Lighting Test

Lodge interior with all the major props. Now to fill it with miscellaneous junk like a real ski bum bar would have! Just testing how the lights will work with the windows/chandelier. 

 

September Progress

Update way overdue.

Since last check in, I was able to troubleshoot all the problems I was having with my facial rig (big thanks to Ben Fox - rigging guru and CADA alum - for that). After make some adjustments to the Morpheus body rig, the head is attached and I’ve been able to use it to block out my animation without any issues! There are still a few adjustments to be made, particularly with fixing weights on Murphy’s jacket and smoothing out some of the geometry on the blendshapes. But overall I am really happy with his appearance and what I am able to do with him.

My thesis advisor is meeting with me next week. He watched my animatic and was able to give me great feedback about shots and camera work, as well as the story. I have now added a skiing montage and edited other shots to keep the length down and the animation manageable. I also had a Skype date with my matte painter to discuss the different backgrounds I need for compositing in each shot. Can’t wait to see what she comes up with!

Modeling is going great. The biggest component left is the skis and some more furniture in the lodge, but here is what the lodge interior is looking like thus far:

Cheers!

Pose Test

Nearly done with the head rig, but having immense problems dealing with the bottom teeth and getting them to follow the blendshapes. Might just leave them and the tongue out altogether.

Here's a quick look at what the rig is letting me do with Murphy's facial features :)

July Progress

Made okay progress this month, considering I had significantly less time to devote to the project than I originally planned when I made the gantt chart. I estimate that I am about 2 weeks off schedule, which I hope to make up when my internship wraps up in a few weeks.

I wanted the rig finalized and animation ready by August 1^st. Right now I would say it is 60% done; yesterday I skinned the head and built controls for the head, ears, and tongue. I’m really happy with the outcome. The next step is blendshapes, then attaching the head to the body which I hope will not pose any major problems.

Also really happy with the chandelier model I finished. Hoping that what is left of the modeling isn’t too time consuming because the complex stuff is mostly built out of antlers, which are already done (might model one or two more for variety). Also had great success building a mounted deer head, bar counter, and bar stools.

Still straddling modeling and animation and the clock is ticking to make a commitment and finalize the shots/block. Leaning more towards modeling still. This is also top priority along so that I can get one or two people working on the soundtrack for me.

I’ve brought CADA alum Olga Mayer on board to create a mountain matte painting, which I’m really excited about. She’s awesomely talented and I’m looking forward to seeing some of her concepts this week. More to follow soon!

Character Progress

Over the weekend I went to work modeling Murphy some mittens to replace the human hands on the Morpheus rig. I was pleasantly surprised by how simple it was to substitute my geometry in place of the rig hands; hopefully this bodes well for attaching my custom head when I have it set up. There was a little trial and error involved, but not much. Mostly me forgetting to delete the history on objects which messes up the constraints. I also modeled the mitten cuffs separately and applied them to the body geometry as wrap deformers. Also easy. Will probably need to go in and clean up by repainting some weights, but nothing drastic - always good as far as time budgeting goes.

Today I refined the jacket model I started and added some zippers. It's not officially skinned to the body yet, but here's a sneak peek of how Murphy's looking so far! I think his head is a little too big at the moment, but the antlers are pretty much to scale.

Modeling begins!

Thesis Pre-Production and Character Animation wrapped up a few weeks ago, which means classes are over and Thesis Production begins. Phase 1 is to model, texture, and rig Murphy's character, which includes finishing my ski boots, making alterations to the Morpheus rig geometry, and creating his head. Hopefully everything about his head mesh will go smoothly and I won't have too much troubleshooting to do with parenting the rig to Morpheus.

Modeling progress thus far:

Really happy with the result. I already laid out the UVs on him as well, so Step 2 will be doing some light texturing work using zBrush for displacement maps and Photoshop. The eye rig is complete on this; it has local and world settings, plus some blend shapes. A basic face rig is next, then skin weights and more blend shapes to really give him some expression. :)

Yesterday I played with some procedural textures so his tongue is bumpy. This image uses default Maya lighting, but with proper lighting I'm hoping it will be easier to see the subtle bump map that's on his antlers as well.

Blocked!

(That's a good thing.)

Follow the vimeo link below to watch Murphy's story unfold in 3D blocking. There are some rough ideas for sound effects thrown in as well, so turn up the volume!

Apres Ski: 3D Animatic

I'm really happy with the way the dolly zoom shots turned out, although I might make the last one longer. I'm also getting a better feel for shot duration in terms of frames, which is tricky. After completing this pass, I know that I need to make the mountain/clock overlay shot last longer on screen (with more goofy sound effects, of course.)

Speaking of Goofy, here is one of the videos that inspired Murphy to try skiing (with similar results):