Category: Collaborative Unit

WRITTEN ANALYSES AND REFLECTIONS

Our team consisted of eight students, six from UAL and two other students assisting from other schools. Yiyang helped us develop the concept in the beginning concept, and Hefan helped us with the animating. They did a great job assisting, but most of the work was done by the students from UAL.
The group started with Yuting, Yiyu, and me. We had an idea at the beginning of the term and started to find other people to join us.
To combine everyone’s abilities and show them to the full extent. We decided to make an animation that has both 3D and 2D. Since everyone in the group was very enthusiastic and engaging, we developed the idea and started to work on it. The whole collaboration process is tiring but rewarding.
I primarily worked with Yuting as an assistant in the virtual 3D scene during the collaboration.

I’m good at researching and developing a concept for animation, so I did most related work. I also use 3D as a reflective and testing tool for the group members’ design. In the creation of the virtual classroom, I test out the 2D design in 3D to help the final decision on the concept. Creating the characters was quite challenging because it was hard to achieve the characteristic we wanted initially. Because we have sculptures as main characters, the model initially didn’t look cartoonish enough. So I exported the model to different software and played with the decimation setting to find the ideal amount of polygons we needed. After getting the suitable polygons, I modified the model’s shape to make them look alive. I also learned new skills during this group collaboration, such as UV mapping and texturing with Substance Designer.

During this group cooperation, I sometimes had to deal with the situation that I had to rush my work to keep up with the workflow. So I had to figure out the quickest way to do stuff to keep up with the plan. I think this experience is also a necessary part of group cooperation because I don’t work alone. It was hard to decide what I do for the group in the beginning as well because I know a bit of everything. But overall, I’m more interested in doing stylized and cartoonish stuff. I think I will try to improve more in the future to help me on producing my own work.
Generally speaking, this collaboration experience was very successful. The combination of the 2D and 3D worked really well. Everyone contributed their best to work and did a great job.

WORK IN PROGRESS FILM

FINAL ANIMATION

This week I selected and searched through the internet to find the ideal music for the animation.

I found all the sound effects (royalty free) on the Internet and picked the suitable ones to send to Yuting for sound effects.

For the BGM, I chose Morning Mood by Greig as the intro music when entering the virtual scene. I think the peaceful and dreaming music suits the scene quite well. For the frog part, I chose In the Hall of the Mountain King by Greig because I think it suits the hilarious and absurd feeling the frog comes out.

The virtual classroom part with the music roughly done.

UV AND TEXTURE

Yuting and I were responsible for the job of UV mapping. I thought it would be very complicated since this is my first doing UV mapping, but it turns out it’s easier than I imagined. To do UV mapping, firstly, I need to select the model and open it in the UV editor. I need to unfold and organize the UV to make it easy for texturing. Then I import the model with the UV to Substance Designer to paint textures.

After finishing the UV mapping and painting, I sent the file to Yuting. She is responsible for the compositing the whole scene.

NOTES FROM USING SUBSTANCE DESIGNER TO DO TEXTURE:

Substance painter software is a powerful 3D texture mapping software. The software provides a large number of brushes and materials. Users can design graphics and texture models that meet the requirements. The software has an intelligent material selection function. When users use paint, the system will automatically It is efficient to match the corresponding design template for them.

Substance Painter is an independent software. It is a brand-new 3D texture drawing tool and the latest next-generation game texture drawing tool. It supports the latest technology of PBR based on physical rendering. It has some novel functions, especially its particle brush, which can simulate the natural particle drop. The trajectories of particles form textures. Whether water, fire, dust, or other effects on the simulated model, it can help us express them vividly, draw all the materials, and add exquisite details to our texture in a few seconds. The texture can be drawn directly on the 3D model, avoiding the problems caused by UV seams, and the function is very powerful.

Compared with other 3D model texture drawing software, such as BODY PAINT, MUDBOX, and 3DCOAT, it is much more robust in efficiency, effect, and function. Its interface and process are very clear and relatively easy to learn after some theories are understood. The software comes with many texture packages in Sbsar format, which can be modified and used by simply adjusting the parameters. Many scratches, dirty marks, etc., can be automatically generated. Dust, paint, etc., can be drawn naturally using physical particles.

Generating model from video

This week we also upload the video we shoot last week to a software that can turn video into 3d scan. I think this type of 3D scan technique has been used in some work-flow to help with the production.

Yuting, the leader of the group project told me that she likes the effect I rendered in Cinema 4D. So I did some render tests in Cinema 4D. In this way I can be ready to prepare and provide ideas for the final visualization in substance designer and Arnold.

I want to go for a cute and creative vibe for the concept render.

Notes for lighting in Octane

Although there are not many lights in Octane Render, it is one of the most important tools when rendering the texture of the work. It can illuminate the scene and affect the material effect.
Octane area light is the main lighting tool in Octane Render. It can not only be used to illuminate the scene but also can be used to make some special effects, such as custom shadow shapes.

VISIT TO TATE

We are suppose to use luma 3D to generate 3D model from videos at Tate. My phone is not charged, so I just shoot some videos for next week.

This week I had to rush my work to keep up with the workflow. So I had to figure out the quickest way to do stuff to keep up with the plan.

notes for improving work speed:

In modelling, it can happens that multiple models appear in the same Area at the same time. If I need to select the desired model quickly, I can try the following method: hold down [ctrl] or [shift], Area, right-click, and a model list will pop up. After the modelling is completed, if I need to view the light and shadow effects of the object, I can use [default light] to view it.
In complex scenes, if I need to turn on the wireframe mode (N-G) to make adjustments, it may be affected by the backline segment and interfere with the line of sight. I can click [N-P] to cancel the display of the backline segment. Only the line segment facing the camera will be displayed for further optimization—display mode.

Last week I was working mostly with Yuting to develop script and find references for the animation. This week the focus of my work has became more clear. After going through the concept design and having multiple discussions, we decided to build the virtual classroom environment in 3D environment instead of 2D illustration.

I will be in charge of the modelling and texturing of the virtual classroom environment based on the concept drawings by illustrators from the group.

Design and Digital Processes and DAOs session

We played a fun game about collaborative drawing in class. These are drawings I’ve played part in.

I think this is a really nice way for us to understand how collaboration on art project works. I understand it will be everyone putting their thoughts on one subject together and it will turn out unexpectedly.