World Builders Post Mortem

Over the last 7 weeks, our Studio 3 Class has been working on a project called 'World Builders'. This Project consisted of in depth preproduction to aid in our project workflow, leading to a well thought out idea to be implemented on when creating the final cinematic trailer.

Below is the final product:

Throughout this project, I have learnt how to start from a small idea, visualise it, and expand upon it through copious amounts of feedback and concept itirations.

I found this workflow very helpful in terms of concept development, and I feel my end product turned out very well because of it.

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OVERVIEW

I began by sketching out as many ideas as I could, and recieved feedback on them from the class.

From there I chose my favorite designs and 3D modelled them.

I then brought these screenshots into photoshop and mashed them together.

I drew over the mashed up version and came up with my final concept. I got more feedback from the class and I changes a few things (such as the size of the skull, the doorframe, the size of the cross beams and adding the foilage).

I then roughly coloured everything and created colour concepts, from there chosing my favorite and mashing them together to finally get these colours.

After this I played with multiple scene compositions and with more feedback from class I chose this one.

I continued on by creating the scene in Maya modelling from a one point camera perspective, using my concept image as immidiate reference.

I roughly coloured everything, and changed a few subtle things like the rocks and tree positions.

Finally bringing everything together with particle effects and editing in after effects.

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Conclusions

Positives

1.I learnt how to put my ideas in place through a practical based Pre-Production workflow.

How did this happen?

Taking away the fact that there was a criteria on how we had to approach this project, I really enjoyed and benifitted from so much concepting. This was so successful due to the amount of back and forth suggestions from peers and lecturer, this allowed me to expand on my original ideas and make them better and more refined in a way I would have never seen before.

How can I repeat this in the future?

If I am to continue this workflow, I must continue recieving and implementing suggestions, and continue working in 'rounds' of concept art.

2. I achieved descent particle effects through thinking outside of the box.

How did this happen?

When it came time to creating the particle effects for my project, there was not allot of tutorials that I could find that were appropriate for what I was wanting to achieve. When it came to my fireflies, I watched 3 tutorials about different things and I ended up smashing them together to create what I was after; these tutorials being one about how to create a swarm of insects, one how to create birds flying out of a box, and one on how to create emissive objects.

The aurora borealis was even harder where I flicked through too many tutorials with no avail. and so there too I combined 2 tutorials together; one being on how to create a flag flapping in the wind, and the other being a 3DSmax tutorial which I tried to convert into Maya to create a aurora borialis however I only used the texture part of it.

How can I repeat this in the future?

By thinking out of the box when I couldnt find exacly what i was looking for really helped me create something original and interesting. To continue this, its important to think about how things are made and how the could be made. This will allow me to take different paths around problems, eventually to solve them.

3. I was able to use a resonable amount of after effects considering I knew nothing about it, and my original plan being to not use it as much as I did.

How did this happen?

Really this happened due to some issues I encountered (see below). However aside from this, After Effects allowed me to polish off my project, and make everything blend together nicely. I watched many tutorials on how to navigate and use AE, but I feel way more confident in this program.

How can I repeat this in the future?

By continuing to expand my knowledge in other programes, I can expand my professionalism, as using a mix of programs is the best way to work, as some things work in some programs but not as well or at all in others. I will continue to use After effects for FX and editing rather than doing EVERYTHING in Maya and only rendering out in AE.

Negatives

1. The rendering time.

Why did this happen?

I didnt allow myself enough time to render, and because I wanted my render to turn out nice I had the settings quite high. I would have render farmed it, however this did not work due to the particle effects...

How can I avoid this in the future?

I could consider doing particle effects in After effects to avoid the rendering issue of render farming, or allow myself a much larger slot of time to allow for this.

2. The rendering issue of where a frame would suddenly freeze loading at 99% and wouldnt change to the next frame.

Why did this happen?

To be completely honest I still do not completely know why this was happening. I did troubleshoot, and the closest thing I could find was a 'render sequencer' issue but it was unresolved.

How can I avoid this in the future?

I guess I dont know how to avoid this if I dont know what the actually issue is...

3. The absence of character 3D animation.

Why did this happen?

This came down to 2 reasons: 1. I didnt really have the time, and 2. I felt that it would not have looked as good as I had originally imagined.

How can I avoid this in the future?

I think generally this would have been less of an issue if I had made animation tests to see how it would have looked if I went ahead with it, and if I had allowed myself more time. (Yet in reality we were only given around 2 weeks, less really, to actually create this project). However the animation was not as much of a necessity for this project, and so the way it turned out was the best course of action.

4.The line in the background.

Why did this happen?

After trying to get rid of this after my prescreening I realised (once it was all finished and rendered), that rather than being the physical size of the light it was (i think) because the light was clipping the sky plane, and so the light couldnt shine through the plane.

How can I avoid this in the future?

Its hard to know how to avoid this as I couldnt tell what was going wrong until I actually rendered the whole sequence out... But maybe I can keep this into consideration for the future, to make sure lights dont clip through other objects.

Conclusion

what have you learned for future animation projects?

As already stated, I feel I have really learned about the importance of pre-production in terms of concepting towards a genuinely good idea, and I will definitely be using this workflow more often in future projects.