Month: April 2023

Week 3: Group Project Matchmove Practice & Spaceship WIP 1

Post author By Nira Gonzalez Sanchez
Post date 30th April 2023
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This week, we received the group project live action footage so we could make the matchmove in 3D Equaliser, Maya, and Nuke. I also started modelling the spaceship for the group project.

Matchmove task

I started to track the live footage we were given in 3D Equaliser, trying to follow the steps we learnt last week. This was a bit challenging as the floor of the footage had a lot of reflections and it was difficult to keep the tracker on place. Also, before tracking, I denoised the plate in Nuke so I could get a clearer image for tracking. I only tracked the green marks added in the scene initially, however, after my 1-to-1 session with Dom, he clarified that the green marks were only references and that I could add more tracker points anywhere I needed (the more tracker points the better results I could get later on). Therefore, I added more tracker points to then reconstruct the scene in Maya and added red cones on every single tracker point.

Matchmove playlist in Maya – WIP

I was a bit confused on how are we supposed to export the geometry in Maya and the process after this in Nuke, so I will book another session with Dom for next week.

Spaceship WIP 1

For my spaceship model I made some sketches on Procreate app first and then some more hand-drawn sketches while discussing with my group the style approach we were going to follow.

Initial spaceship idea (sketch in Procreate)

After figuring out how the spaceship would look like, I start to 3D model it in Maya directly as I will also have a better idea of dimensions.

We were also asked to submit next week our first model WIP to FTrack so I put together some render views.

Also, Roos created a group Padlet board where we will be adding the progress of each team member’s tasks and where we could give feedback and add notes too.

Tags 3D Equaliser, 3D Modelling, Concept, Matchmove, Maya, Nuke, Sketch

Advanced & Experimental Personal

Week 3: Scene Concept Art, Storyboard, Floor Plan, & River Simulation in Maya

Post author By Nira Gonzalez Sanchez
Post date 30th April 2023
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This week, I focused on planning my story board, scene assets and floor plan. I also started to model the base of my environment and learnt how to make a river simulation in Maya.

As I needed to organise this project’s weekly tasks in order to meet the deadline of the project, I decided to make a story board first of how the scene would look in camera. Also, as I think the most complicated bit of this project is going to be the trees and plants of the jungle, I will start focusing in this first and the pyramid afterwards. I found some good references of jungle trees and made a rough sketch of what elements I wanted to incorporate. Since in the jungle, trees, bushes, and rest of the plants are kind of mixed up and entangled together, I thought of incorporating this in my design to give the feeling of a dense rainforest.

Moreover, I also made a floor plan of the space to figure out the dimensions I have to aim for and the composition of the scene.

Storyboard and tree sketch made in Procreate

Before starting to figure out the trees, I thought of begin with the ground basic shape and the river simulation. I used Maya’s different brushes to give some texture to the ground and make the river’s shape. Then, using a sphere, made some deformations in it and used the ‘Shatter’ tool to brake this deformed sphere into pieces so I had rocks in different random shapes. After I positioned all my rocks, I researched the best way to do a river flow simulation and I found the following tutorial:

River stream simulation tutorial (3D Splanchnic, 2019)

This effect seemed simple but it is quite challenging to get a believable effect that looks realistic. I used ‘Fluids’ tool in Maya and used the option of ‘Emit from object’ to create this water stream coming from a plane (this would be the emitter). Then, I played around with density, velocity, colliders, and resolution to create a texture that then I used as a bump map of the water. Lastly, I used ‘deep water’ preset to give water-like transparency and corrected the transmission colour to green to give a jungle tone.

I think the first test with water simulation went ok, however, there are a few corrections I wish to do, such as reduce the speed of water, reduce noise added, and maybe try to reduce the density of the effect.

References

3D Splanchnic (2019). River Fluid Texture in Maya (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=975S-9URarQ [Accessed 30 April 2023]

Tags Concept, Floor Plan, Fluids, Maya, Moodboard, River Simulation, Sketch, Storyboard

Advanced & Experimental Personal

Week 1 & 2: Personal Project Proposal & Moodboard

Post author By Nira Gonzalez Sanchez
Post date 23rd April 2023
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These first two weeks we focused on researching about what we wanted to do for our personal project and in putting together a presentation of our proposal.

Since I am mainly interested in focusing my career on Environment 3D modelling and texturing, I thought of making 3D scene in Maya with a simple camera movement, animation, and VFX. Then I also considered that I have not done much organic modelling (which is slightly more complex than geometric modelling), and it could be beneficial to practice it. Considering these two points, I then started to research about inspiration of organic scenery such as jungles, forest, mountains, etc. Following on, I came across a picture with the Mayan pyramids in the middle of the rainforest. Since I love Mayan and Aztec cultures I thought this would be an interesting style to design. Therefore, I researched some Pyramids scenery that would be surrounded by rainforest and put the following moodboard together:

I also found a tutorial that show how to use MASH in Maya to duplicate and distribute trees or plants models so I do not have to model each one of them. Also, I found how to add the texture to create the tree leaves effect with an alpha channel or even how to use XGen tool to make grass using guides (like I used to create hair in the collaborative unit). Moreover, I found how to make running water effect with Boss Ripple tool (plug-in) in Maya in the case that I also decide to add a river or something similar. Also, the water texture could be generated with another Maya’s plug-in called VRay.

Environment Modelling (Imations Jk Creations, 2022)

Later on, in the second week, we were asked to create a small presentation of our personal project proposal, so I made mine detailing the target of my project, why did I chose this, my inspirations, and possible challenges that I could encounter.

PersonalProjectProposal

References

Imations Jk Creations (2022). Environment Modeling (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t8EAN3GeVE [Accessed 23 April 2023]

Tags Environment Modelling, Environment Texturing, Moodboard, Personal Project, Proposal Presentation

FMP Thesis

Week 1 & 2: Thesis Proposal & Research of Topic

Post author By Nira Gonzalez Sanchez
Post date 23rd April 2023
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These first two weeks we focused on researching about our possible thesis topic and analysing how our thesis proposal development would be structured.

The structure of a thesis would be the following:

Title page
Abstract
Acknowledgements
Contents page(s)
Introduction
Literature review
Methodology
Themed topic chapters (main discussion)
Results
Discussion or findings
Conclusions
References
Appendices

Before starting with the actual thesis, we will be doing a thesis or research proposal this term. This research proposal’s goal is the plan a structure for research like books, questionnaires, possible interviews, etc. It needs to explain why that research is necessary for the topic like for filling a gap in the subject, proving already existing researches, adding new knowledge to the topic, etc. Also, a literature review is important in our proposal to see if the material gathered is enough and useful for our thesis. It will let us demonstrate that we understand the key information of our goals. The proposal structure would be the following:

Introduction
Background significance (why research is needed and how it relates to field of study)
Literature review (introduction to sources we plan to use in our research)
Research design, methods, and schedule (planning)
Suppositions and implications (what results are we expecting and how are they going to contribute to the field of study)
Conclusion
Bibliography

In order to develop a research topic we should be asking questions like the following:

What motivates me to research and discover?
How can I connect it with my previous research?
Can this research impact the current knowledge of that topic and add new one?
Who is going to be the audience?
What is the reader going to learn from this research?
Will my topic meet the assignment’s requirements?
Will it be connected to my FMP?

Topic research

In the second week we were asked to research our topic, keywords, and potential sources. I initially thought of focusing my research in environment texturing in CGI, but as I continued researching, I came across photorealism in film industry and how many different opinions and techniques there are about this. For example, how can digital photorealism help with safety issues during live action shooting, or how photorealistic animation can be considered a live action movie or an animation movie, or how some people consider photorealism in filmmaking to be ‘too realistic’. I will be refining my main questions and sub-questions over the next week, but at the moment, I have found quite a few interesting sources.

Topic of interest

Photorealism in the film industry

Keywords

Photorealism, CGI, VFX, Filmmaking, Filmmaking safety standards, Uncanny Valley

References that provide context or motivation

Amidi, A. (2018). Don’t Let Disney Gaslight You: ‘The Lion King’ Remake Is An Animated Film. Here’s The First Teaser. (online). Available at: https://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/dont-let-disney-gaslight-you-the-lion-king-is-an-animated-film-heres-the-teaser-166897.html [Accessed 25 April 2023]

Heckmann, C. (2021). What is Realism in Film? Cinematic Realism Explained (online). Available at: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-realism-in-film-definition/#:~:text=Photorealism%20is%20the%20realistic%20recreation,medium%3B%20in%20this%20case%20film. [Accessed 25 April 2023]

Holliday, C. (2020). “You Are Not Responsible for Their Choices, Elsa”: The Lion King (2019), Frozen II (2019) and the Theatre of Photorealist Achievement (online). Available at: https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=3466 [Accessed 25 April 2023]

Kench, S. (2022). What is Photorealism — The Art of the Real Explained (online). Available at:

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-photorealism-definition/ [Accessed on 25 April 2023]

Toolbox-admin (2018). Photorealism – An Exciting New Trend in the VFX Industry (online). Available at:https://www.toolbox-studio.com/blog/photorealism-an-exciting-new-trend-in-the-vfx-industry/ [Accessed 25 April 2023]

Academically recognised sources

Agrawal, A., and Auryn (2009). Non-photorealistic Rendering: Unleashing the Artist’s Imagination (online). Available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5167490 [Accessed 25 April 2023]

Cooper, D. (1999). Personal Thoughts on Non-Photorealistic Rendering (online). Available at: https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/563666.563690 [Accessed 25 April 2023]

Jeng, J. (2023). Sidelining Photorealism: ‘Speed Racer’ and Articulation of Digital Effects Labour (online). Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=KLOqEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA153&dq=photorealism+in+film&ots=r8349MlY8s&sig=aEhMvSbwORZ1C0leMCKO8dpnEns&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=photorealism%20in%20film&f=false[Accessed 25 April 2023]

Manovich, Lev (2002). The Language of New Media. First paperback edn. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Meena, K. B., and Tyagi, V. (2019). A Novel Method to Distinguish Photorealistic Computer Generated Images from Photographic Images (online). Available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=8985711 [Accessed 25 April 2023]

Melki, H. (2019). An Investigation Into The Creative Processes In Generating Believable Photorealistic Film Characters (online). Available at: https://pure.ulster.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/78290411/Henry_Melki_Thesis.pdf [Accessed 25 April 2023]

Wadmare, S. (2021). Recent Trends Visitation in VFX and SFX in the Animation World (online). Available at: http://ilkogretim-online.org/fulltext/218-1617213160.pdf?1682423818 [Accessed 25 April 2023]

Tags Thesis Proposal, Topic

Advanced & Experimental Group

Week 2: Matchmove Practice & Group Project Tasks Organisation

Post author By Nira Gonzalez Sanchez
Post date 23rd April 2023
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In this first lecture with Dom, we learnt how to use 3D Equaliser to track a scene’s camera movement and lens distortion, and then export it to recreate the 3D space of this shot. We also organised the assets and tasks of each member of our group and started to think about the components our scene needed.

3D Equaliser Lecture

A camera track is used to recreate the camera movement and lens distortion of a scene shot. This is then used for adding CG elements to it that will follow the same movement of the scene. There are different types of camera track such as:

Facial tracking. To track facial movements and expressions.
Object tracking. To track movement of objects in the scene.
Rotomation. To match movement of objects and actors, and then adding CG to live action.

It is also important to track the lens distortion of a scene so when adding CG elements to it, they look like part of the shot as if they were filmed with the same camera lens.

In order to track our scene, we will use 3D Equaliser which is the standard camera tracking software used within the industry. The 3D tracking process is made following these steps:

Set up camera and lens.
Track scene.
Lens distortion.
3D orientation.
Check scene.
Export.

This programme feels a bit more accurate than Nuke regarding the camera tracking as it has less errors when tracking and we can also add the exact points we want to track in the scene. First, we would have to import our footage to the programme, and then play around changing lighting, gamma, and contrast, to increase tracking accuracy depending of the point we want to track. Normally, when there is more contrast and there is a clear pattern to track, the programme would have less problems to track. After we have tracked our points, we do click on ‘Calculate All From Scratch’ or press ‘Alt+C’ so the programme can calculate the tracking points in 3D space.

Once we have our tracking points, we will start with the clean up process. This means to get rid of trackers that do not work that good, or smoothing the tracking lines in the ‘Deviation Browser’, or double checking the there are no tracking points outside the shot.

Then we can proceed to set the lens distortion by adding the type of camera lens details (can be found online at https://vfxcamdb.com), so then the programme can calculate the trackers in 3D space again but using the distortion details.

Following on, we can switch our view to 3D space (F6) and convert the tracking points into 3D models or mesh. This 3D model can then be exported to Maya, Nuke, and other 3D programmes, ready to be used as reference for our 3D scene.

I exported mine to Maya and added simple shapes to recreate the scene in 3D space. This would be then used as a reference for 3D artists to set their models positions and perspectives in the scene.

3D scene modelled in Maya using the trackers reference exported from 3D Equaliser

Steampunk project – Organising tasks and assets list

This week we decided on the assets we needed for our scene and how many assets each look dev artist was going to take care of. Since I love sci-fi and everything related with cosmos and spaceships, I decided to model the spaceship that is going to be seen from the window of the scene. Also, taking advantaged that in my collaborative unit from the last term I got to test some hologram effects in Maya using MASH, I also decided to try model the planets hologram. And lastly, I will also be taking care of design a radio which I find really interesting as I love classic 1800s radio models which are perfect for the steampunk look we are pursuing.

I then put together a moodboard of each model to see how the style of each one would be:

References

Foundry. Camera Matching (online). Available at: https://learn.foundry.com/modo/14.1/content/help/pages/rendering/camera_matching.html [Accessed 23 April 2023]

Tags 3D Equaliser, Group Project, Matchmove, Moodboard, Tasks

Advanced & Experimental Group

Week 1: Organisation of Groups & Moodboard

Post author By Nira Gonzalez Sanchez
Post date 22nd April 2023
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This week we organised the groups for this sci-fi project and each group started to research inspirations to build up a moodboard.

In an Excel spreadsheet, we had to add our names in one of the group projects we were interested in: steampunk sci-fi, cyberpunk sci-fi, or low-fi sci-fi. Since there were a high demand in low-fi sci-fi and steampunk sci-fi, the cyberpunk group was removed. I added myself in the steampunk sci-fi group as a Look Dev Artist, since this is a style that has always interested me because of its highly detailed designs, that mix an old school aesthetic with a futuristic look. I am also very interested in expanding my modelling and texturing skills, focusing on environments, so this role would suit me best.

After the session, my group made a meeting to decide what look we will be focusing on and, based on this, we started to research inspiration and gather images to put a moodboard together on Padlet.

Group Moodboard – https://artslondon.padlet.org/rstolk0320221/moodboard-steampunk-xdzegqc9h6haeove

The steampunk style is a fictional aesthetic that mixes elements from the Victorian era and from the 1800s Europe’s industrial revolution. Since this project us supposed to be in a futuristic environment (the interior of a spaceship), this style will be also mixed with some sci-fi elements like holograms, or steampunk spaceships.

Tags Group Project

Collaborative Showreels

Personal & Group Showreels, & Critical Review

Post author By Nira Gonzalez Sanchez
Post date 13th April 2023
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Personal showreel

Group showreel

Critical Review

This project has felt like a long journey squished in a really short period of time. At the beginning 10 weeks looked like plenty enough time to fulfill all required aspects for this project from gathering the group members, going through planning roles, tasks, and targets, to finishing up in time for the exhibition at the end of term 2. However, this was not the case for this group, since we started with several delays in getting the brief of this project and to get it going. This project has been exciting and inspiring, at the same time as draining and stressful. However, I feel like has been a good learning experience to know how to respond towards similar stressful situations that could be presented in future jobs in the industry.

The key aspects that I consider important for a collaborative project would be realistic time management and organisation of targets, prioritising most important tasks first, problem-solving skills, team work helping each others, and clear communication.

The time management and organisation in this project was difficult as we all had different schedules, other projects, and lectures, in addition to the fact that it was also a big group with 8 students, 2 lecturers, and 2 external studio partners involved. A good solution we came up from the beginning was the shared space we created in Miro where we could upload all our mood boards, references, links, tasks, and other important information for the group. Later on we came up with a fixed schedule for weekly meetings and if we could not attend, we could always check the recording of it. I feel like that helped a lot to keep all of us in the same page. We also learnt to prioritise tasks by level of importance in the project and to disregard other tasks that maybe were not doable or achievable for the time frame we had to finish the project.

Another aspect I learnt a lot from was the fact that nearly every task I had to make, would come with a technical problem: for example, the optimisation of the models for Unity, learning how to link textures in Unity, fixing UV maps in Maya, learning new programmes apart from Unity like Mudbox, or even learning new techniques in Maya like to generate hair with XGen to then optimise it for Unity.

One of the most important aspects in team work is communication and sometimes it was a bit difficult. As mentioned before, we all had different schedules and sometimes to receive an answer to a question could take hours or days to be answered. However, we tried to make the most of the weekly team meetings by preparing all the work in progress we had to show to the team, and reviewing all the tasks and targets we needed to get done every week (every weekly meeting would take between 2 to 3 hours).

Definitely, this has been a good project to get to know how working on the industry would feel like, and I can say that I have developed not only new technical and artistic knowledge, but also important soft skills needed to keep up with a professional VFX company pipeline.

Tags Collaboration, Critical Review, showreels

Collaborative

Extension Weeks: Modelling & Retexturing Objects for Environment

Post author By Nira Gonzalez Sanchez
Post date 12th April 2023
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With the extension approved until 14th April, we have been refining the environment and memories objects.

Objects modelling, & texturing

Some objects that needed to be retextured and look more destroyed were a fire extinguisher hose, a converse shoe, spectacles, some vents, pipes, etc. So I destroyed some of the mesh in Maya and then retexture it in Mudbox, using the stencil tool to add some dust, mud, and rust effects. Then I relinked the textures in Unity and exported the Unity package ready for VR girls to use.

I also needed to model a clock to add to the waiting area that looks like brutalist style and rusty/dirty/destroyed. So I modelled this in Maya taking a reference picture shown below and then added some texturing in Mudbox. Then as with the other objects, I relinked the textures in Unity and exported the Unity package.

Reference picture of Chernobyl clock (Skrypko, 2016)

Team meeting

In this team meeting, we started off by reviewing all the elements that needed to be amended and finished off by next week:

Walls and floors texture: it needs to be more weathered and not looking that much like ‘just concrete’ building. This means, that it should look like the walls were once painted but with the weather and all the time that has passed on, this paint looks peeled off, dirty, mouldy, with some graffitis on top, and maybe some rusty pipes sticking out. Also, we agreed to add several murals instead of one, showing some advertising.
Waiting room: the floors water should not show like rippling and more like still and stuck water. Maybe one or two ripples from drops that are falling from the open holes on the broken ceiling. Also, the chairs in the waiting area should be arranged in circular rows of chairs around the fountain in the centre. We also need some plants like lichens and moss showing on the floor, and walls, but these should look not too green and more greyish/brownish (less rich colour). Maybe we could also add some roots coming in through the ceiling holes and also we could add moss on the corners of the walls.
Lights: the circular lights style is not working, so the lectures changed their mind and requested them to be a strip lights instead with some ends falling out. They also considered that there should be some electricity running in the building so we could show some flickering lights.
Pikachu toy: it is not destroyed enough so Klaus suggested to add some cigarette burnt marks to it.
Objects: need to add more objects like oil barrels (were homeless people make these fires to warm up), tyres, a shopping trolley, etc.
Barriers: they need to look more destroyed.
Cell: the ceiling is too high, the broken wall at the end of the cell is too narrow (need to be more destroyed or completely open), and we also need to add a control panel were the people could choose the different experience they wanted). Also, the pod where the skeletons are, blocks too much the view of the deer and would need to be changed or removed. If it is removed, the skeletons would be on top of a hospital-like chair that would be moulded and destroyed too. Lastly, the deer should move left to right and more slowly so it is more visible.
Corridors: they could have like a bumping rail on the walls (like the ones hospitals have).
Ghost particle: The particle type need to be changed as they are too stable/defined. It needs more random effect with more glitches and noise (not hologram-like). Also, we should be able to see only some parts of the memory ghosts and not the full body.

Objects modelling, & texturing after meeting review

After this meeting, I fixed the Pikachu toy with the cigarette burnt marks, and later on also fixed the face as they mentioned that the face was not recognisable so I removed some of the dirt and burnt marks. Also, I retextured with dirt, rust, mould, and mud splashes the rest of the models for the environment as requested.

Pikachu cigarette burnt texture in Mudbox

References

Quixel. Rusty Painted Metal Sheet (online). Available at: https://quixel.com/megascans/home?category=surface&category=metal&category=corroded&assetId=tj2xahsbw [Accessed on 9 April 2023]

Skrypko, I. (2016). Radioactive clock in pool in Pripyat school, Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (online). Available at: https://www.alamy.com/radioactive-clock-in-pool-in-pripyat-school-chernobyl-exclusion-zone-image365494939.html?imageid=D670F65E-1F10-4EE1-9347-11A715502AE5&p=1146864&pn=1&searchId=44a812789b720a47c9d6917d5a1ccea3&searchtype=0 [Accessed on 19 March 2023]

Tags Remodelling, Retexturing

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