In this assignment, I followed the steps required by the instructor step by step, which helped me to understand how a complete synthesis process works.
For example,
1. I need to stabilize the lens and add “lens distortion” which is a very important step to reduce the distortion of the lens and make the composite image more professional.
2.clean the markers in the original video clip, by using “rotopaint” and “frame hold” together.
3.Modeling the mechanical model in Maya. At the beginning, gonzalo suggested us to find some reference images, which really helped us to understand the model. In particular, when I was modeling I would look at the reference drawings, which gave me more detail.
4.I used Houdini to create the lightning effect, this was a very challenging step. Houdini is a very difficult software in my opinion, I needed to combine it with some tutorials on the internet to realize my idea, especially the “line” node was very useful.
5.Last but not least I made some ice crunching effects in ue5 and imported them into nuke, but I rendered them without shadows, which made my effects look very fake. So I added another layer in nuke and changed the value of “grade” and added “blur”.
In the future world, humans and zombies have been coexisting with each other for many years. People’s attitudes towards zombies have gradually changed and they are beginning to accept them as part of society. On this day, an ordinary zombie decides to help a grandmother crossing the street, even though he doesn’t need to worry about the dangers of vehicles like humans do. The grandmother smiles at him gratefully and says thank you, and this action makes him late for an important interview.
When he finally made it to the interview, he felt panicked. His brain was no longer as flexible as it used to be, he stumbled over his answers, and he lost all confidence. He felt sure that he had lost his chance at the job; after all, he was an outlier in this human-dominated society.
However, he was wrong. The interviewer announced the result at the end of the interview and he was surprisingly hired! Everyone was very surprised and asked the interviewer why he had chosen a candidate who had performed so poorly.
The interviewer smiled and explained, “Because zombies don’t need to sleep.” He explained that since zombies don’t need to spend as much time sleeping each day as humans do, this zombie would be able to provide the company with more work time and energy. They believe that this potential productivity advantage far outweighs his poor performance in the interview.
Center shot:
When the main character decides to go and help the grandmother cross the street, the camera can follow him and capture his determination and kindness. (Dirty shot with Mr. Zombie’s shoulder in the foreground in relation to the back of the scene for an occlusion)
In the scene where the main character decides to go and help the grandmother cross the street, use a medium camera movement to follow his steps, the
Close-up shot:
When the interviewer announces the hiring of the protagonist, use a close-up close-up to capture the details of the protagonist’s shocked expression and the interviewer’s smile.
Close-ups of the time at the traffic light when the protagonist is helping the grandmother cross the street, highlighting the importance of time at this moment, which is also an important clue throughout the story.
Rapid editing photography:
In the scene where the protagonist is late for the interview, rapid editing is used to alternate between the scene where he is rushing and the scene where the interviewer is waiting, increasing the sense of rhythm and tension. For example, in the scene where the main character is in a hurry, I can use a series of rapid editing shots, including a close-up of the main character holding an alarm clock, a panoramic shot of the main character running down the street, a side shot of a pedestrian on the side of the road, a quick shot of a traffic vehicle, etc. These shots will alternate quickly between the main character holding an alarm clock and the interviewer waiting for him to arrive at the interview. These shots would alternate quickly to emphasize the urgency of the protagonist’s lateness and the challenges he faces.
Meanwhile, at the interview location, I could alternate scenes showing the interviewer waiting with close-ups of his impatient fingers tapping on the desk, side shots of him frowning, close-ups of him looking at his watch, and so on. The quick editing of these shots will increase the tension and anxiety of the audience, making them more engaged in the story and looking forward to the final result.
Finally, when the interviewer explains the reason for the hiring, rapid editing is used to alternately show the interviewer’s words and the protagonist’s facial reactions, increasing the tension and suspense of the plot.
Dynamic camera shooting:
During the interview, the slight shaking of the camera to show the protagonist’s nervousness and uneasiness can convey his inner anxiety more vividly.
I referred to the above YouTube tutorial video on making an undersea effect and it was very useful to me.
Referring to the steps he gave,
1. I first installed the “Water Plugin” and added the water form in my scene.
2. In order to be able to show the colors under the water and simulate the sunlight underwater, I need to add a “box” and add a “post process”, it can be used to adjust the blue color of the whole scene.
3. If I want to make the sea water a little green, I can adjust the “gamma curve”.
This was my first attempt, but it wasn’t very difficult for me because Emily taught us how to create a water material in the first semester.
This week I’m going to look for a lot of reference images of coral models and go with c4d to create the base model and then import it into zbrush to achieve some texture.
First of all, I tried to use c4d to make the base model, using the “volume modeling” in c4d to better simulate the random growth of the coral. Due to some problems with the number of faces, I had to import the model into zbrush to remesh it, which was a very useful way to do it. This was a very useful way to remesh the model, and added a lot of subdivision to add a lot of texture and detail to the surface of the coral.
I tried to use a variety of ways to make different forms of coral. For example, I used zbrush brushes to make the tentacles of the coral and then added textures to them. Also, I used c4d to create the base model and then painted the model with zbrush. Another way is that I use alpha channel and download some alpha maps from the website and use it on the coral model. This gives me very distinctive corals that surprise me.
different coralsUse brushes to make some effectsUses alpha
For terrain, I still use a program called “world creator”. This software is very helpful, I only need to adjust the terrain in the software, and select the terrain features to help me create beautiful terrain details, and finally I export the FBX file to MAYA, which saves a lot of time to create the terrain.
Finally, I put the models all together in maya and added lighting and made a test video using the Arnold renderer. Next I imported them into UE5 to test the undersea filters and lighting to simulate the ocean environment as much as possible.
When I use F2 and F5 I can check the camera distortion.
how to create point groupreset name
Step 01 :Using the helmet project as an example, when I finished tracking the first scene, I needed to continue tracking the character’s head. However, this time I need to create another new folder inside “points” and I will be able to use a completely new tracking point to complete the tracking.
F5 2D view / F6 3D viewopen the transform，which can change the position of the helmet.project point in 3D modelsalt+c open the result
Step 02 : When I finish the FBX import of the helmet, I need to move it around and see if it’s accurate. In this case, I can use “Open New Window” in “Window” to show both 2D and 3D interface. Then click on “project point in 3D models” to match the tracking points I made earlier to the helmet, creating a simulation of the helmet and following the movement of the character’s head. And click “alt + c” to create result.
Step 03 : After I have tracked the head of the character, I will use the “export file as maya” and import it into maya, I can clearly see the position of the simulated helmet, so I can import the FBX model to match the simulated helmet. Note: Always use symmetrical tracking points when tracking a character’s head.
Important thing：click image controls enabled can adjust data of image. otherwise you can’t see the change of color.
We’ve had two meetings this week and it was decided that our theme should be more realistic, so I’m not going to go with my previous proposal. And after a lot of discussion, we’ve decided to focus on the “visual poetry” of modeling the scenes and animating the renderings.
the process of project in MIRO ↓
NEGIN’S WORKALIWIN’S WORK
Here’s what Poppy（she from the 2D animation） wrote about the poem that we’ll be focusing on to animate the scene.
Our beating heart
Many of us Do not know What’s inside our sea 90 per cent still remains a mystery
For example did you know That our world is mostly ocean? And that its water is always moving Constantly in motion
That its floor has many levels And that it is many shades of blue That most of it is dark And that it holds the most life too
From the largest to the smallest Creatures you will find Some of them extraordinary Some will blow your mind
Like the Manta Ray The smartest of them all Or the Giant Squid Or Octupi that crawl
But it is not only creatures That are living in the deep There is so much more to ocean life That we need to keep
It is like our beating heart Or the blood beneath our skin We cannot live without it And all it holds within
After the third meeting, we will draw our own version of the story. Below are the content of the shots and story sketches I’ve conceptualized.
A vertical shot showing multiple layers of the ocean from top to bottom, divided into three layers: the sunlit zone, the twilight zone, and the abyssal zone (This part, I’m going to I create part of the 3D model and finally put it into nuke for compositing).
01/ Sunlit Zone: The area is alive with vivid turquoise and azure hues. Coral reefs thrive in this area, filled with colorful fish and other marine life.
02/ Twilight Zone:The sunlight diminishes and the ocean takes on a deeper blue and indigo color. Unique and often bizarre organisms, and some glowing creatures, illuminate the darkness with a mesmerizing glow.
03/ Abyssal Zone:The colors here are muted and life is sparse. However, even in this extreme environment, certain organisms, such as lamellipods and extreme microorganisms, have adapted to the high pressures and cold temperatures of the seabed, and yet here emerges a fantastical underwater city
After a fourth meeting to discuss this, we agreed that the last storyboard would be modified to be more realistic. However, I’m working with another 3D animation student called Negin, and together we’re going to finish the modeling and rendering part of the scene, starting with a basic square in MAYA to show the structure of the scene and the camera movement. Next week I will focus on modeling the coral and cliff part and find some pictures for reference.
In order to understand “shuffle” better I refer to the tutorials on YouTube
“Shuffle” usually refers to a feature used to reorder channels. In Nuke, the Shuffle node allows you to control how pixel information is assigned to different channels. The channels include Red (R), Green (G), Blue (B), and Transparency (A)
the layer of id can show the different part in the car
When you are done rendering your model using maya, it will help you to export many different layers such as ID layer, Shadow layer, Metal layer and so on. Then import them into NUKE and use the shuffle node to separate them for tweaking, which is handy because you don’t need to re-render them, saving a lot of time.
Splitting into 2D and 3D views in nuke helps me visualize the color changes more clearly
When I adjust the “point” node in nuke, it’s like a light source, when I move it to a different position, the light of the object will be affected.
First, adjust the rgb channel in the “shuffle” and add a mask to show the local color.I’m not too sure about this part, but I’ll do it in the “garage” project and learn how to adjust the local color.
Function: Various functions of the VFX department within the company.
Lay out: we can find a reference camera to edit the data in lens of 3D equalizer, such as BLACK MAGIC URAS 35MM.
Tracker: click T, this software can star tracking.
Adjust colour: control the data of saturation, such as red/ green/blue and so on. it can be changing the colour in the documents.
Track curves: open the view- show tracking curves
Open screen: alt +c
Image control: open the colour control.
This is my first encounter with 3D equalizer, compared to nuke I think it has a very different layout, it’s not very easy for me to find out where to export the files from the camera and how to open the other tool interfaces. However, I have memorized their locations after much practice.
This week, the Collaborative Project session allowed us to discuss and share our ideas offline, as well as find partners to work with. I also met two students from 3d animation and one from animation online, they were both excellent and I look forward to working with them. Hopefully I will be able to learn more from them, I think my weakness is that I am very rusty with modeling software as this is my first time using it. So I would really like to improve my software skills to be able to present my work in a more complete way.
This week everyone was tasked with conceptualizing this UNESCO this project short story about protecting the oceans.
It is a thousand years later, a lonely ship floating on a polluted and abandoned ocean, surrounded by a scene of apocalyptic wasteland.
Its hull is crawling with strange seaweeds, some of which even glow, making it particularly mysterious. The metal surfaces of the ship have been eroded by seawater, but miraculously still stand in the polluted waters.
Abandoned skyscrapers still stand hidden in the water, making for a strange underwater landscape. The ecology of the flora and fauna here has mutated and adapted to pollution and climate change. The ocean is floating with garbage generated by human activities, while there are some peculiar land creatures of the appearance (the color can be more bright, peculiar shape)
However, the ship was suddenly caught in a whirlpool and it plunged to the bottom of the deep ocean. To their amazement, they found that in this abandoned world, there still existed a huge oceanarium, which had transparent walls of huge fish tanks inhabited by unique species mutated from sea creatures. Giant jellyfish, glowing butterfly fish, sharks with special sensory organs, and much more.
