Day 2-3 (week 1)
Study the files the previous NDP batch left behind and try re-creating it by myself so that i know what's going on exactly in the Maya scene. I succeeded in recreating it and understand what was controling what.
Day 4 (week 1)
Research on waves, like how much foam will appear when the wave collides and how it looks like. Thinking about how to create splashes with particles.
Some of my reference:
Day 5 (week 1)
Help the Motion Graphics team export out the objects from Guan Hua's file. Relocate the textures and such. As well as showing them how to animate the objects to rotate around it's axis gradually as time passes by. It was done using expressions.
(week 2)
I then continued researching on the wave VFX. I found out what was lacking in in the ocean waves from the last batch, it was because there wasn't any wave splashes.
I then worked on the files that the previous batch left behind, tired emitting particles but it failed. I found out that we couldn't use old wave file done by the previous vfx team. As they created the wave by Maya create ocean function and i couldn't emit particles from it.
So i moved on and look for deformers that could deform mesh to look like waves. I found a deformer called Perlin noise deformer, installed it on the school's computer and tried using it.
I then improved on the existing ocean shader, and animate the values to make it look like waves.
This is what i've gotten:
(week 3)
Continue helping out the Motion Graphics team with modeling, arranging the 3D elements in Maya.
I needed to help animate the different elements in different shots as well.
When i used the Perlin noise deformer, the look for a still frame is fine. However when it comes to the animation part, the movements isn't quite like what ocean waves looks like. After few trying for a few more days I went to look for other deformers which could do the job.
I found another deformer called HOT which stands for (Houdini Ocean Toolkit). Search for the files, installed the plugin and then tried working with the deformer.
After working with the deformer and creating the particles with expressions this was what i've got:
I tried applying some shader to it and created a rough particle network:
After I've gotten the rough look of the wave splashes, I animated different cameras at different angles and playblast it to see how it looks.
TOP VIEW:
DIVE INTO WATER:
ROTATE:
CLOSE UP:
However, by using this expression method to emit the particles it cause the render time to be very long.
(week 4)
Made further improvements on the particle system so as to try and reduce the time needed to render. I created a animated particle emit matte layer to define at which place and moment will the mesh emit the particle.
This is the node graph in Maya to define the highest point of the wave.
And then run a script to render out the animated matte layer
After mapping in the particle emit matte in the texture rate I did a test render to see how it goes.
WAVE:
COMPOSITE:
CLOSE UP 1:
CLOSE UP 2:
CLOSE UP 3:
CLOSE UP WITH HORIZON:
PAN ACROSS:
TOP VIEW:
(week 5)
I realised that the way the particle moves is kind of weird, so I improved on it.
I also rendered a new particle emit matte layer to combine it with the old matte layer to increase the area of mesh that is emitting the particle.
NEW RENDER:
COMBINED MATTE LAYER:
After applying the new texture rate map into the scene and touching up on the particle controls, for all the shots. I rendered and compile all the different layers in nuke.
Rendered all the shots in Nuke and let Wei Xiong do the cutting.
I couldn't upload the final version vid as the file size is too big.
(week 6)
Started working on the alien project, got brief through where the files were and what we need to do. I was assigned to light shot 13 and 23.
I used area lights and directional lights to light the alien. Most of the time was spent on tweaking the values and re-rendering.
SHOT 13:
SHOT 23:
After setting the lighting for Shot 23 it was taken over by Firman because he have nothing to work on.
(week 7)
Started researching on how to use Mudbox by viewing tutorials online.
Then look for alien references to be able to choose the texture we need.
Some of the references:
Reference for the bony part of the alien.
After seeing this image I plan to give the alien a mask.
Finger of the alien like the claw.
Tested using mudbox:
(week 8)
Continue working on the alien texture in mudbox.
After the review session my alien texture was scraped, so I needed to work on the texture Ling Zheng created. I started to paint some minor details on the alien.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
(week 9)
Export out the textures and Import it into Maya.
After importing in the textures we realised that the lighting values need to be re-tweak all over again.
AFTER TWEAKING THE VALUES:
We realised the texture on the lower half of the leg is very dark and we decided to re-paint it.
AFTER LEG TEXTURE EDIT:
I decided to take up shot 29 and make CG grass getting torn out of the ground.
So i started testing out instancing object and controlling them differently using Expressions.
In this case I made all the pyramid shaped objects stay on the ground:
In this example to make 2 different objects move faster than the rest by expressions:
(week 10)
Start working on the actual shot 29 using fields, expressionand instancing to control the particles.
FIRST TEST SYSTEM:
The scene have too little particles and does not portray enough power. Decided to make the grass float up and twirl around Arthur. This time round i used the color corrected iff footage of the background plate that Ferisa created.
(week 11)
Final changes to shot 29, changes the animation of the grass add objects to make the grass looks like it's colliding with it.
(week 12)
Make final changes to shot 29 and 13 and composite them in nuke.
SHOT 29 NUKE FILE:
The base nuke file to composite the alien passes was created by me.
SHOT 13 NUKE FILE:
SHOT 29 BREAKDOWN:
SHOT 13 BREAKDOWN:
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