Week 8 - CG Implementation, Test Shoots and Progress

We had a homework given to us this week to recreate one shot from our approved mock and integrate our CG character in it with proper lighting and basic animations. We also learnt a lot about VRAY camera and did some test shots. In terms of my progress with my project, I began texturing my Robot character with the guided feedback although it wasn't as easy for me to achieve the right results. I am still working on enhancing this.

CG Implementation

Here is the video:

Self-evaluation:

I figured there were a lot of issues with this video soon after the renders came through. It was too late for me to go back and re-render so I just went by it. The issues I noticed were that the animation was a lot off, and the character kept colliding with the walls which gave it that white outline in some areas. The displacement map didn't show; the textures looked too flat. The motion blur looked a bit jagged and weird.

Feedback:

The feedback I received on this was similar to the pointers I self evaluated. Here are a list of things I should work on for my next review.

By next week, I hope to have a better version of this draft so that I know how to prepare for the actual shoot.

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Test Shot with VRAY Camera

VRAY camera is amazing! It acts like an actual camera and gives incredible realistic results. We did a couple of tests on some of our previous work to get comfortable with it. We then experimented with it on a test shot of this flying spaceship and played around with various effects in the options available to get this shot.

Here is the work I did during the class. i still want to work on this and enhance it better with an added shot to tell a story. Hopefully, I can be done with this at the earliest and send it for review too.

Some pointers that I learnt from this exercise were:

VRAY camera operates like a real camera with ISO, F Stop and shutter speed.

ISO (and every other option) controls the brightness of the image or how much light enters the lens. F stop/number controls the depth of field and how much light can enter. Shutter speed controls the motion blur.

(Image on the right explains this more visually)

This will help me understand my shots better and how to create the right exposure, DOP and motion blur to my shots. There are a couple of shots that I could use this theory to enhance the dynamics of a shot to make it more interesting. Such include the shot I did above - I could play around with the depth of field to create a Rack Focus while the character storms into the scene.

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Progress

Lastly, my progress so far with my character has been alright, not too great. I had been struggling a lot with understanding how the triplanar texture works. I looked up tutorials but it seemed to confuse me more so I had to research on individual aspects of the texture. So far, from the feedback I received last time (feedback pointers mentioned below), this is what I managed to achieve.

Feedback given in terms of texturing.

These are the panel lines I did using VRAY Displacement map. Seem pretty clean.

This is the PRISM glass effect I worked on as my self-directed. I will have to use caustics. But as advised by my lecturer, its best to fake it using gradient ramp because nothing on the backside will be seen.

Bullet texture as per feedback.

Tire texture - used triplanar and worked around giving it a very dirty and used look. The Rim holder also has an applied anistrophic effect.

More can be worked on with this as I am not too happy with this result yet.

Overall texture of the body. I have damaged and added rust to the paint, some scratches can also be seen. However, I still need to work more on chipping the edges of the character more with triplanar texture.

Therefore, this has been my progress so far. I will work on enhancing these better although my progress has been slow this week due to the new texturing process.

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By next week, I should be done with these textures, hopefully, finalized too. The new CGI implementation should be done too as well as the spaceship video that I am currently working on. All other pending work would also be done as I need to pick up pace with my flow.

References:

LensArtAvenue (2020) Exposure Triangle: The Relationship of Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO [image]. Retrieved from https://www.lensartavenue.com/exposure-triangle/

StudioBinder (2018, Nov 19). The Rack Focus: How to Guide Viewers Eyes with a Shot List (Casino Royale) [video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb8QmEZjcto