Character Shots

[Shelton]

Starting to size the models that I have created with the characters. Luc is about 6'4"

 

Steve

[robcat2075]

He does look big!

[TheSpleen]

He needs a hat.

[Shelton]

Hi Gene, Luc does have hair have not rendered it yet.

 

Robert i will scale items up and him down

[Shelton]

Ok the Coffee shop looks to be ok, heighth and width wise, with characters in place

[robcat2075]

Good looking set! That will be tricky to light.

[itsjustme]

Looking extremely good, Steve!

[Shelton]

Thanks David and Robert!

 

Robert you are correct. I have been reading about how to light your 3d movie! Not going to be easy

 

steve

[Rodney]

I have been reading about how to light your 3d movie! Not going to be easy

 

I recall reading an article that claimed studios such as Dreamworks employ many more Lighting technicians than they do animators and that makes sense to me. Personally, I think the article was implying Technical Directors as a whole but the point was made... Lighting is a very important, if not tedious, aspect of a movie and takes many hands and/or hours to perfect.

 

While I am certainly no expert my own approach at present would be to add an Action to the Set in Question specifically for the Lighting. Then the Action can be adjust/replaced/saved/duplicated as necessary to control a variety of lighting effects. Personally, I just like how smoothly Lights seem to be manipulated in an Action. The only downside that comes to mind is that while looking at a Chor and adjusting the light in an Action, the Chor will not always update to reflect changes in the Action.

 

As much of your Set's lighting will not change you should do well with having an Action light your scene.

In my estimation you'll want to explore having the lightbulbs brightness be controlled not by lights but through the surfaces ambiance intensity. A mild but wide glow might then spread that lighting throughout the scene. Without ambient surfaces you may easily hit the practical limit where additional lighting will be useful in your scene.

 

In my estimation, the most important aspect of lighting concerns the Focus; where you want the viewer's attention to be.

All other aspects of composition (of which lighting is an essential part) should support and accentuate that focus.

This is one of the reasons why initial Lighting is often accomplished using untextured grayscale objects in a scene.

The lighting is then further refined (and finalized) after texturing to ensure Clarity.

 

If really leaning forward you may want to control your Lighting *after* the rendering.

For this, consider how the use of .EXR format and Light Buffers may allow you the opportunity to adjust the lighting in your scene even after you have rendered it. A little planning and experimentation with .EXR from the very beginning may save you a lot of hours, headaches and adjustments later.

[Shelton]

Thanks Rodney, excellent points! You bring up some very good things that I have been reading about.

 

I have found in watching all the 3d animated movies over the years the ones that take the extra time to light the scenes are the ones I love. Sure the story captures you but when you go back and watch them again, the technical aspect of the scene pull you further into the story and lighting has a huge part.

 

Here is a shot with some issues.

 

The first is AO, the second is fastAO and the third is a generic shot. What is causing the light around the arms?

 

Steve

[Rodney]

The first is AO, the second is fastAO and the third is a generic shot. What is causing the light around the arms?

 

That's an interesting one.

 

My first thought was that it was an effect of the Subsurface scattering but I've seen some similar effects with AO with negative settings. What would be odd about that would be that it should effect the rest of the model as well.

 

At one time AO and SSS did not play well with each other. Perhaps that is what you are seeing here.

 

Does the third image (generic shot) use any AO?

If not then I'd investigate the Ambiance of the skin color and/or the settings of the Choreography's environmental Glow.

[mtpeak2]

I've seen this quite a bit. This is where the SSS geometry intersects with other SSS geometry. They can't be touching each other. I don't know if this is a bug or not.

[Shelton]

OK Mark that makes sense. I will re render with and see if get this again.

[Shelton]

I noticed that when I render sss without AO and added a light the sss did not cause the light around the skin. When I added ao and fastao, any sss skin of the same character that intersected with itself tended to have a glow around it. If however, I intersected with another character I did not have the glow and the skin surface.

 

Two examples. One with intersecting sss skin without ao and one with. There is no glow on either hand.

[mtpeak2]

I'm curious, if you set the arms in separate groups, would you get the glowing effect?

[Shelton]

Hey Mark that is a good thought and will see if that works. They only problem is the spline rong where the two skin groups join, it usually has a dark ring. But I will try that in a few minutes.

[Shelton]

Mark

 

That seems to have worked. Here is a shot. I also turned off the light that I had added.

 

Steve

[Shelton]

Cupid calling in sick

 

Steve

[Shelton]

Thanks for your patience as I upload some shots of the characters. I am mainly testing the rig, so bare with me.

 

Steve

[kwhitaker]

The coffee shop looks awesome Steve, and your characters are so interesting. I enjoy seeing your progress.

[Shelton]

thanks Kat

 

Here is Ted walking

tedwalk0.mov

[kwhitaker]

looks good

[Shelton]

Thanks Kat!!

 

Here is a shot of the two together. The rig is working very well

 

 

Steve

[Shelton]

PM in flight mode

[John Bigboote]

Looking good! Can't wait to see what 'tomfoolery' you have planned for us at the coffee shop.

[Zaryin]

Your characters have come along way. I also can't wait to see what happens .

[Shelton]

Thanks Matt and Jeff!

 

Started Modeling the street scene

 

Steve

[Gerry]

Steve, this is looking very nice!

[Shelton]

Playing with Jason's default chor

 

Steve

[Walter Baker]

Great Stuff!!!

[Shelton]

Thanks. Remembering 9-11

 

Steve

[Shelton]

One more before the night is out

[Shelton]

Now that Rear window project is being completed, it was good to see some old friends. What I learned on the forum project will help a great deal with Cupid

 

Steve

[TheSpleen]

they look great!

[Shelton]

The rear window project energized me to get things going again. I have been working on small things to help with the movement of the characters. I found issues with weights of some of the rigs I installed. Basically cleaning up things. I am doing a practice animation now. Lots of things going. I will start a new thread once I get further and get some critics

[Shelton]

I added the 2008 rig to Kurt tonight and with no weighting he came out pretty good. Lots of tweaking to do but he can be used on the set of Coffee shop now.

[Shelton]

Thought I would pose Kurt in a tougher pose. I am very happy with the shoulder, arms and legs. The tweaking will have to come in the hip, mainly in the front and the hands. The hands were the worst of all the auto placement. Those will take a while.

[robcat2075]

Hi Shelton,

 

You can get a weightier appearance by leaning him into that more. Basically you don't want him just straight up and down.

 

Move his feet out a bit so they are not directly below him, switch the casual foot to the outside and bend his body so that it is sagging from the two points of support (the ground and his shoulder).

 

You might bend his arm a bit also to show it flexing under the weight it bears.

 

[Shelton]

Hey Robert excellent suggestions as always.

 

I will switch them as you suggested and re upload. main thing I was doing was testing the rig

 

Steve

[Shelton]

I switched the leg and added a little weight as he leaned into the building.

[robcat2075]

I think that's better!

 

A useful exercise is to see how far you can go with that. How much more could you plausibly slouch him against that wall?

 

"Exaggeration." It's one of those famous 12 principles!

 

Another detail might be to tilt the shoulders. The shoulder to the wall is supported or even pushed up by the arm but the other one is unsupported and can sag down.

[Rodney]

I thought I had already commented here... but must have forgot to submit the post.

 

I really like what you've got going here.

It looks to me like your test was successful and the rig is working well.

I know we aren't trying to develop a perfect picture but perhaps this will further test your rig:

 

I note that his left hand (screen right) is in an awkward position.

I'm curious as to how articulate that wrist/hand is?

 

Other thoughts:

I did a google search for leaning against walls and note that many images have arms crossed (back against the wall for those) or hands are in pockets (various poses) but perhaps more importantly almost all images seemed to suggest the person was posing for a/the camera. I can think of a few cases where leaning against a wall would not be motivated in that way but most would still imply intentional posing (even dramatic and as Robert suggests... exaggerated) on the part of the person. This being... and I suppose my point here... an opportunity to express the character's personality.

 

Perhaps to truly test the rig what is needed is an animation test where he moves and shifts position?

[Shelton]

Started worked on movement already. Found the hip joint is just not working as I have it weighted. The rear end deforms incorrectly and any roll in the knee makes the groin quite unbelievable. So I will up load some movement to let you see the rig in action. The hand is another area of concern.