May 7, 2015 : Animating With A Mirror
A recent scene I animated had a mirror prominently within it. This presented some challenges with several sequences, and I felt it a worthwhile topic for a post.
Due to the extra work related to having it, you first need to ask if a mirror is required. In my case, the mirror helps sell the location of the scene. It would be similar to having a scene in a kitchen but not having a refrigerator or sink – it wouldn’t look right to the audience.
As such, I felt the mirror was necessary, and it is used early in a sequence to help establish the scene. Below is a shot from this sequence.
After Effects was used to place the reflections (as well as the glow of the light bulbs). This took a little extra time, but I felt was worth it to help set the scene. However, with the mirror established in the room, it had to be addressed in later sequences – particularly ones where it didn’t have as much impact on the scene but couldn’t be ignored. Below is a screen shot of a frequently used side view for the scene:
The mirror is off to the side of the frame and doesn’t have any real role, however I still want some reflection. I felt not having anything would have made it stand out… and in a negative way. The reflections for this angle weren’t as complex as earlier shots but still required effort. I also had to add in the glow for the light bulbs, which added more time.
Ultimately, having a mirror in a scene is a double edged sword. It can effectively establish the scene, which is what I did by having it play a prominent part in an early sequence, but this comes at a price since it requires extra time and effort to make sure the scene remains consistent.
posted by Pi Visuals at 2:45 am
Tags: ShapesComment
April 28, 2015 : Another Scene Wrapped Up
Last week was predominantly spent animating a two-person scene, which I’ve always felt are tricky. While they tend to be pretty straight forward with respect to animating, storyboarding them is the tricky part. If the back and forth is not staged properly, the scene becomes stale, and the flow suffers. I spent extra time last week to hopefully prevent that from happening. Below is a screen shot from one of the earlier sequences.
With this scene complete, there are only two main scenes left. Unfortunately, they are very complex (and the two longest ones in the whole short). As such, there is still plenty of work left to do. In fact, I have only animated half of the total frames. The upcoming scene has just been storyboarded, but it will be challenging – having a fair amount of characters and numerous entrances/ exits. Although it won’t have one thing the previous scene had… mirrors. I will address it in a separate post, but having a mirror in a scene was not fun at times.
posted by Pi Visuals at 12:36 am
Tags: ShapesComment
April 21, 2015 : Strumming Along
One scene finished, another about to get started; and the upcoming scene has a main characters playing a guitar briefly. After modeling the guitar, I had to put it into a test scene with the character. Below is a quick render:
The pose was done for testing purposes – not part of an actual scene – but I made sure to add a little facial animation for extra flavor. The current scene is one of the shorter ones left (just over a minute long). However, there are still some long – and important – ones left. This includes a 3 1/2 minute scene, which has a lot (and I mean a lot) of characters in it.
posted by Pi Visuals at 1:38 am
Tags: ShapesComment
April 8, 2015 : Animation (Back) Underway
Over the last two weeks, a long distance move has taken up nearly all of my time. This has resulted in production coming to a standstill. Fortunately, things are now settling down, and animation has resumed.
The current scene getting worked on is one of the more complex for the short. It is several minutes long, has four major characters in it, and has several entrances and exits. Since I’ve been absent for so long, I decided to attach two screenshots. You can thank me later.
And another shot from the following sequence:
The first few sequences for this scene has some fun expressions, which has made it that much more enjoyable to animate.
After reviewing the recent batch of renders, a few tweaks have been identified – particularly with the set’s surfacing. These are minor changes, and the resulting re-renders shouldn’t slow things down too much.
posted by Pi Visuals at 11:55 pm
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March 21, 2015 : Group Shot
Several scenes in the upcoming project have shots with many characters. I started animating the first such scene. Below is a quick screen grab:
I still need to send the scene to After Effects for additional touch ups – adding some shadows, possible color corrections, and creating some lighting from above to name a few. However, there are a couple things worth commenting on the pic. Firstly, I like the staging of the shot. It is well balanced and serves as a nice establishing sequence for the rest of the scene.
Also of note, working on this sequence showed me the power of my new computer. There are 6 characters in this shot (a character is in the right side of the foreground), and there were no issues working in Lightwave. My previous computer slowed down with 3 or 4. This was definitely validation in my choices for the computer components.
posted by Pi Visuals at 11:57 pm
Tags: ShapesComment
March 12, 2015 : Animation Continues
One of the first decent-sized scenes is completed. It had a few elements that were new to me, which took a little extra time to complete. Below is a still I particularly enjoy.
For this project, I have made sure to stagger the key steps of production. In the past, it was common to do large chunks of Facial Animation, then move onto Animation, then onto After Effect, etc. This time around, I plan on pushing scenes through most of the Production Pipeline before working on the next.
One benefit to this approach is that it should prevent me from getting burnt out on any one step. Working on the same thing over and over can get tiresome, which could lead to some lackluster results.
posted by Pi Visuals at 12:48 am
Tags: ShapesComment
March 4, 2015 : Animation Underway
There are still quite a few items left in Pre-Production, but the pipeline has the major milestones staggered. As such, Animation began earlier this week. Below is a screen shot of one of the completed scenes:
I chose this frame because I find it funny, however I think the sequence as a whole is even better. Unfortunately (for you), I am not making this available at the moment so you’re just going to have to take my word for it.
Animation is still in the early stages, and I have only worked on a few, very short scenes. With most of my projects, I tend to work first on a couple short sequences. I find that it gets me into the animation groove. Plus, it helps me get better acquainted with the new rigs some of these characters have.
posted by Pi Visuals at 11:38 pm
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February 20, 2015 : Set Design Underway
With the main characters modeled and rigged, it’s time to work on the sets for the various scenes. One is already pretty much finished. Below is a quick render:
The character was placed in the scene just to ensure proper proportions. For the actual scenes in the short, I plan on using After Effects to pump up the backgrounds; but these renders show the general design. A variation of the set above will be used in a quick sequence, and that shot is below (I quickly put the character in the scene so ignore the fact that he isn’t really sitting in the chair):
I’ve used many rooms in previous shorts so this set was straightforward. Some of the extras in the scene had to get built from scratch, but I included a few callbacks to previous projects. There are three major remaining sets that need to get done. One will be pretty complex, while the other two are relatively simple. All of them will take some time, but I’m happy with how this one turned out.
posted by Pi Visuals at 11:20 pm
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January 27, 2015 : Another Rigged Model
I’ve been able to devote more time to work on some of the models for the new short. Another major character is modeled and rigged – although I will tweak the surface colors. Below is a posed shot:
Overall, I am happy with the model. Posing the character allows me to test out the rig, which help determine if any adjustments need to be made (as well its limits). With many aspects of the rig being reused among characters, this helps refine each one… even if it requires a little extra time to go back and make adjustments to every character.
posted by Pi Visuals at 11:01 pm
Tags: ShapesComment
January 20, 2015 : First Batch Of Character Rigs
This past week, I spent time in Lightwave working on the models/ rigs for the characters that had previous sketches made. After several adjustments, I’ve reached a solid first pass for the characters. As such, I decided to pose them in the same fashion as my design sketch.
There may be additional tweaks to these models/ rigs, but I’m happy with where they are right now. Many aspects of the rigs will be re-used for the other characters in the short (and there are many left to do). Therefore, I want to identify any potential issues with this batch of characters since it will cut down on time spent with future revisions.
posted by Pi Visuals at 10:58 pm
Tags: Lightwave , ShapesComment