28/07/2015

Today i had done more render testing to be ready for a batch render test of a few shots. Variables between certain shots and bouncing lights because of certain camera angles, had caused incontinuity amongst progressing shots ever though they have had the same lights settings, this problem has driven me to talor each shots lighting to each camera angle in an attempt to keep continuity.


***Over the night i had left 3 shots to batch render with 2 of the 3 beings finished this morning. I had composited those shots rendered frames together and this is what they look like at the moment...

(i am aware of a few minor aesthetics that need attending to, however this was purely to ensure the rendering process goes smoothly and the shots look acceptable.)

Click Here: Scene-5_Shot-03

Click Here: Scene-5_Shot-23

27/07/2015

Today i had continued on setting up light sets for rendering on and afternoon and midday shot, the lighting is coming together and the test renders i had been doing havnt had anomolys as i am aware of at the moment.

20/07/2015 - 24/07/215

During the start of this week my group and i had been suffering from serious Maya crashes on Monday to Wednesday along with the majority of the class also, Otherwise i had started with the outdoor lighting using a physical sun and sky and image based lighting for the indoor shots. over the weekend i had finished simulation and Bifrost caches for Shot 04 of Scene 05 ( Close up of tubbs being sprayed in the face by the hose), The bifrost cache took 90min to simulate of a size at 2.4GB cache. I have managed to reduce rendering time of the scene down from 25min for a single frame to 1:30sec per frame,( which in turn is the most demanding render shot of the film)... So extremely happy with the way things are going and i hope to have the remainder of simulations all cached out and ready for render. In terms of my individual submissions for the group project, since some time ago i had finished what i needed for assessments marking and am confident my fellow teammates Gino, James and Jonathan are on track with submissions also, i intend to help them out for submissions if need be so we can all happily sit back on a sigh of relief for all our hard work being a great success :)

17/07/02015

Today i had started working on the last shot in scene 5 where tubbs takes off his cape and it flys away behind him.

16/07/2015

Yesterday i had Finished mofelling, Sculpting, UvMapping and Texturing Tubbs's Teeth :)

15/07/2015

I began simulation the mums hero pose scene which did not take long to get a vanila feel for the scene...

I had also started modelling and sculpting Tubbs's Teeth adn gums.

14/07/2015

Today i had spent alot of time looking through current progress of the other team members to see where they are standing in terms of progress and i am happy that all is going well with Jonothan, James. Gino and myself :) I started setting up the camera angle for the scene of the mums hero pose simulation.

13/07/2015

Today was the first day back to study for Term 3, as usual the day had been taken up by a ridulious socialization activity presented by the school so in turn no one was able to work today.... .

24-26/06/2015

on wednesday i was smoothing out my animation Scene 05, Shot 03;

Thursday was the day of interviews so naturally revision and study preparation was on the agenda;  however i was not feeling too well before my interview so i had posponed it until next tuesday so i could rest until then.

Come Friday being the last day of term, it was a forgiving day in terms of work progress but i had made progress nevertheless.

23/06/2015

Today i had gone through the mum rig that Esther was suppose to finish rigging last night, to the groups amazement; she had somehow managed to completely break the rig (intentionally or not) , we now have to possibly start from scratch as her attempted fix had completely desecrated any hopes for revival for mum. For myself i have worked on smoothing out one of my shots and began applying simulations to my animation.

22/06/2015

Yesterday i had continued to work on the updating of the folder structure for scene 05 however definite conclusions need to be made by Gino for solid clarity. I was also helping out James and Jono with Tubbs on the shots they're working on. My own shots had little progress made.

19/06/2015

Today i had stepped out Scene 5; Shot 01:

Last night i had put together a demo showreel for next weeks interview into the degree bridging course:

18/06/2015

Today i had spent the day getting the aesthetic look of the water interaction with Tubbs' face looking better for the style of the film. The following playblast is of a simulation test with meshing enabled, approximate time taken for playblast + simulation calculation = 40 minutes

16-17/06/2015

Yesterday and today i had stepped out Scene 5 Shot 04 and began testing simulations to get the right feel and look of the water flow, with problems such as Maya crashing as soon as i start to get into the realistic attribute parameters in Bifrosts simulation software to assimilate a realistic attention, the lack of hardware available completely crushes my hopes of getting past the rough testing stage.

15/06/2015

Today i had updated the files i had work on in regards of redirecting texture locations for the reference files. With the Bedroom, Outside and Tubbs all up to date and finally in the semi-finished stage, we can really focus on animation styles and execution.

11-12/06/2015

I have been focusing on redirecting texture paths for the majority of characters and environmental scenes, i had also been updating the current shaders being used in the Outside side. General clean up of folders and save files were on the agenda also.

10-11/06/2015

In the last few days i had been focusing on getting the team on track in terms of communication and work ethics which had left me bouncing around helping the group members out. Yesterday and today i have had the opportunity to create the bushes and tree branches and leaves for the outside Enviroment. I had also worked on adding the new scenes into the folder scructure of the composition shots.

Using meshs from Maya painteffects i had manipulated the integrity of the

mesh and textures construction giving it its own unique look.

A Render Test of a bush with reduced mesh:

Top: First Render using Lambert materials and basic Transparency Alpha connection

Bottom: Rendered using mentalray materials;

08/06/2015

Today was the day i had a good talk with the members of my group in terms or organization and fundamental folder integrity; as far as im concerned my group members understood where i was coming from i hope to see the progress from them soon.

Yesterday afternoon i had done a few tests with tubbs and the water interaction scene using Maya Bifrost:

Tubbs_WaterToFace_Test_01

I had also done a test for the scene where Tubbs removes his cape and it flys through the air; using nCloth for this simulation:

Tubbs_FlyingCape_Test_01

05 - 07/06/2015

Over the weekend i wanted to focus on organizing the shot list folders for each animation scene, after encounter major issues in terms of the other 3D artists unorganized folders i have had to spend all weekend sorting them out so that referencing and the rest would work without a hitch. I intend to talk to the group today to get theirs heads around prper priority which there inproper attitude had impeaded severily on my work this weekend. I am am very dissapointed in how my group hasnt taken anything seriously enough.

Although i had make little progress on what i wanted to, i did manage to get a simulation done for the new scene of when Tubbs looks up to his mother as a hero and the Mums aprons to be flowing in the wind like a superheros cape would (Implied):


Mum_Apron_nCloth_Test

2-5/06/2015

This week has been some what of a traversing adventure in terms of sorting out Tubbs. Today w had decided to settle with what works and avoid what dosn't in the rig so we can continuie to the animating process and make progress. I had made a current final version of Tubbs's Rig and am now setting up the scene files for the each shot including camera cuts, resolution etc.

Over last weekend i had created the hose rig which is ready to be animated:

29/05/2015

Today i had been diverted by a double transform issue that emanates throughout the hierarchy and causes certain joints to rotate undesirably. This will be my main focus over the weekend to find a way around the issue as well as starting to set up the shots i have been assigned and possibly modelling some assets for the outside environment.

28/05/2015

Today i worked on finishing off Tubbs cape rig by modeling and rigging the Capes Knot. Began modelling the Mumz costume for Tubbs too, which includes the Apron and Gloves.

27/05/2015

Today i had worked on and finished the clothes and rig for Tubbs Hero costume:

26/05/2015

Today i had focused on the cape rig in which i had created an nHair system for free flowing automated cloth simulation. While encountering multiple problems to do with the controlling of the cape , i have decided to create n automated rig as well as a manual controlled rig also, think of an Ik-Fk switch for dynamic simulation,

25/05/2015

Today i had modeled Tubbs face mask and cape, i had skinned the face mask by copying the skin weights from the body to the mask. I had uv mapped both the cape and the face mask.

22/05/2015

Today i focused mainly on testing the rig for any possible issues, while testing i had created a few jiggle deformers to test the meshs plausibility of solid fluid deforming.

Tubbs belly jiggle Test Animation:

quick test for simple expressions, of course there will be a more in depth collection of expressions and polished animation later.

Tubbs Expressions test 01:

21/05/2015

Today i had started a walk cycle for the testing of the Tubbs rig and also some render tests to keep an eye on any deformations in the rig and textures that may need attention.

20/05/2015

Today i had focused on finishing off the articulation of the rig and further cleaned up the hierarchy of grouping. Testing was also done in terms of facial rig and possible breaks and deformations that may cause issues.

19/05/2015

Today i had found a solution to the double transforms on the facial rig, after which another issue had arisen however i managed to sort this out with an overlook of the rigs entirety and dissolved the cancer. I had also worked on smoothing the skin weight maps will had some SDK's to keep the volume in areas such as the elbows and knees.

 Here is a screenshot of a test for a smile and frown using as minimal movement as possible:

                                                 

16-18/05/2015

Over the weekend and during Monday i have continued to dissolve the situations of double transforming groups in terms of the curve based rig of the face. Although i had resolved the particular issue of unwanted transforming, another problem was sure to arise and that's what had happened, although my clusters group had zero transforms; they were still deforming undesirably.

15/05/2015

Today i had just been cleaning up the skin weighting maps and re created the mouth rig again.

14/05/2015

I finished work on the eye rig and began work on the  mouth rig using curves which was a tedious process and involved me conjuring institutional formulas for particular parts of the rig.

Tonight i decided to relax with some sculpting and sketches:

13/05/2015

Today was another day on skinning which has taken longer then expected due to me finding work arounds for minor issues like inherent transform etc.

12/05/2015

Today i believe i began work on the skin weighting process and general clean up of the rigs heirachy.

11/05/2015

Today i had mostly sorting out the eye rig which i had finished by the end of day.

09-10/05/2015

during the weekend i had been setting up the eye rig manually and worked on cleaning up the heir achy of the groups and so on.

Apart from that i decided to give myself a few hours to do some sculpting, i used basic template which were already provided in mudbox (Reptile and T-Rex). The sculpts i had done took around an hour each and this is what i had produced in those hours. of course they are still rough and could do with alot more sculpting however they look alright for the concepts they intended to be.

08/05/2015

Today i was unable to do any work all day because i had to spend all day removing everything from my USB drive and reformat it entirely which took until tomorrow the next day.

06-07/05/2015

during these two days i was unable to make real progress all due to my computer malfunctioning. at the end of the day on the 7th i was able to finaly have my problem resolved

05/04/2015

Today i had been working on applying the remainder of the constraints and connections including an IK-FK switch blended between a bind structure, i have a Gif animation screenshot for an example:

The blending between the IK and FK have worked out to have a really nice smooth transition between the two even when the IK-FK switch attribute is in the decimals.

04/04/2015

Today i had finished the Beta version of CGI_Tools_v_0.1 and have handed out a text file for students that may be interested to write their names down for me to contact for testing, i had taken a screen shot for the sign up sheet so that students could get an idea about what the script menu looks like:

I had also made a change to 'Tubbs's' hair from critique i received yesterday:

I had also been working on the Rig of Tubbs in regards of re-wiring connections also

02 - 03/04/2015

Over the weekend i have managed to finish this stage of the CGI Tools script and am now reading for Beta testing today. I made a screenshot of the full amount of menus if the custom menu were to be fully expanded in its entirety:

Today i will be selecting a few students to be my Beta testers for this script, after the initial time frame for this test lapses i will be gathering opinions and deliberations from those selected students to help fuel the future versions of this script.

The reasons and purpose behind this script is explained in the UsageREADME.txt i have prepared in the CGI_Tools folder.

28- 30/04/2015

During this week i have been focusing on getting my 'CGI Tools' Script up and running, as of today i have debugged a few particular problems i have been having for a while and with that out of the way i have been populating the subMenus and commands in which to get this Menu operational.

Progress as of this morning is evident in this screen shot:

I am expecting to have this script in the distribution stage at the start of next week, i will be giving the script for testing purposes to a few selected students and will be awaiting for critique and possible improvements which could be made and then to be applied to the script during the weekend/ next week; Will be updating the blog later today with the progress i make today.

- as at 2:30pm today this is a screenshot of what i am doing at the moment:

I am basically sifting through what i have and haven't created connections for and tediously connecting them one by one (the fun part)...


- as at 4:00pm i have made a decent amount of progress in terms of connecting up the commands for the subMenus, i have finished the General, Animation, Rigging, Modelling and Rendering menus and have yet to assimilate for the Simulations menu. As it is still in progress in terms of a complete selection for the menus, i will be focusing hard over the weekend to delve deep into each subject and exactly what would be of use in each corresponding menu; which is exactly why i want critique from other students as to what they would also like to see and use:

17 - 27/04/2015

On the last days of Term 1 i have implemented the changes to tubbs of the critique from Frans and applied it to the geo.

During the 1 week break i had been focusing mainly on the structure of the rig and positioning of "Tubbs's" bones. Consistently methodically thinking about the skinning and animation deformations of him after all the connections have been made.

Towards the end of the week break, after making a quick mock up of the connections that seem to be working well without any hiccups, i went on to creating a facial rig with simple curves to be skinned to the mesh, and as the cv points of the curve have been aligned with the geometry's verts precisely, the deformations of this curve rig will be spot on. The remainder of my time has been taken up with Python scripting, i am in the process of making a Custom Maya menu for my group to help them with the rigging, animation and modelling process to be easier and more efficient to work with.

16/04/2015

Today i made a screen capture of myself vaguely explaining what i had done and what i was thinking during deliberating the process of the cape's movement:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7P39Rgb_FUSNDJKUHZoUmQzb0E&authuser=0

14-15/04/2015

During those two days i was focusing on changes from feedback i had gotten from the lecturers and applying those as a sculpt process in mudbox, had not made screenshots of the process yet.

13/04/2014

 Deliberating problems to do with displacement maps with Raj, managed to decipher a solution to do with the alphaGain of the maps however we discover a problem with the UV's, so i had to remap the UV's and re extract all the textures and sculpt maps from mudbox once again. I have submitted for the group project for submission_01 tomorrow.

Re-ExportedMaps:

11-12/04/2015

Over the weekend i had worked on 'Tubbs's' textures and sculpting maps. I have basically finished him in terms of appearance and preparation for rigging, all that is left to do is the nHair for his eyebrows and possibly remodeling his eye geometry:

09-10/04/2015

Yesterday and today was yet another sad day for my computer because of issues with the graphic driver i was unable to make much progress all day, late last night i was able to model 'Tubbs' hair. Today i had made a little bit of progress but again was impeded by my computer having a temperature tantrum and had to be replaced with Autodesk applications being re-installed. The progress i did make is depicted in this screenshot:

07-08/04/2015

Yesterday (7th) was a poor day for any progress after the weekend due to my computer having multiple issues to do with the graphics card and amount of Ram it needed to properly use autodesk mudbox, in turn i had stayed up till the early hours of this morning (8th) to make up for having made no progress during the day. Today i had composted an animated sequence about my sculpting process and thoughts behind it and why which i intend to show my group where i am at with the modelling of the main character:

Google Drive Link:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7P39Rgb_FUSQlMxSUNvTTdYUXM&authuser=0
















Lastnight i had done a quick sculpt just to relax and think about something else then the group project for an hour so i dont go stir crazy:

2 - 06/04/2015

Over the nonsensically long weekend i had made a mass of progress; to start i am happy with the progress i had made with the model, in fact i had basically finished him in terms of rigging aesthetics and realistic articualtion possibility, during friday the 3rd i had made the main shape of 'Tubbs' body and hands,:

Come Saturday i had done a rough rig and skin of his jaw to assimilate the plausibility of his chubby chin,:

During Sunday i had done some final touches to 'Tubbs' facials geo and modeled his underwear, rough teeth and gums, tongue and also uv mapped his entirety. Monday i had done a quick Normal map of his underwear for the fabrics seems, a rough textures for his eyes and done a playblast of a turnaround for him:

 
   I still feel like there is alot more i can do to make him look better in due time of course.

01/04/2015

Today was awful because of the servers being down and having the inability to keep maya from crashing consistently, during the day progress on work was a challenge primarily because of the crap services we pay for as students. Only until the majority of the students had left after 3:30 was i able to work without issues in maya and the server which in turn let me make progress. This afternoon i had worked on smoothing out 'Tubbs' and working on the shape of his hand:

Mudbox sculpt:

Reshaped then imported back into Maya:

31/03/2015

Today i wanted to stay in bed and rest and the advisement of the doctor.... however i didn't want to let the group down, beside from feeling like absolute garbage, i have made progress in terms of the edge flow and topology:

30/03/2015

Today was terrible for me as my sickness has worsened and i have had to take half the day off to go see a doctor.

28 - 29/03/2015

Over the weekend i have developed a viral infection possibly 'Mumps" which has impacted tremendously on my logical thinking and problem solving, this has caused me to take allot longer to achieved what i would have otherwise done in a lesser amount of time. I have however blocked out 'Tubbs' in maya aside from the poor topology:

27/03/2015

Today was a good day for progress of the layout which we actually finished all the blocking of each shots in all scenes, as a group we had made allot of achievements in terms of communication among each other and the directions of work we are headed. I will be starting on modelling 'Tubbs' this weekend for my next job.

26/03/2015

Today i had started with layout animation with Jonathan. Some progress had been made in terms of timing.

25/03/2015

Today (Yesterday) was a slow progression for the fact that we have had major miscommunication in the group which i think we have now resolved and are still working on pushing these pathetic problems aside for the greater good of the team. I had managed to produce a little bit of work despite the annoyance of the days problems ringing in my head consistently; however some work had been done:
Rough sketches and silhouettes for the cat:

24/03/2015

Today was a little uneventful due to the fact of the group having split opinions on what style we are leaning towards. The aesthetics of the story are much more clear now due to Gino's awesome work from lastnight, now we are experimenting with styles of textures and lighting for the proposal of style, in which hopfully we can decide on tomorrow.

 I had done a quick simulation of water interacting with geometry using nParticles converted into polygons for a demonstration to the group:

Just realized that the look frame we are doing will required more work then expected so will be posting progress as it comes daily.

23/03/2015: Start of group project; Saving the Day

Today we have had a few discussions over the continuity of the projects story with good results and still more to clarify. We did however come to conclusions of particular points in the story with a few aspects to sum up, mainly a key moment when the main character initiates himself unto the next key scene which is becoming disarrayed with multiple options we are able to do. Deciding on that key moment will be the groups focus today. Yesterday i had done a few thumbnail silhouettes for different kinds of trees, and also a rough sketch of an upshot for a tree.