Evaluation - Final Animation

The final animation !

And here is the final animation - " Silly Shaolin".

My character, the Shaolin robot is a comical not quite master - and not quite idiot - in that he has some style, he has some grace but sometimes he just falls flat on his face. As such i wanted this feeling of light hearted comedy, fighting not meant to be taken quite so seriously - to shine through as this is what i intended and i am certain it has done. I did this through numerous 'references' and deliberate camera shots/poses.

The classic smash brothers 'New challenger approaches' motif went into this shot idea.

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The classic 'Wasted' when you die in GTA also went into the reference at the end.

Since he completely failed and crashed off screen.

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The point of this was to spark some sense of 'I know this' - references to some comical things you simply don't expect. He has his serious fighting parts but then even has a questionable 'crab walk' mid way to break up the serious with humour. The Chinese symbols and writing help give it a place as well, especially when the English subtitles come into it, clarifying it, making you smile.

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The build up is deliberate and also helps to deliver that comedy. We think him serious...preparing for some epic kungfoo when suddenly...

It's like a Michael Jackson dance!

This build up of suspense is what helps deliver the comedy. What makes it funny.

Render wise i'm incredibly content. Throughout this whole project i learnt a lot, the process of Motion capture, the application of it and even the use of Skin Weights which i had no idea of before. My skill has simply improved, and i'm really pleased with that, comparing my animation to the one last term which was very stiff and not really as fluid or interesting.

So much so i've included it in the 2nd year show reel.

Animation Issues

For some reason or another my lighting/HDRI didn't like it when i boxed my robot in. In fact it would completely nullify any lights i had - for some reason or another. Though i have thought of a solution, firstly, not boxing it in...this leads to the above. 

What this also means however..

...Is individually editting each frame.

To something like this...

Animation Production

Tests, tests and more tests!

Animation tests and shots - 

Several waves of renders - onwards!

Poster Planning and Production

For the poster, i want to theme it almost Japanese/Chinese -like to match the Shaolin motif and themes. This kind of style below - depicting the core of the poster with the symbol writing.

Which leads me onto a simplistic poster idea. I render at A3 this image stance. With space for the letters to the right...

And then prepare my letters which mean 'Shaolin' for the poster.

I start applying some post production magic. I apply the symbols and start grafting and going over the robot with certain tones to enhance him.

Such as this ^

And here is the final poster with slight z depth touches, painting layers and glow edits. I painted over certain parts to enhance the robots colours or highlights with multiple layers and touches. One of these touches includes painting with a brush like texture similar to the Chinese symbols, to keep the motive and theme flowing throughout the whole poster.

Storyboards

Come at me! He steps to challenge the viewer with a confident stance. Boggles a bit.

Storyboard  for his 'badass cut'. He does some fancy moves that get exaggerated by the fast paced camera to keep up with his arms and hand gestures. It cycles around him and comes to rest at a 'A new challenger approaches' kind of stature.

The robot comes prattling in, elegant and fast, doing spins, kind of dance like. But he screws up towards the end and slips out to the left, out of view of the camera 'crashing'.

The camera cuts to him on the floor and the screen slowly goes red with the words 'Wasted' fading in for a GTA [Grand theft auto' reference.] The screen fades out and this is how the animation ends. This helps get his comical not quite a master look across and not to take him seriously.

Animation Test

Satisfied with my rig and somewhat comfortable with the set up at the moment i put together a rough video to showcase a WIP [work in progress scene.] There are some noticeable errors, namely, Adobe after effects didn't detect the transparency of the background so you get these white lines. It's a bit fast too, so i'd need to rework the frame rate. But at least i could see these 5 seconds of animation played out to know how it looks right now.

The Transition to Maya

Using Zbrush i reduce my robot's polycount and export him as an OBJ for Maya import. His plates and eyes are seperate from him. HDRI wise i look for one appropiate. I know that my robot , poster wise, i would like him  in some kind of traditional japanese dojo, so i look for a HDRI like that.

The HDRI image.

I place my robot into the scene and set up my HDRI with the temple setting. I also set up a very basic, blocky studio.

Without any other lights and just blinn materials applied, this is how my robot looks. 

I apply 3 lights, one on either side of him in front and one behind. He looks very shiny and reflective now, realistic and bright.

I begin doing more light wise and rigging the robot. I seperate the plates, rigging the main body first.

I have quite a lot of problems at this rigging stage. Most of which are highly noticeable. Parts of his body move irregularly, making his paint weights awkward and necessary to do.

And when applying the Motion capture data, his legs bend backwards and things seem 'reversed'.

I even had problems with his plates, which were separate. I had to divide the plates into individual parts and constrain them specifically to certain joints. Above you can see where the arm wasn't following...

Looking to his Human Ik the problem lies somewhere with the yellowed parts. It made no sense, and took an awful lot of time working out just what was wrong. Apparently it was linked to his position on the X,Y and Z co-ordinates.

I soon found after i moved him more in alignment with those he worked out just fine...

And even for atmospheric measure, i added a lustrous blue glow to his eyes to make him more noticeable and to 'stand out' to the darkness of the studio.

The process of Zbrushing my robot

I begin with Z sphereing my robot, so that i can lay out the basic 'foundations' of my robot character.

I move the z spheres to correctly match human anatomy and my robot concept better - and establish some fingers and other missing joints.

I make a mesh of the z spheres, and rough in some extra bits [see the elbows.]

Within the concept of my robot, he has markings for 'plates' on his body. I add those into his arms and elbow and begin on the fingers.

I have to remember as i do this, that my robot is going to have orange plates layered above him in an asymmetrical style. They are to be separate parts that will probably be 'constrained' in the animating process.

Defining more details in the underlying skeleton of the robot.

Facial dots and eye sockets, plus nose.

More facial work.

I begin building up  the base mesh for the overlying plates of the robot. These plates go over his chest and right arm.

I work into the mesh,  making the solid parts of the independent plates. The plate lines are based on the Chinese letters which literally read out 'shaolin temple'.

Further refinement.

I begin poly painting my robot, as his body is all finished now. His eyes and plates are separate from everything else.

I finish the first initial layer of poly paint, layering out all the flats of his colour scheme. The colour scheme is reflective of the actual colour of shaolin attire.

I begin apply some basic shading to the robot, starting with the shadows. I personally do highlights last - as it makes sense to strength the shadows, as highlights and lighter tones can help gradually 'gradient' the colours.

Some initial finalising of the colour.

The final model in Z brush!

A simplistic, rounded 'shaolin monk' with many references to Japanese and Chinese culture alongside its Shaolin roots. For example, some of this includes the Yin yang symbol incorporation or the markings of lettering into the plate shapes and lines.