Saturday 31 December 2011

The (almost) completed first 25 seconds! + Breakdown.

So here is the latest bit of eye candy from Team Ticked Off. I'll post the video first, then those interested can read a little about it afterwards. Please watch it on youtube in full HD, the compression isn't the greatest.


We've rendered and composited a rough shot to test our pipeline, complete with breakdown. It's a good thing we did because we hit a lot of issues... but solved the majority of them with some quick fixes. A decent learning curve, and we're glad we won't have to deal with this kind of stuff when it really matters. We've got a lot of stuff to re-organise next year, and will no doubt have to re-make the master project file. Tedious but it's going to save us a lot of trouble in the long run. 

I've got quite the extensive list of crap we need to sort with this render, obvious things like the trippy magnifying glass, feather glitch and floating/clipping issues... as well as some less obvious things. I'm going to take another look at some compositing bits n bobs, maybe minimise some of the discolouration on the edge of the "film" etc. 

We're also going to check out doing the depth of field in maya, as Z depth doesn't allow you to blur foreground objects without a harsh outline. Also, possibly slowing the camera move by about 25% as it feels slightly rushed, as well as adding fiddly things like dust particles...

The main purpose of this shot is to ease the audience into the film, describe the character, and grab the attention of any industry folk... none of which really comes across as well as I'd like. 

This was comped entirely in After Effects, we're still looking into Nuke and how we could fit that into the pipeline, we don't feel comfortable doing any actual effects in Nuke... but we might use it in combination with After Effects to composite final frames for colour correction etc. 

All in all though, this is mainly to give you guys... and ourselves... an idea of what the final film could look like. This is the first time we've seen any sort of finalised outcome, and we're pretty excited!

- Kieran

P.S. a free beer to anybody who can spot 10 easter eggs... there's at least 20. 

Wednesday 14 December 2011

Sunday 11 December 2011

Production Diary 1

The first of our making of/production diary videos which we'll be uploading over the course of the next few months.

This allows us to keep everybody up to date, while not having to worry about cobbling together a making of at the end of the year. We hope you find it interesting, and that it gives the non-animators a nice insight into the production process... as well as witnessing our slow decent into madness.

Friday 9 December 2011

Which Watch?

Here are the finalised watch designs. We're undecided on the colour, though. What do you think?

Mark



Thursday 8 December 2011

First rendered frame.

A quick comp test of a frame from the opening shot, which is currently being animated. Click for full size.



Note: Final film will contain precisely 237.4% more lens flare. 

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Character Turnaround

Here's the character completely modelled and textured. Feedback is encouraged, as always.

We also started filming our making of yesterday, which we're breaking up into 8-9 short videos covering each aspect of production as we do them. So expect the first introductory video soon, followed by Finlay's modelling one within the next couple of weeks. This just makes it easier for us to keep you lot updated, while allowing us to get a decent making of without cramming it in last minute.

Anyway, here's the turnaround... full screen, HD for full effect :)

Kieran

Tuesday 6 December 2011

Texture updates

Here are a few new textured objects to have a gander at. They're pretty much finalised; some some logos on the camera and hands on the clock is all that's really needed.

Once again the lighting is just for upload purposes. Any feedback, advice, pointers will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Mark