Back Plates

In the film we have a lot of still shots which the character interacts in this enables us to use back plates which means we can render out the environment once and the character on a separate layer. This process allows us to tweak the environmental shots in photoshop if they are not
quite what we are after in terms of lighting or extra colour.

My role is to add detail to environments. This is the 3rd shot in the film which was rendered by Samir. It is a very nice render but i felt in some areas there was too much light piercing through in places which made it feel like it was daylight. I have highlighted the areas i changed in the second image. I also made the spot light more stronger and changed the shadows it produced.




















This is a shot of inside the coop. This was another initial render by Samir to save him spending ages tweaking the lighting in Maya. I decided to do it in photoshop, as well as changing the lighting i added more hay to the scene to give it more depth.

Here is an example of how we approaching some of our rendering. Samir created the original render of the coop i took it away added some features to the scene like the hay and spider webs. Samir then rendered the character on a separate layer along with a shadow pass as well then we composite all together in adobe premeire.

Primary Animation

I am not a animator by trade however in this project i have had to jump in to releive Samir of all the animation.
The arriving at bars animation is one i fully animated myself including primary and secondary animation.

Secondary Animation

This section shows the secondary animation i have been doing for Samir and Gary in there animations. The secondary i have been doing is the comb on the main chickens head, the eye blinks and some follow through on the limbs.

Turbo Shots

Look Left To Right




Look at Veteren Chicken

Working on Straining Animation

Samirs animation was a really good start but there were a few places that needed a bit of work. I started by adding the secondary animation on the comb then i went about adding more weight to the character especially when stretching for his strain. There is also a part when the chicken looks over his shoulder Samir had the neck completely twisted which really distorted the geometry so I changed it so there was more twist in the body itself. I continued to make tinny adjustments to the animation. Samir felt the adjustments has really improved the animation which is a real complement coming from the animator himself.

End Title Sequence(Work in progress)

I have been working on the end title credits which will consist of the names of the people in the group and there contributions to the project. We also using this time to explain alot more about character after the finale. Here are MY drawings that i have created that will be used in the end credits. The layout of the titles is undecided but we may go with names either side of each image appearing gradually so the viewer can take in the images but also the names aswell.




















Here is our chicken or should say cockerel chilling with the ladies. What a playa.

































The playboy bunny i have changed to resemble a chicken. This iamge will appear in the images.




















Samir helped define the the look of the images suggesting we go for a washy look. he image above he started and i finished. However the image above is not quite finsihed as a background is needed.

Secondary animation

We came up with a system whereby Samir does the core primary animation and then passes it on to me to do the secondary animation such as the blinks and the comb. This will hopefully enable Samir to focus more on the significant animation.

Composition of Barn Entrance

Barn Entrance design

Reywell laid the foundations for this design with the wood texture and i added some others details and colour grading. Still needs some work.

Working on intro shot

Vetern Rigging and Weighting Finished

Info

Meeting with Dan

Dan really drilled it home how much work we have to do to get this filmed finished. We sat down as a group and listed key things to do and the time scale we have to do it. It looks very tight at the moment but definitely doable. We have created a new schedule till the end term which will be posted shortly.

Cockerel Tests

I have tried posing the character in its cockerel pose for the finale of our film. I am planning on doing some more tests but here's a quick one i whipped up.

Main character testing

So many problems have been encountered on this character its hard to remember what i have done it. I have finally binded it and weighted. They is still a few tweaks to made to the weigthing but that shouldnt take long. I decided to put him in a variety of poses. Hopefully you will like

Door Handle

Modelled a door handle for the shot where the farmer is struggling to open the door. (See Samirs blog for the animation). Here is a scene shot. NOT A RENDER!!!!!Still need to add bump map. Consists of 300 polygons.

Dont shoot me im not an animator!!!!!!

Here's my attempt at doing some animation for the intro where the farmer walks up to the barn. Its only the first pass and still needs a load of work to it so i might give it to Samir(Animator) to finish off. As there will be loads of animation in the film I intend to give the animators some help so i am trying to find my feet in animation again after a long hiatus from it.

Helping the Animators

I have been going over the controls i built for the rigs with the animators. Explaining certain functions and how to animator certain joints and use the fk/ik blend. Whilst doing to this we found certain things wrong with the farmers rig, this ended up being a good time to fully test the rig and highlighted any issues we may have when we come to proper animating. We found weighting was wrong in certain joints and deforming badly. We also discovered problems with the fk ik blend on the left arm. We the curve of the shoulder was moving the wrist and not the whole arm i was unable to parent constrain it to the shoulder for some reason and we was left in a dilemma as to what to do to animate the arm properly. We decided to delete the fk/ik blend completely and animate the joints individually. This would take longer to animate however there was no other obvious solution.

'Back Dated' Farmer Render

I forgot to post this a while back. I sent the farmer to Samir to do the weighting after he done that he done some test renders. I was pleased with how my textures came outon the character and baring in mind he is a very low res character he looks very good.

Im sure Samir will explain on his blog how he rendered them out but it looks like ambient occlusion with abit of subsurface scattering(SSS).

Intro Shot

I have been playing around with this intro shots where the truck is coming down the hill. I have added animation to the windmills and the tyres of the truck. Also i have played around with Reywells barn making it more prominent in the shotvand adding other assets such as Ians wall a gate, and some other bits and bobs

Veteran Chicken Update

To take a break from the main character i have been working on the veteren chicken. I created the basic model first then set about creating blendshapes the expressions we want. the character is only in the shot briefly(laying a ton of eggs rapidly) i realised the blendshape expression i was on working should just be the character expression all the time. Therefore we would only need a few blendshapes to create the breathing and the twitches in the face.

OH NO

I have made a grave mistake. I thought u binded before you started doing blendshapes however that doesn't seem to be the case. Its meant to be blendshapes then binding. OH WELL on the other hand after playing around with the blendshapes they are starting to come along nicely its harder to get expressions because of the beak. but i have persevered and here are some examples. smiling expression, 2 straining expression( still needs some work on those two), worried face, thinking look. Not all perfect i know but there getting there slowly i think.

Blendshapes for main character

I have started to work on the blendshapes for our main character. This proving more difficult than expected. I am relying on the emotion comming from the eyes.

Weighting Main Chicken

I have almost finished the facial controls e.g eyes controls, tongues, basic jaw movements however iam still to start the facial blendshapes. I will start this as iam just starting the body weighting which shouldnt take me too long.

Texturing Farmer

Iam having some problems with the main chicken so until i see reywel i have continued with texturing the farmer.

As he wont be seen much in the film i have cut some corners but the texturing i have done is still pretty detailed .I dont like things done by half and another benefit is if the character comes out well he can potentially be used in my showreel.

Texturing Main Character

Before I start to create blendshapes and bind the rig i have been texturing the main chicken character. This is proving tricky as the texture is making to the charcter seem very flat. I knew that might be the case as its quite a low res model however i thought the textures and bump would bring out the features alot more. We had comtemplated a feather system for the chicken using either fur or dynamics however after some testing we found it unpredictable and something beyond our technical scope. So textures and bumps it is.

I have started to shape his clothing and facial features. As he is not seen in the film alot i will keep the detail to a minimum.

Farmer Modeling and Rigging

I have decided to start the basic model of the farmer. Still at an early stage but hopefully will start to develop character when modelling becomes allot more detailed.

Update on rig

I am working extensively on the rig and controls to make sure we have something that help us create the animation we are after. It is taking a lot longer then expected however the tutorial is very thorough and has given me the incite into what it takes to create a sophisticated rigging system. This rig enables the animator to switch between FK and IK and have full control over the character. The next will be for me to setup the facial system and then blend shapes.

I have continued to sculpt the main charcter to find the look we are after. With this settled I have started to rigg our character andwith the help of Reywel we have been experimenting with dynamics on his coxs comb which we hope will product some nice secondary animation

Updates - Intro Scene

I have start to model and texture the intro scene.