Categories
Collaborative

Week 9: Deadline Extension, Retexturing, & Group Showreel

This week, we tried to finish up a testing version of the VR experience to show in the exhibition next week. We also discussed and confirmed with the tutors the application of an extension of the deadline.

Objects Retexturing

I remodelled and retextured a Pikachu toy downloaded from internet. First, I removed some bits of the mesh to show its destruction. Then I sent the model to Mudbox, linked Pikachu textures that came with the downloaded model, then created a new material, and using the stencil textures of the programme, I painted some dirt and mud splashes effect in the model to make it look more weathered. Then I exported the textures created and linked them to the model in Maya. Then exported the model with textures in FBX and relinked them in Unity. One relinked, I exported model and textures into a Unity package so the VR girls could place the objects directly in the VR scene without having to relink textures.

Me and the rest of the group also found some objects online that could be retextured and destroyed to blend in to the dystopian environment, such as spectacles, converse shoe, fire extinguisher, electric box, barriers, etc.

Individual showreel (Not final)

Since we were not sure if we were going to have approval on the deadline extension, we decided to put together a group showreel, in which each one of us would show their work in the project. Therefore, I exported 360s of my models I had so far, and put them together in After Effects with some titles describing what I did on each asset. I then sent uploaded this in our shared drive so Alex would put all the individual showreels together in one.

Team meeting

In this week’s meeting, we got confirmation that the extension of our deadline was 90% sure that it was going to be approved so we focused first on the priorities we had to get the testing version done for the exhibition, and then we checked what we would need to complete the beta version during the Easter break.

We reviewed the objects we had and the objects we needed for the finished beta version of this experience (not the testing version for the exhibition). We agreed that the objects found online needed to be more decayed as the original models looked too polished and new.

We also reviewed the textures that needed to be added to the environment such as rubble, the doors of the corridor cells (some closed, others half open or destroyed), the dead fish in the fountain, and the rest of the objects found online to make the place look more credible and like there were once humans there long ago.

Categories
Advanced & Experimental Advanced Maya

Week 8: Lighting in Maya, & Rendering in UAL Render Farm

This week, I set the lighting of the model in Maya to prepare it to render in UAL Render Farm

I started to play with the lighting of the model in Maya and also added a background. I wanted a simple background as the model is crowded enough and I did not want it to take off the attention from the model. Therefore, I found a stone-like texture in black mostly. Then, following the colour palette from the model, I added a back blue and purple light to separate the background from the model and to highlight the texture of the background.

Since the space background in the interior of the dome looked a bit crowded, I did some colour correction in it so the stars looked dimmer and reduced the quantity of them.

Once I got the light set up, I started to test the render settings that would take the maximum detail but at the same time that will not take too long to render.

Also, since I wanted to import it into Nuke to add shadows and some extra illumination, I decided to export it in different layers, like the main solar system structure separated from the dome, dome neon half ring and background. In order to separate the dome neon ring from the dome for rendering, I added a plane in between so when rendering the alpha the rest of the dome would not show.

After everything was ready to render, I transferred the project folder to the university computer and set the UAL Render Farm (Deadline).

Main model render without dome and background

These layers are going to be put together in Nuke and I will add shadows and extra light reflections.

Categories
Collaborative

Week 7: Team Meeting – Environment, Characters, Objects, Animation, & Interactions

This week, I had a meeting with the girls at the beginning of the week to review what we had done and organise what we need to do, and also had another meeting with the lectures and external studio partners to agree on final designs and interactions.

This week I finished modelling the child’s ghost with textures taking as references the following:

Also, we considered that the team needed to gather in a meeting with lectures in order to discuss technicalities and issues we could have when importing mesh, textures, and animation into Unity. The VR girls confirmed that Unity could accept simple textures with normals, bump maps, roughness, etc., but that this should be embedded in the fbx file exported from Maya.

Since I am not familiar exporting fbx from Maya and even less with Unity, I downloaded Unity so I could test my models directly into it before sending the final ones. VR girls explained that it seemed that the textures needed to be relinked in Unity and this could be a problem and time consuming. Therefore, we reached an agreement that, since I know how and where the textures should be linked, I would test the models in Unity, relink textures and export the Unity package with the model and textures already set. Also, I had to re-set the UV maps of the ghosts models as when I combined all the parts of the model into one unique mesh in Maya, the UV maps got messed up. I also tried to simplify the model removing the double faces of every part and getting rid of unnecessary mesh that was not going to be seen (like torso, arms, legs and feet).

We also thought of the possible memories that can appear when triggered by objects interaction (we made a list in Miro):

Also, MA VFX had our first collaboration project presentation to the class and the tutor, so we put together a Power Point presentation taking as reference some of the slides used in 3D animation and VR presentations (all of us contributed in these presentations).

Team meeting

Later this week, we had the meeting with the lecturers and the external studios partners. We discussed the possibility to buy assets taking the budget offered by the university as we had lots of assets to model and very limited time. Ana the asked us to make a list of assets and add which ones we had to model, which ones we could download for free and which one we needed to buy.

We also reviewed the model of the environment Martyna and Jess have been putting together:

  • Corridor:
    • It needs to be longer and have the final room in between (not at the end). So each side would have 5 doors and then the third door on the left would be the final pod.
    • It should be a dark place with just one point of natural light at the end.
    • It could have stripe lights that are not working (or one can be flickering). These lights need to be organic and not straight industrial lights.
    • It should have broken doors with holes in them. We need to add something in the way of the broken doors, so the main character cannot access the rooms.
    • We considered the idea of these corridors being underground or flooded but due to time limitations and the fact that the whole structure would need to be redesigned, we disregarded it. Instead, we considered the addition of ramps that change slightly the level of the floor from the transition from the waiting area to the corridors.
    • One of the rooms could have an image of trees moving with the wind shown in a screen.
    • The environment will need to look close to us now (familiar), so the user can empathise with it (do not make it futuristic or high tech).
    • Natural lights overall. We can have working lights (when switched on), but not all of them are working (could be flickering or hanging from the ceiling).
  • Final room:
    • It has natural light (single lights source would be more dramatic).
    • It has a broken wall where the deer will appear.
    • Everything is decrepit and broken.
    • The light could be moving with the reflection of the water ripples (from the have flooded floor).
  • Main waiting room:
    • We need to agree textures of the walls which would be broken, moulded, with rusty pipes showing, etc.
    • The ceiling will also have some broken parts with natural light coming through.
    • The walls could have panels, decoration from the past, murals that are aged, etc.
    • We need to add more than one corridor that would be accessible from the waiting room (but not operational for this beta version of the VR experience, just one corridor will be accessible).
    • In the middle, there is a pond with water and dead fish floating.
  • Objects/memories:
    • Teddy bear. We thought of making it look that it was made out of scrapped materials like metallic stuff found, however, we need to be careful with making it look too futuristic so we disregarded this idea. Maybe we could change it for a car toy for example. This toy will show the memory of a child playing with it and then being grabbed by their mother to get euthanised, so the child drops the toy.
    • Fingerprint scan. In this memory, we thought of showing someone being forced to scan their fingerprint so they signed their contract for being euthanised. However, after discussing this with the lecturers, we felt like these should be shown like an option and not like being forced to do it. So instead, we thought of a parent grabbing the child’s hand to help them scan it.
    • Headset. It could reproduce the sound of a radio station that was trying to bring some happiness to people (happy music being cut by the voice of the radio presenter).
    • Diary. This object will only trigger a voice over of somebody reading the diary. When the main character picks the diary and opens it, some bugs would come out from the bottom of it.
    • Poster. It could show health and safety advice like wear a mask, etc.
    • Daily objects. These would not trigger any memory but could show some bits from the past, like a converse shoe, a diary, etc.
    • Megaphone. From were they made the announcements to call people’s turn to die.

We also talked about how VR will construct the UI of the VR experience. It was pointed out by the lectures that this needed to be more an emotional experience than a game itself, so the user’s attention should be driven through the environment using sounds or vague scenes from the past (memories) that are triggered by them passing nearby a place or when touching an object. Some points that were mention regarding the UI were the following:

  • Main character’s POV. It could show like the texture of a helmet (like scratched or dirty glass). We could also add some info showing on the helmet’s glass, like icons (these are less distracting than letters, and less intrusive). We could show UI for the memory object but we should not give away much information.
  • Lobby/entrance. We could add a welcome hologram.
  • Final room. There is a mechanism in the wall that brings up a cell with the human skeletons of the mother and the child hugging. Furthermore, in the collapsed wall, there is a deer that looks us up and then leaves (showing first the deer and then the skeletons). We could hear the singing from the ghosts.

References

Cottonbro Studios. Free Dystopia Photos (online). Available at: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-in-black-and-white-hoodie-wearing-black-gas-mask-4888482/ [Accessed 22 February 2023]

Categories
Advanced & Experimental Advanced Maya

Week 7: Loop Animation MASH, Texturing, & Final Design in Maya

This week, I focused on finalising the model and adding textures. Additionally, I also added a last animation using MASH.

I decided to change the base of the model to a more straight surface with ‘windows’ on it and stars as decoration. I tried to add a tinted glass texture to the windows interior so mixed with the surface underneath would look like a translucent glass. Then I added the platform and the dome of the model, and also, I created a ‘mechanism’ based on a comet shape pushing a spinning plank that was holding the handle from rotating (using manual key framing). In addition, I also added some stars rotating around the model using a torus as a reference shape and then positioning and rotating the stars using MASH distribute tool.

Once I had the final model modelled, I started adding textures and lights. I added a space like background to thee interior of the dome and a yellow glow ring to the edge of the dome. Then, I added a brushed metal and gold texture to poles, gears and satellites rings. For the planet’s actual rings (not the satellites rings), I added a texture of a picture of the real rings of Saturn, so they can be differenciated. For the Sun, I added a bubble like texture that when changed to yellow-orangish colour, it looks like the Sun’s surface. I added this texture so the glow did not look that flat pale yellow colour. I also added a more saturated glow to the planets and satellites, and also added some neon yellows, purples, and blues to some edges to make it stand out from the dark background. The base is mostly purple, with wooden window frames, purple translucent glass for the windows, and golden stars for decoration. The handle and the spinning plank are textured in wood and brushed metal, and the comet has like ‘fire’ texture and glow (like I did with the Sun). The base has a wooden floor pattern with a golden edge and a golden trail where the comet rotating mechanism is supposed to be attached.

Categories
Advanced & Experimental Advanced Maya

Week 6: Satisfying Loop Animation Basic Model & Animation

This week, I tried to finish the base model adding all the details and animations required so it is ready to be textured.

This week I focused on adding all the details like the gears, planet’s rings and satellites, handle, base, and further decorative details like the star and the half ring around the Sun. I also animated with key framing the gears and the handle rotation. The handle would start rotating and the gears and planets attached to them would move at the same time.

The overall model follows a consistent aesthetic, however, I feel like I am going to change the base as I am not that convinced with the shape I gave it. Also, I am thinking in adding a dome that could have like a space texture as a background.

Categories
Advanced & Experimental Advanced Maya

Week 5: MASH Tool in Maya, & Satisfying Loop Animation Moodboard & First Draft Design

This week, we learnt how to use MASH tool in Maya and we also started to figure out how out loop animation would look like.

Moodboard

I did some previous brain storming ahead to this class to have some idea of what I would like my animation to look like.

  • Loop animation possible themes:
    • Zen garden
    • My day routine loop (train trip)
    • Dough like texture getting reshaped
    • Laser cut
    • Double perspective sculpture rotating
    • Imposible shapes
    • Simple face expression changing because of interaction with other object
    • Solar system

I also checked some oddly satisfying videos in YouTube with some animation examples, and one of them caught my eye in the minute 7:04 of the video:

Oddly satisfying animation examples (arbenl1berateme, 2019)

I liked the style and the ‘impossible’ movement visual effect that was giving with the rotating torus and the zig zagging ball.

However, I was not sure about these standard oddly satisfying loop animations as they looked pretty much the same to me and I felt like it could be hard to do something different if I follow this style.

I also found an animation of a rolling ball following a rail in ArtStation (see animation here), which was simple but the look reminded me to Alphonse Mucha’s Art Nouveau designs:

Later on, as I am also very interested in astronomy, I also founded interesting these solar system models that spin due to a gear mechanism added to it:

My main inspiration was this artwork of ‘The Astronomy Tower’ made by Cathleen McAllister, which conveyed, in my opinion, both Art Nouveau aesthetic and astronomy:

The astronomy tower (McAllister)

Once I had my design idea settled, I continued to research how to approach the animation in Maya.

MASH

In the lecture of this week, the professor introduced us to MASH tool in Maya, which could be used to make our loop animation.

With MASH tool, after we ‘create MASH network’, we can create procedural effects with nodes such as:

  • Distribute. To arranges several copies of an object in formations.
  • Curve. To animate objects following a curve.
  • Influence. To use an object as a guide to influence the transforms of the network in MASH.
  • Signal. It adds noise to our animation so it varies like a signal wave.
  • Amongst other features…

I did not have the time to fully explore all MASH features but the few I discovered were really interesting and fun to play with. I tried to implement MASH in my design but it seemed to be way easier to just key frame every movement by hand (and also I would achieve a better result).

First draft design

I started taking as reference a picture of the solar system to see the position, shape, and distance of each planet and satellites towards the Sun. I did intend to do this solar system recreation as much accurate as possible, but as it would not look too appealing to the viewer (the planets and satellites would look too small and the Sun too big), I tweaked them a little bit so it would fit nicer in the frame. I made the planets slightly bigger than they are in relation to the Sun, and just added the most important satellites of each planet (Saturn and Jupiter have way too many satellites to be able to fit them all in this model).

Once I had a definitive position of my solar system, I started to animate it. This animation took a bit longer than I thought, as I had to calculate how many times each planet would rotate around the Sun in 300 frames (length of 1 full loop of the animation) so the looping cannot be noticed. As I also wanted to make it as accurate as possible, I also researched online how long each planet uses to take to rotate around the Sun. Since Neptune is slowest of all, I took this planet as the reference one to loop the animation, so it would rotate 360° in relation to the Sun in 300 frames of animation. The rest of the planets are rotating more times being Mercury the quickest. I set the rotation to start from slower to quick in the mid point of the animation and slowing down towards the end until they all stop in the same initial position. Obviously, it is not accurate rotation as if it were, Mercury’s rotation would be invisible to the eye in relation to Neptune’s. Then I did the same with the satellites of each planet, but these animation were more approximated than the planets as it will not be as noticeable. I also parented the satellites to their respective planets so they would rotate around the planets but would also follow the rotation of the planet around the Sun. Then, I gave some rotation movement to the Sun, but as I wanted to add glow to it, I do not think it would be visible. Lastly, I added the gears that would be attached to the planets and also parented them to their respective planets so they would have the same rotation. I am not too convinced about the gears shape so more than possible I would change their design.

I am happy with the planets look and animation, however, I am thinking in changing the model of the gears as they look to ‘spiky’ to me and not too realistic.

References


arbenl1berateme (2019). Oddly Satisfying 3D Animations [Compilation 5] – arbenl1berateme (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLRsCtd5P9s [Accessed on 12 February 2023]

Cogito (2015). 1900 Alphonse Mucha “Dessin de Montre” Jewelry Design Illustration for Georges Fouquet (online). Available at: https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/150738-1900-alphonse-mucha-dessin-de-montre-j [Accessed on 12 February 2023]

McAllister, C. Cathleen McAllister (Online). Available at: http://www.cathleenconcepts.com [Accessed on 12 February 2023]

Müller, B (2020). Impossible Oddly Satisfying 3D Animation (online). Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Ye43ed [Accessed on 12 February 2023]

Staines & Son. The Diary Of An Orrery Maker (online). Available at: https://www.orrerydesign.com [Accessed on 12 February 2023]

Willard, Jr., A. Willard Orrery. National Museum of American History (online). Available at: https://www.si.edu/object/willard-orrery:nmah_1183736 [Accessed on 12 February 2023]

Categories
Advanced & Experimental Advanced Maya

Week 4: Rube Goldberg machine camera set and render in Maya

In this lecture, we focused on finishing our Rube Goldberg machine texturing, camera set up, and rendering the final outcome.

I continued adding the last textures and finishing touches of the design, such as the finish lines numbers, and some more neon lights in the edges of the planks and of other components. I also modelled the light bulbs’ buttons to switch them on and textured them with glow.

Moreover, I decided to animate some arrow lights on the top of the initial ramp to add another point of interest in the animation:

Arrow lights animated on ramp

After I finished with the texturing, I continued to set the camera movement using ‘camera and aim’. This way, I only have to set the ‘translate’ of the camera since the ‘rotation’ is adjusted with the aim. I tried to follow both balls switching priority between one and the other depending on the point of the animation and which one was more important to follow each time. Therefore, I not only framed the scene from the front view but I also made the camera rotate 360 degrees around the machine, showing its back too.

Camera and aim set up with keyframes on ‘translate’

In the last bit of the scene when the second ball has to reach the finish line, I had to reduce the duration of this since it was way too slow. Therefore, I selected all the elements of the scene and in the ‘graph editor’ I scaled down the number of frames required for this last movement. I reduced from 800 to 700 frames. The following video shows a preview of the camera movement I set:

Camera movement preview

When I had my animation fully set, I proceeded to set the render. Thought of adding a chrome textured background with the lighting of the skydome I had previously, however, it turned out to be problematic as there were too many reflections so the render would take too much time to finish. Maya also started to crash every time I tried to preview the render. Therefore, I decided to get rid of this chrome background and leave it with the original workshop background. I just lowered the light a bit so the glows added were more pronounced.

I was playing around with ‘Camera (AA)’, ‘Diffuse’, ‘Specular’, and ‘Transmission’ to get the best result without having to render for too long.

After two days rendering, this is the final result:

Final render

I really enjoyed this project and I feel enthusiastic about 3D modelling and animation. I also feel like I could improve the render, amending some details like adding a dark and reflective background to darken the scene and to make the neon lights more visible. However, due to limited time I was not able to do this (but I definitely will if I find some spare time before the end of term 2).

Categories
Advanced & Experimental Advanced Maya

Week 3: Rube Goldberg Machine Simulation Bake & Texture in Maya

This week, we focused on baking our bullet simulation to proceed to add texture and set our camera movement.

After all the bullet system is built and set up, we need to bake the simulation so the programme creates the animation’s keyframes of each active rigid body. In order to do this, I selected all the active rigid bodies, then selected ‘Bake Simulation’ on ‘Edit->Keys’ tab. Once Maya has created the keyframes of each element and since we no longer need the bullet system set up, I selected ‘Delete Entire Bullet System’ on ‘Bullet’ tab so all the bullet elements are deleted. I also manually animated with keyframes the background gears since I struggled a bit trying to animate them with bullet; every time I added a new hinge, the whole animation stopped working as I had it set up so it was really time consuming to adjust it all over again each time.

After baking the simulation, I proceeded to texture my design. I liked the cyberpunk mixed with steampunk look that my machine was getting and decided to add some metal textures such as copper, gold, chrome, and brushed metal, as well as glass texture on the helix slide, on the top part of the machine and on the light bulbs. These reflective materials gave me the opportunity to add glow to the balls and to some parts of some elements such as to the ring holders of the helix slide, to some neons on the finish line, and to the filaments of the light bulbs. The following examples inspired me with the colours, mood, and composition of the scene.

Before adding the textures, I searched an HDR in polyhaven.com and downloaded a wood workshop HDR with low and warm light conditions. I wanted to give the feeling that this machine was made in this workshop from random materials found in it. I also researched textures and references like wood, old gears and light bulbs:

Wood workshop

I also found a tutorial in YouTube of how to make glow effect:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9iIf95BCQ4

The following sequence of rendered previews show the textures I used:

The light bulbs were modelled and textured later on as I thought that the space at the end of the base was looking a bit empty and boring. So I modelled them with the idea that they would turn on when the ball hits the finish line planks and a switch is triggered. I modelled the base and outer side of an old school light bulb and added inside the filaments that I textured separately to give the glow effect. Also the glass of the light bulb is doubled so it gives this thickness and volume effect.

I could not finish the final design this week as I added more elements of what I initially planned and it took me longer than expected, but overall I am very happy with how this is turning out.

Textures and HDR:

  • Base wood texture and planks wood texture – https://polyhaven.com/a/wood_cabinet_worn_long
  • Metal texture with marks – https://quixel.com/megascans/home?category=imperfection&search=metal&assetId=uh4obghc
  • Untreated wood texture – https://quixel.com/megascans/home?category=surface&category=bark&assetId=wghjcggn
  • Vintage number 1 – https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/ornamental-1-background_1138096.htm#query=no%201&position=31&from_view=search&track=sph
  • Vintage number 2 – https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/ornamental-2-background_1138095.htm#from_view=detail_alsolike
  • Wood workshop – https://hdri-haven.com/hdri/repair-facility
Categories
Advanced & Experimental Advanced Maya

Week 2: Rube Goldberg Machine Modelling & Animation in Maya

In this class, we learnt how to bake the simulation that we already set up, to then add texture, refine the design of our Rube Goldberg machine, and animated the camera movement of our scene.

After all our bullet actions are adjusted and we are happy with the dynamics of the animation, we will proceed to ‘bake simulation’ of all the active rigid bodies so all bullet set up is removed and converted in key frames instead. It is also important to select ‘delete entire bullet system’ to get rid of any bullet set up left in our outliner.

Once the dynamics of our scene are sorted, we can proceed to animate the camera movement of our scene, creating a new ‘camera and aim’, and setting its position and aim at the same time. We can also add texture to our scene and finish building up the final touches to make it look presentable.

This week, I focused in finalising my Rube Goldberg machine’s design and dynamics. I added a different route for the second ball, with a helix slide, a clock gear, and a second finish line. I also refined some of the elements, adding some edge loops, to then smooth them down pressing ‘3’.

The next step of this project would be to bake the active rigid bodies, so the programme creates the key frames of the movements set with bullet tool and continue to texture it and set the camera movement of the scene.

Categories
Advanced & Experimental Advanced Maya

Week 1: Rube Goldberg Machine Modelling & Animation in Maya

In the first week of term 2, we had our first contact with animation basics, trying to animate two bouncing balls made of different materials. We also started to design our first project of the term, the Rube Goldberg machine.

Firstly, we started a quick model of a basic staircase as a base of our first animation. Then, we created two spheres to start our bouncing animation. The first ball is suppose to be made of rubber, therefore, the animation needs to show a high bounce on each step of the staircase. The second is made of metal, so it should look heavier and less bouncy. We set the basic key frames for each jump, and then adjusted the animation with the ‘Graph Editor’. With this last tool, we can see the graphic of the animation, therefore, we could tweak each movement to make it look more realistic.

Rendered animation

After understanding the principles of manual animation, we dived into ‘Bullet Physics’ in Maya. This plug-in is specialised in the interaction between the geometry of a 3D scene. In order to practice with this tool, we were assigned to create a Rube Goldberg Machine, using basic shapes that would interact with each other.

Before using this tool, the programme needs to be set up to be able to see the ‘Bullet’ tab in the programme’s menu. Once everything is set, we can start designing our machine. The first thing that popped in my mind when we were introduced to this project, was an instagramer that I follow on Instagram known as ‘Enbiggen’. He specialises in creating these 3D Rube Goldberg machines to reproduce the music of any known song, movie soundtrack, etc. I have attached two of his creations that inspired me:

https://youtube.com/shorts/KCSvlCAr-CY?feature=share
https://youtube.com/shorts/Wfp3Gfa9MCM?feature=share

As a first idea of my Rube Goldberg’s machine, I came up with the following sketches as possible designs:

Once the machine was planned, I continued to build it up in Maya. After designing and placing the basic geometry in the 3D scene, I set them as ‘Active rigid body’ or ‘Passive rigid body’ depending if I wanted the polygon to act as a dynamic object or as a static object. Once this is set, I needed to rewind the animation until the beginning (so Maya calculates how the objects would interact between each other), and to adjuste them as needed afterwards. This needs to be precise as the programme can be very picky with these calculations and can cause some errors at the time of setting up each object’s bullet action. Also, as I wanted to make objects spin, I added constrains to some of the polygons using a ‘hinge’ option, placed in the middle of the object (‘Rigid Body Constrain’ tool).

I am struggling a bit with the set up of the actions and adjustment of this as whenever I closed the programme and reopened the scene later on, the same actions that I set up previously, were reacting and behaving differently. I flushed the playback cache to see if this helped but it was doing the same. I had the same problems in both the university computer and in my personal computer.