Second Environment's Development

Slowly the second environmet is reaching its intended definition.
Together with matt paintings I'll be using tree models to build the set. Here is the variation of models for that.

In my opinion the most of the appearance will be achieved through the use of paralax planes. As  it can be seen in this set build image they take the largest part of  it.

The house is much like in the concept with few other details as in some shots the house looks too simple (not saying it now is much more interesting)

So yes, as yesterday we had a discussion with Alex, the environments are generic and simple. In this case they serve as a playground for story. Nothing fancy really...

Next on is more of animating.

Workshop Set

The first environment seems to be ready now. Textures and lighting are set up and good to go.
 Storyboarding indicated areas which required special attention as they have most of the screen time.

Also, as planned, I've created render passes. Ambient oclussion really  brings the graphical details back into the scene.

Ambient Occlussion pass (Max distance 0.7):

 

Beauty Pass:

Combined passes:

Workshop is the place where Ivan was built. In comparison to other environments it is least colorful, bright and to a degree least uplifting. Though intentions weren't to separate this space from others entirely. It still offers coziness and wishfullness. Little models, wooden plain and symbolic cutouts busy desk suggests someone here is creating enthusiastically and lovingly.

Animation progress: the Beginning of Act 2

This week I've started animating Act 2.
The story reaches the point where bird is exploring both the world and himself. As he is discovering more and more, he also discovers the Island.

The pacing in second  act is  much slower. Also Bird's position is changing: he moves from his infancy stage to a more mature one.  To convey the point camera angles are used (  from slightly up above him to facing straight), his overall pose changes ( legs are longer now, pelvis more straight, wings looser and open and so on).

Here is the video of aniamtion sequences:



the animation when played in the set up sequence showed some issues. I went back to animationcurves and cleaned them up, also checked camera moves (especially vertigo shot).

Normal Mapping and Dynamics, Week 4

Normal mapping was very interesting to learn. Especially that  it has such a potential for application.

Dynamics from week 4:

First Act: wrap up of performance and set building

At the moment I am working on workshop environment. Almost everything is in the place for that environment.

 

A lot of atmosphere will come from texturing as modeling for this set is .. pretty basic. the workshop is crowded with little bits and bobs, nothing too major though still (and hopefully) enough of detail to keep the environment interesting for the eye to look at.

Essentially There are a round of... 15 different objects in the scene, but they are varied in the looks (scaling composition, staging ). Also, texturing will push this forward.

 

Started from the base, texturing the room. The very usefull tutorial I've got from Alan, tutorial of Gnomon workshops, had a set of tips how to enhance the looks only by painting colour, specular and bump texture passes.

Work is in progress. Here the scene has colour map only. Also the lighting is set up and in place . But it will be adjusted and animated in  each scene.

Also the last scene in first act was Ivan succeeding to overcome the first set of obstacles and he is about to find the new.





The video isn't the latest update. I changed the head shake animation and some other little details. But in all honesty I found animating the character  interact with the world especially ..complicated. This  took me two days to get  working. Gladly ( :D) in my entire animation this was the only bit where he had to lift, open locks etc. On the other hand,  soon he'll be swimming in the waters and diving in the air.. that also doesn't sound straight forward :D

First act shots were animated in the manner to appear that Bird is somewhat rushing. He is too enthused to explore the world  to become aware of himself. But through interaction with the world he  does explore himself (second act).

Game Character's UV layout

a bit different approach in laying out game character's UV's.

Letting it Loose and Inspection

Before I started animating the scenes I once again prepared the dope sheets/production sheets, as all the past animations, in particular trailer's project,  showed how they can really help to ,manage and improve the production of animation. The head is free from little bits of notes to remember, what in my case actually doesn't happen, I forget the little ideas :/
These are few examples:

Sheet 1/10

Sheet 3/10

 This is the little modeling I do when there isn't an opportunity to focus on some more serious tasks such as animating. These objects will crowed the workshop.

Also the basic representations of other mish-mash models are being prepared. I'm planing to render out a still image of these mish mash models staged in the workshop and  in basic white lambert shader and then paint in the colour and texture . This still image would then be connected with the actual 3d scene.

The still render will give me the precise perspective, shadowing and shapes to work with.

Shiball

The next in the pipeline is the scene of Ivan reacting to the window and running towards it.








I'm animating with the soundtrack uploaded to the timeline. And here also music suggested the sudden change of Ivan's body language where all of a sudden the bird forgets his confusions  and lets loose towards what he's attracted to.



the bird reaches the window and inspects the new. Again he is only assured he wants to reach outside, but has to come up with the way to overcome the first obsticle - shut window. He comes up with an idea after he sees the little lock.

These two videos were yesterday's and today's animating. I'm taking the time there. But these scenes are a great warm up before the much more complex animating still waiting ahead.

Week's progress



Developments on Animation's looks: ambient occlusion pass


Recently I spent time on blocking out the world and solving the looks of the animation. I decided to look what could be solved with parallax planes. So that I can plan out the production better,  what must be built and where I can save time.

These are the images of outside environment 'framed' using planes to suggest forests, sky, mountains.






I think these will still develop allot and the layering will be enhanced, because at the moment it does feel flat I think.

Also I'm slowly from time to time am modeling the sets, but my main focus and true work goes on to animating. After few test animations which helped to spot issues as as well as ( hopefully) better the animating,I think I have the first decent bit of animation. That is of Ivan waking up and exploring the world.




I find the tips and tricks website very useful, also thanks to Alan's and Phil's advice and suggested materials I'm beginning to find the animating easier.

Let the Penguines Walk: Setting for Animation

In this project decision was to first do the animation and only then go to detailed set building.

So I started looking at substances to prepare myself for animating. Also it really helped to go into the mindset for animating. So first of all , I want to share what I found .

Animation tips and tricks is a blog where animators answer common questions and share their own techniques of animating, whether it would be the pipeline, trickery or a "checklist". Also they've published 2 free e-books for downloading .

These resources inform my practice.

Other than that I'm now looking for video references to inform the animation scenarios.

For example,in the beginning, while the Bird is unaware of himself in his infancy stage, he walks much like a penguin. So to test animate the walk cycle I first looked at penguins walking.




and here is very first animation test. As I decided to spend some time and get acquainted with Bird's controls ( and there were some problems to solve as well...)




I spent.. well, a bout 8 hours there... I did few of the animations but didn't hesitate to start all over when it was clear that there wasn't anything substantial..

This test was one of more...something. But still.. It so clear that I need to work on animating skills... I think I'll go back to bouncing ball :D start from there perhaps. Get the weighting sorted.

Ready to Go

Finaly, after week and a half Bird's rig is solved!

I have to admit, the rig now is really comfortable to use with lots of freedom for Ivan's changing way of movement (especially concerning walk cycles)
Also, I'm happy that it was possible to have both Bird and Bird-lantern working under single rig so it is all unified and simplier for that reason. 

Ivan's rig was constructed differently from typical character's one as he has some unique constructions. For example, to make his legs work, which are much like a contracting/expanding telescope, a  piston's rig was combined withthe usual leg IK rig . In general, reach was for effective yet simple way of controlling Ivan in his animation. 

Next in the pipeline is test animating the bird to get use to controls and to solve his basic walk cycle together with getting dope sheets for animation ready.

Plan and the Block out of Ivan's World

Initially I started with rough plan of the world.

Then working in maya I made changes to scaling. Because now having story set and clear idea  it also became clear  how much of each environment is needed.

For pre-viz and animation purposes I figured to do initial environment modeling which will be developed through the entire project time simultaneously to other tasks. Again, I bothered myself enough to solve problems in concept art stage, so that when I'm building it serves as a reference.

Trees at the moment are only basic representations. To give an idea how many of them I need and what actually can be achieved with matt paintings.

As I mentioned before, I try to keep the translation from 2d to 3d as close as possible, however, particularly in Dream Island's case, there are lots of things that don't translate as successfully and fail to create the intended feel of the environment ... A Yellow sticker  there...

For now this is pretty much enough to inform animating, so apart from rigging problem there is no reason to wait with animating.

Modeling for games: Body

Dynamics: Emitting from Surfaces and Particles

This lesson showed that surface amission can bring some pretty sophisticated effects, such as the disolve of a coce can. Similarly by using particles as main emiter  other particle emisions can be controled and so interesting effects created.

Model's Adaptation to the Story

Having the story set, it was time to go back to the Bird and make adjustments . Initial model looked more as a statue-figure. Relatively expressionless facial features, no "gadget" inside.


For the eye mechanizm idea was to keep what was  already built (ship wheel on top of the eye) and  add few layers on top.

I personally enjoy how the ship wheel detail is uncovered as the eye is moving around . It looks like the texture of iris or highlights.

(texturing still needs to be solved)

Lastly, the bird now has a lantern.

I think I'm in a very advantaged position,as the character was pretty much done during the summer. Now he is ready to be rigged.

The Outside World

This is a concept of the environment which Ivan first explores and where he becomes a sky-lantern.
In this picture there is a house, a stripe-like field, also woods with "bushes" and at the last layer of composition a mountain.

 Stylization:  

The colour palette is suited to compliment Ivan, make him stand out. Both blues and creamy colours play as a background colour for Ivan's bright greens and browns.

All the elements are slightly off-scale and appear  2d  and illustrational. I was aiming to create a very fairy-tale-like environments.  This was inspired by fairy-tale books which have pop-up illustrations when you open the page. For example:

Also, I seem to forgot to upload the texture sheets I've drawn a while ago. I use them  for concepts and in future texturing. They are created using  water colours, pastels and water pencils