After the lengthy rendering process, I am close to completing the project, with only two steps remaining; compositing and video editing. I opened Adobe Premiere to complete the final steps, optimizing the preferences as needed, as well as the location of saving. the rendered images were then added to the timeline.
Once I finished editing the scene, I added in the words 'Pirate's Gold' in an appropriately pirate-y font and coloured the words gold. I then added this to the end where the chest would open and the gold would fly out, fading to black with 'Pirate's Gold' then coming up. I then added pirate-themed music and rendered it into an MP4 file.
Friday, 3 April 2015
Rendering
Depending on the desired outcome, rendering can be a very lengthy process. For this scene, I needed to change the quality from 0.25 to 1.0 and the sampling mode to Unified/Raytraced for the best sampling mode. I needed to render about 332 frames, taking about 25 hours. I have a recently upgraded PC, and therefore had a fairly quick rendering process.
Lighting
Once all of the assets had been placed, animated and looked good, I began adding light to the scene and configuring it. I placed the light up above the scene, to replicate the sun, and therefore adding the much needed shadows, and making the scene look really nice. I then had to configure the light by adding the material to my material editor and adjusting it for full effect. I then made sure the scene and animation looked as good as it could before preparing for the lengthy process of rendering.
Scene Assembly
I began the process of assembling the scene by importing the sky dome and due to a bug, linking the textures to it.
I then merged the board, grass, and sand in and placed them accordingly to create the background for the animation. I had to then link the textures to each new asset I merged. I then incorporated the crabs, palm trees, chest, shells and starfish. I had to align the grass around the board using the three different colours to create a more natural feel to the scene. I made the palm trees different sizes, shapes and heights to add to the natural feel.
I then merged the board, grass, and sand in and placed them accordingly to create the background for the animation. I had to then link the textures to each new asset I merged. I then incorporated the crabs, palm trees, chest, shells and starfish. I had to align the grass around the board using the three different colours to create a more natural feel to the scene. I made the palm trees different sizes, shapes and heights to add to the natural feel.
Animation
I began the process of animation by merging the treasure chest with the game board, so I could get the right position for the chest before starting. I then had the chest suspended in the sky, and once the board unfolded, I utilized the auto key tool to make the chest drop on to the board, squashing out comically, before reverting to normal and the lid popping open. I then used the same method for the crabs, palm trees, shells and starfish laid out in the scene. The auto key tool made everything so much simpler and faster for me to complete.
Rigging
The rigging of a model takes longer depending on the complexity of the moving parts, in this case, the treasure chest had one moving part, the lid. Luckily, this was a fairly easy process, as all I had to do was create the pivot point, centre it to the hinge, link the lid to the base and the base was linked to the control rectangle I created around the entire chest. Now that the rigging is done, I can move on to animating the scene.
Texturing
Once the texture map was sized correctly and laid out in the correct position, I imported it into Photoshop and opened the colour palette so I could get the correct colour for my textures. I made the entire base layer brown and then went through and used the pen tool to create the details in a darker brown. I then went through and added shading and wood planks to the base, including using the gradient tool to make more realistic shadows.
Once the wooden base details were completed, I moved on to the metal, making the metal areas, such as the lock, hinge and rims grey and added the blocks of shadow to the areas that wouldn't receive light, then added the highlights to make the metal look metallic. I then went on to make scratch marks on the metal parts, and wood grain and splinters to the planks and adding in the nails.
The most time consuming part was having to keep redoing the parts I could only do with my Wacom pad, as I would have to redo each detail about 3 times for the smaller pieces and about 10 times for the larger, more obvious details.
Once the wooden base details were completed, I moved on to the metal, making the metal areas, such as the lock, hinge and rims grey and added the blocks of shadow to the areas that wouldn't receive light, then added the highlights to make the metal look metallic. I then went on to make scratch marks on the metal parts, and wood grain and splinters to the planks and adding in the nails.
The most time consuming part was having to keep redoing the parts I could only do with my Wacom pad, as I would have to redo each detail about 3 times for the smaller pieces and about 10 times for the larger, more obvious details.
Thursday, 2 April 2015
UV Mapping
The UV Mapping process is easily one of the most time consuming of the 3D production pipeline. I started the process by applying a checker pattern material to the entire chest to check for areas that would have warped textures. I then selected the polygons on the surface, planar mapping them to ensure they were displayed on the right axis, and connecting the vertices to make them 100% the same size.
I would have to occasionally go and break the edges that were on a 90 degree angle to make the texture map display correctly. The hardest part of the process was making sure the squares on the checker pattern were all the same size, because if the squares weren't all the same size, it would result in textures being better or worse depending on whether the squares were bigger or smaller.
The lid required required the same process, but had more edges to break, and they were smaller to see. This part went much quicker than the lid, as I had the hang of what I needed to do at this stage. I then moved all of the polygons into the square and positioned them the right way so that I could move on to texturing them.
I would have to occasionally go and break the edges that were on a 90 degree angle to make the texture map display correctly. The hardest part of the process was making sure the squares on the checker pattern were all the same size, because if the squares weren't all the same size, it would result in textures being better or worse depending on whether the squares were bigger or smaller.
The lid required required the same process, but had more edges to break, and they were smaller to see. This part went much quicker than the lid, as I had the hang of what I needed to do at this stage. I then moved all of the polygons into the square and positioned them the right way so that I could move on to texturing them.
3D Modelling of Assets
The chest had to be modelled from scratch, and I started off with 2 rectangular prisms, comprising the base and lid. I started off with the base, because it would take the most time, being larger, and created a simple rectangular prism, with a length of 150, a width of 280 and a height of 120. I used the connect tool to create the required segments, altering them with the extrude and inset tools to create the rim on the top and bottom of the chest, the hinge, the legs and the indented panels of the front and sides.
Segments were created running across the middle of the chest and were scaled outwards to create the lemon shape. The base was fairly straightforward compared to the lid. Once the base was looking good, I moved onto the lid. The lid started out similarly to the base, but with a length of 156, a width of 280, and a height of 28. Once the required segments were created, the height of the centre of the lid was increased to resemble a pirate hat from the side.
The lock, hinge, and the rims around each end of the lid were created with the extrude tool, but the shape of the lock was changed with the scale tool. Then all I had to do was align the two objects and then could move on to the UV Mapping.
Segments were created running across the middle of the chest and were scaled outwards to create the lemon shape. The base was fairly straightforward compared to the lid. Once the base was looking good, I moved onto the lid. The lid started out similarly to the base, but with a length of 156, a width of 280, and a height of 28. Once the required segments were created, the height of the centre of the lid was increased to resemble a pirate hat from the side.
The lock, hinge, and the rims around each end of the lid were created with the extrude tool, but the shape of the lock was changed with the scale tool. Then all I had to do was align the two objects and then could move on to the UV Mapping.
Pre-Production & Blocking
The initial stage of the production pipeline includes reading and understanding the creative brief. I was to create the treasure chest for an advertisement for the board game called "Pirate's Gold". Most of the tasks needing to be completed were already finished and were laid out as the template for me to follow. The majority of this stage was pretty much just visualizing what I was going to create and the steps to accomplish it.
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