Unit 2.1 Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques – Project 1, week 11.
Rendering
Considering all of the environmental elements within my animation, especially the grass, I intend to create higher pixel quality renders. That is, as long as I have the rendering time. My standard rendering options are:
Samples: 4
Diffuse: 3
The rest of the settings are on default. However I will increase these two my 1 and see the result. Like I previously said this may will increase my rendering time drastically. My computer must render the grass, motion blur, the extra samples, and the model details. Each of these elements will put their own strain on the computer. I will make timed test renders for this purpose. Although, I want a clearer image, I must finish the project on time also.
I rendered a few test shots with the high quality renders and it took more than 2 hours for one image to be rendered. While this was using my somewhat slower PC rather than the school computers, its comparable speed is not adequate. Unfortunately, I may have to settle for the lower quality images.
Rendering Issue
I had some rendering issues that impeded my timetable. See this Project 2 project 2 link for details. This error occurred with both project 1 and 2 since I reused the character model and rig for both projects Link:
To summarise my problems:
- I couldn’t use the render farm.
- Rendering without it (for this project) took about 10+ minutes for a single frame. Most likely because of the xgen grass.
- When using batch render, the grass did not show.
- On about half of the computers that I tried, the render sequence option crashed after rendering 1 frame.
- On some occasions I had to render manually with the Arnold renderer, saving each frame.
- On other occasions the render looked like this figure 2.
Editing
Audio
To exaggerate certain parts of the animation mood change, I added sound effects to increase suspense and anticipation. For example, adding increasing rumbling sounds to the shots where the character takes her first steps out of the dog house.
Shot/ Camera Design
Upon completing the character’s animation, I reviewed the camera angles further, taking into consideration the updated character position and action from my previsualised animation. I also implemented’ beauty rules’ where appropriate to create aesthetically pleasing frames:
- Golden Rule
- Rule of thirds
- Symmetry
Effects/ Transitions
I intend to add blurs to certain parts of the animation to create certain effects. For example, prior to and during the running away animations. Additionally, I intended to try and shift a blur effect during the scared/shocked extreme close up, then have a gaussian blur transition to the running shots.
Gate vs residence appearance. One shot is the source of the loud noise (gate), where as the other is where the dog runs away to. If we go by cinematic symbolism, I should make the gate look ominous. The residence should symbolic a place of safety for the dog. That is reason I wish to suggest that the dog runs to the residence. This is how I designed the shot, however the outcome is more or less the opposite between these two shots. Due to the porch roof, the doorway of the residence shot creates shadows. The scene looks dark due to this. On the other hand, the gate is in an open area with lots of light. Even the shadows I added, to make it look ominous have disappeared because of the grass.
I will experiment with effects in Premiere and After Effect to produce the appropriate result, as mentioned previously. I intend to add a strong focus to the gate shot, as well as add a slight vignette. To the residence shot, I will add slight focus in Premiere and a lense sun flare to brighten up the image with a lighting effects.
Project Overview
My project evolved much further than my original design, changing and adding key aspects that were implemented to either enhance the themes or the animation itself. In certain instances I was forced to make sacrifices in terms of the intended assets I wished to include. Such as the grass animation and n-cloth ribbon/ leash (see figure 1). In terms of the ribbon, it was omitted because of lack of well thought out experimentation during the early stages of my project. Since the part of the leash that wrapped around the dog’s body protruded too much, including this would have lowered the visual and professional quality of my animation. Conclusively, the omitted items consisted of non essential assets, therefore, did not damage my animation. Nevertheless, the lack of grass animation is disappointing, and will not appear as aesthetically pleasing this way.
Ribbon:
The ribbon does not rest on the body properly, the quality of the animation would lower if I included this as it is.
Colour and Composition
While I took great consideration for colour and composition design, the outcome could have been improved further. I ensured that I created a sense of distance by implementing the composition technique of having more solid masses of colour in the foreground. And the objects became lighter the further away from the camera they were. Nevertheless, the outcome had too large a contrast than I intended initially. By applying colour grading, and, brightness and contrast adjustment layers in Premiere Pro, I improved the post rendered sequences.
Grass and Rendering Techniques
Technically, the fact that the grass could not be animated was a benefit to my timetable. Since there was no movement to be recorded, for certain shots I was able to only render a single image, and repeat it for the appropriate duration. Then in Premiere Pro, I could apply a simple zoom animation.