Nira's VFX Blog
A journey through my master

Tag: Moodboard

Categories
Advanced & Experimental Personal

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

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
Trees moodboard made in Photoshop
Floor plan 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]

Categories
Advanced & Experimental Personal

Week 1 & 2: Personal Project Proposal & Moodboard

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:

Personal project moodboard

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]

Categories
Advanced & Experimental Group

Week 2: Matchmove Practice & Group Project Tasks Organisation

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.

Types of lens distortion (Foundry)

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:

  1. Set up camera and lens.
  2. Track scene.
  3. Lens distortion.
  4. 3D orientation.
  5. Check scene.
  6. 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.

Tracker points in 3D Equaliser
Mesh generating from tracker points
Mesh look in 3D space
3D scene modelling in Maya
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:

Spaceship moodboard
Planets hologram moodboard
Radio moodboard

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]

Categories
Collaborative

Week 5: Second Team Meeting – ‘The Departure Lounge’ sequence

In the second meeting of this project, we already started to discuss how the characters, objects, animals, environment, lighting, colour, and interactivity would look like.

Characters

We started the meeting discussing how the ghosts characters would look like. These characters should be faceless figures or they can even have some eyes, mouth, and nose but showing very vaguely.

These models will need to be modelled by 3D modellers to then be rigged and animated by 3D animators, therefore, we will need a clear break down of both processes so the models are created and exported correctly. Also, VR will need to let us know how do they include elements in Unity, and what format do they need for compatibility. Later on, we clarified that they will prefer us to export in FBX but we could also export on OBJ. Also we will need to use simple materials such as colours, reflections, etc, but never use shaders as these are completely ignored by Unity when imported into the programme.

  • Male ghost. This should be the father that is trying to stop the mother to euthanise their child, so he should look threatening initially, but he should also transmit his love and desired to keep his child.
  • Mother ghost. She has chosen to euthanise her child to then kill herself, so she should look like conflicted and desperate.
  • Child ghost. Running from mother? Is he aware of the situation?
  • Main character (POV). One tourist is looking for evidence of life 300 years after the global disaster, (with limited resources as most of technology is lost).
Characters moodboard in Miro

Artefacts

The main character could be receiving hints of what happened in that place with the objects they are finding and the possible interactions they can have with these:

  • Posters/propaganda. Like warning signs, posters (showing health, political, or global warming propaganda), holograms (with instructions or a message)
  • Oxygen bottles. Rusty and empty.
  • Space like suits. To protect from gas/fog and radiation? (thin atmosphere due to global warming lets harmful sun radiation in so can cause skin cancer or really bad sun burns).
  • Futuristic tablet devices. Showing holograms with departure lounge scape procedures, or euthanasia options?
  • Sunk or floating objects. Like books, helmets, bags, clothes, children toys (everyday objects so viewer empathises with story – emotional response).
  • Photographs. Showing ghosts from past memories (happy memories)?
  • CCTV footage. Would this show too much of the story? Would it be too obvious?

Animals/Plants/insects

These remains of nature could show both the extinction of live on Earth and at the same time the new rise of life in the planet with only survivors (it would give hope).

  • Dead fish in water. This could be part of past memory. In the present it would look decomposed.
  • Moss. This could help to minimise number of objects angles such as bricks, broken walls, or other environmental assets.
  • Deer. Showing at the end cell to transmit the new rise of life in the planet (hope).
  • Bugs. Such as cockroaches, which are resilient to extreme conditions.

Environment

The environment would look like an airport terminal like an open space, tall ceilings, and big windows, but this area would be the waiting room for people that has consent to be euthanised. It would also be a half collapsed building with the following features:

  • Broken walls, ceilings, and windows. covered with moss and dirt.
  • Flood. Partly flooded floor with animated ripples and little waves. Can add the floating objects and decomposed fish here.
  • Water drops from ceiling. From condensation as it would be a really warm environment.
  • Fog. As CO2 levels are extreme, this dense fog covers the whole scene giving a monochrome colour feeling.
  • Broken bricks. From collapsed walls and ceilings.
  • Rusty pipelines. Coming out of walls or floor.
  • Door covered on dried blood (stains). It can be one of the cells’ door?
  • Euthanising beds. Inside of cells.
  • Mother and child’s skeletons. In final room, skeletons of mother hugging child.
Environment moodboard in Miro

Lighting/Colour palette

  • Natural light. Coming through broken walls, ceilings, and windows.
  • Flickering lights. Would they be working yet after 300 years?
  • Hologram light.
  • Monochrome palette. With desaturated colours, like a sepia photograph.

Interactions

  • Site specific. So it will trigger glitch memory when reaching certain area.
  • Grabbing objects. Memory will be triggered.

Testing

This week I have also been testing some hologram effects in Maya following this tutorial in YouTube:

Hologram tutorial using MASH tool in Maya (CG Artist Academy, 2020)

The final result I got was this:

Hologram effect test in Maya

Despite the result was good, after speaking with VR, they confirmed to me that these effects cannot be transferred from Maya to Unity, so it would be better to create this effect in Unity directly.

Miro board

We also organised in Miro the tasks to be done, the role of each member of the group, the assets we needed, the timeline with targets of each week, and links to important shared spaces from the group (like Trello, Google Slides, and OneDrive).

Miro board

References


CG Artist Academy (2020). Maya MASH Holographic HUD Procedural Tutorial (online). Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8He2bcS6ao [Accessed 11 February 2023]

Categories
Collaborative

Week 3: Collaborative unit support & moodboard

This week we settled our group and continue to develop a draft moodboard.

This week we sent our blogs with our work to the VR tutor – Ana Tudor – so she should check our style and skills. After her consideration, she confirmed to us that the final group was agreed and that we were all in so we added our group in Padlet.

Addition of final team to Padlet board

Since we could not meet the involved lecturers and the studios’ external partners this week to discuss the brief of the project, we thought of making an initial brain storming of our idea of a dystopian environment related to global warming. Therefore, we added a moodboard in Mira with pictures and notes of our thoughts. We also made a WhatsApp group chat with all the student team members so we can share ideas and communicate easily. I think everyone in our group is really respectful and involved in this project so we got along with each other easily despite the fact that we do not know each other yet.

Initial Moodboard

Our first idea departs from desolation and fallen apart buildings with some small greenery ground depicting the pass of time.

Destroyed interiors with moss and small plants growing back

Also, due to rise of the sea level, we considered the possibility of an underwater world with the destroyed buildings surrounded by seaweed and just a few fish floating around (as most of them are extinct.

Underwater world due to rising of the sea level

We also took researched another artists work as reference of dystopian scenery design.

Reference artists

Lastly, we thought of ways of interaction of the user with the story and environment, for example, with objects that could trigger memories from the past that gives details of what happened and how the world ended like this.

User interaction with the environment ideas