This week’s focus is on point tracking in Nuke. Tracing means tracking a group of pixels frame by frame and collecting their positions on each frame. Tracker can measure how much motion occurs between frames. We can use this mobile information to cancel the move (called stability) or transfer the move to another element, called matching move, by canceling it. Tracking points are two-dimensional position data. By tracking the correct number of points, we can create the correct movement type in Nuke, and use the Tracker node to adjust – whether it is stable or matching the movement. If we need to replace some content in the material with other materials, this function can solve this problem.
Binding characters are most commonly used in the animation process, because if a character needs animation, the binding artist must bind the character comprehensively. The main tasks involved in the character binding process are creating bones, adjusting the axis of bones, binding, skinning, and so on. Create a skeleton for the character model. The skeleton should be created in accordance with the movement rules and physiological structure of the character. Facial binding includes bone setting, character weight drawing and expression making. This week, we only made a simple bone binding for the head model, which allows the model to open its mouth.
Rigging
After Binding the skeleton, we need to improve the skin weight in order to let the character have the natural movements. We need to give each bone the right skin weight. This part is a little difficult, so we have to have more patience to make the skin weight be more better.
Quotation is the most important part of academic writing since we need academic resource to support our critical report. Therefore, we need to practice how to write quotation.
The original quote: The authenticity of a documentary is ‘deeply linked to notions of realism and the idea that documentary images are linked to notions of realism and the idea that documentary images bear evidence of events that actually happened, by virtue of the indexical relationship between image and reality’
Horness Roe. A. (2013) Animated Documentary. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.more_vertical
Horness Roe (2013,Animated Documentary) expounds the authenticity of documentary is closely related to realism and relies on documentary images as evidence to effectively prove the real process of events.
This week’s theme is color modulation. We can use colorcorrect and Grade to adjust the tone of the material. When we synthesize the material in nuke, we need to adjust according to the original color of the material, such as saturation, color temperature and gray level. At the same time, we need to pay attention to how to make the composition of the material be more natural by mixing color.
The main content of this week’s class is to divide UV and make material for the avatar model made last week. I have some personal experience in both areas. When I divide the UV of the model, I first select all the faces of the model and use the camera-based tool, then use the cut tool to divide the UV area on the lines of the model, and use the unfold tool to unfold the face of the model.
Dividing UV
Then, I like to create textures in the substance painter. Because the material diagram which the teacher gave us was not consistent with the uv of my model. If I used the texture map directly on the model I made, all the details would be ectopic. So I used the original texture map to create a new texture map in substance painter.
In this week’s class, we discuss about animated documentary. Whether animated documentary is a real documentary is a controversial topic. We need to find an animated documentary to discuss this topic and analyze whether this animation is a real documentary.
Israeli director Ari Folman’s animated documentary “Waltz with Bashir” is composed almost entirely of animation. This is a typical animated documentary. It is a journey of memory for Ari Folman. Folman used to be a soldier sent to the battlefield. He wanted to recover the past experience of war from the first perspective of the hero in the form of animation, and explore the relationship between people and the meaning of war. However, different from the general documentary form, animation is unique and absurd, which fully expresses the cruelty of war and the director’s reflection on the meaninglessness of war. The new form of animation challenges the traditional way of documentary production. Of course, its challenge is not only limited to the presentation, but also to challenge the real meaning contained in it.
Waltz with Bashir uses animated interviews with nine war survivors, including the director, to try to bring to life the Beirut refugee camp massacre of 1982, which is actually real. From this point of view, animated documentary is loyal to the local objective presentation of the reality content, but adopts a special means of interpreting the facts of life — animation. This means of expressing the “reality in fact” is not limited to the traditional documentary means, and broadens the artistic expression form of documentary. One of the essence of documentary is fiction, that is, the fiction of reality. The biggest characteristic of animation is to assume that it is impossible to find the characters or scenes from reality. However, animated characters and scenes are all the mappings of real life. All the virtual animated characters and scenes presented in animated documentaries are based on real people and things.
This week, we continued to review roto. We still need more practice, especially when it comes to actual details. For the picture with only slight tremors, we can first track and match, and then copy the track information to roto’s transform. When we do the project for the balloon festival, this method can help us figure out the big mountains in front of the materials.
Tracker & Roto
The Alpha channel is a special layer for recording transparency information, which refers to the transparency and semi-transparency of an image. Alpha is very important for processing material in nuke. We need to find the Alpha information of the materials and then adjust the color of the materials.
This week’s focus is on how to use the retopology tool to create a low-resolution model on top of a high-resolution model. This technique is very important when creating models of people and creatures. Because if this kind of model is to be animated, the modeler needs to arrange the wiring of the model properly. For example, the eyes are the most varied in the expression animation, so there needs to be enough extension lines around the eye sockets. There is no muscle deformation and bone movement in the skull, and the wiring here only needs to be fixed. The shape of the ear is complex, but it needs dense wiring for the purpose of adding detail. The modeler can use the retopology tool to create half the low-resolution model on the right side of the high-resolution model, and then use the mirror tool to mirror and copy the left half of the model.
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/FaceTopology
Retopology Tool
At the same time, we learned about the sculpting function in maya. We can simply sculpt the model in maya. Also, when we do the blend shape, we can use the sculpting tool to make expressions on the character model. The blend shape tool can be used to control the character’s facial expressions if the character does not have a face binding.
This week, we talk a lot about experimental motion graphic. It’s also an unique form of animation art. We need to find and analyse a motion graphic which we are interested.
Bananas is a short but very funny and quirky motion graphic video produced by Xander Marritt and Elias Freiberger in collaboration with the production team FutureDeluxe. The theme of this work is about consciousness and subconscious, reality and surrealism. The overall tone of the work is bright. The pace is fast and slow animation constantly alternating, like unstable emotions. The colors of the slow animation are basically purple and green, with a bit of depression or pessimistic awareness and mood. But warm colors are the dominant color in most of the quick animations, expressing some sense of tension. Along with the exaggerated animation design, the banana becomes even more witty and crazy. In this bizarre motion graphic, bananas are used to symbolize life as well as the conscious and subconscious mind. The designer said, “Bananas don’t grow everywhere, but you can get them anywhere.” The designer mainly uses 3D models and visual effects to create this work. They personify the very common banana as a medium to express any different person or thing. If the banana doesn’t move, it looks exactly like a normal banana. But designers reflect a variety of conscious and subconscious minds by designing the banana’s movements and shapes. For example, a banana can smoke a cigarette while thinking, or sitting on the toilet in a daze. In the work, the banana in the boiling kettle is not only boiling water, but also can be someone simmering with rage. Although the creation of this work did not use real photography to shoot real objects and use the actual existing materials, when I saw the banana crawling on the ground with banana peel, I really want to say that is my state when I was making 3D animation, especially in the rendering stage. This is my subconscious, caused by bananas. Therefore, obviously, 3D is also the message of this work.
The topic of this week’s lesson is roto. Roto is the basic skill for learning nuke. When we get the material we don’t want to jump right in and do it, look at it multiple times, analyze it. Analyze the places that need roto, which can be divided into several large areas for separate operations, and which places can be solved by other methods. First arrange the general direction, don’t worry about small actions. Then, look at the action nodes of the region to be roto. roto will shake, and crucially, because your roto will keep changing positions erratically as it draws. So if you want it to be relatively stable, it’s best to draw the next key frame with as little change of position as possible based on the position of the point in the previous key frame. In addition, the general motion of large material, in fact, shaking is also good. Because the range of motion is large, it means that the movement is gone. Therefore, the small motion should be solved first. This part is also generally easier to roto. Then you can divide the areas with a large range of motion into blocks. For example, when you raise your hand, you can quickly make a fist with your fingers. Then the parts with a large range of motion can be drawn separately, which is a more efficient way. It is to set the general direction first, and then fill in the small details.
