SCHOOL OF COMPUTING

UNIVERSITY OF TEESSIDE

MIDDLESBROUGH

TS1 3BA

Panda’s Tail

MA Digital Animation, Sound & Visual Media

Jennifer Dale

1^st August 2012

Supervisor: Maggie Parker

Second Reader: Nigel Kitching

chapter one

production

1 overview

This section of the report will cover the sections of my project plan that have already been completed.

1.1 Blog

It is always important to keep an up to date blog as this allows the project supervisor to follow the progression. The blog for Panda’s Tail is constantly updated as work is completed; any tests, ideas, influences or thoughts are added throughout as these will be relevant when it comes to writing the dissertation.

1.2 Planning

1.2.1 Project Plan

Creating a plan before beginning the project helps to break it down into smaller, manageable chunks rather than looking at the whole picture as this can be overwhelming. It also helps the creator to go through logical steps and the correct processes to complete a project of this type. Regular updates are important to highlight problem areas.

1.2.2 Character Redesign

Having completed the majority of the pre-production earlier in the year, a character design for Hamish was already drawn, however after several months of thinking time a more suitable and aesthetically pleasing design was created.

1.2.3 Character Profile

Having settled on a design for the main character, it is important to create a personality. Research shows that the most effective way of doing this is to create a character profile sheet consisting on important characteristics and mannerisms. This is an important asset to any project containing a character especially at the script writing stage as it can be referred back to.

1.2.4 Specification

To help grant ethical release a project specification should be written to note the intentions and objectives of a project. This particular one included information about the context of the animation, the expected end products, the proposed methods intended to be used and a justification for it.

1.3 Research

1.3.1 Pre-Production

As mentioned in the character redesign section the majority of the pre-production work had been completed several months ago, however referring back to it refreshes ideas and helps to develop it further.

1.3.2 Environment

Continuing on from the previous research into environments it became apparent that one important section had been missed. There was little research into the interior design of the house in particular. Using Grandparents houses as examples of the kind of environment the lonely panda should live in, the wallpaper was noticeably vintage. Taking this further would include looking for a particular designer that specialises in old fashioned style wallpaper.

1.3.3 Rigging

Past experience has shown that rigging can be problematic. As this is not the main technical focus for this project, the time spent rigging this by hand could be better utilised. With this in mind testing the build in rigs within the 3D package could be the best option.

1.3.4 Emotion and Facial Expressions

The main influence for this project is the isolation and loneliness students tend to feel sometimes at University. Having experienced this first hand and not knowing how to deal with it, channelling the negative emotions into a positive was a benefit. The emphasis in this project will be emotion and expression. Ed Hooks talks about these areas so exploring this will help the process.

1.3.5 Textures and Lighting

Keeping the textures to a minimum will help the render times greatly, however in some cases they will help to emphasise certain objects. The lighting for this scene will be very simple again to help with render times as this is a major concern. Creating the illusion that light is coming through the windows will be a challenge, as well as creating artificial lighting from the inside.

1.3.6 Influences

Influences are a major part of a project; they are the reason for creating it in the first place. Keeping a record of these on a blog throughout the project will help to continuously develop ideas and to stay motivated.

1.4 Designs and Story

1.4.1 Environment

Continuing with the idea of isolation, making the environment seem very enclosed and claustrophobic will help the overall atmosphere. Dropping the ceiling and tapering the top corners will create this effect, being careful with light placement will create dark corners to make the rooms feel dingy.

1.4.2 Script, Storyboards and Animatic

Allowing extra time for the story telling is a major benefit as this section in particular always takes longer than expected. The script proved very difficult, the story remained vague for a long period of time before it could be finalised. It is important to be descriptive for the first few sections of the story as it really helps to set the scene. This in turn aids the creation of the storyboards as the camera angles and timing is already in place. For this project going backwards and forwards from storyboard to animatic was the only way to finalise the timing, sections of it were unnecessary and over explained where as certain important duplications were wrongly discarded.

1.4.3 Timing and Scene Selection

Referring back to the previous point, correcting the timing was a major setback for this project, it is important to correct it before moving on to the animating stage or it becomes more problematic. Planning the shots for the animation at an early stage allows for creativity and experimentation. The overall look and feel for this piece was already decided so planning the camera movements was fairly simple. The decision was made to section the entire story up to fifty eight separate camera shots and movements, the idea being that render them separately and compositing them together will counteract any problems or file corruptions.

1.5 3D Work

1.5.1 Character Model and Rig

Using previous knowledge of low poly modelling and correct topology, modelling the character was a simple process. The head and the body are separate objects, the arms and legs were created using a number of simple extrusions. The rig proved to be a real challenge, as the character is humanoid but mainly torso with small legs, it does not allow for the correct skeleton and movement. The legs caused major issues with creasing and overlapping polygons, until it became apparent that a new bottom half of the rig needed to be created.

1.5.2 Environment Models and Renaming

Renaming all models, objects, materials and textures saves a lot of time. Having to search for the correct object or material to make a small adjustment is costly and infuriating. This is a vital stage in a project, also freezing the modelling once it is complete helps with render times.

chapter one summary

The project is progressing nicely thanks to a detailed project plan and serious hard work. Continuing to receive feedback aids the project and making regular backups is crucial.

chapter two

the next stage

2 overview

This section of the report will discuss the parts of the project that still needs to be completed before submission.

2.1 3D Work

2.1.1 Audio

Now that the story is finalised and there is a animatic to work with, it would be worthwhile to start adding the audio intended for use to it to see how it complements the piece. Having already organised the voice actors the parts left to complete are the sound effects and the music selections.

2.1.2 Previs and Blocking

The next stage before starting the actual animation is to create a Previs or start blocking out the animation. Using a pose to pose method of animation discards the possibility of experimentation but it does allow the viewer to really visualise the project for the first time. This is the method that will be used in this instance as it is the most reliable for a good quality outcome.

2.1.3 Animation

When the blocking is complete and the timing is finalised, the animation stage can begin. This will consist of firstly adding in-betweens to the blocking keeping it in stepped mode, when the in-betweens are completed the animation curves can be altered back to linear or spline as required. Continue adding in-betweens until the action is complete and then go into the animation editor and tidy up the animation curves as some key frames will not be relevant.

2.2 Editing and Renders

2.2.1 Textures and Colours

Parts of the environment need their colours and textures adjusting, the main important ones are there but they need tweaking. Some of the textures are poor quality that will lower the quality of the animation and others need lining up correctly.

2.2.2 Lighting

Having daylight on the outside and artificial lighting on the inside may be too much of a contrast, text renders will need to be made and adjustments to the lighting will be a definite.

2.2.3 Render Passes

There are three passes needed for this piece, apart from the main render of the animation, including a shadow pass, a highlight pass and an ambient pass will create the dark shadows and correct highlights on and around objects to make the environment more believable. The possibility of adding a mid tones pass will be considered towards the end of the project.

2.2.4 Rendering

Having been careful to keep render times as low as possible throughout the project, the two parts causing concern are the overall length of the animation and the amount of render passes included. Splitting the story into sections and rendering them separately will allow the possibility for rough sections to be inputted at the end if necessary.

2.2.5 Compositing

Compositing is not a major concern as the inbuilt compositor within the 3D package is powerful enough to cope with the passes rendered out. Once again they will be saved as individual sections ready to be placed together at the end.

2.2.6 Final Edit

The final part of the process is the editing. Adobe Premiere will be used to put the separate scenes together. Pro Tools will be used to add the audio as it has a wider range of audio manipulation.

2.3 Submission

2.3.1 Polish and Extra Time

Leaving extra time at the end of a project is vital as it is always necessary. It allows for any problems encountered to be dealt with without running out of time.

2.3.2 Dissertation

Having already thought about the headings for the dissertation and input the information into a report template, the writing process will begin almost immediately. Beginning to write the dissertation early whilst still completing the animation, instead of leaving it until the end, keeps the information correct and keeps the project following.

chapter two summary

Having kept a project plan up to date throughout, it means that all of the correct processes will have been gone through and knowing what to do next is easy.

chapter three

report section

3 overview

In this final section of the report, a preview from the actual dissertation is presented. The style of writing is not academic, this is because getting the information and ideas onto paper is important, going back afterwards to edit, proof read and rewrite is a vital stage

3.1 Report Preview

Building the rig

My previous experiences with rigging haven't been altogether successful; however I decided to give it a go. I created a very simple rig containing enough bones for the movement. When I attached it/enveloped it to the model the movement wasn't working. Creasing and twisting appeared and after researching how to create a more appropriate rig I realised that the built-in Biped Rig in Softimage would probably be the better option.

The rig on the left shows how it originally looked before I altered it to fit my model. The one on the right has been scaled down to fit the body parts of my panda model. All the separate pieces had to be scaled down individually or it caused problems with the movement later on.

This shows the rig placed inside the panda model. I had to scale down the neck sections as he doesn't have a neck, the part above that connects to the head control had to be placed higher up and the shoulders had to be adjusted. I extended the spine because I designed him out of proportion so he could have small, stubby legs and waddle rather than walk normally to compensate for his large stomach. I moved the waist control down and put the hip control above; this creates a nice movement in his stomach when he walks.

Now that the rig is properly set up and adjusted to fit the model, I needed to start the enveloping process. Straight away I noticed that the legs were proving difficult, when I moved the model or the top of the leg controls I was getting strange creasing and twisting.

When I attached the model to the rig by enveloping it, the weighting of it was far away from what I needed it to be. To fix this I had to use weight painting in order to tell which points on the model to be controlled by which bones/controls. I had a major problem with this as some of the points where being controlled 100% by a bone and wouldn't connect to another bone, to fix this I had to choose the 'reassign locally' option, then make sure all bones and controls were showing by clicking 'show all'. I had to find the point number in the table and move the sliders needed across.

The neck section of the model worked surprisingly well, even though he doesn't really appear to have a neck I still want it to look like he has one, be it hidden, to create this affect I allowed some of the points in his chest to move when his head is rotated.

For the eyes I originally thought that I could control them by rotating the top eyelid, the bottom eyelid and the actual eyeball individually but after a quick test it was too difficult and time consuming to continue with it. After a bit of research I realised I could control it using [insert method]. It means that I can use the position of a null or a curve to control the movement of a particular object/model. I am using the transition of two circle curves to control the shutting of the top and bottom eyelids on both eyes, then the rotation of a square curve to control the movement of the eyeballs.

After I had finished fixing the eyes I went back to the rig. It still needed tweaking so that when he bent forwards or slightly backwards there wasn't any creasing, I also hid the parts of the rig that I won't be using to save later confusion.

Continuing on from tidying up the rig and hiding any bones or parts that I won't be using to control my rig, I decided to use shadow bones to help. You can re position them outside of the model and you can use a different shape to make them easier to select. I decided to use rectangles and cubes as they still represent the size of the bones.

Most areas of the rig are now complete but I am still having problems with the legs. The back of the feet are creasing together, the stomach is moving too much when the leg is lifted and the foot stretches away from the leg. I tried to use weight painting to fix this problem but I was still having issues with it.

The main reason for the odd movement with the legs I believe is because I couldn't use the bones to rotate the legs and feet. I tried to rearrange the rig slightly to compensate the movement but in the end i deleted the original parts for the legs and built my own. I used a simple two bone tier, one for control the leg and the other to allow the foot to bend.

I'm now thinking that adding an extra bone to create a knee might make the movement more believable. At the moment he is waddling slightly, which is the look I was going for but I think it's too obvious.

chapter three summary

Having found following the academic writing style difficult, the decision was made to get the information written up first and then return later to adjust it.