To-Do List|Responsive

List of things I need to get done before February (deadline for this module is late March, so 2 months for animating/editing/adding sound should be enough. 'Should' since I've never actually animated anything than couple seconds long ;) )

To-Do List:

• gather inspiration photos/illustration/animations
• script
• storyboard
• animatic
• landscape/material practice
• character redesigns
• colour keys to establish final mood and style
• 3D layer tests (similar to the ones I did for VFX project)

And I think that's all. I've already started on some of these points and feel pretty confident about this project.

Thor:Dark World|VFX

Blur Studio posted recently a VFX breakdown from the Thor:Dark World.


Blur: Thor: The Dark World VFX Breakdown from Blur Studio on Vimeo.

I haven't seen this movie yet, mostly because I wasn't particulary impressed with the first one (almost felt asleep ;)). However, after watching above breakdown, I'm eager to watch it.
From technical point of view, it was interesting to see how they've created light beams, planets and used mo-cap footage for battle scenes. Thor: Dark World is one of these movies that are heavy on visual effects and use of green/blue screen, which is hard to make it believable. It could be why I haven't enjoyed the first one, it looked way too unreal, more like fairy tale or cartoon.

Stalingrad breakdown|VFX

 Stalingrad breakdown by MainRoad|Post
It's not always about big Hollywood blockbuster movies made somewhere in US or Europe. A really good VFX studios can be found all around the world and MainRoad|Post is one of them.
MainRoad|Post is a visual effects studio based in Moscow, Russia. They've got a nice portfolio of movies, including Wanted, but they've also worked on a game called TimeShift.
VFX breakdown for Stalingrad is probably the best breakdown I've seen so far.Well paced and interesting with great music. Some people says that it's more interesting than the movie itself (which I haven't seen yet, as war movies aren't my cup of tea. Explosions and fire looks very real, scenes are detailed and nicely composited together. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find any technical info on what software they've used (possibly FumeFX and Maya?). Still, it is interesting and good breakdown, definately worth watching.

What is Research| Lecture COP2

Notes from What is Research lecture.

Landspace Inspiration|Responsive

Over the years I've taken a lot of photos, mostly during summer time trips, which I can use now as an inspiration for this brief. Also, I've got quite a good library of texture photos, mostly rocks, which will definitely come handy later on.

 

When creating my landscape mood board, I've looked mostly for interesting, foreign looking sea shores/cliffs/beaches photos. All above photos were taken in UK, in places like Cornwall, Clapham, Seaham and Whitby.

Action will take place on the island, so the sea, as well as hard, full of rocks, surface of steep hills and caves.

These places will inspire my environments and give me an idea for a possible color palette (as most of them were taken during sunny days).

 
Another part of my research was looking at photos of different plants to get an idea for what type of vegetation could be found on that island (inhabited by cyclops and sheep).

I've gather few photos from my trip to Malaga (Spain) and to Minack Theater (which is AT the Worlds End in Cornwall), which are shows a bit of Mediterranean (tropical for us living in UK;)) nature - aloe plants, cactus, baobab trees. In the next following weeks I will try to design few possible trees and shrubs that I could then use as an assets in my final animation.

The last part of this blog post are rocks. I love rocks, mostly for their uneven texture. I'm planning on using my photos as a textures, as well as creating a bunch of rock assets that could be composite into a final scenes (I've also run few tests to see how long it can take me to actually draw a rock).

Portable Green Screen Adventures|VFX

So, for our VFX module, we had to have a green screen sequence. It doesn't matter if it's 60 or 4 seconds long, if it's filmed in a studio environment or outside. We HAD to have it.
I've borrowed a portable one as I was filming everything outside. Luckily, I've also took out a frame to mount screen onto, which was sturdy enough to stay in one spot during windy day. Shooting itself went quite smooth and we finished it all in less than an hour. However, the troubles were yet to come.
Portable green screen FlexDrop2 is not as easy to fold as it's presented in multiple YouTube tutorials. It took us quite a lot of takes to actually manage to fit it back into a bag. I bet we looked like the guy from this video ;)


Lesson for next time: allow extra time for packing green screen up.

Subculture and Style|Lecture COP2

Notes from Subculture and Style lecture.

 

Steampunk - sub-genre of scince fiction, usually featuring steam powered machinery, inspired by 19th century industrilized Western civilisation. Alternate history of British Victorian Era or American 'Wild West', were electricity wasn't discovered (postapocaliptic settings). Also inspired by art nouveau designs.
game example: Dishonored (electropunk), Order 1886 (yet to be released), Thief, Wild Arms










Cyberpunk - postmodern science fiction genre, features advanced technology and a radical changes in social order (low life). Cybergoth is a subculture that devirates from cyberpunk, combines elements of rave, ribethead and goth fashion, as well as direct inspirations from cyberpunk.
game example: Cyberpunk2077(yet to be released), Deus EX.







Lolita - a fashion subculture, originating in Japan, based on Victorian-era clothing. Lolita is not only a specific type of clothes, but also a type of life style. It's more about presenting yourself in a 'elegant' and 'cute' way, rather than showing more and more skin ('sexy' look). Types of lolita: goth -, sweet - , classic - , punk -, princess - , Shiro & Kuro -, Oji - , Guro - , sailor - , country - , Wa - , Qi - , casual -. Outside the Japan Lolita is a cultural phenomena, mostly seen during comic/manga conventions (cosplay).
game example: Danganronpa, Persona 3, The World Ends With You (game action is based in Shinjuku and features multiple subcultures)
.

Video Inspirations|Responsive

Few more examples of what I'd like to achieve with my one minute animation. As I want to get a 2.5D I've picked few examples that visualize it perfectly.


PLANET L.U.C & TRZECI WYMIAR - KOSMOSTUMOSTÓW from BOX POSTPRODUCTION on Vimeo.


Adventure Concept Art Set from Artur Sadlos on Vimeo.

The level of detail in those videos is crazy, which is something I'm unable to make, mostly because of the time constraint, as well as the style I'm going for. However, the camera work/depth of field is something I'll definately take from those examples.

Inspirations|Responsive

Inspirations for my one minute video:

Horrible Histories - style of a show; presents a serious historical events (sometimes really cruel and bloody in a funny way), which allows it to be watched by kids and teenagers.

Kung Fu Panda - Story of Po's Childhood




Parts of above sequence are done in 2D (After Effects and Flash), colorful and stylized. Another good example of what I'd like to achieve is a end credit animation from Kung Fu Panda 2.

What I really like about it is the simplicity, use of bright colors, stylization and quirky animation. Moreover, this type of animations is getting used more and more often in end credits in many animated feature films (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Wreck-it Ralph and many more).

Illustration inspirations:

Hannah Christenson - great style, amazing colors and details.

 Lorena Alvarez Gómez - beautiful colors, quirky characters.

Nicholas Kole - great character designs, some of them made specially for animation. Colorful and simple, strong silhouettes.

Nelson Atmos - style, traditional marker sketches.

Enrique Fernandez- character stylization, range of dynamic poses, use of colors

Cathedral Academy|PPP2

On 19th of November in Cathedral Academy (in Wakefield) I had a wonderful opportunity, along the other student ambassadors, to teach kids and present my work. We were representing a variety of courses run by Leeds College of Art (DFGA, Printed Textiles, Illustration), encouraging youngsters to choose Higher Education in the future.

First half of a day we spent explaining what we do on our courses and presenting our work. I had two of my sketchbooks and some color illustrations with me and kids loved the funky characters and not-so-scary monsters. The second part of a day was filled with help in illustrating a poem (kids were asked earlier to prepare a short poem, alien themed). Each one of student ambassadors presented a different medium (markers, watercolors) to the small group and gave advice on how to draw things or were to add stuff. Kids were really lovely and well behaved and it was really hard picking top 10 works.
Overall it was a great experience and would like to do it again in the future. I hasn't sure about the whole project at the begging, as I never had any experience with young kids, but it was a true blast. From this point I started considered an art tutor job as a future career.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit|VFX

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 comedy film, which combines a live action and animation together. I remember watching it as a kid and being extremly impressed :). The story is based on Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a great example of a style I want to achive in my one minute film for VFX brief. Initial idea is to make the VFX sequence look a bit cartoony and less realistic, adding a little bit of stylisation, which leads to extra humor. My alien is not as colorful as Roger Rabbit but still, my goal is to keep everything quite simple, but in the same time make it all match perfectly. Also, it's going to be 2D and animated in After Effects. The most tricky part will be compositing it into an actual real life footage, hre I'll have to use few filters to match the lighting perfectly.

Alien Planet - Inspirations|VFX

Below is a short list (with description) of pieces of concept art and illustrations that where my source of inspiration when creating alien planet. I was after creating a planet that will indicate a very hard conditions, like lack of water, sun or vegetation, rough surface covered in rocks.

• Night Forest by Sammich
• interesting use of blu-ish tones for creating a particular effect, presenting a certain mood;
• great composition;

• Desert sketch by John Powell
• uncanny look of this desert
• shading on rocks
• mix of warm tones in foreground and cool in the background
• interesting composition

• Medieval Village by Firstear 
•  great use of perspective
•  objects in foreground really well detailed, background have more blue-ish tones and is less detailed which creates a depth of field

• Quicksand River by yangqi917
• detail on rocks (my alien planet is going to have lots of rocks)

• Blue by Seryl
• use of colors in creating a misterious atmosphere
• shapes of rocks, composition
• monumentality of mountains in background
• foreing look

• News from the horizon by korpi
• scale of rock formations
• detail
• composition

• environment thumbnails by openanewworld
• composition
• colors, which make those enviros look uncanny and alien
• detail

Censorship and Truth|Lecture COP2

Notes from Censorship and Truth lecture.

Competition|Responsive

     One of requirements of this module is to submit your work to festival or competition. I've looked for one minute animation festivals and I've found Filminute festival and KLIK! Amsterdam. I really like them both but I'm going to write my treatment towards Filminute festival, as they've got really detailed guidelines available to view as well as submission dates (for 2013 submissions were open between 1st April until 20th of August).

My finished animation have to be:

• 60 seconds long (include title and credits);
• have to be produced in broadcast quality (the submission section states that it have to be: 720X480 (NTSC), or 720X576 (PAL) with 16:9 Aspect Ratio, however I've to work in full HD in case if my animation got selected);
• format .mov , .mpeg2 or YouTube compatible, only digital submission;
• created by hand or on the computer;
• it can't be sexually explicit, disparaging, libelous or other inappropriate content (which doesn't apply that much to the thing I'm doing).

Alien - finished asset|VFX

Finished asset of my alien for VFX brief.

I've used Photoshop and mostly hard round brush (few little freckle textures where added with brush set shared by Maciej Kuciara months ago). Tails and eye are on a different layers as I'll animate them in After Effects.

Above little preview of how 100% file looks like. I've made it so big only because it looks way nicer when down scaled :). Also it gives me an ability to play with size in After Effects without worring about pixels.

Alien 3D model tests|VFX

I've decided to do a little test of my alien in Maya, simply because I wanted to have a nice comparison between 2D and 3D.

The model I've created is very basic and untextured. I've added a very simple 5-joint rig for a tail part and four 3-joint rigs for the head/base.

I've key framed tail to move from left to right (pendulum motion) and set frames for head/base to imitate jellyfish-like movement. Next step was to render all frames and use After Effects to create sequence. I've saved all my Maya render files to .png so my finished sequence had transparent background (yay for alpha channels). I've used one of interior photos of Kia Rio as a back plate to test this really short shot.
Overall I enjoyed playing in Maya but I've found that making a really good model of an alien (and then UV maping it) would be a bit too time consuming. Also it doesn't really match the final look I want to achive. However I will definately use above process for quick prototyping (which will come useful when working on more complex shots).

Globalisation, Sustainbility and the media|Lecture COP2

Notes from Globalisation, sustainbility and the media lecture.

 

 

History of VFX|VFX

Our last seminar before intermin crit in November was about history of compositing. I've watched a very interesting video on this topic few months ago.


Although, the 3/4 of video are spent on explaining the old techniques, looking at ground breaking innovations and pioneers of VFX, I still found it very useful and informative. It's good to know history of a specific process and how it changed throughout the years.
Yellow screen is probably the most interesting part as I've never heard of it before. It's a really weird process and only one was made and used by Disney ( e.g. in Mary Poppins film).

BAF Game Day2|PPP2

Second day of BAF Game 2013 was interesting and fun. This time all the talks took place in one of the Bradford University buildings in a very cold lecture theater. 

Chris Geoff (art team lead), Jack Hamilton (character artist), Callum Roberts (generalist) - FuturLab - first panel talk of a day, concentrated on an indie 2D game Velocity 2X, currently in production, scheduled for 2014 release on PS3, PS4, PSVita and STEAM. FuturLab is an indie game developer based in Brighton that been around for 10years. This talk was mostly about pre-production stages, which I will shortly describe in bullet points below (as I've got loads of notes and found it extremly useful and good!):

•  2D games - cheaper in production, require less tools and is less time consuming than 3D, allow to concentrate on quality;
• art style for V2X - style that can be easily adapted between artists;
• in V2X more charaacters were introduced; different alien races that had to be easy to recognize on a small PSVita screen; used Alchemy for exaggerated sketches to explore different ideas (that were never meant to be used in game);
• environment art - vehicle and prop designs had a strong shapes, resolution was an imortant factor (PSVita little screen again), concepts are finished in similiar feel to the general art style;
• useful tip > if it doesn't fit now it won't fit later (so move on!)
• animation - 2D hand drawn animation (tose guys are crazy!) that suited general art style better than 3D (however 3D was used for prototyping and timing tests); 60fps for smooth times; hand drawn animation vs puppetry animation;
• used Unity as an interface for constructing game and then transferred it into the engine.

Viktor Antonow - design director at ZeniMax Media. Viktor talked a lot about the cities and the role of concept art in game production (Dishonored). He showed us a lot of great pieces of art, his own as well as Utopian architectural designs, which are great inspiration for sci-fi art.  He also talked about Dishonored art and inspiration from cities like London and Edinburgh.

Kevin Carthew - creative manager -Team 17 - independent studio based in Wakefield, founded in 1990, well known from games like Worms, Alien Breed and Superfrog. Team 17 is currently developing titles for next gen and mobile platforms. Kevin talk was about How Animation Improves Interaction and concentrated mostly on animation in games (for some reasons all the BAF Game speakers were obsessed with animation and animation only, while we wanted to listen more about concept art and game engines ;)). Interactions during the gameplay shouldn't be disturbed by animations, like during QTE (God Of War, Heavy Rain, Beyon: Two Souls), but should be carefully planned. There should also be a reward system in game, which explains why free-to-play games are so popular (e.g. Candy Crush). Animations should be fresh and interesting, multiple animations used for the frequent events. Procedural animations are much better for video sharing. Animations should fit the content of interaction, should have a meaning and be fun.

Brian Horton - senior art director - Crystal Dynamics - worked on major franchises (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Batman, Star Wars). Brian talked about his challenge when working on Lara Croft from Tomb Raider series, a very popular game character. His task was to bring back the Tomb Raider brand and make it interesting again. He talked us through his though process and what he wanted to achive in a newest game with young Lara Croft.

BAF Game Day1|PPP2

This year Bradford Animation Festival is celebrating 20th anniversary with a beautiful Idents and Sting created by Joanna Quinn.I've stayed only for a Game part of the festival and really enjoyed talks by various professionals. Below is a little summary of what happened during the first day.
After a short introduction done by Jamie Sefton our first speaker was Mike Bithell.

Mike Bithell - indie game developer, creator of  Thomas Was Alone. He talked mostly about his new, upcoming indie stealth game Volume.  I really liked the gameplay ideas and the plot - re-telling story of Robin Hood in completly new, sci-fi settings. Game is being developed for 5 different platforms, including PS4 and PSVita and Danny Wallace will be one of the voice actors.

Steve Lycett - SUMO Digital - worked on many titles, including Split Second and various SEGA games. His latest project was Katsuma Unleashed - a handheld game that he and his team were able to produce in just over 7 months. Steve talked a lot about pre-production of this title and showed us WIP gameplay, animation tests for different characters, intro video.Another game presented was Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed. This one took 3 years to make and was quite challenging - everything had to be animated and each environment unique and interesting.

Karl Abson - lecturer at Bradford University, talked about techniques of animal motion capture. He also talked about the uses of mo-cap and difficulties of working with animals - in his case, with horses. Although it's a very hard and time consuming process, the effects produced during session are far better and more realistic/believable than when animated by key framing (mo-cap is a data driven animation). iKinema was another thing metioned during this talk - it's a plugin for Maya that allows a real time skeleton mapping with mo-cap session.

Warren Spector - game designer, best known for his work on Deus EX and Epic Mickey, although he worked in game industry for many years. He presented all his work on Epic Mickey, talked about balancing visuals & gameplay, player control, camera position, character evolution. He also shared some tips and few stories.

Phil Gray - TT Games - best part of a day, really good talk about LEGO brand and new game in franchise - LEGO Marvel Superheroes. I like LEGO games, mostly because of the fun gameplay, and hoped to see some behind the scene, pre-production stuff, however this talk was full of in-game cutscenes and trailers.

Ethics|Lecture COP2

Notes from Ethics lecture.

 

Summary: Aim for socially and ecologically responsible design to be ethical individual (creative/designer).

Alien Planet Enviro Test|VFX

    My green screen sequence will last around 6 seconds and I've decided to use a digital painting of an alien planet as a back plate. Part of this shot will include camera zooming into the painting. In order to make it all work I've created a very basic comp based on my fav thumbnail and tested it out before starting detailing anything.


     Above video is comparing 2 different ways of creating this kind of shot.
First attempt - used scale and position to create an impression of movement.
Second attempt - used 3D layers and camera to navigate thru the virtual set of alien planet. I like it way better than the first try, 3D layers amde it look way more real and interesting (and it's so similiar to Maya, which makes things much more easier).

Important stuff I need remember of:

• size of assets! some of them will have to be larger than the actual video size to allow all the zooming and panning;
• rendering time - my second 3d attempt took almost 2 minutes to render out and  yet it was very simple and without any color or detail (just massive blocks in grey scale);
• type of camera I'm viewing things thru - during my second attempt I haven't realized that the screen I was looking at was only presenting 50%; after rendering I was able to see the bits of a scene on black background. To solve that I had to change size of my assets.

Thumbnails of an alien planet:

• lasso tool used for creating simple shapes
• added few elements in the foreground, so the camera can move around them
• kept things simple and interesting
• quite quick - between 10-20mins spent on each