The "finished" animation

4th Year Project from Tom Feist-Wilson on Vimeo.

Work in Progress

Some work from the past few days. Obviously it's very rough and still needs a lot of work but it's nice to see progression :)

ps see my Playblast Codecs post to see more work

Project Diary - #3

Progress Report

Production progress

· Production pack is distributed, updates to follow. System in place to deal with these changes.

· All environment assets are locked, they will not be modified unless:

o They pose a serious detrimental problem to animation production

o Animation is completed and there is time to re-address problem areas

· Character Rigs are set up with basic controls. More controls will be added as required but rigs are acceptable at present.

· Props are undergoing testing, basic rigs are in place but it is necessary to test them in production to see that they are performing as desired (ie automated wheel turning is working)

Academic Progress

· Questionnaire research ongoing - timeline to be discussed with Robin

· Concern over professional practice role – how best to record my contributions to the showcase (currently they are not tangible)

Agreed action points

• Layouts and depth boards for predicitions of problems area's in 3D to be completed for next meeting (03/03/11)
• Practical work (animation) to continue
• Introduction and Literature review for dissertation to be started (by addressing comments and feedback)
• Arranging participants for the experiment stage of the project (showing the animation and using questionnaires to measure presence)

Questionnaire Research

Notes on Questionnares

Witmer and singer

Contains questions that might be confusing/ not entirely related to the subject. Eg: “Do you ever avoid carnival or fairground rides because they are too scary?”; “How physically fit do you feel today?”

However some questions do seem to be asking the right things especially to establish how immersed people get in everyday scenarios, a selection of possible questions for use in questionnaire follows:

1. Do you easily become deeply involved in movies or TV dramas?

a. Not sure about the use of “deeply”, seems a little ambiguous.

b. Could be rephrased as: “ Do you easily become involved in movies of tv dramas”

2. Do you ever become so involved in a television program or book that people have problems getting your attention?

a. Could be rephrased to: “Do you ever become so involved in a television program or film that people have problems getting your attention?”

3. How frequently do you find yourself closely indetifing with the character in a storyline?

These sorts of questions could be used as part of a screening process to identify people most likely to feel presence or immersion in the film.

IPQ

This mainly focuses on VR questions but they may be adaptable to the questionnaire about film. All use a 1-5 scale (agree/disagree etc)

Particular examples that could be used:

1. In the computer world I had a sense of “being there”

a. Could be adapted to: “how much did you feel that you were “in” the film.”

2. Somehow I felt that the virtual world surrounded me.

a. Could be adapted to: “I felt that the film surrounded me”

3. I felt like I was just perceiving pictures.

a. GOOD QUESTION FOR QUESTIONNAIRE!!

b. Needs little adaption because this is what the study is trying to measure.

c. Adapted to: “I felt like I was just perceiving pictures while I was watching the film?”

4. I was not aware of my real environment

a. Could be adapted to: “when watching the film how aware where you of your real environment i.e. the room you were sitting in?”

Helen Petrie immersion questionnaire

This was developed for games but some questions could be adapted for use in the questionnaire

1. To what extent did the game hold your attention

a. Could be rephrased to “to what extent did the FILM hold your attention?”

2. To what extent did you lose track of time?

a. This may be useful to establish how immersed people are in each version of the film

3. To what extent were you aware of yourself in your surroundings?

a. This is similar to 4. In the ITQ section, although this version of the question is in plainer English and may be easier to understand.

4. To what extent did you feel that the game was something you were experiencing, rather than just something you were just doing?

a. Could be rephrased to: “to what extent did you feel that the film was something you were experiencing, rather than just watching”

b. Again perhaps similar to previous questions but also benefits from being in plain English.

5. At any point did you find yourself becoming so involved that you were unaware you were even using controls?

a. Could be rephrased to; “At any point did you find yourself becoming so involved in the film that you were unaware you were even watching moving pictures?”

b. Perhaps better phrasing is needed “...watching a film?”, or “...watching an animation?” may be better/clearer.

6. At any point did you find yourself become so involved that you wanted to speak to the game directly?

a. Could be rephrased to: “at any point did you find yourself become so involved in the film that you wanted to help the character(s) directly?”

b. This assumes that people are able to get involved in the story in powerful way. May not be able to generate this kind of response in such a short animation.

It is unclear if these questions are lifted from another source or are the authors own work.

Production Pack

Met with my animators Soňa Geracsek, and Iain McCallum today to give them the production pack they'll need with all the models, rigs and textures.

Exciting times ahead... :)

Progress Report

Here's a quick update of how i've been getting on this week:

Alfi Model (courtesy of Andy Rennie) needs blendshape and skinned but i'm doing that today

All but a few minor environment assets are in place

All key props are modelled and textured, some of these need to be rigged.

Mum model is done (again from Andy Rennie)the rig is started but needs some alterations

the jist of all this is i'm about a week behind with my project plan (it's been a difficult week personally) but i feel that sometime during next week i can begin getting the animation started, to start fixing a few timing problems. i think that the main thing is to get a bit of animation done and just cut my losses with a few details that would have been nice to have in (ie more clutter to add to the world).

Scary Time!

Now that I've got the finalised mesh for Alfi I can begin rigging. This is a bit of a milestone for me as it's the realisation that very soon we'll be animating, which is quite exciting.

One of the main things that I still need to do is organise how we (Sonja, Iain, and Myself) are going to work on the animation. There are a few main tasks:

1. Make up a scene priority list, so that we can divide the work as fairly as possible and get to work on the hardest scenes first.
2. Work out how I can edit the camera settings in a scene without overwriting work that's been done on the animation ( I know that doesn't really make a lot of sense but ironically that's part of the problem -I'm not sure what I'm dealing with! I'll clear this up in a proper post when I've figured it all out)
3. Collate all the materials that are needed for production into one folder that can be distributed to the other animators without maya scene files losing the paths of texture files and references.
4. Establish how much time Sonja and Iain can dedicate to the project and then plan the work they will be doing accordingly (this actually follows on from task #1 on this list)

Unfortunately this is not the limit of this list, it's just all that I can remember at the moment! I think that will have to be my main task tomorrow, figuring out what not got a rock solid plan of attack for.

Another super quick one...

today:

1. spoke to John Harrison. had good chat about some technical and artistic issues. realised this project is the first one I've ever worked on where stylisation has been a planned option, it's liberating but also complicated -it creates more decision making tasks.
2. realised that a lower poly version of the mountain bike that Alfi wants will look better than the hi poly version that I've been working so far. by this i mean that it will work better stylistically as the hi poly bike will not fit in with the environment around it.
3. saw the near finished version of the Alfi character model. just a few things to change and then rigging can begin on Monday :)

Super Quick post

stuff I did

yesterday:

1. got feedback from Robin Slone about my proposal and bar a few small points (mostly grammer etc) he seems happy with it which hopefully not too much re-writing is needed.
2. Got Sonja Geracsek on the team to help out with animation :)
3. met with Ken Scott-Brown about organising the use of the HIVE for the production of Alfi's Bike so i'll be able to do regular screen tests of the stereo effect.

today:

1. am now part of the organising committee for the Abertay 2010 Degree Show
2. Have realised that for best optimisation of scene size i'll use PNG files rather than PSDs
3. figured out that my folder hierarchy and asset management was unusable for other people so i need to change it and make sure it will work for other team members.

Pipeline

I've decided that i should approach the production of certain assets by creating a base mesh, Uv mapping that mesh, and then manipulating it to create unique models without having to start from scratch every time. Although I've not tried it before and have no idea how successful it might be , I'm confident that this will save me valuable time in the long run.

It is a this point that i realise that a book with tips on how to be more efficient with asset production would be really useful. I'm not aware that such a book exists but maybe i've just not been looking in the right places.

Pre-Production Doc

I think I've finally cracked how I should personally tackle the Pre-Production document that we have to submit for Gregor's module. I've broken my essay down into three chapters:

1. Visual Research - The art development eg. mood boards, storyboards, concept art etc.
2. Technical Research - Professional practice in stereo 3d pre-production eg. learning about how S3D works, how do they do it all in industry.
3. Academic Research - The aim of the project eg. what research has been done surrounding Stereo 3d, how am I going to do my research.

I've not written part number 3 yet but that's just a case of summarising the finding of my Lit Review that was part of my Project Proposal.

Hopefully this is what Gregor is after, and from my interpretation of the brief, I'm pretty sure I've covered all the bases.

Good luck to anyone out there still trying to write theirs!

Progress

A late Merry Christmas and Happy new year to all!

Unfortunately its back to work for me and it’s been ages since i’ve posted an update so this is gonna be a bit of a beast.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned that I’ve got some more people on board to help me with the project so I’ll take this opertuntity to introduce them

Scott Hilton has kindly offered his services as “the audio guy”. Scott is a great addition to the team (feels a bit weird saying that) and is great news for a project that would otherwise have been completely silent seeing as I have next to no time to do that kind of stuff. Scott has been working on finding a signature sound for the music and gathering sound effects that we’ll need for the film.

Iain McCallum has also volunteered to help me out with animation too which is great. Iain has only just got into the project but hopefully when we get back to uni we can start working a little more closely on ideas for improving the animation and tackling the problems that lie ahead.

Despite the lack of updates here things have been moving along nicely with the project over the Christmas break. The character design by Andy Rennie is how finalised and as I type Andy’s working on the 3d model. Personally I’ve been working a lot on the environment and backgrounds, which you can see below.

as you can see the textures are still fairly rudimentary (or non existent) but i've been trying to make quick progress so i can get a better picture of how it might all work together.

Review...adjust...review...adjust...review...adjust.......

My reviewed aim and objectives

******

Aim

"To evaluate if stereoscopic 3D within animation can affect the degree of audience presence when compared with 2d"

Objectives

1.0 To research 3d film making and the techniques commonly used to create audience presence.

1.1 - Research the principals of stereo 3d cinematography

1.2 - Research any additional requirements of 3D film making

1.3 - Produce basic tests shots with Maya's default stereo camera rig

2.0 To create a short animation with an engaging storyline that can be rendered in both 3D and 2D.

2.1 - Create all required assets (with assistance from another student)

2.2 - Prepare required assets for animation, including rigging, skinning and texturing

2.3 - Animate the sequence (with possible help from other students)

2.4 - Light the scenes as required

2.5 - Render the sequence in 2D and then again in 3D (in appropriate format for use with polarised 3d)

3.0 Asses the extent of the presence effect of 3D in the animation above.

3.1 - Research existing examples of questionnaires suitable for assessing audience presence

3.2 - Show the animation (created in 2.0) twice to two different audiences, once in 3D and once in 2D.

3.3 - Use the questionnaire created in 3.1 to test audience presence

4.0 Review the relevance of Stereoscopic 3D in generating a feeling of presence for an audience in animation

4.1 - Discuss the concept of Presence

4.2 - Review the findings of objectives 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0

4.3 - Discuss the effect that Stereoscopic 3D has on presence.

Environment Concepts

just a couple of quick sketches of environment concepts.

newsagent

Bike shop 1

Bike Shop 2

Refining my Project

After a chat that I had with Robin Sloan and some thinking that I've been doing since then I have decided that I am going to change my project aim slightly.

Aim

"To evaluate if stereoscopic 3D within animation can affect the degree of audience immersion when compared with 2d"

Objectives

1.0 To research 3d film making and the techniques commonly used to create an immersive effect.

1.1 - Research the principals of stereo 3d cinematography

1.2 - Research any additional requirements of 3D film making

1.3 - Produce basic tests shots with Maya's default stereo camera rig

2.0 To create a short animation with an engaging storyline that can be rendered in both 3D and 2D.

2.1 - Create all required assets (with assistance from another student)

2.2 - Prepare required assets for animation, including rigging, skinning and texturing

2.3 - Animate the sequence (with possible help from other students)

2.4 - Light the scenes as required

2.5 - Render the sequence in 2D and then again in 3D (in appropriate format for use with polarised 3d)

3.0 Asses the extent of the immersive effect of 3D in the animation above.

3.1 - Research existing examples of questionnaires suitable for assessing audience immersion

3.2 - Show the animation (created in 2.0) twice to two different audiences, once in 3D and once in 2D.

3.3 - Use the questionnaire created in 3.1 to test audience immersion

4.0 Review the relevance of Stereoscopic 3D to immerse and audience in animation

4.1 - Discuss in the form of a dissertation the findings of objectives 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0

This feels like a clearer set of objectives and activities, although I'm sure these will change again as submission time draws closer.

Supervisors

Just got an e-mail telling me that Robin Sloan and John Harrison are my honours project supervisors :)

Objectives and Activities

A quick look at what my activities might be based on the objectives set out under my project aim

1. To research 3D film making and the techniques commonly used to create an immersive effect.

1.1 - research principals of stereo 3d cinematography

1.2 - research how other 3d mediums create immersive effect (ie. games and simulators)

1.3 - explore how these techniques can be applied to my animation

2. To create a short animation that can be rendered with varying levels of Stereo 3D depth.

2.1 - produce an animation with an engaging storyline

2.2 - render it twice with varying levels of depth in a suitable format for use with polarised 3d

2.3 - check

3. To use existing questionnaires that can asses the extent of the immerive effect used in the animation above.

3.1- research existing immersion questionnaires and asses which one is most relevant for use with the context of my project

3.2 - show the animation to two isolated audiences, one viewing a strong 3d effect, the other viewing a more subtle effect.

3.3 - using the questionnaire from 3.1 test and compare the two different audiences

4. To discuss and research the best use of Stereo 3d to immerse an audience in animation.

4.1 - Wirte a dissertation discussing the findings of objectives 1 and 3

The longest day

I'm pretty sure that today's been the longest day that I've done this year, I think I've racked up about 10hours work today! The fruits of my labour are at least obvious, I've only got one more panel to do for the second draft of my storyboard which I started just this morning. I've not had time to scan all the images in yet but I hope that tomorrow I'll be able to get them together so I can upload them here.

I've just finished my Show and Tell presentation that I have tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see how the tutors react to the work done and the changes I've made to my project over the past couple of weeks.

I've been thinking this week about asking 3rd year Creative Sound Production students to help me with the audio for my film as I won't be able to do this myself. I'm hoping that if I send out an e-mail and generate some interest in the project. I've also talked to Lynn about getting 3rd year Computer Arts students to help with some animation, as part of their Advanced Animation module, although this is less likely to happen.

I might have lied a little bit about not having scanned in any of the storyboard images because I've just remembered that I did scan in one to use in my Show and Tell tomorrow...

Revelations

Thankfully there is now new life in my honours project. After my talk with Colin yesterday afternoon I believe I have a research question that I can use to satisfy both aspects of my honours project without compromising either. Colin suggested that it would be perfectly possible to study varying degree's of immersion in stereo 3d.

My new proposed project aim is as follows:

"To evaluate how the presentation of a Stereoscopic 3D animation can affect the degree of audience immersion"

Objectives:

• To research 3D film making and the techniques commonly used to create an immersive effect.
• To create a short animation that can be rendered with varying levels of Stereo 3D depth.
• To use existing questionnaires that can asses the extent of the immerive effect used in the animation above.
• To discuss and research the best use of Stereo 3d to immerse an audience in animation.

I've not really identified specific activities for these objectives but that will come over the next few days. I hope.

Bike Shop

The first proper sketch of how the bike shop might look