10/14/03

This is my set as it was on the 12th.

This is the beginnings of my CG cat model.

Well, it's been a very, very, very busy and long week. Mostly because I keep bumping into things since this is what my room looks like if I don't turn on any lights:

Actually, it's not quite THAT dark because of my computer's power button, but it's close. And I haven't really been bumping into things.

I HAVE been working very hard on my set though. I got a wooden frame covered with aluminum wire and burlap finished, I've done some animation tests (which will be up within 3 days), I've started modelling the cat in Maya (see under the set to the left), and have my props and characters finished. I put a picture of the wire frame in the stills section as well as the burlap one so people can see how it is built.

I know there is still a lot of work to do on the cat model itself, just posting what it looks like now for those who are curious. It needs to be much more refined, plus it needs a head. Eventually it will be finished and will replace the armature cat in every shot. When it's rendered it will look like it's made of smoke and you won't see this surface. NOTE: look how scary those ribs are...it's hungry!

Actually, there is a prop that is not finished, BUT I just came up with it a few hours ago, so as far as what I knew I'd need to have made, THOSE are done. So technically I'm on schedule (I love technicalities).

I've been meaning to post my production schedule for about two weeks now, and I've been too busy. But guess what? It's not up yet, but it will be! I'll try and update it weekly, to show where I am and if I'm on schedule or not. So far so good, but only time will tell.

10/06/03

It's dark!

I have done a lot of work this past week, in many areas of my production. The most life changing thing I did this weekend was take 25 black trash bags and duct tape them over my windows to prevent any light from the outside world from getting in. This is because I need to only have the lights that I am using to light my set on, and prevent sunlight and the street lights outside from messing up my lighting. It's amazing how your body thinks it's night even when you know it is 10 am, just because you can't see the sun.

I have also started working on finishing the characters (which you can see to the right) as well as figuring out how to get the CG cat to work, and then how to replace the puppet with said CG. I was going to make the cat model a fluid container, but fluid dynamics in maya take a long time to render. Right now I think that I am just going to have the model emit particles into itself and use cloud software particles with an animated stucco and fractal texture. Add a little motion blur and I think the smoke will look pretty good. If you're not a 3D artist you should be confused right about now.

Also, set construction is about to begin, I have been researching materials and paints and have started to get stuff together. As of now nothing has been built, but the preparations are well under way.

And of course what would a new week be without an update to the animatic? I think with these few changes (though it's quite a few seconds) it makes for a better film. You can see the updated animatic HERE (not anymore, sorry).

9/29/03

With the two armatures in place you can get a feel for the scale of the set as a whole. The characters are 6" tall. Also, notice my bed on the right side of the frame, that's how small my room is.

I have been very busy this past week. working on my thesis as well as my other three production classes. I have finished building the tables; they have a table top and are now completely secure.

The mock set is there to give me a sense of the actual scale, which my drawings and conceptual ideas do not. It also allowed me to make a new version of my animatic with the correct scale, sense of 3D space, and the correct aspect ratio (16:9), which can be seen here.

In addition to the mock set and new animatic I have been working on getting my production schedule completed. When it is finished (which it will be in 2 days) I will know what I need to get done every week on my film from now until January 22nd 2004.

As of now I am slated to begin animating on November 14th, and have all of the stop-motion animation completed by January 22nd. This will allow me a great deal of time in the second semester of the year to work on the computer animation and integrating it into the film. This will require a lot of work as 11 of the 21 shots in the film require the cat armature to be replaced by a computer generated cat.

9/20/03

I bought a bunch of wood, and have started constructing the tables for my set. The frames of the tables are pretty much finished, they need a couple braces to keep them steady, but otherwise they're done. Now I just need to go buy some plywood in order to put the tops on and be able to start constructing the actual set.

The set itself is pretty big and has forced me to rearrange my room, moving my dresser into the "common area". That gives me a bit more room to work with, but I haven't setup lights and a camera yet. I have a feeling that when those are setup I will have to be crawling under the set and over my bed just to get around. This production will be interestiing.

Here is a picture of the basic frames of the tables (I couldn't get the whole thing in the frame because my room is too small):

This is my wood pile. It's taking up almost half of my room in this picture.

9/14/03

My Equipment List

Computer: Dual 1.25 Ghz G4 with 2GB RAM, 3 120 GB HD's (2 internal, 1 firewire), GeForce 4 Ti, Superdrive (DVD-R/CD-RW).

Monitors: ViewSonic A90+f (CRT) and ViewSonic 191b (LCD)

Camera: Sony VX2000 (3CCD) connected to computer via firewire.

Computer Peripherals: Contour Shuttle Pro, Wacom Intuos 2 6x8 drawing tablet

Software to be Used: Alias Maya, Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects, Mental Ray renderer, FrameThief.

Well, it's been a month since I last updated anything here. It isn't that I haven't been doing any work though, there just hasn't been much that I can show. I have been working and re-working the story quite a bit. Also classes started so I have been doing a lot of homework, as I'm in four production classes.

Anyway, the storyboards are done and I have a rough Animatic finished. An animatic is a preliminary version of a film, commercial, tv show, music video, etc. It allows you to take your storyboards which pre-compose your shots and actions, and put them into linear time with sound (if needed). This is done for all aspects of the indusrty but is most important for animation, as it allows you to experiment with the timing before actually doing any animation. Animation is extremely time consuming, and any animation that is done but not used is a waste of resources and time.

The animatic is very rough right now, it is just loose drawings showing the basic actions and timing. It wil be reworked in about a week, and then when I have my set built I will redo it with the characters in the actual set. Because I don't feel that I need to invest a lot of time in making this animatic look nice it may not be very clear what is going on to other people. Regardless I will post it in the clips area.

To the Left I am posting my equipment list. This is for everyone that aske me what kind of computer/software I use.

I should be buying lumber tomorrow to start constructing the set. I think it will be about a month (or more) before I have the set , characters, and props all finished and ready for animation. I will post pictures of my progress with the set periodically.

New Interesting story: I am taking the intermediate 3D class for the second time because there is a new professor. He worked at WETA Digital (The studio that did the special effects for The Lord of the Ring movies) for 3 years and is now at Blue Sky (Ice Age). When I heard he was at WETA I decided to take the class again, and I have already learned some new things and will hopfully be able to get a lot of knowledge out of him.