Category: Collaborative Unit

For the group work this time, our group has six students, one with two foreign aids, because the two foreign aids only helped 5% of the 2D animation workload. Hence, the team members completed most of the projects.

We had a basic idea in the first week and finished all the preliminary designs in the second week. This idea is a combination of everyone’s thoughts. All members of our group are very enthusiastic. As a leader, I combined everyone’s ideas and filled in the theme I thought about at the beginning to make this final animation. At least for us, I am delighted with the result, and I am pleased to be able to cooperate with such a group of people.

In this group cooperation, I learned many new skills, increased my social skills, and tried a new organizational method. I hope that everyone can do what they are good at and like, so I observe, Communicate, understand, and assign different jobs to each person. Still, there may be a problem with giving jobs this way: everyone’s workload is different. This problem was reflected in the early stage, and some team members told me it should be assigned differently. It could be because I only look at the results and pay little attention to the process. Hence, I thought it was normal for people with strong abilities to do more things because we all want to make something good. After they reported this matter to me, I adjusted the amount of work. After that, everyone accepted it and was earnest about their work.

As a leader, you should discover the work the team members are good at and give full play to this ability. I did try my best in this group cooperation. Some people are good at design; some are good at painting; some are good at painting; some are good at modeling, and some have a great artistic aesthetic. Fortunately, the members of our group each have their unique strengths.

Some team members had a problem with the job they were doing. She doesn’t know what kind of work she likes, so I sometimes assign different types of work to her. I am such a person because I don’t have a favorite job, so I have some knowledge about each position.

This group cooperation taught me that I am better at rigging and modeling. I could improve at scene production, but I like it very much, so I will still learn some knowledge in this direction. Overall, I enjoyed the teamwork, and we pushed our limits in such a short amount of time.

The working process video

The work of this week has been relatively easy. Our team plans to complete the animation one week in advance. With everyone’s hard work and reasonable arrangement of time, we completed the basic animation and special effects one week in advance.

Final animation

My friend edited three suitable BGMs for me and merged them into a proper length for the scene, but it is not rich. Since we still had much time, I made some simple sound effects.

Tingyi helped me find many sound effects on the Internet. I chose the most suitable one and used Adobe Audition to synthesize the sound effects.

The functions I use more:
For noise reduction, extract a part of the noise and then denoise the entire audio

Fade-in and fade-out effect

Rack Effect – Parametric Equalizer

I use this function to edit the sound. This function can reduce the sound of each frequency, and I use this function to make the sound clearer.

Rack Effect – Pitch Shifter

I use this function to change the pitch of the voice. In the animation, David’s voice is a girl’s voice. After being lowered by me, it becomes a male voice.

There are also some basic settings, such as the size of the sound and the settings of the left and proper channels.

My main job in this week is to use After Effects to integrate 2D and 3D animation.

First, I rendered all the 3D animation sequences of the virtual scene, and Yiyu, who made the actual scene, also rendered the 3D animation of the natural scene. I sorted all the resources and put them in a folder. Jieyi gave me the three sketches she drew as resources and finally imported them into the after-effect database.

I made the part about the virtual world first because this part requires a lot of animation with special effects. I pre-compose each shot to make it easier to produce.

In the post-compositing, I did not use a lot of special effects. The main special effects are Fill, blur, glow, and mask animation, mainly used to match some overlapping, time, and match rhythm of 2D animation with the rhythm of 3D animation, etc.

Almost all 3D scenes use simple materials, making the animation style more cartoony, with no particularly complicated effects. Still, the effect of combining with simple 2D animation is satisfactory. Coupled with some motion graphic animation, I think the final effect was quite interesting.

In compositing, I use the tracking and mask functions the most. most of the 2D animation drawing mistakes can be solved with these two functions. These two functions are also very suitable for 2D animation production occlusion, such as the paint river in the scene and some frogs interact with the scene.

The use of 3D layers is also very suitable for this animation. I used this layer to make animation transitions and a virtual screen that rotates 360° in the scene’s center.

It is worth mentioning that there is no need for a particularly complicated animation in the scanning animation. Just let the audience know that this action is “scanning” and “uploading.” Hence, I use the trim paths function of the line to combine the drawing frame shape and use the most detailed animation with appropriate animation rhythm and timing so that the painting on the table in the movie looks like it has been scanned and uploaded.

Virtual scene rendering

Rendering of realistic scenes( by Yitu)

Paintings for transition (by Jieyi)

The entire After effect project file

Special effects used in production

Fill: I generally use this to change colors：

Gaussian blur: Generally used to produce effects that conform to the depth of field in 3D scenes：

glow: commonly used when making motion graphic animations with a sense of technology:

Tracking: Tracking is generally divided into 2D and 3D because the lens movement is relatively simple, so I only use 2D tracking, which is used to keep the 2D animation in the correct position in the lens:

Mask: The mask is straightforward to use. Generally, I use it to modify the drawing errors of some 2D animations and the occlusion relationship between objects in the scene.:

3D layer: the use of this layer needs to create a camera in the composition so that this picture can be used as a 3D panel, which I use to make virtual screens in animation:

The simplest transform animation:

trim paths: The function that can make the lines stretch. I created the effect of scanning light by combining mask, 3D layer, transform, opacity, and trim path and using a suitable rhythm:

Visual effects after 2D&3D animation synthesis:

I divided the animation into different shots and used Maya’s reference function to make animation shots. To spend less time on rendering, each shot only shows the model needed for the plot, and because of the use of reference, when it needs to be changed, As long as the source file is changed, all shots can be guaranteed to have consistent data.

At the same time, when setting up the camera, I chose to use focus distance, which can focus the audience’s eyesight on the main character on this screen and give the camera a sense of depth.

In terms of lighting, I gave the scene an area light as the primary light source and set the shadow color of the main light source to blue because the scene with blue shadows and orange tones is very suitable. And I also put a fill light used to brighten the entire carpet, then to make the character brighter, I set emission attribute for each character and added a fill light to each character’s face. The shadow of each fill light has a different color. This light is noticeable on the white plaster material and can create a colorful effect.

During the week, the 2D animation students drew and colored several animations, and I blended the rendered 3D backgrounds with these animations to create prototypes of the animation. There is an interaction between our 2D character and the 3D character, so we need to confirm the exact animation style of the 2D with this animation test:

At the same time, I also completed the texture of the character, which is a rendering test that proves the character’s plaster material is susceptible to ambient colors:

This is a separate shot of the different animations:

This is the model file:

This is one of the shot’s lens settings, all the settings are similar to this one, the red ones are the focal length settings.:

This is a map of all the lighting shown by maya, you can see that the light is bluish throughout and that each character has a fill light, this subtle lighting will be adjusted depending on the shot and will be different for each shot:

Rendering tests:

This week I sorted out and exported the details of the texture. There are a lot of textures. I linked the material in Maya’s scene model and tested using many material attributes. The effect rendered in substance painter differs from that rendered in Arnold. To keep the background in a nice color and create a sense of space,  the background map is made into a board, which can maximize the background pattern.

I’ve tried using a sky sphere for the background before, but this makes the background mapping very severely deformed, and I don’t think this is a suitable method, so I just set the background as a backdrop and adjust the background to each shot.

The 2D students’ drawing skills were also very applicable to painting textures. They were equally involved in painting the model textures, including carpets, floors, and floating picture frames, all of which were worked on by the 2D animation students, who used PS to paint, and I showed them the range of patterns that should be painted to make the textures look better.

In this rendering test, I found many material problems. Some materials have too apparent reflections. The lighting color needs to be adjusted, then the model could be better for this material. I also made the model affected by the blue color of the background texture. It creates a color-blending effect, but the final result wasn’t excellent, so I used a gradient method to make a fake color-blending effect.

This is the substance export setting, which has a bearing on the speed of the subsequent rendering:

This is all the textures after export:

I used a material editor plugin to help me link the textures in one click, which was very convenient and saved a lot of time.:

This is the background plate with the texture applied:

Here are the materials after finishing, the texture of each material will be adjusted according to the shot:

Rendering test:

The paint splatter pattern in the scene is found on both the carpet and the floor, but this pattern is not suitable for painting on the Substance painter. I gave the basecolor texture to the 2D animation students and asked them to help add the pattern.:

Background:

There are also many paintings in the scene, which were painted by 2D students using very famous canvases as a basis and look very interesting:

This is a test rendering of the scene after all the mapping has been added and refined:

This is a rendering test of the whole scene, adding a background and attempting to blend the painted wall, but the reflections its not really good:

Mixing effect:

After adjusting the materials for the whole scene, our group decided that the background colour was affecting the ambient light causing the whole scene to look greenish in tone and everyone thought that blue tones would look better, so I tried different shades and lighting.:

This is the final result and all of us are very happy with the result.:

This week I have similarly composed some animations drawn by 2D students:

I created the basic files this week and textured the model with my classmate. First, I selected the models that needed mapping in Maya, unfolded the UV of the models, and created new materials for these models, respectively. I grouped different models, selected and exported the models that needed the texture, and then entered the substance painter to make the mapping.

We used adobe substance 3D painter to create the texture. I was responsible for compositing the whole scene, so I modified the mapping created by the group members and finally exported it from the software.

I did not encounter any difficulties making materials, and I decide to not show these repeated steps. The only problem is that I am not proficient in using the substance painter. I want to disarrange materials and put them on models that are inconsistent with reality, such as superimposing plastic materials on an apple. I tried a lot of different combinations, and the result was different depending on the model itself. I chose the most appropriate one.

In the meantime, the 2D students had already drawn a number of drafts of the animation, which I again composited in after effect and tested the effect on:

This is the UV of the model:

This is the material of the model：

This is the texture I made in substance 3D painter：

This week we have a presentation, the purpose of which is to introduce the basic information of our work and the progress so far. We have made a 43-page PowerPoint presentation, and the progress so far is that the 3D part has been roughly done, only to give the model materials.

I’ve recapped our animation ideas：Funny themes: Twist And Shout（sekko to kaeru）

Basic concept：

Initially, we made this animation to realize the theme of virtual and real worlds, belonging, and virtual communities.
For us Chinese art students, we agree that a studio is a place where we accumulate experience, maybe it is where nightmares can originate, and it might be where a sense of belonging can come from, so we also believe that criticism of art is a very personal and subjective act, which is why we chose the virtual space, which is closer to the environment on the internet.

Our theme is the virtual and real worlds, with the drawing room as the primary setting. We highlight the ‘fantasy’ element by comparing the actual drawing room with the virtual one. We have three main 3D characters and a 2D element throughout the animation to represent the current situation we want to show.

The story follows a real-life studio where the students’ drawings are uploaded to the virtual studio without permission and critiqued at will by the virtual community. Here the act of ‘scanning and uploading’ shows the message that any object in the virtual community can evaluate the painting and represent all human groups, which is why we have chosen three sculptures instead of human figures. objects of criticism representing people of other countries, ages, races, religions, and colors. The animation shows the three prominent sculptures having different opinions about the painting, which emphasizes the subjective nature of the act of ‘criticism.’It is a nightmare for all of us to be criticized from such personal behavior, so we have simulated this scenario through a virtual community and used 2D characters – three tiny frogs – to represent people who are criticized, who may go unnoticed, who may be disgusted, who may be noticed and listened to, and the three different frogs also represent the personality of the authors of arts. By doing this animation, we can show our embrace of the pain and the wish to overcome it with a sense of humor.

Last week, our group finished making the furniture in the virtual scene because it was made in C4D. After importing it into Maya, I found some modifications to the model, so I combined the scene and the model and finished the model of the whole virtual scene.

I started to animate the scene with the model according to the storyboard. At the moment, we are doing the most straightforward animation, some details will be added in the future, so I also made the 3D animatic so that the 2D animation students can start drawing drafts.

The giant puppet hand model in the scene is an adaptation of a commercial model. We have modified this model so that it can be controlled by the finger joints and turned into a flexible hand.

This week I finished all the 3D animations. I animated the virtual worlds and used AE to make a 3D storyboard with some of the 2D drafts I had already done.

The animation we have now is only for the 2D students as a reference, as we finally chose to add 2D animation on top of 3D animation, so the 3D part is by now a large part of the way.

Here is the PowerPoint for our presentation, which gives an overview of the current process of our group:

This week yeri and I finished drawing the storyboard, she did the subplot for the real scene, and I did the story for the virtual scene. I marked the animation parts in different colors for 3D (blue), 2D (pink), and AE (green), and after the actual planning details, we cut down the existing plan considering the time and workload.

I wanted the storytelling throughout the animation to make the audience think it was a funny scene that looked more in line with the fantasy. Although it was a funny scene, it mocked the act of criticism, a contrast I think was also highlighted by the fact that the frogs as the primary 2D characters were like innocent students facing reality, each with their characteristics, but in the end, none of them were heeded by the plaster, which also highlighted the fact that the critics didn’t care about the people they were criticizing.

First Edition：

In the second version, we removed a character and several shots to make the animation more streamlined：

After modification：

I was sick this week, so not much work could be done, I built two models with the help of An, making UV texture, and rigging, making the blend shape：

David

Plaster Head of a Woman：

EYE：

This week, we confirmed the theme and ideas and started designing two scenes. As the leader, I hope everyone’s thoughts can be incorporated into our theme, so everyone has to draw some drafts to provide ideas.

My main job is to keep track of everyone’s work, assign work, summarise it, plan the general timing and flow, and then summarise each stage at the end.

I also use 3d models to assist with perspective while designing. But we don’t have anyone in our group who is particularly good at design, so we were a bit overwhelmed when it came to drawing fantasy scenes, as none of us had a very realistic idea of the word fantasy, so we sketched a lot this week and gathered everyone’s thoughts to come up with a more satisfactory scene.

I’m still getting to know the group this week, the MA animation students all draw adorable animations, but they each have their strengths and things they could improve at drawing. I’ve recognized this accurately and given them the right jobs to do.

I also thought about our production process this week, and it isn’t feasible to have 2D in charge of the backgrounds for the whole virtual scene because of time constraints. The conclusion was that 3D would do the two scenes, and 2D would draw the character animations in the scenes, so the 3D scenes and animations would have to be done as early as possible.

Fantasy Scene Design:

Draft (idea1)

(by kiki)

(by Bingxue Xiang)

3D model testing:

(by Tingyi Huang)

But when we were ready to do it, we felt that the design wasn’t right and the result wasn’t as good as we thought it would be.

Then, when we were at a bit of a loss, our multinational collaborator brought us a sketch that caught my eye.

so we make idea2

（by KIKI）

We also used 3D assistance to create this scene

（by Tingyi Huang）

In the detail elements, I blend the group’s idea：

（by Yiyu Wang）

My draft after integrating the idea:

Next, kiki tries to match the colors to the scene:

(by kiki)

3d model testing:

(Tingyi Huang)

Final 2D scenography:

At the same time, everyone had their own sketches of characters they wanted to draw:

(by kiki)

(by Fangyuan Shao)

(by Bingxue Xiang)

(by me)

(by Jieyi An)

We also have realistic scene design and scene modelling, but this is not the part I am responsible for, so I’ll just put some pictures in a condensed form(The original version is too much of a process)

(by Jieyi An)

(by Yiyu Wang)

This week we sorted out the basic plot and decided on the characters. As we were leaning towards making an animation that showed the scenes and the community, we thought we couldn’t have significant characters but needed a clue to tie the whole plot together to make the entire animation interesting。

Here’s what we got this week. We got the group together and decided to work with the MA animation students to create an animation that mixed 3D and 2D to reflect the fantasy element better.

Title: Twist and Shout

Team Members:
Yuting Yan
y.yan0320223@arts.ac.uk
Tingyi Huang
t.huang0420192@arts.ac.uk
Yiyu Wang
y.wang03202218@22016035c.uk
Jieyi An
j.an0320221@arts.ac.uk
Bingxue Xiang
b.xiang0320221@arts.ac.uk
Fangyuan Shao
f.shao0320221@arts.ac.uk

Description of idea:
The general wish of this animation is to blend in the idea of a metaverse (virtual space and identity) and a sense of belonging. Being judged by the same standards is a nightmare that everyone shares. By doing this animation, we can show our embrace of the pain and the wish to overcome it with a sense of humor.

After some discussion and plotting, we are gradually designing what the two different scenes will look like

Approximate plot.

Half-minute realistic scenes (3D).

Two scenes: approx. 8-16 seconds showing yeri’s studio scene We Need to have a mapping of the painting that was scanned on

Shot 3: Scanning (approx. 3 paintings) (2d animation)

Format or rewind

Shot 4: Switching angles to get a closer view of the painting being scanned

Shot 5: the painting goes from 3D to 2D (as it is being scanned)

Shot 6: pulling away to show a 2D scene

Shots 7-8: cut shot showing a 2D virtual drawing room (with the action of plaster discussion)

Shot 9: cut shot (panorama) plaster already discussing blablabla

Shot 10: Cut to screen showing new scanned drawing (with cue sound effect, switch of three)

Shot 11: Cut to tabletop slowly drawing closer, suddenly an apple falls from the sky and squeezes into the paint, the paint squeezes out the frog (grass green), and the frog scatters (background music with occasional cue sound effects)

Shot 12: Cut to David (pencil is drawing a scarf for David). A frog jumps into the picture, steps on other colors, changes color, then moves over and pokes the plaster. David looks down and then up at the screen. Bubbles emerge as circles of symbols. The frog moves over and takes a step. David looks down at the frog again and repeats the action until the little frog pounces on it and fills the pencil-drawn scarf.

Shot 13: The camera cuts to a simultaneous shot of Venus (while having white brushes to cover off the paint that got on her face) and her eyes. The frog hops between the two plasters, first to the eyes, eyes staring at the frog before looking up to continue scoring. Venus looks down in surprise after scoring, attention is drawn away, and the frog turns his head to stare at Venus.

Shot 14: Frog jumps onto Venus’ lap going up Venus’ skirt, footprints all the way up; brush erases footprints. Frog and Venus look at each other for a moment and jump out of the shot.

Shot 15: The frog walks into the frame with a ballet, scratching his head in front of the lyre girl, who is playing with her phone, not looking up and scoring indiscriminately (the brush is applying blush, the cream paint is applying lipstick), sees the frog scratching his head and expresses his disgust.

Ending 1: A slap on the wrist, paint spilled on the lens, END.

Plaster as Minimalism Stylised

Dynamics of the five senses

The animation during this period is about a minute and a half, there are 3-4 plaster casts, only one full or half body, the rest are human heads, choose a common studio plaster head, like David Poseidon. During this time there will also be small 2D animations interacting with the 3D head, imagine for example a 3D plaster head with pencil marks drawn on by a human and then a 2D eraser floating over to help erase it

Current plaster candidates: David, Lady of the Lyre, Venus, Eyes

• We also played a little game during class today, and I think the connotation was to show how to work together. The game is interesting in that the results reveal the differences in thinking and preferences of each person, and the final combination is not necessarily a logical creature. Still, this strange combination adds a lot of interest to the game. However, the game still shows that the problem is the lack of knowledge of the group members, which leads to some off-topic conclusions, so I think this game also reveals the importance of knowing each other in group work to make the most of the strengths of the group to produce something better.