Josh Smith 2nd Year Production Blog

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Maya 2018 Essential Training

Get the essential training you need to create high-quality 3D models and animations in Maya 2018. Learn core Maya skills such as modeling, texturing, rendering, and animation.

[jsmith2ndyearproductionblog]

And finally I edited together both the 16:9 and 1:1 versions of the animation. I added subtitles to the 1:1 version, including a black outline to the white text to ensure it was easy to read no matter the scene, which also saved time over the previous edit i had made in the past, in which i changed the colour during transitions, which was cool, but not as clear. Using a bolder font and putting the subtitles in a more central location makes it easier to notice and thus read. I also masked a few areas for transitions, and altered some scenes to improve the colour consistency as well. Overall i think the team did a pretty great job, even if it’s not the most consistent, it works well and i feel it conveys the message of the audio successfully.

[jsmith2ndyearproductionblog]

[jsmith2ndyearproductionblog]

[jsmith2ndyearproductionblog]

The finished scene, with adjustments upon request of the client to help link my scene in with the rest of the scenes a bit better. this included using 3D models of assets used throughout the rest of the film to create a scene where things that would appear prominently in the rest of the film appear in a distressful, broken down and sad form, emphasizing the contrast between the sad start and happier ending. If i could redo it i’d likely rethink how it all worked and perhaps be a little more literal, have the view of a person walking down the street and into the pub, which comes in next. But i’m pretty happy with this from a metaphorical standpoint, representing the feeling of being left to the side, away from society.

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My experimental reel for the Listening Project. I’ve tried to lay out most of the key stages of the build and animation as well as the initial storyboarding and animatics. I feel like i’ve learnt a fair bit throughout this project, from creating rain and particle effects, to building a well composed scene, to general problem solving skills with the toon outline having its constant abrupt flaws for no reason. Furthermore, the project challenged me to make a purely atmospheric scene, whereas in the past i’ve been very much focused on character based animation with a focal movement point, rather than an overall scene introduction with simple generic object movement.

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Collab Weekly Summary 006

Finally, The scene is rendered out and ready for editing and any compositing. I made a number of adjustments based on advice, such as adding puddles and accumulated water and making sure the rain is falling properly the whole animation instead of slowly starting through the scene. I also tried to soften the camera movement, but i’m not sure if it’s perfect, but with the time constraints, it works. If i were to try it again, i would spend more time on the camera and see how viewers feel about the scene based on the camera movement, and explore how emotion could be conveyed through the camera movement, like curiosity or potential more down or sad emotions conveyed by how the camera moves. Furthermore after all the trouble with the toon shader, i found so long as i change it to polygons for the actual render, it didn’t matter if the settings are on paint effects, removing the artefact it was leaving behind. Finally I rendered the rain seperately in a different renderer as the rain type i was using doesn’t render in arnold correctly. Whilst this doesn’t look perfect right now, i plan to see how i can improve it in after effects and help make it feel more appropriate.

[jsmith2ndyearproductionblog]

[jsmith2ndyearproductionblog]

Cinematography Tips for CG Artists

As i was struggling to find just how to improve the camera movement i decided to research a little on cinematography and found a pretty good article on Cinematography in cg. and whilst it didn’t give me the best idea of how to improve the camera movement, it’s taught me more about composition and more about the camera side of things, and what sort of angles i should use, as well as making use of focal length.

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I’ve added cracks to the pavement which point vaguely in the direction of the box, as well as adjusted some of the other objects to naturally draw the eye in that direction. I’ve also had one of the rubbish bags fall over, but right now it’s not very smooth and i feel it needs some reworking. I also turned the lights off for this playblast as i feel maya hardware renders it significantly brighter than arnold does, to the point where everything looks pretty white and bright, when thats not the intention of the scene at all. I hope this further conveys the actual look of the scene a little more. I’ve also discovered that the particle type im using for the rain does not render in arnold, so i plan to render out the rain in a different layer, using maya hardware, and then layer it over the arnold render in after effects. this also allows me to control the brightness and opacity as well as even colour a lot better as well, so perhaps this is for the best. I plan to make final tweaks based on kris’ comments tomorrow before rendering it out over the weekend. this gives me time to re render it should i need to during next week. As of right now though, i’m pretty happy with it.

[jsmith2ndyearproductionblog]

12 pro tips to improve your artistic composition

From the Golden Ratio to implied lines, Dan Dos Santos shows you his favourite tricks for creating strong compositions.

Whilst i’d come across some of this previously, it was good to brush up on some composition tips to help direct the viewers attention. I even found some inspiration from some of the examples given too. I plan to implement more Implied lines as well as enforce the focal point of the scene using other objects. This should hopefully help guide the flow of the film and ensure viewers can keep up. Furthermore, i may readjust the camera to improve my use of rule of thirds, but the overall scene fits this quite well as a singular render, but the film composition maybe not as well.

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I’ve added some basic tiling to the pavement, I plan to play with this a little more and perhaps add some cracks to give it a more weathered and authentic feel, and to add to the rather run down nature of the scene. This may be worth playing with on other objects, but we’ll see. Furthermore, i’ve turned the outlines into geometry just for this render, so it should be a pretty good example of how the final render should look. I’m pretty happy with it so far, but i figure i need to make the atmosphere light a little more blue to give it more of a midnight glow. this would also help contrast the atmospheric light from the light in the scene, which are very warm. In addition to this, i still plan to play with the textures a bit to help make sure nothing distracts from the central point of the scene, the box. This will help prevent the viewer from getting lost in all the clutter in the alley.

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If you have several nParticle systems in your scene, when you rewind and play the animation, it may appear that the nParticle system has disappeared. 1. Select nParticle system. 2. Select the frame that has the nParticles in the desired start position. 3

Whilst this is a bit outdated it still gave me sort of an idea where to go from. As of right now, you can achieve a different nparticle start time/state by selecting the relevant nparticles and going to:

FX>Fields/Solvers>Initial state>Set for selected.

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I’ve added rain to the scene now, and whilst it needs some tweaking, it’s looking pretty neat so far! In addition to this i’ve cut down on the overuse of the coke can model and added a Wine bottle next to the box. I’ve tweaked a bit of the animation here and there too. I want to focus mainly on composition and camera movement from here on out to ensure the viewer can follow easily enough without having to search for whats important.

[jsmith2ndyearproductionblog]

Collab Weekly Summary 005

This week has been pretty full on, working on the composition of the scene, the camera work and even the weather. Whilst i’ve learnt now how to use renderman, for this project i’m going to stick to using arnold for both ease of use and also because it captures the sort of style my group wants anyway, and the lighting is set up to give a nice late night urban feel. Currently the scene is really feeling like it’s coming together, it’s just getting things moving and creating atmosphere that the viewer can really get immersed in. This includes the possibility of a person walking past, but other ideas have been proposed such as having an animal pass a light source leaving a shadow on the wall to make the area feel more alive. we shall see how the client replies as i have asked them about these ideas and in the meanwhile, i learnt how to add rain to the scene. This adds pathetic fallacy with the melancholy nature of the scene and how it’s the darkest point overall.

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Making it rain in Maya 2018 with Arnold and Nparticles

Starting with a plane over your scene (in this instance for practice, just another plane) go to the FX mode within maya. This gives us access to Nparticles.

After selecting the upper plane, select nParticles and in the drop down menu select emit from object, click the options box.

From here, change the emitter type from omni to surface, this means the whole surface will emit the rain, rather than just the corners. Furthermore, change the Rate (particles per second) to an amount which works for the amount of rain you want. reasonable amounts of rain should be about 1000, a slight drizzle about 100, or heavy rain maybe 3000.

To change the particles from simple spheres to streaks, select the rain (not the emitter surface) and find the shading tab on the right. here change the particle render type to streak.

Next up, go to the lifespan tab and change it to random, and add a lifespan that seems reasonable. make sure it falls straight through any objects you have placed currently, as the particles must exist long enough to land and potentially run down any objects in the scene.

Next, select the Rain and then the plane and select nCloth>Create Passive Collider to make the rain slide down the chosen object.

to ensure the rain appears in Arnold rendering, go into the animation preferences, and change the evaluation mode to DG. I’ll be honest i don’t know why this works, but it does. So.

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