Rendering and Lighting

I spent most of the day yesterday playing around with rendering my latest animation.  There are a LOT of settings and variables that totally change how the scene looks…, and some settings that don’t really change the look but increase render time by 3 or 4 times.  When I rendered this whole shot (400 frames) last week it took over 60 hours.  The current version should take around 18 hours.  Turns out you don’t really ‘need’  the lights to use Ray Trace Shadows when Depth Map Shadows work just fine (with the proper settings).  The final render is still set to use Final Gathering (which increases render time by a lot).

I found a tutorial for creating great looking Mental Ray renders on http://www.warpedanimation.com/lighting_tutorial/ibl.html.  I followed this and learned a lot about the settings and how they impact the scene.  I highly recommend looking it over.  I didn’t use all of the suggestions but it was a great resource I’ll be going back to in the future.

I also spent some time looking for new props for the scene to give it a little depth.  I use CreativeCrash.com and TurboSquid.com to get 3D models (second has more that are free)  and now that I’ve figured out how to import OBJ and DXF models it has opened up a load of new download options.  Neither site has a lot of Maya-only files (.ma) but they have a lot of OBJ files.

Here are a couple of rendered frames for my latest pass.  This will probably be pretty close to my final update for this shot.

If anyone has any questions about this, feel free to leave a comment.

Class 5, Part 2

I finished Class 5 (Advanced Acting) at AnimationMentor.com about a month ago.  My mentor worked for Weta Digital in New Zealand and was one of the best I’ve had so far.  I started my two-person dialog shot and got it to about 75% complete by the end of the class — the rest of it will be finished in Class 6 (which I’m in now).

For my shot I selected a piece of dialog from one of my favorite movies, Magnolia.  It’s from the scene where the cop and coke addict go on a date.  She’s talking about how much she respects him and he can’t stop thinking about what a failure he is because he lost his gun.  This was also my first shot with different camera angles.

I worked on this shot for about 8 weeks out of the 12 in class 5, and I’m still not done.  When you’re working on two characters it brings a whole new level of complexity to the scene. Not only do you have twice as many characters to animate, but you have to make them flow together. I can’t just animate each of them and throw them together — they have to compliment each other without one taking the focus away from the one that’s talking.

I also transferred both of the characters to the new Bishop 2.0 rig — which added some nice looking features/additions to them, but really added some “weight” to the scene.  I used to be able to scrub through the shot and the interface didn’t really lag, but now I can’t scrub in real-time and have to do a playblast to see what’s going on.  Even with the geo resolution set to low, it takes about 90 seconds to create the playblast for a shot that’s only 16 seconds long.  In high-res, it takes about 8-10 minutes.  To fully render the shot with lights, shadows and with Final Gathering enabled it takes 14 hours to create.  If I add Motion Blur, it will take about 60 hours.  Not something I want to do very often.  I’ve been looking at getting a newer computer with a Core-i7 processor and a LOT more RAM, but I need to get a job first. My quad-core should be able to handle it for a while longer.

Overall, I really enjoyed class 5 and made some new friends that I hadn’t had classes with yet.  Looking forward to polishing all of my shots in Class 6 (which I’m actually in now — I’ll have to update this more often).

Most recent shot that I started in Class 5 and am now polishing in Class 6 (larger version can be viewed on Vimeo):

Class 5, Part 1

I’m currently in week 8 of class 5 and realized that I haven’t posted anything about my last assignment yet.  It’s pretty much the same animation I finished class 4 with, but we finally got full control over the facial features. It’s amazing how different it looks.

For the most part, the body movements are the same as the original version.  I made a few changes to the timing and head movements (added around 20 frames).  The face used to only have a basic puppet mouth movement and eye blinks.  Now I have control over lips, cheeks, brows, tongue & teeth.

I also created a new sub-domain where my latest Progress Reel can be found: Reel.TorVez.com (also a link on the right side of the page).  I plan on updating it monthly or whenever I make updates to my animations.  Since my next class won’t include anything new (at least not from AM assignments), most of the updates will be for the existing work — just more detailed and polished.

Hopefully, my next post will include more drawings.  I haven’t done much with that lately, but I started this week with a goal of doing two pieces of art.

Oh, and here’s a single frame from the two-character animation I’m working on now.

Figure Drawing

I’ve been doing some sketches over the last few days using the PoseManiacs web site. The first image is with pencil, but the other two are with ink, which is my first time using ink for sketching.  I think I like the ink more.  I may try doing some in PhotoShop, too.  These are all 90-second sketches.

The drawing of the fist was from a stock picture I found on DeviantArt.  If you decide to check out the rest of the stock gallery this person has, some pictures NSFW.  This drawing took about an hour to do.

Class 4 Animations

Class 4 ended this week (Introduction to Acting).  Can’t say it went out with a bang, but it was good.  Classmates were fun and the mentor was great (I had Marek Kochout, who works at Dreamworks).

One thing has become apparent.  AnimationMentor.com has no set curriculum for the mentors.  It’s entirely up to them to figure out what to discuss during the weekly Q&A’s — and they don’t seem to really plan anything.  My class 4 could be completely different from your class 4.  The main reason for the Q&A session is for the students to get face to face (or cam to cam) time with an animator that currently works in the industry and ask them any questions they can come up with.  When you think about it, it’s a pretty good opportunity — assuming you have good questions (I’ve heard some bad ones, like, “Did you cry when you worked on Monsters Inc.?”  Really?).  The weekly video lectures is where the actual lessons/learning happen.

My classmates were fun.  Some of them are really good.  Some…, not so much.  We had the class clown, the quiet one, the pretty one, the super-talented one, the don’t-quit-your-day-job one and everyone in between.  I was surprised how many of them mentioned that this was the second time they had taken this class.  I guess that just proves that the classes become more difficult as you move on.  Now is when I’m glad that I don’t have to work 40+ hours a week and do these assignments.  I would have a hard time keeping up with the amount of work required — or my work would be so-so since I wouldn’t have the time to put into it.

This first video is actually the second assignment.  We got to use the “Bishop” rig for the first time.  The facial animations are limited to the eyelids and the mouth (puppet movement only).  The rest of the controls will be made available in Class 5 where we will be “finishing” this shot (the lips, eyebrows, cheeks, corners of the mouth, etc.).

I’ve gotten some good feedback on this assignment.  The most popular comment is that people didn’t expect the ending.  The line was from the movie “Swingers” — which has SO many great lines.  I knew the line was about a broken heart and people hear that when they watch this, but I wanted a different ending.  I think it worked out.  Feel free to leave a comment about it if you have any other thoughts or comments.

The next video (below) is the first assignment while we were still using the “Stewie” rig. We had to display two “states” for the character.  I think it came out pretty good, but I think I can improve the hand waving after his team fails.  It’s the details that I’m proud of (e.g. the hand peeling off the sofa when he gets up).  Not sure if people notice the little details like that…, unless they watch it a few times in a row.

FYI — videos are also available on Vimeo, which tends to have better quality.

I have been looking forward to these last few classes at AM since I started a year ago.  To me, THIS is what animation is all about: Acting.  Bringing these computer characters to life.  Making the audience forget that they are computer generated and can actually feel what the character feels.  I can admit that every time I watch the last scene of Monsters Inc…, I cry.  Every single time.  I want to create something like that.

Monster Art

This is my first attempt at doing a color drawing in Photoshop. Actually, this is my second attempt. The first attempt isn’t worth mentioning or showing (maybe another time).

I should first mention that the character design and pencil was done by Brian Haberlin, who does the coloring on the comic books Witchblade, Aria, Athena Inc., and Area 52.

I went to the Emerald City ComiCon in Seattle in early March.  I ran into Brian doing some drawing of The Hulk and saw that he was selling tutorials on DVD.  We talked for a while and he explained how it worked and what experience I needed to follow along with the video tutorials (very little was needed).  I’ve messed around with Photoshop and my Wacom tablet before, but I didn’t know much at the time.  I wanted to get back into drawing and wanted to learn digital art, so I figured a $60 investment for 4 tutorial DVD’s wasn’t that bad.  Plus, Brian was super nice and his work was amazing.

This piece took a couple of weeks to complete — maybe around 25-30 hours to draw/color/follow the tutorial.  I learned a ton and I’m looking forward to the next tutorial, which I started, but got side-tracked with animation assignments.  Click the image to see a [much] larger version.  Feel free to leave a comment if you like it (or even if you don’t).

Class 3 Animations

My third class at Animation Mentor was completed a few weeks ago.  The last blog post I did that covered my animations was in the middle of Class 2, so I’ll back up a little.

Class 2 ended with a Napoleon Dynamite dance.  I think it came out pretty good, but I would like to go back and clean it up. I’ve learned a lot since then and now I see things that I didn’t notice before.

Here’s the progress reel for Class 2:

Class 3 (Advanced Body Mechanics) went pretty well.  I had a lot of fun coming up with ideas and doing the video references (except for the ice skating).   My mentor was Mike Gasaway.  His critiques were honest and sometimes brutal.  If he thought something in my animation didn’t work, he would just say, “this doesn’t work”.  I really appreciated that he didn’t try to protect people’s feelings.  The real world doesn’t and people need to be prepared to take harsh criticism when they get a real job in animation.  I watched almost all of the critiques that he did for my classmates.  Of the 16 students, 3 are no longer around.  I’ve noticed that we lose 20-25% of the students from term to term.  Some may be taking a leave of absence, but I suspect that some decide to go back to their day job.   50% of the people in my first class are no longer at AM.  Hmmm.

Anyway, I digress.  I made a few changes to my class 3 progress reel, including the Motion Blur option in Maya.  I re-rendered all 3 shots with it and I think they look a little more realistic.  I won’t use this option for the assignments I turn in, but it works pretty well for uploading to Youtube, Vimeo, etc.  I would like to go back and clean-up the first shot I did (Stewie playing air guitar) since I now see things that could be improved, but not sure if I’ll get around to it.

I’m currently in week 3 of class 4 (Intro to Acting).  This is the class I’ve been looking forward to since I started at AM.  Sure, body mechanics are important, but it’s the acting that really makes the character come to life.  I’ll post another entry once I get a better feel for the class and the mentor.

Getting back into sketching again.

I haven’t drawn in a very long time. I haven’t done figure drawings in over 20 years. I found a program called “Virtual Figure Drawing Studio” and, for now, the demo version works pretty well for me.

I let the program pick the pose and I spent around 90 seconds drawing each pose. It was meant to be quick and dirty, so some of them aren’t really finished.

I realized a few weeks ago that moving into a career in animation means that my right brain needs more activity than it’s been used to lately (hence, my new blog title). I’ve been doing IT & computer work for so long, my right brain has atrophied and I need to start exercising it on a regular basis.

So, I’m going to be posting drawings a few times a week. Some will be crap, some may be decent, but at least I’m drawing again. The quality of the work can only go up.  Hopefully.

The below are the drawings I’ve done over the last couple of weeks, most recent at the bottom.

Various poses, each in about 90 seconds.  This is the first time I’ve any drawing in years.  I definitely need to get used to this again.

Second hand drawing (below), but something I spent more time with.  Not sure if it’s the coarseness of the paper or maybe the pencil was too soft, but I really didn’t like how this was going, so I didn’t finish it.

Since the only drawings I’ve been doing lately are on a Wacom tablet and using Sketchbook Pro, I found myself wanting to draw a lasso around pieces of the drawing and move them, or ctrl-z (undo) something I just drew and do it again. I forgot how tedious it is to draw by hand.

One of the Virtual Figure Drawing programs I have shows the skeletal and muscular system of the body (below).  It was more difficult than I thought it would be.  All those muscle fibers are a pain to draw.  I didn’t get very far with this one.

I got some new pens last week (PITT artist pens for Manga art).  I first did this in pencil and went over it in ink.  I may have found the paper/pencil combination that I like, but that drawing pad I have is pretty small (around 5×7).  But I may start using that drawing pad more.

Last weekend I went to the Emerald City ComiCon and came across some digital painting tutorials (DigitalArtTutorials.com).  Really good stuff and I recommend it if you’re interested in doing art in Photoshop.  I picked up 4 of the training CD’s and I’m on the 2nd one now.  I should have something uploaded later this week.

Completely Repurposing my Blog

So, my blog posts seem to fluctuate between something technological (usually cell phones), the random (like TV shows, which is just weird for me) and animation.  I’ve decided to use this site to only post “right brain” articles.  I’ll be posting more about my animation work and school assignments and I’m also getting back into drawing again.

So, I’ll be removing all of the posts not related to art/animation and using a different blog for that stuff…, maybe.

Class 2 Assignments

So, I was surfing around and came across a blog from another animation student and he had some videos embedded within it.  I realized that I haven’t tried that yet, so I thought I would post something about my last couple of assignments.  Plus, I haven’t updated this in a while, so here we go…

I’m currently in my second term/quarter/class at AnimationMentor.com.  The first assignment was to use the “Ballie” character and we had a choice from a list of about 10 shots.  I picked the “going up” or “down stairs”, but I decided to do both and add a little character.  I have a really hard time just doing the “basics” of the assignment.  The second “actor” is Tailor.  He’s the one with the tail.  This shot had a lot of extra work that I hadn’t done much of before this assignment.  I had 3 lights (from hallway, from ceiling and from SR to give it a red glow).  I added the cardboard texture to the boxes and had to figure out how to add the text and scale it right.  I experimented with fog for the ceiling light, but it just didn’t look right, so I removed it.  I also had to add the Jack-O-Lantern mask for Tailor.  The assignment took about 4 weeks to complete.  A lot of that time was spent with the lighting and environment learning curve.

The second assignment was with a new character.  This is my first animation with “Stewie” (no arms).  I guess it would have been too much to move from a ball with legs straight to a full body with many more controls, so they removed the arms.  I picked the “jump up on and off of a box” option for my animation.  It had to be under 200 frames for the assignment, but my later version had a little more since I thought it needed more/longer pauses.

I’m working on the third assignment now and should be done in another 2 weeks.  We get the same Stewie character, but this time we get the arms.  I chose the “simple dance move” option and picked a clip from the Napoleon Dynamite move — the part where he’s dancing.  It’s looking pretty good so far.  I just moved from blocking to spline, so now I’m spending most of my time in the Graph Editor.  This is, by far, the most difficult assignment I’ve had since starting the program.  A lot of my classmates agree.

Here’s a sample frame from the next animation assignment.  I’ll post another update when it’s done in a couple of weeks.