I made a mood board for my project. Down the side is the colour scheme that I think I will end up going with. The colours that I think that I am going to end up using will be blues and greens and some purples which I want to use in place of the ultra-violet that rats allegedly see. At the moment, the colours are more saturated than rats would see and I might look into de-saturating the tones a bit so theyre a bit closer to grey, but the colours themselves will probably stay the same.
I have been working on my character concepts.
So far I have drawn my storyboards and concepted for my two human characters. I intend to present the character boards for my two characters, possibly also my storyboards.
The next thing I need to do is model my environment in Maya, as well as the Rat.
So far I intend to use Maya to model the Rat and zBrush to paint it and make the textures look cool. Mainly because I am struggling to understand zBrush for actually building the model, but I think I will find the shaping and things better in zBrush, because I think I can do that.
I also intend to do the animatic and record the dialogue soon.
I recorded the dialogue for my film which I began to edit together so I can put it into my animatic in order to help me work out the timings for my different shots.
I have been working on my character concepts.
So far I have drawn my storyboards and concepted for my two human characters. I intend to present the character boards for my two characters, possibly also my storyboards.
The next thing I need to do is model my environment in Maya, as well as the Rat.
So far I intend to use Maya to model the Rat and zBrush to paint it and make the textures look cool. Mainly because I am struggling to understand zBrush for actually building the model, but I think I will find the shaping and things better in zBrush, because I think I can do that.
I also intend to do the animatic and record the dialogue soon.
Update: I changed my mind about what I am exhibiting, I will exhibit my 2 character concept boards and my setting concept board.
Above are the three boards that I intend to display at the exhibition.
I also did some storyboards which I don't intend to exhibit:
Modelling House
I began to model the house that the story takes place in.
When it comes to special effects, I will look at the various different programs and how good the various presets they offer are. I thought ToonBooms fire preset, when edited a bit, could work well as the glowing ember at the end of Gary's smoke. I also need to look at smoke particles for when he breathes out smoke, to see which one would be best. I thought "Looping dust" in Harmony might be good for the smoke, however, only if I can effect the way it moves, to try and make it look more like smoke that has been breathed out.
I put in windows and some doors.
I made a Gantt Chart to show a rough timeframe for when I intend to get everything in my project done by. Here it is:
I recorded the dialogue for my film which I began to edit together so I can put it into my animatic in order to help me work out the timings for my different shots.
Here's a cheeky bit of unhelpful trivia, turns out that I can't import sound into storyboard pro anymore. I wanted to use the dialogue to inform the timings for my animatic but it won't let me import the soundscape that I quickly made in protools. After a quick google search, I think it has something to do with quicktime. I'm not angry, just disappointed. I think that the soundscape has helped though because I know how fast I want the dialogue to be which means I will probably be cutting down a lot of my shots that I had in the storyboard anyway. I saw a thing on youtube discussing realistic dialogue that had examples of dialogue where people sort of talk over one another, which I intend to do in the final product to make it seem more natural. This means that the length of the conversation is shorter than I imagined initially. In terms of the animatic, not sure if I'm going to put sound into it now that I know that that Storyboard pro won't let me import sound, but I'm not too fussed, I think that when it comes to actually animating, the soundscape will be more beneficial than the storyboards for helping my timing, seeing as the storyboards are more of just a visual reference. Now that I know that some of the shots need changed I will think of the storyboard as more of an indication than a goal for the shots and composition. I think at the end of the day, the soundscape will help inform me of my timings more than the storyboards will.
I might still rough up a quick animatic anyway and try and force the sound in, but not tonight.
Then I modeled the couch that I intend to put into the kitchen/lounge which is where all of the action takes place in the pilot episode. I modeled the base of the couch and then made the pillows using ncloth and then duplicating the shape and modelling it further to make it look a bit more lumpy and gross looking.
I need to make a cooker and a microwave.
After this I will begin to model various props. I need to model a broom, and some food items because they are part of my props. I also need to model some curtains and a cloth for one of the doors in the house.
I still haven't decided on the textures and look for the sets apart from the setting concept that I presented in the first exhibition. I haven't decided the route I want to go down for the textures yet, I will consider that as I continue to model so by the time I have everything modeled I will be able to move straight onto textures.
I drew up some concepts for the Rat.
I began to model the Rat. I started in Maya and then brought the OBJ file into zbrush. I modelled it in zbrush for a bit but then struggled to bring it back into Maya. When I finally did bring it back itno Maya it looked rubbish and most of the model had lost it's shape. I began to model the whole thing again in Maya. I'm not very happy with it so far. But I think it looks better than it did. I am hoping to get some fur onto the rat before I leave for my internship at Mechanic Animation, but I probably won't get that far, but I've had enough for tonight because I'm bored of looking at it.
I have begun to weight a Default Maya Character that I will be using as a place holder to draw over for my two 2D characters.
I lit my scene to make it less flat. The setting is now practically completed, although, I intend to add in some particles to make it look dirtier when I go to animate it.
The rat still needs to be finished with the rigging and then he needs to be weighed, I am hoping to have this done by the end of this week, although, that might not be the case. I have to build a few more props, but these shouldn't take too long I don't think. The whiskers on the rat are not working very well so I don't know what I will do about that, but I'll think about it later.
I have two rough place holders for the characters that I will be drawing over. One is badly weighted and the other is ready to be badly weighted.
I intend to begin to put together as many scenes as I can over this week, some of them will not be able to be put together just yet because they wont have some parts, but I am hoping to get as much as I can ready so I can begin rendering some of it.
I finished a VFX breakdown of the Rat's hair. I was going to also work on some of the props, but I can't open Maya because it is just crashing more and more lately. I have a feeling it might have something to do with the fact that the CDrive can't get much fuller. Anyway, I logged a job and now Im going to give up for the rest of the day because I can't really do much of the things I need to do here with Maya crashing.
I did a movement test with the rig just to see how the movement was. A warning came up saying "// Warning: Cycle on 'C_Spine_01.matrix' may not evaluate as expected. (Use 'cycleCheck -e off' to disable this warning.)". I rendered it out but the mesh fucks up when the character moves. It starts ok and then goes weird. I think that I might have to make the decision over whether I should either 1. Make the rat a 2D with the humans, or whether I should 2. Get rid of the rat character entirely. I think both of these options have problems with my concept because having the rat as a 3D character is important to my concept and the research project, but at this stage I think that it is going to be impossible to do.
24/08/2018
I have begun animating the 3D scenes. One of the scenes is ready to begin animating the 2D over. I have been rendering the file with everything in it as a reference, and a clean file that just has the rat and the setting which I will composite the 2D animation onto.
Here's the scene with everything in it. I have two basic references for the human characters, with loads of shine on them so I can see the parts where the light is concentrated to help me with the shading.
Here's the 3D without the rest of the references. I intend to add the 2D animation, motion blur and experiment with various effects to make the finished shot.
Here's a rant about how much I hate my project and why I want to quit looking at it:
First of all I'm not going to be able to get it done. Secondly, even if I did get it done it isn't anything like how I aimed for in the first place so either way it's not going to be any good. I don't think anything about it is any good except for the concept, but I think that the concept isn't going to be shown properly because the rest of it is so shit.
Here's a rant about what I'm going to do about it:
I haven't got enough weeks left to fix all of the parts I hate because it's way too late, so what I am going to do it just try and keep going doing what I'm doing and hope I end up with something. Even though I've resigned myself to knowing that I'm going to hate everything I hand in, I'm going to hand it in anyway because having a crap thing is better than having nothing.
To try and get as much of it done as I can I am spending average of 5 hours a day on the 2D animation. The only thing is, I'm finding the work really slow because even though I'm trying to avoid taking a lot of breaks, my hand keeps getting tremors and cramps and starts to really hurt so I feel like it's going slower than it normally would. I'm not really sure why my hand is getting tremors and hurting, it hasn't really done it before and in the past it only started shaking and hurting if Id been writing/drawing non-stop for the whole day (like, 5+ hours). I think it might be exhaustion or something because I'm not able to sleep properly at the moment.
Here's a rant about how much I'm struggling to give a shit:
Honestly, I'm really tired and so at the moment my main focus is to just do as much as I can without making myself any more stressed out than I already am for the last 6 weeks of course. I'm aiming to pass if I can, but I've decided that if I don't pass I'll just go home to Ireland and move back in with my Dad until I figure out what to do next. At least it will be summer in Ireland by the time I get back there so I will be able to lie out in the sun and eat homegrown vegetables and help Dad with the horses and try to get healthier because I ran up the stairs the other day and at the top I got chest pains and light-headed and I've heard of that kind of thing happening to old people, but I always kind of assumed it wouldn't happen to me, so it made me contemplate my mortality for a second there.
Here's a rant about all the good things in my life at the moment so I don't sound so bitter:
My flatmates are great and my mum is coming out to NZ for Christmas which is also great. My brother was meant to be coming too but he doesn't know if he can get time off work now which sucks because he's cool but I hope he can. My dad is in a really good mood lately since he got a girlfriend and I'm really happy for him. I'm going to have a third niece/nephew soon. The weather is getting better which is the best because summer is warm and I like being warm. My mum wants me to help my aunt clean the spouts this weekend which I'm excited for because I get to climb on the roof of the house and I really like it up there. Also, the wrecked cars outside the kitchen window are looking good at the moment because there are loads of them. Also there is a toilet on top of the shipping container at the moment which makes me laugh.
Modelling the Set
So far, I have modeled the base of the house (which can be seen above).
Below I have the bench which has been modeled, complete with sink and taps, and moving cupboard doors.
Then I modeled the couch that I intend to put into the kitchen/lounge which is where all of the action takes place in the pilot episode. I modeled the base of the couch and then made the pillows using ncloth and then duplicating the shape and modelling it further to make it look a bit more lumpy and gross looking.
After this I modeled some kitchen utensils. I want the bench to look messy because I think the setting wouldn't look tidy and well maintained because the human characters who live in the house wouldn't be extremely neat people. I still need to make a kettle and a toaster.
I need to make a cooker and a microwave.
After this I will begin to model various props. I need to model a broom, and some food items because they are part of my props. I also need to model some curtains and a cloth for one of the doors in the house.
I still haven't decided on the textures and look for the sets apart from the setting concept that I presented in the first exhibition. I haven't decided the route I want to go down for the textures yet, I will consider that as I continue to model so by the time I have everything modeled I will be able to move straight onto textures.
I drew up some concepts for the Rat.
I began to model the Rat. I started in Maya and then brought the OBJ file into zbrush. I modelled it in zbrush for a bit but then struggled to bring it back into Maya. When I finally did bring it back itno Maya it looked rubbish and most of the model had lost it's shape. I began to model the whole thing again in Maya. I'm not very happy with it so far. But I think it looks better than it did. I am hoping to get some fur onto the rat before I leave for my internship at Mechanic Animation, but I probably won't get that far, but I've had enough for tonight because I'm bored of looking at it.
Putting on hair
The hair isn't working because the geometry sucks and it is making weird looking square patches in the fur which seem to be getting worse-not sure whether they are or I'm just noticing them more, but it is driving me mad and I'm thinking about changing my script just so I can have the human characters brutally murder the rat character because he is annoying me so much. I don't know what I'm going to do to fix it, but I really hope I figure it out soon.
I learned that the hair is being weird because of the polygons on the geometry, I am just going to try and hide it and hope that the rigging deformations will also take away some attention from it.
I began to custom rig my rat, I am hoping to have a run cycle for the exhibition coming up, but I'm not sure if I will be able to manage it in time.
Building the Set
I have been working on putting everything together for my scene. I pretty much have the setting built now, I just have to add some dust, debris and light it.
In terms of the props, I am building them now and am hoping to have them all ready by the end of the semester break so I can start animating straight away.
Here are some examples of the setting design so far:
I have begun to weight a Default Maya Character that I will be using as a place holder to draw over for my two 2D characters.
Semester Two:
I lit my scene to make it less flat. The setting is now practically completed, although, I intend to add in some particles to make it look dirtier when I go to animate it.
The rat still needs to be finished with the rigging and then he needs to be weighed, I am hoping to have this done by the end of this week, although, that might not be the case. I have to build a few more props, but these shouldn't take too long I don't think. The whiskers on the rat are not working very well so I don't know what I will do about that, but I'll think about it later.
I have two rough place holders for the characters that I will be drawing over. One is badly weighted and the other is ready to be badly weighted.
I intend to begin to put together as many scenes as I can over this week, some of them will not be able to be put together just yet because they wont have some parts, but I am hoping to get as much as I can ready so I can begin rendering some of it.
I finished a VFX breakdown of the Rat's hair. I was going to also work on some of the props, but I can't open Maya because it is just crashing more and more lately. I have a feeling it might have something to do with the fact that the CDrive can't get much fuller. Anyway, I logged a job and now Im going to give up for the rest of the day because I can't really do much of the things I need to do here with Maya crashing.
Modelling the props:
I made the brush prop. I used xGen for the bristles for this, and just used a basic flat colour for the handle and the end of it.
I made a sandwich.
I made the block of cheese
I made the shopping bag.
Rigging The Rat
I have been trying to create a custom rig for the rat character. I think that I managed to get all of the legs more or less rigged except for the front fingers because I think I will want a little more mobility for them than the back leg-fingers have. Here is a screenshot of how the rig is at the moment.
30/07/2018
I have finished rigging the Rat and have moved onto weighting. I'm behind where I wanted to be by this stage but hopefully I will be able to catch up once I have finished weighting I hope to start animating the 3D scenes and rendering them as I go.
I've been weighting and moving the rat to see how it looks.
Turns out that I messed up the eyes in the weighting, so I have to re-do it again. I re-skinned the rat but now the eyes aren't working. I'm going to have to re-do it again. If this doesn't work I'm scrapping the idea of the rat being 3D and Im probably going to just make it 2D like the human characters or get rid of it completely because otherwise Im never going to get the 2D animation done.
I did a movement test with the rig just to see how the movement was. A warning came up saying "// Warning: Cycle on 'C_Spine_01.matrix' may not evaluate as expected. (Use 'cycleCheck -e off' to disable this warning.)". I rendered it out but the mesh fucks up when the character moves. It starts ok and then goes weird. I think that I might have to make the decision over whether I should either 1. Make the rat a 2D with the humans, or whether I should 2. Get rid of the rat character entirely. I think both of these options have problems with my concept because having the rat as a 3D character is important to my concept and the research project, but at this stage I think that it is going to be impossible to do.
24/08/2018
I have begun animating the 3D scenes. One of the scenes is ready to begin animating the 2D over. I have been rendering the file with everything in it as a reference, and a clean file that just has the rat and the setting which I will composite the 2D animation onto.
Here's the 3D without the rest of the references. I intend to add the 2D animation, motion blur and experiment with various effects to make the finished shot. 
An example of the combination of the 2D with the 3D
Here's a rant about how much I hate my project and why I want to quit looking at it:
First of all I'm not going to be able to get it done. Secondly, even if I did get it done it isn't anything like how I aimed for in the first place so either way it's not going to be any good. I don't think anything about it is any good except for the concept, but I think that the concept isn't going to be shown properly because the rest of it is so shit.
Here's a rant about what I'm going to do about it:
I haven't got enough weeks left to fix all of the parts I hate because it's way too late, so what I am going to do it just try and keep going doing what I'm doing and hope I end up with something. Even though I've resigned myself to knowing that I'm going to hate everything I hand in, I'm going to hand it in anyway because having a crap thing is better than having nothing.
To try and get as much of it done as I can I am spending average of 5 hours a day on the 2D animation. The only thing is, I'm finding the work really slow because even though I'm trying to avoid taking a lot of breaks, my hand keeps getting tremors and cramps and starts to really hurt so I feel like it's going slower than it normally would. I'm not really sure why my hand is getting tremors and hurting, it hasn't really done it before and in the past it only started shaking and hurting if Id been writing/drawing non-stop for the whole day (like, 5+ hours). I think it might be exhaustion or something because I'm not able to sleep properly at the moment.
Here's a rant about how much I'm struggling to give a shit:
Honestly, I'm really tired and so at the moment my main focus is to just do as much as I can without making myself any more stressed out than I already am for the last 6 weeks of course. I'm aiming to pass if I can, but I've decided that if I don't pass I'll just go home to Ireland and move back in with my Dad until I figure out what to do next. At least it will be summer in Ireland by the time I get back there so I will be able to lie out in the sun and eat homegrown vegetables and help Dad with the horses and try to get healthier because I ran up the stairs the other day and at the top I got chest pains and light-headed and I've heard of that kind of thing happening to old people, but I always kind of assumed it wouldn't happen to me, so it made me contemplate my mortality for a second there.
Here's a rant about all the good things in my life at the moment so I don't sound so bitter:
My flatmates are great and my mum is coming out to NZ for Christmas which is also great. My brother was meant to be coming too but he doesn't know if he can get time off work now which sucks because he's cool but I hope he can. My dad is in a really good mood lately since he got a girlfriend and I'm really happy for him. I'm going to have a third niece/nephew soon. The weather is getting better which is the best because summer is warm and I like being warm. My mum wants me to help my aunt clean the spouts this weekend which I'm excited for because I get to climb on the roof of the house and I really like it up there. Also, the wrecked cars outside the kitchen window are looking good at the moment because there are loads of them. Also there is a toilet on top of the shipping container at the moment which makes me laugh.
Here's the cars outside the kitchen window. I want to go and climb on them and see if I can find anything cool in them sometime, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
Here's the toilet on the shipping container. I'm not sure why it's up there?
11/10/2018:
I'm making my way through the 2D and I have stopped sleeping so I think I might be able to get it done hopefully. The next thing that I'm a bit worried about is integrating the props into the animation... Initially I was going to do them 3D because then I wouldn't have to draw them but they look so weird and out of place in 3D. I've tried doing them roughly in 2D too and then trying to composite them together that way but I don't like that either. I think that I need to re-do a lot of the shots and change the props to the same kind of style as the 2D animation, but that means I would have to do a lot more 2D animation and I'm already not sure that I'll get all that done. Hmmm.... Idk.
7/11/2018
I got it done. It's OK. Cool.
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