What it should have looked like

Sad, sad times! I wish we had had more time to render out our animation. It had so much potential. I suppose though, most of that is down to time keeping. At the beginning of this project we seemed to be quite on track, but then when group members who are in charge of designing things and kick-starting the project don't show up for weeks and weeks, it makes it kind of difficult to start working. We did though, in the end, but I think we could have definitely arranged our time better.

Anyway, this is what the final render of the room was supposed to look like:



Because we didn't have time, and because the occlusion layers were being stubborn and crashing our computers every time we tried to render with them, the content on the disk shows two seperate render layers, which for some reason, I ended up doing? I'm sure I know nothing about rendering, so I have no idea how I ended up becoming the person who renders everything out! I suppose that comes down to volunteering to doing the lighting?

I learnt a lot on this project actually. The one thing that sticks out overall I think is project timing. Making a schedule really doesn't hurt anyone, and sticking to it would help a lot to. I've found that the groups who have managed to achieve a good looking final piece are the ones who started post-production a week early. The ones who left rendering down to the last minute (like us, unfortunately), just didn't benefit from it at all, except perhaps, from learning a lesson about time keeping.

When we were rendering we decided we would split the layers up, like I mentioned in a previous post. We said we would share this between three people, so we would have one layer with lights (for mood), one with colour, and one occlusion. Something told me, while I was at home, slaving over Steve's project, that something was going to go wrong with the renders. In the end I was right. No one could manage to render out an occlusion layer on their Mac. So in Photoshop I did a few tests of what the room would look like with just with just the lights layer and the colours. It ended up looking just like the scene might at night. We didn't end up even getting this result though I'm afraid, because when it came to compositing in after effects, the layers seemed to have been set to different render settings and we couldn't get them to match up.




This was a quick render of an occlusion layer I did a while ago, to test it out. I should have known from how long it had taken to do this one second clip that we wouldn't be able to render an occlusion layer.

Lighting PT 3

So, as you know I have been working hard on creating some nice believable lighting our Princes and the Pea room. I had come quite a long way with it (if I do say so myself). I had the lights working through the window, the blue fill light, the candle light, everything, besides the diffused bounced light. I tried a few things (mainly an ambient and a volume light), but nothing was working. The lights were just too strong and didn't create the nice dynamically occluded shadows I was hoping they would. The group throught it looked nice, but I couldn't agree. It was too dark, and we are creating this for children, after all! I wanted it to be bright and appealing!






Then I spoke to Alex and he talked me into rendering my lighting on separate layers. I wasn't too sure how to do this, but once I was shown and gave it a try on our room, I thought it looked quite beautiful! We first did a test of this approach on two nurbs spheres Alex made so that I could understand the method.

This image is made up of more than one layer, that we then composited together in photoshop.


Specular layer

Occlusion Layer (for diffused light and form shadows)

Colour Layer

End result

The same approach was taken here, on my text image of the room. The entire group agreed that we liked this end result. It is just a test, and not everything has been included, like the blue fill light and the sunlight shining through the windows. But this is something like what we are hoping to achieve in the final image.

Lighting PT 2

Before I started this project, I was studying lighting, just for the fun of it. I'm now glad I did. I had wanted to understand the way light worked so that when I painted my pictures, they would make more sense. I studied from a few things, but the best of the best on natural lighting, for me, were:

The Gnomon Series - Practical Light and Colour
Itchy Animation - Light

This is how I studied, and how I learnt what I know. Through being interested in the topic, and researching tutorials and lectures about it on the internet. Once I started to understand natural lighting and shadows, it became much easier to understand why artists made certain decisions when it came to it.

Lighting

So, as you might be able to tell from my previously posted facebook conversation, I am having some troubles with lighting. The problem is getting the light to shine through the window and reflect it on the floor. At the moment the room is only lit by candlight, which doesn't illuminate it very well at all. My light shinging through the window should work, but at the moment the lights seem to be ignoring the fact that there is an object in the scene. There might be something wrong with my settings, I don't know, I will just have to ask Steve tomorrow, or Alex on tuesday.

The reason why I need this to work so badly is because I'm going to be showing the change of day through the light of the room, which should add to the animation we need to show interacting with the environment. The candles with also flicker one once the scene becomes night.

I just wish I didn't have this problem. I really wanted to get this done before Tuesday coming, so that the group could move on. At least the colours for the room work though, in my opinion. I haven't posted anything that I have done onto the group blog yet because I've wanted to show the group the finished result, lights and colours and everything. They will see it all tomorrow, on Monday anyway.

I've also decided that, if I can't get the desired effect I need with the day change in Maya with basic lighting, I might just adjust the lighting and colours in After Effects, once everything is rendered and being edited.

How are the group working together?

Honestly, I think we are working quite well together. We might have our differences every now and then, but, they always get resolved one way or the other. We meet up on Tuesdays in class to conclude and show whatever we might have done for the work the week before, and then during the days between Tuesdays, if we need to contact each other we use Facebook to correspond, and our group blog to show each other works in progress.

Group Blog.

Here are a few screen shots:








This is the transcript Facebook conversation we have been having since the beginning of the project:

Alexander Daniel Bax 11 January at 23:42 Reply
Hey guys, just set up a blog, this is where all out drawings and research images go, yaaay ^_^

see y'all soon


Rochelle Burrows 13 January at 12:39
Hey guys! I just want to try and get all of you to look at this website!! Especially if you're finding it difficult to come up with ideas for today. It's really inspiring and you might get something from it. =)

http://animationbackgrounds.blogspot.com/

It might also be a good idea if for your blog, you looked at a few images on there (or anywhere else you can find some good examples), and analyse them. I'd make sure they contrasted each other a lot so that you can start to see the clear differences between what makes these companies make the decisions they do. Also, at the end of the day, if we know this stuff, it'll only make our environment stronger. It'll also show Jared that we're using our brains. Look out for things like colour, shape and compositional differences. Certain shapes tell certain stories, just like certain colours.

And "lol" at group two for being stuck with a snow day again! I'd be so pissed off..

Gregory Streeks 13 January at 12:57 Reply
wow, i'm waiting to hear some stuff, i literally found out last night about the change but i'm looking still. i really respect those oldskool artist man. what detail.

Jonathan Blake 13 January at 17:08 Reply
Hey guys,

I created a new blog... Here is the link: http://jonathanblaketv.blogspot.com/
Digital Environments
jonathanblaketv.blogspot.com

Jonathan Blake 13 January at 17:12
Gregory I don't know if this will help but here is a link to Glen Keane's work: http://theartofglenkeane.blogspot.com/

Could help with character design.
THE ART OF GLEN KEANE.
theartofglenkeane.blogspot.com

Alexander Daniel Bax 13 January at 17:34
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfh1fAFBdqI&feature=related

I found this a while ago, thout it had some good ideas :)
silhouette dance group
www.youtube.com

Jonathan Blake 13 January at 17:43
Beautiful!

Rochelle Burrows 14 January at 14:08
Hey guys! Here are my five ideas:

- A witches attic.
- The interior of a Yurt or Tepee. Inspired by the short film
Hugh we saw at Haff Animation Festival.

http://www.vimeo.com/1177314

- A bath tub with toys floating on the water. (Inspired by Tara's bath idea).
- The entrance hallway to an enchanted palace.
- An authors working desk.

Nothing fancy. Meh. Can't wait to see everyone elses! :)

Rochelle Burrows 14 January at 14:13
Actually, scrap "authors" working desk to travellers working desk. That's a little more interesting. Maps and compasses and all that jazz. =)

Alexander Daniel Bax 14 January at 19:24
k Great ideas so far,
sounds good, i may need more convincing what it would be about. I did abit of brain storming an came up with an egyptian idea of a pyramid getting the top point lowered on by a heath robinson inspired pully system with levers and ropes. i was sitting in on the environmental students presentations and they gave me some ideas how i could tie an animation into something relevant and contemporary.

Jonathan Blake 23 January at 18:34
Just finished some stuff on the blog... check it out if you have the time!

Gregory Streeks 24 January at 21:04
hi group, basicaly tommorow i will be in, but only till around 1ish im not gonna be in for the 2pm lcass im hearing about, so if anyone wants to get at me, ill be in from around 10, but i will be in on tuesday also. you can always contact me on here or by email. Gregorystreeks@hotmail.com

Alexander Daniel Bax 24 January at 21:51
cool thanks man.

Rochelle Burrows 26 January at 12:38
Guys, I feel bad for not being able to make it today but I'm going to do my best to still work. Please keep me up to date if any ideas change. I'm going to do some conceptual drawings of the room and some of those colour keys. Possibly even a princess.

But please keep me posted if anything changes. Will be in on Friday for sure.

Sorry I couldn't make it.

Chelle X

Alexander Daniel Bax 26 January at 18:51
Taras been modeling in maya, we got a wall done with windows that are on hinges , so they can open and we cn animate a camera going in. Alex Hulse was explaining to day about different camera animation, creating a motion path, connecting the camera to it and having it focus on a point of interest. also depth of field in camera. Jonathan did blue print drawings for the bed, I'm happy with the design we settled on, hes started story boarding. over the next few days i may do a camera test. like basic blocks in maya and animate the camera to see what would be in shot. were meant to be in friday for contextuals so well meet up then. in the mean time keep an eye on the blog for new material.

I edited together some clips of different after effects title sequences for inspiration, ill get onto designing a title probably next week. I got afew other things i found i need to ut on the blog, so yeah ill keep us updated. :)

seeyou soon Chelle :D

Gregory Streeks 27 January at 18:03
can someone link me to the group blog plz, im about to upload the character concepts, well tonight. scenery next, room etc

Gregory Streeks 27 January at 18:04
http://gregoryconceptman.blogspot.com/
art work and more..
gregoryconceptman.blogspot.com
Ok no color or shading just plain concepts, just to show the progress working on 4 to 5 drawings at the moment. planing to do room concepts also.

Tara KImberley Dulake 27 January at 22:41
http://whenigrowupiwant2b.blogspot.com/
POLAR BEAR_whenIgrowupIwant2b..
whenigrowupiwant2b.blogspot.com
I was literally playing around in maya and I accidently made the room for our Princess and the Pea Project. Oh well. It won't do us any harm to have it as a back up room.

Gregory Streeks 28 January at 02:26
here aare the concepts for the characters, i will rework and improve. onto the room now. http://gregoryconceptman.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-character-concpts.html
art work and more..: new character concpts
gregoryconceptman.blogspot.com

Rochelle Burrows 28 January at 02:28
I like them gregory!

Jonathan Blake 28 January at 12:54
Bed designs up!

Rochelle, you can use the design and colour it. Give us a feel.

Rochelle Burrows 28 January at 13:10
Thanks John!!

Tara KImberley Dulake 29 January at 09:16
Hey i dont know who was planning to make it in to contextual studies today, but if everyone could make the effort to come in on tuesday, we could descuss where we are at at the moment and make sure everyone knows what they need to be doing. c ya. xxx

Rochelle Burrows 29 January at 10:52
Hey Tara, I was supposed to come in, but thought the real lesson started at 2, not 11. Alex will tell you.
I've posted some stuff on the blog, and going to do some more today seeing as I've finally got a drawing done.
See you monday!

Rochelle Burrows 29 January at 10:53
http://whenigrowupiwant2b.blogspot.com/2010/01/princesss-and-schematic.html
POLAR BEAR_whenIgrowupIwant2b..: Princess's and Schematic
whenigrowupiwant2b.blogspot.com
Sorry I realise how difficult the schematic is to understand... i just wanted to post the rough so that you guys could see! Will be cleaning it up on sunday. :)

Jonathan Blake 01 February at 10:37
I added a few things to the blog....

Rochelle Burrows 01 February at 21:43
Added a drawing of the room in a lighting situation. Looking at it zoomed out is probably better. I don't have a good scanner.

Tara KImberley Dulake 03 February at 15:19
Hey peeps. Check the blog out for the lateset modelling for the room. Ive made a list of things yet to be done with it and then if anyone wants to have a go at modelling they can. i dont see why i cant give the scene to rochelle and alex to start with lighting and animation next week as we should just be able to import them in.

Jonathan, i like the intro to the story of the pea rolling off Princess, Were you planning to do that as 2d or 3d??

Greg- If you wanna make a start on some of the picture frame pictures that would be great. they can be pictures of the princess and the pea story, where she stands out in the rain,the pea gets put under the pillow, She gets married, or even just her portrait. As the camera pans round the story can be told, so its just 2d stills needed and i can apply them as a texture.

Rochelle can u upload the sketches for the photoframe/mirror that you did monday.

Who ever is doing the character designs, i can probably do a quick model of her once i finished modelling the room, so if i could get a front view, a side view and maybe a back view of what she will look like that would be great. (This prob wont be needed for a week or so)

Anyone thought about sound??????

like the lighting idea rochelle.

C u all soon.
xTarax

Gregory Streeks 03 February at 16:07
yep i'll get on the character designs. but which one have you chosen. not much choice but yeah, i'll get workin on tha asap next tuesday it should be done. also the picture frames. how many do you need? but yeah thats all fine.

Rochelle Burrows 03 February at 17:01
OMFG guys everything looks so damn good!!!

Alexander Daniel Bax 03 February at 17:29
yeah the models look really great, sound wise we need to look for a sound track. just something to play throughout. yeah ill get onto animating the scene next week, so thats fine :)

Tara KImberley Dulake 03 February at 18:15
as many as you like greg, and what ever character design you feel best suits it.

Rochelle Burrows 03 February at 18:21
Sound wise we should definitely go for this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vr8wU4aUsM

Alexander Daniel Bax 03 February at 21:26
yeah maybe ;)
would be nice to have someone in the sound department knock something out for us :D
but since that might be asking a lot, going with a disney soundtrack would fit this the best.

Rochelle Burrows 08 February at 10:54
You will not see my face today. However, I'm working on our group project colour thing because yuck! Once Tara put them together on the models they looked pretty bad. Think I'm gonna got for something more simple. :)
See you guys tomorrow.

Tara KImberley Dulake 08 February at 22:28
oh thanks!! ok,talk to you all in the morning.xx

Jonathan Blake 11 February at 13:59
Finished the room!
POLAR BEAR_whenIgrowupIwant2b..: Princess and the Pea: Completed Room
whenigrowupiwant2b.blogspot.com
There is nothing more fun than drawing a whole room in Illustrator - Ha! I'm not a concept artist, so this wasn't the best of tasks for me. Hopefully the line quality is strong enough to hold the rich colours the Rochelle has in store for the piece.

Rochelle Burrows 15 February at 20:41
If there is nothing here you really like that's OK but can we please start coming to a conclusion of some sort? If there are some colour schemes here that you think might work better in a different arrangement, tell me. But we need to start narrowing this down. No one gave me any feedback at all last time except for Alex, and I need your opinions so that I can come up with something FINAL.

http://whenigrowupiwant2b.blogspot.com/2010/02/rooms.html

Alexander Daniel Bax 15 February at 21:06
Nice one rochelle, must of been a lot of work and i think we want to pick the one we like from these ones you've got here on tuesday. Great work :)

Tara KImberley Dulake 15 February at 21:15
i like the ones in the corners

Gregory Streeks 15 February at 23:52
i think the red and brown, third row 2nd last. nice btw

Rochelle Burrows 16 February at 18:18
Those of you who will be doing textures should definitely check out this website. They have a great texture library with cloth textures and patterns and stuff!

http://cgtextures.com/
[CG Textures] - The worlds largest free texture site
cgtextures.com

Alexander Daniel Bax 16 February at 18:58
Oh right, nice one finding this txture site rochelle. Am sure it will be most Helpful :D

Tara KImberley Dulake 16 February at 19:44
Hey as you know two people from sound design have got back to me today, we will at least be meeting with one next tuesday, so we need at least a rough render for him to take away. we only technically have two weeks left, so can we all come in on monday to get everything together and know the final touches for next week, thanxs guys.
from tara

Alexander Daniel Bax 16 February at 20:04
Will do bubs, deffinately ^_^

Have a good week and weekend All! :)

HAVE SOMETHING TO SHOW EVERYONE ON TUESDAY

regards

Rochelle Burrows 16 February at 20:18
Yep! As I said today I will have the colours and light done on the room by tuesday, now that I have a copy of the room. :) See y'all.

Gregory Streeks 16 February at 21:03
ill be in friday, but ill get on the textures. today was good.

Gregory Streeks 17 February at 18:42
you guys manage to get screenium then?

Alexander Daniel Bax 17 February at 18:43
nice one :D

Gregory Streeks 17 February at 18:48
;)

Rochelle Burrows 17 February at 20:25
yes i got it gregs thanks!!

Gregory Streeks 17 February at 20:40
cool. rochelle can you send me that texture site please. i want to do a few test textures for the beds

Rochelle Burrows 17 February at 21:23
I've done the colours guys! I'll add the light later.

And greg I already posted the link. LOL. But here it is again:
http://cgtextures.com/
[CG Textures] - The worlds largest free texture site

Gregory Streeks 17 February at 22:38
ok sorry

Gregory Streeks 17 February at 22:40
question to all i guess. how many matresses will be stacked on the bed, i remember hearing 20!??

Alexander Daniel Bax 18 February at 00:25
well, the room has been expanded, 20 seems about the right number man.

Tara KImberley Dulake 18 February at 10:11
applying textures to the matresses make the texture look weird coz its round, ill have to ask alex about moving the uvs if we can. so if they dont work out how you expected greg, i wouldnt worrie too much.

Gregory Streeks 18 February at 13:01
yeh, i noticed that, i'll upload some screenshots later of what i've done. two questions really. i'm attemting to texture the whole castle, but the door is one full object so i'm guessing if i add a texture to it the whole thing will be textured including the door handle ,screws ,bolts to the door. obviously i would like to texture these seperately do you know how i would go about texturing a single object in different textures...if that makes sense..i think i know a way but i don't want to fuck up anything or joint you have made. let me know.

Gregory Streeks 18 February at 13:03
second question, how do i'm guessin i'll need to import the mattresses to the castle through the 3 mattresses file and keep duplicating, is that how i will bring them into the room correctly? may sound silly but i know later on it i do this wrong it may cause complications.

Alexander Daniel Bax 18 February at 15:41
yeah just import them.

Tara KImberley Dulake 19 February at 13:08
To seperate the objects, you need to click on the object, and go to mesh seperate, but you will need to combine them again afterwards.

Tara KImberley Dulake 19 February at 13:13
we will need to add the textures to alex's scene anyway as his will already have the animation in it.

Rochelle Burrows 19 February at 18:00
Hey guys for some reason the light won't show through the window! It's just black. Do you have any idea why this might be??

Rochelle Burrows 19 February at 22:50
I'm sorry guys but the lights are really pissing me off. They are completely ignoring the geometry and aren't doing what they're supposed to. If this doesn't get done tonight it's gonna have to be done on monday, after speaking to steve, or on tuesday, if steve hasn't got answers, after speaking with alex. I don't know what it's problem is.

Alexander Daniel Bax 19 February at 22:53
its ok rochelle, no sweat. Ill definitely be in on monday and I can ask steve. so yeah be sure to ask Alex on tuesday what could be up with the model. ok have a good weekend.

Rochelle Burrows 19 February at 23:44
I'll be in on monday too, so Steve can remember who I am. LOL. And thank you, I was really stressing! Got the candles done though, and the abient. It just looks a little dead with no sunlight, but I'm sure once i speak to someone about it and they help me out, it can be finished by monday or tuesday.

Alexander Daniel Bax 20 February at 00:51
yaay k thats cool :)

Tara KImberley Dulake 20 February at 11:21
hey alex hows the animation going?

Alexander Daniel Bax 20 February at 12:37
is going good, have completed 5 mattresses so far, am working on the rest right now. may have a go at the curtains. but i wanted my weekend reserved for steves project, so i will finish the animation for the group and get on with that one next, hows ur moom animation going?

Alexander Daniel Bax 21 February at 12:49
hey Tara, hope ur weekends going good.
I got a question. was trying to do the ncloth. I created the plane, told it to create ncloth, constrained the 2 top vertices to the bar. but i cant find the nucleus.
so i followed the instructions, just give me a quick run down on how to create the Ncloth again.

Much appreciated.

Mattresses are finished. :)

Rooms

This is what I have been up to today. Going through a bunch of colour ideas for the room, so that the group can decide on what they might like me to work further on. Mostly these colour designs are based on neutral palletes, with accent colours. But I think I explained that in a previews post!

Beds

We don't have a finalised concept of the room right now so the bed colours are all I have to work with. Once I have a cleaned up drawing of the room I will try to figure out what all the colours of the thing will look like. For now, this is what I have to work with. Blake did the line art and as you can see here I've gone through all the colours I made (and uploaded in a previous post), and tried to come up with 5 different colour themes for the bed, based on each palette. It wasn't easy. It took all day to do. I did 30 ideations in all, and have asked the group to come up with more if there is nothing I have done here that pleases them. I need more input than just "yes" or "no".

As you can see here, and from the other post, I used complimentary colours that had greens and yellows in them (so, yellow and voilet, green and red etc), harmonized them by mixing them together and playing around with the values and intensity. I know all of the beds don't work together, and maybe they wont pick any at all. But the point is that we have something to work with. I need to know however, why the group think something doesn't work so that I can work harder on the thing and come up with something more pleasing, so I'm asking for more feedback than I might have before.

It's time we started moving on with this now. We still have a lot to do and time is starting to run out.