Boy Tweak and UV Map

I have completed tweaking the boy model to my satisfaction. The main changes I made were to make it less symmetrical by adjusting the shirt collar and socks and to make the knees and elbows more knobbly. I also edited the nose and ears as well as other minor parts.I then mapped out the UVs for the boy. I found this quite easy as the mesh was naturally sectioned already according to surface material so seams could be subtly positioned. I also had to take into consideration the splashes of mud that would be on him, which also had influence over where the seems could be placed. I am happy with how he turned out.

Boy Model Continued

I do not really have time to complete the boy model at this stage so I gave it to Matt to finish off. Matt has done a very good job in a short amount of time (under two days) and has also agreed to rig it for me after I have tweaked and uv mapped it.

Rigging

Dave has informed that he will no longer be able to rig the goat as he has too much other work at the moment. This is very unfortunate and I will need to find someone else to rig it for me as I do not have enough time to do it myself.

Boy Model

I have finally persuaded Joe to send me his model of the boy after numerous promises, each that it will be finished within the next couple of days. After three months (almost 100 days) it still needs some work and I have decided it would be much quicker and more reliable if I finished the model off myself, as I have already lost a lot of time waiting for it.

Scene UV Mapped

I mapped out the UVs for the props and scene of my film. Most were straight forward but some proved more difficult.
Here is an example UV layout for the tree:

I also modeled the ground and surrounding hills of my set. I did this in two sections; one for the floor and nearby hills and the other for the distant hills.

I think it fits in well with the rest of the scene and with textures it should look even better.

Rope Tests

I have spent many hours in Maya trying to create the rope, which ties the goat to the tree. I have used several different techniques inspired by various tutorials, but the biggest aid has been the Maya Help file. Using ncloth produced quite a good result, however I could not make it retain its three dimensional shape. The video below was created using nine polygon cubes; the middle seven set to rigid active bodies and the end two passive rigid bodies. I then set up spring constraints between each of them and added a gravity field to the middle seven cubes. I created a curve and parented each of the CVs to the corresponding box's selection handle and extruded a polygon cylinder along the curve. This creates a rope that is animating depending on what happens to the end cubes. If I was to loop the cylinder at each end then I could set up constraints to keep the rope attached to the tree and goat. Unfortunately no matter how much I play with the settings, I cannot get it looking better than this and as I have already had to spend more time on this than I would have liked, I am either going to use it as it is or not at all.

Goat Tweaked and UV Mapped

I tweaked the goat model to make it more like my designs, as Joe could not find the time.

I also had to model teeth and the inside of the mouth. I was surprised as during my research I discovered that they have no top front teeth and there are big gaps between the front and back teeth. This is apparently quite common to herbivores as they use their tongue and front teeth to pick grass, then chew it with their back teeth.

I then went about readying the goat for textures by UV mapping it, trying to keep seems to a minimum and where they would least be noticed.

I am happy with how it turned out and can now go on to texture the goat.

I am very constricted with the remaining time left to complete my project and will therefore be asking for help to rig my characters, rather than doing it myself as I had initially planned. This is a shame because I have been following rigging tutorials, reading up on it and watching tutorial videos and was keen to put my knowledge into practise. Dave has agreed to help me and has said he will rig the goat.

UV Mapping

I have been watching a lot more UV mapping tutorials and decided I was ready to give it a go. I chose the mound first as it is a complex shape. It took a whole day to do, but I am very happy with how it turned out; there is minimal distortion and all of the seems are exactly where I wanted them to be.

Props

I modeled the props for my film, keeping them low poly so that they could be smoothed later.

Group Work: Book

I was asked to animate a page turn for James. His film is in 2d drawn into the computer and I therefore had to match style. To do this I attached his page designs as a toonshader and added thin black profile lines. As both sides of the page are shown during the page turn I had to enable the plane for double sided texturing. To do this I ran both texture files through Condition and SamplerInfo utility nodes. This allowed me to attach two files to the texture and display them depending on which way the normals were facing. I based the rig of the book on a page turn tutorial at http://www.highend3d.com/ and customised it to my needs. I had a few problems with the paint weighting but these were resolved with a couple of hours of experimenting.
I have not yet been given the final textures as one page is the credits, which can only be wrote towards the end of the project. This animation will be used in two shots of the film. I did a test based on the camera James wanted.

Progress to Date

I am slipping further and further behind my schedule because of numerous set backs and spending far too long redoing my blockout. The main reason for this was to act upon changes recommended by my various lecturers. Unfortunately they all had different ideas they thought I should incorporate which often conflicted, or they had problems with elements of the story that they thought did not make sense or were not realistic enough.

I should have stopped making changes to my story after taking on board the feedback I received after my first blockout, rather than confuse myself trying to change my film to take all of my lectures conflicting opinions on board. Their feedback has given me a much stronger story with clearer intentions and motives, however even at this late stage I am still being recommended to make changes, additions to my story or even completely change it and start again, which does not fill me with confidence.

Progress on both my film and my Dissertation has been greatly hindered by my very methodical working manner, feeling I have to explicitly plan out every little detail before taking any action. I am having to reduce the length of my film and get help in areas I was not initially planning on, yet I feel I may still struggle to hand in the minimum required. I have considered download rigs instead of using my characters, but I think if I concentrate on maximising my efficiency then I should be able to get everything done.

New Goat Model

Joe has updated the model of the goat to match the new design. It still needs the inside of the mouth modeling and a few very slight tweaks but other than that it is complete.

Grass Tests

I have been experimenting with a few different ways to texture grass. I started using grass presets in the Visor and simplifying the colours and shapes to keep in the style.

This was still too detailed and fussy however, so I decided to try creating a flat, impressionistic grass texture.

I think this sort of texture looks effect without being too detailed. I am not happy with the plain silhouettes though, so I tried adding some planes with alpha channels to roughen them up a bit.

The idea was good but I could not get it to work as the planes and ground always looked like separate objects. I knew that Toon Shader could create a line around the profile of an object and I tried attaching a file with an alpha channel to it. Unfortunately I had a lot of problems, the main reason because the outline it gives is actually three dimensional geometry and I was unsuccessful in my attempts to convert this into a two dimensional plane. It was also difficult to map the texture to the geometry.

I went back to using planes with alpha channels and played with various textures. I am happiest with the one pictured below and will base the final texture of this design.

Camera Tests

I have been off ill unable to work for two weeks and before I switch my priorities to full time on my dissertation I thought I should get the cameras ready for when I start animating.

Although not perfect the cameras are close enough to be used as a base when I start animating. The latest versions of my blockout have been made up of different files and was becoming a bit of a mess so for this camera test I had to completely start again just so I could get it all into one Maya scene. This has allowed me to refine actions and work out the priority in which I should animate scenes, in case I run out of time later on.

Tree Model

Matt has done a great job modeling the tree for my set.

He also helped me experiment with textures to get the branches how I want, but I am still not completely happy.

Texturing

I have been following UV texture mapping tutorials ready for when I start texturing my models. It does look a lot easier than I was expecting and with plugins such as Roadkill I should have no problems with it. The only model I have concerns over unwrapping is the rocky mound, as none of the tutorials I have watched have covered mapping a shape similar to it.

I am in the process of finalising the textures for each of the objects and characters. The style I hope to achieve is simplified colours with a slight exaggeration of texture. The final colour design of the boy is below.
I am having trouble implementing the style into the background of my set. The film takes place at the bottom of a green valley so the set is surrounded by hills. I want them to be out of focus yet have a strong texture. I will have to go back to my original mood boards for some inspiration.

Hill Model

Susan has finished modeling the hill for my set. It is very accurate to my clay model.

Goat Re-design

I was strongly recommended by my lecturer to reduce the age of the goat as an audience watching an animation would expect an adult goat to attack an annoying boy. Although it is late in the production stage to be changing designs, especially as the goat has already been modeled, I followed the advice. It has taken me many hours to produce a design for a kid that I am happy with, but I do think this an improvement on the last design.

Blockout 7

I experimented by collecting what I considered to be the strongest footage of my previous blockouts and tests and assembled them into one film. Because of the way I have put it together the camera cuts are very rough and many of the compositions had to be flipped to make it make sense. I think the story works well but my lecturers still have problems with it. However I have no more time to adjust it as I am already falling behind schedule. The films duration is now 1 min 11.

I also tried the blockout without the plum (below) and although this cut off a few seconds I do not think it makes sense.

Moments

My lecturers still feel the motives are unclear and story unrealistic and recommend I change it. Despite it being late in the schedule and me wanting to get on with production, I know the importance of having a believable story and have therefore decided to experiment by blocking out a series of 'moments' that could then be used of additions or improvements for my story.

I developed the climbing down sequence placing more emphasis on the boy's unsure footing. I think this is an improvement although probably needs to be pushed further.

I experimented by decreasing the size of the mound as I thought it was needlessly big. Although most of the animation is unchanged certain bits are more effective.

At several places the boy is on the verge of becoming mean, a characteristic I am wanting to avoid; the idea being a mischievous boy out looking for adventure and excitement. I liked the idea of him giving a glance over his shoulder to check he is not being watched before sneaking towards the goat.

I extended the shot of the goat trying to escape the oncoming boy. I think the goats actions are now clearer.

I played with the proportions of the stick, enlarging it so the boy struggled to lift it. The concept is good, although to include it I would want to change the whole film to focus on the boys struggle with it.

I gave the boy a saucepan helmet to help clarify him wanting to be a knight. I tested out the new prop in the reaching for a plum scene. Although a fun animation it is out of character for the boy and therefore will not be used. The saucepan works well though and I am thinking of keeping it.

Based off a home video I happened to see recently, of me nearly three years old attempting to force feed grass to five unimpressed adult goats already munching away at the village green. I modified the stick giving it a leaf at the end which catches the goats attention. The animation has not worked well but I think it is a strong idea and one I would like to include in my film. Maybe after this the boy could hold the stick protectively from the jaws of the goat and then spy the plum to distract the goat with.

A problem with the current ending to the film is that the goat just seems to accept the boy on it's back as there is a gap before the boy gives the plum as a token of gratitude. I added the goat trying to shake the boy off and now thinks it makes sense. The purpose of the goat to start galloping is also unclear. I wanted the goat to hold some affection for the boy; maybe he is a regular visitor to the otherwise lonely goat. I was finding it difficult to show affection (looking up fondly, galloping off with a smile) because of the limitations of the rig I am using for the blockout; its purpose being to give an example of how to rig a quadruped so there is no eyes or facial rig. To solve this problem I have used the leaf on the end of the stick to act as motive for the goat to start galloping. The action is maybe too quick to be read and I still prefer the original motive.