Presented byFall 2013 Collab Class

Welcome!IntroductionsAccomplishments

OverviewStory Challenges

◦From mockumentary to family drama◦Starting over with story

Aesthetic Challenges◦Tessellations - creating a unified look◦Lighting

Character Design Challenges◦Integrating the aesthetic into the

character model◦Rigging and deformation

STORY DEVELOPMENT

Initial Concept: PitchesOriginal ideas

◦Family of bats – proposed by Linda Multiple characters for multiple animators

◦Documentary – proposed by Lucas

Initial Concept: StoryMockumentary about a bat that wants

to fly◦Wilbur makes crazy flying inventions

because he was born without wings◦How the family deals with this

Five Characters◦Wilbur◦Chuck◦Grandmother◦Twin Siblings

Lots of dialogue

Initial Character Designs

Initial Character Modeling

Original Concept: Storyboards

Checkpoint 1After presenting the initial

animatic, we realized the story would not work…◦Too many characters◦Complicated hand held camera

movements◦Concerns about quality of voice

acting Major revisions had to be made

in◦Story◦Design◦Overall concept

New Concept: StoryNew Story Direction

◦Simpler genre◦Father-Son story

Two Characters◦Wilbur – son, eager inventor who yearns to fly

◦Chuck – father, grounded, concerned about son’s carelessness

◦Absent mother – deceased

No dialogue

New Storyboards

Editing Storyboards

PREVISUALIZATION

Previsualization Substitute Rigs

Billy Barker as Wilbur (son)from CreativeCrash

Bboy as Chuck (father)from AnimationBuffet

3D Animatic

Issues Broken workflow Communication Do not make assumptions!

Team ChallengesWhat happened at Midterm…

◦Story team fell through◦Sound turned in 30 minutes before

showing◦Building community

Team building Daily meetings Personalized schedule

After MidtermAgain, major changes needed to be

made to the story and charactersWhat wasn’t working…

◦Relationship between the characters isn’t strong enough to support later actions Father acting as guard instead of parent Unclear that Wil is trying to fly

◦Confusion about species of the characters◦Who’s story is this? The son’s or the

father’s?

After MidtermHow we fixed it…

◦Changed the opening sequence◦Changed everything except the final

scene◦Strengthened father/son relationship ◦Emphasized disconnect between the

two characters◦Changed the design

New Storyboards

AESTHETICS

Aesthetics: Early InspirationOur story was relatively simple,

so we wanted to push the aesthetics

The story became something reminiscent of children’s story◦Wanted an aesthetic that would

complement

Aesthetics: Early InspirationPaper texture aestheticWanted a high quality, low poly

look

Timothy J Reynolds

Jeremy Kool

Yum Yum Digital Paper Crafts

CHARACTER DESIGNS

Character References

Character Sketches

Final Design: Wilbur

Final Design: Chuck

Crew TransitionWorkflow

◦Modeling◦Tessellating◦UVing◦Texturing

CHARACTER MODELING

Evolution of Character ModelsInitial five characters (four

designs)◦Divided modeling between David

and RiyadAfter story change

◦Realized this was too many characters

Character Modeling: Final

ENVIRONMENT DESIGN

Initial Environment ConceptOriginally housed in caves

◦Mockumentary◦Bats living in cave colony◦Apartments◦Almost all interior

Final Environment ConceptAfter story change, moved to tree setting

◦More organic◦Material readily available for Wil’s inventions◦Brighter color palette◦Softer appearance matching aesthetic◦Wanted to keep the feeling of a cave◦Characters lived inside a hollowed tree

Environment Design Sketches

Environment Design ModelInitial sculpt in Zbrush

◦Organic feel◦David worked along side Katie

Making sure model met the needs of the story

Environment Model: Early

Environment Model: Final

Environment Model: FinalExterior Design

◦ Landscape made from displacement map◦ Filled in landscape with 2 types of trees

PROP DESIGN

Inspiration For Wil’s Inventions

Prop Concepts

Prop Concepts

Prop Concepts

Prop Concepts

Dividing the WorkModels split among modelers

◦Making low-poly un-tessellated props◦Based on designs

Made more props than we used◦Due to continual story changes

Scale chart◦Didn’t adopt until after almost

everything was modeled◦Should have come before modeling

Prop Modeling

Prop Modeling

TESSELLATIONS

General Inspiration

Artist: Timothy J Reynolds Artist: Jeremy Kool

Artist: Timothy J Reynolds

Artist: Timothy J Reynolds

Yum Yum studio

PROP & ENVIRONMENT TESSELLATIONS

Early Tessellation Tests Props

Early Tessellation Tests

Tessellating: The ProcessStarted with smoothed modelsReduced the number of polygons

TriangulatedPush and pull vertices until

desired effect was achieved

Prop & Environment Tessellations

Prop & Environment Tessellations

IssuesLack of edge flow (no face loops)Triangulating entire model

◦Resulted in extra faces◦More geometry◦Difficult to select

CHARACTER TESSELLATIONS

Character Inspirations

Yum Yum studio Artist: Mateusz Szulik

Artist: Mateusz Szulik Artist: Jeremy Kool

Characters VS PropsDidn’t use Carolina’s technique

for the characters’ tessellationsCharacters had different needs

◦Necessary to have symmetry◦Maintain specific edge flow◦Deformations in the face

Modeling Process

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

Tessellation test

Cinema 4D Zbrush Decimation Master

Zbrush Remesher

Retopology

Cinema 4D Zbrush RemesherFinal Retopo in 3DS

Max

Final Solution for TessellationsUsed smoothed characters

◦Aided in deformationsApplied a bump map

◦Gives the impression of a tessellated model

◦Considered displacement map but… Animators wouldn’t know the final

appearance until after the scene was rendered

Wouldn’t be able to see penetration issues

TEXTURES

Color Script

Color References

Artist: Timothy J Reynolds

Ink Studio

Artist: Dadu Shin

Initial Color Script

Color Script

Texture Reference

Artist: Paul McMahon

Prop Textures: 1st PassProps textured in Photoshop (UV

issues)Keeping with aestheticsMultiple iterations of the same

texture

Prop Texturing: 2nd Pass

Environment Texturing

Character Texturing

RIGGING

Character RiggingRigging Demo

Character RiggingRigging Demo

Prop Rigging

Painting Weights

ANIMATION

Animation ReferencesActing choicesStyle of animationProcess of animationActing challenges

Character Traits & Motivation

ChallengesAnimating without completed rigs

◦Not used to working with unfinished rigs

◦Didn't get the completed face rigs until very late in the animation process.

Challenges with character design◦Chuck and Wilbur's short legs;

Chuck's long torso and Wilbur's big head

◦Character design affects the animation style

LIGHTING

Lighting Test Environment

Blinn for contrast with tessellated planes

Lighting Test Props

Lighting & ShadersShaders and Surface Textures

◦Blinn vs. MIA shaders

Mia_material_x Render time: 1:12min

Blinn shader Render time: 1:26min

Blend color original texture

Interior LightingInterior Lighting

◦Color changes

Exterior LightingExterior Lighting

◦Lighting Rig

PostproductionEnd of the Quarter looming

aheadFile problems

◦Rendering◦Old assets that wouldn’t go away◦But camera and object positions that

willContinually running out of

memory in collab spaceWhole crew working together to

fix render problems seen using FCheck

CompositingDepth of Field Process

Sound DesignContracted two sound designers

◦Recorded our sound effects ◦Recorded voice foley with voice actor

Music◦Could not manage to find a

composer◦Had to resort to scratch music◦Music became very important for the

communication of emotion in the film

Lessons learned…CommunicationOrganizationFollowing nomenclatureAsking questionsStory is never final

To view the film…Please email your request to

chelseabill214@gmail.comThen go to http://

vimeo.com/79741438 and enter the password to view the film!

Thank you for flying with us!