Week 3 - Improvements and Render Tests
Our pitch deck
Notes from Mentors:
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Consider scale in cloud shot- if clouds are detailed, ring will look massive
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Work on lining up camera movement and transitions between shots
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Try out alternative method for bubble shader
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Remove stops in animation, keep the ring in frame and moving at all times except the beginning and end
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Team To-Do List:
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Work on shot transitions and lining up ring between each
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Work on abstract version of cloud shot to resolve scale issue
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Smooth out animation stops
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Continue iterations of FX shots
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Create lighting and render tests for (hopefully) all shots
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Personal To-Do List:
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Advance FX of shot 4
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Make ring roll around for longer in cloth
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Make launch feel slightly more gentle
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Extend cloth to cover the bottom of the frame
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Work with Noelle on setting up textures and lights in shot 4
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Do a render test of shot 4
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FX Work
The goal for the shot 4 FX this week was to increase the amount of movement that the ring has. In previous versions, the ring fell into the cloth, and then mostly remained static as the cloth moved around it. We wanted the ring to be moving as well as the cloth.
I initially tried changing the simulation of the cloth to be more dynamic, but the ring still wasn't moving the way that we envisioned.
So instead, I pivoted to animating the ring, and then simulating the cloth with the ring as a collision object. It took a good amount of time, but the end product looks much better than the simulated ring!
Rendering Test
Another focus this week was getting an initial render of all of the shots. I worked with Noelle, our lighting and look dev artist, on getting initial textures and lighting for the scene.
The animated ring on it's own
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The animated ring and simulated cloth combined
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The cloth without the ring merged in
Early camera set ups for the shot
Texture options that we tested for the cloth (we ended up going with the cloth on the left)
Lighting references for the general mood of the scene
Initial render test that turned out extra shiny because of file pathing issues on the renderfarm
Successful render test!
Shot 3 Update: ​
In previous weeks, we had planned for shot 3 to be focused on flowers, then switched it to being set in the clouds, and this week, we decided, after a lot of testing and deliberation, to switch back to flowers. Gracie, the FX artist in charge of the FX for shot 3, did FX tests for the ring in clouds and the ring in flowers, and the flower versions felt more cohesive with the rest of the commercial. ​
Because we've gone back and forth, and also because Gracie ended up getting badly sick this past week, this shot is a bit behind the others, so for next week, we plan to focus a lot on getting shot 3 up to speed with the others.
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Clouds FX test 1
Clouds FX test 2
New flower FX test
Our final slides with render tests and the new shot 3 for this week!