#dynamicsassessment1

[animation-adventures]

Subject: Dynamics VFX Assessment.

To complete the assessment.. 

I imported everything I had into Nuke and created a bash comp - integrating all the different pieces together. 

I only ended up changing a few things to change the overall look in my composite, them being the timing slightly (using a retime) to get them to appear and disappear when needed and also a translate node.  I don't know why but my particle systems were a little off when putting them together and didn't fit in with the ufo opening exactly, but once I did this it blended together nicely. 

I also incorporated my heat plumes, which I rendered out separately (back and front) and then put them together. I had a little trouble with getting these working and had to render them out multiple times and refer to the class example we did. But in the end, I got them working the way I wanted them to and was happy with the result. 

With the mannequin, I ended up rendering that in with the background (maybe this was why the particle system was a bit off centre, I don't know why). But found this worked well for me because I tried doing it separately, and when I did the mannequin wasn't integrating with the background (getting sucked up and disappearing into the ufo). Anyway, I completed this and was happy with the result. :) 

Final file is too big to upload to the blog, but you can see it in my submissions drive :) 

[animation-adventures]

Subject: Dynamics VFX Assessment.

For the second part of my assessment, I looked at the feedback given by the client and pretty much just recreated the particle system in my new scene, changing a few things along the way. 

Firstly I created the same kind of look as the first scene, using toon shapes again. Only this time I used a cylinder shape instead of a cone shape - following the clients feedback from my first submission. 

Other than that, the only thing I really changed was the timing and the colour. I made it so that there could be two rings descending from the ufo at the same time - rather than just one. And also made the colour of one of the rings slightly lighter than the other. 

I felt I could do this to add more variance, and only because the systems together wouldn't look too over the top due to the now stationary coreBeam. I was really happy with this look overall and stuck to what the client wanted so hopefully they're happy too ! 

For the third particle system, I did the same thing: Looked at what the client wanted changed and did that. Duh.  So for this, instead of having the particle system rotate in different directions over the time, I made them rotate just the one way. This also made the tractorBeam less complex (another reason as to why I changed the colour up a bit on the system written about above). I copied over most of the values of the last system I made in the first scene as I was quite happy with how this turned out and the client didn't say anything about changing it, so hopefully they were happy with it as well. 

I also changed the shape of this particle system so it integrated nicely with the other three, now that they were the cylinder instead of the cone / pyramid shape. I felt that this gave the tractorBeam a lot more variation compared to the previous scene, and was happy with how it turned out. 

To complete the scene, I rendered out the particles in different layers so that I could have some rendering at uni and others rendering at home so it could be done quicker and then I'd have more time to play around in Nuke - editing them slightly so I was happy with them. 

Overall, I was quite happy with the final output of my particle systems and felt I adhered to the brief and clients feedback as much as I could. 

[animation-adventures]

Subject: Dynamics VFX Assessment.

To begin working on completing the second part of the assessment, I've re created the scene and written down all the main values and edits on the emitters so I can recreate them in the new scene. I wanted to completely start from scratch, so that none of the issues that were arising in the first assessment would do so again. 

I just took into account the things I needed to change and revised the way I built up my systems. 

Firstly I did the coreBeam.  For the coreBeam, I filled a cylinder full of particles (balls) and worked with nDynamics. I found that this approach was good and did what I wanted it to do in the first scene, so therefore kept it going throughout the assignment. I just simply changed the shape of it, by creating a cylinder geo the correct size and filled it with the particles. I mucked around with the particle size, the opacity, colour, count and start frames for quite a while, trying to get my clients desired look. 

I also added a turbulence field to add a randomness to the appearance and makeup of the particles in the filled object. Otherwise they were extremely uniform and quite frankly just looked ridiculous. This is where I played around with the start frames and things to get the system to look the way I wanted it to by the time it emitted down from the ufo. 

I tried making the particle system slowly descend from the source of the ufo, although had difficulty in doing so. I decided to make this easier I could just edit it in Nuke afterwards. 

After rendering out my coreBeam the first time, I had a lot of trouble trying to get it to actually move the way it was doing so in the scene. The bulkiness of the scene was getting too much and the computer couldn't deal with it - so I just decided to playblast until I could get something useful and interesting.  After it's first render, the coreBeam was flicking rather than moving slowly (effects of the turbulence beam) which was annoying the hell out of me because I couldn't actually get it to do it the way I wanted. I tried using mental ray and maya software to do so, and mental ray was just a joke. It took so so long and the result wasn't even worth it.

I really liked the look of the beam while it was stationary and thought that maybe I could use that without it moving. I revised my work and looked over my past tractor beam and came to the conclusion that I didn't really like how all of the beams were constantly moving - it was almost too much for the scene and too sickening for the viewers eye. That's when I decided to just render out the system at a stationary position and up the particle count even more to make it look like a ray coming down from the ufo. 

I was happy with this by the end and transferred it to Nuke to make sure it fit into the scene correctly. 

[animation-adventures]

Subject: Dynamics VFX Assignment.

With getting my grading rubric back, I've revised a lot of things that I want to improve before I submit my final assessment. 

One thing I have done, is edited and expanded more so on my own references collected throughout the semester. Here you can find the same process taken, as what I did with Chris' references - taking notes and recording them which I can then later refer to when doing my assignment. I thought this would further help me as I found my notes on Chris' extremely helpful when trying to fill the clients brief.

I can see where my work needs improvement now and am going to actively keep trying new approaches to achieve what my clients feedback is. 

What the client said and what I need to improve:

- Rotate vertical beams in one direction.

- Shape of the UFO. Needs to be much more narrower (more cylinder than cone shaped).

- Bulk up the particle count in the pyramid (or cylinder shaped core beam). 

- Make sure the tractor beam only appears when the hatch opens and disappears when it closes. 

Notes from Chris:

- Remake scene (really broken).

[animation-adventures]

Subject: Dynamics VFX Assessment.

More troubleshooting...

When piecing every thing together, I also found that when saving and re opening files, the ufo was disappearing. I ended up having to save the file as a binary file, otherwise it would just completely disappear from the scene each time I opened it and would therefore have to re import it. :( 

Also..

When I was rendering out my assessment, I had to do each particle system separately and then compile them all together using Nuke. This is why my final .mov looks unfinished and is overlapping at the source of the tractor. 

I need to chat with Chris about these issues I've been having as I really can't continue on with the assignment with these troubles occurring in Maya.

[animation-adventures]

Subject: Dynamics VFX Assessment.

Before beginning my assignment, I've watched Chris' videos and have taken notes on what he thinks of each reference image and recorded them here.

WHAT THE CLIENT LIKES:

1. Camera angle. 2. More energy in the center illustrated by the 'hot' colour. 3. Colours of these palettes.  4. The non-threatening varience in blue. Darker, less energy on the outer part. 5. Circular form shown looking up into the cone. 6. Cloud like variance / moving like a cloud.

1. People within the 'cone' or 'volume'. 2. Feelings of curiosity, wonder, amazement.

1. Variance within the cones / volumes of light. Lighter towards the edges and further away. More energy towards the middle of the rays. 2. Consistent non-threatening colours paired with the shadowing from the main light source.   3. Sense of motion in all the beams.  4. Feeling of energy conveyed through the light source.  5. Visual representation. Other things / objects floating upwards enhancing this. 

1. Variance in volume (the 4 rays) - Could possibly move?

1. Randomness in shapes coming off.  2. Brightness of light source fading as it gets further away. 

1. In motion - even though the image is still, it still looks like it's moving.  2. Whispy trails coming off the main beams. Trailing behind, as though the main beams are travelling away from the source. Almost cloudy vapor like - drifting off.  3. Colour - the same blue palette, non-threatening.  4. Not enough whispyness, or cone shaped enough.

1. Gentle misty vapor.

1. Spread becomes less and less noticeable until it disappears completely.  2. Opacity and how it fades slowly from the main part to the less effected areas.  3. The texture, ribbons within the moving light. Creates a more dynamic, and interesting flow to the movement.  4. Variety in the shape. 

1. Likes how it is layered. Could use a main cone combined with another particle system that creates the sense of whispyness we're after on a large scale.  2. How it scatters / dissipates.  3. Thicker to thinner. Maybe randomize these shapes coming off using an instancer. 

1. Darker / Lighter tones (higher contrast).  2. Thicker, more variance in the mist.  3. Smoke / mist / vapor.  4. Noise as it comes down away from the source and fades out. Note the emptiness in between the main rays as well. 

1. The fine, tiny detail - high particle counts.  2. Hot colour in the main source then slowly gets cooler as it moves away.  3. Variance in shapes with energy within them.

[animation-adventures]

Subject: Dynamics VFX Assessment.

Before jumping into Maya, I've had a look at some reference material myself, trying to find things that I find interesting and captivating that matches in with the look I'm going for. This includes:

1. Mist.  2. Light rays.  3. Direction of lights. 

1. Sun rays.  2. Cloudiness of the rays (could use lights or high particle counts - possible cloud attribute). 3. Bright source. 

1. Bright source.  2. Smokiness of the foreground (could use this at the bottom of the tractorBeam).

1. Noise in the rays coming from the source.  2. Randomness of the noise.  3. Smoothness of the noise and it's continuity when blending with the main rays. 

1. Gradual fade off as it gets further away from the source. 

1. Bigger particles (tails) 2. Could use this kind of thing in the more complex areas. (pulsingBeam and rotatingCircular movements)

1. Smokiness, smoothness.  2. Incandescence of the colour. 

1. Shadows that made the scene blend with the particle systems.  2. Bright source. 

1. Focus of light on the top of the arms (for the mannequin).  2. Intertwines it with the scene.  3. Shows the influence of the tractor beam on the mannequin.

I also found a number of interesting videos, but am unable to upload them. They are located in my reference folder in the submission folder.

Here are my rough sketches of my ideas so far..

[animation-adventures]

Dynamics Assessment - UFO Tractor Beam

Play blast of prototype 1. 

Here I created 2 different particle systems and put them together. For the blue (main) system, I animated a cone volume emitter, to get a 'descending from the ufo' look. Before this, I tried using the toon effect but all it did was give me the same effect. Although, with the toon, I found I could have the particles emitting from any shape of source - where as this one I was stuck with the presets (cone, cube, sphere, cylinder, torus). This is definitely something I will keep in mind when refining my work if this is the design I want to go for. It would definitely look more realistic if I used the toon to create a nicer cone shape (thicker up the top). 

I used nDynamics for this test, so I could use the nucleus ground plane to limit where how far my particles would keep descending. While testing, I realised that once I connected this system with a vortex field, I had to disable the gravity anyway to get the swirling effect I was looking for - so really I could have used just plain dynamics to get this effect. 

With the white particles, I chose to emit these from a curve to see what result I could get. I found that this could be a big buggy at times, as you can see with the glitches in the play blast when the particles are sitting still. I also had issues with changing the particle render type of these to anything but points (with spheres, they turned green and I could only get them to go while when changing the opacity - which then flicked back to green as soon as the simulation started again). 

With a bit of fiddling with values one the vortex field, I was able to animate the blue particles magnitude to spin, stop and then spin the opposite way and repeat - to follow the animated curves. I'm pretty happy with my progress so far and I really like this idea. 

- Things I could do if I chose to refine this design:

1. Add a rendering solution (light fog) to create an eerier effect. 2. Create a toon outline solution to create a better looking cone object.  3. Try create the particle effect with just dynamics, not nDynamics. (does it really need to be nDynamics?) 4. Add a noise or another field, to make the blue particles act more randomly.  5. Could possibly use cylinder objects instead of curves, to create a sense of volume to the rotating white particle system - to relate closer to the rendering solution.