Environment

Me and James Tomkins have been working on the environment for our scene. Our environment is based around the Lijiang River and gumdrop mountains. These mountains are very large with sudden drops which give a very unique landscape. Below is an image of the Lijiang River with the gumdrop mountains.

James created a base mesh in ZBrush and then gave it to me to adjust and texture. This is the base mesh James gave me:

There were a few things that needed changing. The first was that one mountain was a little too big. We needed quite a large bank for some of the action to take place but this bank needed to be amongst the mountains so that it still has the dramatic backdrop. Lastly, there had to be one main mountain that I could add stairs to and have a flat top so that it could act as a finish line and end goal for the race. 

I was having trouble moving the environment around and then I realised that it was made of 655360 polygons. This was most likely because it had been modelled in ZBrush. I decided to make the adjustments to the landscape first and then figure out a way to reduce the poly count. 

I exported it into Mudbox and made the necessary change to the base mesh and this was the mesh.

I added the stairs so that I knew what angle the mountain edge had to be at to be usable. To reduce the poly count, I deleted the bottom of the mesh which saved many polys. I gave it back to James because in ZBrush he was able to reduce the poly count without it effecting the shape of the mesh. This took it down to just 400 faces but it meant that the mesh was made of triangles rather than squares. This was not such a problem as we were not going to move the environment.

I need to model the pavilion for the top of the flat mountain and it is now ready for texturing.

Problem with toon shading

A problem has been uncovered by the painting weights process and whilst I was playing around with the textures to give it toon shading. When the toon shading is on the rat, it does not move with the rig. It is like a separate object but this is deforming the rat whenever it tries to move.

James has tried painting the weights but it is like a joint is attached to the toon shading so when we try to move the rat, part of it will not move with it.

I cannot work out why this will not move but as soon as the toon shading is deleted, the whole rat moves perfectly. 

There are a few ways to resolve this:

1. Carry on with trying to work out where the connection between joints/weights and toon shader lies and solve it. 

2. Try to re-rig and re paint the weights to see if it is a glitch in the rig. 

3. Don't use the toon shader and try to find another method to create the 2D effect. 

The first two ways of resolving the issue could take quite a lot of time - me and James Tomkins have already tried for several hours to find where the issue is occurring but neither of us can find it. We even deleted the history of everything and James has already re painted the weights. 

To re-rig the rat could also take some time. It took me at least a few days to get the rig how it is now and it will mean having to put the other tasks on hold whilst this is done and sorted. 

The third option is the easiest at the moment as we are quite short on time and falling behind our schedule. We have discussed as a group other ways to give it a 2D look and we could try to use After Effects in post production. We do not have to have it with a 2D effect but it is preferable so the 2D effect may be something that we would have to think about dropping. 

Modelling the emperor

I have been modelling the emperor. It was started a little behind schedule because I was waiting for the model sheet from sarah so I knew what I was modelling.

This was the model sheet Sarah Strickland sent to me:

Everyone agreed that the body was not really important as it would be covered by a robe are with nCloth. The main focus I had from this drawing was to get the face right. I had to still model the model so that the emperor would be able to move, but no detail as it would not be seen.

This was my whole body model that I created:

The model has not been smoothed. There is also the top half of the robe modelled onto the emperor so that we only need to create nCloth sleeves and like a skirt section at the bottom of the robe to make it easier. The body has very little detail but the face is the part that I concentrated most on. Below is a close-up.

I used Sarah's drawings as reference but I think the eyes look unnaturally big. I think this character matches in with the cartoony look and the big eyes may compliment that so it may not be a problem. He has quite large features (his nose and eyebrows) but the hair the small tufts of hair just in front of the ears may be the hardest to rig and animate as if they are too stiff, it may look unnatural and awkward. 

This will now be passed to Lily Blacknell so that she can do some nCloth tests on it and to James Waters so that he can start to rig it. The next stage for me is to texture the emperor so that when the rig is ready we can not repeat our previous mistake and skin the rig with a textured model. 

Rigging rat and painting weights

I have finished rigging the rat and now just ned to paint the weights. I have made controls for all major joints in the body. For the feet and hands, they have a joint at the end of the fingers and feet but not individual joints. This was because, after consulting with Lily, she does not think we will need to animate each finger or toe separately so I have just put a joint in which will effect all the fingers and toes.

I have not added any blend shapes because at the moment they are to needed. I have asked lily to test the model once it is complete to I can make any adjustments or add any blend shapes.

With painting weights, I am not very good at it. I have tried but I can never get it quite right and seem to influence too many vertices. I have tried the using the painting weights tool and also interactive skinning which uses colours rather then shades of grey to help show what is influenced and by how much. All my attempts seem to be disastrous. I think I caused more harm than good.

James Tomkins has painted weights in the past and said he enjoys doing it so I have asked him to paint the weights for me. I would rather someone who knows what they are doing do it for me rather than waste more time and still get it wrong.

This is how the rig looks so far without the weights being painted. The skin has been bound to the rig but it needs to adjust the weights still.

Here is a short video of the working rig, again the weights still need to be painted. 

I need to add the toon shading texture on the rat still to give the 2D look.

Scheduling

I have created our group a gmail account for our film which is catandratfilm@gmail.com. I have done this so we can all share our calendars to this account so we can see what each other is planning to do each week and also so we can keep documents of minutes from each meeting and individual contracts. This is how the calendar is looking so far. This shows when we are planning to do things

We all have access to this account so we can add file as and when we need to. These are all kept in the document area. 

We can see each others contracts so that if we get behind schedule or someone is not pulling their weight we can read their contract and use that to ask them to work professionally. 

This is my own individual contract:

Individual Contract

BA Hons Animation

Date: 17/01/2012

Student name	Olivia Walters
Primary Role	Modeller
Secondary Role	Rigging Artist, Technical effects
Project Title	Cat and Rat
Learning Log Link	http://olysfinalfilm.blogspot.com/ http://olysprofessionalskills.blogspot.com/

I promise to attend all pre arranged group meetings and workshops to get feedback from my team and tutors.

I promise to immediately respond to all requests from my team regarding updates and changes to the schedule.

 If for any reason I am unable to continue my work or have personal issues, which delays my work I will inform my tutor and the team producer.

All the above will be documented in the journal/blog

Action Plan (Project1)

Week	Dates	Planned progress
1	02/01/12	Rat modelling is already completed, rig the rat, bind skin and paint weights. Continue to model the cat.
2	09/01/12	Continue with rigging the rat, paint weights and adjust component editor. Continue modelling the cat.
3	16/01/12	Give finished rat rig to Lily, Give finished cat model to James to rig. Start modelling emperor.
4	23/01/12	Continue to model the emperor. Decide on the best method for toon shading – render layers or ramp shaders.
5	30/01/12	Rig the emperor
6	06/02/12	Paint weights, adjust component editor and give to Lily to add nCloth
7	13/02/12	Adjust rigs if problems arise. Help texture the animals – block colours or toon shading. Decide as a group who is animating and working on each shot. Add water to the environment and adjust the settings to make it look like a realistic river.
8	20/02/12	Animate water and test render to get the desired effect.
9	27/02/12	FORMATIVE
10	05/03/12	Set up cameras and reference to animatic. Time out the scenes to work with animation.
11	Holiday	Animate any scenes that I am assigned to. First block out the animation and clean up once action is timed correctly. Check scenes with water and make sure the wakes work with the animal animation.
12	09/04/12	Help clean up animation and use play blasts to test them.
13	16/04/12	Set up render layers or adjust render settings so they are ready to send to the render farm or render on our own computers. Check file names are labelled clearly and file types are all correct.
14	23/04/12	Help render or send to render farm. Make final adjustments to scenes if issues occur and set them up for re-rendering.
15	30/04/12	Test the renders to make sure the rendering was completed correctly. Re-render any more scenes that need adjusting.
16	07/05/12	Composite the renders so we are left with clips of each camera angle and scene.
17	14/05/12	Help edit these and add in any sound that has been made. Add sound effects and adjust timings of each clip using the animatic for reference.
18	21/05/12	Make any final adjustments and render out final clip. Make sure it meets broadcast requirements for degree show.
19	May 25th	Hand in

Tutor’s feedback/amendments

Student Signature Olivia Walters

Date 17/01/2012

My own method of keeping me on target and on time is to write my own to do lists. I will keep to the calendar dates and as much as possible, keep to my individual contract but for personal scheduling, I know my most effective way of keeping on track are my to-do lists. I like to write notes about anything I learn or have to do so this is why this method suits me very well. Here is an example of my to-do lists:

I have a strong feeling that we may run into several problems during this project because we have already run into so many but I will try to keep on time as much as possible.

Texture before painting weights!

So we have come across another problem today. The cat texture has been completed and is ready to put onto the model. The model has been rigged and weights have been painted.

The problem has occurred when we have attached the texture to the rigged cat. When we put the texture onto the cat, it lost all connection to the rig. We then had to re-skin the cat to connect it back to the rig and then have had to repaint all the weights.

Note to self: Apply all the textures before skinning and painting weights!

Tweaking the Cat

The cat model needed some adjusting to fit the character sheet that Lily created. The main difference is that the cat now has spikes at the sides of its head to give the look of fur and the ears are bigger.

 This has added a lot more polygons to the chest as more edge loops had to be created to make the spikes. This is not too much of a problem except it has created a very small, hardly noticeable lump of her chest which is hard to get rid of as there are so many vertices to be moved. It is not very noticeable, especially when it will have toon shading on it but I notice it and I cannot really find a solution to this problem as Lily wants the spikes.

If there were no spikes then I could get rid of more polygons. It should not cause a problem when rigging or skinning though. This is the final model when it is smoothed. It is now ready for rigging and texturing.

Vote

When we started back after Christmas, we really needed to sort out the Cat. We had Perri's cat which James Tomkins had already tried to tweak and we asked Perri to change - we were still having problems with it all though. James Tomkins had also modelled a cat in ZBrush but this had some problems with the legs which was going to be a pain to fix. Then we had my model that looked like it had too many faces and was not perfect either.

The only way to decide which cat we were going to chose to use for our film would be to have a vote. We could not vote for our own models and we could only vote for one. In the end. One was chooses to be carried forward. I know it needed some work and I also needed to adjust some parts because Lily wanted some tufts of hair on the side of the cat's face. I also needed to change the paws slightly because the fifth toes on the back paws were too obvious.

With this vote, it means we can all get on and do other work that needs doing. We have wasted quite a lot of time at the moment because we had three people doing the same job. Now we can get on and rid the cat so that we can start doing tests for animation.

Holes in the rat

A problem with the rat rig has been uncovered.

When I was texturing the rat, I extracted all the hands, feet, tail and ears and textured each part separately so that the body was purple and the now separated meshes were pink. I then combined them again and sewed together the vertices so they were joined back together.

This was a massive cut corner in terms of texturing because it meant no one had to paint a texture and the texture would line up perfectly with minimal effort.

The problem has risen because I forgot to sew the vet ices bak together on the tail. This has meant that when the rat was skinned and weights were painted, the rig now has a hole when you move the tail.

In the image above, you can see a very small hole between the tail and the body. When the rig is moved, this hole gets a lot bigger. 

This problem has been easy to fix. The objects were combined so it was just a case of sewing the vertices back together. The weights were checked to make sure they were not effected. I also checked all the other body parts to make sure they were sewn together properly as well, just so this does not happen again. 

Problem solved.

Modelling the Cat

I have been modelling over the Christmas break so that we can get the cat model starting to be rigged. I tried to stick to the cartoony, simplistic style that I modelled the rat in so that the style is consistent throughout the characters.

It does not have a mouth but this doesn't matter because none of the characters are having mouths because none of them are talking. It does not have a nose either but again this does not matter. Cats noses are more obvious so, if we do need one, Sarah will paint one in the texture - it does not need to be modelled.

A problem that I had was modelling the feet. I have a cat but I can never get near it to count its toes and fingers. It may be pretty obvious how many they have but they also have a weird pad near their foot which is not actually a toe but looks like one from above. I then started to look at pictures online, which again was confusing because some had five toes and some had four. This was because I was counting their pads because their toes are difficult to see, some types of cats have more pads than toes so to keep it simple I modelled five toes and four fingers. Lily then told me this was wrong (she has had more cats and for longer) so I took away one of the toes on the back feet.

Sarah is going to texture the cat for us using the character sheet Lily made and paint a nose on in the texture.

Here is the finished modelled cat (without texture).