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Final Evaluation CW2
Pre-Production
This animation was a wonderful creative project that gave me the opportunity to show my creative ambition and gave me a voice to speak about a problem I am very passionate about. I began this project by doing extensive research on the major causes of endangerment in Orangutan and Panda populations. Through my research I learned a lot about deforestation as a result of palm oil harvesting, poaching, and habitat loss across several parts of Asia. I began planning my animation by speaking to my two young sisters-in-law. They gave me many wonderful ideas on the design of my characters and helped me select the reference images I should use to model in Zbrush.
Production
I spent nearly 1 month modeling the characters, as unfortunately I was far too ambitious and wanted to add a lot of detail to the characters. In hindsight, I wish I had moved on to working in Maya much sooner. I then retopologized my characters and followed retopology guidelines, but as this was my first time attempting this the topology was not as perfect as I had hoped. Now, I feel much more comfortable with retopology, but in future I will learn to apply bump maps in order to apply more accurate detail to the mesh. I then UV unwrapped my characters by using the cut and sew tools in the UV editor. On the UV maps I applied solid colors by painting them on in Photoshop. I wanted to use bright, solid colors and minimal texture detail to enhance the cartoonish and childish nature of the characters. I then rigged the meshes with joints and created IK controls to ease animation. I planned the animation by writing a timeline of the actions across 1400 frames. Once animated, I rendered the image sequences and was ready to move onto post-production.
Post-Production
I decided to do all my post-production in After Effects. I Imported the background image, and image sequences. I keyed out the backgrounds of the characters, then imported the audio recordings and particle overlay. This was then exported into Media Encoder and saved as an MP4. I used levels to manipulate the lighting of the scene and incorporate the characters more seamlessly into the background. I used a soft particle overlay to animate the scene further.
Overall, I believe I was able to achieve what I had first envisioned for this animation, for the most part. Although, I would have loved to incorporate realistic textures, more complex animation, and lip synch. I have learned many skills throughout this project and now have an increased knowledge on the correct pipeline for creating an animation using several software packages. I will continue to experiment with different methods and hope to implement more challenging techniques into my future work.
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Post - Production (After Effects)
To begin post production I imported the background image and the .jpg/.png image sequence, that was rendered in Arnold renderer, into After Effects. I used the pen tool to trim the frame around the characters and position them correctly.
After this it was then time to key out the black and green backgrounds around the characters. For this I used the linear color key and the eye dropper tool to select which color to remove. I then experimented with the level of tolerance; unfortunately, I was unable to do a clean key around the orangutan, but as I rendered the panda on a green background I was able to get very crisp edges and a clean key. I will keep in mind to render all 3D images with a green background in future.
I used soft slow particles throughout the animation to give the entire scene more movement.
Particles Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d16KrY5GG6c
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Rendering (Maya)
I rendered out the orangutan animation as a .png sequence and the panda as a .jpg
Through the student version of Maya the Arnold watermark is present in all rendered frames. I followed this method to remove it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bvl633Pc7I
I rendered out the panda using a Maya primitive shape, with a green lambert material applied to provide the panda with a distinctive background to make keying easier in post-production.
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Lighting (Maya)
I then created lighting for the scene by turning off the sRGB gamma and adding a directional light and point lights. I manipulated the brightness color and direction to correspond with the lighting of the background, and repeated this closely for the other character so both would be lit equally.
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Sketches / Narration
I am lucky enough to live with two wonderful little girls, who fueled my inspiration for this project. From the planning stage, I knew it was important for me to get their feedback as they are the same age as my target audience (7 and 11). They had input on character design, background design, writing of the script, and animation, all of which I tried to implement as faithfully as I could.
I wanted to incorporate their voices as I believe it would make the message of environmental protection more appealing to other children. The girls and I worked together to write a script that highlighted the importance of pandas and orangutans in their habitat as well as easy steps children can take to prevent any more loss of life.
Script
The girls and I did many takes to to get the best recording that would be exciting and correctly paced at about 45 seconds.
Script References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Puv0Pss33M&t=425s
https://www.wwf.org.uk/wildlife/giant-pandas
https://www.wwf.org.uk/wildlife/orangutans
https://redapes.org/about-orangutans/orangutan-crisis/
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Background/Photo-bashing Technique (Photoshop)
Final Background
From my research I had found several images of east Asian forests, shrubbery, vines, etc. that were native to my orangutan and panda characters. My idea was to create a picturesque and beautiful 2D background that gently blended a bamboo forest and rain forest environment. My hope is that this will clearly demonstrate to children that these lush habitats will one day be gone along with the animals themselves.
In Photoshop I began by layering images to outline the overall setup of the scene. The two main elements I needed to incorporate were a bamboo forest and a rain forest so I first imported two images on low opacity and added light and dark brush strokes where needed to blend later images.
Once the entire image was filled with a rough outline I began painting in the detail. I used several reference images and nature inspired color palettes as inspiration for the final look of the background, as seen below.
I experimented with the curves and levels of the image to create the brightness of the scene. Finally, I rendered a few bamboo trees to add to the scene and painted in the highlights for the two stages in which my subjects would be placed.
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Animation (Maya)
Orangutan - Appeal, Exaggeration, Staging, Squash and Stretch
The orangutan remains in constant motion as he bounces up and down, I exaggerated these movements to enhance his personality. He then jumps up using the squash and stretch principle. As he falls aback to the ground he bangs on his chest and imitates the movement of the Three Wise Monkeys “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.” Although this is a children’s animation I really wanted to include the Three Wise Monkeys as it symbolizes to me the world turning a blind eye on the species that need us most.
Panda - Exaggeration, Staging, Squash and Stretch
The Panda remains seated and waves to the audience. He stands up slowly to show his weight. He then wraps his arms around himself as if sending the audience a hug. For me the panda was definitely the supporting character of the two, his motions are slow and simple to highlight the cuteness and movement of the orangutan. Through my research I found that Orangutans are far more endangered than the Giant Panda, therefore I maintained focus on the orangutan.
To animate in Maya I began by posing my character using the IK controls I had created when rigging. Similarly, I created the animation by setting key-frames along the timeline on each IK control. The animation consists of 1400 frames at 24 fps.
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Rigging (Maya)
To begin the rigging process in Maya I began by creating joints within my retopologised character. I started creating joints in the left leg and then mirrored those joints. I then created the spine, arms, chest, and head joints and parented the limbs to the spine.
I then had to orient the joint correctly using a Maya script as it is very important the joint are pointed in the right direction for them to perform properly. Then I created IK handles that allowed to control entire joint chains instead of animating each individual one.
Once the IK controls were applied to the character’s joints I created NURBS polygons for each in order to easily control the individual parts of the character.
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UV Unwrapping (Maya)
I began by using the UV editor in Maya and the Cut and Sew tools to remove parts of the character. Unfortunately, I found this step very difficult and decided to create a round UV map as my models would require little texture and a few solid colors.
After I exported the UV snapshot into Photoshop I then began painting the colors on the desired areas.
I then applied assigned a new material to the model using a lambert / file and applying the new UV map and texture.
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Retopology (Maya)
After importing my z-brush models into Maya I needed to decrease the polygon count by retopologizing. I began by making the model live and using Quad Draw to select vertexes to create concentric loops, consisting of mostly squares. I aimed to create more squares where the character would have a wider range of motion such as the joints and tried to maintain even distribution using the relax brush.
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3D Modeling (Zbrush)
Panda
I began by creating the general shape of the models using z-spheres.
I then applied an adaptive skin to the model, at this point I divided the polygons once to allow for slightly more detail.
With the use of reference images, I shaped and added detail to the model . I began using the Move Topology brush to round out the harsh edges of the model and then moved on to using Clay Buildup and Trim Dynamic to create more detailed shapes on the face. Finally I decimated the model by 20% and exported it into Maya for Retopology.
Orangutan
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Endangerment Research
https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/20-extraordinary-things-you-can-do-to-save-endangered-species.php
https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/orangutan
https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/giant-panda
https://www.countryfile.com/wildlife/10-of-the-most-endangered-animal-species-in-britain/
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Background Reference
Feedback: Photo-bashing may be better for the background. Use after effects for 2d animations. Desaturate background, to make characters pop.
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