14/11)
Monday, October 31, 2011
Day41: Missing Title!
Showed Evan my latest update, he pointed out the stuffs that is not working in the shots like camera angle and framing etc.
I've so much to learn...
Anyway been working on the animation and it took quite awhile but here is another update.
I've so much to learn...
Anyway been working on the animation and it took quite awhile but here is another update.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
Day40: Thor is here!
Something cool from Toronto office, they have a super computer nicknamed Thor.
Equipped with 80 CPU cores and 256 GB of ram, ensures no outta memory problem.
Also saw a low res smoke sim of 2 million voxels and a high res of 2 billion voxels.
Saw some new and exciting features in the up coming of you know what.
On to the project, re worked the animation.
Major work done, left to test those animation before I could fine tune it...
Equipped with 80 CPU cores and 256 GB of ram, ensures no outta memory problem.
Also saw a low res smoke sim of 2 million voxels and a high res of 2 billion voxels.
Saw some new and exciting features in the up coming of you know what.
On to the project, re worked the animation.
Major work done, left to test those animation before I could fine tune it...
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Day39: Lace Up
New animation test
A wobble lace animation to a static pose.
When the pose hits static position, it animates like dance sequence.
More animation test
A wobble lace animation to a static pose.
When the pose hits static position, it animates like dance sequence.
More animation test
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Day38: Title of the day
Test render
Evan talked to me about the poses, how certain poses works on certain shots and etc.
So he told me that it took a few plays for him to figure out what those shapes are/doing.
I could try giving it a more abstract shape or adding more points to get a better definition.
I've also ask him about how he go about with camera animation, he pointed a camera rig video tutorial to me.
The camera rig would give a movement like a real life camera on a crane would.
So I've reshaped the human figures.
Retimed the animation.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Day37: Click Click Boom!
Worked on building custom shaders for the floor, wall and border part which covers the connection between the walls and floor.
Even tho the three shaders are more base on texture map, I could have just use mantra surface shader but creating a custom shader is more efficient.
The mantra surface shader have lots of stuffs that needs to be calculated during the render where as a custom shader only loads in the codes that is needed.
Also creating a custom shader to show it's color or texture map in the viewport needs a little bit of work.
I needed to add in the ogl parameters for the custom shader and either reference the ogl diffuse color to the custom shader's diffuse color or reference the texture map path of the custom shader's to the ogl's.
Making the displacement through the use of the same texture map, I simply use the luminance value of the texture map and use it as the displacement map.
Using my displacement as the color information to better visualized the displacement.
Lowering the value to make it less bumpy
render!
:)
Even tho the three shaders are more base on texture map, I could have just use mantra surface shader but creating a custom shader is more efficient.
The mantra surface shader have lots of stuffs that needs to be calculated during the render where as a custom shader only loads in the codes that is needed.
Also creating a custom shader to show it's color or texture map in the viewport needs a little bit of work.
I needed to add in the ogl parameters for the custom shader and either reference the ogl diffuse color to the custom shader's diffuse color or reference the texture map path of the custom shader's to the ogl's.
Making the displacement through the use of the same texture map, I simply use the luminance value of the texture map and use it as the displacement map.
Using my displacement as the color information to better visualized the displacement.
render!
Monday, October 24, 2011
Day36: Calculating Velocity
So the animation on my geometry does not have any velocity, hence no motion blur could occur.
So I've tried at the end branching out with a timeshift sop, offseting the frame by 1.
Connect the main branch with the point sop and using the timeshifted as the second input.
I wanted to use the difference in point position of the next frame and the current frame as the velocity.
I use the expression on the velocity attribute
$TX2 - $TX, $TY2 - $TY, $TZ2 - $TZ
What happen tho was not what I was expecting, I was expecting the velocity to be point in the direction of the next frame. But instead I got a weird direction.
So this method would probably only work if the animation is traveling linearly.
So I tried using the trail sop to compute the velocity.
Which I got the correct direction but the problem is the velocity grows over time and towards the end the motion blur was just too crazy.
So to fix that problem I append a vopsop to clamp my velocity so that it's within a certain range.
Inside the vopsop I get the point velocity attribute and connect it into the clamp vop and normalized it.
Everything works great but to further fine tune I wanted a velocity multipler so that I could control the motion blur's blurriness.
All I had to do was to append a multiply constant after the normalized vop.
Now I could change the value in the constant to tweak the motion blur.
Some test to compare displacement vs bump
And negative values vs positive values.
Far Shots
Negative True Displacement of 0.05
Positive True Displacement of 0.05
Bump map of 0.05
Positive vs Negative does not have much difference so I'll just use the negative one.
Close up shots
Negative True Displacement of 0.05
Positive True Displacement of 0.05
Bump map of 0.05
So I've tried at the end branching out with a timeshift sop, offseting the frame by 1.
Connect the main branch with the point sop and using the timeshifted as the second input.
I wanted to use the difference in point position of the next frame and the current frame as the velocity.
I use the expression on the velocity attribute
$TX2 - $TX, $TY2 - $TY, $TZ2 - $TZ
What happen tho was not what I was expecting, I was expecting the velocity to be point in the direction of the next frame. But instead I got a weird direction.
So this method would probably only work if the animation is traveling linearly.
So I tried using the trail sop to compute the velocity.
Which I got the correct direction but the problem is the velocity grows over time and towards the end the motion blur was just too crazy.
So to fix that problem I append a vopsop to clamp my velocity so that it's within a certain range.
Inside the vopsop I get the point velocity attribute and connect it into the clamp vop and normalized it.
Everything works great but to further fine tune I wanted a velocity multipler so that I could control the motion blur's blurriness.
All I had to do was to append a multiply constant after the normalized vop.
Now I could change the value in the constant to tweak the motion blur.
Some test to compare displacement vs bump
And negative values vs positive values.
Far Shots
Negative True Displacement of 0.05
Positive True Displacement of 0.05
Bump map of 0.05
Positive vs Negative does not have much difference so I'll just use the negative one.
Close up shots
Negative True Displacement of 0.05
Positive True Displacement of 0.05
Bump map of 0.05
Sunday, October 23, 2011
weekends08: Production Summit
Smoking time
So I've been experimenting with smoke simulations in Houdini.
This is just a test render among other test renders that are more presentable.
Rendered in passes.
I think it took 2 days to sim/light/render etc
on the school's laptop...
This is just a test render among other test renders that are more presentable.
Rendered in passes.
I think it took 2 days to sim/light/render etc
on the school's laptop...
Friday, October 21, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Day34: BootCamp01
The start of boot camp.
Topic covered are
Shading Lighting and Rendering
Attributes, what are they and how are they used in production
Sop solver
Topic covered are
Shading Lighting and Rendering
Attributes, what are they and how are they used in production
Sop solver
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Day33: Move along
Finally got a solution without much drawbacks!
Transferring uv from a static shoelace to the animated one.
Both must have equal number of points tho.
From this
To this
Due to the change of uv, my shader's parameter needed to be re-tweaked
Dragon scales anyone?
Also have been reading on linear workflow...
some test
Without gamma correction:
With Gamma correction:
http://www.pixsim.co.uk/video_tutorials/The_Beginners_Explanation_of_Gamma_Correction_and_Linear_Workflow.zip
http://www.pixsim.co.uk/downloads/The_Beginners_Explanation_of_Gamma_Correction_and_Linear_Workflow.pdf
Transferring uv from a static shoelace to the animated one.
Both must have equal number of points tho.
From this
Dragon scales anyone?
Also have been reading on linear workflow...
some test
Without gamma correction:
With Gamma correction:
http://www.pixsim.co.uk/video_tutorials/The_Beginners_Explanation_of_Gamma_Correction_and_Linear_Workflow.zip
http://www.pixsim.co.uk/downloads/The_Beginners_Explanation_of_Gamma_Correction_and_Linear_Workflow.pdf
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Friday, October 14, 2011
Day30: Stuck-O-Matic
Started to test render the animation.
Now I'm facing flickering problem...
Tried render with/without motion blur
Tried render with/without material
Turning off motion blur seems to stops the flickering...
Dan also gave a class on command line linux 101.
Browse through directories and list folders etc.
Make folders, copy, move, removes loads of stuffs.
The very cool stuff is rendering through command line, saves memory from loading houdini because we could render without opening up houdini and the file.
Now I'm facing flickering problem...
Tried render with/without motion blur
Tried render with/without material
Turning off motion blur seems to stops the flickering...
Dan also gave a class on command line linux 101.
Browse through directories and list folders etc.
Make folders, copy, move, removes loads of stuffs.
The very cool stuff is rendering through command line, saves memory from loading houdini because we could render without opening up houdini and the file.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Day29: Betty Wii Wu?
Current set up does not have proper uvs hence the issue with the shader...
Render as polygon with attribute transfer of uv from other shoelace to the current. [Image 1 and 2]
Render as NURBs and subdivision. [Image 3 and 4]
Render as polygon with attribute transfer of uv from other shoelace to the current. [Image 1 and 2]
Render as NURBs and subdivision. [Image 3 and 4]
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Day28: atan2?
After James showed me how to get the first tip and body to connect/blend, I started trying to get it work for the other end.
I managed to get it but because I branch out connecting the ends, there are two shoelace overlapping when I merge the end product.
I gotta either get the connection to work with only a single vopsop without branching out connection, or find a way to delete one of the shoelace while keeping the other and making it look like it's one whole piece of shoelace...
It's really complicated to explain...
And I was also trying to apply my shader to it, but it doesn't have any UVs.
So I've tried attribute transfering from another shoelace to the current one but it doesn't really work out due to the fact that both are very different system and have different topology.
Tried using it as a NURBS but doesn't really work out either...
Today there was also a Maths for visual effect class.
Pretty cool stuff but really difficult for me to get it...
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Day27: Reviews
Just a test...
Had a review session with James, he was saying that we gotta really figure out how to get things around and start making progress and move on to other things.
He suggested some solution which involves tweaking of the capture setting of the bones.
Up res the model.
I tried both and it did smooth out the deformation but I was still not getting the sharp deformation that I need.
He came over after office hours, still time round he used a vopsop to connect/blend the shoelace tip and the shoelace body.
Had a review session with James, he was saying that we gotta really figure out how to get things around and start making progress and move on to other things.
He suggested some solution which involves tweaking of the capture setting of the bones.
Up res the model.
I tried both and it did smooth out the deformation but I was still not getting the sharp deformation that I need.
He came over after office hours, still time round he used a vopsop to connect/blend the shoelace tip and the shoelace body.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
Day26: Fly In So Low
07-10-11
Flying solo today.
Got two example files from Douglas,
The first file which I've tried is to generate points on the curve and sweep the cross section and then skin those cross sections to generate my surface.
Main problem is the connection between the shoelace tip and the shoelace itself.
Second file is quite interesting, Haven dug deep into it.
Spiral animation test as well as shadow test
depth map shadow.
ray trace shadow.
Was testing out rendering motion blur, but my object doesn't have velocity attribute.
So I added a trail sop and set it to compute velocity.
In the middle the motion blur got a little crazy tho...
Flying solo today.
Got two example files from Douglas,
The first file which I've tried is to generate points on the curve and sweep the cross section and then skin those cross sections to generate my surface.
Main problem is the connection between the shoelace tip and the shoelace itself.
Second file is quite interesting, Haven dug deep into it.
Spiral animation test as well as shadow test
depth map shadow.
ray trace shadow.
Was testing out rendering motion blur, but my object doesn't have velocity attribute.
So I added a trail sop and set it to compute velocity.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Day25: Mo money, mo problem, no solution
06-10-11
Worked on the close up animation.
Reference videos of snakes movements/animations
Worked on the close up animation.
Reference videos of snakes movements/animations
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Day23: R.I.P
05-10-11
Revised schedule.
Listed down things that is needed to be done.
Link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Arv4zCAAYizFdDJpeHI4QkF4amZkRjFRbGg2YnJHT2c&hl=en_US#gid=0
Tried adding more bones to my shoelace.
60 bones, still not getting the deformation that I'm looking for...
Did a lot of tweaks to the resample sop, but results are pretty much the same.
R.I.P
SJ
Revised schedule.
Listed down things that is needed to be done.
Link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Arv4zCAAYizFdDJpeHI4QkF4amZkRjFRbGg2YnJHT2c&hl=en_US#gid=0
Tried adding more bones to my shoelace.
Did a lot of tweaks to the resample sop, but results are pretty much the same.
R.I.P
SJ
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