Thursday, July 21, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Meeting with Suzanne Transcript 7-18
RYAN: We are here to get some direction on how to start and get animation set up as soon as possible and how we should produce our production.
SUZANNE: My focus is to talk about hearing your pitch. Unfortunately, my class was during the pitch. I was going to ask you some questions about how you are going to deal with scope and how to deal with other issues. Remember, the deadlines are firm.
RYAN: The way I understand it is we are basing our production on, "if you overcome fears, you can find friendship anywhere." That is our C.
SUZANNE: What was it again?
RYAN: If you overcome fear, you can find friendship anywhere.
SUZANNE: It's good. I am all about the C.
PAMELA: It is so you know going into it that that is the context. It helps you sell the lighting and the characters and the environment. It is the underlying thing. Even if no one gets it. It won't play out fully because it is short, but the still images might help them get it. It is important that you guys know the C.
RYAN: We're building the production around that. The main character is going to be based on Billy, a small child who is afraid of the dark. He has to brush his teeth in the middle of a thunderstorm. The power goes out.
PAMELA: Do you have the ——
ERIK: Were we going to do a power outage or something?
RYAN: Yes, I said that.
PAMELA: Do you have what you presented Thursday?
RYAN: It is posted to our blog.
SUZANNE: Do you have a Power Point? I'd like to see that so I know if I don't understand it.
ERIK: I'll get it.
RYAN: We posted a storyboard —— our storyboards.
It is Max's —— he is working on that as a solo project in 350.
SUZANNE: Don't say anything so I can see if I get it.
RYAN: Animatic first.
RYAN: This is for Max's project 350 right now.
ERIK: That's it.
PAMELA: Show her the storyboards now, please.
Those are a more simple version of the story.
SUZANNE: It kind of expands on it. Are you going to plan to do that?
RYAN: Yes. The two environments. Yes.
SUZANNE: Okay. Are you planning on using any of the stuff from projects 350? Models and stuff?
ERIK: No. We're going to redesign everything.
SUZANNE: Good.
RYAN: The thumbnails don't show a thunderstorm. That was brought up in the class.
SUZANNE: Is that something you need to see only in the first shot?
RYAN: Yes.
SUZANNE: Okay.
ERIK: There we are.
SUZANNE: Okay.
Great, thank you. Can I make a couple of comments. I want to ask what each member of the team is doing. Who is your lead artist?
RYAN: Max will be doing the character design.
ERIK: We've all been contributing to that. We haven't found a lead artist. But for now Ryan and Max are animating.
SUZANNE: The tentacle and the little boy.
ERIK: I'm the environment artist.
SUZANNE: You're the environment artist?
ERIK: Yes.
RYAN: Max and I both want to be animators. We don't have a character artist or a concept artist yet.
SUZANNE: Is that something you guys are looking for? What about an art director?
ERIK: That would be great.
RYAN: We want a producer who will help keep us on schedule.
SUZANNE: Well ——
ERIK: I've been trying to help with that. If we need a producer, I can do that. My aunt and uncle are team building professionals. They are coaches so I can work on that.
RYAN: My biggest fault is procrastination so I need to be kept on track at all times.
ERIK: That is why we text message all the time.
RYAN: I will not be stupid and not tell someone will do it —— it is my cross to bear.
SUZANNE: You guys are probably already aware of things like this. Even though your characters are simple, you do have 2 of them. With the time allotted you have to be able to get 2 characters done, modeled, rigged —— all of it and done well by week 10. Your character has to have good facial if you are brushing teeth.
ERIK: You have to have a facial rig for that.
RYAN: We're not going to have him put the toothbrush or toothpaste in his mouth.
SUZANNE: But his expressions are very important. You need to be practicing that work this summer.
RYAN: One of the things I hope to learn this year is facial rigging. I don't know how to rig a face yet.
SUZANNE: A lot of students —— right now you have 6 weeks until the fall. You have done other riggings that are like taking an approach to face. There are a lot of great tutorials out there. There is more than one approach. The key for learning —— more than one of you need to learn that. It is great for you to go with a simple 100 poly head and go with different approaches on how to make the face work. Use a simple form. A little low poly head. You can do it on a high resolution character later. That is the approach I use. The only way you learn facial rigging is by practicing it. You have to do it yourself.
RYAN: So getting a couple of tutorials out of the way would be good.
SUZANNE: Also, you haven't done a lot of pages of expressions in drawings. You need to get them all laid out this summer while you have the time.
RYAN: I want to get some squash and stretch with his head. He needs to have that when he sees the tentacle. I drew it on the thumbnail the way I see it.
SUZANNE: So a big question for you guys —— do you have 2 people to do models and rigs? You can't have one person do all that on both characters by week 10.
RYAN: Each of us —— max and I —— will take one of the characters.
SUZANNE: You have to get to finished texture by week 10.
RYAN: I love projects. I made my character really good when I did my projects class. I am pretty sure I can get a character rigged and modeled by week 10.
SUZANNE: Know that I would find it a challenge. I have spent 2 months on a body rig. You're going to do high definition, which is 1280. It will be a lot more polygons. The other thing I was going to talk to you about is you are looking for an art director who can come in. The character thing is a big deal. There are 2 environments as well. You have to get the environments done by week 10 also. All the models.
PAMELA: Well, you could kill the outside environment if you want to.
ERIK: Yeah, worse case we could cut that whole scene out.
RYAN: There's not much detail in a night scene with a lightning flash.
SUZANNE: If it matches the rest. The funny thing is that when it is dark you have to light for darkness. It is a lot more work than you think it is. I wouldn't discount the night environment. Think about that. You have to think about having one environment because you are one artist.
PAMELA: I think you should just plan on doing the bathroom, and if you have time you could add an extra shot.
RYAN: I had planned an extra shot in my project, and I never did get to it.
SUZANNE: You could have lightning through the window. Do you feel strong with matte painting?
ERIK: I am taking Art 300 now.
SUZANNE: Good. Let's talk about lighting. Who will be lighting?
RYAN: We don't have anyone who is doing lighting now.
SUZANNE: You have to assume that you will all be hands on deck. You can't have a moment where you are not working. You are going to be making modeling, rigging, texturing the character. You are missing a concept work person so you will all have to find the time to do that. You will have to be working every second. If you guys don't hit the characters and make the deadlines, you fail the class. There's no point to finishing.
RYAN: I have enough experience that I would be willing to keep lighting from being an issue. I don't like lighting but I know enough to ——
SUZANNE: You're going to do lighting (to Erik).
ERIK: Yes. That comes with the territory of environment as far as I am concerned.
SUZANNE: How long is it?
ERIK: Right now we're trying to get the boards done right and then Ryan will check the length. It is maybe 1:45.
SUZANNE: The max an animator can do is 30 seconds. Remember, Max has gone through the cycle of 5, 10 seconds of animation. It takes 4 weeks to go through the process of planning. They're expecting a high level of animation for your senior project. More aggressive people will spend more time than that. You should be going around 45 to 60 seconds.
PAMELA: The team that is finishing up now, their project is a minute. They have 4 people and they are racing to the deadline.
ERIK: You are talking about the summer class right now?
SUZANNE: Yes. They had 2 kids to animate and they all had to lighting.
PAMELA: Every single one of them was lighting.
They are still struggling with lighting to deliver the project on time.
SUZANNE: It is something to be aware of. Plan that you should all be lighting. There's no way you can get it done without all of you working on it. It would be horrible to fail because of lighting.
RYAN: I learned a lot about lighting.
SUZANNE: It takes a lot of time.
PAMELA: All these things happen like where the light doesn't light, even though it is in the right place. Things randomly just don't work.
SUZANNE: It is not because of anything wrong with the school. The students —— they could only use —— someone could only use Ray Trace and some could only use Dep map. Thank heavens I taught them how to use Dep Map. That kind of stuff just happens.
PAMELA: It is trial and error.
SUZANNE: That is what kills you. It is so much work. Who is going to be texture painting? You guys feel comfortable with that?
ERIK: I've textured environments before.
SUZANNE: How do you feel about it?
RYAN: Great.
SUZANNE: Do you feel good about UV? Some people don't feel like they can paint textures. They feel that they don't have good skill in unwrapping.
RYAN: That was one of the easiest parts about project 350.
ERIK: Same here.
RYAN: I am taking ANI 350.
ERIK: I am taking Z brush. I heard that we can take the models and bring them into the Z brush class and work on them there.
SUZANNE: Have you talked to Kevin about that?
PAMELA: I talked to him about that.
SUZANNE: It would save you time if you don't use a Z brush model unless you need it for painting. You don't need the extra weeks of work.
ERIK: It seems unneeded for our style.
RYAN: Monsters Inc. is our main style reference.
SUZANNE: With the 6 weeks you have now it is a good time to practice making models. Do small samples that are the look and feel you want. You don't want to wait until the first week to start doing the modeling. You can model different things if you want, but you need to be in the flow.
PAMELA: It is sharpening your skills, so to speak. You need to be ready to jump in.
SUZANNE: If you haven't done a character model since you finished the class, you might want to work on that. Max, I know that you feel like you're under water with that already because you are slammed with it in your current class.
RYAN: Chun's class helped with the splines. It was easy to add loops around the eyes and the mouths.
ERIK: I am not good at modeling heads myself, but I have been practicing with that. It is a longer process if you model from the eye and continue wrapping the form around as you go. Doing the box modeling, the one that Peasley taught us isn't always the best.
SUZANNE: Work on subdirectional modeling. It lets you build —— it is a little the Joan of arc. It is for people who like to draw. It lets you work with the polys you create. You guys are in Maya?
ERIK: Max.
SUZANNE: Oh, you are in Max?
RYAN: Yes.
SUZANNE: You polygonal model with this. It has to be in pieces. It has to be one mesh. It is called NURMS.
SUZANNE: No. Work in pieces. Model in pieces.
RYAN: One of the cheats I have found is that the wrists aren't connected to the arms. They actually have sleeves and it is loose in here.
SUZANNE: Lastly, if you work in pieces, it lets you since you want to refine the face. You can skin the face without fixing your body. A T shirt would be a separate mesh. A lot of times people try to Unibody it.
RYAN: I did that on my project. I had everything in separate pieces so I could work on individual bits.
SUZANNE: If you are going to have any special effects like —— it is a lot more than you think it is.
RYAN: The only one I can think of is how we are going to make the tentacle.
ERIK: Also, the lightning flash. We wanted to have some sort of slime with the tentacle, too, or I at least think we talked about it.
SUZANNE: That is brutal, slime. You have to designate that to someone who is an effects artist.
PAMELA: I would say no slime.
RYAN: If we have extra time.
ERIK: In a perfect world that would be nice.
SUZANNE: With the tentacle you would have to make a few rigs for the different shots. No rig will work for every different shot. The other thing is I know that Laura Franke is looking for a team.
RYAN: She does a great job.
PAMELA: She is interested in 2D. If you were able to snag her for your team, you could do your tentacle in 2D. If Laura is looking for a team, she could 2 dimensionally animate the tentacle.
RYAN: It is an imaginary tentacle.
SUZANNE: That would be cool.
RYAN: He is imagining it like Harold and the Purple Crayon.
PAMELA: You can offer Laura something in the end cap scenes. Instead of being still images she could have a stand alone in little pieces. A couple of people are thinking of offering her bits.
ERIK: Corban is doing a project that could use her.
SUZANNE: A game team is considering using her as well.
PAMELA: Contact her immediately.
SUZANNE: Ryan, if you're good friends with her, that would be good.
RYAN: I can blackmail her actually. I have a video of her that would work.
PAMELA: She would be a good art director as well.
SUZANNE: She fits your sensibility as well.
RYAN: I've worked with her before. She is good.
PAMELA: You have to get a good 2D hook for her.
RYAN: We were planning on doing an awesome tentacle in 2D. I will send her an email.
SUZANNE: Any other comments you want to add, Pamela?
RYAN: As far as the tentacle, we haven't really done character design on it, but I want something that will hold the cap and then drop it.
SUZANNE: I hope you can get Laura. That would be great.
ERIK: Is she around the school?
PAMELA: That's the thing. She hasn't been around.
SUZANNE: Are you friends with her on Facebook?
ERIK: She's friends with Seth, right? I know she's friends with him. I'll have to find him and see if I can get her.
SUZANNE: Those are my things that I wanted to say. The lighting and the character modeling and the environment. Those are the things I have been talking to the groups about.
RYAN: Jim taught me a lot about lights. Each character has its own light and the lighting for the particular mood. I wouldn't say it is thrilling, but I know that I can make a thrilling light.
PAMELA: The Student Academy Awards, they posted the winners from this year. One of the ones that won was small children at a play. It is the right thing for you to take a look at.
ERIK: The Princess and the Dragon?
PAMELA: The kids are the right proportion and the style is simple and it has a nonrealistic style that you might want to check out. Go to student academy awards and you tube the title.
RYAN: Can you send me an email so I don't forget? I'm not physically doing it right now so I forget.
PAMELA: Write it down on a piece of paper. Carry a notebook with you so you can take notes when you need to. (Max, send Ryan an email.)
SUZANNE: If you are concerned with deadlines and meeting them, give yourself a week earlier than the stated deadline so you can be sure to get it in.
RYAN: That's why we are trying to work now.
PAMELA: The first 4 weeks are going to be hell. It is a lot of stuff that is due. The style guide is due and that is just the beginning. It is going to be a lot. Anything you can get done early is helpful.
RYAN: I actually had fun last year getting stuff done and making deadlines, so I am good at this.
ERIK: So says you.
RYAN: The only problem is that I am working 40 hours a week at Microsoft. It is draining my energy.
PAMELA: Of course it is.
RYAN: I go to bed early because I'm tired. I'm going to get as much done as I can though.
PAMELA: Student academy awards. There's 3 winners for 2011. Dragon boy is one of them. I can't find the war one. The other one is Defective Detectives.
ERIK: Are you talking about the one where the soldiers fall?
PAMELA: No. A student film from Pratt.
(Max, you asked a question here.)
PAMELA: They haven't. Well, the one 2 D project, The Lighthouse Girl.
SUZANNE: They haven't been submitted.
PAMELA: I have been talking to Tarsi and she's going to see if we can submit some next year.
PAMELA: If you hear about something with awards, let me know and I will pass them on to Tarsi.
ERIK: DigiPen doesn't really have anything on the arts side as far as recognition and respect.
PAMELA: If we start winning awards, maybe all that would change.
ERIK: We are the red headed step children.
RYAN: Are there any other references that we should look into?
PAMELA: That's all I can think of.
PAMELA: Watch Incredibles for Dash.
SUZANNE: You should all be on your own building a library of things. Look and feel. Go to CG society and look through all of the portfolios.
ERIK: Since we are going from a creepy vibe at first, I have been going to Tim Schaffer's stuff. Look at Double—Find also. They have a bunch of stuff.
PAMELA: Say you get Laura Frank on your team. You're going to try to sell her on your vision. What kind of information would you give her? Specific scenes from Monsters Inc. Think about the kind of stuff that you would give her to get her excited about your project. You should be doing all of that stuff whether you get Laura or not.
SUZANNE: I call CG look and feel —— I get inspired by people who do CG that doesn't make it look like CG. I will find things that are different to look at. I liked Gnomeo and Juliet.
ERIK: Cheesy. They have entertaining moments like the flamingo. I thought it was kind of cute.
RYAN: I think we have a stable ground, I believe. I'm going to make sure that I talk to Laura and let her know what we are planning and how we are going to proceed.
PAMELA: Dangle a carrot for her.
SUZANNE: Thank you, guys.
RYAN: I am going to go home and start sketches for the character and Billy. And hopefully I will be able to post those to the blog tonight.
ERIK: I'm starting to look on —— I have done a few of them. I'm going to take a look at your sketches.
Starting animation thumbs, great, great, great.
Let me look at Billy. I'm liking this head. I like this head.
RYAN: I'm going to head home and draw but first I will email Laura. I will do some tentacle ideas for variety.
SUZANNE: My focus is to talk about hearing your pitch. Unfortunately, my class was during the pitch. I was going to ask you some questions about how you are going to deal with scope and how to deal with other issues. Remember, the deadlines are firm.
RYAN: The way I understand it is we are basing our production on, "if you overcome fears, you can find friendship anywhere." That is our C.
SUZANNE: What was it again?
RYAN: If you overcome fear, you can find friendship anywhere.
SUZANNE: It's good. I am all about the C.
PAMELA: It is so you know going into it that that is the context. It helps you sell the lighting and the characters and the environment. It is the underlying thing. Even if no one gets it. It won't play out fully because it is short, but the still images might help them get it. It is important that you guys know the C.
RYAN: We're building the production around that. The main character is going to be based on Billy, a small child who is afraid of the dark. He has to brush his teeth in the middle of a thunderstorm. The power goes out.
PAMELA: Do you have the ——
ERIK: Were we going to do a power outage or something?
RYAN: Yes, I said that.
PAMELA: Do you have what you presented Thursday?
RYAN: It is posted to our blog.
SUZANNE: Do you have a Power Point? I'd like to see that so I know if I don't understand it.
ERIK: I'll get it.
RYAN: We posted a storyboard —— our storyboards.
It is Max's —— he is working on that as a solo project in 350.
SUZANNE: Don't say anything so I can see if I get it.
RYAN: Animatic first.
RYAN: This is for Max's project 350 right now.
ERIK: That's it.
PAMELA: Show her the storyboards now, please.
Those are a more simple version of the story.
SUZANNE: It kind of expands on it. Are you going to plan to do that?
RYAN: Yes. The two environments. Yes.
SUZANNE: Okay. Are you planning on using any of the stuff from projects 350? Models and stuff?
ERIK: No. We're going to redesign everything.
SUZANNE: Good.
RYAN: The thumbnails don't show a thunderstorm. That was brought up in the class.
SUZANNE: Is that something you need to see only in the first shot?
RYAN: Yes.
SUZANNE: Okay.
ERIK: There we are.
SUZANNE: Okay.
Great, thank you. Can I make a couple of comments. I want to ask what each member of the team is doing. Who is your lead artist?
RYAN: Max will be doing the character design.
ERIK: We've all been contributing to that. We haven't found a lead artist. But for now Ryan and Max are animating.
SUZANNE: The tentacle and the little boy.
ERIK: I'm the environment artist.
SUZANNE: You're the environment artist?
ERIK: Yes.
RYAN: Max and I both want to be animators. We don't have a character artist or a concept artist yet.
SUZANNE: Is that something you guys are looking for? What about an art director?
ERIK: That would be great.
RYAN: We want a producer who will help keep us on schedule.
SUZANNE: Well ——
ERIK: I've been trying to help with that. If we need a producer, I can do that. My aunt and uncle are team building professionals. They are coaches so I can work on that.
RYAN: My biggest fault is procrastination so I need to be kept on track at all times.
ERIK: That is why we text message all the time.
RYAN: I will not be stupid and not tell someone will do it —— it is my cross to bear.
SUZANNE: You guys are probably already aware of things like this. Even though your characters are simple, you do have 2 of them. With the time allotted you have to be able to get 2 characters done, modeled, rigged —— all of it and done well by week 10. Your character has to have good facial if you are brushing teeth.
ERIK: You have to have a facial rig for that.
RYAN: We're not going to have him put the toothbrush or toothpaste in his mouth.
SUZANNE: But his expressions are very important. You need to be practicing that work this summer.
RYAN: One of the things I hope to learn this year is facial rigging. I don't know how to rig a face yet.
SUZANNE: A lot of students —— right now you have 6 weeks until the fall. You have done other riggings that are like taking an approach to face. There are a lot of great tutorials out there. There is more than one approach. The key for learning —— more than one of you need to learn that. It is great for you to go with a simple 100 poly head and go with different approaches on how to make the face work. Use a simple form. A little low poly head. You can do it on a high resolution character later. That is the approach I use. The only way you learn facial rigging is by practicing it. You have to do it yourself.
RYAN: So getting a couple of tutorials out of the way would be good.
SUZANNE: Also, you haven't done a lot of pages of expressions in drawings. You need to get them all laid out this summer while you have the time.
RYAN: I want to get some squash and stretch with his head. He needs to have that when he sees the tentacle. I drew it on the thumbnail the way I see it.
SUZANNE: So a big question for you guys —— do you have 2 people to do models and rigs? You can't have one person do all that on both characters by week 10.
RYAN: Each of us —— max and I —— will take one of the characters.
SUZANNE: You have to get to finished texture by week 10.
RYAN: I love projects. I made my character really good when I did my projects class. I am pretty sure I can get a character rigged and modeled by week 10.
SUZANNE: Know that I would find it a challenge. I have spent 2 months on a body rig. You're going to do high definition, which is 1280. It will be a lot more polygons. The other thing I was going to talk to you about is you are looking for an art director who can come in. The character thing is a big deal. There are 2 environments as well. You have to get the environments done by week 10 also. All the models.
PAMELA: Well, you could kill the outside environment if you want to.
ERIK: Yeah, worse case we could cut that whole scene out.
RYAN: There's not much detail in a night scene with a lightning flash.
SUZANNE: If it matches the rest. The funny thing is that when it is dark you have to light for darkness. It is a lot more work than you think it is. I wouldn't discount the night environment. Think about that. You have to think about having one environment because you are one artist.
PAMELA: I think you should just plan on doing the bathroom, and if you have time you could add an extra shot.
RYAN: I had planned an extra shot in my project, and I never did get to it.
SUZANNE: You could have lightning through the window. Do you feel strong with matte painting?
ERIK: I am taking Art 300 now.
SUZANNE: Good. Let's talk about lighting. Who will be lighting?
RYAN: We don't have anyone who is doing lighting now.
SUZANNE: You have to assume that you will all be hands on deck. You can't have a moment where you are not working. You are going to be making modeling, rigging, texturing the character. You are missing a concept work person so you will all have to find the time to do that. You will have to be working every second. If you guys don't hit the characters and make the deadlines, you fail the class. There's no point to finishing.
RYAN: I have enough experience that I would be willing to keep lighting from being an issue. I don't like lighting but I know enough to ——
SUZANNE: You're going to do lighting (to Erik).
ERIK: Yes. That comes with the territory of environment as far as I am concerned.
SUZANNE: How long is it?
ERIK: Right now we're trying to get the boards done right and then Ryan will check the length. It is maybe 1:45.
SUZANNE: The max an animator can do is 30 seconds. Remember, Max has gone through the cycle of 5, 10 seconds of animation. It takes 4 weeks to go through the process of planning. They're expecting a high level of animation for your senior project. More aggressive people will spend more time than that. You should be going around 45 to 60 seconds.
PAMELA: The team that is finishing up now, their project is a minute. They have 4 people and they are racing to the deadline.
ERIK: You are talking about the summer class right now?
SUZANNE: Yes. They had 2 kids to animate and they all had to lighting.
PAMELA: Every single one of them was lighting.
They are still struggling with lighting to deliver the project on time.
SUZANNE: It is something to be aware of. Plan that you should all be lighting. There's no way you can get it done without all of you working on it. It would be horrible to fail because of lighting.
RYAN: I learned a lot about lighting.
SUZANNE: It takes a lot of time.
PAMELA: All these things happen like where the light doesn't light, even though it is in the right place. Things randomly just don't work.
SUZANNE: It is not because of anything wrong with the school. The students —— they could only use —— someone could only use Ray Trace and some could only use Dep map. Thank heavens I taught them how to use Dep Map. That kind of stuff just happens.
PAMELA: It is trial and error.
SUZANNE: That is what kills you. It is so much work. Who is going to be texture painting? You guys feel comfortable with that?
ERIK: I've textured environments before.
SUZANNE: How do you feel about it?
RYAN: Great.
SUZANNE: Do you feel good about UV? Some people don't feel like they can paint textures. They feel that they don't have good skill in unwrapping.
RYAN: That was one of the easiest parts about project 350.
ERIK: Same here.
RYAN: I am taking ANI 350.
ERIK: I am taking Z brush. I heard that we can take the models and bring them into the Z brush class and work on them there.
SUZANNE: Have you talked to Kevin about that?
PAMELA: I talked to him about that.
SUZANNE: It would save you time if you don't use a Z brush model unless you need it for painting. You don't need the extra weeks of work.
ERIK: It seems unneeded for our style.
RYAN: Monsters Inc. is our main style reference.
SUZANNE: With the 6 weeks you have now it is a good time to practice making models. Do small samples that are the look and feel you want. You don't want to wait until the first week to start doing the modeling. You can model different things if you want, but you need to be in the flow.
PAMELA: It is sharpening your skills, so to speak. You need to be ready to jump in.
SUZANNE: If you haven't done a character model since you finished the class, you might want to work on that. Max, I know that you feel like you're under water with that already because you are slammed with it in your current class.
RYAN: Chun's class helped with the splines. It was easy to add loops around the eyes and the mouths.
ERIK: I am not good at modeling heads myself, but I have been practicing with that. It is a longer process if you model from the eye and continue wrapping the form around as you go. Doing the box modeling, the one that Peasley taught us isn't always the best.
SUZANNE: Work on subdirectional modeling. It lets you build —— it is a little the Joan of arc. It is for people who like to draw. It lets you work with the polys you create. You guys are in Maya?
ERIK: Max.
SUZANNE: Oh, you are in Max?
RYAN: Yes.
SUZANNE: You polygonal model with this. It has to be in pieces. It has to be one mesh. It is called NURMS.
SUZANNE: No. Work in pieces. Model in pieces.
RYAN: One of the cheats I have found is that the wrists aren't connected to the arms. They actually have sleeves and it is loose in here.
SUZANNE: Lastly, if you work in pieces, it lets you since you want to refine the face. You can skin the face without fixing your body. A T shirt would be a separate mesh. A lot of times people try to Unibody it.
RYAN: I did that on my project. I had everything in separate pieces so I could work on individual bits.
SUZANNE: If you are going to have any special effects like —— it is a lot more than you think it is.
RYAN: The only one I can think of is how we are going to make the tentacle.
ERIK: Also, the lightning flash. We wanted to have some sort of slime with the tentacle, too, or I at least think we talked about it.
SUZANNE: That is brutal, slime. You have to designate that to someone who is an effects artist.
PAMELA: I would say no slime.
RYAN: If we have extra time.
ERIK: In a perfect world that would be nice.
SUZANNE: With the tentacle you would have to make a few rigs for the different shots. No rig will work for every different shot. The other thing is I know that Laura Franke is looking for a team.
RYAN: She does a great job.
PAMELA: She is interested in 2D. If you were able to snag her for your team, you could do your tentacle in 2D. If Laura is looking for a team, she could 2 dimensionally animate the tentacle.
RYAN: It is an imaginary tentacle.
SUZANNE: That would be cool.
RYAN: He is imagining it like Harold and the Purple Crayon.
PAMELA: You can offer Laura something in the end cap scenes. Instead of being still images she could have a stand alone in little pieces. A couple of people are thinking of offering her bits.
ERIK: Corban is doing a project that could use her.
SUZANNE: A game team is considering using her as well.
PAMELA: Contact her immediately.
SUZANNE: Ryan, if you're good friends with her, that would be good.
RYAN: I can blackmail her actually. I have a video of her that would work.
PAMELA: She would be a good art director as well.
SUZANNE: She fits your sensibility as well.
RYAN: I've worked with her before. She is good.
PAMELA: You have to get a good 2D hook for her.
RYAN: We were planning on doing an awesome tentacle in 2D. I will send her an email.
SUZANNE: Any other comments you want to add, Pamela?
RYAN: As far as the tentacle, we haven't really done character design on it, but I want something that will hold the cap and then drop it.
SUZANNE: I hope you can get Laura. That would be great.
ERIK: Is she around the school?
PAMELA: That's the thing. She hasn't been around.
SUZANNE: Are you friends with her on Facebook?
ERIK: She's friends with Seth, right? I know she's friends with him. I'll have to find him and see if I can get her.
SUZANNE: Those are my things that I wanted to say. The lighting and the character modeling and the environment. Those are the things I have been talking to the groups about.
RYAN: Jim taught me a lot about lights. Each character has its own light and the lighting for the particular mood. I wouldn't say it is thrilling, but I know that I can make a thrilling light.
PAMELA: The Student Academy Awards, they posted the winners from this year. One of the ones that won was small children at a play. It is the right thing for you to take a look at.
ERIK: The Princess and the Dragon?
PAMELA: The kids are the right proportion and the style is simple and it has a nonrealistic style that you might want to check out. Go to student academy awards and you tube the title.
RYAN: Can you send me an email so I don't forget? I'm not physically doing it right now so I forget.
PAMELA: Write it down on a piece of paper. Carry a notebook with you so you can take notes when you need to. (Max, send Ryan an email.)
SUZANNE: If you are concerned with deadlines and meeting them, give yourself a week earlier than the stated deadline so you can be sure to get it in.
RYAN: That's why we are trying to work now.
PAMELA: The first 4 weeks are going to be hell. It is a lot of stuff that is due. The style guide is due and that is just the beginning. It is going to be a lot. Anything you can get done early is helpful.
RYAN: I actually had fun last year getting stuff done and making deadlines, so I am good at this.
ERIK: So says you.
RYAN: The only problem is that I am working 40 hours a week at Microsoft. It is draining my energy.
PAMELA: Of course it is.
RYAN: I go to bed early because I'm tired. I'm going to get as much done as I can though.
PAMELA: Student academy awards. There's 3 winners for 2011. Dragon boy is one of them. I can't find the war one. The other one is Defective Detectives.
ERIK: Are you talking about the one where the soldiers fall?
PAMELA: No. A student film from Pratt.
(Max, you asked a question here.)
PAMELA: They haven't. Well, the one 2 D project, The Lighthouse Girl.
SUZANNE: They haven't been submitted.
PAMELA: I have been talking to Tarsi and she's going to see if we can submit some next year.
PAMELA: If you hear about something with awards, let me know and I will pass them on to Tarsi.
ERIK: DigiPen doesn't really have anything on the arts side as far as recognition and respect.
PAMELA: If we start winning awards, maybe all that would change.
ERIK: We are the red headed step children.
RYAN: Are there any other references that we should look into?
PAMELA: That's all I can think of.
PAMELA: Watch Incredibles for Dash.
SUZANNE: You should all be on your own building a library of things. Look and feel. Go to CG society and look through all of the portfolios.
ERIK: Since we are going from a creepy vibe at first, I have been going to Tim Schaffer's stuff. Look at Double—Find also. They have a bunch of stuff.
PAMELA: Say you get Laura Frank on your team. You're going to try to sell her on your vision. What kind of information would you give her? Specific scenes from Monsters Inc. Think about the kind of stuff that you would give her to get her excited about your project. You should be doing all of that stuff whether you get Laura or not.
SUZANNE: I call CG look and feel —— I get inspired by people who do CG that doesn't make it look like CG. I will find things that are different to look at. I liked Gnomeo and Juliet.
ERIK: Cheesy. They have entertaining moments like the flamingo. I thought it was kind of cute.
RYAN: I think we have a stable ground, I believe. I'm going to make sure that I talk to Laura and let her know what we are planning and how we are going to proceed.
PAMELA: Dangle a carrot for her.
SUZANNE: Thank you, guys.
RYAN: I am going to go home and start sketches for the character and Billy. And hopefully I will be able to post those to the blog tonight.
ERIK: I'm starting to look on —— I have done a few of them. I'm going to take a look at your sketches.
Starting animation thumbs, great, great, great.
Let me look at Billy. I'm liking this head. I like this head.
RYAN: I'm going to head home and draw but first I will email Laura. I will do some tentacle ideas for variety.
Monday, July 18, 2011
original animatic
Here is the animatic that I have done for PRJ350. Just using this as a starting point. Also, I will just post the meeting transcripts as files instead of just posting it all there due to having them being so long.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Pitch Meeting Transcript of 7-14
>> See we are a 3 man team. We came up with putting our stuff together on a blog to see how it works. It looks like the original idea was max's idea. He's now —— we're all going to be embellishing it to make it a bigger project. Would you like to explain what is going on.
» Make it bigger.
STUDENT: Ware basing the character on Billy.
STUDENT: Just his proportions. We're still working out details on character design.
» So do you want to take us through the —— why don't you take us through the one where you are right now.
STUDENT: This is the one that we're basing it off of to expand on.
» Cool.
STUDENT: It is more thumbnails to embellish on the theme and make it a minute and a half.
PAMELA: It can be shorter than that if you want it to be. Whatever it takes to be successful.
PAMELA: What's happening? Why is he freaking out there.
STUDENT: That makes me wonder why?
STUDENT: We don't know.
» It is a spooky mystery.
» He jumps into the tub.
» Good.
Can people follow it.
STUDENT: Yes.
STUDENT: The objective is basically it is if you can over come fear, you can find friendship anywhere. That is what we have as our rough storyboard for now.
STUDENT: That light going off is like a gun, I want to know why it went off.
STUDENT: The are some auditory aspects that I didn't put in there. It is an old bathroom and it is going to be decrepit. There will be sounds coming from the pipes to keep him on edge. Then there will be a loud one and the lights will go off. The sounds and the light will scare him. The cap will fall into the sink maybe from falling backwards.
» Could there be lightning outside or thunder and that sets up the spookiness and the lights which is adding up a whole new level of the environment.
PAMELA: That makes sense when your having the environment.
» That would make more sense.
PAMELA: Otherwise it could be the thought that it is the monster that is making the lights go off.
STUDENT: That was my biggest concern with having the entire house go out.
» Either way. When the light goes out, it is spookiness.
PAMELA: Maybe there is lightning in there. Like you have a quick lightning flash. The lightning flash would be a silhouette. Clearly it is because of the lightning.
STUDENT: Does he turn the lights on in the bathroom. If you had it flicker a bit.
» That is a really simple thing. We already know that the lighting is funny.
STUDENT: We are thinking of putting in another shot like a grate. Something is looking at him maybe. There's something watching him.
PAMELA: I don't think you need it.
» That's too much. I like Frank's answer with the lights flickering.
» Is the neighborhood old and decrepit or something?
STUDENT: He's doing this for his project 350 as well. He has an animatic to show this as a rough draft of what the finished production might look like.
» That makes sense.
STUDENT: What were you saying before that.
» I don't know.
PAMELA: Have you thought about the credits?
» Every project needs a wolf head.
STUDENT: We are going to have a similar thing during the credits. He is going to say good morning to the tentacle. They're friends. It is the point that the 2 are friends. There or 5 images where he doesn't fear the dark anymore.
PAMELA: I was thinking of herald and the purple crayon or Calvin and Hobbes are now friends.
STUDENT: How do you do that.
STUDENT: It sells the if you overcome fear, you can find friendship anywhere.
STUDENT: We're having a regular environment and a crazy environment. We'll be showing his imagination.
» Okay. Can you put that as a possible? As opposed to —— it's cool but there's more. You can do wonderful camera angles as opposed to making a whole other environment.
PAMELA: For sure you can light it differently, but have a plan B.
STUDENT: We are curious if there is someone who needs a team. We could use someone else.
PAMELA: So if anyone hears of anyone, let them know that these guys are looking for somebody else.
STUDENT: We will be putting out ads soon.
STUDENT: Here is Max's animatic for his project 350.
STUDENT: Yeah!
PAMELA: What do you think of this version versus the thumbnail version? Which one do you like better.
PAMELA: In this version the tentacle is much more dramatic. In the story boards it is much more linear.
STUDENT: I like the shift of lighting.
STUDENT: I like the dramatic tentacle.
STUDENT: The bath room lighting is cool.
PAMELA: I am down with it as long as you can explain the lights.
STUDENT: I thought of a cat with a hairball when the tentacle spits out the cap.
STUDENT: The biggest hurdle I see in this is I have never animated a tentacle before. I am looking forward to that as a challenge.
PAMELA: Can you go back to the thumb boards for a minute.
PAMELA: I want to see the tentacle part of the thumbnails.
STUDENT: This one.
PAMELA: That's a lot simpler to animate, what you have in the thumbnails.
» I'm worried about the eye in there.
».
PAMELA: It can be a little creepy but not that creepy.
» I don't think there needs to be the eye. You know the is more creature in there.
STUDENT: I like the idea of Billy looks into it and the eye looked back.
» We never see the tentacle walking around. I assume there is a bigger creature under there that is part of the tentacle. So I am thinking the eye is creepy.
PAMELA: I think we all buy the eye in the sink even if it is not on the tentacle.
» You know what? I think it is more dynamic to get character out of a tentacle without having to have a facial.
STUDENT: I am liking Marisa's idea of him puking up the cap.
STUDENT: He spits it out.
PAMELA: Maybe.
» Or maybe he just hands it to him.
STUDENT: You dropped this into my eye. Here it is.
» That's nice. That is a great character, great look.
STUDENT: We have general ideas of each character, why they are there, and what's going on. We are going to communicate that there the character and animation.
» Did you time this out? You guys need to go and turn this into an animatic.
PAMELA: Something you can step through frame by frame.
STUDENT: That is our next step.
STUDENT: I can create an animatic in flash.
PAMELA: It is not due in class until week 4 and then it will have to be beautiful.
» You can do it for timing only. We need to know how long it is. That's great. Okay.
» Make it bigger.
STUDENT: Ware basing the character on Billy.
STUDENT: Just his proportions. We're still working out details on character design.
» So do you want to take us through the —— why don't you take us through the one where you are right now.
STUDENT: This is the one that we're basing it off of to expand on.
» Cool.
STUDENT: It is more thumbnails to embellish on the theme and make it a minute and a half.
PAMELA: It can be shorter than that if you want it to be. Whatever it takes to be successful.
PAMELA: What's happening? Why is he freaking out there.
STUDENT: That makes me wonder why?
STUDENT: We don't know.
» It is a spooky mystery.
» He jumps into the tub.
» Good.
Can people follow it.
STUDENT: Yes.
STUDENT: The objective is basically it is if you can over come fear, you can find friendship anywhere. That is what we have as our rough storyboard for now.
STUDENT: That light going off is like a gun, I want to know why it went off.
STUDENT: The are some auditory aspects that I didn't put in there. It is an old bathroom and it is going to be decrepit. There will be sounds coming from the pipes to keep him on edge. Then there will be a loud one and the lights will go off. The sounds and the light will scare him. The cap will fall into the sink maybe from falling backwards.
» Could there be lightning outside or thunder and that sets up the spookiness and the lights which is adding up a whole new level of the environment.
PAMELA: That makes sense when your having the environment.
» That would make more sense.
PAMELA: Otherwise it could be the thought that it is the monster that is making the lights go off.
STUDENT: That was my biggest concern with having the entire house go out.
» Either way. When the light goes out, it is spookiness.
PAMELA: Maybe there is lightning in there. Like you have a quick lightning flash. The lightning flash would be a silhouette. Clearly it is because of the lightning.
STUDENT: Does he turn the lights on in the bathroom. If you had it flicker a bit.
» That is a really simple thing. We already know that the lighting is funny.
STUDENT: We are thinking of putting in another shot like a grate. Something is looking at him maybe. There's something watching him.
PAMELA: I don't think you need it.
» That's too much. I like Frank's answer with the lights flickering.
» Is the neighborhood old and decrepit or something?
STUDENT: He's doing this for his project 350 as well. He has an animatic to show this as a rough draft of what the finished production might look like.
» That makes sense.
STUDENT: What were you saying before that.
» I don't know.
PAMELA: Have you thought about the credits?
» Every project needs a wolf head.
STUDENT: We are going to have a similar thing during the credits. He is going to say good morning to the tentacle. They're friends. It is the point that the 2 are friends. There or 5 images where he doesn't fear the dark anymore.
PAMELA: I was thinking of herald and the purple crayon or Calvin and Hobbes are now friends.
STUDENT: How do you do that.
STUDENT: It sells the if you overcome fear, you can find friendship anywhere.
STUDENT: We're having a regular environment and a crazy environment. We'll be showing his imagination.
» Okay. Can you put that as a possible? As opposed to —— it's cool but there's more. You can do wonderful camera angles as opposed to making a whole other environment.
PAMELA: For sure you can light it differently, but have a plan B.
STUDENT: We are curious if there is someone who needs a team. We could use someone else.
PAMELA: So if anyone hears of anyone, let them know that these guys are looking for somebody else.
STUDENT: We will be putting out ads soon.
STUDENT: Here is Max's animatic for his project 350.
STUDENT: Yeah!
PAMELA: What do you think of this version versus the thumbnail version? Which one do you like better.
PAMELA: In this version the tentacle is much more dramatic. In the story boards it is much more linear.
STUDENT: I like the shift of lighting.
STUDENT: I like the dramatic tentacle.
STUDENT: The bath room lighting is cool.
PAMELA: I am down with it as long as you can explain the lights.
STUDENT: I thought of a cat with a hairball when the tentacle spits out the cap.
STUDENT: The biggest hurdle I see in this is I have never animated a tentacle before. I am looking forward to that as a challenge.
PAMELA: Can you go back to the thumb boards for a minute.
PAMELA: I want to see the tentacle part of the thumbnails.
STUDENT: This one.
PAMELA: That's a lot simpler to animate, what you have in the thumbnails.
» I'm worried about the eye in there.
».
PAMELA: It can be a little creepy but not that creepy.
» I don't think there needs to be the eye. You know the is more creature in there.
STUDENT: I like the idea of Billy looks into it and the eye looked back.
» We never see the tentacle walking around. I assume there is a bigger creature under there that is part of the tentacle. So I am thinking the eye is creepy.
PAMELA: I think we all buy the eye in the sink even if it is not on the tentacle.
» You know what? I think it is more dynamic to get character out of a tentacle without having to have a facial.
STUDENT: I am liking Marisa's idea of him puking up the cap.
STUDENT: He spits it out.
PAMELA: Maybe.
» Or maybe he just hands it to him.
STUDENT: You dropped this into my eye. Here it is.
» That's nice. That is a great character, great look.
STUDENT: We have general ideas of each character, why they are there, and what's going on. We are going to communicate that there the character and animation.
» Did you time this out? You guys need to go and turn this into an animatic.
PAMELA: Something you can step through frame by frame.
STUDENT: That is our next step.
STUDENT: I can create an animatic in flash.
PAMELA: It is not due in class until week 4 and then it will have to be beautiful.
» You can do it for timing only. We need to know how long it is. That's great. Okay.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
MileStones 1, 2, and 3 (Three being due in the begining of the Semester)
Milestone 1:
One paragraph treatment
Character thumbs -- experimentation and brainstorm
Simple beat boards (3 to 5 Thumbs)
Rough thumb Look and Feel
List of team members/specialty and problem solving for holes in team
DONE with the exception of the last point
Milestone 2:
Refined (but still rough) character sheet
3 color thumbs Look and Feel
Begin Production Bible - compiling research, inspiration, and ideas. This can be digital only.
(Now is time start a texture library...before you need it)
1st pass thumb storyboards
Character Artist - help with concept
Environment - help with concept
One paragraph treatment
Character thumbs -- experimentation and brainstorm
Simple beat boards (3 to 5 Thumbs)
Rough thumb Look and Feel
List of team members/specialty and problem solving for holes in team
DONE with the exception of the last point
Milestone 2:
Refined (but still rough) character sheet
3 color thumbs Look and Feel
Begin Production Bible - compiling research, inspiration, and ideas. This can be digital only.
(Now is time start a texture library...before you need it)
1st pass thumb storyboards
Character Artist - help with concept
Environment - help with concept
Today's Bullet Points From the Meeting
So over all the meeting went pretty well. There was only one issue with the boards, and that seemed to be the lighting situation that happened midway through the boards. Now the solutions that were suggested were...
*To hint at the faulty lights in the beginning (Lights flicker on and off)
* To have lightning flash
There also seemed to be an issue with the monster tentacle having an eyeball in the middle of the tip (gave too much of a creepy vibe.) It was also suggested that perhaps we should add a mouth like appendage, but personally, a regular tentacle will work just fine.
Other then that, there didn't really seem to any glaring issues.
Now on to what needs to get done. (I know; not fun, but as Producer, its my job to kick you guys in the rear to get stuff done. So deal with it. XD)
As we talked about after the pitch, one of our first priorities needs to be the redesigning of the child character (Use "Billy" if you want, but I think we need to change the name if we're really gonna "sell" this idea to people.). So as we agreed, we'll each do 10 thumbs of the child character and post them here by next Thursday.
As for the tentacle character, the silhouette that Ryan used in the boards already works (Minus the eye of course). We can pretty much push forward to color on him.
From Max has told me, he's actually going to be fairly busy towards the end of the month and even more so towards the next month (Due to his own personal portfolio building). So we agreed that all he really need to do is work on animation thumbs for the child character.
Ryan, all you really need to do for the next coming week is work on timing out the animatic in flash.
*To hint at the faulty lights in the beginning (Lights flicker on and off)
* To have lightning flash
There also seemed to be an issue with the monster tentacle having an eyeball in the middle of the tip (gave too much of a creepy vibe.) It was also suggested that perhaps we should add a mouth like appendage, but personally, a regular tentacle will work just fine.
Other then that, there didn't really seem to any glaring issues.
Now on to what needs to get done. (I know; not fun, but as Producer, its my job to kick you guys in the rear to get stuff done. So deal with it. XD)
As we talked about after the pitch, one of our first priorities needs to be the redesigning of the child character (Use "Billy" if you want, but I think we need to change the name if we're really gonna "sell" this idea to people.). So as we agreed, we'll each do 10 thumbs of the child character and post them here by next Thursday.
As for the tentacle character, the silhouette that Ryan used in the boards already works (Minus the eye of course). We can pretty much push forward to color on him.
From Max has told me, he's actually going to be fairly busy towards the end of the month and even more so towards the next month (Due to his own personal portfolio building). So we agreed that all he really need to do is work on animation thumbs for the child character.
Ryan, all you really need to do for the next coming week is work on timing out the animatic in flash.
Erik's Environment Thumbs With Some Other Stuff Thrown In
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Ryan's Happy Fun Storyboard Time Part I: Initial Concepts!
Since we haven't finalized a character design yet, I'm keeping the 'Billy' idea pretty generic for now. Here's how I visualized the story coming out, and the "End" is still up in the air as for story. This should give us a good place to start from, if nothing else!
Monday, July 11, 2011
Max's Rough StoryBoards
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Child Designs
Our Story in a Paragraph (or two)
In every child's life, there exists the Darkness. Somewhere within all of us lies the primeval Fear of the unknown. It could be anywhere, at anytime, but always in the dark. Every child must confront these fears, lest they be consumed by it. Not every fear is merely a phantasm, however. Not all bumps in the night are merely the wind in the trees, the water in the pipes. Not every fear is capable of bursting forth from the darkness of the bathroom sink, dripping and slithering its way directly towards you... but every fear can be conquered. By conquering their fear, children are opened up to a whole new world that can contain anything. Life, Happiness, and even the greatest treasure of all, Friendship.
When Billy must confront his fears of the dark, he doesn't know what to do. His mother has told him to go brush his teeth, but the light burns out unexpectedly. Unable to control his shivering, he loses his grip on the toothpaste cap and it falls down the drain! The pipes start to rumble and groan, something is coming up! A long, slithery tentacle bursts forth, and begins pursuing Billy around the room! No matter what he does to escape, the agile monster cuts him off at every turn! Only when he's finally cornered does Billy confront the tentacle, and discover that all it wanted to do was return the cap that he had lost! The tentacle gives a little wave and quietly returns from whence it came... and Billy discovers that not everything that slithers in the dark is to be feared.
When Billy must confront his fears of the dark, he doesn't know what to do. His mother has told him to go brush his teeth, but the light burns out unexpectedly. Unable to control his shivering, he loses his grip on the toothpaste cap and it falls down the drain! The pipes start to rumble and groan, something is coming up! A long, slithery tentacle bursts forth, and begins pursuing Billy around the room! No matter what he does to escape, the agile monster cuts him off at every turn! Only when he's finally cornered does Billy confront the tentacle, and discover that all it wanted to do was return the cap that he had lost! The tentacle gives a little wave and quietly returns from whence it came... and Billy discovers that not everything that slithers in the dark is to be feared.
How to make a Nightcap
Here's a website I found with some simple instructions on how to make a nightcap. I'd like it if everyone went out and made one for us to wear next Thursday for our presentation.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2181846_nightcap-sleeping.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2181846_nightcap-sleeping.html
Nightcap Productions
Hello, and welcome to the future construction site of Nightcap Productions! This site is where Max Engman, Erik Miles, and Ryan Gates will be posting details, information, and work leading up to the Senior Project animation at the DigiPen Institute of Technology. Feel free to leave constructive feedback and any thoughts you think might improve the production, and enjoy what promises to be a nervewracking and sleepless year of production!
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