Shot 22

Whilst making the compilation of my animations for my degree CD i noticed that in shot 22 (where Macho pushes Hero over) Macho doesn't make proper contact during the push, where i cleaned up the walk cycle to stop any slipping the rig had moved slighlty out of place.

Its probably not something that you see on first viewing because its only sight, but its still enough to worry me.

I've fixed this in the animation and up-d it to the Adrive (which is working again today) called shot22-revised. If we have time it would be worth re rendering it.

Adrive

Might just be my end but for some reason i can't connect to the Adrive. Everytime i try to go to the website i get that "problem loading page, server not found" message.

Is this happening to anyone else?

something nice to look at...

animation by tom stocker wright
lighting by adrian smith

Shot 13

please update and post a new playblast on your blog asap and hopefully we can get this shot in the bag.

sarah

Matt

Yesterday, it became apparent that Hero Gnome was at two different scales. Tom assured me (since the shots were his animations) he hadnt accidentally scaled the character. I went through the versions of Hero Gnome and this is the result...

this is the downloadable model after you had updated the characters UVs....

this is the downloadable model after you changes to the eyes....

this is my original model for download compared to the model all 3 of us sat down together and chose the scale for.

This is a render of shot 11 and shot 5 which are exactly the same camera shot but obvious Hero Gnome is at two different scales. One is with the original model with UVs sorted and the other with the eyes you sorted out.
Im now in the process of checking all the characters scales and Macho Gnome has already got 2 different sets of scales of 0.047, 0.044. I now have to check all the lady gnomes scales. This is wasting my time and delaying the films progression. Shot 23 and 24 Macho is scaled at 0.047 and this was animated by you and tom ritchie. Its not likely tom ritchie changed the scale of the characters and so it is coming back to you here.

The rendered and composited work we've achieved could now be useless because of this and everything be redone.

EDIT

Lady Gnome update...

this is the downloadable character you added eyes to compared to the final scaled character size we all agreed on.
and this is the original downloadable rig i uploaded to the adrive for the animators to use compared to the set scaled model of lady gnome

Guys....

Hey guys, hand in is finally done but there's still just over a week until the show so lets keep up the momentum for the film.

Adam, thanks for sorting out the film disc with me yesterday, couldnt have done it without you. Cheers for the message, i'll check out those updates as soon as you upload. College is not open to us this weekend (went in...swiftly told to leave) so we'll be sorting out issues at home and hopefully still have some to blast through on the farm/maxs machine come tuesday...with any luck we might still be able to tap into maxs machine from here and send some stuff through....will keep you up to date on it.

Matt, incase you didnt get my text, i need proper versions of some of your playblasts. Yesterday you told me you'd increased the time on shot 35 to accommodate macho and hero thinking whereas the playblast i have is so quick with macho skidding on and off this cant be the right one. I need it fully plotted for correct times otherwise im gonna be wasting Romans time fitting the music to something that will get stretched again. Also you only gave me half a second of shot 13. I need full completely blocked versions of these tonight so i can get the new version to him this weekend so he has the time to stretch the music to the animation. The timings are crucial not necessarily having complete animations.

thanks

Sarah

Animation

Please bring in/email me playblasts of all animation so i can compile into a new animatic to send to our composer for timing etc. Need these by 11am on Friday 28th May

Thanks

Sarah

This weeks objectives...

Adam

Rendering (full): shot 3, 6, 8 (boulder textures to come) check cameras, texture assignments and bumps etc.
Rendering (Occlusion and ZDepth): 20, 29 (shot 5 to come shortly)

Assign colours to the background houses, elements and props. Use exported shrubs from the local directory and the grass texture. Make sure you use the small textures of 500x500. You may want to make a new version of 100x100 as we dont see them close at all and would save on rendering time.

Matt

Finish Animating: 13, 16.
Take over Animation: 18
Animate: Shot 35 Macho Breaking out of the pot as well as Hero and the crushed lady Gnome (we can import after so dont worry about placement, waiting for pot etc)

Tom S W

Upload Shot 9 to the Adrive account finished animations directory
Animate: shot 11, 37

Tom R

Finish shot 25
Animate: 7, 35

Clym

Upload shot 28, 31 to the adrive (remove any previous old versions)
Finish Animation: shot 12

Alex Bax

Add pebble animation to lit shot 30
Finish shot 10
Animate shot 14

Mel

Animate shot 15, 17

Fahran

UV map the tree

Sarah

Snail texture creation
Tree texture creation
Finish animation shot 19, 21
Compile playblasts into animatic
Alterations to Hero and Lady Gnome textures.
Complete Fishing rod and Mushroom textures

Matt

Please can you upload Heros original texture files (psd, tiff, whichever uncompressed format you have) to the adrive as i need to make a few tweaks and need a copy of all original textures at hand for myself and Adam.

Please also update me on shot 3, 6 and 8 progress/completion as these have lighting ready and can be setup for render.

Tom has uploaded shot 29 to the adrive in finished animations. Please check the model matches your final UVs and has the correct eyes and upload to the Ready for Render folder by the end of the day.

Thanks

Sarah

Guys

Can we make sure that we sign off of the Adrive if your not using it. The novelty of chucking people off of it has worn off and now its just getting tedious.

this weeks objectives

Matt
Finish shot 3, 6, 8.
Animate shot 13, 16

Tom SW:
Animate shot first half of 1, 2, 5 and 9

Clym:
Adjustments to shot 28, 31
Animate shot 12

Tom R:
Finish shot 25

Alex:
Animate shot 30, 10

Sarah and Adam - light, dress, texture, render, composit.

NB:// Matt - toms shot 33 is not on the adrive, please upload this with the eyes so we can proceed with the character occlusions.

Shot 02

Hero Gnome appears from behind the flower pot, walks towards his weed and begins watering it happily... Camera is just temporary

Shot 29 improved stone throw

Heres shot 29 where the hero gnome flicks the stone into the flower pot being lifted by macho gnome. It changed the angle of the throw and the direction by which is flies...

Ready for Render.

Right spent most of today cleaning up scenes for rendering and adding eyeballs etc.

I have only been working on Mine and Toms shots because i havnt got any of the files from the the second years, and am only working on the shots that have been OK'd by Sarah as completed.
Also this isn't counting the textures, but rendering on the occlusion/ z depth etc (which is the stuff thats gonna take longest) can be started.

So far we have:

Shot 4 - Matt - Obviously

Shot 26 - Tom - Hero's reaction to Macho Lifting the pot - Needs enviroment placement and camera setup.

Shot 27 - Tom - Lady's reaction to Macho Lifting the pot - Needs camera setup.

Shot 20 - Matt - Hero juggling for Lady - Just needs the OK from Sarah

Shot 22 - Matt - Macho pushing Hero - Need to transfer Hero's animation to the new UV'd rig, will be completed by midnight.

Shot 8 - Matt - Macho switching rocks, first draft animation done, needs feedback.

Shot 24 - Matt - Macho preparing for lift - Will be completed first thing tommorow, just needs tweaking and cleaning.

If i dont upload the completed files to the adrive 2day they will be on by midday tommorow.

I will be posting playblasts of shot 20, 8 and 22 later tonight for feedback, but right now am gonna take a bit of a break cuz i've been at it for 8 solid hours.

Tom: shot 29

Eyes.

My fault should have anticipated this. The reason why Machos eye's arn't working in the render is because they've got nothing to react too. Macho isn't lit from the front at all other than 1 fill light and the sun lights.

I can forsee two ways of fixing this, unfortunalty both involve light linking...which i'll be honest i cant make heads nor tales of and can't find a tutorial explaining how to get it to work.

1: ON the eye spheres remove all influence of all lights in the scene, Maya then creates a "ghost" default light behind the camera which the reflection should react too...this ideas a bit shaky but should work but failing that -
2:Create a spotlight behind the camera that effects the eye spheres and only the eye spheres.

Playblasts for Sunday 16th

To all animators: (Matt, Tom, Clym, Tom R and Sarah)

I will need play blasts of all your finished animations ready for Monday.

Please send these to me by Sunday 16th no later than 3pm so that i can organize the files accordingly.

Your play blasts will need to be DV-PAL format and labeled simply as the shot number e.g Shot_04 so our sound artist can lay them out correctly for the template.

If the animation is NOT complete but blocked out then this is fine to submit too, she just needs to add her sounds to the 3D animation as Pips deadline is 21st.

Thanks

Sarah

I'll be your Mr. Motivator

Play the following whilst reading the below



The finish line is fast approaching and whilst we have a few knocks and set backs, the sheer amount and quality of work were producing is nothing short of fantastic....

Matt, you've done an amazing job figuring out the the nitty gritty strange issues and problems of the project. Your modeling and texturing is a credit to the projects objectives. Your animation started out at a high quality, and has been improving time and time again.

Tom. you've come to this project as a part timer but have produced the work of a full time team member. Your consistant hard work has led to some beautiful asset models for the film and your animation goes from strength to strength with each shot you've completed for us. You are truely the artist who has grown and developed the most this year and a credit to the team.

Yaniv...again you've come to us as a part timer, but your persistence in making tweaks and alterations to Hero Gnome helped us to transform the character from 2D to the final 3D outcome. Your 1 to 1 sessions help me understand more about being a director and management and Im ever thankful for your continual support during this year.

Adam, whilst we undoubtedly have had issues I do not wish for this post to be negative and Tuesday you began to prove to me how you were gonna turn a corner for us on this project. I hope from Grigsby's knowledge and teaching you can deliver the final touches to the film to give it that sparkle. Your persistence on Tuesday to sort out the layers, mapping and sorting out the render farm scene is just what we needed. Keep up this level Adam because the team needs you on the post production.

Clym and Tom R. I must credit the professionalism of the second years work ethic. Tom your a fantastic animator who delivers a scene quickly at high standard. Try not to over-think the shot, its being delivered and your doing a great job at it. Clym your animation gets better and better as your knowledge of the rig and the character increases. Your communication with the group has been superb.

To all the second years who have contributed to the film; Fahran, Andrew, Dan you guys are going to do so well in your 3rd year and have been an absolute credit to the team. Without your assistance we wouldn't have got as far as we would have.

In short guys; what we set out to do is nearly there. While it might seem there are still hurdles ahead of us, were getting there and making something wildly different and entertaining. For everything we have made, learnt, altered, stumbled over, and overcome, we should be proud of each and everything we've done this year. This is and will be a fantastic project guys so lets put this train into overdrive and get it across that finish line.

I could not have done this film without you all.

Sarah

Post 101

Tested adding spheres to lady gnome and they seem to work without any issues, so i can't see any reason why she cannot have them. You just create the spheres, flatten them a bit - her eyes arn't too deep so they have to be flattened, parent them to her face joint and apply the texture.
It really is a two sec job.

The animation might look a bit funky cuz she aint supposed to be viewed from this angle (this is shot 20), also the last sec has been cut off (though it may still be processing as i post this)

Eyeballs

Macho and Hero have these eye sphere, i need to have a look at Lady, but i feel this is an important factor and is something that needs to be done, it won't take long to do and will add alot to the film. Check my blog for a with/without comparrison.

Right here whatya gotta do to get the gnomes eyeballs working. Whereas all other textures in this animation are textured lamberts which is a maya node we want a reflective surface, the best way to do these is through Mental ray nodes (textures that only work with mental ray rendering).

This is the exact texture we're gonna be using for all the eyes -

So in you hypershade right click on the drop down where it says "Create Maya Nodes" and then change the selection to "Create mental ray Nodes"

Create the mi_car_paint_phen1 node which is the first of the golden refletive ball thingies.

Rename it Eyeballs...not like i've done here.

Don't worry if it comes out red, Its supposed to be at this stage.

In the attribute editor change the values to match what i have here. This should give you a nice pinpoint white specular without alot of diffuse. The red should have dissapeared from the eyeball and it should just be black and white now.

Then just apply it to the characters eye spheres -

Et Voila

Rocks to these Rocks.

Funny how something as simple as applying a texture to a shape can go horribly horribly wrong.

Im not quite sure what happened, as far as i can tell there is a corrupt input in the objects history and when you then parented the rock to something it effected the UVs, doing this -
This is the same thing that happens if you create UVs on an rigged object that is already bound, but im not sure why it is effecting the rocks in this way.

Solution 1 = Delete the history - Fail.

More unknowns but if you delete the history of the rocks it does this to the rig.Even if you unparent the rocks from the rig and then delete the history it still effects the rig in this way.

Working solution:

Open the scene.
1. First thing you've got to do is delete the existing rocks from the scene.
2. Alongside the textures that i'm about to put onto Adrive is a file called MachoRocks.mb, import this into the scene.
3. Go to frame 32 - you should see the rocks line up with this geometry on this frame
4. Still on frame 32 parent the new rocks to the respective wrist_control joint
And that should fix it. Apply the texture and continue as normal.

Lemme know if theres any issues.

Edit- Right the rock textures and MachoRock.mb are on the adrive in the textures folder

FencePanels

Fences.
A wall of fences consits of 5 textures. There are 3 main fence panels, the posts and the bit that goes along the top.

The 3 fence panels should look like this. (the 5 boards that each of these are made of should be grouped)
And the posts and top should look like this, each the these objects are rotated so you get a different face towards the camera and it doesnt look like its repeating. If the UV's are anything different from what you see above something's gone wrong with the file you have.

Solution

Somewhere along the line the UVs have gone funny and expanded outside the texture.
This is quite literally a 30sec fix, just scale the UVs down and move them so that they fit square over the texture. I'm more than a little frustrated that this has been such an issue considering its something so ridiculously simple.

Macho's Arms

Guys i really don't know what to suggest because im not getting the problem my end. I need someone to post a screencap of the UV texture editor and a pic of the textures work area in the hypershade, or better yet upload the file which isnt working to the Adrive so i can have a look at it.

Its all well and good letting me know there a problem but if its invisble to me and i have nothing too look at i can't fix it.

Adam

I really dont know what the problem you're describing is, as you can see theres nothing wrong with the textures.(print screen + 3 renders)

The only thing i can think of is that you're trying to apply the same texture on both arms when each arm has a seperate texture file - named rightarm.jpg and leftarm.jpg .

If its not this, post some pics on you're blog so i can see the issue, because i can assue you its not the textures.

Adam

Where are the rendered scene results you said you would post up last night (Wednesday 5th) between 6 and 7pm? The same stuff you were supposed to do Tuesday 4th because you didn't do it Monday 3rd??

Where is the sky dome you said you would upload to the Adrive account weeks ago.

Where is the rigged washing line you also said you would post on the Adrive account weeks ago.

You are letting the team down Adam, you have one job of rendering and there is no excuse. You promised and failed to deliver.

Shot 21

im blocking out this shot and more probs with the arms. Annoyingly machos arms (which are gorilla like in length) are still not long enough to do the comical hand fist smack into palm moment for this shot which is annoying cos it is such a comical element for the story. His arms would go through the geometry of his beard so doesn't look like he's gonna be able to do this movement.

Any suggestions for what we can have instead??

about as far as he can go im afraid....gutted bout this....

Adam

Need the updates for the rendering with Matt's shot asap

You were supposed to have posted this yesterday.

Thanks

Sarah

Updates

Adam

need to see an update of the render layers test with matt's shot by the end of today please so stick images up on your blog etc with times of how long rendering took so were prepared for the next few weeks.

ALL ANIMATORS

please provide updates on how your shots are going, where your up to, playblasts etc by end of today.

thanks

Sarah