I decided to change the maya camera focal length, just as I said last week, to a wider angle. It was a good decision but of course it ment some correction to the geometry as well, since the perspective was changed. I also spent time on trying to get the transition from the somewhat bumpy ride of the live footage camera to the digital, smooth gliding maya camera, this proved to be problematic and I tried a couple of techniques; animate irregularities by hand onto the path of the maya camera, trying to accomplish it by adding a noise node and connecting it to the cam translation - both of these techniques ended in results that were not satisfying, and it was very frustrating to waste so much time, especially since I’m a bit behind schedule.
Finally I found this tool on highend3d.com, which works by the same principle as I described earlier with noise nodes but it is more complicated than my earlier try at the same thing (it has three noise nodes, one for each axis) and it is constructed so that tuning of the values is relatively easy and intuitive. I am now happy with how the transition between the cameras looks and I can leave it for now. I only wish that I had found that tool earlier.
As I said, a bit after schedule, the main mattepainting process is well on its way. I feel very comfortable with Photoshop and have learned a lot of tricks during the research period of this project, so I feel confident that the time lost on earlier problems will be largely gained in the painting process.
This is one of the finished projection textures in downscaled version (original is in 2560×1440 pixels, double size of the finished clip):
Click image for large version
/Tomas
During the 13th week of the project I have been working with two major parts of the production; creating geometry in maya (mountains, hills, rocks) , and some preparing for / basic mattepainting. This has taken the most of my time.
Additionally, I have spent some time talking to a friend of mine, who is a musician who has offered his help with adding sound to the final product, he made some audio tracks for the previs clip and it sounded really good! I will return to this topic in future blog entries.
Since I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the timing of the camera animation in the previs clip, I have made some adjustments (only minor changes, the main path of the camera remains the same).
I have also been considering the focal length used in the maya camera, in the previs clip the camera uses 35mm but I will probably change that to a wider angle, so as to get the “Hollywood” big landscape feeling.
/Tomas
Today, SVN seems to be working so here are the images and previs that I have produced during last week:
Final concept:
Photos taken during filming:
Building corresponding geometry in maya using the concept as template:
Still from the previs maya scene, prior to compositing with footage:
Click images for large versions
And the previsualization clip (in .mov format):
This week I have been working on the footage that we (Me, Öyvind and Mattias) filmed. There were some problems with getting the software to accept the file format of the footage, but after some research and experimenting it finally worked.
The results from this week are a 30 sec previsualization clip, a few documentation images of the green screen filming and the production process plus a final concept…
…But for some reason SVN refuses to accept my login, so to my frustration, I cannot publish any images here on my blog.
I tried several times during the weekend to no avail.
I will try to post the files again during Monday.
(I have spoken to some of my classmates and found out that others have had the same problem with SVN)
/Tomas
On Thursday it was time for the Milestone 2 presentations and, just as the last time, it was very interesting to see the progress made in the other projects. I also got some feedback from the others which was valuable. Since I was first up to do my presentation I could spend the rest of the day, listening to the other presentations and at the same time do some sketching. I was experimenting with the final composition of the scene, using traditional composition tricks like “the rule of thirds”, “the golden ratio” and diagonal lines. Doing so many fast sketches in a row, all of them portraying almost identical landscapes with those distinct cliffs in the center of each piece, made me think of the main character Roy Neary in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977) :D . (I haven’t yet sculpted the cliffs, using mashed potatoes though, but I feel this strange urge) :D .
Jokes aside… I put most of them together, with a couple of digital ones in these two collections…
Click images for large versions
During Friday, me, Öyvind and Mattias rigged a green screen, camera dolly, lighting and set for filming the footage needed for our projects. The filming itself will be done the following week.
Here’s a shot of the rigged green screen (more photos will be published next week):
Click image for large version
/Tomas