Project 8 PreViz

Project 8

Pre-Viz

Project 08 Previsualization:

Previsualization also know as pre-rendering, preview or wireframe windows is a function to visualize complex scenes in a movie before filming. It is also a concept in still photography. Previsualization is applied to techniques such as storyboarding, either in the form of charcoal drawn sketches or in digital technology in the planning and conceptualization of movie scenery.

Previsualization allow directors to experiment with different staging and art direction options, such as lighting, camera placement and movement, stage direction and editing without any cost increases to the actual production. Previsualization can add music, sound effect and dialogue to closely emulate the look of fully produced and edited sequences and are most encountered in scenes that involves special effects.

 Production

Scene:

Started creating the scene for the pre-viz based on my animatic story but before that i had to decide which scene i was going to make since i had a lot of different scenes in my storyboard. I started making the first scene simply because i liked it more then the other once and i kinda had figured out where i was going with the scene. So i designed the street, houses and the main house which was more detailed then rest of them. 

I didn't give to much attention to the rest of the street as to the main house which the main character was living in, simply because the cameras weren't going to show too much of the background. 

Camera:

I have already worked on other animation project and were used to the camera angles and how to position them however i have never gone too much into it when it comes to lenses. That's about the only thing i don't know much about since we didn't get into it with the teacher. But from what i understood you use the different lenses based on the distance between the camera and the object  your recording.

Editing:

Since this was just a pre-viz i didn't put in too much information in the animation movements but just enough to kinda hint as to what the character is doing. However i have so many ideas how to improve but i couldn't add them all in the pre-viz. Besides having render errors and rigs not getting animated for some weird reason i was struggling with getting this done in time. 

Instead of putting 2 scene's in the pre-viz like i planned i went for one however the  first scene is suppose to be during the early morning and is suppose to be dark. But since i was struggling with the render i cut that out, but i'm still gonna use that later on. 

The street and rest of the neighborhood houses are in minimum details simply because they aren't in the camera angle and you wont see them so there was no point. But i just made it in case i wanted to change something. I also had to change the Rig since the one i was using seemed to be bugged or something which i later on found out to be bugging cause i was resizing the rig. And the other thing was that i didn't merge the files correctly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A074IXCePMI&feature=youtu.be

Evaluation:

I'm not so satisfied with the project due the problems i had where i had to cut out half of the animation i had intended to send. Also the video or the preview went kinda too fast cause i didn't tweak it well enough on the timeline. The camerawork was fine could be better also the lens sizes could have probably helped the animation. As for the scenery i think its good enough for a pre-viz, you don't really need anything better then that atleast for a pre-viz!

UPDATE

UPDATE:

Posting some new side projects i have been working on for the fun of it and some for a friend who needed new tabs for Twitch stream. I also have some drawings that i'm gonna post soon as i deliver the project i'm currently working on. :)

Project 7 2D Animatic

Project 7

2D Animatic

Introduction:

So in this project I was suppose to make another storyboard as a 2D Animatic. Why do I say "Storyboard", well it's because a 2D Animatic is basically a storyboard just with few twists. I was also suppose to find music and sounds for the Animatic and also show asset movement by arrow or animated elements within the frame. Using images, texts and links to other animation fims i am suppose to show benefits of a 2d Animatic so here it is!

2D animatics is used to estabilish pacing of the movie, music preliminary recorded dialogs and sounds effects may also be included where appropriate to enhance details. Animatic may be little more then temporary arranged storyboard and it may give information about movement of objects (assets) and the camera. Animatic is where sound clips and voiceover are added and motion is introduced to characters. This method can be created quickly for a specific video and the work of the projects can evenly be distributed throughout process making everything so much easier. BUT it can also waste alot of the time if not done correctly! It is important to have a good vision of what you want to create, the audience you want to reach with it and the goals you wish to reach as those choices influence the decisions what to create!

Production:

So i started with my first drawing from the final storyboard where the camera is positioned outside the house, simply because I wanted to start with the scene outside with kinda sun rise feel to the scene. I had in mind this movie I don't remember where it's from exactly but I think its from some Disney old stuff where camera pans around and there sun rising up and the birds and singing, that's what I had in mind for this scene. As the Camera is zooming in towards the bedroom window music of singing birds. 

This is where I started drawing the new sketches starting with the scene in the bedroom where the person is sleeping when he get's abruptly woken up  by the alarm clock. Whole scene is basically him getting out of bed and heading towards the door. I ended up with around 10-11 drawings which were "ok" for a animatic but now i  had to go look for music and sounds to add. It took me awhile to find a website where i could download sounds for free or without any license so i could use it freely. 

I came over this website freesound.org which was freaking awesome, it had everything i needed for my animatic from singing birds to alarm clocks!

 With all sounds and music downloaded I started up Windows Live Movie Maker, imported all the pictures and just as I was about to put in soundtrack it didn't work.
Apparently the program didn't recognize the files cause i had Windows 10 installed on the pc and the program was outdated. So i went over to their website to check if there was any update but still no solutions. So I went on the web again and searched for a Movie editing program which is easy to use when i came over Filmora. Extreamly easy to use but the editing options are really minimal you can't have more then 1 soundtrack line so I was left with not much of choice. Cause i was thinking about using separate sound track for the sound and one for music in the background.

Evaluation:

So to answer all the questions and give back feedback about the project without writting a whole wall of text. What i learned is that sound can be a good helper when it come to giving out information to the audience when illustration fails. Sounds is like extra information which is a great when production is limited or the budget is. I will definitely take from this experience and use it to create more cleaner and obvious reaction sketches next time! When it comes to the role of Editor i knew much of it from before. It is Editors responsibility to make sure that the work will reach the audience it is he who must add or remove content to make changes so the message reaches the people.
And lasts the color isn't really needed for 2D animatic but it depends on who is going to see the animatic. If its only for editing purposes just for the animator team then no you don't really need, but if you plan on showing this to a studio or some partners there is nothing wrong in adding some more life into the story!

Ive enjoyed the project learn a lot got into some small problems with my pc and some programs but nothing that can't be overcome. I was thinking about getting another video editing program thou cause this one is used now is too simplified and there is hardly any editing options for soundtracks.
I'm not entirely satisfied with the outcome but hopefully next time i'll be prepared better! (dam you windows) :D

Project 06

Project 06

Storyboard

by

Milan M

The Storyboard:

So this project we were suppose to create a storyboard out of the script we made in the earlier project.
Having bad time i had to change the story a bit up last part with the cops and jail was removed and the story only followed up the some extent without losing too much from the orginal script.

The length of the current storyboard is between 1+ to 2 min but can be made longer with more details added which probably will be added when I start with animation. Due to lack of time I had to shorten it down and i'm already not to happy about it. Thing that could have been differently would be the start of the story it could have started differently also the scene where John is about to get out of the bed could have had atleast 2-3 more drawings.  The part where he picks up his broken up bike and the trip to work could have had more drawing and also if i followed the original script where he throws the bike and the car and cops show up that would have increased the length aswell.

With that in mind this story would have been closer to anything from 4 to 5 minutes which would be too long for 1 person to make into animation on so little time. And i'm not exactly a animation genius either so without further ado I give you the Storyboard!!

Project 06

Storyboard

 1.                                              2.

3.                                                4.

 5.                                              6.

 7.                                              8.

 9.                                           10.

 11.                                        12.

 13.                                         14.

 15.                                        16.

 17.                                         18.

19.                                           20.

Evaluation:

So to start of i have to say i've been struggling with the drawing i'm not a big fan of drawing humans it always take so much time. I wish there was more time but this is what i got in the end, I wouldn't say that i'm too happy about it but i consider it "Ok".

If i had more time i would have done this storyboard a bit differently with more drawings and a more in dept story but i guess when we start with the animation part i will try to put in more sketches. There were couple scene that i could redo but that would have to wait until next time also the scene where John is behind the cleaner truck I was thinking about having a Front camera from bikes view just before he heads of the stairs. Also the last scene where he screams in anger i was thinking about having a overview camera so it kinda zooms out in the end. All in all i had a blast with this project i just wish i had more time cause i was really slow with the drawings and some of them were really rushed in the end!

Project 05 Treatment

Project 05

Treatment

Project 05:

So in this project the assignment was to use one of those pitch ideas ive done  earlier and turn it into a script but before that i had to do the "Treatment". What is treatment you might ask? 

Treatment is basically a document made solely for the writers or directors own story development purposes. 

1.

Pitch Idea's

So i first started with the idea's i already had from the assignment before but i also added a couple on the run. I was struggling after i wrote down around 10 of them the idea's just stopped coming so i went through the pitches one by one added some idea's to each pitch and there were couple pitches that stood out. I wanted something funny and interesting something that would catch viewers attention.

2.

Story

So as i finished up adding some ideas to each pitch like i said some idea's stood out more and the one i picked was " A young man faces all kinds of difficulties to get to work on time. ".  I wanted to have a funny concept with a normal character who experiences the most unlucky day of his life where everything just goes upside down. Story needs to be short, easy to understand, have a goal or ultimatum and also be able to relate to the audience. I also wanted to have a surprise twist on the end of the story.

Surprise

The character thinks its just a bad dream to the end until he in the end realizes that it all actually did happen to him.

3. Script

Script Treatment

Unlucky day
By: Milan Maric

Act 1: Ready, set and go

A middle aged man by the name John wakes up to a nightmare which has been haunting him for past two weeks, due to the fact that his boss at work has been threatening with firing him cause of coming late to work.

The man starts to panic when he sees that he forgot to set up the alarm on the clock.

Without too much thinking he jumps out of the bed and runs downstairs to quickly mix and mashes something real quick for breakfast.

John eats breakfast, showers, shaves and brushes his teeth in what would seem like couple minutes only to stop in-front of his car after realizing that his car is broken.

The panic is slowly creeping into him and the stress, he needs to figure out something really fast or hes gonna be late to work again.

Just when John was ready to give in, his eyes caught a glimpse of his old bike the happiness on his face...priceless.

Act 2: Trip

The fresh air is calming John down and brings back old thoughts and chill feelings but he knows he has to hurry even thou work is downtown it will take at least half an hour to get there on bike.

John knowing the way by heart knows that there is going to be a traffic jam on the main street so he decides to take a shortcut .As he was breaking to take the shortcut John realized that the breaks on the bike weren't as good as they used to, so he had to be careful.

The time was starting to catch up with him and just in-front of him there was a cleaning truck, dusting away all the rubble from the winter snow, John having bad time turns to left side to pass the truck. Just as he was turning left an car is rushing towards John on the opposite lane.

He panics and immediately turns left ride over to the sidewalk but what John didn't see was the the sidewalk was leading to some stairs. John tries to break but the breaks were broken, the bike breaks up in two and he falls off the bike.

Luckily he didn't get too beat up it was just some scratch injuries he could live with, he picks him self up and the bike parts all in disappointment and keeps walking to work rest of the way.

Act 3: Destination

John is walking with the parts of what used to be his bike towards his work and hes almost there he can see the building and hes imagining in his head all kinds of hell his boss is going to give to him. But he doesn't really care he already knows that he is going to get fired.

As he got to the building John sees the "CLOSED" sign on the door and then it hits him, it's actually Saturday today. The man burst into pure happiness only to be followed by rage cause of everything that happened to him today.

In his enraged state he grabs one of the bicycle wheels and throws it without looking, the wheel flies over couple parked cars only to hit a police car which was parked.

Out of the car two police officers step out and walk towards John, the young man out of exhaustion passes out.

John wakes up in a bed with pillow and sheets starring towards the ceiling, as hes realizing that this all was just a bad dream a fat smile slowly forms on his face.

Feeling back to normal he turns to the side still smiling only to abruptly find out that everything that he thought was happening to him in a dream actually did happen and that he was in jail!

Evaluation:

Reading through this couple times it doesn't look like best thing ive done but this is the first time i do this. Ive done projects like this before but ive never done this whole "treatment" so there will probably be some mistakes! I had couple good pitch idea's but this one was just easy to write, like everything just came togheter right. If there was more time i would have done more work on this cause it could be better but for now im fine with it!

Update

Update:

So ive been pretty inactive when it comes to the blog due to some personal issues etc etc, however ive been working on some stuff in my spare time! Some of the sketches are unfinished and need alot work while others are almost done! I also  had some work done in 3d max which i will post in couple days cause im currently busy with the new project! So here are the drawings ive been working on so far:

   So this is the currently ones i could find on my main pc i will post more soon as i transfer rest from my laptop since i use it for drawing and main pc for 3d max. All these drawings and the Website header were done in photoshop these past 2 months with the exception the wolf was made long time ago but ive never posted it so  here it is! :)

Like i said i'll post rest of the sketches probably tomarrow i just need to transfer them from my laptop and as for the 3d max work i'll post that in couple days!

Project 3 - Dig 2

Project 3

(Digital acting 2)

Project 3:

So for last couple weeks I have been working on another Digital acting project where we were asked to choose between two different project. One was to create a facial animation and lip sync it to a video clip showing my chosen methods of execution, the other one was a full body animation. And since I have already worked on full body animation in my last project i wanted to try out something new so i went for the lip sync!

It took me some time to find the right clip at first i was thinking about using something from the "Simpsons" TV series but i went with the clip from the movie called "Step brothers" instead!

The scene takes place after Will Ferrell and his step brother have finished their family dinner and after being treated badly by Will's real brother they go to the tree house. Soon after Will's brother climbs up the stairs to talk to Will but it only ends up with another argument and "Derrick" (Will's brother) starts taunting them to punch him in the face. "Dale" (Wills step brother) punches Derrick down and he falls from the tree house and that's when my scene takes place.

Planning

I started with looking for a Rig, originally I was going to use the 3DS Max Rig cause it looks humanish and ive also worked with it before. But due to problems i have had in past project I decided to test out a new Rig called DeeRig.

My character didn't have much facial expressions anyways so there wasn't a big requirement when it came to what Rig was right to use. And no matter what Rig i'd use or anyone else you can't go wrong with any Rigs with Will Ferrell's voice behind it!

Like other student I didn't do any planning when it came to animation it self I just went with my gut feeling even thou I was thinking about adding my own twist to the body language.

But since there is hardly any movement on the guy in the clip I didn't do much basically sticked to the clip!

Animation

I was going through a friends old project that he linked me to see how he did it and maybe I could use the same method. What he did was to use the stepped method and then adjust it in graph Editor later to smooth it out, I tried that method but I just didn't like it so I just went and did it my way. 

Basically what I just did, I went in started with the mouth animate the whole clip and then moved in the graph editor tweaked here and there nothing too much. And once i was satisfied I moved on to the eye brows and did pretty much the same there too. If my character wasn't so dam serious in the clip hardly showing any emotion i would have done it a bit differently. I would have done the eye's and the eye lids too but my character doesn't move those at all since hes suppose to be dead serious like in the clip. Otherwise i would have done pretty much the same thing like with rest of the facial parts.

I would have started with the body show the hand movement, shoulders and then head so the character feels more alive. After that i would have started with the facial animation particularly the lips since for some reason i feel like it's easier to animate the eyebrows with the mouth moving. It's almost like the mouth movement anticipates the eyebrow movement and like mentioned in  the advice video posted on Noroff "use a mirror" helped me a lot. I used the mirror to kinda mimic the mouth movements by pronouncing the sentences slowly and then like drawing out circles on a paper based on shapes of my mouth, sounds pretty stupid but it helped me! Smoothing of the animation was mainly done by keyframes even thou I did use the graph editor in some places it just i didn't feel safe enough to fix the frame where the character was moving the mouth a lot.

Evaluation

I really like this project I felt like i got some grasp what it is like to do facial animation but i will have to work on it harder. The Rig I used probably wasn't the best either since i couldn't close the mouth entirely without causing stretching in the mesh it self for some reason. Like mentioned above the real plan was to use Max Rig but I used that one last time and even thou we were suppose to do facials back then i notice that Max Rig didn't have eye brows at all that's why i wanted to use another Rig.

Besides doing lip sync to one of my favorite comedians, it was probably not the best clip to animate to since he basically has one face expression through entire scene. I had to put his right hand up when he was speaking just to make it less boring. The plan was to animation from his upper torso with shoulders and his head moving but it was all about facial animation so i didn't. Thing I could have done better would probably be have some head movement, time the mount better and take another look at the eye brows. Cause at one point their going bananas probably overdid it a bit in the end of the clip! Overall i'm "OK" with this project i know i could have done it a lot better, this is second time i do lip sync and first time i do it alone. 

Video

https://vimeo.com/125898780

Character Design

Project 02- Character art

So in this assignment i was asked to draw a concept art character and study the characteristics of people around me to push their charcateristics to create a stylistic, exaggerated, character concept.

This is suppose to be first of many and hopefully we will see some improvements in future. I'm just glad i don't have to draw glasses and cups with reflections anymore :)

So this is what i got so far with sketches ive done alot research and got a lot pictures which will be useful later on.

This is just the rough version of the character its not entirely finished but this is what i got i had to cut out some of the initial Armour i was thinking about to put on the character do to time issue. Most of the stuff is finished it just needs a polish!

Project 1

Project 1

The Lift

General info:

In this project we were asked to duplicate our Lift assignment and try to do it better and use some of the tools we didn't last time. The assignment was really simple make a character lift a spherical object and show that it's heavy without using the facial control in other word without showing emotional expressions.

Phase 1:

I started with looking over my old work from the assignment to see where i could push little bit more and see if i could get it right this time. I used some of the old files from assignment as example and i also wrote down some guidelines to follow. I encounter several problems along the way with the animation which I kinda fixed as good as I could.

I used the sketches from old assignment as example but i didn't follow it to the letter thou, when it came to animating I started off good but for some reason i had problems with the walk cycle. Tried to fix it in curve editor with adjusting the flow however i feel like the animation was too fast especially in the  end of the animation. Also i choose to use 5 frames keyframe format cause i felt like that would work but now im starting to think maybe I should have put 10 frames instead. And if I ever do this or something like this again I think I will do it differently.

Phase 2:

 When i finished with animating i started going through my animation and i notice it was very "spikey" like flow was at times popping and i remember my other teacher was talking about this and that this is something you should avoid having. This is where Curve Editor came in handy I mean it's still not good but it's much better then what it was. I started going thought the tutorial videos that Noroff had on their site to see if i might have forgotten something or maybe try out to fix some of my already existing problems. I cleaned out as much i could in curve editor but i doubt it was enough cause i was going through others work and they had a much cleaner animation which only means one thing and that is that i didnt use enough time in Curve Editor. Also saw that some people use inbetweeners to fix some of their problem they couldn't in Editor which i tried too. However i started getting more problems when i tried to adjust and smooth out the animation in editor i think i did something i shouldn't. Suddenly it was just getting worse so i just went back and let that one go i had couple tries but i just couldn't figure out what i was doing wrong.

Phase 3:

Last part smoothing and editing the flow which i did but i wasn't so happy with it, like i said earlier i felt like the animation was too fast and i tried to slow down the part where the character was lifting the object. Just to give it more appeal or a sign that object was heavy but i think that it wasn't enough should probably have done it much more.

I also noticed that in the beginning of the animation just before the character is about to get in place to lift the object when he steps forward his back foot is hitting the floor and sliding. Which means its connecting to the ground before the animation is executed and i tried to fix this but i couldn't figure it out. I had this same problem before and i asked for help about this and i though i understood it but apparently not. Also in the end where the character is lifting the object i slowed down the animation in Curve Editor so it shows that the object hes lifting is heavy, I also animated that hes using one of his legs to lift the object simple cause it would indicate that object was heavy which was the point of the whole project. 

Evaluating

I feel like i could have done so much better with this project it started off really good for me and im just a bit dispointed in the end. Cause i felt like i had everything under control but when i came down to editing and polishing the project it was a problem after a problem. I fixed one thing two other issues pop up and it gonna take some time before i get entirely used to Curve Editor. It wasn't all bad i mean last time i barely touched Curve Editor this time i actually did something and fixed some of the issues. However it is far from perfect which only means that i gotta work more with it and get used to using it.

The project it self was fun i enjoyed working it didnt take me as much time to do the project as the assignment even with being behind couple day cause of a misunderstanding. Atleast next time i will be more prepared and hopefully by that time ive mastered the Curve Editor to some degree. The tutorials on the website were of great help solved couple of my issues like i mentioned before.

Expressions

Part 5

Acting for Animatiors

In this assignment we were asked to download one of the Max Rigs then go on Internet and find fascial expressions and try to replicate them with a Max Rig. I downloaded the Max Rig not the lowmax one and i noticed that it was missing couple controllers like one for eyebrow's wasn't working and also there were no controllers for eyelids. So considering this some of the expressions are a bit weird didn't really get them to line up the right way but i had to improvise with what i had.

*NOTE

The creator of the Rig stated that the Rig is fully functional however you shouldn't merge the file with an already existing scene due to the problems with IK name etc etc. However i did this when i was animating the lift clip and for this assignment i opened up a fresh file so i don't know how the problem persisted. I deleted the scene and the Rig thinking it might have affected the Rig file it self so i downloaded a new one but its the same thing there. Think next time i do this im just gonna download the LowMax Rig instead. 

Digital Acting

Part 4

In this assignment we were asked to go back to our previous assignment and give it another look after reading about poses and watching Keith Lango's video. We were suppose to try and improve the poses in the existing animation but first start off with noting down some of the idea's how to improve the poses  make them more convincing.

Blocking Animation:

 So far what ive learned is that my poses are quiet robotic like it just lacks the personality. You can clearly see what hes doing but you don't see a trace of human "expression" you might say. Like the sphere suppose to be heavy and you can't see anything here by looking at my pictures that would suggest or hint that the object is heavy. Also one thing i forgot to type down on the picture is by making his legs quiver while hes lifting the object that would give you some information about the object and the character giving it more personality.