Major Project 2

Major Project Final Animation 

A Little Recap

Last semester started with creating the main characters to go along with the story that had been created. Starting with an idea of a male character and playing around with the outfits and style he would have. Bringing it down to a simple character who doesn't really put much effort toward his look but still wants to be presentable and moving forward to his companion.

The dog was something that a lot of debate was made. Whether traditions are stuck and have the male character own a dog that is large and is an extension of his masculine side, or changing up the norms and having him own a smaller that may be a different way to show off his true character.

His environment is something not seen too much in the final animation but it still had to be made as the audience will get a sense of how he lives even from a small glance into his home and his home life. 

Finalizing the designs brought the story together more and gave a chance to bring it to life and know where it is all going to go, however, this was all on paper and had to take a step further into 

The beginnings of 3D were made with creating a base of Caleb. Over time the body took shape quickly without having to make major changes to it for it to be true to the previous 2d design. 

The face was something that took more time to achieve a better look with.  Firstly creating without looking at the design too often turned out a model that looked good but wasn't the character that was designed. Looking at the design many changes had to be made to make sure the model was to be true to the design. From the sizing on the face itself to the positioning fo his features.

A similar situation was made with creating Milo in 3D. Creating a pug in 3D was an easy task to complete however, that does not mean that the character Milo was easily created. Having to use the design to bring the character to life and refine the model, even more, to not just look like a pug.

The home in 3D started by receiving the shell from Carol and using that to then add and make changes that would end up with having Caleb's house. Adding elements that ould show off his personality. As well as creating the interior of the house for when he comes rushing down the stairs.

In the midst of creating the elements in 3D, the animatic was also in creation to help tell the story with the help of a visual for the audience to see. After going through different versions of the story and how the characters actually interact with each other. Deciding on how they act toward each other will also determine how the audience will perceive them from their first introduction to when the picture goes black.

The Finishing Design

The final stage of each character before preparing them for animation is ensuring that they look true to their 2D designs. 

For Milo, this meant changing the positioning of his features on his face to make them look more fitting. Making these changes not only made them look more realistic to those of a pugs face but also have him look more like his design and not just shapes thrown together.

For Caleb the final touch was adding his clothes, ensuring that they fall realistically with wrinkles and correct seams. Having made sure the clothes layer on top of each other correctly without it looking too bulky as Caleb has a bigger build than others. Bringing them all together would then bring out the character of Caleb and the next step is to retop and prepare him for texturing.

Getting Technical 

To bring down the poly count of the model the next task was to retop the body. Taking the count from over 100,000 to a much lower number which would then make it easier to unwrap in preparation for texturing. After making the original model live and using the quad draw to then create the new lower poly model. Ensuring that there are no triangles and abnormalities so that when it comes to rigging and animating there would not be any problems that would then have to be looked back on.

Before moving forward with unwrapping the lower poly model had to be smoothed in order to not see the individual polys when it is textured. 

Before texturing the model it needed to be unwrapped in order for the textures to look correct and fit onto the models. Creating seams along with the retoped models from the body to each piece of clothing to then be unwrapped in the UV editor and put in a tidy order so when put into substance painter the textures can be added easily.

Adding in the textures from substance painter meant opening the hypershade and ensuring that everything is connected correctly to ensure that the textures come out as they were in substance painter. Also, naming each texture once imported in as they would then be easier to locate in the hypershade.

Once added in and loaded onto the model this was the final look of Caleb. The vest had some issues with the texture which meant having the change the seams in order for the silver stripes to line up to the sides and not swerve off in different directions. 

Rigging came next before being able to animate. Creating an IK skeleton was first and then scaling the model to fit the skeleton was important as the skeleton itself couldn't have a translation on it when skinning in later steps. When modelling initially making sure the model is in T-Pose was important to ensure that the skeleton fits better.

Then skinning the model to the skeleton was next to test that the joints move correctly without having errors before adding the controls. Weight painting helped with correcting some of the joints that flooded into another which would result in random parts being pulled by others.

Emotion 

Another element that wanted to be added to the character was blend shapes. Taking the character and pulling on vertes to create different emotions. Being able to experiment with what can be created by just moving certain faces on the model. Once changing the eyebrows also this was an element that really adds the final emotion to the person.

Putting them together in the scene then helps to see what has been created and then if any other emotions can be created from variations of what has already been created. 

Bringing Milo to Life

Milo did not need as many textures as Caleb as he is made up of only simple colours. The only texture that was added was the eyes. Which was created in photoshop as the textures found from outside sources were too realistic for the dog or the colour didn't fit with the rest of the colours added to Milo.

Blend shapes were added to Milo to add emotion as well as movement in the legs as this was seen as the way to make him walk as a rig seemed too difficult to create for a four-legged animal compared to a human. Even adding movement in the ears as this is one of the main ways dogs express themselves, also adding movement to the dog so that he is able to bark.

After not being able to create a blend shape of the dog tilted his head, a very common way a dog shows confusion as well as other emotions an idea was created to add a human IK rig to see if it would work. After adjusting the skeleton to fit the size of the dog, each joint was then manipulated to fit into each limb skinning the joints to the model went smoothly after thinking it would mess up the model itself. After a few attempts as there were issues with the positioning of the joints to the model, adding the controls was the final step. After all, the head can be tilted and also the dog can raise his front legs as he is jumping up. 

Animation Begins 

With having all characters ready for animation the next was to get the scene in order to start putting everything together ready for animating. When receiving the scene file from Carol the size of it was over a gigabyte. The characters were put in the scene and positioned where they needed to be. However, when it came to working from home the file was deemed too big to work on as my laptop couldn't take the size and amount of polys in one scene. To fix this problem the idea was to prioritize the assets in the scene that would in that particular scene which would then bring the file size down considerably and the ability to work from home was highly more likely. Once this was done the thought of why the file was this size came to light and after looking through each individual element of the scene it was found that the grass was made up of many groups that took up tens of thousands polygons which when put together added up to over half of the contributions to the scene. Removing certain areas of grass that wouldn't be seen in certain scenes means that it does not just help with cleaning up the size of the scene but also help with rendering in the future.

With the scene set out with the essential assets to be able to animate from the block out was easier to create from home. The interior scene was animated first, with the focus being on introducing the characters in the story. Having the man run down the stairs gave the opportunity to add multiple cameras to be able to change the viewpoint, as the animatic was static in this scene and with the addition of cameras meant that it wouldn't bore when being watched and changes the point of view. It also provides a feeling of speed with quick cuts and changes. Helping the audience feel how much Caleb is rushing to make it outside ready to say his hello to Josie. The pug, Milo also has his introduction in this scene, with him sitting on the floor near the coat hanger waiting for his owner to catch up. This can help in adding humour in the scene from cutting from Caleb rushing to Milo simply watching him, his head following Caleb's movement.

The window scene was an easier part to block out as it focused mainly on his emotion and the movement of his arms. However, once played back it was seen that the movements were too fast and did not look realistic. After reviewing this it was then easier to act out the movement of him rubbing the back of his head adding the subtle movements that add to the timing of it. Ensuring that his hands make the connection with what they are touching whether that being the back of his head or the windowsill.

The first scene outside was seen as one of the more difficult to block out and animated as it involved both Caleb and Milo walking next to each other. Ensuring that both of their steps line up with each other and it did not look as if one was walking faster or slower than the other. Working with the pug rig properly helped to show the points in which it could not take much strain in movements, therefore the walk could not involve major movements, however, this was not a major issue as a pugs walk is very subtle in their movements. Taking inspiration from 101 Daltmation (1961) in how they show a pugs walk with small leg movements. Moving the head of the pug through tilts helped in adding additional movement to the animal and making the walk look more realistic.

The camera was an element changed from the animatic again. Wanting to draw focus on different things and changing what the audience sees in order for them to concentrate on those things at certain times. Such as having them see the pug close up and then cutting to Caleb from a close shot to see that he is helping a banana. Having all of these cuts can help in adding extra layers to the animation. Having the cameras help in knowing what to focus on as certain points, emotion is one of them. Taking inspiration from shorts such as Extinguished (2017) and Paperman (2012) that focus on the emotion without the characters speaking. If the camera was closer then it was essential to have Caleb have his emotions show and change with what he is seeing and thinking. 

Once the blocking out had been finished it was then time to move on the bringing the animation to the full scene in order to see everything together with all textures and assets. With this, the animation was developed into its final stages with timing and correcting certain movements in order for them to look more realistic and ready for the last stage of rendering. However, as the full scene was still around a gigabyte the ability to work from home was not possible so from this moment on this particular work had to be completed in university as the computers were powerful enough to work on the scene on without any issues. This meant that time prioritising was important in order to get the animation completed. The timekeeping was proven to be important when the university had to be shut and the animation was already completed bar one scene.

Fun with Rendering 

Having the full scene with all textures and finished animation meant that the next step could be started, lighting. With having area lights in position rendering stills was then made to help picture what the final render will look like. However, when rendering stills the finished image did not look as it was intended to as the colour management was not on raw and once changed the scene would look a lot more saturated and darkened. After doing some research on the colour management within the renderer it was seen that the output sRGB provided an image that was too saturated. However, the ACES range provided a much better picture that looked a lot more like the style that was intended for the animation. Taking inspiration from shorts such as Feast (2014) having a softer look to the piece. Having the rendered image look a lot more like what was seen in the viewport provided an easier experience in changing the lighting to suit the time of the day and the overall mood of the scene. Having the lights give off a blue hue for the morning scenes and then changes that to a darker atmosphere when the mood is sadder or the opposite to convey happier emotions.

Rendering is another issue that came up when working from home as the laptop could not handle such a scene the time to render one frame was tripled and therefore would not render in the time needed to hand in. Therefore, it was then taken to render in university.  Using multiple computers within the studio to speed up the render that way. However, time was still pushed as the university was to shut the next week therefore, the renders were at a lower quality and the lighting did not match the scenes with Josie as they were not compared before rendering. This meant that when all rendered scenes were put together it did not all match up and looked almost like two different animations rather than one.

Having the time to put all scenes together helped to see this issue and to then come up with how to fix this issue and have the animation look more concise. Using Carol's computer the scenes in which the lighting didn't match or the quality didn't match were to be re-rendered after being compared with the scenes with correct lighting as she had a computer powerful enough to render without issue.

Final Touches

After having all scenes rendered and put together the last steps were to add the finishing touches, the credits being one of them. Wanting to use 2D in the credits was important to show off more skill in this piece as a whole a few ideas were made coming down to two final pieces. The first showing the couple sat at a sunset together looked good when seen separately but once it was added into the whole thing it did not fit in with the animation and was also too long. The second idea was to use a poster which had been designed previously and incorporate some 2D animation with the dog to show animation throughout the entire film, this idea came from Disney style credits where there is still animation but in 2D instead.

The Animation

With the final addition of the music and last touches to ensure the timing on all clips were correct the final animation is complete.

Opinion

With the issue of working apart and only one editing, most of the animation meant that wanting to change certain aspects of the animation that were supposed to be put together in an order that only one would know meant a lot of going back and forth between editing and trying to fix certain aspects from apart. Another aspect that would've been easier to execute if together would be being to have full control of the character. For example, in the final seconds of the animation it shows the couple together through a series of photographs, it is a great way to show their progress in their relationship but if I was able to contribute to it I would've shown Caleb as his designs shown with him smiling with his mouth closed as when the rig and blend shapes were created an open smile was not executed to the level as the closed smile as this is how Caleb expresses his emotion more.

However, I feel as if this is the best animation made to date with the characters included and I am glad to have branched out and made a dog alongside Caleb as it was another skill to learn during all this from creating to animating it. Working together meant that we could home in our skills and focus on what we were best at while still developing other skills and if there were any issues or if one needed help then we would come to each other's aid.

Bibliography

Extinguished. 2017. [Film] Ashley Anderson. dir. Ringling College of Art and Design: Florida

Feast. 2014. [Film] Patrick Osborne. dir. Walt Disney Animation Studios: California 

One Hundred and One Dalmatians. 1961. [Film] Wolfgang Reitherman. dir. Walt Disney Animation Studios: California

Paperman. 2012. [Film] John Kahrs. dir. Walt Disney Animation Studios: California