Evaluation

Unfortunately ran out of time with this project. The digital Environment project needed all of my attention this week so spent monday and Wednesday trying to sort out tracking and animation. The bike kept distorting when I was trying to animate it. Even tried lots of solutions with Steve and it didn't work. I feel a bit disappointed with this project as I need more time to develop my tracking skills and more time animating. If I had more time i would have liked the bike to do some stunts as well as better lighting. and I would have liked to make the wheels turn when the bike was moving. So a rather disappointing outcome much like the digital project.....

file:///Users/depamasih/Desktop/animation.qtfile:///Users/depamasih/Desktop/bike_imported_tracked_2.mov.qtfile:///Users/depamasih/Desktop/carpark09.mov.qt

and yet more probs with tracking......

Tracking car park

had real problems with tracking the car park scene. Had to do try so many times but the footage was really shakey so when solving was really poor thus making it really to place bike in scene.

Using the outliner and snapping to track

Problem solving.

Creating a handle to seelct bike > Parented to bike.
Trying to animate bike in scene...
Trying to snap to tracks to make animating easier...

Really not happy with this..My fluorescent rims have disappeared from my bike and the band that follows the bike. I had originally animated the bike as well as the camera separately so I could import into Maya live with tracked scene but when importing it didn't work......I am thinking of just animating the bike seperatly and importing it into after effects to combine to live action footage and track.

Problems.....problems....problems.........

Not happy with my tracking....barely understand the process although because i had to track so many times I understand the process. its just today when trying to animate I had all sorts of problems. When selecting the bike and moving it so I can key frame the bike would distort in various poses that simply made the bike disjointed. Steve and I tried so many things.....making a handle so the bike was easier to model then trying to snap handle to tracking points......even producing planes distorted the bike.

I am really not pleased with the test animation.......feel like time is running out and I also need to do lots with the Digital environments. Did try request an extension but, not successful. I feel if I had another couple of days I could get another film footage that I'd be happier with. Unfortunately Due to the lack of time I have to make do with submitting a seriously not finished scene. I would have liked the bike to do a couple of poses in the middle.

Animation test

animating camera

cool website on ambient occlusions

http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/Ambient-Occlussion-Using-mib_amb_occlusion-node/43360

MOVIE CLIP OF CAMARA AND ANIMATION FIRST SCENE

LIGHTS AND CAMERA

SHADERS AND TEXTURES

Update

I've had a real nightmare with this project. The original mad max footage was going to be a nightmare to track so Steve decided that myself and Josh take an outside footage of the carpark and track that. So got back and it's taking me 6 attempts to try track clip. I've lost 2 good solid days with trying to track this car park clip.

I had problems with my maya as every time I tried to open Mayalive and work my laptop would just crash. This may have been because I was running Maya 8.5. However I am running Maya 10 now i haven't tried tracking on it yet as the film isn't trackable.

So I'm going to try put it in After effects. See what we can do!

Schedule

drawings and research

		tron bike industry project tron bike industry project WK1 13.01 WK2 20.01 WK3 27.01 WK4 03.02 WK5 10.02 WK6 17.02 WK7 24.02 WK8 03.03 Pre-Production snow Pre Production snow storyboard and concept Character 1 Post Production Modelling Modelling Modelling Animating Render and Compositing Brief set up blog Tracking Lighting Characters Textures Modelling research film footage research film footage Modeling tutorial Modeling tutorial Tracking Maya Live Lighting tutorial Lighting Animating Post Production Resources tron bike mad max tutorials maya live Totals 8 week project

tracking experiment

Maya Tutorial - Texturing and shading

Color The default material color. Transparency If the transparency value is 0(black),the surface is totally opaque; if the transparency value is 1(white),the surface is totally transparent. If you change transparency from the default black ,the background of the material's hypershade swatch becomes a checked pattern .This is not a visual aid and is not rendered. Ambient Color Uses Black by default. As the ambient color becomes lighter, it affect's the material's color by lightening it and blending the two colors. Incandescence The color and the brightness of light that a material appears to be emitting. The default color value is 0. Bump Mapping Makes the surface appear more rough or bumpy by altering surface normals according to the intensity of the pixels in the bump map texture. A bump map does not actually alter the surface. Diffuse Gives the material ability to reflect light in all directions. The diffuse value acts like a scaling factor applied to the color setting-the higher the diffuse value, the closer the actual surface is to the color setting. Translucence Gives the material the ability to transmit and diffuse light. Light falling on a translucent surface is first absorbed beneath the surface and then diffused in all directions. The slider range is 0 to 1. Surface Material Attributes Specular color The color of shiny highlights on the surface. A black specular color produces no surface highlights. The default color value is 0.5. Reflectivity Gives the surface the ability to reflect its surroundings or the reflected color. The default color value is 0.5. Reflected color Represents the color of light reflected from the material. This can be used to tint a reflection. Surface Material Fig 5-3 Surface Materials Anisotropic Represents surfaces with grooves, such as cd or feathers etc. Anisotropic material (such as Phong or Blinn)reflects specular light identically in all directions.If you spin an isotropic sphere, its specular highlight remains still. Roughness Determines the overall roughness of the surface. The range is 0.01 to 1.0.The default is 0.7.Smaller values correspond to smoother surfaces and the specular highlights are more concentrated. Fresnel Index A fresnel is a flat lens consisting of a number of concentric rings that reduces spherical abnormalities. The Fresnel index for water is 1.33.Value range from 1.0 to 20.0. Anisotropic Reflectivity If on, Maya automatically calculates Reflectivity as a fraction of roughness. Reflectivity is on by default. Blinn Attributes Color The base color of the surface. Transparency Adjusts the surface opacity. You can use colors to create a tinted glass effect. Ambient Color Adds to and blends with the color value. Incandescence A simulation of emitted light. At low values, it tints and self-illuminates the material, and at high values, it overtakes the material's color and becomes self-illuminated. Diffuse By default, it's set to 0.8, which dulls down the color value you've set. Translucence A special effect in which light is absorbed and scattered as it passes through an object, useful for simulating materials such as frosted glass. Translucence Focus Controls how light scatters from the surface. Eccentricity The width of the highlight, simulating how polished or rough the surface appears. Specular Roll Off The brightness/intensity of the highlight. Specular Color The color of the highlight; usually set to white or a gray value. Reflectivity The strength of reflections on the object. Reflections can be raytraced or use texture maps. Reflected Color For Blinn, the color swatch and slider have no effect. However, when a texture map is applied, it appears to be reflected by the material. Lambert Represents matte surface(such as chalk,matte paint,unpolished surfaces) with no specular highlights. The initial shading group uses a lambert material. Layered Shader Attributes Represents a single surface material composed of several different surface materials layered on top of one another. Transparency By default the material is semi-transparent. Compositing Flag Composites the layers using a layered shader or layered texture mode. Hardware color Helps you distinguish the objects assigned to a layered shader in the views. Phong Attributes Represents glassy or glossy surfaces with a hard specular highlight. Cosine power This feature is available to the phong material. Controls the size of shiny highlights on the surface. The default value is 20. Phong E Attributes A simpler version of the phong material. The specular highlights on the Phong E surfaces are softer than those on Phong Surfaces and Phong E surfaces render faster than Phong surfaces. Roughness Controls the specularity focus. Highlight Size Controls the amount of specular highlight. Whiteness Controls the specular highlight color. The default value is white. You can also map a texture to this value. Shading Map Attributes Represents a color map you apply to surfaces after they are rendered.The shading map material is useful for creating non-photorealistic effects(cartoon shading)or to highlight threshold values in a rendered image. Shading Map Color Defines the color of the material. The default is gray. Shader You can map any material to the shading Map material. Surfaces Shader Attributes A wrapper node, meaning you can connect any keyable attribute to this shading group and then connect the shading group to an object. Out color The color of the material .The default is black. Out Transparency The transparency of the material. The default is black. Out Glow Color The glow color of the material. The default is black, without glow. Use Background You use it to set the object's Matte channel to 1 or 0, or create a matte for shadows and reflections on the surface. This material applies the same color as the objects in the background image to stand -in-surfaces. Attributes Adjust the Use Background material's to the light ,shadows, reflections and the geometry placement in the scene. Texture Mapping Normally, a texture refers to applying a 2D image around a 3D surface, rather like wallpapering a curvy surface. Because a 2D image can be stretched, wrapped, and projected onto a surface in many different ways. Mapping Coordinates Mapping coordinates, also known as UV coordinates. For NURBS, parametric mapping is inherent to the surface and this is typically what's used. Parametric mapping is the 0 to 1 coordinate system that NURBS uses to map textures across its surfaces. It makes sure that the textures stay mapped to the surface like a decal, even if the geometry is deformed. For polygon surfaces, mapping is normally applied by projecting 2D maps across the 3D surface in one of several ways: planar, cylindrical, spherical, and a special method called automatic mapping. Fig 5-4 Mapping projection Procedural Maps In addition to applying an image or movie to a surface, Maya has other texture types called procedural textures. Many patterns, such as bricks, tiles, and gradients, are so repetitive that they can easily be represented by an equation. By using special forms of seemingly random values, many natural effects can be simulated mathematically: Marble, leather, water, granite, and many other complex and random textures are included with Maya as procedurals. Maya's procedural textures come in two varieties: 2D and 3D. You can think of the 2D procedurals as a calculated form of a bitmap.When 3D procedurals are applied, however, they exist throughout 3D space, and object surfaces define where you see the texture. It's like carving the object from a block of the material.Procedural textures have several benefits. Because they are formula based, their parameters can be adjusted to instantly synthesize all kinds of different effects. 2D Procedurals Maya's 2D procedurals can be divided into two categories: regular patterns and noise patterns. The regular patterns include Grid, Checker, Bulge, Cloth, and Ramp. With these patterns, you can create tiles, bricks, and many other man-made repeating effects. Noise patterns include Fractal, Mountain, Noise, and Water. These psuedorandom textures are excellent for creating the complex "dirty" surfaces common in nature. 3D Procedurals All the 3D procedurals but snow are random types. Some, such as wood and marble, clearly imitate nature. However, all are excellent for synthesizing random effects. Assigning material to surfaces The following lists a few quick ways to assign a material to a surface. In the view,select the surface to which you want to assign the material. From Hypershade, MMB-drag the material swatch over the selected surfaces. or In the view ,shift-select the object to which you want to assign the material and in hypershade,click the material swatch. While the cursor is over the material swatch in hypershade,RMB -click-drag to select assign material to selection from the pop-up menu. or MMB-drag and drop a Hypershade swatch onto an object in the IPR Render view. To apply a material to several surfaces from with Hypershade Select the surfaces in a view. In Hypershade,RMB-click over the material swatch and select Assign material to selection from the pop-up menu. To apply a material to a group of faces on a polygonal surface Select the surface. Press the RMB while over the surface,select face from the marking menu,then choose the select by component type icon. Select the face you want to map. While the faces are highlighted in the view, in hypershade,LMB-shift-click over the material swatch you want and press theRMB and select Assign material to selection from the pop-up menu. http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.expertrating.com/courseware/mayacourse/MAYA-Texturing-Shading-1_clip_image002.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.expertrating.com/courseware/mayacourse/MAYA-Texturing-Shading-1.asp&usg=__Jy5O2eUSQB4ln3EiNa0cqO5RBcM=&h=525&w=568&sz=28&hl=en&start=69&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=I91l48HL3n9YiM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=134&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dadvanced%2Bmaya%2Btexturing%2Band%2Blighting%26start%3D63%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN%26ndsp%3D21%26tbs%3Disch:1

where am I - update

OK....starting to feel a little nervous with getting this project done. I'm a week behind so got lots to do.
Things i have left to do.

Tracking
Animating
lighting

Achieved
modeling bike
some lighting
tracking lighting wall for bike
storyboard concepts
editing movie
chosen movie clip
research
timeline
brief

If I had to do this project again I would defenatly finish modeling earlier and spend more time on tracking and lighting. Hey...but lets not forget lost two weeks at the beginning with snow!!!

good tip from Alex - Lighting

Made it worth while going in today just spending 10 Min's with Alex..........Alex showed me How I could get the window parallel to mirror on the other side. Problem I had was if I duplicated and rotated the shape wouldn't be right. what I needed was to duplicate the shape and some how blow it out so that the convexed shape was also convexed on the other side......if that kinda makes sense....anyway....the simple answer was to duplicate the shape move to where I wanted and on the x axis put a minus and that makes a concave into a convexed! Nice one Alex it's these things that really help.

Also By adding the light strip as the model moves - select c.v curve tool - straight line - duplicate - surfaces - Loft remembering to deselect the object...remember to label in the channel box. up arrow selects all the objects - make sure you select this when moving........I applied shader Incandescence in blue - made two torus scaled it down for the wheels.......pretty cool........

Really appreciate the advice..

lighting RESEARCH

modeling light sequence and texturing on bike

tracking

update

Update with blog editing movie. Maya live etc talk about how difficult I found finding a footage and time wasted

film footage

Tron


o Tron is an 1982 American action science fiction film by Walt Disney Pictures.
o Written and directed by Steven Lisberger.
o Visual style – inside the electronic world – Clu – first film from a major Studio to use computer graphics extensively
o A software engineer works for the software corporation ENCOM creating video games on the company’s mainfrome after hours aiming to start his own gaming company. Another software programmer locks him out of the system. And presents Flynn's work as his own.
o Inspiration for TRON occurred in 1976 when Steve Lisberger looked at a sample reel from a computer firm called MAGI and saw Pong for the first time. Foundation of bringing video games and computer visuals to the screen.
o Film was conceived to be predominately an animated film with live action sequences. The rest would involve a combination of computer generated visuals and back lit-animation.
o Artists that created the look of the computer world. French comic book artist – Jean Giraud – main set and costume designer. Vehicles designed were created by industrial designer Syd Mead of Blade Runner. Peter Lioyd a high tech commercial artist designed the environments.

o Although only fifteen to 20 mins of actual animation were used mostly scenes that used the light cycles, tank and ships. As the technology to combine computer animation and live action did not exist at the time these sequences were intercut with the filmed characters.
o Most of the scenes, backgrounds and visual effects in the film were created using more traditional techniques and a unique process known as ‘backlit’ animation. – live action scenes inside the computer world were filmed in black and white on an entirely black set printed on large format high contrast then colorized with photographic and rotoscopic techniques to give a technological feel.
o Light Cycles – Created by Syd Mead fictional vehicles simulated the Tron Universe. These futuristic vehicles resemble motorcycles and create walls of coloured light. They were originally used in competition with humanoid computer programs. Players are in constant motion on a play field creating a wall of light behind them as they move.
o I will be creating the tron bike in Maya and simulating the wall of light by parenting strip to the bike using cv curves lofting and objects. This is enabling the bike to produce a fluorescent strip of colour (which I will use in the hyper shade) as the bike moves along.



The bike is model in these components

o Wheels – Front and back to include fluorescent ring
o Main body
o Extension to body flat panel x2
o Convexed windows x2
o Jets x2
o And detailing

story board renewed concept

This is the clip i will be using from mad max 1./Users/depamasih/Desktop/TERM 2/Industryexercise/tronscene.mov

Review - Changes in concept

To take a live action movie - ' MAD MAX 1' and model the bike from Tron to ride along a long strip of road. The scene that I am putting the 3D bike has a still camera original bike in scene zooms towards the camera. this footage will be replaced with the 3D tron bike I modeled in Maya. I will change the lighting so it is dark. The animation will be about 30 seconds long. I will model texture and animate the props to create a short sequence mixing live action with Maya derived animation.

The schedule has changed somewhat as i have spent so much of my time trying to find the right scene......I browsed through endless films from originally Kubrick to Matrix, speed, Munich, Gataca, Equilibrium and many more......Just put it down to not feeling it perhaps...It's only when Josh mentioned have you looked at Mad Max....Cool thing is max has lots of road footage that would probably work......Cheers Josh for recommendation.....

I am really behind on the Schedule as most of my time partly because I don't know what I'm doing with this one has been spent on the Environments project. I've finished modeling bike and need to edit clip and Track sequence I'm hoping I can do that tomorrow.......A little stressed I'm not gonna get it done as time is running out.....

Schedule

Week 1 - Snow
Week 2 - More snow
Week 3 - Story Board and concepts
Week 4 - Model
Week 5 - Model and Track Tutorial
Week 6 - Model and Lighting Tutorial
Week 7 - Texture/Lighting
Week 8 - Render and compositing

Basically a week behind schedule I'm hoping to make this back this week.

modeling bike contd

Modelingbike contd

Modelling bike

Constructing other wheel. The only thing is duplicating back wheel to move to front and scaling it in adjust the sphere inserted in the centre of wheel. As the wheel is compressed/slimmer so to the sphere. so it does not protrude same as the back wheel. unfortunately I have merged shapes so not sure how to get out of this one. Will have to ask Steve when I'm in today.

Modelling tron bike

Started by image plane. Model wheels by creating a nurbs sphere, scaling, rotate so vertices are set to side profile so faces can be removed. used tools such as fill hole, add edge loop, to bevel the edge slightly.....

concepts

bikes and bike scene top 10 footages etc

the shining clip

Tron Light Cycle inspiration

Clockwork orange mask to model

tribute - inspiration

Stanley Kubrick clips

Axe from the Shining

Full Metal Jacket

Heres Jonny aXE SCENE

2001

Story Board

Alternative Brief

To take a live action movie - ' Space Oddessey 2001' and model the bike from Tron to ride around the ape scene in the beginning of 2001. The bike will ride around props that will be a tribute Kubrick films such as the axe in The Shining, the helmet that displays born to kill from full metal jacket, bowler hat from clockwork. The props will interact with the scene for example the axe will be animated by being thrown at the obelisk and the obelisk splitting just like the scene where Jack Nicholson breaks down the bathroom door with the axe. The animation will be about 30 seconds long. I will model texture and animate the props to create a short sequence mixing live action with Maya derived animation.

Schedule

Week 1 - Snow

Week 2 - More snow

Week 3 - Story Board and concepts

Week 4 - Model

Week 5 - Model and Track Tutorial

Week 6 - Model and Lighting Tutorial

Week 7 - Texture/Lighting

Week 8 - Render and compositing

My Brief

I'm in two minds what Kubrick film to go for and what 3D element to put in. I haven't been giving this project as much attention as the environments project. I have been totally immersed in that project. I'm slightly concerned with the lack of time I have to get things done. Originally I wanted to take the 'Bobby's world scene where he's tricycling through the corridors scene and model the tricycle and person in a spoof corridor scene. After the tracking tutorial and keeping things relatively simple I decided against it as I don't have enough time. Steve gave sound advice of using different bits from Kubrick films and modeling them into one scene. I still like this idea and will see where I get with it. The alternative.....

Project Brief

Introduction to project brief

This unit builds directly on the Industry Exercises 1 unit, allowing students to broaden their range of professional animation skills or to develop existing areas to an advanced level. Students also develop more advanced planning and organizational skills essential in the delivery of a completed project within a fixed schedule.

Students will complete two projects in this unit, one can be self initiated (negotiated with tutor) or students may choose to revisit an exercise, which was not developed fully in the Industry Exercises 1 unit. The second project is an explicit production schedule for the term, that demonstrates competent use of scheduling software to model potential outcomes. Student projects must have a clear focus on the development of industry relevant skills, their overall artistic or creative style, and contribute significantly to the demonstration of their employability in their final show reel.

These practical exercises are supplemented by a reflective commentary.

11. Aims of the Unit

• To enable students to supplement possible career specialism’s within the animation industry through the development of ancillary skills.

• To enable students to further develop portfolios of work demonstrating advanced proficiency in the specialism of their choice.

• To provide experience of establishing and developing personal project schedules and tracking progress towards project completion.

• To further develop critical awareness within the students of their personal skills, and the ability to generate research strategies for continuing enhancement.

Project Brief:

For this project we will be building on your existing animation and compositing skills. You will be introduced to Maya Matchmove camera techniques, lighting, advanced UV editing and modeling and have opportunities to improve your rigging and animation skills. To make it all manageable you will first be introduced to project management and tracking software.

You will be working to create a short sequence mixing live action with Maya derived animation or props and buildings.

There are two aims for this project: first to enable you to plan and execute a project in a productive manner, thus enabling you to make the most of the time constraints on this and all future projects. The second is to improve your animation and modeling skills and enable you to show those skills off in an engaging and entertaining way.

In order to achieve the above you must choose a short clip from a film and composite in your own animated character, props or buildings. Perhaps you feel that Four Weddings and A Funeral would have been better if there had been more gorillas in it. Or that Titanic would have been better with giant sea monsters. This is your chance to put things right. The clip you use must, when composited, show at least 30 seconds of your own animation. I recommend that you do not choose any animated films, as you will have to match or better the existing characters in the film. I can guarantee that the animators working on that film would have had a lot more time than you have for this project. So keep your choice to a live action film.