Category: Collaborative

This post is about the final compositing, with a video of the last stage (It’s working very badly right now, but this is the only thing we can submit at the moment, I’ll show you the final version next semester)Our team uses GITHUB to record every time a team member makes a change to the project and uses it for important questions (within the project). Here is the link: Issues · Sturmt1ger/The-Bag-Choice (github.com)

Firstly below is the final result at this stage and a snippet of my personal VFX Breakdown for the team.

In this phase, I was responsible for the task of doing quality control, and as of the end of June, I had only received a video that had barely progressed, the last time I sent the team my file was the end of May, and this video was pretty much the exact same script as the one from the beginning of May (except for the effects shots part), the video below shows the video file from the end of June.

So I had the final compositor make changes and wrote a proposal for changes complete with images.

I have communicated with them several times but still no progress, it was explained to me that the file I sent to the team its not usable, so I redid a new NUKE file, but I found that this is not possible, please see the picture below, the left is the file that I sent (saturation is natural, and the main please look at the cloud, I don’t know what is this cloud on the right pic), and on the right side is the new (distorted, and overexposed) looks like cartoon.

Specific issues I’ve raised in the Fix-Report above, which I think will greatly improve this lens once they’re resolved.

Critical Reflection

My personal problem in this project is that I didn’t propose more than one FX shot at the beginning, which would have enriched our final video, in fact, more than one could have appeared at the beginning when I drew the storyboard, but I didn’t make the second one at a later stage because of multiple reasons;

The second point is that, for the part of the grass, I wanted to make a growing effect, but unfortunately I didn’t find any tutorials for it;

The third point is the division of labour in the group, I should have explained to the others at the beginning that I want to do the final composite, because this step is very important, I’m very confident in my ability to monitor the aesthetics of this step to me to do a lot fewer problems;

The fourth point is the problem of keying, our group in the beginning of the confirmation of the special effects shots is very hastyThe fourth point is the keying issue, our team was very hasty when we started to confirm the VFX shots, so I could only use semi-AI to complete the character’s keying, and this would lead to a very mediocre quality, I will figure out the compositing process before the production starts in the later stage, so I can avoid a lot of trouble, and if the characters are shot through green screen, the quality of the work can be greatly improved.

Scroll down to see more of the previous process ^ ^

This post is about the creation of the mobile plant and the NUKE compositing, with a video of this stage (at the moment this clip is 100% my personal production)

Our team uses GITHUB to record every time a team member makes a change to the project and uses it for important questions (within the project). Here is the link: Issues · Sturmt1ger/The-Bag-Choice (github.com)

First, I converted the video to EXR format because I wanted to export it as a background and Redshift doesn’t support PNG sequences.

Then I 3D tracked the camera and subtracted the character mask I created at the beginning to get an unmasked scene data. (I also masked it to expand it, since NUKE still reads the extra data. Finally I tested the 3D scene in NUKE

Then in Houdini I made a simple material because I needed to test the Redshift renderer (this was the first time I used it, the renderer is extra software in Houdini so I spent a lot of time installing and learning it)

Then I found some models of flowers and grasses in Bridge, and I tested the materials in C4D first (because the models contain multiple subdivision levels)

Then I integrated multiple models into Houdini.

Here you’ll see that this haystack contains multiple models because I wrote a function expression when converting particles to something else, and in the expression the particles are converted to three integers, and the three integers point to three different OBJs, so we get a random haystack!

Then I tried to render a frame and I can see that the first image has strange colours, this is because the Redshift render window uses OCIO colour grading.
However, I didn’t find where I could adjust it, and I’ll need to keep working on it later, as I have no way of seeing what the colours actually look like on the monitor.
The second image is the result after exporting to EXR compressed format, the colours are now correct

Then I added an expression on the liquid emitter about the time, $FF> to indicate that it works when the number of frames is greater than X, because the environmental scene is in the second half of the shoot

Then I added steps to the scene and adjusted the position (this step requires patience because you don’t know what the adjusted things look like in the render window, because these items in the picture are not rendered, they only exist as volumes (hidden) in the scene)

Looks better now!

Then I started to create the lawn under the character’s feet, I still used the same technique but switched an emission source and modified the viscosity values

Then I adjusted the position of the various parts for a long time to get the right trajectory in the video

I then put the two videos into NUKE and composited them and adjusted their colours with some depth of field and motion blur effects.

I then spent a lot of time on the rendering and eventually I imported the result into NUKE

Then I noticed that there was no shadow on the ground when the character was walking, so I shifted the original character mask and recoloured it

This video is the current progress of this clip, all the following visual effects were done independently by me (There’s currently a bug where part of the Flood Plants fluid is supposed to flow behind the tree, not in front of it, which I’ll tweak at a later stage)

This post documents the individual progress of the last group project up to 23.5

Our team uses GITHUB to record every time a team member makes a change to the project and uses it for important questions (within the project). Here is the link: Issues · Sturmt1ger/The-Bag-Choice (github.com)

My main task this time was to complete the waterfall plant and its compositing in NUKE, I firstly used Bridge to find a model of the car and imported it into the software, then I created a liquid emission source.

The technique I used was a volumetric particle transformation technique, I would use the Flip element and solved it, and then transformed each particle into a grass and a plant by replacing them with particles.

Then I realised that the car model was hollow in the middle, so I imported it into C4D and changed its internal model. Because in Houdini I need to convert the FBX file to a volume file, the original car has no thickness, so I can’t generate a volume

Then I changed the particle emission source to a single one (otherwise the plant would flicker) and checked the particle normals

The normal must be vertically up, I changed the direction in the node

Then I manually created the nodes of the Karma renderer and imported an HDRI map as the main light source.

Then I made sky-specific changes to the main NUKE file.

I plan to split the altered footage into two parts, with the sky being grey in the first half of the destruction scene and clear in the second half.

I plan to split the altered footage into two parts, with grey skies in the first half of the destruction scene and clear skies in the second half. First I did a 2D tracking of the sky at two points to get the XYZ as well as the rotation transformation data

I then used the Keyer node to get the Luminance data and added Roto to the parts other than the sky to get a mask of just the sky parts

Then I put in an image to check my Alpha channel

Then there was a separate Roto for the face part of the character (because the character was moving a lot and the face was so bright that the Keyer node treated my face as the sky too = =)

Imported the cloudy day video file

These are the node trees that replace the sky

I then optimised it for edges, as there was now a white edge to the characters as well as the trees, so I found the Colour–Smear node in the NUKE Github, which makes it easy to remove the white edge

I then added scene fog as well as colour correction so that there would be a colour contrast between the front and back of the scene

This post began by documenting the making of the team project in the Exploration Practice course, and this post documents the first phase and some of the second phase of the production process and insights.

Our team uses GITHUB to record every time a team member makes a change to the project and uses it for important questions (within the project). Here is the link: Issues · Sturmt1ger/The-Bag-Choice (github.com)

Below is a summary of the core elements of our team project

Project thrust:
A short visual effects film about people’s choice of bags to show the importance of environmental protection and to stimulate people to rethink environmental protection.

Project Tools:
NUKE, HOUDINI, MAYA, UE5, PR, BRIDGE

Synopsis:
Two people meet in a café, A asks B why they don’t use eco-bags, B thinks it’s okay. A then tells B that it’s wrong through a series of initiatives and visual effects if the environment is destroyed.

Then I drew this storyboard

Next, after getting the original video, the first thing I was responsible for was the ROTO work on the VFX part of the video, as our VFX needed to be masked against the VFX with a person

I first used Mocha Pro to auto-key the character, it’s as easy as Photoshop, then I found some problems with this tool, it’s hard to track when the character turns around (for example, when the character turns his head, the whole tracking plane is displaced) I think the reason is caused by the software’s problems.

So I did an accurate tracing of the character in NUKE, then converted the NUKE data to MOV format and imported it into Pr, which has a plugin that allows you to take full advantage of the performance of the computer’s GPU to auto-trace the character, but you still need to manually process some colour similarities.

After completing the tracking, I realised that the system wasn’t recognising the part where Mahadev walked in from outside the camera, I then manually tracked this part in NUKE, I divided him into 6 sections for accurate tracking

Then I tried a simple masking in NUKE to test ROTO usability

I then created a node tree for smoke synthesis in the NUKE file so that my squad members could easily make smoke through this series of nodes

This post documents the progress of individual and, in part, team projects from 16 February to 29 February.

Post Summary (Personal):
1: Boss character design (including costumes)
2: BOSS weapon design
3: BOSS’s accessory design
4: Skill effects design (part of)

Post Summary (Personal):
1: Design of main character attack animation (COMBO1)
2: Integration of characters and models in the UNITY engine.
3: Scripting and implementation of the lock-on function
4: Scripting of COMBO

PART I: PERSONAL

After the group meeting in this fortnight, my task is also determined, I am responsible for designing all the things of BOSS, but the first thing I have to complete is the production of the model as well as the rendering of the effect, which sounds simple, but in fact, it also needs to work in collaboration with more than one software, the following is the production process, I will be batch by batch for the step by step introduction.

Firstly, is about the character design.

1. The above pictures are my reference for making the BOSS, which comes from the game Elden Ring. Our BOSS is a female mage. In the shoulder design, I plan to add the elements in Figure 3 and 4, of course, we will replace the material with bones, and the characters will be Asian.

2. The first step of making the boss was to use the Character Designer to make a female model, and by using the adjustment function in this software, I combined some male features, such as a little double chin and bigger shoulders, and these adjustments would make her look bigger.

3. Next I exported the character model as an fbx model, imported it into MD, and resized the model.

4. The next thing I do first is the innermost layer of the robe, which I make very long to show the layers of the garment.

5. Then I adjusted the physical properties of the fabric, I adjusted the inner fabric to have a more leathery texture.

6. Next I made the second layer of fabric, which is a half-hung cloak, and in positioning, I used a needle tool to hold part of the cloak in place, otherwise it really kept falling off.

7. Make long scarves to hang on your clothes.

8. Freeze the lower garment and add a needle tool to continue fixing loose parts.

9.

10.

This post documents the progress of individual and, in part, team projects from 1 February to 15 February.

Post Summary (Personal):
1: The design of the protagonist’s weapon
2: Design of the main character’s body jewellery

Post Summary (Team):
1: Main character model design
2: UNITY engine’s script for the basic movement logic of the protagonist.
3：Engine for the implementation of the boss skills
4: Basic movements of the protagonist (standing and dodging)

PART I: PERSONAL

The task assigned to me by the group this fortnight was to complete the design of the protagonist’s weapon, including a high-precision model, as well as to create an accessory for the protagonist to wear around his neck. Through my research, I found that a gourd-like kettle was popular in Loulan in ancient times, and later on, this kind of item was also used in a lot of modern TV dramas as well as film and TV productions, so I used the shape of the gourd in the design of the necklace.

Production Process:
1: First of all, use C4D’s solid fabric simulation to create a chain, so that the chain can absolutely fit on the character’s body, and there will be no bugs!
2: Import the model into ZB, then sculpt the gourd shape and add details
3: Combine the model with the chain and add bulging physical details at the joints

Next up was the sword section, after discussing it in our two group meetings we decided to have the protagonist use a greatsword as his weapon, our first few versions were a tanged sword as well as a fighting sword, but because of our theme of Loulan, both of these weapons were eliminated. So I started to investigate the information and I found out that in ancient Loulan there were a lot of legends about bones as well as relics, so I added some eye patterns on the hilt as well as a shattering effect.

Production process:
1: Create the basic model of the knife in C4D and adjust the scale with the character model.
2: Import into ZB, carve the knife parts in ZB and reduce the surface.
3：After the sculpture is finished, send the low face model to the animation team, and prepare the high face model to replace the animation model.

PART II: GAME DESIGN GROUP

Firstly, there was the UNITY prep work, where my group completed the basic scripting of the game and designed the dynamic scripting and basic logic for character attacks. Then they finished the character’s hook lock animation. For the boss design, they finished the script for the particle tracking of the magic attacks.

Then we designed a complete set of COMBO for the main character’s attack through another group meeting, we have two sets of combos for the main character’s attack, which are A-A-B as well as A-A-A-B, A stands for light attack and B stands for heavy attack, of course, different combos will be animated differently (here I need to do the special effect for the swinging of the sword as well as the soot effect for the feet). Later on, after I communicated with the animation team, we decided to make the last hit of COMBO1 (A-A-B) a jumping strike, so I need to make a downward slash effect

PART III: ANIMATION GROUP

The animation team (which is really only one person) was tasked this time with completing all the designs for the main characters as well as baking them so that they could be smoothly animated. Then she also designed the main character’s stop motion animation as well as the dodging animation (the dodging animation was supposed to be a roll, but roll is too demanding on the model and buggy, so it was changed to dodging to the left and right sides)

Incidentally, on previous discussions, we decided to remove the protagonist’s prosthetic limbs and replace them with bone armour on the arms, the reason for this change was that the prosthetic limbs would have made it difficult to create the clothes, because of the need to go for a lot of breakage effects, so it was changed to the current version, and in the later stages of the colouring process we decided to design a red (or purple) glowing effect on this piece

Before I start the introduction, I want to make it clear that I found a group of people who were interested in the first week of school in January, and because the project we’re working on is very interesting, I’m actually including three weeks of progress in this posting (two weeks to be exact, because in the first week we were working on defining the worldview as well as the theme’s concept, which is complicated because we need to take into account a lot of factors, and all four of us designers want to use this project as a cornerstone for the future, so we’re all very serious about getting it done).

We are going to make a third-person perspective fighting game based on the UNITY engine, the game is based on a variety of hardcore beat ’em up games, I’ve put up 3 videos of reference games below, each of which can be viewed for just a few of the core elements (movement, gameplay, and special effects) especially the first one which is the most informative (since it’s based on the same engine).

Our game is set in the ancient Central Asian region of Loulan, and the main focus of the game is to control the protagonist, an ancient prince of Loulan, to kill a boss in order to achieve victory.

We currently have a full backstory in place, and we’ll be embodying a part of the story (maybe a weapon?) in the game as well. Maybe an enemy? Maybe a scene?) Everything will be designed with elements of Central Asia and the Loulan region in mind.

Our team is now close to completing the design of the main character, and I’ll be introducing the main character in detail in the next post, here’s some of the brainstorming we’ve been doing in FIGMA, and some of the sources of the ideas (there’s a bit of Chinese in there that we haven’t translated at the moment, but we’ll be doing so later on).

The above is the progress that our group has been discussing together in our regular twice-weekly meetings, and some of the pictures in it are sketches that we have made.

Here is some of my progress during recent weeks.

Before next week’s group presentation, I was tasked with completing the design of the accessories on the main character as well as the design of the weapons, and assisting another 3D designer with the design of the costumes and the binding of the bones.