• Also, this week I spent some time making the final spooky mountain. I had some zbrush issues that caused the original mountain mesh and the spooky one to not line up anymore, but I was able to go into maya and get a working blend shape. (4 Hours)

Goals for this week:

• Continue addressing the critique I am receiving on a weekly basis

What happened: 

• This week I’ve spent my time polishing up more animation. I’ve gone through IT100-120 and reframed/retimed/polished following the feedback I received over the past two weeks. (16 hours)

Next Week: 

• Continue updating my animations
• Make a draft of the ending spooky mountain

Addendum:

Here are the first drafts for a spooky mountain in two different shaders

Goals for this week:

• Finish the spooky statue with textures and detailed base
• Address all the week 1 crit and get started on the week 2 critique.

What happened: 

• I was able to address two shots with their critique and I am working on a third. I was unable to hit the five I wanted to due to a family commitment that took away my weekend. I still believe, however, that I am on track and will be able to address all my critique. (8 hours)
• I textured the statue and got all the maps transferred into maya. This went as well as I expected and I was able to get it done without much of a hitch.

Next Week: 

• Continue addressing the critique I am receiving on a weekly basis

Goals for this week:

• Model the spooky statue
• Continue animating and polishing my shots to meet the goal of finishing by the end of the term.

What happened: 

• This break has been a very productive one. I was able to get every one of my shots into a state of  rough animation. Now I can start iterating on each shot to hopefully improve them in the time remaining. (35 Hours)
• I also managed to get the first statue modeled and in maya. I am happy with how it came out, and  working on this was a ton of fun. (5 Hours)

• This week, along with some work on the statue, I have been addressing the critique that I received on several of my shots. Sadly, due to coming home for easter, I have been unable to tweak all my shots, but I heavily revamped all the interior airplane shots and I’m currently working on finishing the rest. (9 hours)

Next Week: 

• Finish the spooky statue with textures and detailed base
• Address all the week 1 crit and get started on the week 2 critique.

Goals for this week:

• Start animating faces – get the faces for IA010-040 finished and adjust any errors
• Finish the shot with the shoggoth tentacle

What happened: 

• Due to some shots missing from our upcoming trailer, we all went into the week with the goal of getting every shot in this finished as soon as possible. I started this with adding the shoggoth to IT290, but I couldn’t spend the time on it I wanted to, so the animation is still rough, but it works for this week (3 Hours)
• A surprisingly demanding task I got this week was making the piles of arms and legs for the interior of lake’s tent. We needed them for the inserts in particular, so a still frame was needed. I got them finished, and I tried to do it in a way that would make it easy to make work in the future, which meant more planning up front. But, they are complete (for now)! (7 Hours)
  

  Gross (The background will be comped out)

• I also spent some time working on some of the interior airplane shots. I added facial animation to IA030 for the trailer, but it was pulled due to the airplane interior not feasibly being done by this week. I then went on to IAE030, as this shot is going to require a lot of work, as it is the moment Danforth truly loses his mind. I am having a lot of fun maxing out the sliders to get him to really show his agony. (7 Hours)

Next Week: 

• Model the spooky statue
• Continue animating and polishing my shots to meet the goal of finishing by the end of the term.

Goals for this week:

• Spline the rest of my shots for this sprint (EAC050, ET10)
• Put the shoggoth arm into one of the interior temple scenes to stress test the rig

What happened: 

• I went through and have now splined both of these shots and I am ready to move on to animating faces. I had more trouble than I was expecting with ET10, but I still managed to get it ready for more advanced work. (6 Hours)
• I have the shoggoth arm in IT260, but I am running into the interesting issue of scale. The size of the tentacle is so large, a lot of the movement runs out of frame. I am getting it down to movements that will fit in the shot, but I am still learning the rig and need to spend more time on it. (5 Hours)

Next Week: 

• Start animating faces – get the faces for IA010-040 finished and adjust any errors
• Finish the shot with the shoggoth tentacle

Goals for this week:

• Spline the rest of my shots for this sprint (IA040, EAC050, ET10, IAE020, IAE030)
• Put the shoggoth arm into one of the interior temple scenes to stress test the rig

What got done: 

• The interior airplane shots are pretty much splined. I ran into an issue after I remembered I had picked up a shot from Gabe and hadn’t even blocked it yet. It is now splined, however, and ready for some polish.

Hours: 15

• For the shoggoth arm, I spent some time stress testing it, but I didn’t put it in the scene. That should be done by the meeting on Wednesday.

• Next Week: 

• Spline the rest of my shots for this sprint (EAC050, ET10)
• Put the shoggoth arm into one of the interior temple scenes to stress test the rig

Goals for this week:

Splining the bodies of Dyer and Danforth for IA010, IA020, and IA030 to rough polish.

What got done: 

• The three shots mentioned previously are now fully splined and ready for polish. I had a surprising amount of trouble with the second shot, but I think I have it at a place where it works.
• Several discrepancies in naming conventions/reference paths arose this week and have all been address so rendering can continue smoothly.

Next Week: 

• Spline the rest of my shots for this sprint (IA040, EAC050, ET10, IAE020, IAE030)
• Put the shoggoth arm into one of the interior temple scenes to stress test the rig

Hours: 13

• Get any illustrations to Josh and Ethan that they need for the URBN displays

Hours: 16

Goal for this week: Finish first pass of polish on the interior tower shots

What was done:

1. I got all my shots for that sprint pulled up into rough polish. This means that they have facial animation and they are ready for first renders. The shots of mine that are ready are IT 100, 110, 120, 160, 210, 230, 250, 260, 270, and 290.

Time Spent: 13 Hours

2. I added to the length of several shots to fit into the final cut of the animation. This shouldn’t be needed again for these shots as the timing has been locked.

Time Spent: 4 Hours

3. I began working on the next sprint’s animations. My focus has been on IA010, but the shot still need a lot of work.

Time Spent: 2 Hours

What I’m doing for next week:

Splining the bodies of Dyer and Danforth for IA010, IA020, and IA030 to rough polish.

This week was mostly about the animation. I was sadly very busy this week with non-school things, and that slowed me down. I still spent a large chunk of time working on the animation and smoothing out what I already have. I also finished the shoggoth model including UVs and got it on the server.

Shoggoth

Summary: I put the bottom of the shoggoth on, which included making the mouth, and I also unwrapped it so now it is ready for both textures and UVs.

Pros: The model is now ready to be rigged, and Anthony has agreed to take the lead on rigging this monster.

Cons: The shoggoth still has a ways to go until he is done.

Hours: 6

Animating

Summary: I was only able to spline out 5 shots this week, and I didn’t get to faces. I should still be able to get what’s expected done on time though, and I’m confident that the quality will be high enough for first pass renders.

Pros: Several shots are ready for faces, and the ones that are left to spline have very little in the way of acting in them.

Cons: There are still several shots that I need to get into, and I haven’t even started with faces yet.

Hours: 9

Moving forward

1. Finish first pass animations for the tower scene

This week, was a week of gathering and planning. We went over multiple changes to our animatic and got everything organized so things should go more smoothly in the future.

Meetings

Summary: We got together and talked about some changes to the animatic and some camera movements. We also met on a different day and recorded some new reference to fill in the gaps of what we already had.

Pros: We now are happy with the tent scene and the reference we have.

Cons: This took away from the time that could have been spent working on the animation.

Hours: 3

Animating

Summary: I have replayblasted all my shots so now they fit cohesively in the animatic. I also trimmed all the reference so it will play well with my shots. I had an odd issue with one of the environments in that the floor was all messed up upon import, so I had to address that, which caused me to lose several hours. I also got the reference for some shots I had been missing and I blocked in the basics of those shots.

Pros: I am starting to spline some shots into a more smoothed look.

Cons: The floor of the tower caused me to lose a chunk of time, and a large portion of the last few days was just setting the scenes up to playblast well.

Hours: 14

Moving forward

1. Begin smoothing out the animations in the tower scene

2. Finish the shoggoth base mesh

Break Summary: Over break I went back and gave a second layer of polish to most of my assigned shots. We now have our final dialogue, so I grabbed the audio clips and adjusted the shots with temporary dialogue to match the new ones.

This week, I spent some more time working on some animations. I also worked on setting up the base mesh for the shoggoth, which is still ongoing. As a group, we have decided to pay the most attention to the interior tower ending sequence for this month, so this section has received the brunt of my attention this week.

Shoggoth

Summary: The top of the shoggoth is now closed in a way that I think will work well with the rig. It still needs some smoothing, but other than that, all I need to do is close the bottom and then I can start rigging it.

Pros: The model is still coming along well, and it’s now closed up.

Cons: The bottom still needs to be closed, and I am unsure of how the model will react to the rig. Also, the shoggoth looks like it has a really dweeby haircut right now.

Hours: 3

Animating

Summary: I have gone and retimed and refined all the interior of the tower shots so now they work with the current audio. I also redid the base posing in two shots because I felt that the action wasn’t reading well.

Pros: I feel as the interior tower shots are ready to go into rough animation state out of the pop through.

Cons: The amount of work coming this way is impressive, and it will take some strong dedication to stay on track.

Hours: 8

Moving forward

2. Begin smoothing out the animations in the tower scene

3. Finish the shoggoth base mesh

This week, I spent some more time working on some animations. I also worked on setting up the base mesh for the shoggoth, which is progressing nicely. Unfortunately, I have been having some crippling computer issues, and that has slowed me down.

Shoggoth

Summary: After all the positive feedback from last week, I have moved forwards with the shoggoth and started making the body. The eyes and mouths are pretty dense around the body, but I feel that this is necessary to give us the amount of control and crazy shifting shapes that we are looking for

Pros: The model is coming together exactly how I pictured it, and I feel that it will fit our needs well.

Cons: As it is now, the poly count is very high, and it will be pretty dull and repetitive to have to rig all the eyes and mouths.

Hours: 4

Animating

Summary: More blocking has been done, but again, I wasn’t able to do as much as I wanted, as my computer has been having issues and I have been slowed down due to that.

Pros: Progress is still being made, and I worked in an extra few days into my schedule when I planned it to account for this exact thing happening.

Cons: Again, my work has been slowed down, but I feel as though I’ll be able to keep the original pace yet.

Hours: 6

Moving forward

1. Model any props as needed

2. Continue Animating

3. Finish the shoggoth base mesh

This week, I continued blocking some animations, but I also met with some faculty members, got some great advice, and restarted the shoggoth.

Shoggoth

Summary: I met with Dave Mauriello this week, and we discussed how to approach the shoggoth. I walked away from this meeting with 2 pieces of paper covered in doodles and some new ideas. I ended up having to throw away the previous shoggoth. This was a depressing realization, but I can still use it for overall look and it was good sculpting practice. The method we are now going to use is something far more fluid for the animators, and it will be built and rigged in a way that I have never done before.

Pros: The new method for modeling and animating the body parts is incredibly accurate to the look that we had originally, and should be manageable to model, rig, and animate.

Cons: I had to ditch the previous iteration as I approached the creature from the wrong angle and I am unable to salvage parts from it.

Hours: 8

Animating

Summary: This week I was able to block in 4 more shots. I am more or less on track with these, and they are turning out as I would expect. We also received the final audio, so now we can time the actions to the correct audio, not just our best guesses.

Pros: The shots are getting done on schedule, and having the final audio really helps with the process.

Cons: Due to the audio changing, I will have to go back and change the timing of the shots from previous weeks, as they will no longer match up correctly.

Hours: 7

Moving forward

1. Model any props as needed

2. Continue Animating

3. Set up a base mesh for the shoggoth

This week, I surrendered with the book, as I couldn’t afford to sink more time into it. I got a functional rig set up that should work for most of the shots. I also filmed reference with the other animators and began animating.

Lake’s Journal

Summary: The interior pages were deleted, and the middle where the pages meet has been adjusted so that it works at any angle. The book can also be scaled, so it can be adjusted slightly to fit into specific scenes.

Pro:  The book can now be used in most shots, and is on the server ready to go.

Con: The interior pages had to be abandoned due to technical issues.

Hours: 2

Filming Reference

Summary: Dave, Gabe, and I got together to film animation reference for several scenes, including some that were outdoors. We now have all the reference we need to get started with animating. This footage is now on the server and waiting to be processed.

Pros: All the first pass reference is finished. and it came out rather well.

Cons: The footage isn’t organized yet, nor has it been optimized for animation, as we captured it at 30 fps, but it needs to be 24.

Hours: 3.5

Animating

Summary: I took the reference for the airplane scene and processed it into an image sequence at 24 frames per second. I then got it in Maya, got all the needed assets, and started animating. This is simply blocked in, with nothing advanced yet.

Pros: It feels good to be animating, and we have enough done that there shouldn’t be much backtracking as we go forwards.

Cons: Only 1 rig is ready, so only one character can be animated.

Hours: 3.5

Moving forward

1. Model any props as needed

2. Continue Animating

3. Meet to divvy up the shots that need animating

This week has mainly consisted with me working on the book. It needs to be nearly perfect, as it is the key prop seen in many shots. If I can’t get the master rig finished by next week, I’ll split it up into several simpler rigs that should help us achieve everything we need

Lake’s Journal

Summary:  The pages rig has been revisited, but all previous functionality is still there. The book now has a cover and the bulk area of pages finished, and can be open and closed. The page bundles maintain volume and deform properly. The pages have been the most challenging. I believe I almost have a fully working rig that will allow the page to bend and be pulled by the corners, but also sit on the surface, open when the book does, and not clip with each other.

Pro:  The book body is fully functional, and could most likely be used without the separate pages in many of the shots.

Con: The pages still need more work, as only one is mostly rigged, although it’s nearly finished.

Hours: 7

Filming Reference

Summary: Dave, Gabe, and I got together to film animation reference for several scenes, as we are going to start animating next week. We finished the cave intro scene, the tent interior, the plane flight to the city, and the walk through the shoggoth trench. These references should be good for body animations, but we will be recording the voice actors during their performance so we can capture their performance.

Pros: We filmed several scenes and are just about ready to start animating.

Cons: We still need to get the footage ready for animation, and there are several scenes left to film.

Hours: 4

Moving forward

1. Finish Lake’s journal with fully functional rig

2. Film the rest of the reference

3. Begin Animating

This week I have continued working on the shoggoth and the book, and have also worked on some other props. I wasn’t able to make as much progress as I would have liked, but I did get some work done.

Shoggoth

Summary:  Continued working on the shoggoth. I focused on the end of the tentacles, and now that the group has decided which one they want, I’m going to lay out the body using the eyes and mouths as centerpoints and bridging between them.

Pros: The arm variations are now set, and there are several tentacle base variations as well.

Cons: The group seems split on the best way to proceed with the shoggoth, so progress is being slowed because we don’t want to have to backtrack again.

Time: 3 hours

Lake’s Journal

Summary:  The journal now has a fully functional rig of 10 pages. The pages can be curled from the top and the bottom, and they flip and stack neatly.

Pro:  The pages are two sided, and the rig is finished and organized.

Con: The binding needs to be made and designed to work with the rig

Hours: 4

Lake’s Backpack

Summary: Lake’s backpack is found lying on the ground emptied out. This gives the protagonists a clue as to the location of their friend. I needed to make the backpack period accurate, which took a while to get the reference.

Pros: The backpack is mostly finished, with details like straps and clips modeled on.

Cons: The terrain the backpack is sitting on might change, which might change the shape of the cloth

Hours: 2

Moving forward

1. Finish Lake’s journal with cover and UVs

2. Assemble base mesh of the shoggoth

3. Keep making props

This week I got the news that we will most likely be scrapping our current shoggoth model for a new one after receiving feedback from one of the professors. This meant that I needed to go back to the drawing board and start making pieces for the shoggoth with good topology. I also spent some time on some more important props.

Shoggoth

Summary:  I went back to looking at reference for the shoggoth, with my primary focus on studying octopus and squid tentacles.

Pros: Some progress has been made, and there is now a new eye mesh, two mouth types, and several arm variations.

Cons: This took longer than expected, and I’m still finalizing arm options.

Time: 4 hours

Lake’s Journal

Summary:  One prop that is seen constantly on screen is Lake’s journal. I have been working on a rig that will allow the characters to turn the pages while making sure that the pages can be textured on both sides. In now has controls and sdks set up for the page flip and upper or lower page curling.

Pro:  All the needed functionality is there, and the rig is able to be duplicated.

Con: The pages need to be duplicated and placed into the book without breaking the rig.

Hours: ~3

Moving forward

1. Finish Lake’s journal with rig and UVs

2. Assemble base mesh of the shoggoth

3.Model several other needed props

My focus on this week was continuing working on my previous tasks and to troubleshoot any new errors.

Timeline

  

Summary: Went through the updated asset list and gave everything a timeline

Positive Stuff: The timeline seems manageable and lines up with the asset list

Problems / issues: Some environments are not included, such as the city, as this is not traditionally modeled and won’t fit cleanly into the timeline.

Hours Spent: 1

Shoggoth Retopology Continued

  

Summary: Trying to make it so the topology lines up better with the existing folds and features

Positive Stuff: Getting closer. Now I know how I’m going to be laying out the wireframe and how to create multiple accurate subdivisions for a displacement map.

Problems / issues: The topology doesn’t end up exactly where I want it. This might be simply due to there not being enough geometry, so I will be trying to upscale the amount of polygons without going overboard.

Hours Spent: 3

Asset Modeling

  

Summary: Made some more assets, including pots and pans

Positive Stuff: The assets are still on schedule

Problems / issues: These assets still need to be unwrapped

Hours Spent: 2

Group Meetings

Summary: Got together as a group to go over script and story changes. I was unable to make the first of the 2 meetings as I needed to go home for the weekend.

Positive Stuff: The characters now have must stronger motivations, and the loss of sanity has more leading up to the breaking point

Problems / issues: We might have added more time to our animation, which is dangerous. We won’t know for sure until the script is updated.

Hours Spent: 2

LIST OF UPCOMING TASKS

1. Finish shoggoth topology

2. Contact group members over large environment timelines

3. Continue modeling and beginning to unwrap assets

This week, my focus was on learning how to retopologize the shoggoth, add more detail to the asset list, and make some 3d assets.

Shoggoth Retopology

Summary: I learned how to retopologize an existing mesh in zbrush without loosing any detail.

Positive Stuff: The process is extremely accurate and doesn’t take much time to run.

Problems / issues: The topology isn’t perfect, so I’ll need to sit down and design it to fit our needs.

Hours Spent: 2  

Asset List

 

Summary: Spent some time updating the assets and adding several columns for modeling, texturing, and unwrapping

Positive Stuff: The layout is complete and populated

Problems / issues: There is a lot of work to be done. There might also be things missing, so we will add any objects that come up later down the line.

Hours Spent: 3

Modeling Assets

Summary: I modeled several objects to add to our library, including a typewriter and some pots and pans. The typewriter will be in the plane, and the pots and pans will be in the tents.

Positive Stuff: The assets looks good and are catalogued.

Problems / issues: The objects still need to be unwrapped and textured.

Hours Spent: 3

LIST OF UPCOMING TASKS: 

1. Retopologize shoggoth

2. Keep modeling assets

This week, my focus was on creating an asset list so we all know what to model for our environments and tweaking the shoggoth model.

Shoggoth Editing

Summary: I edited the arms so they are torn and reshaped the body to be less flat
Positive Stuff: The skin damage is visible from both a distance and close up. The body looks less squashed.
Problems / issues: The shoggoth still has poor topology, so this needs to be addressed.

Hours Spent: 4

 Asset List

Summary: This is a document that catalogs the different models that need to be created for all the environments.
Positive Stuff: All the scenes are blocked out and formatted
Problems / issues: Not all the needed assets are in the document yet

Hours Spent: 2

LIST OF UPCOMING TASKS: 
1. Finish Asset List
2. Begin Modeling Assets