3D Film Making

The Making of Friend From my World

The Attic Room in Creation

Within Miles’ bedroom, the wall, the main feature of the room for him to put up his drawings cinematically as a visual portal to the world of his imaginary friend. To share his thoughts and stories and dreams in the real world. The rest of the room doesn’t have many bright features as he would spend most of his time invested in creating more to his world and spending his time with his friend, therefore not needing the added elements commonly seen in a child’s bedroom. 

Creating the room in 3D can help to visualise how the cameras would fit within the scene, as well as how the storytelling would carry out. Does the room represent Miles? If not, then how can it be improved to better suit the character and the story itself. The arrangement of the furniture in the room such as the bed takes up a good majority of the room, therefore not leaving much room for Miles to escape from the real world through his drawing. 

The decision was made to make some small but crucial changes to the bedroom, to add to the fundamentals of the character and story. The room instead of being a normal box room has now become an attic room with lower ceilings, a single window in which the direction of light will hit the drawings, telling Miles' stories with his imaginary friend. A place he can escape and be the furthest from everyone else in. A room of seclusion, remote and hidden away from everything and everyone else in the household. Escape from everyday life, being the furthest away from everything. Blocking out the furniture using simple enough shapes to get the right placement and using the final design to bring together the bedroom. After putting together the room using the final design, it can be seen that the double bed may be too big for the character of Miles. It isn’t common for a child to sleep in such a large bed, therefore I adapted the room to now have a single bed that is placed in the corner. Giving more room to the floor, an area where Miles can sit, draw and lay out his drawings before putting them up on the wall to display.




Miles Taking Shape

Miles is a young boy who looks tired and not in the happiest of moods. Always hidden away from the real world. His large round eyes looking tired from putting all he can into his drawings. Wearing his pyjamas often and for as long as he can wear them as he doesn't want to get dressed as that would mean he is ready to face the real world and he can then stay within his bedroom and more importantly his wall.
Abbott (2002/125) describes that "Characters are, usually, harder to understand than actions." Explaining that in the process of creating a character such as Miles the creator has to ensure that you can see the story of the character just by their appearance and not solely rely on the later animation. In the process of creating Miles, this was kept in mind to ensure that his character came through before he started moving on the screen.

To create the character Miles in 3D the process started in ZBrush, creating an initial base and then building off it to then create the final character that will tell the story in the final animation. Remembering that he is a young child and how the anatomy would build for a person of that age, ensuring that the muscle build is low and keeping the overall size on the smaller size so that the model does look of that as a child. Working from my final design I moved on to creating the face of Miles, the large round eyes that show the emotion of being tired and perhaps annoyed at the world in which he has no choice but to live in. The clothing created by pulling off the geometry followed by shaping it into the final form of the individual clothing piece. 

Comparisons 

 Taking a scene from the movie Monsters Inc. Comparing at first the emotions shared between the characters Sulley and Boo to then comparing the shots and how they were put together to develop the scene and then seeing how I can use this information for my own animation.

Presenting movies of the past, how they compare to the narrative of my animation. The creation of the shots in each specific movie and how that then conveys to the audience.



Retopping

Within the process using quad draw the process of retopping started, this was important as it brings down the poly count on the model benefitting for when it comes to UV unwrapping for texturing and then following with rigging. Ensuring that all quads came together without the creation of triangles was a challenge of certain areas such as the hands and feet as they required more detail of attention, as well as making sure that no spirals were created in the process and if there were any mistakes to catch them before the process is completed to keep the workflow consistent. Saving incremental changes would ensure backtracking an easier process.

Saggy Moments

Importing the retopped model into the bedroom came with an issue with smoothing out the rough quad surface. Softening the edges should’ve left with a model that was smooth in appearance, however, it resulted in the model looking wrinkled and saggy. To fix this issue it was worked out that the model has to be softened in its original scene and then imported, doing this resulted in no issues. 

The Depth and Perspective Ratios

Having a model retopped, it was imported into the bedroom and doing this helped to resolve some issues. Such as correcting some perspectives with certain pieces in the room. Most importantly the pieces of paper on the wall, before importing the model the pieces were far too large. Before rigging the model, being able to just place the character where he will be positioned for the final piece, lighting tests were able to be completed and certain renders to see how it would all look as a whole.

Unwrapping Miles

To progress further and begin texturing Miles, Uv unwrapping must be completed. Creating seams to texture with ease and not cause any warping. With the clothing the seams are simple enough to create, using your own clothes as an example following the seams from those would then be the same as those created in Uv unwrapping. 

In the process of taking my character from Maya to substance painter to texture, some problems came up in terms of where the Uv shells were placed in the editor. As shown in images before the shells were placed in the editor without knowing that they had to be placed in the Uv grid for them to texture correctly in substance painter. Before the change was made the model, when baking the higher poly onto the lower instead of getting the desired result the model would just turn a dark grey and if a texture was then placed on the colour would be incorrect.

Adding Colour

After the problem was resolved it was a simple move to then texture Miles. Finding those that suit the piece of clothing that he is wearing as well as finding the right colour for his skin and adding certain shades to bring him to life. The skin texture came out looking realistic in the way that it has used more than one shade throughout the body adding depth and texture and not just having it look flat. The colour of the lips was painted on top of the skin texture and loaded onto the character to see how it looked overall.

The bedroom was also textured, finding those that suited the pieces of furniture. This element added realism to the room, helping to create the wall between reality and the world created in Miles' mind.

The rig for Miles was created using Human IK, resizing the joints to line up with my character at first at its entirety but then moving forward to then moving them individually to fit Miles perfectly. This skeleton provided hand joints that were customizable to how or little was needed for the character. As Miles will be drawing and holding the paper having the hand rigs will come in very helpful in him being able to complete such actions. Once the skeleton was fitting to Miles the next step was to bind it to the geometry of the character. Next was to create the controls, in the Human Ik window changing the source to Control rig then changed the joints to now have the appropriate controls for each element and having them affect certain elements when moved.

In the final piece, there is a 2D element of Miles jumping on his bed with his imaginary friend.  Putting it all together into a video clip would then show how long the scene would be and after putting it in with the 3D work it can be then worked out how long the sequence needs to be.

With the rigged and textured Miles, the next step would be to create the first test of the animation. Importing the character into the already created and textured bedroom scene he would need to be positioned, initially creating very simple movements to get across what is to then be developed further. Using this scene the 2D sequence could be added in to see how it all lines up and then work out the final scene and how it would carry on from the 2D back into the 3D. The way that Miles interacts with his drawings and how the story would come to an end.

Peaking Through

During the process of animating Miles, the geometry from the base would peak through the clothing when certain elements were rotated and moved. To fix this problem, going back to the file with the original textured and rigged Miles the unseen geometry would be deleted therefore when they were to be moved, the geometry underneath wouldn't interfere with what is laying on top of it. This allowed fixing certain elements such as the trousers that initially poke through the shirt and the sleeves that were too long and interact with his hands. Meaning that when he is now animated or posed in certain ways, no geometry will interfere with other parts.

Last Test

From getting feedback to the first playblast, some changes were to be made to help the story and have it make it more sense to the audience that watches the piece. The beginning has changed from the door opening by itself to Miles himself closing it, a symbol to him locking out the world that he should be living in. This gives another layer of character to Miles, how he physically keeps himself away from the world. 
Jones (2008/120) explains that "If the audience does not empathise with your character, all is lost." keying in on the emotion created through the animation is crucial when displaying to an audience. Meaning that when Miles is being animated, the true emotion will show through and come through to the audience watching, having them empathize with him will create that connection with the story and the audience.
The second part of the 3D animation is added to complete the story of Miles putting up his drawings and for it to be revealed to the audience what he has done with his own world.

Final Touches

Taking the blocked out animation used for the playblasts, next was to fill in the gaps and create a more fluid animation that will tell Miles' story better. Jones (2008/57) mentions that "You will be walking in the characters shoes while you animate." When animating Miles int his piece, thinking to how a child would act in this story was important to know and think back to such as adding changes to moments such as when Miles has finished his drawing instead of simply raising the paper toward the camera he plays with it, bouncing it up and to simulate the action that he has drawn before the scene moves to the drawing coming to life. 
Catmull (2014/8) says that "The definition of superb animation is that each character on the screen makes you believe it is a thinking being." Being able to animate Miles in a way that makes the audience believe that he is more than just a character on a screen will bring the audience into the story more, giving them a sense to what is happening in Miles' head and not just simply observing what is on the picture.
Adding colour to the drawings also adds to their character as you can see who is who in the drawings and how when the wall is revealed in the final seconds, there is a trend of one character wearing blue and the other green.

The ending has been changed from just cutting when Miles reaches for the paper to the imaginary friend appearing, Miles himself becoming a drawing and the world around him doing the same. The ending can be interpreted in different ways, Miles finally giving in to the world he has created and becoming a drawing himself or just simply wishing hard that this could be his reality.

Looking over the first render a change to the transition from the drawings back to the real world was made. To connect to how the drawings came to life it ends with a shot of the drawings which then move to be pinned to the wall rather than the shot starting from behind Miles' shoulder.
Mackintosh (1993/35) explains that "If the attention of the audience wavers the actor is in a weak position." In the final stages of creating the animation, the audience is to be thought of in great proportion as they are the people who will be watching and seeing the story of Miles and if their attention is not fully taken throughout the film then the story will be lost. Including the difference in 2D and 3D will be attention-grabbing and how they connect throughout the piece, flowing into one another will be important to not having a messy animation.

The final step was to add sounds to the piece adding ambience to it rather than it consisting of complete silence. Adding a soft piano piece in the background adding emotion to the piece however when it reaches the end the music is overtaken by the sound of a pencil drawing over the scene. This could add the question of is Miles the one drawing this scene himself whether it is in real life or just in his mind. A question that will run through the audience's mind throughout the piece.

Bibliography

Books

Abbott, H., 2002. The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Catmull, E., 2014. Creativity Inc.. 1st ed. London: Bantam Press.

Jones, A., 2008. Thinking Animation Bridging the Gap between 2D and CG. 1st ed. Boston: Thomson Course Technology.

Mackintosh, I., 1993. Architecture Actor & Audience. 1st ed. London: Routledge.
Movies
Dumbo. (1941). [film] Directed by B. Sharpsteen. California: Walt Disney Productions.
Monsters Inc.. (2002). [film] Directed by P. Docter. California: Pixar Animation Studios.
Song of the South. (1946). [film] Directed by W. Jackson. California: Walt Disney Productions.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit. (1988). [film] Directed by R. Zemeckis. California: Walt Disney Animation Studios.