Reflective Report

With the completion of our final project I believe that there were many successful points to be made about our short animation and special effects sequence, the reason being is that we explored a difficult genre to put across and for it to work with the level of knowledge we have with the different processes and software. We decided that using a fully 3D landscape would also work more efficiently with our project idea, which was a fighting game in the style of Tekken and Mortal Kombat.

The idea came about from our past and present encounter with these games as we all enjoyed playing them therefore we were all in agreement of how the sequence should look, this heavily benefitted us as there wasn't an overwhelming dispute of how it should be put together which allowed to us to get through the early stages of work fluently. We at points like all teams came to slight disagreements but these were very minor, for example which way we should present the blast from the 3D character but this was ridiculed almost instantly. As a team I think we had quite a professional approach to how we should come about with the construction of the sequence and build up to creating the product, this is because we had planned what we wanted to agree but they were loose enough to allow to explore different ways in which we could effectively use different software, an example being the motion capture, although this hindered us for many weeks we know that to get the best possible result we could get it would be highly stupid of us to of given up due to how many times the files corrupted, this also gave us more confidence and pride of work when the sequence came together. Yet there are still many improvements that we could have done for the sequence to really come in to it's own, but this is a learning course for all of us and will allow me to understand on a more professional level of how we can create the product most efficiently and how I can make it the best it can be. The knowledge and understanding I have gained from the beginning of the year to now has been extremely vast without me truly noticing it. Moving from the simple stop motion paper animations that got us into the early stages of animation, which still is being used to this day, to then creating out own ideas probs scenes and characters all from scratch creating information on them and showing how they would work. Finally we put all this together to create a whole package of paper concepts to digital illustrations and then creating the model and the scene to present the story, it's quite surreal. With this knowledge I can safely say I have more idea and appreciation for the industry than I ever realised before, as to work myself up there now, still I do not 100% know which section I would be best suited to work but that will come with the further insight and more professional sequences and explorations. For now I am familiarising myself with the industry programs such as 3Ds Max and Adobe packages for the reason I know I need to be able to use these professionally and effectly for both my university life and hopefully my future career.

 So far this year I believe I have worked well as an individual as well as in a team with being able to put my ideas out and show understanding of what I think may and may not work, which is a necessity to have on this business, I believe I have also come quite far with my knowledge of 3Ds Max but a weakness that I do have is modelling, although this is not the career I would want to persue I know I need to get my skills up to a professional standard.anter strength which I posses is being able delegate tasks and if there happens to be a job no one wants I wouldn't be afraid to take it on even if it isn't one of my core strengths I will give it my all and research what I need to improve in those areas, with the motivation that u have I know that by the end of my university life I will be well equipped with not just the skills of animation but with more professional social skills to be able to present myself in a way employers will want to have me on there team knowing I can do the work and excell at it as well as bringing motivation to a team, and to have the pride in my own work. The process in which we created our final animation was to get ye idea and the ball rolling, with the idea firmly in our heads we were then able to do the relevant research we needed for the characters possible props, mannerisms and location. After we had all gained the research we believed we needed to make a start on we drew up a couple of rough story boards to get a idea of how the sequence will play out and how we could improve it before even touching the cameras and program's, which turned out to be a smart move on our part. After we designed what appeared to be our final storyboard we began to look at the type of character we were going to create, for us we wanted a male of large stature to show off his powerfull presence which we achieved and modelled in sculptris. During this time we also began to get the blue screen footage we needed and the development ideas of the 3D location we needed. I began to edit and try different effects with the footage we had, for example I was experimenting with blasts and blue screen removal, as well as creating landscapes in 3ds Max that we could potentially use. When we had finalised the 3D location we began rigging the model and using the motion capture data we had created and exported to give our 3D character his own manner, we the had to texture him and in ally edit the sequence together using different sounds that we needed for the piece to really come in to it's own. With achieving what we have I have learnt now many ways to improve what we did and how we went about doing things so next time I will be able to approach this in an even more professional and efficient way, as the main problem we encountered was the connection between the real life character and the 3D character this wasn't convincing to us which was quite upsetting as we spent many weeks trying to get the best we could put from this came a positive which was to analyse in depth how certain parts will affect what you will need to do further down the line.

Weekly Journal - Week 15 - 23rd May

This week we had basically finished the editing, I helped record the sounds we needed for the final piece with a dictaphone, then I concentrated on uploading all the work I had done as well as other members individual work to the shared blog we have, as well as finish my Reflective Report.

This week we all just aimed to get all the sequence edited with the sounds and health bars in, then we had a few days to be able to concentrate on the blog and get that up to a standard we would be happy with.

The overall critique of myself would of been that even though I have looked at every part of the sequence, e.g. the video audio concepts, 3D graphics and graphics and design, I struggled to evenly share the work load as the majority of the work I did was based on the video and audio concepts, but saying this I did overall have a go at everything which I am pleased about. I have learnt more in the ways of motion capture and how you actually use the data from that and but it onto a biped and then fit that in your model, before I didn't know that. With this project I also believe I have become much better at box modeling as I was able to create quite a nice room in 3Ds Max which could have been a potential environment we could use. I also experimented with the different modifiers in 3Ds Max as I was creating a another environment that was like a wasteland where I had to create my own height map, which was in use with the displace modifier. All in all I believe to evenly share the work over the three main areas the project would have to be much larger to fully get yourself engrossed in every part of it, but I am more than happy with what I have learnt and achieved.

Weekly Journal - Week 14 - 19th May

This week myself and the other two members began concentrating on getting the 3D model ready and rendered out with the different movements on him, as well as being fully textured. For the most part the other two members got the motion files ready for me with textures, but when I received the file I then had to texture the 3D model again because the previous textures had become void.

During the latter end of the week I was able to put together an almost final edit, with only sounds and a portal and the health bars missing. What I had done was link the real life footage with the 3D mode as well as the subway. I then added shadows and the blasts to the characters and tracked them so the movement fit, after this I rendered out the sequence and it turned out to look like this.

This week we really pulled together to get to where we are now, as with the endless problems we had with the motion capture files and adding them to the rig. We are now on the final push to get everything edited cleanly and swiftly and be ready for the presentation.

I also had to texture the 3D model again as when the file was sent to me the character would render out invisible, this led me to seperating the the ID's of the character allowing me to use a multi subobject to but all the textures on at once.

Weekly Journal - Week 13 - 11th May

This week I looked at bringing the footage of myself in to our 3D environment and seeing how well this would work/look for the final piece. To do this I again used the program Adobe After Effects which allowed me to remove the bluescreen from the original footage, which I had done the previous weeks. After I had brought both the pieces of footage in I then had to use colour correction and the contrast effects so the two clips looked as if they had a same lighting. I then had to match both the views from the 3D camera and the camera we filmed the footage with so that it looked as if the real life character was stood in the 3D Subway.

After reviewing this footage although I was happy with how it looked (the fact it did look like I matched up with the 3D floor) it still appeared that I was just placed there. I then had a discussion with the rest of the group in what should be done to improve this, we decided a shadow was needed. Therefore I went back to After Effects and created a shadow by duplicating the layer and then adding a basic 3D effect to it which allowed me to tilt and rotate the footage in the 3rd dimension which allowed meto have the shadow. The problem I have with this is that even when the shadow is being tracked with the original footage it won't always match up with both feet, so sometimes one foot will match up when the other doesn't as it's not a real shadow.

Weekly Journal - Week 12 - 30th April

After this footage was filmed I then brought it into Adobe After Effects to mess around with the different effects they have in the program, I then found these two effects called fractal noise and CC Rain which gave really cool looking effects that we could implement into our animation sequence.

I then thought about removing the bluescreen from the background, this prooved to be quite tricky as the quality of the camera was fairly poor, which meant that the colours couldn't be depicted easily so with the removal of the blue evidently it took some of the black of the pants with it. I also added in an updated look of the hand blast, as with the first attempt it looked fairly poor and unrealistic, where as now I believe it looks a lot more professional and modern.

This week I again concentrated on the Video and Audio concepts side as I was looking at removing the bluescreen footage from the background of the filming we had done, as well as putting different effects on the footage while the other members were getting the final idea of the environment done and the getting the 3D character further down the development line. This was efficient as again this allowed us to get on with what we needed to do without having to meet up too often to show the progress.

Weekly Journal - Week 11 - 23rd April

This week we got the introduction and the ending of our film completed to a standard we were happy with, for this I was acting as the main character. As a group we had decide to film in the seating area of the Priesty building which lead to me filling in a Risk assesment form of the location, as well as around the campus incase we wanted to refilm or add something that was outside of that building.. After I had finished the acting and the recording had all gone well me and Mike began the editing of this, using the portal effect he had created.

Again I was acting but this time in a bluescreen environment where I had to act as if I had just entered from the protal which had been done previously, now I was entering a 3D environment, where I was ready to fight my opponent.

The filming had gone well and I was happy with how it looked with the matching of me walking through the portal, by using the splitscreen effect we had learnt in the Video and Audio concepts challenges. This has stood us in good sted to finish the animation and special effects sequence a week early allowing us to fine tune everything and get it all rendered.

Weekly Journal - Week 10 - 16th April

This week we focused on getting the motion capture down, for this I helped with how we were going to act our scene out to get the most realistic/fighting game look to this. I also helped with the setup of the motion capture.

I also created a house that could be a potential 3D environment that we could use for the sequence, this was created in 3DS Max. To create this I did some box modeling, i created two different boxes which I then converted to editable poly and extruded where I needed, I then used a compound object called ProBoolean that allowed me to create the opening to the house and the two windows after that I creatrf the doors by using the same method then used the line tool create the shutter look effect on them then added the glassless windows in the same method as the door shutters.

 



This week we knew we had to come together and start the motion capture for the 3D character, this meant we had to decide what movements we were going to use, this lead us to do some movement research of games like Tekken, and films such as Gorgeous starring Jakie Chan. Having this research allowed us to string together a series of movements that would work.

Weekly Journal - Week 9 - 9 April

For this week I decided that it was time to create ourselves a Shooting Script, within this I exaplained what our animation storyline was, the effects that we're going to use within this and how long it woud take to constuct.

Secondly I began the creation of a hand blast for our real life character. I did this on a program called Adobe After Effects, this allowed me to create an object that I could manipulate, as well as track to the footage I was working with, the effect with the first draft looked quite average to poor.

The file continously uploads like this. I am unsure why as when I play it through Windows Media Player on my home computer it plays fine. With this blast I don't think it personally looks visually pleasing, as well as the tracking is quite poor, for the second blast attempt I think I will come at it very differently.

This week is where we came more in to our own with the other two members looking at the 3D character we are going to use and myself looking at some of the effects we could use in the sequence, all previously decided that we want something with a blast like what you see in Draon Ball Z and other films/series. This was efficient as we allowed oursleves to progress swiftly with the work.

Weekly Journal - Week 8 - 19 March

This week I brought the pictures Matt and Mike had drawn an done some colour swashes on them to get an insight to what they may look like towards the final environment and character.

I helped with the motion capture that we were doing for the fight scene we have. With doing this we came up with a lot of errors during the time we were in the motion capture room, therefore we are having to book it out for the next few weeks, as we need to perfect what we have done. We also recorded some bluescreen footage for the realife character.

I also continued the development of the 3D environment that I am making, adding different elements in too it to make it more realistic and more visually pleasing.

For this I wanted to create quite a cool looking environment that you would consider a place a fight in a game, such as Tekken and Mortal Kombat. I added grass to show it had some sort of life too it as well as the flat area where the two characters would be able to fight. This is only an idea of what it could from looking at the different fighting games that are out, as well as concepts other people had created.

I decided to do some research in to other peoples concepts and existing game landscape concepts to see how theres looked and what improvements I could consider doing to my own landscape if it were to be used in the final sequence.

This week we all gave ourselves the aim to look at the 3D location that we wanted to use, the reason we all decided to do this was it enabled us to have a larger sum of research to give us more of an idea, as well looking to create our own in the early stages. This worked well as we had many ideas and designs that we could implement in to our idea.

Weekly Journal - Week 7 - 16th March.

This week I drew up two storyboards, as these were to get the initial ideas that we had come up with, this also allowed me to see whether our ideas would work. The second storyboard was more successful as well as being cleaner.

With this being the first storyboard I decided to keep the elements we were talking about and roughtly intergrated them in these four images. After thinking more logically about are concept, we came to the conclusion that it wouldn't make sense to have the character select screen in there at all, as we already had the characters pre-selected.

This became a more finalised version of the storyboard, there were some major changes that I made, for example the scene where the character gets sucked through the T.V. was diminished and replaced by a portal, as me and Mike were looking into what would be more appropriate as well as being more visually pleasing.

I also began to develop some early character concepts, mainly featuring on the head, these were quite rough but helped to inspire the final desgin character that Matt and Mike created on sculptris.

I began to create a 3D environment on 3ds max, it is a wasteland, it is still in development, as well as research in to characters in games that are out now, for example Tekken and Mortal Kombat as this is where we drew inspiraton from.

This week I believe we worked well as a group as we all were delegated tasks that we wanted to complete for the following week, this meant that the following week we had all done some research of the genre we were going for, therefore this lead me to do what I have shown above in this week.

Location

The location that we are planning to film our real life section in is the Priestly building, focusing on the seating area, the reason for this is that it has a more homely feel with the sofa and T.V. which we need for our filming. We will have to arrange the sofa and surrounding furniture, but other than that the location is perfect for us.

The 3D location that we have thought about doing have varied massively, they consist of a cemetary, mountain range, train station/subway, forest/park setting, highland and wasteland. From these we have cut it down to the mountain range, wasteland and subway as we all agreed that it work flow with our sequence nicely.

Research

With the idea we had for the assingment we were given, we knew what type of research we had to do. For the real life side of things we looked at environments which already exsisted that we could get inspiraton from for the development of our own 3D environment, as well as other 3D environments that people have laready created, including the environment in games.

For the character research we began looking at different fighting games and the characters that were in them, example of games that we have been looking at are Tekken, Mortal Kombat, Dragonball Z, Soul Calibur, Soul Blade, UFC series and WWF games.

3D grpahics

In the first week of 3D graphics we looked at creating still life. To do this we were given a premade scene of a kitchen work top in whcih we had to create a orange and move the objects around. To do this we had to mainpulate a sphere and add materials to the objects to make them look more realistic.

This is the video sequence that we were required to make, this shows that I know how to move, rotate, scale and record in 3ds Max.

 

In the second week we were given the task to create either a Cup and Saucer or a UFO with the skills we have learnt, I decided to create a UFO.

This is the UFO that I created by tapering 2 spheres and adding a Greeble effect, then I just added metal and glass materials to it for the futurstic look.

The third week consisted of us creating a robot from a box, I found this to be quite challenging. We had to convert the box to an editable poly, from there we extruded the different sides to create the figure.

The fourth week was about mapping and materials. For this we we were given a model of an axe. In which we had to texture it with the given materials. We had to add the materials all to the same layer, then we could just put on the single material and it would texture the three different parts that were needed.

In week five we started looking at area and lighting, and how to cast different shadows for the different strenghts of lighting and the material the shadow was being cast off. To do this we were given a premade wine glass and tray which we then had to setup target lights which we then manipluated the strength and position and looked at how this effected Tay Trace shadowing.

Week 6 consisted of us looking at animation in 3DS max, to enable us to do this we were given a premade scene of a space like planet and a UFO, we then had to use keyframe animation to move the UFO around the environment.