Conclusion

In conclusion, I feel that we have managed to create a very stylised and funny piece which compliments Essex and the activities it has to offer. I think that We have managed to produce a very good video in a short amount of time and have dealt with many obstacles along the way.

After seeing a lot of photorealistic attempts at this project, I am glad that we went somewhat against the norm and showed Essex from our perspective, and not how it is expected to be perceived. From the presentation we did, the sheer amount of laughter was absolutely fantastic to witness, it really made me feel confident in what we had produce.

With the art style we used, I feel it was the perfect blend of realism and cartoon, meaning we had a good blend of animation, model complexity and animation complexity.
The use of "communal models" meant that we wouldn't have a problem with consistency and the whole thing seemed to flow better because of it. The idea of the transitions Tom and myself discussed at an early stage really paid off and were quite unique to what other people had done.

As for my own personal submission, I am happy with the amount of work I have put in and of its quality. I feel that I have contributed to the group quite highly through the model of the man and the editing of everyone's videos. For my scene of the man stumbling through the festival to achieve great roars of laughter, I am ecstatic and a little bit taken back, as I did not have a great confidence in my own work, but now I fear I am a little less humble.

If I had a chance to improve on anything, I would like to have used some realistic liquids and clouds in my scenes, as I think these would have really finished off the scene and complimented my models and textures. I would also rethink some of different shots in my scenes, as I am not entirely sure that they all flow into each other correctly.

The group as a whole worked well I feel, but at times I felt there was a member whom was not willing to compromise or make changes that would benefit the group as a whole. It sometimes felt as if they were only worried about their own personal submission, but I might be mistaken. For the most part everything went well, but it was a bit close towards the end of the project when one of our members was stricken with an illness, meaning we had to make decisions for them in their absence.

To summarise, this time last week I was not very happy with what we had to show for 7 weeks work, but now, after presenting it to everyone and getting such a warm reception, I am extremely happy with what we have produce, not just my own personal piece, but everyone's. I feel that working in a group like this will be excellent experience for professional circumstances and think that we managed to match the brief very well.

[ Group ] - Client Feedback Revisions

After the feedback we received, I have amended the end of the video to display Elle's link.

On top of this, I have added some extra footage into the marquee section which I think certainly makes it better.

I hope all parties are now happier with what we have created and am confident that this is the final edit we will have to make before the hand in.

[ Group ] - Client Feedback

After showing our video to Elle, Jo, Richard & our peers, I don't think it could have gone down much better. Elle's only reservation was the lack of a link to her website, but this is easily fixed in the premier pro file.

Richard and Jo made points that within my section, the hotdog physics seemed unrealistic and the transition between the two marquee entrances where boring. I have already mentioned in my blog the ethos behind the physics of the hotdog and the man falling over, so hopefully upon reading this any misconceptions should be cleared up.

As for the marquee transition, I have some ideas I want to try out to make this better and will be discussing them with my group members.

[ Group ] - Editing

Because I have had much experience with video editing and cinematography at college, I volunteered to do all of the editing for the group. Once I had received all of the rendered videos from my group members, I was able to begin slicing and placing them on the time line so that they all sat well together as one entity.

Having used Premier Pro last year, I was quite confident in my abilities to create a good video and I feel that I have been able to use the editing software to the best of its ability in making all of our individual elements the best they could be as part as a whole, as well as ironing out any small problems which may have arose.

I also used the editing suite to add some titles to introduce our video subjects at the beginning of the four sections. When creating this, I got good feedback from Tom and Mike who both liked the idea. Due to Simon being ill, I created a splash image for his section not knowing what he would think of it, but with time running out and him nowhere to be found, I think I made the right choice, along with Mike and Tom who pointed out Simon's section would also need a title to not look out of place.

Again, due to Simon being ill for the majority of this week, I have had to edit his video in such a way that I thought would look best. We were also missing one of his scenes, but I think the editing hides this and I am happy with the way that I have managed to end the video.

With the feedback I have received from Mike and Tom, I feel that Elle will really enjoy what we have produced for her and can't wait to show it to her.

Here are the splash images I made for each of the sections:

Scene 8 - Transition

Scene 8 - Transition

This isn't really a full scene, but I quickly made it so that Mikes and my video flowed into each other. Because both of our scenes contain flags, we decided it would be a good idea to have them as the transitioning effect. Having already created my flags on the casks, I told mike that we should use the Australian flag, as it is the middle cask in my scene and would work the best.

Mike agreed and he created a flagpole flying the Australian flag. At the end of his scene, the camera zooms on the flag. In my scene, the opposite is happening, the camera is zooming out and away from the Australian flag. I feel that when we get this into the editing software it will work really well.

My Flag

Mikes Flag

Scene 7 - Worse For Wear

In this scene, the alcohol has had an adverse effect on our friend, and he stumbles into the marquee causing who knows what kind of mischief inside, before appearing out of the other door, and falling over in a crumpled mess.

To animate this scene, I used the footstep creator to make a basic path I wanted him to follow. I then went about using the "bend" variable within the footstep creator to make his path seem more random and funny. Once I had this bendy path, I went about changing each of the footsteps itself. This was done by choosing each of the footsteps and key framing in some movement and/or rotation. this worked really well, as the effect I achieved upon playback was a hysterical stumbling about of the man, with very funny movement

I then had a problem with moving the man from one side of the marquee to the other, so that he may immerge from the other door. I found a solution with worked quite well, although I am not sure how it would be viewed upon in a professional capacity. By selecting some footsteps which were out of sight, I moved them right across to the other side of the marquee. By doing this, the man would almost magically teleport to the other side of the marquee and continue his normal walk cycle.

Once the man makes it out of the marquee, he falls over flat on his back. I achieved this by key framing the man's BIP which allowed me to rotate it around 180 degrees and then onto his back. I added some extra key frames in to the man's arms and legs to give it a more comical feel.

The camera in this scene was the most complex one I had used in the entire animation process. This camera hovers above the man whilst he walks outside, and then pans over the top of the marquee when he is inside to meet him at the other entrance. Once the man is out and falls over, the camera zooms in on him and then pans up into the sky, as to form the transition with Simons scenes.

Scene 6 - Hiccup!

In this scene, the man has now drank from each of the 5 casks, and is feeling a little worse for wear, as his head begins to spin.

To animate the man standing up from the last cask, I copied over the last frames from the previous scene and reversed them saving me a lot of time but not compromising on quality. Once the man is standing up, he takes his last gulp from the stein, this was achieve by key framing the man's hand up to his mouth and positioning it so the stein met his lips.

I then moved the man's hand but down so it was out of shot and proceeded to make his head spin. I achieved this by key framing in some rotation on the man's head so he looked like he was swaying in the wind, I think this looked very funny and worked well with what we were trying to achieve.

The camera in this scene was animated to go to a close up when the man stood up. i achieved this by key framing at certain intervals and moving the camera and gizmo.

Scene 5 - Walking To Cask

In this scene, the man walks to the cask with his new found stein, drinking from it as he goes. He then bends down to fill the stein from the first cask.

Again as a basis I used the footstep tool to make the man walk from the stall up to the cask. Once this was done I key framed in some different movement to make him look less robotic. I also added some movement to show the man was drinking from the stein, this was easy to achieve by selecting the hand of the man and pulling it up towards his mouth.

Due to the stein already being in his hand when the scene began, I was able to link it to the hand meaning I wouldn't need to animate it separately.

Once the man's walk cycle has ended, he leans down towards to cask and puts his stein underneath the spout. To do this, I went about bending the man's spine in the same way I did that of the vendor. By rotating the bone in the lower back, it gave the impression the man was bending down. to get the man to actually reach the spout, I had to rotate his right should in, as if he was leaning into it. I feel that this worked really well and looked quite natural.

Scene 4 - Walking To Stein

In this scene, the man has become thirsty after all his hard work eating hotdogs. the man walks away from the sausage stall and over to the cider stall. The man then picks up a stein which had been left on the side for him.

Again, this was quite a simple scene to make as it was most using the footstep creator, but this time I had to manipulate the fingers in such a way so that they would grasp at the stein realistically.

Much like the first scene, once I had keyed out the basic walk cycle of the man, I went about customising it so that it did not look so robotic.

Once this was done, I moved the man's hand up so that it was at the same height as the stein. Then, using the same technique as pointing in an earlier scene, rotated the finger segments so that they wrapped around the handle.

A camera follows the man along the scene which was created sing key frames at different intervals to change the speed and direction in which the camera moved.

Scene 3 - Eating Hotdog

In this scene, the man very comically throws the hotdog up into the air, it spins around and he catches it in his mouth, swallowing it whole.

To animate this, I had originally intended to link the sausage to the hand so that their movements were completely accurate, this was a problem cause there was no way to unlink them mid-animation as far as I could make out, meaning that I would have to key frame the two items together.

Once the man has thrown his arm up, I then animate the hotdog to fly into the air, spinning as it goes, this was easily achieved by using the move and rotate tools. I have animated it so that the hotdog seems to float up into the air, as I feel this is a lot funnier than if it had realistic physics. I will be using this same philosophy when I animate the man falling over.

When the man goes to catch the sausage in his mouth, I rotated his head back as if he was looking up. Once the sausage has gone into his mouth, I return his head and limbs to their normal positions.

The camera in this scene follows the sausage as it flies into the air and lands in the man's mouth. I achieved this by key framing the gizmo to follow the sausage as it went up into the air and then following it down.

Scene 2 - Ordering Sausage

Now that the man has made it to the booth, he proceeds to order a hotdog from the vendor. The man puts his hand up and points that he wants one sausage, and the vendor is happy to oblige. He reaches under his counter and places the sausage on top where the man can reach it.

The animate this scene, I used the key frame tool again to move the man's arm to about shoulder height. Once I had done this I rotated his fingers until they were all tucked in, leaving his index finger to point to the main. I then went about setting the man's arm back to his side and unbending his fingers.

To make it look as if the man was speaking, I using the rotate tool to make his head bop about and move, as if he was moving his jaw. Because of the comedy and cartoony feel of our video, I think this has worked very well, however if this was more realistic, I would have liked to have actually used lip syncing and real jaw movement.

Once the man has made his order, the vendor replies to the in the same way, moving his head and waving his arms about. I then used the rotate tool on the vendors spine to make it look as if he was bending down to pick up the hotdog. I selected both of the vendors hands and pulled them towards the counted to make it look like he was reaching under it, before rotating his spine back to normal and pulling the plated hotdog and the hands up to the top of the counter. I then returned the vendors arms to the side of his body.

Because there was no movement in this scene as such, I did not add a moving camera, instead it will be static behind the character.

Scene 1 - Man Walking to Booth

The first scene I went about animating was the one that showed the main character walking up to the booth. This was relatively simple due to their being a walk cycle tool that creates a basic animation of the man walking for me. Once I had the man walking in such a way I was happy with, I went about customising the walk cycle so that it did not look like the default one which it had started at. I achieved this by key framing the arms at different stages to give him what I thought was a happy posture. He seems to bounce happily along his path, which I feel is very fitting for in our video.

I also created a camera that scene would be rendered through. This was also animated using key frames, in which I moved the gizmo so that it would follow the man as he progressed through the scene.

This scene was quite basic to make, but it was a good way for me to practice any skills that I may have forgotten since I last animated.

Differentiating Characters

When we were discussing our group ideas, we decided that I would create the default character that everyone would use to keep consistency between our scenes. Once I had created the man which was distributed to the group, I thought about how I could edit him within my scenes to make him into different characters, without having to change too many details.

Looking into this it all came down to the face and the hair. Due to the bones and skin on the model, it would be far too much work to change his anatomy and alter his height and weight etc. I decided that I would easily add some extra facial details to the name with the use of the link tool, not effecting the skin of bones.

Sausage Vendor

To create the sausage vendor, I decided that I wanted him to have facial hair, just to make him that much different from the main character. I also gave him different hair and eye colours to make him look even more different. I created a moustache for the man out of a box with a few cross sections, a mesh smooth modifier rounded off all of the edges nicely. After doing this, I thought that for the sake of the comical nature of our animations, I would also give the man large, bushy eyebrows. It then hit me that I could use the same model I had just created, and by simply turning it upside down, I had a very effective looking pair of eyebrows, which I found very amusing. Here is a picture of the man, I think whom now looks very different to his default counterpart.

Cider Vendor

I went about creating the cider vendor in much the same way I had with the sausage vendor, I thought that the best way to mask any similarities between the two models would be with a hat and facial hair. I decided to give the man a hat in the shape of an apple, as I thought it would fit well with our comedy ethos. This also cut down on work as I could use the apple I had previously created to top the stall. To create the beard for the man, I used a box with cross sections, which I pulled about until it fit the shape of his face and was a reasonable length. Again, I feel that this man looks very different to the default man, and am happy that it will work well within my scene.

Crowd

To form the crowd of people sitting on chairs behind the action in my scene, I felt it wasn't necessary to change too much detail on them , as they wouldn't be in a close up at all. All I did to these people was to change the hair to make them look a little different to the main characters, and changed the colours of their clothes. I feel that this works quite well within our cartoon styled scene and am happy with the outcome.

Texturing

In previous assignments, I have felt that my texturing has always been left to the last minute, and at the back of mind through the entire process. This time however, I have made a point of texturing everything as I have gone along. I am extremely happy with my use of UVW Maps, and have created some realistic looking metal textures with refractions. Here is a breakdown of the textures I have created for my models.

Barrel

I felt that I needed to UVW Unwrap the barrel as it was going to have several different flags on it, showing the beers from different countries. Here are some images showing the UVW Unwrap, and the finished texture. For research, I looked into the top 10 beer producing countries in the world. I took a selection from this list and used them to texture my barrels. These countries were Scotland, Japan, Australia, Canada & Germany.

Serving Booths

The booths where one of the main focal points in my animation, so I wanted them to be vibrant and full of detail. For this material, I took my inspiration from that of circus tents. The red and white stripes that are on these tents really catch the eye and have a somewhat old charm to them. It was obvious I would need to unwrap this model as well, due to it having wood and striped material on it. To make the stripes seem more vibrant, I used a base wool texture, so that it was not just one solid block of colour, I feel that this worked very well. I did not want to use the same wood texture as that on the casks, so I found another one which I felt worked very well.

Marquee

To create the texture for the marquee, I thought it would be best to try and create a glossy, crumpled looking plastic to mimic the PVC sheeting that would be used in real life. I found it extremely difficult to find a source image of this material up close, so in the end I made a compromise and used a crumpled up paper image as my base. Because there wasn't any detail on the marquee, I was able to just tile this material without having to worry about unwrapping it. I am quite happy with how it came out, but not as confident in this piece as I am in the rest.

Wooden Signs

The wooden signs atop of the booths show the name of the stall, so I wanted them to be very clear and clean. I thought that it would be a good idea to unwrap these so that I could accurately show the different titles. I used the same wood texture from inside the booth to form the base of this texture, as I thought it would show they were meant to be part of the same entity, built from the same materials. I them chose some fitting fonts and colours for each of the stalls and came out with some funny names. I feel these signs really add to the funny nature of our animations and am very happy with the outcome.

Grass

The grass texture used in my scene was one that I had actually used last year in my animation. The reason for this is because it is cartoony, yet detailed and tiles very well. I did attempt to use some other materials to begin with, but none seemed to tile quite as well as this one.

Welcome Banner

The welcome banner was created just to give the whole scene a name, so that it wasn't just a phantom beer festival. to create the material for it, I used a UVW map because, as stated in a previous post, I wanted to have different text on either side of the banner. This was the easiest way to do it and I am happy with the outcome.

Beer Flag

The beer flags where just a little extra item I wanted to include in the corners of my scenes to add some extra colour. I didn't feel these needed to be unwrapped as they would be displaying the same image on both sides.

Essex Man

Because we were all going to be using the Essex Man model I created in out scenes, I wanted to be able to give my group members to tools to be able to easily change him to fit their scenes. Because of this, I used several different UVW maps so that any element of his clothing could be changed. I also included a multi object material for the man's eyes, meaning that his iris colour could be easily changed on the fly, making him that much more customizable. Here are the different UVW Unwraps I created for him.

For my own personal use, I created these materials for the man.

I feel that by adding this different materials and types of cloth, it really helps in bringing the character to life, giving him a more realistic look, but still having that cartoon flair.

Scene & Prop Creation

Here is a breakdown of the components which made up my scene, and how I made them.

I began by creating a plane with many cross sections which would become the floor. Using the paint deformation tool, I painted in some geometry which would make up hills and valleys surrounding the beer festival.

After this was done I added a simple fence made up of boxes with one extra edge to create a point, which was then copied along another box which acted as a support. Once this was all together I made a large square enclosure for the beer festival to take place in.

The marquees consisted of boxes very similar to those of the fence panels, but this time stretched out much longer and made hollow so that the character could enter it. To finish it off, I used the chamfer tool on the top edges to give the effect that it wasn't just a rigid shape.

The food and drink stalls were made by taking a large box and using the inset and extrude tools to cut a large opening where a person could stand. By selecting and moving each vertex individually, it allowed me to make a large enough space inside the box so that it did not look cramped. I made a sign for the stalls by using a box with many width sections, and moving individual vertices, pulled them out in such a way to give the effect of a rustic, broken wood sign.

The sausage on top of the food stall was just a cylinder to begin with, I removed the polygons on the ends so that it was hollow, and then cut a sphere in half and welded it to either end. Using the soft selection tool, I bent the sausage to give it a more natural shape.

The apple was made using similar techniques, a sphere which was reshaped a little using the soft selection tool to give it a dip where the stalk would grow out from and a tapered bottom. For very little work a very effective product came out of it. Adding a little more detail with a cylinder for a stalk and a plane for the leaf, I ended up with this as a final product.

To make the chairs and table which the other people at the festival sit on, I began by taking two boxes (one for the tables) and chamfering their edges, to remove their jagged edges. Once this was done I added four cylinders to the bottom to form the legs. For the chairs, I also added another two small cylinders to support the back of the chair.

To form the hotdog that the man orders, I took a copy of the sausage I had made previously and made it much smaller so that it would fit in the hand of the character. To create the bun that it would go into, I simply took a box with two cross sections and intruded the middle section into the box. Adding a mesh smooth modifiers, it created a quick and easy, yet high quality bun. It has astounded me in this project how sometimes such simple starting geometry can turn into very detailed models with clever use of modifiers. To create the plate that the sausage would be served on, I took a very short cylinder with an inset on the top. I intruded the inset to create a lip around the outer edge of the plate and then added a mesh smooth modifier to clean up all the edges.

To create a series of flags and banners, I began by taking cylinders and making them quite thin and tall to create the actual flag poles. As for the flags themselves, these consist of planes. In the case of the welcome banner, I wanted different text on each side of it. This caused a problem as planes are one sided, and using the force 2 sided option when rendering simply showed the other side backwards. To combat this, I made the plane into a very thin box instead, meaning that I could use the UVW Unwrap modifier to create a texture file I could easily manipulate. With this done, I had two different types of flag that I was happy with.

To create the stein that the character would drink from, I started off by taking a cylinder to get the basic shape. I selected the bottom two rows of polygons from the cylinder and pulled them out, giving the stein a wider base, much like the real ones have. I used the inset tool to create a very thin lip at the top of the stein. This was to create the actual walls of the stein itself. By intruding the middle of the stein, there was now a large cavity all the way to the bottom. Finally, the handle was created by extruding out two polygons on the side of the model. I used the method of shift + dragging the edges of the polygon out to create new ones, which I in turn welded together, to create the one final handle.

Finally, the casks. To start them, I took a cylinder and gave it many cross sections. Using the soft selection tool, I highlighted the row of polygons in the middle of the cylinder, and began scaling them outwards. This gave the barrel a curved shape all around it's body. I used the inset tool and extrude tools to create the wooden caps at either end of the barrel, so it looked as though the plants where overlapping.

To create the metal rings holding the cask together, I selected two rings of polygons from the cask itself and shift + extruded them out, turning them into their own entity. Once I had done this I built up the edges so that they were a solid block. This piece took no time at all, but really added an extra element of depth to the model.

The taps on the beer casks was made out of a cylinder with many cross sections, much like the cask itself. The extrude tool allowed me to selection a portion of the cylinder and make its diameter much smaller than the original, forming the cap that would be attached to the cask. Using the soft selection tool again, this time I rotated the polygons around, making a smooth curve to form the spout of the tap.

Finally the stand which the cask is placed on. Much like the way I created the metal rings, I began by selection two rows of polygons on the cask itself. This time however, I only selected those along the bottom of the model. The reason behind this was to create a perfectly fitting and snug base for the cask to sit on, so what it looked natural and unlikely to fall. Once I had extruded this section out, I selected four points on the stand which would create the legs. Extruding these down to the floor, I felt there was still something missing from the item. I then realised that there weren't any supporting struts between the four legs, and it would simply collapse if it was real. To combat this, I used the connect tool to create some square holes, which I extruded out to connect the legs together.

As for lighting, I will be using one omni light as a sun, at about 1.3 power as the modifier variable. This creates a good brightness, and also a nice, long shadow from where it is placed in the scene.

The modelling stage of my project is now complete, it is now a case of texturing and animating my scene, which I will make a post about in the future.

Edit: We have decided to use the skybox from Simons scene, as it seems to be the most realistic and best quality. By all using the same skybox, I feel we will have a more consistent looking video.

[ Group ] - “Essex Man” Creation

We decided that it would be my responsibility to create the human model who would be doing each of the activities through the animation. Looking at my work from last semester, we thought that the way I had modelled a person previously would fit our desired art style. Because of this I went about creating the model the same way I created my older one.

I began by creating a sphere, and using the soft selection tool to give it some definition around the edges, just so that it’s not perfectly round. I extruded out some faces in the centre of the square to create a nose. Next I intruded two eye sockets and a mouth. After applying a turbo smooth modifier to the head, it began to take shape. Because of its cartoon styling, I didn’t feel it necessary to add ears, as I feel the model still looks perfectly good without them.

Next, I added two spheres for eyes. Using a multi-object material, I managed to create a clear and effective eye, which has an easily changeable iris colour.

After the eyes, the only detail left to add on the head was the hair. I achieved this by selecting all of the faces on the top of the head, and shift dragging them upwards to create a basic hairline. Once I had this, I extruded all of the edges up so that I would have a solid “block” of hair to shape. With a turbo smooth modifier, it took the shape I wanted it to.

Next, I began work on the torso. I began by creating a box, using the connect tool I created a square which I could extrude out to make the arm. Using the inset and extrude tools, I created dips which in time will house the wrists and neck. With this done and a turbo smooth modifier added, the torso is completed.

The legs are made in same way as the torso, but is instead two boxes joined together at one end to form the pelvis and hips.

The feet of the man were created by taking a box and again, using the inset and extrude tools to make dips for all of the different components to slot together. When working with the feet, I decided that I needed something to slot into the legs from the feet, so that they did not look like they were just floating beneath them. To do this, I used the inset tool within the dip of the shoe to make a small limb that I could pull out to form an ankle for any scenes which make shoe that part of the body.

Finally I created the hands for the model. This was achieved by creating a box and using the connect tool to make 5 squares which could be extruded out to make the fingers. With a little bit of tweaking and use of the turbo smooth modifier, I had some hands which fit very well with the model.

Once this was done, I added a biped skeleton to the model and attached it using the physique modifier. This was very different to what I used in the last semester, being the skin modifier. I am very glad to have learnt this new feature, as I found it much easier to use then the skin modifier. It seemed to take a lot less time to create a moving model using this method then using the skin modifier which was very helpful on our limited time scale.

With this man completed, I could now distribute him to my other group members so that they could use him in their scenes, thus saving them time and us having a constant art style in our animations, making them seem more unified.

The model was also fully UVW unwrapped so that people could easily customise his clothing.