support your arguments by adding substance and evidence.
show you have researched widely and know about specialist are of interest.
incorporating other people’s work into your own written work: paraphrasing, summarising, synthesising, quoting.
show how the information you found has helped you to develop your arguments, ideas and opinions.
paraphrasing pitfalls: describing an author’s idea but not explaining the significance to your own argument, or the point that you are trying to make; providing too much detail; not distinguish the author’s point and your own viewpoint.
summary pitfalls: providing too much detail unnecessary background informations; describe the author’s idea but not the significance to your own argument.
synthesise pitfalls: not distinguishing clearly which viewpoint belong to which author; not grouping relevant authors or point together; describe the author’s idea but not the significance to your own argument.
quote pitfalls: using to many quotes; incorporating a quote without describing its relevance to the argument
be concise: one idea per sentence; sentences to a reasonable length 25 words; avoid repetitions.
avoid redundant words: use because instead of due to the fact that for instance
use hedging words: this suggests, it is possible that, a possible explanation, usually, sometimes, somewhat, in what appears to be, it may help, he claims.
boosters: express a measure of certainty or conviction, clearly there is a strong correlation
Generators are substances that generate a mask or a material based on the mesh topology using the additional maps setup in the TextureSet Settings. Each generator has a set of parameters allowing you to fine-tune the resulting mask. Based on baked map information, they generate masks that can then be used to blend together materials and other effects.
I have added a generator layer to the different texture to experiment with the look of the model. I have used one of the preset “dripping rust” and placed it on top of the paint mask layers.
After finalising the textures I have baked them before exporting them. Baking is the process of saving information from a 3D mesh, to a texture file (bitmap).
To create the blanket model and the pillows models I have used the cloth simulation in Maya. When I exported the model as an fbx to texture it in substance painter the blanket mesh was exported both withe the simulations applied and as simple planes. When I worked in substance I was able to hide it since it appeared as an independent texture set in the texture set list. Although, when I baked the texture the ambient occlusion appeared like this:
After I have imported all the texture files I have set the scene to use to give the bed model some context: I have created a wall and a floor following the painting room set up as well as creating a window from where the light comes in adding some green brush strokes on the glass. I have created a skydive to light the scene as well.
The problem I used to have about light and and the physical sky in Maya was because I did not add any rim light attributes to the aiToon shaders. A rim light is placed behind a subject that exposes the outline or rim of the subject with light. This lighting highlights the contours of a subject and creates a dramatic and mysterious effect.
From the picture above you can see that there are to lights to the texture itself since the physical sky light itself it is already not high in exposure (as it is during early morning).
Although if adjusting the rim lighting options for each aiToon shader I have created the lighter colours appeared. Moreover by adding to the contour lines of the shader an ambient occlusion mask the lines appeared more defined. I have realised this when I was adding the AOV’s to the scene. In the list there is one called “rim lighting (aiToon)”, so I researched into it and found the following video which I followed and solved the lighting problem that I had with the character:
Edit the playblast video before the rendering
This week I have completed the animations for each shot that I had initially set in the shot list. I thought I could edit all the different playblast videos together to have a rough idea for the whole animation and to see if I should change or add something before the rendering.
Rendering issues
The first problem I have encountered during the render process was the directory of the render layers and passes which was not accurate at first so it would stop maya from render.
Render path I have used to save the different render layers and paths.
I have also realised that I had to add the AO (ambient occlusion)- a shading and rendering technique used to calculate how exposed each point in a scene is to ambient lighting- and alpha render path- A mask channel (or alpha channel) defines where an image is opaque or transparent-.which at first I could not find in the list of AOV’s since they are custom passes and I had to manually input them
In order to make the AO pass work I have added the ambient occlusion shader and set gaussian as filter in the render settings
For the alpha channel I had to add an aiUsercolordata shader in the attribute editor and set the camera and transmission of the physical sky to 0 in order for it to work.
I have used these following videos as a reference for the process:
Since I had set the Physical sky camera and transmission to 0, I had to create a separate layer for the background rendering to trigger the Physical sky visibility: I have created an override for visible layers transmission and camera set to 1 because for ao and alpha they were set to 0 in orther to work.
I also included a Shadow matte layer for the boat and character. The shadow_matte is a specific shader, used typically on floor planes to ‘catch’ shadows from lighting within the scene. It is useful for integrating a rendered object onto a photographic background.
I followed this video to create it. I have created different collections within the render layer: one for the boat the character and the fisherman with the primary visibility turned off (the primary visibility attribute in the Render Stats allows an object to reflect and refract, but the object itself does not render); the second collection would be the one with the water where the shadows are cast I would also create a shader override with the aishadowmatte attached to it; the third and last collection would contain the light and the camera.
When experimenting with the bed texture files, I initially added the height, roughness and colour information on one paint layer for each texture I had created which meant that it was impossible for me to edit the height information, for instance, afterwards.
I will consequently use a non-destructive process. If your entire workflow is non-destructive, you can make edits way upstream in your process, and have the changes automatically propagate downstream.
smoothed mesh
Moreover, the model I had imported in substance painter was unsmoothed which meant that when I would have imported all the different texture files in maya they would have look deformed on the smoothed object. So before starting working again on the textures I have smoothed the mesh in maya (saving a file where the mesh preview was still available) and imported it into substance.
The new process I have followed included creating a fill layer with the roughness and colour information and a mask attached to it with a paint layer where I have created the different paint brushes.
This week I have started animating the shots using the shot list I have created as a guide.
The first thing I did was to import every prop and the characters in the scene.
I after parented the fishing rod to the hand control the hat to the head control and the character to the boat to make it follow the boat moments when it floats in the water.
The animation process I have followed is the following:
Create the main key poses according to the action, and consequently the timing in which the action itself takes place. The stepped keys also help me plan the movements by establishing the main poses and their silhouette.
I after convert the stepped keys into linear keys to add some in-between. Linear tangents create an animation curve as a straight line before the key so that if I wanted to create some new keys I would create them in the exact middle of the tangents.
Once I was happy with the keys I would convert them into Auto. An Auto In Tangent compares the current keyframe value to the previous keyframe value, and flattens the curve segment if it travels above or below those keyframe values. A spline tangent rounds the animation curve smoothly before the key
As for the boat movement, I tried to match the waves automatically created by the boss editor to match the moments of the boat. However at first I probably saved to many close keys with different and abrupt movements, so the boat movements were not syncing with the water waves
Here I have adjusted the key movement
Shot 2
For the second shot I first block the main poses with stepped keys as well. Even though I haven’t set the camera yet I know which angle would it be and how close the camera will be to the character. Here the face expressions are essential to convey the character distress so the brows and the moustache rotation and position as well as major body moments were something I particularly considered.
Timing here was essential to get the character feeling, to I tried to get the right pauses and take time to show his emotion clearly.
Maya has it’s own auto rigging system. If you have a character with a joint structure it can be used to generate controls.
Select create custom rig mapping and start to pair up the joint to the corresponding part of the body in the definition menu. the arms should be straighten up and aligned to the axes.
knee pole control: create a nurbs circle and group it (offset group) and after parent the group to the knee joint after zero the channel of the group to get the exact rotation of the knee and after use the pole vector constrain tool
inherit transforms: you might notice that by moving the main group the individual parts start to move at different rate to correct this you need to tick off the inherit transform attribute for the main geo and psd groups.
to manually create a spine control instead these are the steps:
create a pelvis control and position it according to the pelvis joint. To align the spine controls create a locator to use as a guide. in order to simulate a spine rotation parent them together according to their hierarchy.
While experimenting with the character textures I thought I could apply to him a toon shader which would fit much better with the overall tone of the short film given the whole story a comic vibe. I have first followed this video:
I selected all the different parts of the model and created a toon shader for each of them and is the result:
when working on the original file I was using a skydome as a light. However in the animation scenes there is a physical sky which is simulating an early morning light, so there is not much light in the scene which made the shadows of the different aitoown shadows the only thing to be seen.
In the meantime I also carried on the animation process and this following videos shows the progress I have made on a specific scene where I worked on the timing and spacing of the animation to make it more believable and natural as possible:
This week I have started texturing the bed model in substance painter.
texture sets and materials
In substance painter a texture set represents the material you assign to mesh in your 3D application. Each individual material becomes a texture set with its own dedicated layer stack in the channels. When you export each texture set results in a set of bitmap files with a file for each channel of the set. Texture sets can be enabled and disabled in the texture set menu using the eye icon. Each texture has its own layer stack
materials and channels
Material can be broken down into individual channels each channel represents a material property: base color, metallic and roughness. Fill layers can act as a material layer stack as they can fill one or more channels with a texture or a uniform value.
baking
Baking is a step where you save or bake geometry information from your mesh into texture maps. Baking can speed up the process a lot. The information stored into the maps is used to create procedural effects and it can even help with your material placement.
paintable layer and fill layer
Paint Layer : This type of layer can be painted on with brushes and particles.
Fill layer : This layer cannot be painted on, instead you can load a material into it, to fill the channels. (You can also manipulate the transformation to repeat the material for example.)
Van Gogh painting style and the 3D model
Van Gogh is well known for his brushstokes of thickly laid-on paint. This technique is called Impasto. An artist lays a thick layer of paint on canvas, brushstrokes get more noticeable, adding a special texture to the painting. Vincent liked to use a thick, undiluted flat color with a brush or a palette knife.
This following video describes in depth the process of Van Gogh style evolution over the years. It was very interesting to see what inspired his work and how he developed his own “voice”. During the presentation the simultaneous contrast is mentioned in regards of the painter artworks: it refers to the way in which two different colours affect each other. The theory is that one color can change how we perceive the tone and hue of another when the two are placed side by side. The actual colors themselves don’t change, but we see them as altered.
This is a close up picture from the “bedroom in arles” painting. As it showed the paint is very thick and dense in some parts which is what I am would like to render in the 3D texture.
I first imported the bed model as a fbx file into substance painter: substance painter recognise the different texture attributes created previously in maya, so I have assigned to the different parts of the model different textures according to their material
I after started working on the bed wood paint texture using an alpha material with a paint brush to simulate the brush strokes. I also included some height information to simulate the impasto technique used by the painter.
This first attempt was a bit coarse and the dark brown edges I had created were too dark and resulted in a “fake” outlook. I first created a layer with light yellow brush strokes and after created one on top with a light red: I tried to pick the colours according to those in the painting
Using a similar process I started again but this time using a different brush and height information. I kept the dark edges at first but they were to predominant in the texture.
Planning your animation is essential for the final output. In order to get a good animation is important to apply cinematic rules to the 3D environment.
Gather references of the animation you are going to create is very important to achieve credibility and truthfulness of the movements.
Plan the characters animations with proxies can be useful to track what you are doing and go through different stages before getting to the final animation.
So, for this animation I have used a proxy model and applied different colours to the main block of the body to differentiate the different parts.
Before starting the animation is essential to have the camera animated first so that you know which parts of the body to focus the movements and details.
When starting the animation I worked using stepped keys to plan the shot and have a clear silhouette of the character poses.
This week workshop was related to Unity and Vuforia (AR)
Vuforia is an augmented reality software development kit for mobile devices that enables the creation of augmented reality applications. It uses computer vision technology to recognize and track planar images and 3D objects in real time.
The Engine detects and tracks the image by comparing extracted natural features from the camera image against a known target resource database. Once the Image Target is detected, Vuforia Engine will track the image and augment your content seamlessly using best in market image tracking technology.
In Unity I have created the vuforia ar camera using the image target downloaded from vuforia and positioned on top of it in the viewport the useless machine animation and put as an output the usb camera and I have then used my phone with the target image and the animated object appeared on top.
