New Project and Current Progress

Bowing of Andrew (first day of re-recording)

Project:
For our new quarter project we are to make a stop motion animation using live people. For the group I was in we decided to try and utilize the new cyclorama green screen. In the process of brainstorming we came up with the idea formed from my original idea. My previous idea was mages making objects out of thin area with paper. We modified this to just plain mages in a theater show. Currently we are not finished and our group as I would assume would take the longest. This is due to the amount of post-production involved in our animation.


Issues:

Bunny Hat Trick

We had mainly issues going through this animation. From this experience I actually have a lot more respect for when I see green screen being used in most situations. Some of the things that seem so minor can make everything go awry. These things could just be the trimming of a hat being reflective making you have to re-shoot everything to shadows and other lighting mishaps.

Stand-off Between the two of us

Content:
This is some of what we have currently, do keep in mind that we are still working on post-production right now. This is some of the editing I have done, keep in mind the background is one solid color for now till we have taken the pictures of our real background.

Video Content:

^ This is the rough version of my editing ^

^ This is the final version of my editing ^

^ This is the final version of the animation ^

Partners:
Laura's Blog Post
Jake's Blog Post
Alex's Blog Post
Andrew's Blog Post
(Will be hyper linked once they have given me the URL)

Q&A

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Conception

• What is your project? 
An animation to represent my bathroom.
• What did you want the audience to gain from your animation?
To understand how I work and progress through challenges.
• Why did you design your project that way?
Familiar with the area, all I have to do was remake it.
• What was your thought behind your project?
To help increase my skills in texturing. To learn new areas of said texturing.
• What did you use to complete your project?
Lydia.com was used for understanding all of the new texturing methods.
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Planning

• Did you run into any issues while planning your project?
Too many objects in my bathroom making somethings not end up being modeled.
• Write 3-5 sentences about your plan of execution.
I planned to model all objects relatively quickly. Afterward modeling I would texturing each object to most closely represent. Finish off with lighting and other finishing textures and models.
• What did you have to do Pre-Production/Creation?
Take reference pictures of the bathroom for closer textures and models.
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Creation

• Describe the process of making your animation.
I started modeling objects but in the process I textured some depending on difficulty of the texture. For instance the walls I gave a texture very early on since all I had to do was get the color right. After modeling and texturing most of the objects I added the lighting system.
• What parts took longer than expected? How did you compensate the extra time spent?
Some of the harder textures like the texture for the sink which happens to be used for about 80% of the metal in the bathroom.
• Did you have to go back to the conception phase to rethink your idea and replan?
No but I did have to cut out some of the objects planned like rugs and towels.
• How did you use the resources available as you worked on your project?
I barely went back to Lynda after learning most of it except for a few textures.
• What personal celebrations did you have? What part are you most proud of in your animation?
Some of the most simple things were actually my favorite. These things included the mirror the toilet and the drawers for the sink.
• Did you have to shorten your plan or where you on time the entire quarter?
I had to cut some things the main reason why is because of me being sick for about 2 weeks. Otherwise I would say I was ahead if not perfectly on time.
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Self-Critique

• What are three things that you can say you learned about making the project?
Learned some of the lighting effects that are in maya's mental ray and that mental ray has textures of their own which are actually are very good texturing.
• What was one issue you had while making your project?
The biggest issue either would being sick or getting some of the colors for the textures right.
• If you could redo any part what would it be? and how would you fix it?
Shower head sizing, flooring overall, and camera movements which can't be seen since I can not render right now.
• How do you feel about your work/animation? 
I feel proud but I feel like I didn't learn a ton from what I expected. I think it is just that because I am the creator it is much easier to find errors in my creation since I know of the errors myself, as well as I am quite hard on myself.
• What do you feel good about, and what do you feel needs more time?
I feel good about the toilet, lighting, and the sink overall (except for faucet). What needs more time is the flooring.
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After Class Critique

• What are two things that the class/teacher said about your animation? One Good and One Bad.
Scaling of objects seem off (specially for the shower head). Nice attention to detail like the bevel on the mirror and the lip on the sink.
• How are you going to fix the issue? Was it dealing with, keyframes, timing, ease in/out?
Going through and sizing some of the objects like the shower head.
• Are there any part of the critique that you disagree with? Why?
I was told that the metals all around the bathroom should match (being the same metal). While I had 3 different metals in the bathroom. This is due to that is what is truly in my bathroom. I don't feel like I should change what the truth is to make some metals match.
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Final Bathroom

Well the whole bathroom is finished and I would love to render it out, but Maya 2015 and OSX Mavericks, which is what our school is using, cannot use batch render. Because of this issue I cannot show you the true final product. I will attempt to render at home where I don't have the specifications to where it would lock up (that I know of). If / When I render it at home I will update this post or make a new post with the video. Overall this was interesting in the most sense. Things I have learned would be features around Mental Ray like ambient occlusion, mental ray textures, and ray trace. I might even revisit this to improve upon textures and models. There would also be much more decorations in the room.

Quick Follow Up

As said in the previous blog I have completed ahead of where I am meant to be at and such had to ignore updates for the short term to speed up work flow. This is so give a more overall look of the bathroom to show off the textures of most of the items I had in the due dates. So far I am happy with almost all textures. The textures I dislike so far are the texture for the toilet - just seems wrong; white wood texture used - not enough emphasis on the wood; and the floor texture - overall just wrong the depth of it just seems wrong, the look of the textures seems flat and or artificial, and sides don't line up where they should. Overall I like the texturing of this bathroom.

Tiny Update

I have been working very diligently to catch back up to where I wanted to be at. For this reason the blogging has been a little slow. So far the objects left to model/texture would be two more light fixtures near the tub and assorted random objects for decoration like soap, toilet paper, rugs, towels, and other objects. Here are the pictures for the toilet and the lights that are a little late. The main reason for this update being late is because I wanted to model the toilet last thinking I would need quite a bit of time for it. It was relatively quick actually. The light fixtures were actually harder to make than the toilet, specially since i had to scrap the first design for it would make it 10x harder to texture.

The Lost Blog

I am caught behind schedule yet again like last year. Last year we had snow days for almost 2 weeks. This time I was sick for around 2 weeks. I am trying to get back on track but Maya has been uncooperative so far. Anyhow I have gotten what is needed for the first blog. Another reason I am behind is I sometimes texture things before I need to. So all the pictures with have some textures to them. So far I have 1 light so far which is a mental ray physical sun and sky. More lights will be added probably in the next Blog. So far these are pictures I have. Things that have already got on my nerves are the texture for the sink. I have tried multiple times on how it should be but so far have failed quite a bit. I set it back to lambert 1 for the time being though. I like the progress on things like the tub, sink, wall separator, and a few of the textures around the room.

Random Side note it seems someone keeps eating bread over the sink. (me joking about bread crumb looking dots on the sink)

Reference Pictures

These are some pictures I took of various angles of my Bathroom. These don't fully give an idea of the layout, but will give me something to refer to when make things like the toilet, sink, tub/shower, and even how the structure is since I am familiar with it.

New Project

Before I work on other animations in the 3-D environment known as Maya, I must get to know texturing better. I am working on a new project where I will be modeling and texturing my own bathroom. Here is the Timeline setup for the Project.

Bathroom

·                    Get reference pictures

o   Due: August 29

o   Blog Here

·                     Finish watch Lynda playlist

o   No Due Date

·                     Modeling

o   Model Room

§  Due: September 3

o   Model Sink

§  Due: September 3

o   Model Tub

§  Due: September 3

o   Model Shower Addition

§  Due: September 5

o   Model Wall Separator

§  Due: September 5

§  Blog Here

o   Model Toilet

§  Due: September 11

o   Model Carpet

§  Will probably be put in last because of lag

§  No Date

o   Model Mirrors

§  Due: September 3

o   Model Lights Fixtures

§  Due: September 12

o   Model Towel and other finishing models

§  Will probably be put in last because of lag

§  No Date

§  Blog Here

·                     Texturing

o   Texture Room

§  Due: September 16

o   Texture Sink

§  Due: September 16

o   Texture Tub

§  Due: September 17

o   Texture Shower Addition

§  Due: September 17

o   Texture Wall Separator

§  Due: September 18

§  Blog Here

o   Texture Toilet

§  Due: September 18

o   Texture Carpet

§  Will probably be put in last because of lag

§  No Date

o   Texture Mirrors

§  Due: September 3

o   Texture Lights

§  Due: September 18

o   Texture Towel and other finishing models

§  No Date

§  Blog Here

·                     Realistic Lighting

o   Due: August 19

·                     Render

                                o   Blog Here

Final

My Junior year of e-Communications was riddled with many projects. I started from projects at which I was grouped with others to some all alone. One of my favorite was animations was Paper Boy. To end off this year I decided I should work together with the Paper Boy group again. So for the final project and for a project to continue to the next year, my senior year. This project was in dedication to one of my favorite games, Minecraft. To start off I started with making some models starting with the creeper. I sadly was not thinking about it and dissected the texture sheet and made the model with around 30 different textures. This could have been better if I only used the texture sheet with UV texturing on the model. Jake finally joins in and we start to make models quicker. I eventually got the idea of the UV texturing and started on changing our characters with it. After making most of the models including the world using a program called mineways we started on the story. I don't want to spoil the story since it is finished and most likely finalized so I will give a summary. If you don't want to see it go to the next spoiler marker.

Skin used for my Character Model. I use
 something close to this in actual Minecraft

>>SPOILER>> The story begins with Jake, Sam, and I in the real world. We say we will go meet each other on minecraft and run of scene. We enter the minecraft world. While in minecraft we explain to Sam what minecraft is. We try to get the audience to know the characters before going on 2 big adventures. One to the ender dragon and one with the wither. We meet only one character along the way and that is the baby ender dragon Ohm. Other parts of the story will be hidden until debut of the animation. (This is a big animation and will take a long time to make.)  <<SPOILER<< 

From going off of the story we are now preparing a few tiny bites for a final for the end of the year. Most of the modeling even is still a work in progress. As of right now I am working on a scene in a cave of the test world to see how everything is coming together. The two things I am trying to finalize before the end of the school year is the texturing for the torch as well as lighting for it too. I feel great potential in this and we may go too far out of our way. This is something that is most definitely a work in progress and something may even be scrapped but right now hopes are high with the new school year. Things I would love to fix or improve on this thought is that the textures for the blocks are a little low, the textures for most of the mobs in the animation, and making a few of the blocks I couldn't send over using mineways like doors, torches, buttons, pressure plates, and really anything else of that sort. I also need to go into minecraft and make all the scenes. Just guessing off the top of my head but I would guess around 20-30 scenes are needed. The time and length of the animation is yet unknown and I predict 4-10 minutes.

Now about how we are going to animate. It is still undecided wether we are going to rig the characters or are we going to rotate and translate like most animations. I think that rigging would look nicer and smoother but we will have to change most of the models. We have most of the blocks but I will most likely update the textures to be more high resolution. We might have pre-made cycles for things like walking, running, mining, and placing. We will use a studio room from the e-Com department to get the recordings for the voices. We will also use one of the video design departments cameras to get the intro scene to the animation (probably doing it in the halls). I feel as if this will be very good animation that would exceed what was Paper Boy. This will be much more work especially on my part since i am stage design and most of the models. I am the director, producer, main writer, and set-up. The things that Sam and Jake would be doing would be stuff like animating and possibly rigging. I will help animate too but I will have to do many other things in the process. Sam will probably be the lead animator. Jake will be left with doing all the edits. I will probably help him with at least 50% of it though like I always seem to do.

To be clear how the world is being made and how textures are used we use the program called mineways. Mineways is a program that will transfer a portion of a minecraft world from the level.dat file. Through this it also includes the textures for the blocks. There is many options for how to export it to Maya. I recommend to try looking at a few tutorials about it if you want to try it out. Will all of this I can make a Minecraft world in Minecraft which is quicker than it would be in Maya by far. By doing this it saves massive amounts of time with the process of the world. Sadly it has the originally minecraft textures. This is only bad because in maya the resolution gets a little 'loose'. By getting a higher quality default texture pack I can get the textures for Maya updated to something much more worthy of this animation. I still need to do a lot and I hope I can spread the news of the animation. Here is a test render picture of my character underground. This was used to see how well the lighting is for cave systems. This lighting will be improved as well as I will add a real texture to the torch. As said this is a huge work in progress and would love support for this. Thank you for looking at this and hope you are excited for the finish of this as I am.

New Project

I decided to do a little work dedicated to Minecraft which is a fun sandbox game. To dedicated this i will be modeling some of the tools and a Minecraft World and more probably to come. I have had good success so far. Here is the basic design of the swords of Minecraft. This is also usable as a desktop background.

Full Quality Image For Background: Download

Haven Park

Final Rendered Video of the Animation of Haven Park

Overall Thoughts

My thoughts over the whole project. These thoughts are going to be about things I would like to improve, what I think I did well in, what I learned from this experience, and new more efficient ways of doing things.

Things I would like to improve upon

• Better texture for stuff like the ground and fence
• More time to model more things and make the whole park more detailed
• Revamp certain things like going back over the fencing of the tennis court and basketball "netting" and instead of having tons of cylinders making it up change it to something more like the nets for the volleyball and tennis courts net by making it a UV texture.

Things I think I did well

• UV texturing for things like the volleyball and tennis court nets
• Smaller objects like benches look nice as well as a few of the bigger objects like the courts (volleyball and tennis)
• Taking advantage of texturing to allow for a lot of time to be saved

What I have learned from this experience

• UV texturing is not complicated and is very helpful. Use it often with a well done design.
• Thing far ahead on any possible situations that can throw you off track like on due dates. Things like possible snow days and problematic animation issues.
• Be more through while looking through the animation. Example is after rendering the whole thing I noticed that one of the first trees was floating in the first 35 pictures. I then had to re-render them causing a delay in the final thing.
• When texturing with psd files don't click file while texturing mental hates it. (Click psd file) :P

The most efficient thing I have found during this animation process is that UV texture can save time, save polygons, and even save you... sanity on certain problems encountered. I almost lost my mind trying to figure out how to correctly texture the whole ground.

My overall thoughts is I think I did well but overall I think I would love to have a lot more time to work on this and not have to face a deadline.

Extra Note: The final render will be uploaded soon in the future.

Combined Post

 From me being behind I had to work real hard and constantly. This gave me no time to post anything about anything I have done in the past few weeks. I know have all objects modeled, textured, and I have setup lighting in the scene. Just to remind everyone that I am modeling this off of pictures i told during winter. There was no snow on the ground but there was leave-less tress, dead grass, and a cold (bluey) feeling in the area. I toke a little more effort in some of the textures to reduce polygon counts on things like the nets of the Volleyball and tennis courts. I wish I would of remembered about this sooner so for the fencing I did early on in the modeling would be much more compact and efficient not to mention probably look better. The number 1 thing i would like to improve on is how I made the grass with just a texture. I would love to make it with fur dynamics for a actual grass look but it interferes with other objects in the scene as well as cause a much longer render time/laggy work time. Here is some of the picture of how this turned out before i do the final render.

Beginning of Modeling

 Here is a picture of the fencing for the Baseball mound area. There is also a picture of the basketball court. In the basketball picture you can also see the tennis court in progress. I have been added textures to the models as I go but they are not good textures. These will be improved in due time. The ground has not been texture and is the default gray for now.