June 5, 2015 : Animation All Wrapped Up (Sorta)
After several months, animation for the short is done. In order to make sure I gave myself enough time for post-production, I worked at a pretty feverish pace this past month. This was especially true since there were many action sequences – and ones that had many characters. Below is a screenshot from ones of those sequences that I am particularly fond of:
Technically, more animation still needs to be done. I’ve only completed the first pass and still need to take care of revisions. However, I’ve already gone through all of the scenes and the identified changes shouldn’t be too time consuming. Moving forward with the rest of post will then follow – including music, audio editing, and some additional video editing. With a deadline of the end of this month, hopefully everything will get done.
posted by Pi Visuals at 1:31 am
Tags: ShapesComment
May 23, 2015 : Animating With A Mirror – Follow Up
Based on a comment from my previous post ‘Animating With A Mirror’, I realized I did not discuss how I actually made the reflections. The technique is pretty straight forward but worth mentioning.
I decided not to use a mirrored surface in Lightwave – dealing with reflections greatly increases render times. Instead, I opted for a fake reflection with the help of After Effects. I first needed to create an extra render in Lightwave, which would be from the point of view of the mirror.
After that, it was time to put things into After Effects. I made a new solid (which I called Reflection’), and masked out the mirror. Below shows an example.
The mask is used with a Track Matte, something I use often, to appropriately project the Lightwave reflection renders onto the mirror glass. Below shows a series of these layers:
The last step to accurately create the mirrored look was to flip the image horizontally. That makes it appear like a reflection. Below is a nice example which also has depth by showing a reflection not inherent in the main shot.
And that is pretty much how I create the mirror look for the scene. At times, this technique became tedious – particularly when there were a lot of items/ objects in the shot; however, it was easily manageable, and I was able to control the various layers as needed.
posted by Pi Visuals at 1:58 am
Tags: ShapesComment
May 14, 2015 : Group Scene – On Steriods
The current scene I am animating is a large one. It has plenty going on – as well as a lot of characters in it. The sequence I am specifically working on is very intense. Below is a screenshot of Lightwave’s Schematic View (which shows the various objects within the scene file):
Each red/white/blue cluster represents a character. As the image above shows, there are twenty of them in this file. This specific sequence is needed to establish many of the upcoming closer shots, which is why I need a file with this many characters. Right now I am getting all the characters in place for the sequence, and then I plan on splitting things up into groups of characters via sub-files.
In the past, there was no way I would have been able to work on a file like this. My previous computers would slowed to a crawl after four or five characters. Ever since my new computer was built, I noticed a significant increase in performance (to be fair, my last previous computer was  about ten years old). However, even this has exceeded my expectations. This does appear to be reaching a reasonable limit as the  scene is running a little slower than normal – but not nearly as bad as my other computers did when it got bogged down. Plus, with twenty characters, I can’t really complain.
posted by Pi Visuals at 12:08 am
Tags: ShapesComment
May 7, 2015 : Animating With A Mirror
A recent scene I animated had a mirror prominently within it. This presented some challenges with several sequences, and I felt it a worthwhile topic for a post.
Due to the extra work related to having it, you first need to ask if a mirror is required. In my case, the mirror helps sell the location of the scene. It would be similar to having a scene in a kitchen but not having a refrigerator or sink – it wouldn’t look right to the audience.
As such, I felt the mirror was necessary, and it is used early in a sequence to help establish the scene. Below is a shot from this sequence.
After Effects was used to place the reflections (as well as the glow of the light bulbs). This took a little extra time, but I felt was worth it to help set the scene. However, with the mirror established in the room, it had to be addressed in later sequences – particularly ones where it didn’t have as much impact on the scene but couldn’t be ignored. Below is a screen shot of a frequently used side view for the scene:
The mirror is off to the side of the frame and doesn’t have any real role, however I still want some reflection. I felt not having anything would have made it stand out… and in a negative way. The reflections for this angle weren’t as complex as earlier shots but still required effort. I also had to add in the glow for the light bulbs, which added more time.
Ultimately, having a mirror in a scene is a double edged sword. It can effectively establish the scene, which is what I did by having it play a prominent part in an early sequence, but this comes at a price since it requires extra time and effort to make sure the scene remains consistent.
posted by Pi Visuals at 2:45 am
Tags: ShapesComment
May 6, 2015 : High Rent Increase Forces Cartoon Museum To Move
Two years ago, I went to the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum. It wasn’t Earth shattering, but there were some cool pieces – including the one below. To be fair, the featured exhibits that were there when I went weren’t really my cup of tea. It sounds like they have had a lot of really interesting exhibits over the years.
Sadly, they will have to show these cool exhibits in another location. The building it currently occupies is significantly raising its rent (it is to be doubled), and this will force the museum to vacate by the end of June. It has been around for nearly 30 years and have been in its current location for nearly 15. While no specific relocation plans have been made, they do intend to relocate as opposed to shutting down.
For the record, the museum seems to be taking the change in stride. According to their website: “This is just another chapter in the life of the Cartoon Art Museum.†reflects Executive Director, Summerlea Kashar, “We’ve been here before with the first dotcom bubble, which landed us in the current location.  Our landlords have been very upfront about the rental market, and actually have been one of our largest contributors over the years.â€
It’s a bummer that high rent is forcing them out; but I suppose in San Francisco, it shouldn’t be too surprising. Still, you have to like the museum’s reaction to the events. They could easily be bitter and petty – but instead, they are positive and optimistic about its future. I find that pretty refreshing. Now, get a Batman exhibit lined up.
posted by Pi Visuals at 1:37 am
Tags: ComicsComment
May 3, 2015 : A New Dragon Ball Series Is Gonna Happen
It’s been 18 years since the last Dragon Ball Series, and that had an asterisk since it was GT (creator Akira Toriyama was not involved with that although he did give his blessing for its production). However, that will soon change as Dragon Ball Super will premiere in Japan this July. Toriyama is overseeing the project, but he will not direct. No US release date has been set, but there’s no doubt it will be made readily available to US audiences eventually.
The latest addition to the franchise has come out of the success of the two most recent theatrical films, Battle Of Gods and Resurrection F (the latter of which is set to air in America this summer). This new series will take place after the Majin Buu saga, which probably means they won’t acknowledge anything that happened in GT… not a bad idea.
There is no doubt that I will check out the new series. However, I will have fairly low expectations. It is tough extending the life of these types of shows. Each season or story arc requires an even stronger bad guy, and I find that that devalues previous enemies (and starts to get stale story wise). Plus, I still believe that Gohan should have supplanted Goku as the main protagonist after the Cell Saga. He was the one that truly developed and transformed (pun intended) from the Saiyan Saga through Cell. Going back to Goku in the Buu Saga felt tiresome to me.
Oh well. It’s still cool news; and when it does finally air, I will look forward to cool action sequences… and perhaps some Mr. Popo. However, if there is an episode with getting a driver’s license, I’m out.
posted by Pi Visuals at 12:16 am
Tags: DBZ , DragonballComment
April 28, 2015 : Another Scene Wrapped Up
Last week was predominantly spent animating a two-person scene, which I’ve always felt are tricky. While they tend to be pretty straight forward with respect to animating, storyboarding them is the tricky part. If the back and forth is not staged properly, the scene becomes stale, and the flow suffers. I spent extra time last week to hopefully prevent that from happening. Below is a screen shot from one of the earlier sequences.
With this scene complete, there are only two main scenes left. Unfortunately, they are very complex (and the two longest ones in the whole short). As such, there is still plenty of work left to do. In fact, I have only animated half of the total frames. The upcoming scene has just been storyboarded, but it will be challenging – having a fair amount of characters and numerous entrances/ exits. Although it won’t have one thing the previous scene had… mirrors. I will address it in a separate post, but having a mirror in a scene was not fun at times.
posted by Pi Visuals at 12:36 am
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April 21, 2015 : Strumming Along
One scene finished, another about to get started; and the upcoming scene has a main characters playing a guitar briefly. After modeling the guitar, I had to put it into a test scene with the character. Below is a quick render:
The pose was done for testing purposes – not part of an actual scene – but I made sure to add a little facial animation for extra flavor. The current scene is one of the shorter ones left (just over a minute long). However, there are still some long – and important – ones left. This includes a 3 1/2 minute scene, which has a lot (and I mean a lot) of characters in it.
posted by Pi Visuals at 1:38 am
Tags: ShapesComment
April 17, 2015 : Behind The Scenes At Adult Swim
The Wall Street Journal ran a few articles last month on Adult Swim. While they were part fluff piece, they did have some interesting tidbits about the inner workings of the channel. I do find some of their programming questionable, but it’s tough to argue with the results; and they’ve been doing it for nearly 15 years.
Now if only The Venture Bros. would have shorter times between seasons.
posted by Pi Visuals at 1:15 am
Tags: Adult Swim , Venture Bros.Comment
April 8, 2015 : Animation (Back) Underway
Over the last two weeks, a long distance move has taken up nearly all of my time. This has resulted in production coming to a standstill. Fortunately, things are now settling down, and animation has resumed.
The current scene getting worked on is one of the more complex for the short. It is several minutes long, has four major characters in it, and has several entrances and exits. Since I’ve been absent for so long, I decided to attach two screenshots. You can thank me later.
And another shot from the following sequence:
The first few sequences for this scene has some fun expressions, which has made it that much more enjoyable to animate.
After reviewing the recent batch of renders, a few tweaks have been identified – particularly with the set’s surfacing. These are minor changes, and the resulting re-renders shouldn’t slow things down too much.
posted by Pi Visuals at 11:55 pm
Tags: ShapesComment