The composited film is now completed!
Final editing, title animation, credits, DVD menu and cover is all done in the past few days. This work load was separated up to make it more efficient, at the very end, we put them all in premiere before the final rendering.
Before final rendering, we decided to ask our supervisor and lecturers for some comments. With some useful comments, we decided to cut down the film from 6 min (approx) to 3 mins (approx)and also added some extra bits inbetween to make the movie flow better and easier to understand.
After editing some parts, we all watched the film and all approved to render out as a final film and burnt it on to DVD.
Asset folder is all now together inside a folder, DVD will be burnt shortly, separated to the film as the files are too big.
Completed film and assets files DVDs will be all handed in first thing on Monday
-Mary
Saturday, 29 March 2008
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Post Production and Final Editing
In the last 3 weeks, all animation and editing is completed. Gremlins are all animated, shadowed by adding lighting and planes (which is set as background texture) in Maya.
Throughout animating, some problems were involved. We went back to the library to record some more footage and also filmed outside of the library for us to use for the beginning of our film.
Each member has now rendered out their own work in After Effect. All Maya files were rendered as .iff files then import to after effect for more post-production. To make gremlin and the props look like they are part of the footage, we use tools such as masking and effects such as blue, grain and brightness to adjust.
Each member produced their own individual scenes, and also worked together on scenes when more than one gremlin was shown. Once composition was complete for each scene, it is all rendered out with the original footage in high quality QuickTime format (.mov).
Sound is also recorded in Garageband; this includes sound effects and gremlin voices, which were rendered as mp3. (We all record our own sound for our gremlin)
Soundtrack has also been made in garage band.
Because Harn is took less part in animation, she has been organising the footage together in Premier pro, putting the footage in the layout of the animatic, staying true to the original idea. Sound is also being worked on and is currently being added into the film.
The final editing will be completed as a group, this will involve organising titles, adding credits, DVD menu and cover and making sure the film flows before rendering out it as final film-This will be discuss and worked on tomorrow. After final product is produced, very shortly we will organise an audience testing to get feedback.
-Mary
Throughout animating, some problems were involved. We went back to the library to record some more footage and also filmed outside of the library for us to use for the beginning of our film.
Each member has now rendered out their own work in After Effect. All Maya files were rendered as .iff files then import to after effect for more post-production. To make gremlin and the props look like they are part of the footage, we use tools such as masking and effects such as blue, grain and brightness to adjust.
Each member produced their own individual scenes, and also worked together on scenes when more than one gremlin was shown. Once composition was complete for each scene, it is all rendered out with the original footage in high quality QuickTime format (.mov).
Sound is also recorded in Garageband; this includes sound effects and gremlin voices, which were rendered as mp3. (We all record our own sound for our gremlin)
Soundtrack has also been made in garage band.
Because Harn is took less part in animation, she has been organising the footage together in Premier pro, putting the footage in the layout of the animatic, staying true to the original idea. Sound is also being worked on and is currently being added into the film.
The final editing will be completed as a group, this will involve organising titles, adding credits, DVD menu and cover and making sure the film flows before rendering out it as final film-This will be discuss and worked on tomorrow. After final product is produced, very shortly we will organise an audience testing to get feedback.
-Mary
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
Post Presentation and production
The Presentation passed by and it went well, we presented our 3D models and in the last few weeks have been completing animating.
The edited library footage has been imported into maya and projected through a camera so we can animate our gremlins against a background. Each team member has animated their own section of the film using scenes, and we will be putting all individual bits together at the end. In parts of the film where a group of gremlins are shown we will be doing shared animation - sharing the maya file and adding each gremlin in individually.
What is greatly important is shadows and lighting, which is what we are currently working on in our scenes now that animating is pretty much sorted. Use of the two will help to make the gremlins look more real and also like they are part of the 2D footage, which is very important!! We have been looking into methods of adding shadows in through maya and also through after effects, to see which will give us the best results.
We are also looking into a soundtrack and thinking about what kinds of sound we will be using :)
-Harn
The edited library footage has been imported into maya and projected through a camera so we can animate our gremlins against a background. Each team member has animated their own section of the film using scenes, and we will be putting all individual bits together at the end. In parts of the film where a group of gremlins are shown we will be doing shared animation - sharing the maya file and adding each gremlin in individually.
What is greatly important is shadows and lighting, which is what we are currently working on in our scenes now that animating is pretty much sorted. Use of the two will help to make the gremlins look more real and also like they are part of the 2D footage, which is very important!! We have been looking into methods of adding shadows in through maya and also through after effects, to see which will give us the best results.
We are also looking into a soundtrack and thinking about what kinds of sound we will be using :)
-Harn
Tuesday, 12 February 2008
As the deadline has passed for the final models to be completed I thought it was about time I uploaded my rigged gremlin.
Progress is going well within the group. I believe that all gremlins are rigged and are in the progress of being animated ready to show in the presentation. Have gone over today what needs to be covered in the presentation and are going to spend the day tomorrow to go over the presentation ready for Thursday.
- Chérie
Thursday, 7 February 2008
Filming Done!
As expected filming was completed by tuesday 5th, footage is now captured and in the process of editing. To reduce the time of editing, each group member has an indivdual part to edit, at the footage where their gremlin will take action in.
Last gremlin is in the progress of rigging, once completed, the three gremlins is totally complete and ready to animated. As we do realise we are a little bit behind with our schedule, we will be starting animating shortly, and hopefully will have one individual scene completed by next week.
Here's some print screens of my gremlin and some other bits...
-Mary
Last gremlin is in the progress of rigging, once completed, the three gremlins is totally complete and ready to animated. As we do realise we are a little bit behind with our schedule, we will be starting animating shortly, and hopefully will have one individual scene completed by next week.
Here's some print screens of my gremlin and some other bits...
-Mary
Thursday, 31 January 2008
This weeks progress
On monday we went back to the library to finish up filming. In this session we filmed all of the areas that we will be animating our gremlins into, for example, bookshelves, desks and trolley's. Overall we were filming for an hour or two and we managed to get all of the footage down. We then extracted the footage on wednesday, separated each team members bit from all the footage and we are all editing our own section of the film. This will allow us all to have a go at the editing job, and also set the scene up for personal preference by each team member.
However we are unhappy with some of the footage, and so are going to re-film some parts on tuesday 5th to correct this. We intended to have our footage edited by friday, but because of this set back we are unable to get this completed until next week.
However our gremlins are close to completion and it is important that we finish up the editing so we can get into animating.
- Harn
However we are unhappy with some of the footage, and so are going to re-film some parts on tuesday 5th to correct this. We intended to have our footage edited by friday, but because of this set back we are unable to get this completed until next week.
However our gremlins are close to completion and it is important that we finish up the editing so we can get into animating.
- Harn
Thursday, 24 January 2008
Scheduling!!!
This is our project plan, which was drawn up at the beginning of the project.
Unfortunately with a very busy christmas holiday all group members are slightly behind on the completion of their gremlin. This has therefore put us behind. We are now ensuring all modeling, texturing and rigging is completed by 1st February. This will allow us to start animating on the footage which is also to be edited by the 1st February. Once these two pieces are complete, animating can commence. Therefore we must ensure that we stick to or stay as close as we can at least to the times we have organised.
We are now having weekly meetings to check each others progress and to re-address our schedule and plan, to ensure that we are keeping ahead of what is required for this project.
Other dates include:
Beginning of Post Production on 11th Feb
Final touches on 3rd March
Begin render on 10th Feb (1 week ahead of schedule to do test renders)
Complete project on the 4th April
- Harn
Filming
We are well into the actual making of the project now, so yesterday we started filming our footage on which our gremlins will be modeled (having received permission form the lovely library folk as well as our filming permit last week). We had a two hour slot, but alot of time was chewed up by camera checks and also briefing the actors we were using on what exactly we had to do.
Mary and chérie controlled the filming section, checking shots, whereas i helped to brief the actors. We chose the same location to film in that we found for when we did our research, and took pictures of in the library. Lighting however presented the biggest issue, as it was (for once) a bright day, so eliminating as much bright natural light was necessary, but also the library is well lit so we had to take that into account too. Our filmed footage will therefore be much brighter than envisioned, but that is however the atmosphere within the library!!!
With the hour we had left for filming, we shot all the parts with actors, and any scenes that were within the same area, so that our camera shots were all uniform. We filmed our student, our librarian, our sleeping stranger and also views of the desk at which the computer sits, where we will be animating our gremlins. This included a section of chérie's part of the story (and includes a book trolly!). We then reviewed the footage and extracted what we needed from the tape on the morning of 24th. I have organised another filming session for monday morning. In this shoot we will hopefully get all of the shots for animating on ie bookshelves, desks, photocopiers etc. Once this is complete, we can finally start editing the footage together.
-Harn
Mary and chérie controlled the filming section, checking shots, whereas i helped to brief the actors. We chose the same location to film in that we found for when we did our research, and took pictures of in the library. Lighting however presented the biggest issue, as it was (for once) a bright day, so eliminating as much bright natural light was necessary, but also the library is well lit so we had to take that into account too. Our filmed footage will therefore be much brighter than envisioned, but that is however the atmosphere within the library!!!
With the hour we had left for filming, we shot all the parts with actors, and any scenes that were within the same area, so that our camera shots were all uniform. We filmed our student, our librarian, our sleeping stranger and also views of the desk at which the computer sits, where we will be animating our gremlins. This included a section of chérie's part of the story (and includes a book trolly!). We then reviewed the footage and extracted what we needed from the tape on the morning of 24th. I have organised another filming session for monday morning. In this shoot we will hopefully get all of the shots for animating on ie bookshelves, desks, photocopiers etc. Once this is complete, we can finally start editing the footage together.
-Harn
Wednesday, 16 January 2008
team meeting
Now that the christmas holidays are over, we met up again to ascertain whereabouts we all are as far as modeling is concerned. It is fair to say that there is some way to go, but we have now set out realistic dates and guidelines for our project.
As we now know that completing the 3D section fo the project will be more time consuming than originally imagined, we are now looking at organising filming, and getting all of the shots we need, and put together while we are modeling. This will leave less to do later on and will help with managing the tasks we have to complete.
Deadlines will follow, at the moment, we want to film next wednesday 23rd in the morning, with our actors, to get as much footage as possible. A filming permit has been obtained so we are set to go!!!
-Harn
As we now know that completing the 3D section fo the project will be more time consuming than originally imagined, we are now looking at organising filming, and getting all of the shots we need, and put together while we are modeling. This will leave less to do later on and will help with managing the tasks we have to complete.
Deadlines will follow, at the moment, we want to film next wednesday 23rd in the morning, with our actors, to get as much footage as possible. A filming permit has been obtained so we are set to go!!!
-Harn
Wednesday, 26 December 2007
Wednesday, 5 December 2007
Modeling
So.... modeling is underway. This is an idea of some of the progression made so far. Each of us will have our own gremlin, but we want to create a basic version, so that each of us can use it to work out the sizes and measurements of our own individual gremlins. We also need to work on clothes and accessories, as each one will have a style and personality of its own.
Let the games begin!!!
-Harn
Thursday, 15 November 2007
Meeting Delay
Meeting has been delayed due to work load on other project, should (hopefully) be meeting week 8 on the Tuesday 20th afternoon.
- Mary
- Mary
Research - Composition Movie
Some more updates of research which has previous done before, but not mentioned to date yet. While Harn and Cherie busy looking at adverts and 3D animation films, I looked at how to composite 3D character into real life footage.
In-depth research was done into two very successful 3D composite feature films; Stuart little (which was mention before) and Garfield. From research, the most important information found was lighting and shadowing is a very important factor to make the whole 3D character realistic. When research, there was images of Stuart little the character modelled and added into the scene without any lights and shadow, the model, on its own is very well produced, but did not looked like it was part of the scene, after lighting and shadow was added on, it looks like it was actually inside it.
From Garfield, I have found it was using motion capture to make Garfield the character's movement more realistic, which is also one aspect of making 3D character more realistic. Unfortunately, we do not have that facility in the department at the moment. Also while filming, using an orange ball to represent Garfield, which was a method of making real life character aware of where character Garfield was in the scene. This was so the character was looking at the right direction and also shadow would be totally right.
This information was all discussed together, along with other researched material, to come up with the character ideas and designs we have so far.
Photos of designs is upload to our website, feel free to take a look.
Animatics has been delayed on uploading, but will be uploaded as soon as possible, please do keep checking.
www.manic-monkey.net
- Mary
In-depth research was done into two very successful 3D composite feature films; Stuart little (which was mention before) and Garfield. From research, the most important information found was lighting and shadowing is a very important factor to make the whole 3D character realistic. When research, there was images of Stuart little the character modelled and added into the scene without any lights and shadow, the model, on its own is very well produced, but did not looked like it was part of the scene, after lighting and shadow was added on, it looks like it was actually inside it.
From Garfield, I have found it was using motion capture to make Garfield the character's movement more realistic, which is also one aspect of making 3D character more realistic. Unfortunately, we do not have that facility in the department at the moment. Also while filming, using an orange ball to represent Garfield, which was a method of making real life character aware of where character Garfield was in the scene. This was so the character was looking at the right direction and also shadow would be totally right.
This information was all discussed together, along with other researched material, to come up with the character ideas and designs we have so far.
Photos of designs is upload to our website, feel free to take a look.
Animatics has been delayed on uploading, but will be uploaded as soon as possible, please do keep checking.
www.manic-monkey.net
- Mary
Friday, 2 November 2007
Moving Forward
Having done our presentation, which provided us with feedback not only on our idea, but also the research we have to do date, and what else we could do to help us with our project. Our idea seems sound (thankfully) but we have been advised to use good sound, as it will rely alot on sound effects etc to make it real. This is very true, we need to get started on this!!! We have thought about recording thing ourselves; voices, bumps etc and adding it in during post production, but this will be discussed later on.
We have started to to think about modeling. Unfortunately, this is temporarily taking a back seat to the various other pieces of work we have to do at this time. However, we are planning to meet at some point during the next week (week 7 project week), to discuss what we have to do next, going forward, and discuss deadlines for the work.
We were hoping to have all modeling and rigging complete by the beginning of next term (yes that does include christmas holidays, but how much work we will get done in the vacation is beyond me!).
-Harn
We have started to to think about modeling. Unfortunately, this is temporarily taking a back seat to the various other pieces of work we have to do at this time. However, we are planning to meet at some point during the next week (week 7 project week), to discuss what we have to do next, going forward, and discuss deadlines for the work.
We were hoping to have all modeling and rigging complete by the beginning of next term (yes that does include christmas holidays, but how much work we will get done in the vacation is beyond me!).
-Harn
Monday, 29 October 2007
story
We have decided on our gremlins' jobs within the animation.
We sat down together and created the beginning and end of the story and then the animatic, and Chérie and Mary went away and wrote down what their gremlins will be doing.
The story is now as follows:
1. student is at library late, trying to write an essay he can not complete.
2. He gets a call and leaves his table
3. The gremlins come from hiding and meet at the students computer space
4. They decide their plan of action and set off to work
5 . My gremlin will stay and write the essay
6. Chérie's gremlin will go and find books to help write the essay
7. Mary's gremlin will grab some snacks for the starving student (he has been studying for a while, he needs some energy!)
8. They all meet back at the computer, while my gremlin completes the essay
9. The student makes his way back, as the gremlins scatter
10. My gremlin falls out of a book case beside the student
11. The student is freaked out....
12. The librarian comes over, tells the student to hush up (because its a library and his cries of shock are disturbing the peace!) and kicks the gremlin under a bookshelf
13. Leaves the student looking baffled
14. The end!
The animatic will be posted on the website very soon, so feel free to watch!
www.manic-monkey.net
-Harn
We sat down together and created the beginning and end of the story and then the animatic, and Chérie and Mary went away and wrote down what their gremlins will be doing.
The story is now as follows:
1. student is at library late, trying to write an essay he can not complete.
2. He gets a call and leaves his table
3. The gremlins come from hiding and meet at the students computer space
4. They decide their plan of action and set off to work
5 . My gremlin will stay and write the essay
6. Chérie's gremlin will go and find books to help write the essay
7. Mary's gremlin will grab some snacks for the starving student (he has been studying for a while, he needs some energy!)
8. They all meet back at the computer, while my gremlin completes the essay
9. The student makes his way back, as the gremlins scatter
10. My gremlin falls out of a book case beside the student
11. The student is freaked out....
12. The librarian comes over, tells the student to hush up (because its a library and his cries of shock are disturbing the peace!) and kicks the gremlin under a bookshelf
13. Leaves the student looking baffled
14. The end!
The animatic will be posted on the website very soon, so feel free to watch!
www.manic-monkey.net
-Harn
Character Ideas and story Pt 2
We thought about adding a character into our story, more importantly a student, as it is the norm for a student to be in a library working. Our gremlins, seeing as we didn't want them to be reckless and evil, could help the student with work. We did however want to maintain that air of naughtiness in their behavior. By having an actor to have the gremlins work around, it meant we could introduce the gremlins, let them do their thing and then tuck them away somewhere, and our actor could fill in the gaps and make the story a story. The gremlins would then have a purpose and the story would have structure to it... perfect!
We went back to the library and took more detailed pictures of the areas within the library - the photocopier, bookshelves, study tables, computers, the help desk etc all places that we could hide gremlins or have them doing something funny or sweet.
We decided, to allow us each to do our own thing within the animation, we will have our own gremlin, each complete with its own design and personality, to have its own section within the library, or its own job or role within the story. We will each have control over our won part of the animation, but we will have the gremlins integrating with each other, like a team, much like ourselves!!!
- Harn
We went back to the library and took more detailed pictures of the areas within the library - the photocopier, bookshelves, study tables, computers, the help desk etc all places that we could hide gremlins or have them doing something funny or sweet.
We decided, to allow us each to do our own thing within the animation, we will have our own gremlin, each complete with its own design and personality, to have its own section within the library, or its own job or role within the story. We will each have control over our won part of the animation, but we will have the gremlins integrating with each other, like a team, much like ourselves!!!
- Harn
Character Ideas and story Pt 1
Having looked through the various research, we all decided to stay away from the fur style monster and stick with a monster to whom we could apply a decent skin texture, which would look just as real.
I found an idea of gremlins from a comic book i had read "the darkness". In this comic, the gremlins are very mischevous and like killing people ... this was NOT the kind of personality we were looking at, but the gremlins were kinda cool, so we looked further into this.
Chérie and Mary scoured the internet for more pictured of gremlins, and after a week, we had alot of reference material to chose from. We thought about what we wanted our gremlins to be like. Seeing as our style is generally cute and sweet, we thought we would stick with that. We wanted to keep them small, otherwise they might start to look a bit scary, and we started to put sketches down for design ideas. This is something we are still working on, we will be sure to post some pictures soon!!
Now we had character ideas, we thought about locations and settings for our story (which was as yet undecided). We went around campus and took alot of pictures (gym, lecture theatres, computer labs, science labs, cafe). Our favourite place and the one we had had in mind was the library. It is a huge building spanning across four floors, there was so much we could do in there, so much that our gremlins could be doing. Also, it was central to campus, and a place that all students (as they are a big part of our audience) can relate to. When we walked in, we saw signs saying the library would be open late, and thought of it being full of students cramming for exams or just struggling to write essays..... this sounding like a good idea.
-The team
Monday, 22 October 2007
Research - adverts
While Chérie and Mary looked at feature length films, i thought about looking at shorter animations - in the form of adverts.
Seeing as we would be more likely to create an animation closer to long advert length, i looked into this, and how long it took to make them and also what kind of style and techniques they used.
Our intial thought was to go for something like the sprite advert, because of the sprite goblin, but i watched a few of the adverts and was unable to find any info about how the advert was actually made. I also discovered how difficult it was to navigate around the coca cola site :S
Anywho, i thought of other adverts to look at. In one of our Visual effects lectures, we had been shown an advert for the country life spreadable butter advert by framestore (http://www.framestore-cfc.com/commercials/dairycrest/index.html). In this ad, a mother, having just ushered her (very messy) children off to school was faced with the cleaning up. So you buttered a slice of toast, and all of a sudden came a bunch of animals to do the cleaning for her! All of the animals were modeled in maya, except for a few stray rabbits and a sheep. It took about 12 weeks to model and texture, and the ad spent a whole 3 months in post production, to get the scene looking completely real and believable.
I then found, on the framestore site, another amazing animated advert. The post office advert (http://www.framestore-cfc.com/commercials/postoffice_twins/index.html) is a firm favourite of mine, with the 3d ants living their own lil lives amongst us. The advert i watched was called "twins", where two of the children ants are playing with their RC cars and have an accident. They start talking about car insurance then break out into a fight, all good fun! What i likes about this ad is that the characters in it were so much more basic, and very cartoony, which i would say is much more our groups style. And the advert had been made so well, and the character personalities really made the whole thing more watch-able. The kids sounded and acted like kids, and were cute. Also, this animation took 3 weeks to model and texture and spent only 2 weeks in post production. This shows just how much difference using less texture and realism can make on time taken.
This was something that the group discovered generally though all of our research - that is was too difficult to go for a realistic, fur texture and all the other crazy stuff for our animals. Realistically, we dont have that much time. It would be better to stick with skin like textures - it worked so well with the ants.
Next - character designs. We each have our own ideas, we just need to pull them together.
-Harn
Seeing as we would be more likely to create an animation closer to long advert length, i looked into this, and how long it took to make them and also what kind of style and techniques they used.
Our intial thought was to go for something like the sprite advert, because of the sprite goblin, but i watched a few of the adverts and was unable to find any info about how the advert was actually made. I also discovered how difficult it was to navigate around the coca cola site :S
Anywho, i thought of other adverts to look at. In one of our Visual effects lectures, we had been shown an advert for the country life spreadable butter advert by framestore (http://www.framestore-cfc.com/commercials/dairycrest/index.html). In this ad, a mother, having just ushered her (very messy) children off to school was faced with the cleaning up. So you buttered a slice of toast, and all of a sudden came a bunch of animals to do the cleaning for her! All of the animals were modeled in maya, except for a few stray rabbits and a sheep. It took about 12 weeks to model and texture, and the ad spent a whole 3 months in post production, to get the scene looking completely real and believable.
I then found, on the framestore site, another amazing animated advert. The post office advert (http://www.framestore-cfc.com/commercials/postoffice_twins/index.html) is a firm favourite of mine, with the 3d ants living their own lil lives amongst us. The advert i watched was called "twins", where two of the children ants are playing with their RC cars and have an accident. They start talking about car insurance then break out into a fight, all good fun! What i likes about this ad is that the characters in it were so much more basic, and very cartoony, which i would say is much more our groups style. And the advert had been made so well, and the character personalities really made the whole thing more watch-able. The kids sounded and acted like kids, and were cute. Also, this animation took 3 weeks to model and texture and spent only 2 weeks in post production. This shows just how much difference using less texture and realism can make on time taken.
This was something that the group discovered generally though all of our research - that is was too difficult to go for a realistic, fur texture and all the other crazy stuff for our animals. Realistically, we dont have that much time. It would be better to stick with skin like textures - it worked so well with the ants.
Next - character designs. We each have our own ideas, we just need to pull them together.
-Harn
Research: CGI Films, Stuart Little
From Chérie's research, we found that making a full 3d animation would get too complicated and take more time than we have. So we have decided to maybe use some film footage, and build the charcters onto that. this will save alot of time.
To get an idea of what this would look like some research was done for CGI films such as Stuart Little. This was done to give us an idea on how professional industry immigrate their animation together with real live actions.
Here's a short interview for Stuart Little production team:
Stuart Little Production Story
- Mary
To get an idea of what this would look like some research was done for CGI films such as Stuart Little. This was done to give us an idea on how professional industry immigrate their animation together with real live actions.
Here's a short interview for Stuart Little production team:
Stuart Little Production Story
- Mary
Thursday, 18 October 2007
Research: CGI Films, Monsters Inc.
To get a better idea of what kind of tone and length we would like our film to be, we have been looking into various films that use CGI, to give us an idea of what kind of project we will be undertaking.
I have been looking at full 3D films - in particular, monsters inc(as we are using monsters in ours!) as well as shrek(which also uses monsters) to take a look at the characters and also the settings and how they are made.
-Chérie
I have been looking at full 3D films - in particular, monsters inc(as we are using monsters in ours!) as well as shrek(which also uses monsters) to take a look at the characters and also the settings and how they are made.
-Chérie
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