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

proof of concept

this is one of the first few test flocking behavior test that i did i hope to be done with the proof of concept for the flocking behavior by tomorrow

industry panel review

we had an industry panel review last friday it went really well they were generally appreciative about the project and they had lots of suggestions regarding the project and the techniques i was going to use for it

here are some of the sugestions they had for me

• instead of trying to form shapes with particles they wanted me to start with an already created shape and let it break away and play the animation in reverse


• dont use particle goals


• dont worry about interpenetration the motion blur would take care of it


• render it at dvd resolution it would save you lot of time


• fluid motion can be achived in maya itself try playing with the phase attribute in turbulence field to get random fluid particle motion


• try different methods to achieve the same effect dont limit your self to one procedure try different techniques


• paper planes dont have to deform according to the direction they fly if they are flying at a distance it would be hardly notisable


• have the velocity drive the orientaion of the the paper plane


• try using live action clouds for most part


• dont worry about the reflections for the first scene concentrate on shadows and lights


• if you use particles to generate clouds dont use sculpted surface to emit particles they dont usually produce the desire result - instead use planes with different shapes to emit the particles they form good surfaces


• dont use blur for maya fluids do it post


• environment for last shot??


• think about using maya cloth for crunching paper use psoyp's nascar commercial as reference


• since you got only one effect do it well


• dont waste time on cclouds since that is not the focus of the project

styleframe

This week end i had worke don my style frame im still not happy with what i had churned out i wanted some thing that was photorealistic but after twodays of struggel i ended up with this . as of now i am trying to figure out what would make this image photorelistic.

for this week i have been working on my animatic it is not quiet there yet i managed to get only half of it done and it need more work i would have it finished hopefully by the week end

click here

reference for timing and choreography:

thesis mid term deliverables

i have changed my initial idea from doing a car commercial to an short film
click here to read on about my new project

storyboards

These are my initial storyboards i have used them to just layout the story the way it happens i need to set up more dramatic shots i plan to rework on it after todays class

script

click here for the script

research outline

research outline
I. Introduction
II. Technique
A. modeling -
1. polygonal modeling
a. car the model will be bought from turbo squid
b. the sting ray fish will be modeled using polygons
c. terrain will be just a poly plane(maybe severallayersof it and the
surface might be dented at few places using artisan tools
B. texturing -
1. image map
a. for bg plates
b. texture on sting ray
2. procedural
a. ice surface
C. rendering
1. realistic
D. dynamics -
1. atmospheric
2. particle effects
3. rigid body dynamics - when the ground breaks
4. fluid simulation - water that is thrown out with the rigid bodies
E. animation -
1. procedural for the fish fins
2. key framed
III. Design
A. environment design
1. study various frozen terrain
2. study various objects frozen in ice
IV. story

V.conclusion

reference to commercials done for eco friendly cars

this is a bmw commercial for a hydrogen car where a girl jumps into a pool in which bmw is parked and swims around it there is no indication of any water in the pool when she jumps and there is no splash or in the water either but the moment she she enters the pool she starts swimming around it - right at that moment you understand that there is a liquid nature to that car -



this is a saab commercial for their eco friendly car it runs on ethanol even thought they had the visuals and the bgm telling this they have a tag line at the end explaining how the car is eco friendly

treatment

i have been thinking of using a minimalistic approach to the project in which only the key elements are used
like the car and fish and the environment is going to be empty with just this icy terrain

reference

i have been using the clips from bbc stock footage gallery to study the motion and skin texture of the ray fish
http://www.bbcmotiongallery.com/Customer/SearchResults.aspx?searchText=ray+fish&type=Simple

and here is a list of movies that i have chosen to study the surface of the ice and its inter-action with light

polar express - the scene in which the train runs over a frozen lake

Incredibles - to study how an object look when it is frozen and under ice -the scene in which frozone uses his powers

the day after tomorrow

die another day

thesis statement

The goal for this project is to create a CGI car commercial for a hydrogen car. The commercial would emphasize the key point of "eco-co-existence" where the technology and the nature live in harmony with each other.

story synopsis

story synopsis

This commercial is set a time when the whole world is frozen and and all the life forms lie beneath the surface of ice frozen and motionless. then comes this hydrogen car which breaks through the ice and breathes life into the creatures that are frozen. thus establishing a world of eco-co-existence where the nature and technology live in harmony with each other.

Inspiration for my car commercial i have drawn the inspiration from this saab commercial





documentaries on under water life
deep blue - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365109/

the blue planet - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099158/

story synopsis- first draft

A fish is swimming through an destroyed city looking for a home and it reaches a coral reef replica in an aquarium. As the fish is swimming across the tanks in the aquarium we see the actual habitat in which the fish is supposed to live as the reflection on the tanks.

thesis statement

Since lighting and rendering is my concentration.This project would be an under water visual effects piece focusing on lighting, rendering and dynamics.