NEMESIS

WEEK 5: ANIMATION/FX

MON, APR 21

I'm very behind schedule at the moment, since I haven't finished modeling yet. It may yet turn out in my favor though, since I'm more comfortable with modeling. This way, I won't have quite so much shading to do when I get to it. Mostly, I worked on other classwork.

TUES, APR 22

I finished modeling the mummy, and worked on the sarcophagus model. I prepared my midterm presentation, added more references to the website, and rendered out turntables.

WED, APR 23

Worked on sarcophagus, but mostly spent my time on a project for another class.

THURS, APR 24

Began shading of sword and fixed my hallway model so it will smooth correctly. Worked on sarcophagus model more, fixing the face area and laying out clothing folds in more detail.

FRI, APR 25

Continuing to work on the sarcophagus, I had to start over on the cloth folds a few times because I wasn't quite getting the look I wanted. Nevertheless, after much trial and error, I found a good, simple way to do it.

SAT, APR 26

I was at the Sidewalk Festival most of the day, and I did work for another class.

SUN, APR 27

Finished sarcophagus model (all folds, hands, feet) and began shading. Put it together with WIP of sword as well, to show in class. Also fixed mummy model (moved the spine to the correct place) and corrected UVs on my torch/sconce model.

WEEK 6: ANIMATION/FX

MON, APR 28

Fixed the sarcophagus model according to class critique. Her arm looks much less awkward now. I also changed the shading the sword so it is made of stone and not quite so perfect. There are now only pieces of gold, as if it had been painted over the stone and flaked off over time.

TUES, APR 29

I continued work on my stone shader, trying to add more divuts and cracks. I worked with the specularity and reflection as well, to try to give it a more glittery look.

WED, APR 30

I set up for Out to Launch and did work for another class.

THURS, MAY 1

Out to Launch.

FRI, MAY 2

Out to Launch. I began reviewing my notes on Houdini Pyro and setting up my workflow for the torches. I rendered out my first version of the fire, which was lackluster, but at I was able to get a better idea how I needed it to render out/how long it was going to take.

SAT, MAY 3

Did work for another class, but I also modeled a simple stone wing shape and modeled fully the bone wings. I also assembled a good hierarchy for the wings so my life would be easier when I got to animating them. Began placing new models in my maya scene to begin animating them as well.

SUN, MAY 4

Spent most of the day working on torch fire, refining the turbulence and sticking to my references. I fixed the simulation's tendency to flare up and adjusted the shader to fit the coloration of torch light.

WEEK 7: LIGHTING

MON, MAY 5

Animated the mummy and fixed the sarcophagus animation. I used a transform node and a lattice deform for the mummy, who also needed to be posed with the arms crossed and body hunched over. I also fixed some camera positions/animations.

TUES, MAY 6

I animated the bone wings and tweaked the shot 4 camera to time the movement together better. I needed quite a few test renders to see the animation of shots 3 and 4, and I re-rendered my fire simulation with slightly more refined lighting. I tested caching out my simulation as well. One flame at a division level of .025 for 216 frames (the length of shot 1) is 43 GB. I may have to rethink how I go about assembling the fire in the scene. At one point, there are three separate lit torches in the shot, which may get pretty heavy at render time if I'm not careful.

WED, MAY 7

I showed a few different versions of lighting setups and received critique on my mummy/wing animation. A lot of the comments were about how the wings seem to spaz out towards the end, but this look was intentional. I wanted the wings to beat frantically as the scene is meant to portray Nemesis "lifting off", as it were. I think many of the negative reactions actually came from how tight the camera is; so, they can't really see what's happening. I didn't edit my animation much, though I did tweak the camera a bit so the viewer can see more of what is going on in the animation, which makes it feel less jarring.

THURS, MAY 8

Attended Playtesting Night. I set up more lighting, trying to find the right balance between too much light and not enough light. One of my goals with the lighting was to use contrasts in warm/cool colors, which is present in one of my main lighting references. I wanted the tomb to be lit with moody torchlight, but with a sort of heavenly moonlight shining on the sarcophagus. That way, it would appear more majestic and also pop out of the background. However, I had some issues with the lighting flattening out my model and the rim light from the torch overwhelming the profile. I spent most of today trying to massage out those issues.

FRI, MAY 9

I focused on editing the sarcophagus shaders so the light would respond better, and also to address Professor Rauh's comments on the scale of the texture, since the large divuts made it look more like a miniature. I also set up the lights for the torches. I already had one light for each of the torches, but in order to get the look of the flames emitting light, I surrounded the torch with four separate lights.

SAT, MAY 10

Did work for another class.

SUN, MAY 11

Fleshed out the lighting further and put some basic shaders on some elements that weren't textured. I also placed a few more clutter objects in the background for shot 2 and tried to get a bit more light in the tomb so nothing goes to black.