fokker test composition done in nuke

first shot

here is the city street set that i had been working on over the week end i still need to texture them -i just rendered out a rough fly through without any texture on it

this is my new story reel the camera still needs a little tweeking but i am happy that i atleast ahve an improved edit and i have the transitions worked out.

thesis industry critique

my thesis industry critique went pretty smooth , almost all the panelist had the same comment to offer but generally they seemed pleased with the way the project is shapping up
so here are their comments regarding the project
Patricia-

• need to work out the choreography -timing and pacing of the shots
• keep the camera angles simple
• give enough time for the second plane to read
• timing and stiffness of last shot
• sky and clouds- keep them interesting to frame your composition. limit camera moves so that you can use still plates
• start working on lighting and render test for outside environment, sky and indoor desk& especially paper plane surfacing look at reference and select and duplicate it
• very nice effect working well clean up the package it is in

Berner

• check particle instancing (popping on and off)
• more camera move(more steady)
• start with one plane and reveal other planes to build up the dramatic story line
• have it end in the same environment
• fix transformation
• take out some buildings in shot 2 + separate fg and bg

environments
more elegant drop
hero shot in the beginning


most of the concern was raised about not having decided the environment still, well that is what i intend to do over this spring break - build the city , sky and the indoor desk scene - model them and have them texture before the school starts and
they wanted me to add one more shot in the beginning with just one plane and to end the piece in the same place where it started - i have been thinking about the same thing for long , i think these extra shots could be added at the end after completing what ever i have on my boards already it would add to the narrative and hope i find enough time to add these bits to my thesis
and for the choreography and the popping effects i plan to go back and work on my simulations after i get the environments in.
and the paper palnes surface i have been working on it for some time now and the results look preety convincing
here is a sample of the rendering i did

paper texture test

i had been working on the texture and the look of the paper plane and with just a little work of mapping the a high resolution paper texture on the plane and using a simple two light 'lighting rig' with a directional light as key sunlight source and a ambient light for sky light and a very minimal final gather set up i got pretty good result i was able to get a translucent look for the paper plane when ever the paper was directly exposed to the key light revealing the folds on the other side. and the ambient occlusion shader applied to the ambient light simulates nice soft shadows along with some sky light-
i might go back and use an hdri image for lighting so that i get more variation in the light details for so far I'm convinced at what i can get with the current render settings and it render at 1 frame per minute which is quite considering the enormity of the scene with almost 10,000 paper planes

review coments

i had just collected the review comments from the faculty they seem to be happy with the way the project is progressing.
her is what they had to say

Patricia

• camera and plane moments are jarring
• more dynamic motion in planes and work effects in(keep the plane moving in forward direction and the effect back wards)
• nice effect
• get close ups of plane using surface shader to block out the motion of planes needs silloete
• simplyfy the end shot

Gavin

• work o camera moves.....tighten up transitions
• work more on dynamics
• don't be literal on size of planes
• perhaps change look of film to help with the time travel

jasmine

• don't add anything-if you focus on making this work well -it will be very beautiful simple piece
• i do like Gavin's idea of going from hd to old film
• would recommend at least one close up of the paper plane

Faculty review

i had presented the same story reel i had shown mike on Monday just with a little bit of particle effects thrown in even though it wasn't polished it was helpful in making them understand the kind of look i was going for.
they mostly like my project except for camera moves and the shot composition they generally felt that i might use better camera angles.
here are some of the notes that i had made during the faculty critique

• Confused about the connection between the blank paper returning back to paper planes. One option is to start off w/blank paper
• Color of small paper planes could change as larger paper models change. This could serve as re-enforcement for a transition effect; it adds to the concept
• Change paper type and color as the planes change. Do this slowly and over time.
• They liked the contrast between the paper models against the blue field of the sky. Add more contrast
• Don't feel that you need to be so literal! Increase the size of the planes
• They didn't get the concept that we're traveling backwards. One suggestion for resolving this is, have everything moving forward (i.e. plane models, cameras), but as the large planes break up into the smaller paper planes have these smaller planes travel backwards.
• *Remove the time re-mapped edits of the planes moving backwards. You're over-thinking your concept.
• Make a more interesting (dynamic motion of planes moving) animatic.
• What does the ink lifting off the paper mean?
• Would like to see more than 1 effect. Push at least 2-3 effects
• Fix these....
• Simplify the ending.
• Camera moves need to work in relation to the transitions
• Play around w/the Conserve function in your particles
• Try bring the planes closer to the camera once in a while
• Hold on your effects shots long enough that we get what the object is. Only a beat or 2.
• Use solid planes (i.e. use Surface Shaders) in your animatic to lock down dramatic angles in each shot
• clouds
  
• Keep your clouds grounded
• What types of clouds should be used? How should they be constructed?
• Maya clouds
• Digital matte painting
• Particles
• The important thing is Find a cheaper method that takes the least amount of time to create