I have decided I am going to add a 3D print to show at the final exhibition. I have stated by preparing the model in maya and exporting a stfl format. I had initially chosen to print the bedroom and the character but when checking the model in Cura and in particular in the slice process the model did not work and I had to chose a different model.

The second model sliced correctly but the thickness of the flowers was not good enough for the machine since when soaking the print into water to remove the external structure they came out along with it. However I have made a 2D drawing to substitute the sunflowers which fit quite well with the print.

For the animation once the main poses were added I tried to apply a little life elements to his movement and behaviour, tiny detail that could after be appreciated on a bigger scale contributing to the overall animation such and breathing (moving the shoulder, the pelvis and the spine up and down from time to time) and adding some offset animation to the hands.

once the animation were completed i tried to export and render the animation scenes. in the render settings I have used this file path:

<Scene>\<RenderLayer>\<RenderPass>\<RenderPass>_<Scene>

to save the different render layers and paths. I have also added some motion blur. I have separated the render layers in the following way: depending on what the character was interacting with in the scene I would always have one background layer, a layer with the character by itself (since I would add a gaussian blur and saturation to make it faint a bit to give him a spirit vibe), a layer with the character and the objects he would interact with (so that when compositing in after effects it would not appear as the character is on top of these objects) and a layer with the objects by themselves so to not make them appear glowy.

render layers in after effects

to get rid of the black background in the render with the character or a n asset by itself I have applied the luma key effect with the key out darker option and feather the edges so that the character would not appear with a black border.

For some transition since the only two layers were the character, which I would place on top and the background in this particular scene he enters the adjacent room and in doing so the arm would appear o top of the wall: what I did was masking the character arm key by key to subtract that particular part and make the wall appear instead.

To make the character glow and give him a ghost like appearance I have included two layers of the character render: the one on top with a slight saturation and the opacity set to 77, the one beneath with a high brightness and the opacity set to 61.

Sounds

For the sounds I have used Adobe stock to find the right soundtrack that fitted the mood and vibe of the overall animation which is happy, serene and lighthearted.

For the sound effects such as the door opening or the window opening I have looked for some sound on Freemusic.

Regarding the character I have thought to use the “wisp”sound from “Brave” the Pixar film since it evokes a spirit and ghost vibe which fit perfectly with the character.

After I completed the previs animation I started working on individual scenes using the animation plan as a reference: I first started on stepped keys to create poses and after I translated them into linear keys and in the end into splines. What I noticed is that when starting an animation if the poses are well set the whole animation will then be better to manage.

I have created different scenes according to the setting the action is taking place. for the scenes where there are a several actions taking place in the bedroom overlapping I first made one scene but since they should not be connected with each other this created a gimble lock which forced me to restart the scene.

parallax effects

Since that the starry night scene had a very 2D look, I thought I could take advantage of the fact that the background elements are separated from the elements in the foreground and create a parallax effect to include in the final animation since the whole scene is going to be shown outside the window of the bedroom and the camera will gradually get closer to it.

regarding the sky animation this time I have imported the final render in procreate and isolated each and every sky particle so that I could import them back into after effect and animate them individually moving along the big swirly shapes in the sky

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o-mo747TnY

while putting together the fact I was going to include in the animation I came across the final from loving vincent which I found very inspiring and I thought I could find some other fact to end my animation this effectively. “In the 8 years between starting to paint and his death Vincent painted over 800 paintings, only one of which was sold in his lifetime.he was posthumously proclaimed the father of modern art.” (from loving Vincent)

I was planning on adding a letter roll up animation at the beginning so I found this trial which could help me create one.

I have experimented with different textures too but I ended up using a scratched paper texture to add a old letter effect to it.

camera shake

Since the camera is going to be almost “alive” following the character in each action I thought I could add a camera shake to simulate a cameraman holding the camera. I did this by adding an expression to the horizontal and vertical camera shake.

cameraShape1.horizontalShake = noise(frame*.05)*.03;

cameraShape1.verticalShake = noise(frame*.05)*.03;

In order to plan my animation I have created a previs animation which also helped me in terms of creativity: when posing the characters I have thought of new transitions between scene that did not came to be in the previous steps of the project.

For the motion graphic sections of the animation I am going to create some vector drawings in illustrator and adding the animation in after effects.

I first started to experiment with the sunflowers part. In this case I have traced the original artworks to get the outliner.

This is another illustration I have created using illustrator: I traced the original paintings by Van Gogh and I will include them in my animation as if they are part of his letters with and explanation on top (he would usually add some sketches of the artworks he was working on in the letters he wrote especially those he sent tho his brother Theo).

I after created 1920 x 1080 video size format and imported the layers there

Once I have imported everything in After effects including a brown-washed texture in the background to recreate an old letter effect.

These are some videos I have used to create the animation for the motion graphic parts where the vectors drawings are shown.

I am also taking in considerations the techniques showed in the videos beneath to create a write on text effect in After Effects.

Since I have already used this technique for a previous project I have worked on and it did not tuned out the way I wanted it to be ( the online looked very different and the word tracing was hard to achieve especially if you have long text) I figured I can try and record myself while writing maybe digitally.

Editing the vector drawing in After Effects

Within the several techniques I have learned from the tutorial I have watched one way to simulate a scribbled animation was through added the “roughen edges” effect but it did not work unfortunately since the edges of the vector drawings I had created were too thin and they would disappear with that effect.

The turbulent displace effect is the one that along with wiggle path added the scribbling effect to the animation.turbulent displace

Overall I figured that I would have had to split the vector drawings in separate layers in order to archived the 2D hand drawn animation I was looking for.

Another feature I was planning onto adding was a textured back ground to recreate the old letter effect. So I looked for some animated background tutorials to recreate them. What I did was create a new composition import some texture image and tint it with a neutral hue. I after randomised the position of the texture image.

Regarding the particles in the starry night drawing I was planning on making them move to recreate the movement that Van Gogh added in the paint. Although when using the technique explained in the tutorial beneath the frame rate and the texture would not go well with th over-all style.

I actually imported the drawing in procreate and tried to draw the sky particles and animation them with a 6 frame rate as well as animating the brush strokes which is a much better effect which blended better with the overall style.

regarding the text that will be displayed in the motion graphics, I thought I could a wipe effect to simulate a write on effect as if the animation would take place on one of Van Gogh’s letters.

In the past few weeks I have been working mainly in the viewport while texturing the scenes. In order to get the rendering of colour that I wanted to use I have set the light system to flat lighting. However, in the Arnold render view it would not appear in the same way since they had a standard surface applied to them. To get a similar effect to the one of flat light I have applied an aitoon shader and applied a ramp to the tonemap to get some shadows and shades off the assets and to make the overall colours of the objects appear more vibrant. The ramp in the tonemap will also allow me to get some subtle shadows with a colour of my choice.

(How the mesh appear in the viewport)

(rendered image)

This is an example of how the sunflowers looked in the viewport before and after the aitoon shader was applied.

After the aitoon shader and the ramp in the tonemap

While texturing the character though, the surface in the viewport would go completely black while still appearing fine in the render view. This would only cause a problem when animating the character face since I would not be able to see his expressions. but when referencing the model in new scene this problem will not happen since the model will all turn dark grey.

Since the character of Van Gogh will be floating in the animation I have started looking for some references to take inspiration from for the animation. Since the centre of gravity would be different also the dynamic of a floating body would not be the same as if he was to walk. For instance, in the following video the animated character, who is floating, in the first part the breathing animation is very interesting: the legs move up slightly along with the chest when she breaths in which is something it would not happen if she would have been standing of the ground.

For the floating animation this following video may be useful to use as a reference since the floating animations are dynamic and the poses are symmetrical and they don’t appear to be stiff which is something I am trying to avoid.

For instance in this animation the action is not dynamic enough and overall it might appear repetitive

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lxd9dV

Another inspiration for the floating animation can be rise of the guardians since there are a few characters that fly and I find the animation style very interesting

For the part of the animation that is going to set place in his bedroom I could create a series of individual animations of Van Gogh’ daily life in his bedroom which are disconnected with each other but I will blend them together and will be a similar effect as the one in the following video.

Do provide a fuller sense of what the finished project will look like. An animatic is basically an animated storyboard. The same images you’ve already created as a storyboard are now put into a video and can include dialogue, sound effects, and music. take those storyboards and animate them with an animatic. 

sounds

I have experimented with textures as well and I have created this more realistic look for the tree. But on a second thought I don’t think it works well with the overall style I have been working so far.

I then started adding elements in the background according to the painting.

After I started to create the sky assets: since the brushstrokes in this painting are visible and thick, I thought I could recreate them in 3D using a polygon modelled like a brush stroke to create the movement and resemble those in the painting.