SHAIHEIM'S UCA YEAR 3 BLOG

 Previz is basically problem solving. It helps to have a spot light to focus on one specific area, so you can adjust the hardness of the shadows while the directional light makes the whole scene lit, you can have both but for zoomed in scenes sport lights are better, even if dim. To save lots of time in animating, making a separate file of run and walk cycles that you can import to rigs will be really helpful. At the same time if the character is holding something and the walk cycle has the arms flapping about then you'll have to delete the arms animations, but a 20 frame by frame on the scene you're working on is good if you don't want to import and delete constantly.

When finishing the blocking it is important to know that it's acceptable to use [placeholders] like characters to get the best camera angles, as you will know in the edit when to cut them out.  A ramp goes 0 to 1. The smallest a partical can go is 100. Contrast and infinity means if you have a bunch of grey squares and the lighting makes everything grey, the lighting is consistent, with more tones it has greater visual intensity, therefore contrast. This is the aim for most shots as it makes the scene more interesting visually. an infinity is similarity, and too much similarity causes boredom in your shots, lenses, compositions, angles and lighting. A good book is 'the visual story by bruce block' A common animation mistake by newer artists is animating only what's on the camera. For instance a character walking, the animator may decide to do a medium shot, so as the legs won't be shown, they won't be animated, but a supervisor may want a wider shot and u now ha...

 Anything that does not fit in a master file, like lights for instance is better suited for work files. When you want things to disappear in the same scene you can keyframe their visibility, like broken windows, for example.   Pointing is a very bad action in animation. When a character points it shows no: body language, the movement of the camera, the composition of the scene, or cinematography skills. All these should be used to tell the story without pointing. Pointing is a lazy shortcut that means you lack artistic vision. A left-to-right screen direction is great for action as it is how we normally read in the West, and by keeping it consistent it makes the camera less chaotic. The more scenes you block out, te easier it is to see how they compliment each other in the sequence. It just helps with new shots and improving existing ones. Cutting is great also, like angles, inside a place when it's normal, outside what changes it and inside again to show the new state, this m...

 This tutorial was all about finding special effects to amplify the scene. One way of doing this is using green screen effects on YouTube, importing to After Effects, dropping a key light which falls the green automatically and adjusting the alpha. This can be put in a card on Maya like plane/image-plane.  If there are many types of the same effects you like, you can offset them so they go off at different times to make a new effect. Tiff or PNG work when exporting FX from AE. If an effect needs to be cut in terms of length then Maya's graph editor allows such changes. You save the effect as a Master File/ Maya ASCB to be imported into your scenes.

 In previz the camera is the most important part, especially when you are blocking out, adding facial details like expressions will occur further on the production line, so in essence, it is a waste of time to focus on polished animation at this stage such as torso movements, it's better to move the base CTRL instead of just the waist, a previz artist is building the foundation and are not the final animator, it is essential to remember this. Another critical tool to remember is space and perspective, to make the character focus less colour/detail is used so they are easily readable.

 from today till further change I’ll be away from my blogger 

 The line of action or 180-degree rule is one of the most common rules to be broken. This means if a character is on the left, they always stay there as they're on the right back and forth is natural, like their constantly switching places with the other frequently. You chose to pick top or bottom and all the camera's stay in that area. These rules can be broken if your genre is unsettling like horror for instance, but generally, these rules make the camera more organic. Having 3 camera's is good, over the shoulder per each character and one in the middle for profile, too many may be confusing. For rule of thirds it's best to place the action in the crosses and to use 4 boxes for the motion or placement so the action is not always directly in the centre. For the scene's direction, you can do left to right or right to left. Say there's an alien spaceship chasing someone, it could be in the top left corner diagonally going left to right, so would the laser shootin...

 For setting up the scene it makes sense to import the environment first so the characters can work around that, then compare to the inverse, which makes the location very tight. PIE-A means Python Animation Export. After placing all the models, clean the outliner as best you can.

This tutorial was about tracking the camera with the action from various angles such as tilt, pan and point of view. The example was a speeding car, so it made the movement more dynamic, it was necessary for that motion. The wide lense is 18mm and is used for tight spaces like inside a car or a car pipe, basically a micro camera. A telephoto lense is a longer (85mm and up) lens used for far shots like binoculars, which crushes the perspective in the view. Spherical lense and Anamorphic lenses (for wide screen look, stretches the film stock vertically so when edited horizontally it appears 35mm) are most common for projects. Doubling camera aperture helped for playblast, better for anamorphic to be 70 and spherical to be 35 or 18 on focal length.

 This video was about making the environment from simple geometry like cylinders and cubes. Hall used the website Textures.com (formerly CGTextures.com) without cutting and doing UV's instead using the 'Place2dtexture' setting, completing a train station environment from scratch.

Here the video discussed websites to easily get assets and resources that can be made from scratch or modified in under half an hour. : 3D WAREHOUSE ADOBE VIEW, ADOBE MIXAMO, AWE CONTROL PICKER and PIE-A

 This video taught about storing files in their own folders like: CHAR, PROP, FX, LIGHT, VEHICLES and ENVIRONMENTS. It is a very handy way to make sure the scene does not be too messy, especially as a previz artist, so that it can easily be revised and passed on to others in the production pipeline.

 Here I learned that even some of the most advanced animations are prevized by three to four people.  One example is the Silver Surfer chasing the Human Torch in  Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer  

  https://uca-thegnomonworkshop-com.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/tutorials/pre-visualization-for-film The Gnomon site has been handy for learning, to help me when it comes to my major I will be looking at these video tutorials and documenting what I've learned.

In our lesson, we had a different session about UVing methods, as there's no right or wrong way. The session was on Thursday, but I took notes to remember and experimented with myself. Maya Uv layout tips Texel density- Maya- UV- transform- get texel density (px/unit) Stress colour makes UV light pale, not multicoloured Uv select- align on the correct selection Uv is red if incorrect, and blue is correct, so flip

 This model uses Maya's generic rig.  I used the NURBS curves to manipulate the character.  I used like I normally do, the graph editor to control pace and add more movement to my keyframes. I exported the Maya file as a gif to be edited. I inserted the gif into Video Editor to break it down so the scene can be read clearer. After cutting up the scenes, I slowed them down to make where the character contacts the ground more impactful and feel realistic in weighting. This is the MP4 where the scene feels more balanced than previously.  I made a scene with a character I've created In my personal projects, I adjusted the timing and pacing to practise animation.

 I have used base colors for my characters and some environments, but now I want to make some editing tests as I fear I may not have enough to do for major. I think it would be best if I add the intro scene in Major, so I can explore it deeper. I will do tests of editing with unrelated assets from my projects, but as an overall finishing point I think it's best if draft version 8 is my final standpoint of 3D animated work. Additionally I don't agree with the music I've chosen so in Major I will change that too.

 So the dialogue script confirmed that comedy, my most familiar genre is better, so I went along to model the lockers at the story's beginning.

    1. Uh ah ur oh, there's just too much going on (Boy) 2. Too much sound, too much sound, too much sound (Boy) 3. Huurhuur hur, m my my my my my my my friend? my my my my my my my friend? (Boy) 4. Ooh ooh, off he goes to home (Boy) 5. What do you mean I'm going to see you guys til tomorrow (Boy) 6. Hold on a second, the purple gauntlet movie is coming out today, the premier of it. If I miss this, everyone's going to spoil it for me, but I have to go to some stupid flat. Aah, I'm going to make them regret it, I'm gonna be a downright misery, they will think about forcing me to go to things again, they will think about it (Boy) 7. Why do I have to go to some stupid house viewing,  it's not even a house it's a it's a flat eeurch, it's a it's a flat eeurch, it's a flat, we live in a house and we're going to a flat  eeurch (Boy) 8. Why do I have to go to such a stupid place? (Boy) 9. I'm so tired from my little nap (Mum) 10. Well honey, ...

 1. Uh ah ur oh, there's just too much going on (Boy) 2. Too much sound, too much sound, too much sound (Boy) 3. Huurhuur hur, m my my my my my my my friend? my my my my my my my friend? (Boy) 4. Ooh ooh, off he goes to home (Boy) 5. What do you mean I'm going to see you guys til tomorrow (Boy) 6. Hold on a second, the purple gauntlet movie is coming out today, the premier of it. If I miss this, everyone's going to spoil it for me, but I have to go to some stupid flat. Aah, I'm going to make them regret it, I'm gonna be a downright misery, they will think about forcing me to go to things again, they will think about it (Boy)

 This is the new intro for my story as an animatic. I did the storyboard, and now I will animate these scenes. I think this should make the story clearer, though at the moment, version 8 was the most enjoyable version to date.

I decided to pad up the intro instead of recreating the entire storyboard, I'm thinking of using music as voices are good but they don't suit my type of story when I really think about it. (the scene where the boy and friend are in the car driving home) (the scene where the friend is dropped off at home)  (the scene where the son is too tired to even eat) (the scene where the  son prefers to just go to bed) (the scene where parents tell son they are leaving but will come back tomorrow)  (scene where car arrives at house)

 This is the scene where the boy first gets the headphones.

  I will have this butterfly or a similar design across the screen to direct the audience regarding the locations.

 

  These are the first scenes from my new storyboard, these will pour into the beginning and show the boy less angry and more antisocial, which is how I now want to portray him.

(MHA) For the school uniform, I was inspired by My Hero Academia  I want to show the boy a day before moving houses, so putting him in school uniform, added scenes where parents leave, telling the son he has to be ready in x amount of time. They wake him up when he doesn't follow, make the boy have headphones, make flashback scenes slower and have the boy hang out with a friend in real life by the school locker does that for me.