1 The composition and division of the team members
This semester, crystal and I decided to continue our cooperation after a pleasant cooperation last semester. In the last semester, we completed four scenes, two characters and 20 short animations in the animation part. To tell you the truth, it was a nightmare. It was a huge workload. As for us, we hardly slept in the last two weeks. This semester, we decided to let more people join us to complete a project together, and this time we decided to do some small model projects, so that we have more time to find jobs and participate in job testing. The final decision is as follows（Originally, I was in charge of character modeling and crystal was in charge of scene modeling. We wanted to try our own direction that we were not very good at, but in order to catch up with the schedule, we switched back.）
Yufei: early design
Crystal: Character Modeling
Kay: Scene Modeling
Jianyu: Scene Modeling
2 Discuss with team members what projects to make
The following are some screenshots of our group’s discussion. We spend part of our time discussing online and most of our time discussing face-to-face at crystal home.
Finally, we decided to make a cyberpunk-style isometric scene. The character is set as a gifted teenager and a crazy doctor who quietly remolds the criminal’s body in his secret laboratory. The scene is set as his daily living room on the second floor and his secret laboratory hidden on the first floor.
At the same time, we decided to make the scene ar format, in the end, trying to make it interact with the real scene.
Interactive demonstration from the third-person perspective(cut by smauel）
And my roommate, from the illustration major, was very interested in our project, so he drew some illustrations for us.
Illustration Poster from Queeni ( Ziqing )
At the same time, I would like to thank my good friends during my undergraduate period, from the illustration major, was very interested in our project, so she drew some illustrations for our project.
Illustration Poster from Queeni ( Ziqing geng )
Reflection on cooperative projects
1. Summary of cooperation projects
In the cooperation process of this cooperation project, generally speaking, my team-mates and I have a very happy cooperation. Our problems can be communicated in a timely and friendly manner. Due to our different areas of expertise, there are some differences in workload, which are not completely balanced. However, no one complains that we are trying our best to give full play to our strengths and put into this project ，And I want to thank all the friends who have participated in this project.
2 problems encountered
In the process of making this project with Jingjing, I also encountered some problems, mainly in the production. For example: 1. Due to the lack of rigorous project files in the early stage, I always made mistakes in the process of exchanging project files with Jingjing. Because of the computer version, we have no standardized naming file, and our mapping material paths are inconsistent. She needs to re link the model I gave her, and I can’t see all the materials in the scene she gave me Quality. This problem brought us a lot of trouble in the production process. But this experience also made me realize that the standard naming file has been strictly in the team, and it is very important to unify the file path and software version of everyone in the team.
3. Expectations for the future
In the production process of this project, I gradually feel that I can skillfully make 3D art, at the same time, I can also complete the animation production with high efficiency. But I also found my own shortcomings in rig. In the next study, I will focus on learning how to build animation rig, and continue to strengthen the projects I am good at.
（This is one of my favorite references. Hahaha, I found that every time crystal and I worked together to shoot references, it seemed that I was fighting her）
In this project, the construction of scene model, UV, mapping, is mainly completed by me. Due to the limited time of the project, I use free and paid model materials combined with my own model materials to make the following scenes
I made four scenes:
1 outdoor street scene
2 indoor first floor meat pie Scene
3 attic barber Scene
4 basement kitchen scene.
outdoor street scene
This scene mainly wants to build the style of European buildings and streets, and we can see the thick two-story structure from the outside. But in the group discussion later, we think that this scene will not appear in our game interface and short animation demonstration, and the production time of outdoor scene is much more than that of indoor scene, but our project production time is limited, so the first outdoor street scene is not suitable UV and mapping not completed.
indoor first floor meat pie Scene
This scene is the most used scene, which is an indoor room of bar and restaurant, mainly composed of wooden furniture. Later, crystal pointed out that my scene proportion is too real and not cartoon. During the process of making lighting, she helped me adjust the proportion of props in the scene.
Rendering results
attic barber Scene
This scene is mainly made with reference to the scene in Sweeney Todd movie. In order to achieve the lighting effect of the beam that crystal wanted, the window is made into a shabby shape to facilitate the introduction of light source.
Rendering results
basement kitchen scene
The basement scene is mainly composed of a medieval kitchen scene that I bought, and then I reconstructed it. Unlike other scenes, this scene is mainly composed of stones.
In fact, before the start of this cooperative project, Sweeney Todd has always been a project I want to make in my spare time, because I like this musical very much and always have a wish to make Sweeney Todd animated. But I have been very slow to promote this project, in this opportunity, I ask my current teammates to help me realize this wish.
In my early imagination, I wanted to make an open-ended scene model, which could intuitively see the three floors of the whole building from one angle, so that I could observe what happened in the three rooms (restaurant, attic, basement) at the same time. My main reference is also the stage art style in Sweeney Todd musical.
Here are some of my references
Here are some of my early painting and production scene settings and model framework
Introspection
In the process of making the scene model, I found that I ignored that if the people killed in the barbershop on the third floor are transported to the basement through pipes, there should be space for transportation pipes in the middle of the building, but I ignored it. When I want to make an overall scene model, I should consider the rationality of the building structure in the design process.
Crystal is mainly responsible for character design and modeling, but as I am more familiar with the background of the characters’ stories, we help each other in the process of her design and production, and I will give her some opinions and suggestions on setting.
I made a simple character setting reference for crystal, and summarized the character characteristics of our main character Sweeney Todd.
The meaning of Chinese in the picture
1. Head to body ratio
2. Hairstyle, a few locks of hair blocking the eyes.
3. Aged from 30 to 40, thin, with concave and convex cheeks and dark circles under the eyes.
4. Clothes, shirts, suspenders, pants, or waistcoats.
Later, on the basis of the character image of crystal design, I also drew a version setting on the right according to her design, mainly to help crystal refer to the figure’s posture and proportion, and the final set display is mainly based on crystal’s design.
The final effect of the character completed by crystal
This cooperation is a good experience. I have good communication with my teammates. I also thank crystal for listening to my suggestions on her design.
1.Identifying those techniques from the plate / reference and re-create the CG lighting:
1.1. Three-Point Lighting —— Position and the direction of different light sources
1.2. High-key and Low-key Lighting —— The contrast ratio of the Key and Fill on the subject.
1.3. Hard and Soft Lighting —— Transition from the Light area to the Shadow area
1.4. Colour Temperature —— Define the time and space of shot is taking place in the story
1.5. Creative Lighting —— Adding complexity to the lighting of the image
2. Knowledge in Physically-Based Rendering
2.1. Simulating light
2.2. Behaviors of light on different material
2.3. Method to Generate image
2.4. Light Sources
study notes：
1.In the past, I only used key lights and fill lights in the process of building scene lights. In this course, I realized that backlights can be built to highlight the outline of characters or themes.。
2. The smoother the surface is, the higher the refractive index of light is. A more accurate setting of light reflection of object material can better express the texture of the object.
Analyze the lighting used by the <God Father>
In this assignment, I chose to analyze the lighting effect of the famous film “Godfather”.
First of all, the most classic lighting setting of this film is the top light, which is created by director Gordon with his usual “chicken poop” lamp. This kind of lamp can make a lot of changes. Sometimes Gordon will use his own light lamp to achieve the godfather light effect in the real scene. If understood as the concept of CG, it is to add a spotlight or a piece of light at the top of the character.
In this movie, in order to make the picture not monotonous and inflexible, he will use other objects to produce some bright light to illuminate in the dark. This kind of high light in the dark and the top light of the characters work together to give people an unforgettable feeling. The result of this is not only to enhance the impact of the lens, but also to break the Convention, let the characters in the dark, break the rigid and monotonous.
● Pick 3 frames from one of your favourite film and try to identify the lighting techniques we learnt.
1.
Lighting effects used：
1.1 Three-Point Lighting
2.
Lighting effects used：
2.1 High-Key lighting
2.2 Reflector is used for bouncing light into the shadow side to lower the contrast
2.3 Soft light: Smooth transition between the Light Shadow on the subject.
3.
Lighting effects used：
3.1 Low-Key lighting
3.2 Flag is used to block the unwanted light on the subject to increase the contrast.
3.3 Hard light: Sharp transition between the Light
In the selection of this topic, I chose to research the causes, significance, and production methods of “NPR” art style rendering. In this presentation, I will discuss this topic in four parts. The first, why did I choose this topic. and then I will briefly describe the reasons for the emergence of “NPR”, and analyse how to make 3d models look like 2D animation. and the last one show my learning results of the “NPR” material.
The reason why I chose this topic is that in my undergraduate study, I have tried the production of both 3D animation and 2D animation. In a 2D animation production class, I drew more than 700 paintings in just 1 min of animation. After that, I swear that I will not make any 2D animation again. Although I like the Japanese animation style very much since I was a child, But the production of two-dimensional animation is too hard and needs good painting talent. So how to use three-dimensional technology to make a two-dimensional animation style is always my learning goal and interest.
So why does NPR rendering appear, I’ve read a lot of papers on why NPR rendering occurs and where it starts. The answer is also obvious. As I just said, making two-dimensional animation is too time-consuming and laborious. Japan is the largest production area of two-dimensional animation in the world, and so far two-dimensional animation is also the mainstream of Japanese animation. However, two-dimensional animation production consumes too much manpower and material resources, high investment and low return, which makes the development of the animation industry in Japan encounter difficulties,
The initial rise of “NPR” animation was from 2013 to 2014. Arpeggio of blue steel produced by sanzigen animation studio and Knights of Sidonia produced by polygon studio started first. Although 3D has been widely used in Japanese animation, it is mainly used in robots, vehicles, and other non-biological props. This is the first time that these two animation studios have used 3D to imitate two-dimensional effects for full animation characters,It also changed everyone’s first impression of 3D animation.They created a new style of animation to solve the problem that 2D animation is too difficult to make.
After watching a lot of NPR rendering tutorials and NPR animation, I summarized three key points of making NPR animation。
There are three main points in the production process of “NPR”, which are also the key points that distinguish the two-dimensional style from the three-dimensional style.
first. It’s very important to simplify the planes of the face. If the model has too many details, it will be difficult to make animation stylized effect.
The second point is that the transition of light and shadow relationship in 3D rendering is excessive, but in 2D style, the transition of light and shadow is very clear, and there is a very clear boundary between light and dark.
The third point is that all characters and objects in the two-dimensional style have clear outlines.
There are many ways to complete “NPR” rendering, including using plug-ins or directly on materials. After watching many online production tutorials, I choose to use Arnold’s Aiton material to complete. First of all, I did a simple material test and try. Then change the type of filter to contour in render settings. In this way, I can make the outline of the model show, completing one of the three points. Then add a colour to the base coloru, and then create a ramp node on the tonemap. Then add a colour to the base colour, and then create a ramp node on the tonemap
After I learned how to create cartoon materials, I began to try to apply them to character models. At present, I have only finished the static “NPR” rendering. In addition, I will continue to explore the performance of “NPR” in animation and learn to innovate in this new style of animation while fully learning to render the two-dimensional picture effect.
