Wednesday, 28 November 2007

Week 9: Post production problems

Okay, we had a tough day today, and may have slightly overreacted as our film isn't on the same level as Gears Of War, but i burnt it to dvd, and it looks amazing on my hdtv, the contrast's so good the white light actually blinds you at the end, so i think we should submit it on that! Haha.

But seriously, due to several factors we had not perhaps had enough time to explore all the areas we had wanted to at the start, for example heat haze, and sand effects, which would have given it that extra depth, as myself, Jeff, Sam King and Kanika have absolutely no experience with After Effects it was impossible at such a late stage to add in these extra layers to the film - which has led perhaps to it looking slightly more "3d" than we had wanted.

The other problem was the hyper-realistic style we went for, which means you scrutinize any area that is less than perfect, and the lighting in some shots looks really nice, and in others quite flat and lifeless.

Hours experiment in Premiere, chopping, changing and trying literally every filter has led to us improving the overall effect slightly, but when rendered the compressors seem to result in a "washed out" affect.

However I think overall, the camera set-ups and environmental modelling is really successful, and with the spanish guitar music and subtle wind effects, we have still have a good outcome, just that our ambition exceeded our time and scheduling, and as we have only been able to actually meet as a group one day a week for the past three weeks, (due to Harveys work experience, Sam's medical problems and various other unforeseen circumstances) it has been difficult in the final stages to communicate - as we all have our own individual specialisms.
Things went down hill...

Week 9: Nearly there!!!!

Well just for an update.......


Sam: Figured out all his problems with his section of the environment and has handed over to Matt to get the final animation finished within his scene.

Matt: Has finished the animation on the cat and touched up the the animation on the ball in the last shot.

Harvey: Has touched up the lighting in Sam's environment, and has cleaned up the animation on the ball in the first scene. He also has made the starting credits and has handed it over to Jeff to put into Premier

Jeff: Has found some sound effects, and has started putting the finished rendered scenes into Premier.

Kanika: I have textured the ball and made the basic block out of the ball in the first scene, which Harvey has in-betweened.

We only have two more shots to render, and hopefully by today they will be complete. Then all that is left to do is make sure we haven't made any major mistakes if so then we will have to re-render those particular shots. We are currently on time with our production schedule, hopefully things will not go down hill towards the end of the week!!!!

Tuesday, 20 November 2007

Week 8: ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!

Dearest all,

If you haven't thrown urself under a bus by now congratulations! If you have we hope to scrape up your remains by the time the project is over if the renders ever finish!

Meanwhile back at the ranch....an update!

Today we had another meeting with Jared. I think we all know where we stand but to re-cap

Harvey: Getting lighting finished on my scene and Jeff's so that while I'm away on work experience you can start rendering out all these scenes by just importing the cat and then moving the tiff sequences across into the premiere blockout replacing the playblasts. Then i'll come in next week to get the majority of the editting done and be close to completion.

Matt:Get the last of the changews done to the cat animations done, get everything finessed to a T and then put them in the environments and get rendering.

Kanika: Get the ball of wool animating in the first and last scenes. Do it 'nice'! Squash and stretch, nice bounce and momentum! You know the drill sweetheart!

Sam: Sort out the f**k up's, We all know the thing is a total minefield but sort out your section in whatever which way is possible and get it renderable with some good textures on it if you have to go back to pre-textured models. Sure it'll look lovely, get the lighting from mine if you need or wait until Tuesday and I will light it identically.

Jeff: Keep Sam away from buses he might jump under! Also oversee rendering and check for errors etc. and help Kanika if she needs help getting that bouncing ball looking the dogs knackers!

Think that's it really so off to it. Will re-group next week and I will be in close touch all the time with Matt to cross reference and give feedback on any shots and animations before it goes to render and potentially looks shite for 20 hours of rendering!!!!!

Keep at it guys.

Home stretch now!

Pints on Harvey at the end......get the orders in!

Harvey.

PS. Happy B'day Matt. Hip-hip hooray!

Saturday, 17 November 2007

Props

Hey people,

I finished the old lady and have made frames for the posada inspired room. I have however been having a few problems with the ball of wool, yarn whatever!

If you have any ideas on how to produce an authentic ball of wool in maya im all ears.

Tuesday, 6 November 2007

Week 6: Production Schedule

As promised one cushty production schedule.....like i said guys...this is the CRUNCH week!

Have a nice day!

Week 6: Important Meeting

Hey guys,

So yeah we got together today to discuss things and kinda bring everyone back together to see where we were at. For me I think this is gonna be a big week to make sure we stay on track as the texturing could be a big section. I think we kinda talked about this today.

I'm going to update the production schedule for this coming week in accordance with what we spoke about. Basically by this time next week we are all aiming to be at the following stages.

Sam, Jeff and myself will all be aiming to have our sections of the environment modelled and totally textured.
Sam will also work on skies for the whole thing as they will be most important in his scene.
Kanika will finish modelling the old lady for the opening shot and get this textured as well as working on her props for the room.
Matt will concentrate on the animation starting to finesse the motion more and start pinning down individual shots with all the camera angles and pans sorted.

As of Tuesday on Week 7 it will be down to me and Sam most likely to work on some good lighting for the areas and then Jeff and Kanika will be working on animating areas of the environment. Also jobs such as particle experimenting, heat effects, cloth usage and other finishing touches will be considered by anyone who doesn't have a task set for the end of week 7.

Week 8 will be when Matt's animation comes together with the environment animation and the finishing effects and we will start rendering leaving the remainder of week 8 and all of week 9 to concentrate on Editing, Post-production and Sound aswell as some extras such as credits if we have time.

I'll post a new production schedule after this.

Harvey