Individual Progress: This week, I started modeling the main outdoor scene, which is a large sand pit. I first sculpted its basic shape in ZBrush and then created a high-resolution model with added terrain textures. I then imported them into Substance Painter to bake the textures, transferring the details from the high-resolution model to the low-resolution model. This approach helps reduce the polygon count and prevents lag when importing the model back into Maya. The following images show the materials created in Substance Painter and the placement of the models in Maya. The remaining models are sourced from Sketchfab, while the rocks and ground were created by me.
Group Progress:
Lin completed the second version of the indoor scene materials, but after discussions, there were still some areas where the materials were not satisfactory. Lin will make further modifications in Substance Painter for the third version.
Jiaruo completed the modeling and texturing of the trees. Using SpeedTree software, Jiaruo created the tree models and used Photoshop to create the tree leaves. She prepared a colored base color texture and a black and white texture, which were applied to the color and opacity channels, respectively, to achieve the leaf effect.
Next Tasks:
Tang will further refine the texturing of the outdoor scene and import the textures into Maya for composition.
Lin will make the third round of modifications to the indoor scene and address the UV expansion issues to improve the texture resolution.
Jiaruo will proceed with character skeleton binding.
This week, I will begin blocking plus on the animation. Here are some notes I recorded before starting:
Moving hold: In animation, there are moments when a character appears to be still in a particular pose. However, to bring the character to life, it’s important to incorporate subtle movements such as breathing or slight shifts in position, like slight forward-backward or up-down movements.
Copied pairs: This technique is similar to the concept of a moving hold. When you want to maintain a specific action for a certain duration, you can copy the original keyframe and paste it in the desired positions where you want it to continue.
Arcs: Most actions in animation follow curved paths, such as head movements, arm waving, and leg walking. It’s important to start paying attention to this during the breakdown phase. Focusing on whether the actions are moving along curved paths will make your animation look more professional.
Overshoot: When a motion comes to a stop, certain parts of the animation do not stop immediately with the main body but continue moving slightly in the original direction, creating an overlap or follow-through action.
Settle: After the motion loses all its kinetic energy, the action settles back into its original state.
These notes will help guide me in creating more engaging and realistic animations by adding subtle movements, understanding the concept of arcs, incorporating overshoot, and allowing actions to settle naturally.
Progress for this week:
Class feedback:
The main focus this of week is still on the issue of delayed body movements. For example, whether the head, shoulders, waist, and hips are moving at the same time. If they are, the subordinate parts should move slightly slower than the leading parts. Additionally, attention should be given to whether the hand and foot movements follow an arc, such as sliding the hand downward or gradually lifting the foot off the ground. It’s important to ensure that these movements follow a curved motion path. I will continue to make adjustments based on the feedback received.
Individual Progress: Refinement of Character Costume Models: This week, I focused on adding details to the character costumes using Substance Painter. I added sharp lines to various parts of the clothing, such as cuffs and trouser legs. I also added dirty textures to the clothes and differentiated textures for materials like leather, cotton, and plastic, which are applied to different parts of the clothing, pockets, buttons, etc. With these added details, the costumes look more realistic than before.
Group Progress:Lin:First version of indoor scene materials. This week, Lin completed the texturing for the main scene using Substance Painter. Various materials such as metal and plastic were applied, and rust textures were added. However, there is an issue with the texture resolution, so some UVs need to be rearranged and the texturing needs to be redone in Substance Painter. Additionally, certain parts require further refinement and the addition of other colors.
Jiaruo: Modeling tree trunks using SpeedTree software, based on the 2D concept art.
Next Steps:
Lin: Finalize the texturing for the scene (address the resolution issue, refine the table and door, differentiate colors for beams and handles, making them black or darker).
Jiaruo: Tree modeling, texturing, and preparation for skeleton binding.
Based on our previous discussion, I have made some modifications to the animation. I have created a new version where I incorporated scene assets from Sketchable and added a monster hand that I rigged as a prop.
Here are some notes I recorded before starting the blocking animation, which include things I need to pay attention to:
Blocking 2：
Class Feedback:
The movement in the blocking phase appear somewhat stiff, especially when the character is moving their hips. The body and hips should move at different times to make the action look more natural. To achieve a smoother and more realistic animation, it is important to pay attention to the details of human body movement and adhere to the twelve principles of animation, which will make the animation more engaging.
We plan to create an animation of approximately 10 seconds. During the production process of this short animation, we aim to further explore the creation of advanced body mechanics animations. Real-life reference videos, our own imagination, and the twelve principles of animation will assist us in creating a more captivating animation.
Therefore, we will plan this content with as much clarity and accuracy as possible.
Determine the type of animation we want to create and the idea behind it.
Once the content is finalized, search for reference videos on platforms like YouTube or record our own. When doing this, pay attention to the camera angles. The performer should face the audience, rather than being sideways or with their back turned. A 45-degree angle facing the camera is a good choice.
Use the reference videos to create thumbnails or simple sketches. Roughly determine the timing and spacing of the animation based on these sketches. Adjust keyframes if necessary to make the movements more exaggerated or closer to the desired curve.
Once the thumbnails are created, they will serve as the primary reference for blocking and even the entire subsequent 3D animation. The real reference videos should only be consulted when there are issues with time and space, or when the thumbnails do not meet the requirements.
Once the preparations are finalized, start using the existing models for production. Import them into Maya, set the desired camera angle and focal length, and then keyframe the models from the angle facing the camera.
Firstly, my inspiration comes from using smartphones, and I want to create a visualization of hands that showcases the attractiveness of smartphones to people. Here is my idea.
Idea：
Next, I have planned a series of actions aimed at conveying my concept within ten seconds. I have also made some modifications to this plan.
Thumbnails：
Suggestion(recording):
Thumbnails2:
In the blocking stage within Maya, I started by creating keyframes and some extreme poses. This step involved roughing out the overall motion. Based on the feedback received in class and discussions with George, we believe that the effect of being directly sucked into the phone would be more interesting for the end of animation. Therefore, I will proceed with modifying the animation according to this idea.
Individual Progress: Prior to this, I made progress over the course of one month, which includes the following:
1.XGEN Hair Experiment: I attempted to create the hairstyle for the male protagonist using Maya’s XGEN system. I divided the scalp into several sections and experimented with the curvature of each strand of hair until I achieved the desired effect. Although it looks good in this image, the actual matching on the head was average. Therefore, I treated it as an experiment and didn’t use this version of the hair in the final production. Instead, I created the hair using polygons.
2.Character Modeling Version 2: I felt that the previous version of the model was not satisfactory, so I redesigned the entire model from head to toe. Taking into account the difficulties encountered in rigging the previous version of the clothing (as we were new to rigging), I paid special attention to the polygon count and complexity of the clothing. The new version of the model is more refined than the previous one, but it still lacks some detailed decorations, which I will consider further.
Group Progress:
1.Spaceship Material: Yuhan Lin optimized the materials for the spaceship and added many details.
2.Jiaruo Zhang added expressions to the robot according to the requirements of the storyboard and conducted tests within the scene.
My artifact project is a team project that has been ongoing since the first semester, and it is currently halfway through. There have been some changes in the team members, and I will provide a brief introduction of the project members, their roles, and the current progress.
Project Title: Shelter
Original Team Members: Jiazhuo Tang, Jiaruo Zhang, Yuhan Lin, Fan Kang, Wenjiang Gui
Current Team Members: Jiazhuo Tang, Jiaruo Zhang, Yuhan Lin
Current Progress (indicating original team members’ roles):
References
Script and Storyboard
2D Concept Art
3D Modeling
Rigging of Models
Summary: As of now, the project’s initial preparations have been quite thorough. Particularly satisfactory aspects include the 2D concept art for the indoor and outdoor environments and the spaceship. However, the script and storyboard still require modifications as the story is quite long and needs to be streamlined or adjusted in some parts. Additionally, the transition from 2D concept art to 3D models for the characters requires further refinement and detailing. In terms of mid-term progress, apart from the aforementioned character models, the models for supporting characters have been completed and rigged, which is a relatively satisfactory achievement. Moving forward, we will proceed with scene and character modeling based on the finalized 2D concept art, creating materials for these models, and learning about special effects to achieve the desired results. In terms of group collaboration, there have been some shortcomings, such as a lack of communication, resulting in many tasks being completed independently. If other team members are unsatisfied with the completed work, significant revisions may be required, impacting efficiency. Therefore, we will work on improving this issue, ensuring timely and effective communication of our intentions, and striving for an excellent end result.
Roles of Team Members:
Jiazhuo Tang (Tang): Script/Storyboard/3D Character & Scene Modeling/Texturing/VFX/Lighting/Animating/Rendering/Sounds/Compositing
Jiaruo Zhang (JIaruo): 2D Scene Design/2D Character Design/3D Scene Modeling/Texturing/Rigging/VFX/Lighting/Animating/Rendering
Yuhan Lin (Yuhan): Props Design/Character Design/Scene & Props Modeling/Texturing/Rigging/Lighting/Animating/Rendering/BGM
Roles of Previous Team Members:
Wenjiang Gui: Scene Design Kang Fan: Props Rigging
Plot:First idea is about appetite. The story plot is a streamer who makes a profit by eating foods live board cast and eventually destroys himself because he eats too much.
Inspiration:However, such an extreme story setting, it is inspired by the real world. I observed an example, an Internet celebrity due to food broadcast, physical decay and eventually died of stomach cancer.
Idea3 Browsing phone
Plot:The second idea is browsing phones. the story is about a girl who is attraction of many phone. She gets one and browse one. Then, she is captured by the monster hand in the phone, although the monster fails.
Inspiration:This story Inspired by myself, I often forget to do other things because I browse my phone, so I visualize the attractiveness of the phone as the hand of a monster to describe the strength of the phone’s attractiveness.
MA 3D Animation: Yaxin Hou (Cynthia)/Qiaoqing Yu (Jonathan)/Jiazhuo Tang (Tang)
MA 2D Animation: Yinyun Xu (Sophia)/Guowei Gou (Guowei)
Showreel: https://vimeo.com/808156376
https://vimeo.com/808156376
Process Video (my part) : https://youtu.be/-8ej9zVhbkI
Brief introduction of story: The animation Lost Paradise presents the boy Nimo’s experience of seeking friendship in his fantasy amusement park.
Category: A promotional video of game
Inspiration:
The story was inspired by school bullying as it has been a prevalent social problem. Stepping from childhood into adolscence,victims of bullying struggle to develop mechanisms for selfprotection and build defensive mentality to the outside world. Thus, through this animation, we attempt to express a style ofunhealty defensive mentality which desire for building bondswith others but, at the same time, fear and disbelieve in suchrelationships. The presented mentality sometimes also even makes the person destroy the relationships they have built.
About the game (a brief summary as the main focus of the animation project is on the story concetps):
The player picks up the boy’s broken doll at the end of the animationand starts his/her quest in saving the boy. Through interactions with the fantasy amusement park in different episodes, the play triggers stories and learns about the inner world of the boy.
Summary:
Five members completed the collaborative task within ten weeks. The theme of the project is school bullying. Through this video, we aim to map out a kind of self-protection or response to trauma after being bullied in childhood, which is a way to emphasize the consequences of such bullying behavior in childhood.
Generally, the animation’s overall atmosphere and story content matched our expectations, effectively conveying the theme.
However, I am not satisfied in two aspects. More than the original goal of making a promotional video for the game was needed; a promotional video for a created game should also accompany a backstory supporting the video. In addition, the animation could have been improved as it took less than a week to complete. And our ability to express the lens language is insufficient, so the story’s rhythm needs to be better. We didn’t use some classical cinematic lens language and transitioned to make the animation more connected.
I am satisfied with the early story design and model design stages because we spent a lot of time brainstorming the story from different angles, effectively conveying divergent ideas, and resolving conflicts among the team. As for the part of the model design, it went smoothly. I understood the workflow, from two-dimensional design drawing to three-dimensional model building, texturing, rigging, animating, rendering, and compositing. This workflow gave me a clear idea of what needed to be done to build the connections between the different stages, such as script concerning, modeling, animating, rendering, and compositing, which also helped me estimate the volume and time of the following animating work. In the first week, due to our ambitions, we made the mistake of setting the task volume large, but at the time, we needed to realize that our time was tight. We kept reducing the size of the project every week, trying to control it to be completed within ten weeks. But once I have become thoroughly familiar with the workflow, One of the critical things I have learned from this process is about being realistic about what can be achieved quickly.
If I did this project again, I would know more clearly how to allocate my time to different parts. We would arrange a timeline more clearly and assign work more precisely. And in the early stage, I would watch some movies with similar styles, use their lens language as a reference, and conduct a shot preview in advance to ensure that the connection between the shots will be better in the future.
I want to thank Serra, George, and others for their suggestions for our collaborative project and also very grateful to Ian for his valuable comments on my blog. Their advice and guidance were beneficial to us during the mid-stage project when we had a lag in the story design part. I am also very grateful to all my teammates for providing technical help during the production process, which helped me learn much in this collaboration. Debating in collaboration is common. Arguments about creative ideas in the collaborative process can be problematic; however, they are an essential part of this process to produce diverse content stories. The collision of ideas creates a more exciting team project.
After getting feedback from last week, I did the previs5.
previs5：
Feedback：
There are three kinds of problems that occurred previsV this week.
The first one still needs to refine part of the character animation, in order to ensure smooth animation or a good connection with the front and next shots. The dog was lying down in the previous frame, and the next frame should be lying down and then raising his head and body. When the dog turns, I use a more mechanical right-angle turn. I should make the turn smoother. When the male character moves forward, he needs to cross the alley from the left and to the left in more detail, instead of staying still.
details of character animation
The second one is some of the more detailed camera movement. For example, when the camera is moving forward following the dog, it has to wait for the dog to stop moving forward, the camera has a delay effect, and slowly stops the movement of the picture. In part of the shot composition, the integrity of the body must be ensured, so the shot should be moved down.
camera animation/shot
The third one is that needs to be modified is to add more details. For example, when a stray dog lies in a cardboard box and hears the barking of other dogs, this barking sound can be represented by a simple cuboid. Implement a visual representation that simulates a barking dog. This is very interesting. There is a way to realize two-dimensional content through three-dimensional. The second is that at the end of the story, the dog barked, and then the black image shrank to the center, leaving only the dog’s head, and then let the image end. This treatment is also to let the audience notice that under the happy ending, the mental state of the stray dogs is expressed through actions. And it also draws on the style of traditional Disney children’s animation in the early 1980s and 1990s, with a classic story ending.
other visual effects
To sum up, this is a more detailed modification in order to polish the previs better, so next week I will continue to modify my previs based on these contents.
