Summer research, Lili game play, 21 December, 2016

game teaser
game trailer

I like the framing of these shots- you're far enough back that you can see what's happening when the character is in action, then you go up close for thinking challenges.

summer research, Marvelous Designer, 7 December, 2016

artist testimony: she used Marvelous Designer to make custom mocap suits for dogs and horses.  doing the pattern in MD meant fewer fittings on the horse.

Could you describe challenges in which Marvelous Designer was of use to you and go into detail regarding how Marvelous Designer helped overcome them?
The most challenging thing for me was sewing the MoCap suit for a horse. I created the pattern in Marvelous Designer, and used it to sew the suit itself. After measuring the horse, we created an avatar that I used to make the suit, and by importing the data of the moving horse (Maya cache) we could also simulate the suit to see how it fits. It was very helpful that we could set the material quality of the suit, and during the tests, we could see where we need extra fabric, and where we should make it more formfitting. There were several errors that came to surface this way before the actual sewing took place, and thus the horse required less fitting sessions.

Proposed workflow:  

sculpt body of actor in Maya.  How do I get accurate measurements into Maya so the model is the same proportions as the actor portraying the character?

import model of actor into Marvelous Designer.  Is it possible to make shapes with foam over the model in MD? And then drape fabric?  Or must I bring in a model of Jellybean (character body) and then drape fabric over that?

sculpt head in Maya, slightly smaller to account for fabric, for 3D printing

Test MD pattern in paper at 1/4 scale

Adjust pattern in MD

Test MD pattern #2 in 1/4 scale (repeat until pattern is right)

Test MD pattern in cardboard at full scale

3D print skull of head and print pattern to make in foam

Cut foam

cut fabric

sew/glue/assemble

Write up each stage:  how much fiddling did the pattern require at each step?  What's the scale difference between foam and fabrics? 

summer research, storytelling, 2 December, 2016

Will Schoder's universal story breakdown video

Dan Harmon, showrunner for "Community" and co-creator? of "Rick and Morty" expanded on Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces" and Will Schoder made this animated guide  to illustrate the mono-myth format of storytelling.

Dan Harmon's universal story breakdown webpage
Dan Harmon expands on the theory of storytelling in his post Story Structure 103 by saying

1. When you
2. have a need,
3. you go somewhere,
4. search for it,
5. find it,
6. take it,
7. then return
8. and change things.

5-minute plots lesson 106.  Lesson 105 tells you how to set up a story for TV so it goes on forever and ever and ever.  Depressing, now that I see it, but instructive, nevertheless.

BSA228, Problems to resolve before showing the game at Flicks, 9 November, 2016

tree chandelier:  my texture and bump map has dropped off and I can't reconnect them

Curio button box on HUD screen needs to be connected to Curio box scene
Start menu needs play movie? button
IF
I can film a "fly-over" of the game.  It may be worth doing that so people don't get caught up and frustrated by the maze.
Speaking of which, adjust the jasmine and lavender mazes so there's more walking room between the hedge rows.
Ask Rachel why animation for front door isn't going in.  I've stripped the whole front door out because there were a lot of weird redundancies in the game.

BSA228, finishing up the game, 7 November, 2016

HUD?  should be around the borders of the screen while the game is in action.

Tree chandelier.  My intention is to connect a particle fizzy light thing to make it look like fireflies are hanging around the tree.

I went into Maya to get the animation set with the blend shapes.  Then it dropped off when I selected delete history.  Not sure what to do now... I'll find out in class tomorrow.  I added another pair of glasses and made both of them a contrasting colour so they'll all stand out from the face.

BSA227 and BSA203, Southsure Emerging Artist Awards entries, 5 November, 2016

With Her

 Hey, that's me!

 And that's Parth

And I got the hand in the right place and restored the whole rotoscoping sequence.  

And we've got a nice, simple credit sequence.  Which is how I discovered that none of the copies we had saved over two computers were the most up to date version of the movie.  What a pain in the butt.  I am soooooo tired.  Tomorrow I'll find out if the version we saved in the dropbox is the old or the new one we wanted to submit.

BSA227 and BSA203, Southsure Emerging Artist Award entries, 3 November, 2016

Dragonframes is the program that the latest stop motion class used.  The program we used to observe our shots expired so I need to pick this one up pretty quickly.  In aid of that, Vaughn has sent me this link and a pdf tutorial, too.
I checked a tripod, clicker, camera, led light and laptop out from Chris.  I've brought it all home so I can set up a shooting stage in my room.  The natural light may not be the way to go, but I'm going to give it a try.  I never liked shooting in the basement.

Here are all the shots, in sequence.  The stop motion is extremely dark, but I'm going to try to use that to my advantage.

BSA228, house inspiration, 3 November, 2016

I need to do more work on the roof of my video game house.  This picture of the Winchester Mystery House is inspirational; just look at that cone roof.  My roof already has three of those.

BSA227 and BSA203: Southsure Emerging Artist Awards entries, 2 November, 2016

Parth and I are entering "With Her" into the Flix and that means another pass at making things look good.  We did what we could for our assessment today and Rachel had very good feedback.

Here's what I'd like to fix:
Rotoscoping
hand emerging: match each frame up to cover the hands
bride emerging: same thing.  big problems with the head and veil.  dress also has problems
close up 1:  get rid of waggling side hairs
Come, David:  keep cutting frames apart and redo "sneaky peach face" frame completely.
heart clutching:  Fix that sequence by putting one black layer behind it all to show where white bits around head are
Erika hands David the pen:  Her dress is too white.  bring down the overexposure to darken it up.
I need Parth to colour correct footage and export it in chunks so I can match frames up in After Effects.
For Flicks, I'd like a more simplified credit sequence at the end.  Our names and what we did on one frame each, not multiples, and "Special Thanks to" in same place each screen so it flows.

I'm fixing up the project I did for BSA203, like I always intended to, with stop motion bookends.
Ashes to Gold
stop-motion sequences to be shot:

 establishing the doll: minimum of 50 frames

 close up of the book: 50 frames

 close up of doll's face with chin tilting down: 62 frames

 book open and reading: 45 frames

book opening #1: 75 frames

 to this entry

 scanning the book : 50 frames that can create a loop

flipping page #2:75 frames to 

this entry:

flipping page #3: 45 frames from  Phantom Limbs

flipping page #4: 75 frames from Medusa entry to shut book

roughly 550 frames to shoot.  in garage with darkness, lights and tables?  Or at home where I can eat brownies when I want and natural light?  Remember?  slow, slow, movements, keep it steady and unrushed when changing poses.  

Use doll, and both sizes of book because the bigger book's pages might turn better.  Look downstairs to see if by some amazing coincidence, anything was saved from stop motion project last year.  Maybe use porcelain doll's fixed up hand?  At least get armature and recover with clay.  The bed?  Surely that's long gone.