Here is my final animation, I still need to put sound to it but I thought I would upload this version so that you are able to see the contrast and how much of an effect sound has.
Editing
I am now in the final stages of the production, the editing stage. As I have been thoroughly checking each scene and editing after it has been rendering, I do not have too much to do at this stage. I am using Adobe After Effects as I find it is my preferred choice as I find it enables you to carry out a range of techniques.
In my previous projects, I tend to neglect to give myself enough time for the editing process, I have learnt that it is just as important as all of the other stages of production therefore I ensured that I would have a comfortable amount of time to edit my animation.
I need to put sound to the final piece and I think I am going to experiment with the shot cuts as I feel that they are too sharp, I am going to experiment with fading the shots.
I have already found some sound effects that I think are appropriate, I will be testing them to see which ones suit the best as I find sound does have a huge impact on the final piece.
I think the most challenging aspect of editing is the timing, it has to be right otherwise it could ruin the animation.
In my previous projects, I tend to neglect to give myself enough time for the editing process, I have learnt that it is just as important as all of the other stages of production therefore I ensured that I would have a comfortable amount of time to edit my animation.
I need to put sound to the final piece and I think I am going to experiment with the shot cuts as I feel that they are too sharp, I am going to experiment with fading the shots.
I have already found some sound effects that I think are appropriate, I will be testing them to see which ones suit the best as I find sound does have a huge impact on the final piece.
I think the most challenging aspect of editing is the timing, it has to be right otherwise it could ruin the animation.
Final Scene - The Elephant Environment
I have finished all the scenes, I just need to produce the final scene of the elephant and its baby. I haven't been looking forward to this scene, just because I thought that I would find the composition of this scene challenging as I didn't want to produce an elaborate environment for such a small scene therefore I had to be clever about the positioning of the camera and characters. From observing my research and my concept drawings, I decided what I would need in my scene. I produced the appropriate objects and textures, such as the 'muddy' floor and the vegetation. I did download and elephant model to use in this particular scene. I sculpted the landscape in Mudbox and duplicated it. I put grass texture on one landscape and mud on the other and positioned them so that there appeared to be areas terrain with different textures.
I played around with the composition, the position of the camera and objects to recreate a scene similar to that in my storyboard.
As you can see, the small patch of grass on the mud looks better than the first method therefore I decided to use paint effects.
I then imported, textured and positioned the mother and baby elephant.
I then noticed that the shadows from the trees had disappeared at some point, I then realised that I had imported the elephants from a different scene which had its own physical sun and sky therefore I deleted the other sun and the shadows returned.
I played around with the composition, the position of the camera and objects to recreate a scene similar to that in my storyboard.
I experimented with a grass texture, I have always had problems producing a high quality realistic looking grass. I attempted the method of projecting an image onto a flat plane with the results below.
I think it looks pretty terrible so I experimented with paint effects to see which looked better, the results are below.
I then imported, textured and positioned the mother and baby elephant.
I then put in a pool of blood using the method I had previously used in the final nursery scene.
It looked a little 'straight' so I sculpted the plane more.
This is the final result of which I am happy with. Each frame is taking ten minutes to render therefore I have decided against animating this scene at this stage. I had planned to have the baby elephant raise it's trunk but I do not think it is necessary, if I do feel that it is needed, I will add it in.
That's all my scenes rendered! Now it's time to start editing!
Production update and reflection
I have animated and am in the process of rendering all the scenes except for the elephant scene which I am yet to begin. Luckily, I have not had any rendering issues apart from the fact that the final nursery shot took thirty hours to render..
I have surprised myself with my animation skills, they aren't by any standards amazing but they have definitely slightly improved since the last time I animated. One thing I have definitely learnt from this particular production process is that I need to not be intimidated or daunted by the tasks I am faced but I should embrace them and learn from them. I have dramatically developed my confidence with my skills during this project as before I would have shied away from a challenge whereas now, I attack it with my knowledge and expertise.
A good example of this is the final nursery scene, I spent hours researching the best way to produce the effect that I desired and explored complex and lengthy methods. I didn't feel these methods were working for me therefore I used my initiative and quickly and successfully produced the scene using the methods that I thought were most appropriate. This showed me that I should have trusted my instinct initially.
Whilst I am waiting for the final scenes to render, I have also begun to put them together in After Effects. This is mostly so that I am able to test them and ensure that there aren't any issues but I thought that I might as well start editing it at the same time to ensure that I have enough time for all stages of production.
I have surprised myself with my animation skills, they aren't by any standards amazing but they have definitely slightly improved since the last time I animated. One thing I have definitely learnt from this particular production process is that I need to not be intimidated or daunted by the tasks I am faced but I should embrace them and learn from them. I have dramatically developed my confidence with my skills during this project as before I would have shied away from a challenge whereas now, I attack it with my knowledge and expertise.
A good example of this is the final nursery scene, I spent hours researching the best way to produce the effect that I desired and explored complex and lengthy methods. I didn't feel these methods were working for me therefore I used my initiative and quickly and successfully produced the scene using the methods that I thought were most appropriate. This showed me that I should have trusted my instinct initially.
Whilst I am waiting for the final scenes to render, I have also begun to put them together in After Effects. This is mostly so that I am able to test them and ensure that there aren't any issues but I thought that I might as well start editing it at the same time to ensure that I have enough time for all stages of production.
Animating, Rendering and issues (as always)
I have been animating and rendering each the first few scenes. I ran into some issues when animating the mother as I am not confident in my animation skills. Reference is of the utmost importance and substantially helpful, I had admittedly forgotten the basics of a walk cycle animation but when I acted out the movements, it reminded me of the process. As walking is such a natural action we aren't even aware of the cycle of movements, I had forgotten about the slight up and down movements we make which makes a significant difference to the appearance of the walk cycle. Eventually I ended up with a scene that I was fairly happy with:
I decided that with the sniper scenes, I will compose the scene to make it appear as though he is hiding behind a bush:
I have decided to add the sniper scope during the editing stages of the production as I feel that it gives the scene more depth as I have experimented with this.
The only major trouble I have encountered so far is the scene with the blood. I have attempted many ways of producing the blood moving across the floor as if it is pumping out of the character as she has been shot. Initially I found a tutorial using nDynamics which can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQsTbuH6jns
I played around with the attributes and such things but I was unable to achieve the effect that I wanted, it looked too unrealistic. I saw on forums that many people had suggested Realflow, however, I believe that it is a plug in which you have to purchase and it looks rather complex therefore considering the short amount of time I have left I decided to see if the simple idea I had would work. This would to be to create a polygon 'puddle' shape and just key frame it and move it. This seemed to work but now I need to find the right texture for the blood. I have tried a few different suggestions and have even downloaded a shader but at the moment none of them are looking right. Blood has similar qualities to glass therefore I am going to attempt to make a dark red glass shader.
I smoothed the mesh and played around with the attributes however it just wasn't looking right.
I have finally done it, its taken me a lot longer than I would have liked especially as it was rather simple, I just assigned the dielectric material and changed the colour to red which looks like this:
I decided that with the sniper scenes, I will compose the scene to make it appear as though he is hiding behind a bush:
I have decided to add the sniper scope during the editing stages of the production as I feel that it gives the scene more depth as I have experimented with this.
The only major trouble I have encountered so far is the scene with the blood. I have attempted many ways of producing the blood moving across the floor as if it is pumping out of the character as she has been shot. Initially I found a tutorial using nDynamics which can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQsTbuH6jns
I played around with the attributes and such things but I was unable to achieve the effect that I wanted, it looked too unrealistic. I saw on forums that many people had suggested Realflow, however, I believe that it is a plug in which you have to purchase and it looks rather complex therefore considering the short amount of time I have left I decided to see if the simple idea I had would work. This would to be to create a polygon 'puddle' shape and just key frame it and move it. This seemed to work but now I need to find the right texture for the blood. I have tried a few different suggestions and have even downloaded a shader but at the moment none of them are looking right. Blood has similar qualities to glass therefore I am going to attempt to make a dark red glass shader.
This is a screen shot of the nParticles with no changes made.
I then changed the colour of the nParticles but it looked really flat.
The tutorial that I followed stated that you could convert the nParticles into Polygons which is what I have done here, I think the tutorial is more based around the blood coming from the wound which in my case isn't visible.
I decided to use a polygonal shape and downloaded a blood texture from here: http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/shaders/c/beavasoft_blood_shader
This is definitely too light, i tried to change the colour but didn't really achieve good results.
I have finally done it, its taken me a lot longer than I would have liked especially as it was rather simple, I just assigned the dielectric material and changed the colour to red which looks like this:
Mother Character Production
The next scene of the animation involves the mother character. I have been searching for a couple of hours now to try and find a character rig or model that would be appropriate, however, I have had a lot of issues. Firstly it is important that the character looks appropriate for the role, a lot of the models are half dressed which I don't think is.. Also most of the models are available for 3dsMax, which I do not have because I am using a Mac and it is not available.
I find I constantly encounter issues such as this when I am producing work, I don't think Maya is used as much as the other 3D software available which creates problems gaining accessibility to information and tools.
I have finally found a character which I think would be acceptable to use, now I just have to rig it which I was trying to avoid as my skills are not strong in that area.
I have been attempting to rig the character however as her arms are down by her side this has created some deformation when I move the skeleton therefore I am having to use paint weights. This is taking me a little while as I find paint weights difficult to use, I understand the concept but I don't think the tools are very clear.
I was going to use this character however as you can see in the pictures her hands are touching her body and I have tried to use paint weights for a good hour to fix it and I managed to fix a majority of it but it was too noticeable to use.
Next I found a good quality model but it was a 3dsMax file, I researched as to whether it was able to convert the file into a file that Maya could read, it is possible however I am using an iMac which does not support 3dsMax..
I am getting increasingly frustrated with all the obstacles that I keep facing however, someone did point out to me that I am overcoming these obstacles by using my knowledge. I am also getting concerned about the amount of time that I have to finish my project before the deadline, the mother character is taking a lot longer than I anticipated and I need to ensure that I have enough time to render and edit.
I had to gain access to 3dsMax to export the file as an fbx., I then loaded it in Maya and rigged the character. I thought I had finally found a character that I could use however when I attempted the render the character in Mental Ray, initially Maya just kept crashing and when it did render, the entire scene was black so I gave up on this model too.
I have attempted to rig four models now and have not had any luck, it has taken me two days to find a character that I am able to use. I did think that I had previously found a character that I would be able to use earlier on in the production stages however that had failed.
I found a rigged female character which I am going to use as I am running out of time. The quality of this character isn't as high as I would have hoped however I need to move on to the next stage as soon as possible.
I find I constantly encounter issues such as this when I am producing work, I don't think Maya is used as much as the other 3D software available which creates problems gaining accessibility to information and tools.
I have finally found a character which I think would be acceptable to use, now I just have to rig it which I was trying to avoid as my skills are not strong in that area.
I have been attempting to rig the character however as her arms are down by her side this has created some deformation when I move the skeleton therefore I am having to use paint weights. This is taking me a little while as I find paint weights difficult to use, I understand the concept but I don't think the tools are very clear.
I was going to use this character however as you can see in the pictures her hands are touching her body and I have tried to use paint weights for a good hour to fix it and I managed to fix a majority of it but it was too noticeable to use.
So I am going to have to try and find another model to try and rig..
Next I found a good quality model but it was a 3dsMax file, I researched as to whether it was able to convert the file into a file that Maya could read, it is possible however I am using an iMac which does not support 3dsMax..
I am getting increasingly frustrated with all the obstacles that I keep facing however, someone did point out to me that I am overcoming these obstacles by using my knowledge. I am also getting concerned about the amount of time that I have to finish my project before the deadline, the mother character is taking a lot longer than I anticipated and I need to ensure that I have enough time to render and edit.
I had to gain access to 3dsMax to export the file as an fbx., I then loaded it in Maya and rigged the character. I thought I had finally found a character that I could use however when I attempted the render the character in Mental Ray, initially Maya just kept crashing and when it did render, the entire scene was black so I gave up on this model too.
I have attempted to rig four models now and have not had any luck, it has taken me two days to find a character that I am able to use. I did think that I had previously found a character that I would be able to use earlier on in the production stages however that had failed.
I found a rigged female character which I am going to use as I am running out of time. The quality of this character isn't as high as I would have hoped however I need to move on to the next stage as soon as possible.
Animating and rendering the first scene
As this animation is taking a long time to render, it is now taking 5 minutes per frame, I am going to animate and render in stages so that i am able to do both simultaneously. I decided to animate the opening scene and whilst that is rendering I will animate the next scene.
Initially, I viewed some reference on YouTube of babies crying in their crib. I noticed that their movement is random, more of a flailing motion therefore that was how I was going to animate the baby and I would have the camera zooming in from outside.
The animating was a lot easier than I anticipated. I think it may be because the rig is simple, before, I have attempted to animate with complex rigs and found it too difficult. I slowly animated a limb at a time until I had a movement that I was happy with. I then had a few issues with the cameras as I haven't animated a camera in a while and when I created a camera, the settings where different so it came out looking like this:
Clearly this is not good so I had to render using the perspective camera but I feel like you have less control of the movement, or I find it easier to use one I have created.
As always in the rendering stages, I encounter problems, after rendering for several hours, I assembled the jpg's into a video in After Effects and here is the video:
As you can see, something weird happens. I am pretty certain that it is the glass material that I placed on the window that the camera is moving through. I was experimenting with different glass shaders and had forgotten to change that window. I had checked before I rendered however the change was so drastic it happened between two frames.
I then changed the glass and rendered it again, however, the glass material affected the mirror material and caused it to be non reflective. The mirror jumps straight from a dull to a reflective material which obviously is not good. I altered the glass again, double checked by rendering particular frames and produced an opening scene that I am pleased with.
Initially, I viewed some reference on YouTube of babies crying in their crib. I noticed that their movement is random, more of a flailing motion therefore that was how I was going to animate the baby and I would have the camera zooming in from outside.
The animating was a lot easier than I anticipated. I think it may be because the rig is simple, before, I have attempted to animate with complex rigs and found it too difficult. I slowly animated a limb at a time until I had a movement that I was happy with. I then had a few issues with the cameras as I haven't animated a camera in a while and when I created a camera, the settings where different so it came out looking like this:
Clearly this is not good so I had to render using the perspective camera but I feel like you have less control of the movement, or I find it easier to use one I have created.
As always in the rendering stages, I encounter problems, after rendering for several hours, I assembled the jpg's into a video in After Effects and here is the video:
As you can see, something weird happens. I am pretty certain that it is the glass material that I placed on the window that the camera is moving through. I was experimenting with different glass shaders and had forgotten to change that window. I had checked before I rendered however the change was so drastic it happened between two frames.
I then changed the glass and rendered it again, however, the glass material affected the mirror material and caused it to be non reflective. The mirror jumps straight from a dull to a reflective material which obviously is not good. I altered the glass again, double checked by rendering particular frames and produced an opening scene that I am pleased with.
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