Nira's VFX Blog

A journey through my master
Categories
Advanced & Experimental Group

Week 6: Spaceship UV Maps in Maya & Textures in Substance Painter

This week I focused on finishing my spaceship by editing the UV maps and creating the textures in Substance Painter.

UV Maps in Maya

Since I consider that my knowledge about tidying up UV maps was basic and my spaceship model had a lot of complex shapes and details, I decided to research about how to lay proper UV maps in complex objects. Therefore, I found the following tutorial which had a useful workflow to do proper UVs.

UV maps tutorial (On Mars 3D, 2021)

After this tutorial, I carried on to do my spaceship UV maps and get it ready for texturing in Substance Painter. Since there were lots of different parts of the spaceship that needed a lot of space in a UDIM, I decided to separate each part in a different UDIM to have the best resolution when adding textures. I also cut each section in pieces to then unfold them properly and use layout to spread them in the UDIM. Sometimes, some of the UVs were layout really mixed up and not properly oriented, like in the main body of the spaceship, so I manually corrected orientations and tidied them up (so they were also easier to spot when texturing separate sections).

Outer cover UV maps
Outer cover poles UV maps
Side wings UV maps
Side wings poles UV maps
Back wings UV maps
Side engines UV maps
Back engines UV maps
Back engines pipes UV maps
Base UV maps
Top UV maps
Main body UV maps – manual layout

Textures in Substance Painter

I wanted to achieve a realistic texture result with my spaceship, so I decided to use Substance Painter for this. Since I have never used this software before, I researched some tutorials in YouTube and also asked to Marianna and one of the technicians at uni for advice. I found the following tutorial that teaches the basics of Substance Painter.

Substance Painter beginners tutorial (Adobe Substance 3D, 2021)

I mostly used the preset textures for my base, such as copper, copper worn, chrome blue tint, and glass firm dirty. Then, from these base textures I started building up with fill layers, masks, and generators to add dirt, scratches, burns, and rusty borders. Once I was happy with the textures look, I baked them all.

Side wings copper texture
Main body copper texture
Scratches effect added to edges on top of ‘Copper Worn’ material
Added some red rust to the borders so it looks more damaged
I also added this red rust to the tips of the tubes manually with a paint brush
Side windows texture with ‘Glass Filim Dirty’ material and tweaking the dirt mask to accentuate the contrast of this
Added same effect from side windows to front windows
Outer base copper texture
Engines ‘chrome blue tint’ textures with a ‘metal dirty’ mask added on top
Engines ‘copper’ textures with a ‘metal dirty’ mask added on top
I also added some burnt effect manually with a paint brush
After I finished with the textures, I baked them all

However, I had some issues in the outer cover of the spaceship, since the UV maps were not unfolded properly, so they were overlapping and showing like stripy patches in some areas. Therefore, I went back to Maya and corrected the wings UVs, cutting the inside parts of each piece, unfolding them and then laying them out properly. Once this was corrected, I had to search for another tutorial as I was not sure how to update the UV maps in Substance without having to start from the beginning the whole process of texturing. Therefore, I found the following tutorial that has a really quick way to update this:

Updating UV maps in Substance Painter tutorial (On Mars 3D, 2020)
Outer cover with stripes issue
Outer cover UV maps updated in Maya
Outer cover UV maps updated and rebaked in Substance Painter
Outer cover textures now showing without any issues

Once the textures were finished, I exported them and relinked them in Maya as shaders following this tutorial for a quicker way to relink all texture maps in Maya:

Exporting textures from Substance Painter to import and relink in Maya tutorial (What Make Art, 2022)

I also added some emission effect to the windows so it looks like there are lights on inside the spaceship.

Textures relinked in Maya
Spaceship render in dark background – side view
Spaceship render in dark background – front view
Spaceship render in dark background – bottom view
Spaceship render in dark background – 3/4 view
Spaceship render in dark background – back view
Spaceship render in dark background – back engine close up
Spaceship final model with textures – 360 render

References

Adobe Substance 3D (2021). Substance Painter 2021 Getting Started – Part 01 – Materials & masking (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j27AS0VQOw [Accessed 20 May 2023]

On Marrs 3D (2020). Substance Painter – How to Update Models AFTER You Textured It! (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjYzLgVOqrc [Accessed 21 May 2023]

On Mars 3D (2021). How to UV Map Complex Objects in Maya (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiEQNDZapXs [Accessed 20 May 2023]

What Make Art (2022). Export Substance Painter Textures to Maya with Plugin Tutorial (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCKc_6nTRPM&t=227s [Accessed 21 May 2023]

Categories
Advanced & Experimental Personal

Week 6: Final Trees Models using MASH, & Trees Arrangement in Environment

This week I managed to finish all trees models using MASH to place leaves repetitions, and also placed all trees in the environment.

Leaves arrangement using MASH tool in Maya

Since I realised that arranging all leaves manually would take longer that I expected, I decided to look for an alternative and quickest way. Then I found this tutorial on how to use MASH ‘Distribute’ and ‘Placer’ nodes to ‘paint’ an object over a mesh.

MASH tutorial (Ian Waters, 2017)

With the ‘Distribute’ node in MASH, I created the repetitions of the leaves arrangements I designed previously. Also, I made sure to set my MASH ‘Geometry type’ to ‘Mesh’ and not to ‘Instancer’, since this way the alpha map of the leaves will be kept and I will be able to keep the leaves texture. Then, in the ‘Distribute’ node, I set the ‘Distribution type’ to ‘Mesh’ and linked the tree as the ‘Input Mesh’ (so it follows the shape of the tree), and left the ‘Number of points’ as ‘0’ in this case. Then, I used a ‘Placer’ node so I could place the leaves pattern like painting with a brush on top of the tree. With this node I made some tweaks in its setting so the leaves were generated with random position, rotation and scale. Lastly, in order to preserve the leaves texture when exporting the trees with the MASH generated repetitions to the environment scene, I exported them in .ASS extension.

‘Placer’ node used to add leaves too tree
Final trees models with leaves exported as .ASS to preserve texture
Tree 1 render
Tree 2 render
Tree 3 render
Tree 4 render
Tree 5 render

Final trees arrangement in environment

Final trees arranged in environment – top view
Final trees arranged in environment – front view
Final trees in environment previs
Final trees in environment previs
Final trees in environment previs
Final trees in environment previs

The next steps for next week will be to try to finish the rest of the foliage and palm trees using MASH too and to start modelling the pyramid.

References

Waters, I. (2017). MASH Placer Node – Painting Points (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb2ZGa0JBns [Accessed on 20 May 2023]

Categories
Advanced & Experimental Group

Week 5: Group Project Presentation, Radio and Planet Hologram Models in Maya, & Full Version of Matchmove Task

This week we had the first presentation of our group project, I also started with my next two models drafts (radio and planet hologram), & also made the matchmove task until the end of the footage as requested by Gonzalo.

Group presentation

This week we were asked to make a presentation of the current work in progress of our group project, so look dev artists shared the WIPs of our first models, CG generalist and CG lead shared the draft layout of the scene with illumination test, compositor showed their matchmove and clean up of the scene, and compositing lead shared their research about colour palette, textures and overall style of the scene.

Presentation_steampunkDownload

Team meeting and weekly target – draft models

After the presentation, we also had a group meeting to review the progress of our project and decide the next steps to follow for next week. Since we needed a more refined layout to see dimensions and positioning of the models in the space, we decided to try and have all draft models done for next Monday. The CG generalist and CG lead also created a folder in the UAL shared drive so we could also access it and upload all our models there as alembic (abc). Martyna also took a human figure from Maya’s content browser and scaled it to the scene size we wanted so we have a scale reference.

From my side, as I already finished the spaceship model (and this was approved on FTrack by Gonzalo too), this week I focused on finishing the radio and the planet hologram draft models for Monday.

Radio

For the radio model, I took the two pictures below as references. Both styles are different but I like some features from both styles that I consider can be incorporated together. For example the main outer shape and the speaker on the left radio could be mixed with the buttons and decoration lines of the second reference on the right.

Radio references

I then tried to incorporate these elements in my model and came up with the following draft model:

Radio draft model – Wireframe front view
Radio draft model – Wireframe 3/4 view
Radio draft model – Wireframe top view
Radio draft model

Planet hologram

For the planet hologram I used the below image as reference since it mixes a futuristic hologram effect with steampunk metallic textures in the rings, planet and base. I consider it is a good example for the futuristic steampunk style we are aiming for.

Planet hologram reference

In this version I made a draft of the model and tested how it would look like with a basic hologram effect and a simple animation made with manual key framing:

Planet hologram base
Planet hologram constellations – close-up
Planet hologram constellations – final arrangement
Planet hologram – wireframe view
Planet hologram draft model

Extended matchmove task

Also, we were asked by Gonzalo on FTrack to finish the matchmove task until the last frame. When I went back to 3D Equaliser and tried to add the last tracking points for the final frames, it was showing as a flat line in the deviation graph, as if I did not add any points from frame 450 onwards. However, after trying to figure it out by myself, I asked my classmates for help and Martyna managed to help me with this. As she had the same issue last week, she asked Dom and he explained that this was due to having two different tracking points in the beginning of the scene and at the end of the scene in the same place. Since they were different points and were on the same place, the programme could not read them properly and assumed that there were no tracking points in that area. Therefore, all that I needed to do was to take the point added at the beginning of the scene and extend it until the end from the point it was visible again inside the frame. This solved my issue with the programme not recognising the tracks and managed to finish the tracking until the end. Then in Maya I adjusted the scene again and exported the alembic cards, cones, and camera to Nuke, to finally add the lens distortion.

Extended matchmove Maya playblast
Extended matchmove final comp
Categories
FMP Thesis

Week 5: Research Frameworks

In this week’s lecture, we analysed the types of research framework that can be done in our thesis and the research methodology we are going to follow to develop our topic.

Types of research

There are two types of research that we could use for our thesis such as:

  • Quantitative research. This type of research provides numerical data (analysed using mathematical methods or statistics). It is an empirical research that explains trends so it is more objective.
  • Qualitative research. This type of research produces findings without using quantitative methods and it is more subjective. It explores the perception, feelings, or ideas of people.

Critical thinking process and thesis proposal structure

The process to follow to analyse a topic in a critical manner is the following:

  • Investigate a problem thoroughly
  • Prosecute and defend an idea
  • Cross examine witnesses (literature review)
  • Verdict (conclusion)

This process will help us to structure our thesis topic in a logical way until reaching a conclusion where we will explain our findings.

Our thesis proposal structure will be as follow:

  • Introduction
  • Background significance
  • Literature review
  • Research design, methods, and schedule
  • Suppositions and implications
  • Conclusion
  • Bibliography

Methodology

Our research targets will constitute the basis of the methodology used. In order to explain the methodology used, we will need to follow this structure:

  • Describe thesis or research problem
  • Explain chosen approach
  • Clarify any uncommon methodology used
  • Explain how the data used was collected
  • Detail methods used to analyse collected data
Categories
Advanced & Experimental Personal

Week 5: Tree Branches Modelling, & Leaves Texture Cards in Photoshop and Maya

This week I focused finishing the tree branches to incorporate them in the trunks I previously modelled and prepared the leaves texture in Photoshop to add to cards as shader in Maya.

Branches

For the branches modelling, I followed the tutorial I found last week. I started extruding some faces of a scaled-up cube, to then scale down the tapper in the ends of the branches. Then adding some rigging to this shape, using a ‘randomizer’ tool, and adding some manual tweaks to it, I created some random shapes of a branch. Once I was happy with the shape generated, I duplicated and tweaked again the original shape. I created 5 variations of the branch which I incorporated to the trunks I previously made. To add the branches to the trunk, I positioned them first where I wanted to place them, then deleted the faces of the trunk where I wanted to add these branches, combined the two meshes, selected both edges in both ends and bridged them.

Branch shape extruding random faces of a scaled-up cube
Rigging of the branch
Selecting joints created and the ‘Randomiser’ tool to deform branch (creating a more natural look)
Branch deformed – view in ‘smooth – 3’ mode
I created 5 variations of branches
Addition of branches to tree 1
Addition of branches to tree 2
Addition of branches to tree 3
Addition of branches to tree 4
Addition of branches to tree 5
Final trees
Addition of trees to environment to have an idea of how it would look like and how to orient them in the space
Trees placed previs

Leaves

For the leaves I decided the add an alpha and a bump map to a card instead of modelling them as this last would be time consuming and will be quite heavy tot render. Therefore, I found a tutorial that shows how to create your own normal map and alpha from the image I am going to use as texture.

Leaf tutorial (Rees3D, 2020)

First, I search for a leaf image that is placed flat and has a white background. Then in Photoshop I made the background pure white (as it was slightly darker). Then selected the white area with the ‘magic wand’ tool, created new layer, and using the ‘bucket’ tool, I painted this layer in black. Then, I changed this layer blend mode from ‘normal’ to ‘colour’ and I ‘merge down’ with thee original layer. Then, I selected the ‘generate normal map’ 3D filter and in the pop up window, I tweaked ‘blur’, ‘contrast details’ and ‘detail scale’ to design the normal map of the leaf. Lastly, I exported this result in JPEG.

To create the alpha layer of the same leaf picture, in Photoshop, I selected the white area with the magic wand again and created a new layer to paint it in black with the ‘bucket’ tool as I did before. Then, I changed the blending mode from ‘normal’ to ‘colour’ and ‘merge down’ as before too, but this time I used ‘curves’ tool to adjust the image in the curve graph until the main image of the leaf looks black. Lastly, I used ‘invert’ to swap the white and black space and exported the image en JPEG.

Leaf texture (Kelly, 2019)
Normal map made in Photoshop
Final normal map result in Photoshop
Final alpha result in Photoshop

Once I had my texture maps prepared, I linked them to a plane in Maya, connecting the original leaf picture to the base colour, the alpha to opacity, and the normal map to the bump map. Then, I oriented the UV map slightly so the leaf centre line was aligned with the centre of the plane, to then bend the plane slightly so it doesn’t look totally flat. Lastly, I duplicated this and arranged the duplicates to form a group of leaves attached to a small branch. Then I started to add them to the trees.

Texture maps linked in Maya
Leaf render with texture in Maya
Leaf UV map
Reshaping plane to give a more organic look to the leaf
Reshaped leaf render
Reshaped leaf render
Leaves arrangement
Leaves arrangement render
Addition of a small central branch
Leaves with small branch render
Leaves with small branch render
Addition of smaller top leaves and variation of leaves shapes and size
Addition of leaves to trees
Branch with leaves render
Branch with leaves render

References

Kelly (2019). Green Leaf (online). Available at: https://www.pexels.com/photo/green-leaf-2559931/ [Accessed on 13 May 2023]

Rees3D (2020). Transparent Leaf [Maya Tutorial] | Rees3D.com (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM0VgEbc4pw [Accessed on 13 May 2023]

Categories
FMP Thesis

Week 4: Literature Review, Thesis Main Body Structure, & Possible Questions and Sub-questions

This week’s lecture focused on explaining the bases of building up a good literature review. I also thought of the possible questions and sub-questions of my thesis and how they would be structured.

Literature review

This will help to orient ourselves and the reader towards what we want to cover in our thesis. A literature review is developed by:

  • Communicating relevant research methodology.
  • Showing theoretical framework we could establish.
  • Detailing where our work fits into the bigger picture.

When structuring a literature review we need to state our research question and explain how we tackled it. Then a body of paragraphs will explain the research in detail. Lastly, a conclusion section will reiterate the research question while summarising the insides. Within our body sources, we will need to identify themes, patterns, and gaps.

Once we have read and understood our sources, we will need to organise a strategy for writing about how we have used them in our research. We can organise them chronologically, by themes, or according to methods used by their author. Once this outline is done, we can start writing our literature review.

Thesis main body structure draft, with possible questions and sub-questions

Based on some of the sources I have already found, I thought of some possible questions and sub-questions, and organised them in a possible structure of my thesis’ main body.

Main question – Will photorealism continue to be the leader in the film industry in the future?

  1. What is photorealism
  1. What are the origins of photorealism in filmmaking and what were its initial uses?
  1. How is photorealism used in filmmaking nowadays?
    • Importance of photorealistic VFX to replace dangerous live action scenes.
    • Importance of VFX to replace impossible to shot environments such as outer space scenes or fictional environments. 
    • Has digital photorealistic VFX better quality than actual handmade scenography? 
    • Has digital photorealistic VFX completely substituted the job of stop motion modellers and animators?
    • Has digital photorealistic VFX completely substituted the job of make-up artists and props artists?
  1. Why is photorealism not accepted by all audiences?
    • Uncanny valley.
    • Non-photorealism in filmmaking to foreground the work of digital effects artists.
    • Photorealism costs and workload.
    • Photorealism used for malicious intentions, issues caused, and solutions in place to help avoid this.
  1. What is the general public’s opinion (audience) about photorealism? (survey)
  1. What could be the future of photorealism in filmmaking?
    • AI as a tool to help with photorealism demands in film industry. Would AI replace human labour as digital VFX has shadowed handmade VFX artists and animators’ jobs?
    • Virtual production – high resolution screens installed in life action shooting. Helping with green screen spill issues? Problems when shooting outdoors or moiré issues? Once shot, can background not be replaced?
Categories
Advanced & Experimental Group

Week 4: Spaceship WIP 1 & Matchmove Task Reviews, & Spaceship WIP 2 Model Detailing

This week I focused on finishing the matchmove task with all corrections required and also tried to finish the spaceship model ready for texturing.

Matchmove task

I had a second 1-to-1 session with Dom and asked him about how to export from Maya to Nuke and how to correct camera alignment in 3D Equaliser or Maya. In 3D Equaliser, I missed to set the point of origin and to set the ground points. Also, I needed to align my camera horizon so everything is level to the footage. Once this was corrected, ,I exported it to Maya and realigned the cards and cones of 3D scene. Then, I exported cards, cones, and camera separately in .abc (alembic) as explained by Dom. As I already had the scene previously set before these corrections, I replaced the camera exported from Maya in the Nuke file exported from 3D Equaliser, then connected the cards and cones as geometry in the ‘Scene’ node, added a red constant and some lighting to give some colour and contrast to the cones, and finally redistorted everything together. I finally exported the final matchmove and uploaded it to FTrack for assessment.

Setting origin tracker point
Defining floor points
Correcting camera horizon – 3D view
Floor points looking flat at grid level
Horizon line adjusted – 2D view
Exporting cards, cones, and camera as alembic in Maya
Constant node added to colour cones in red in Nuke
Light spots added to give some volume and contrast to cones colour in Nuke
Final Nuke nodes graph
Final matchmove

Spaceship WIP 1 review and further modelling of WIP 2

This week I tried to finish the spaceship model to get it ready for texturing. I added more details such as windows on the sides (adding edge loops and extruding), two extra engines and wings in the sides, changed the bottom part and added extra details so it looks like a boat, and lastly, I added some extra details in the top of the spaceship so it looks like the top fin of a fish. Most of the more organic design ini this model was made using ‘Curves’ to make the shape I wanted and then with a disc, extruding following curve made. My main reference for the added features is the following:

Reference picture (Michal Matczak, 2012)

Once I finished with the model, I exported a 360° view and took some wireframes screenshots as requested in my first FTrack review of my first model version.

Spaceship wireframe view
Spaceship wireframe view
Spaceship wireframe view
Spaceship wireframe view
Spaceship wireframe view
Final model Maya renders
Final model 360° view – Maya render

References

Matczak, M. (2012). artwork, airships, steampunk airship, steampunk, aircraft, industrial, fantasy art, smoke, rocks, cave, Michal Matczak, concept art, lights, Zeppelin, HD phone wallpaper (online). Available at: https://www.peakpx.com/en/hd-wallpaper-desktop-kdvbs [Accessed 22 April 2023]

Categories
Advanced & Experimental Personal

Week 4: Trees Modelling in Maya, & Previs

In this week, I started to research tutorials to model trees trunks, branches, and leaves in the most effective way, to then begin to model the trees of my environment. I also put together a previs to see the dimensions of the space.

As I am not that familiar with organic modelling, I researched some tutorials to see what was the most efficient way to model a tree. I found the following tutorials that explain step by step how to model a tree’s trunk and branches separately, how to create different variations from the same original model, and how to put everything together once we have our parts modelled. I think this way I will have different variations of trees to fill up my environment and not having to model them one by one from start.


Tree trunk modelling (Alex Cheparev, 2021)
Tree branches modelling tutorial (Alex Cheparev, 2021)

For the leaves, I found a separate tutorial that shows how to model them in groups to then pile them up in different shapes, and ultimately, add them to the tree branches.

Leaves modelling tutorial (TrimitKala, 2020)

Following these tutorials I started with the trees modelling.

Curves used to shape basic trunk model
Using a cylinder that has been deformed to add a more organic shape in the base, I extruded the roots and trunk. Then amended the tape and added a twirl of each element
Original shape
Duplicated the original shape with the curves and then tweaked original and duplicated again to have different variants

Before making the branches and leaves, I wanted to see how much space I had in the environment and how the trees would fit ini it (dimensions). So I expended some time positioning the trees in the space until I reached a preview of how the environment would look like with the pyramid included.

Environment previous

I also made some renders of the frames to see how the camera movement would look like.

Camera movement with wireframe on to see depth
Camera movement previs

References

Alex Cheparev (2021). Maya Extrude Tool – How to 3D model a tree trunk (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-ls96NCgcc&list=PLAlv9GvsMvnMCUwPx_gcXaCj_yHYdIPqD&index=64 [Accessed 30 April 2023]

Alex Cheparev (2021). Maya Extrude and Joint Tools – How to 3D model tree branches (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yDgvyGPqa4&list=PLAlv9GvsMvnMCUwPx_gcXaCj_yHYdIPqD&index=63 [Accessed 30 April 2023]

TrimitKala (2020). 8. Creating the Leaves in Maya, ZBrush | Tutorial 8 | Making 3D Scene Step by Step (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ycu3A_vf-YU&list=PLAlv9GvsMvnMCUwPx_gcXaCj_yHYdIPqD&index=61&t=49s [Accessed 1 May 2023]

Categories
FMP Thesis

Week 3: Thesis Proposal Research, Abstract, & First Sources

This week we analysed the objectives and structure of our thesis, and wrote a short explanation of our topic and sources relevance to our project proposal.

Thesis objectives and structure

Before starting to write a thesis, it is important to set the targets, audience, and structure of it:

  • Determine audience
  • Determine what hit is the audience is going to learn
  • Break down thesis into main questions
  • Put questions in an order that makes sense
  • Develop sub-questions
  • Plan investigation two find answers

In order to build my thesis argument, I will need to use my own voice, meaning to express in a formal way but following my own style of writing. I could build my own views on its but not using my own opinions into it without any evidence to prove it. I should not use ‘I’, ‘my’, ‘mine’, only to be used when citing my own research. Before starting to write the thesis, it is good practice to try and sum the argument in a few words, so I can have it as reference to go back to check if I am still following this initial argument while writing the thesis.

In the chapters, it would be interesting to add counterarguments to our arguments that could at the same time argued again. This would prove that the analysis is not biased and it is taking in consideration all perspectives.

The conclusion should summarise the main points discussed on each chapter and should answer the question asked originally.

The methodology followed to research and gather information could be by researching peer reviewed sources, surveys, interviews, experiments, etc.

Blog task

We were asked to provide an outline of our potential research topic:

1. A short explanation of what I am researching, how I am researching it, and why it is important to research this subject/the relevance to my project proposal.

I am going to focus my research in photorealism in film industry.There are many different opinions and techniques about this, such us how can digital photorealism help with safety issues during live action shooting of ‘impossible to shot’ scenes, or how some people consider photorealism in filmmaking to be ‘too realistic’ therefore it takes you out of the story being difficult to empathise with, or how photorealistic animation can be considered a live action movie or an animation movie. This topic has many directions that can be followed and I would need to structured it in a way that everything looks connected. I am thinking in narrow it down to the controversy that photorealism has always been into the film industry (pros and cons rather than technical aspects) as it could be interesting to analyse the reaction of the audience throughout the years and how it could possibly develop in the future. My research method would be focused on peer reviewed sources found on internet or library, but I will possibly try to conduct a survey amongst students, lecturers at university and some more people outside VFX industry to ask about their feelings towards photorealistic films (I will have to create a selection of the best known photorealistic movies so people taking the survey are familiar with them).

2. Keywords/key phrases used in my searches.

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

3. At least four sources, debates or texts in the subject area and a short explanation of the relevance to my project proposal.

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]

  • These two sources explain the challenges and techniques that artists have faced with photorealism (and its issues with the so called ‘uncanny valley’), and how some artists have opted for NPR (non-photorealistic rendering) to create a more simple and cartoony style (animation).

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]

  • This research paper explains how photorealism has always been the leader in the film industry and how some movies like ‘Speed Racer’ have opted to sideline this style to help foreground the work of digital visual effects artists.

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

  • Manovich’s book explains how it is a common opinion that CGI will never be as realistic as images gathered by camera lenses. He also counter argues that these opinions are mistaken, explaining why he thinks this and how these CGI is in fact becoming more realistic than traditional photographs.

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]

  • This source explains how photorealism has revolutionary the filmmaking and game industry and, in the other hand, it also analyses how these photorealistic techniques have been used with malicious intentions and how important it is to learn how to distinguish real assets from computer generated ones.

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]

  • This dissertation focuses in the process to create believable photorealistic film characters as well as its benefits and challenges. The research was also made through interviews with several expert industry practitioners and the comparison of all the participants statements.

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]

  • This essay examines the importance of photorealistic VFX in filmmaking industry as a tool to avoid shooting dangerous live action scenes.
Categories
Advanced & Experimental Group

Week 3: Group Project Matchmove Practice & Spaceship WIP 1

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.

Initial trackers on green marks only
First geometry generated from green trackers only
Addition of more tracker points, clean up of failed trackers, and addition of camera lens data
Points calculation
Points in 3D space
Generated mesh from tracker points
Generated mesh from tracker points
Export of mesh to Maya
Footage replaced for undistorted plate exported from Nuke to Maya (so tracker points match with footage)
3D scene reconstruction in Maya
Addition of cones on tracker points
Maya render view of cards and cones
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)
Group brainstorming for further stylistic ideas (hand-drawn sketch)

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.

Wireframe view of spaceship WIP in Maya
Wireframe view of spaceship WIP in Maya
Wireframe view of spaceship WIP in Maya

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

Spaceship version 1

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.

Padlet group board