Check list (1/2)

After having some difficulties with filming; the time before the Interim Crit was running out and due to my poor planning and time management, i needed to make a check list (something that i should have done at the start, not half way) because of this my project had reached a

This Check list mainly focuses on the CG element and compensating if the project (last 40 seconds of the 1 minute piece) it was so i could see what needed to be done and in what order, rather then staring at a screen, jumping from one part to another or working too much on one part.

*BackPlate	Done
*Set camera angle	Done
*Model Proxy geometry -Model Street(path/side walk) -Buildings balcony(s) -Car outline             -lamp posts	[set] -Done -Done -Done -Done
*Create CG Nature             -Vines growth path             -Grass Growth path             -Moss Growth path	[set] - Done - Done - Done
*Render layers passes             -Colour pass (Nature)             -Shadow pass             -Occlusion	[set] - Done -Failed -Failed
*GreenScreen (Aftereffects)             -Select pre-animated Mini Meteor             -and motion (left to right)             -add effects, Smoke (look into smoke)	[set] - Done - Done - Done
*Compositing             -Add Nature over Growth to back pate             -Manipulate still image for slight movement             -Add pre composited meteor into the shot.             +remove sky              +                         +Remove still sky/clouds                         +Add video./still red sky                         *tint red sky to a Green-ish colour             -Alter final colours and add fog (fog needed??)	[set] - Done - - Done - Done - Done - Done -Needed? -
*Add some camera shakes (meteor strike)	-
*Edit (Premiere Pro)             -fine tune edits              - Collect sound effects and music             -Add sound effects           -and Music (Midnight Society Pack #1 - myuu)             -render/export 1080p Pro=Res and Quick time h264	[set] - -Done - -

bad planning (mini blog 01)

So this is the was my very basic planning for this project..its pretty much just a copy of the over view Mat gave is, i just modified it so it would be relevant to "Man vs Nature". but alas it wasn't very helpful with time keeping, pr-planning, and due to this poor effort at logging i fell behind on the work. I was still researching and testing in November by this time i should have started on filming.

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(X) Week 1(04^th):  VFX Briefing, VFX Breakdown Video, Q&A about VFX,

-Research

(X) Week 2(11^th): Maya Refresher how-To-Use Render Passes

-Practical exercise

-Planning

(X) Week 3(14^th-18^th): After Effects Induction 1, Premier Pro Induction. And Audio Workshop

          -Practical Exercises

          -Blog about sound

          -Planning

          -Character Design (Nature)

          -Research into “nature”

(..)Week 4(21^st-25^th): After Effects Workshop 2, DSLR Induction, and Location Shoot

          -Finalize idea and character(s)

-Practical Exercises,

-Start storyboarding

-character Modeling

(..)Week 5(28^th-1^st): After Effects Workshop 3, Green Screen and Lighting Induction, Compositing 1

 -Practical Exercises,

-Finish storyboarding

-finish Research, planning and Development

(..)Week 6(4^th-8^th : After Effects Workshop 4 Seminar - History of Compositing - Compositing 2

-Practical Exercises,

-Organising research, development and experimentation for   presentation next week.

(..)Week 7(29^th): Interim Crit 10 Minute Presentation

-Presentation of all developmental work so far including production schedule, storyboards & animatics and any proof of concept work.

(..)Week 8: (13^th/ Dec) Self directed study with support and individual progress reviews.

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-Continued project development based upon feedback from interim crit session and beginning production of final solution. 

(..)Week 9 (10^th Jan) Seminar - recap of brief requirements including Q&A

- Finalizing animated solution ready for presentation next week

(..)Week 10: (17^th Jan) Final Crit 10-Minute Presentation

- Presentation of finished animated solution in a professional manner.

(..)Week 11: (24^th Jan) DEADLINE

-  submission between 4:00 and 4:30pm.

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1st steps (update)

For this project we were instructed to choose 1 of 4 themes 

"Your short film must connote at least one of the following themes within it's production and it must be clear to the viewer which theme it is that they are watching..."

- Good Vs Evil.

- Triumph Over Adversity.

- Death as a Part of Life.

- Man/Woman Vs Nature.

So as you can see, i choose Man/Woman Vs Nature.  and started making a,, um, mind map of related items, locations, evens and elements that are related to the theme, using this small over view i came to the conclusion of having a plant like creature roaming through a street, leaving a trail of plans, grass and vines until the area the creature walked through is taken back by nature. 

This idea would imply that the "VS" does't imply that a 'human' would be fighting. instead it would be more of a take over "nature's take back", or the idea that we as mankind destroyed areas on nature. and Nature as a creature is taking its land back.

How ever having a creature roaming the streets would be problematic, this idea would fail, since it would look strange with a creature waking in a street and no one reacting to it so...

I re visited the  mind map, and focused more on the Nature side then the mankind side. so with this in mind i narrowed down the areas of focus, mainly "plants" and "Weather" and looked into Natural disasters, or in this case "Un-Natural Disaster" where a meteor would hit an area, causing Plant like tendrils to spawn and grown from the meteor towards the camera (person/viewer),, next up finding a quiet location.

Bad timing to film

For my VFX i had decide to film down the side of the o2 Academy, but due to my lack of time planning, filming in this location in November was almost impossible, since in November the o2 academy hosts "Movember" as well as some gigs ( the place is a club area). in addition to this, the location would have a fare amount of foot traffic and deliveries to the club.

i tried multiple times to film in this location, at different times, but always had the same problems...people and filming. since filming is not my strong point, nor will it ever be. so here is one of many failed attempts at filming

With the deadline fast approaching, i was getting irritated, and after having a small talk with Annabeth, And she suggested that i take a still image, large enough so it could be manipulated it after effects too give it some depth and the allusion of motion.

Man Vs Nature storyboard

After some planning and finding a suitable location i made a "basic" storyboard, since the buildings were going to be the main point of focus (until the meteors and vines arrive). i needed them to LOOK like buildings. so i kinda cheated... after taking a few photos of the location i sent them into GIMP 2.8 (or Photoshop,) and began to trace them..

*note: Basic story idea*

In the 1st shot, we are waking down the street, a normal-ish boring day, till and abnormal flash, followed by the faint sound of thunder attracts you to look up...

After looking up to see the sky get  darker as a red and black storm cloud rolling passed. with it you see a few meteorites rocket across the building out of eye shot. then there is another flash as a larger meteor falls towards you..

The meteor lands  by the side of the o2 academy. as the person (camera) moves closer to investigate, vines and plant life starts to grow from the meteor and an un natural speed and erratic motion...

The vines continue to grow across any surface it passes, and screamingly towards the camera (you) untill,,, the area that was once beloning to 'Man"' has now been "Re-Claimed By Nature"









With the storyboard done, it was time to make an animatic, here it is, basic sound effects were added.

Green screen meteor

for my VFX the green screen element would be a hand made meteor that i would animate in a stop motion fashion for 10 seconds,

After importing the images into a sequence and setting the frame rate to 25 fps. i proceeded to mask out the un needed areas and keyed as much as possible. 

 once the un needed junk was keyed out, i added a "keylight effect" to the comp and proceeded to remove the remaining green areas. by setting "Screen Colour" to green, and changed "view" to matte

 after removing the last of the green screen, i set the clip black and white balance to remove any grey, after i adjusted the "screen softness" to reduce any hard edges.

using the "screen shrink/Grow" i pulled the mask to remove any left over sharp edges. after moving the layers into a new composition, it was time to add some colour correction. using "Curves" to add a brown/green tint to the silver meteor. and final using both "tint" and "Exposure" to darken the meteor so it would fit a little better

last but not least, with the meteor keyed and ready, it was time to animate it passing over the building, and finally landing beside the o2 Academy 

sounds

since my VFX is image manipulation, since i was unable to film the required footage. this meant i would need to find and make my own sound effects,. since sound is key to making an atmospheric feel. adds the mood, and builds up suspense to a some what dull VFX piece.

the sounds effects i would be using are mainly atmospheric and ambiance, faint wind, foot steps, light breathing maybe?. but there is a small problem, the main focus of my FFX are the vines,, but plants make no sound when growing,, therefor i would need to use sounds like leaf rustling and distort it, to sound natural.

But nothing would be complicate without a little bit of creepy ambiance, a low level music, not too distracting, but enough to add some additional depth to the VFX, so for the music, i chose to use "Midnight Society Pack #2 by Myuu. Myuu remakes known music (ie Silent hill) and re plays them on the piano. but he also makes his own music. all the music he makes is free to download, and free to do (providing credit is given). his music is most seen in creepypasta Narration, 

VFX Vines

the vines, Oh the vines were annoying, what a mistake, anyway, my VFX would focas on the erattic Growth of the vines. to do this i would be using Maya. at 1st i was gonna hand model and animate each vine using curves,,, then i found out i can use Paint tools to crate them and paralysis animate them 

Test one, making a mock area, i created some vines that would grow across the areas of the building, i randomly placed a path and added some smaller once that would connect to the main vines, . after messing with some settings, to change the sizes and shapes, this was the result.

Following test one, something was missing,,, GRASS!, so i started to mess around with grass, but they were two problems, the grass was too uniformed, and "popy", in addition to this,it added a lot of polygons, making the render time rocket.

With the testing over and done with, it was time to create the mock back plate, and animate detailed vines that would interact with a car, and frown behind, across, and along the floors. sadly, i had to remove the vines interaction with the lamp post, i also had to remove the Glass,,, the Render time was far too long without it. once again the the project sufferd from my lack of planning,,, the render times was too long, in the end i was only able to render out 390 frames out of 420,, and only a Colour pass,,, so yeah

Faking motion

Now for the fun but stressful part. time to manipulate the images,After putting the original image into PhotoShop, and splitting the back ground, sky and buildings. i imported the layers into After effects, created a 3D layer for each put them on a small angle.

To give the sky a little Extra depth, i added a Distortion plugin so the clouds would have a small bit of motion. the 3D layers gave me a little ore "realism" with the meteors, it meant i could animate them moving away from the camera, rather then shrinking them.

here is the other scene, again using 3D layers to give added depth, i had a small problem with the vines, when rendering, i rendered as a single flat image, so when it was over layed on the back plate, it looked un natural. so i had to rotoscope parts out, until i was happy with the out come

Man Vs nature idea v2

This is the 2nd version of man vs nature, and the one i will be making

based from researching taking "nature" literally and making a "Re-Claimed" even

the idea is, Due to a electrical storm like weather anomaly, several green-ish motors will strike the earth causing rapid growth in plants (we only see one close and once off in the distance). this will make the plants  grown uncontrollably along buildings and path ways. Mainly following paths to door ways and windows seeking for mankind,

this would mean the “Vines” would be acting like predators and would seamlessly and uncontrollably grow towards the camera and any other form of life, towards us?. 

in thsi is would be replacing the normal "blue" sky with a darker red-ish black sky(as the anomaly starts). its debated if its going to be still shots, or some small movements (retreating from the vines). timing will be key, as the area i plan to film in (Side street to Civic Hall/ o2 academy leeds) can get kinda busy as its a prime short cut. also, since the VFX needs a green screen element, i would be compositing people (actors) and have them react and flee(and maybe get trapped?) from the vines

SeaQuest "by any other name" (VFX research 4)

“An urgent distress signal leads the seaQuest to a hydroponic research lab, where all signs of life have been erased”

In seaQuest season 2 episode 7, by any other name. the research lab is over ran by nature and exotic plants,, in this episode a team are sent to investigate, and everything seems to be normal.. um other then a small vine that seems to have grabbed one of the team members feet, thinking nothing of it another member takes a plant to study.

as she places the normal flower in a glass on the desk and leaves the room. se the viewer sees the plant starts to rapidly grow until it breaks the glass. it later starts to grow vines that a pear to grow towards the camera.

later in the episode a crow member is alerted by a scream, as they go to investigate they find an over grown carnivores plant in a room, and the researcher screaming for help from the corner of the room. As one of the crow members helps her, he gets his food grabbed by a vine, the plant laches several more vins around him and turns the victims to sand.. 

The Mummy Returns (VFX research 3)

 In the opening Prolog of The mummy Returns we follow the Scorpion King as he leads his arm to war, the kind and his army fail and are driven into the desert, where one by one they all die till the Scorpion Kind is left.


so the king makes a deal with the God Anubis, asking to take control of Anubis's undead army to take revenge, for this act the king would give up his soul. Anubis agrees and saves him, by sending "message" (a scorpion, how ironic)

The king gets stung by a scorpion, as the king eats the scorpion grass starts to spawn and grow around the kind,

 As the camera moves back, we see the forming Oases growing outwards in all directions, grass, vines, trees, shrubs and other forms of vegetation

This all takes place in less then 30 seconds, at the end a lush oases has been made,,


This is more relevant to my idea, and it has given me some insight on the formation and growth patens, something i will use in my VFX video

Elephants Dream (VFX research 2)

Elephants Dream follows two characters, Emo and Proog a they explore the seemingly unending machines. the old Guy Proog is trying to convince the Emo that this Machine would is a wonderful beautiful but dangerous place,but Emo just cant see what Proog sees. as they keep walking deeper into the machinery. as they are in a lift thats suspended in mid-air, Proog asked Emo what he sees to his left and right but Emo sees nothing

Later on they are in a small room as we see Proog placing some final tiles. Proog questions Emo why he cant see how perfect this would i,, to this Emo replays with "why should i trust my life to something that isn't there"


As Emo tryes to ecape from Proog by walking away from him, but as Emo  walks towards a wall it starts to move away from him making the room longer. until Proog tells Emo "its a trap"

To this Emo mocks Proog by stating "to the left we see.um..hanging gardens of babylon" and no sooner had he said this the room starts to fall apart revelling an organic type electrical vines that take over and pull apart the room. as the vines grow along the surface.

what we now see is the true machines of this would, and as the room fully falls apart Emo states..again mocking Proogs Question about sight "on the right side you can see...look at what!!, the colossus of rhodes,.: this statement makes the room fully falls apart till they are surrounded by the electrical vines.





finally Emo adds "the colossus of rhodes and it is here just for you Proog, Just for you!" this.. this causes a huge electrical hand to forms. as it tries to grab Proog, proog douges it, grabs his walking stick and knocks Emo out, ..since this nightmare has been created from Emos mind, as soon as he's knocked out, the vines fall and die



i intend to use this in my FVX, but rather then it being electrical, it will be natural, but would behave in a similar manner. growing uncontrollably and maybe near the end of the 1 minute VFX the vines might form some kind of shapes?..

Vines (Research 01)

Since i have picked "Man vs Nature" as my response to "Smoke and Mirrors" VFX, i started to look into Nature mainly vines and weeds.

the reason i focussed on a plant like a vine was because of its overpowering nature to grow on pretty much anything it can. Vines/ ivy has the natural ability to grow on any surface in any direction, and in almost any environment and element.

Moss is also a good element to look into. as it closely follows any vine type plant, normally seen on and around roof tops,IN addition to plants, i needed to see how they grow over times, 1st thought came to mind was a scene from "elephants dream" Blenders 1st open movie.

In this sean Emo starts to go a little crazy and starts fantasising. the room is a small 4 sided cube at head hight.. as Emo talks towards one of the walls it starts to move away from him, making the room expand, later he starts making small statements and the room starts to fall apart as organic- electrical type vines start to grow towards him.

VFX Man Vs Nature ideas..

Character design, “nature’s Guardians”

The design of these beings are of a human like form (minuses a finger) with a variation of plants and vegetation making up the body and face..

Feet/legs- would mostly be tree trunk type objects with lose root like appearances,

Joints- would be a sort of organic vine look to them..

Arms- much like the legs but more skinnier and mossy.. With bits of twigs     pointing out acting as spiked armor

Hands- the hands would be comprised of two-three fingers that would be “simple” intertwined vines.

Head- would have vines/trigs as hair.. the face would be void of features, and deep sockets for eyes

Ideas fo Man vs Nature

Idea 1, a tree like being would walk through the streets almost un-noticed leaving a trail of plants, grass and vines growing from its foot prints. ..(Hum boring)

Idea 2, would feature 2 “guardians” one leaving a tail of nature behind it, and the other “Guardian” would be killing said plant growth. Till both “Guardians” have a semi fight. This would cause an eruption of plant life surrounding them, till it would eventually in case them…

Idea 3 would have a “young” child like nature being causing mischief by making its surrounding nature behaves strange.  Grow uncontrollably..

The problem with this idea is..

Location- people would be around. And the “guardians” would look out of place due to the lack of reaction of the public

Models- the “Guardians” them self’s would prove to problematic, they would need to look real, making they would need to be detailed and textured (texturing a single tree was a headache…) so texturing AND rigging a human form being full of plant life will be a nightmare..