Monsters

Monsters is an example of what I would hope to be able to achieve in 10 years time, a feature film made on a micro-budget (£15k) utilising a micro crew - 2 actors & 3 crew memebers: director/cameraman/SFX, sound recordist & editor/postproduction artist.
the special effects are realistic and a great mix of 2D compositing (e.g. background cloning & replacement of signs & poster digitally ), 3D modelling & animation in a real time enviroment (the monsters of the title & props such as downed aircraft & vehicles) & great cinematography.
It gives me hope that with a little bit of money, a great idea and a crew who can multitask with animation, effects, post production & cinematography that unique technically accomplished films can be made by amatuer film-makers.

I think ive seen the answer to our problems..

this technology currently under development is the exact kind of hybridised use of technologies to create astounding creative & artisitc excellence that i have been looking into since the start of this research project.

using augmented reality as a tool to help test 3D animated film is what I believe the point of technological animated advances to be about. Rather than people seeing these two differing concepts as rivals or seperate from each other, bringing the best attributes from both to help each other really opens up possibilities.

being able to preview wireframe character movement in front of an artisitcally trained set of eyes that knows the anatomical sepcifics of movement will massively change the dynamic of animation. the closer technology gets to replicating the basic artisitc skills which make up the original theory on which animation is based, the better animation we produce. Pressure sensitive graphic tablets & cintiqs have revolutionised 2D graphic art & animation & a 3D application like this would bring back the 3d modelling to where it originates from - sculpture.

attaching magnetic keypoints on a wooden modellers dummy, whuich transmit back to a reciever creates a 3D keyframe wire model, which through the viewfinder of augmented reality goggles can be manipulated as a 3D rendered character. The user can use their hands to move the dummy & record keyframe movements which the 3D rendered model will repeat.

3D worlds -animation outside of traditional formats

Although often seen as being between two markets or artforms - motion comics or animated Ebooks have gained increasing respect & popularity in the last two to three years. Moving tales has took advantage of the soon to be crowded market of tablet computers by creating an unique mix of 3D interactive animation, traditional audiobook narration & written word. I remember in my childhood a popular book present was to have your name & friends/ families names written into a set story framework for you to read. Moving tales seems to have harnessed this idea for a different emerging technological age of childhood. The core team is the same as most Animated films - a writer, lead animator, producer and marketer; however they have created a very different artform. I would like to see how much this could be blended with user interactivity & AR, if children could appear & interact with these animated characters, with old fashioned voice or text narration, & maybe click links to items form the story to learn more I think this could be the new form of learning reading & writing skills even.

Dexter : "Tonight's The Night" - Motion Comic in 3D from M2 on Vimeo.

As for a more adult context for these alternate forms of animation in a 3D enviroment, I tend to think about more abstract or non-fiction uses for this kind of animation. Researching through the most current apps, books, animations I came across operation AJAX once again an Ipad app that is similar in premise to moving tales' app. However this is a serious graphic novel enlightening the reader into the false flag operation by the USA in Iran which placed the Shah in power, taking the ideology of Joe saccos graphic novels & the visual cues from waltz with bashir, this looks to be an interesting & informative alternate use for interactive animation.

These apps or books although creating suspicions of sounds too good to be true are actually given the technical level of a proffesional animation, they are created using Flash, after effects, Maya autodesk & cinema 3ds max before being ported to Ipad settings. they follow characters & a narrative, a timeline, have voice work, sound effects & offer the interactivity or thirst for knowledge that an animated non fiction film such as waltz with bashir creates. By setting animated tales during real world historical events, unfamiliar audiences can automatically look for reference & historicla information regarding the backdrop of the animated media directly.



http://www.graphicnovelreporter.com/content/comics-ipad-operation-ajax-takes-stage-interview

uses of 3D 'live' animation - using augmented reality as art performance

http://thesanchoplan.com/blackpage.html

The Sancho Plan create new interactive entertainment experiences for the 21st century. Fusing animation, music, gaming, technology and performance

The Sancho Plan: The Black Page from The Sancho Plan on Vimeo.

With looking at the different uses & appliances of animation within a 3D enviroment, i found this innovative performance using & syncing augmented reality, videogame mechanics & animated video footage. the gap between film, animation & videogame seems to be closing; 3D CGI characters & effects appear seamlessly in films alongside human actors, animated films & videogames are overtaking live-action films in terms of popularity & revenue.
So I find it interesting that this background has moved to art & performance. the premise is similar to a live version of guitar hero mixed with animated visual shorts. however I find this could be an interesting way to brdige the gap between passively watching animation or being limited to your interactivity with a videogame/augmented reality by the preset game mechanics.
I like the uncomplicated link to the animation & peformance, whatever individual move the musicians make it is recognised & replicated by the 2D or 3D character rig, the only pre-defined factor being the outer look (skin, face) of the animated character. I feel that given the resources & publicity this kind of fusion could become the missing link between visual texture & narrative strengths of film & the exclusitivity & performative aspects of the theatre.

It appears they have created the character model rigs on a 3D software such as MAYA autodesk, texture mapped the character skins & back ground enviroments, they have then harnessed (or possibly created) a VideoGame Kernel CPU operating system that replicates visually the movements made by the band members. There must be either tracking points or a augmented reality type system that recognises the complexities of the band members movements on their respective instrument surfaces.

Big Screen Augmented Reality from The Sancho Plan on Vimeo.

this next video from the sancho plan is a audience performance piece using the technique of augmented reality I have already documented. I like the idea of creating & engaging audience participation using simple technology - a live feed camera, Augmented reality software & paper markers. If I have enough time during all my modules I will try & attempt a multiple marker augmented reality piece using music like this

I created this dance sequence in After Effects to collaborate with my zoetrope/light projection animation. I will have physically existing & computer generated versions of the dance sequence for the final product.

I first used footage of tango dancers dancing, and rotoscoped over that footage to change the colour & style of their clothing to something more formal (suit & dark evening dress from more loose bright tango wear).
Wanting to semiotically attach this dance test to musical culture I created two new solids for a 3D stage for the dancers, I then added & changed paramaters for the CG Rain effect (a nod to singing in the rain)




I then created a videoscreen look by using the same rotoscoped footage layer as a mask for particle playground & altered & tweened the particle movement so it closely followed the dancers. I added a slightly transparent shape for the screen and generated a slow strobing light effect.
I added an exploding firework effect in 2 stages: first I used CC particle world the only 3D particle generator in after effects for the sparkling firework and tweened the keyframes for it to go offscreen into the stratosphere & explode. Then for the firework flares I used CC particle playground for the falling flare sparks, CC particle playground was useful for simulating more erratic flare descent, it actually has 3 different particle producers and is the only one that has settings to have particle react to each other, creating a compounded effect.

project goal completions update

so far I have managed to reach these goals set out for my craft development :

- Green-screen Stop motion utilising after effects for digital animated backgrounds

- Completed a basic digital light animation test using trapcode form

- Completed a basic augmented reality test using google sketchup 3D architectural modelling software & an A.R. Plug in

- Completed basic 3D modelling of a scene in MAYA 2010

- rotoscoped a dance scene using Adobe photoshop, premiere pro and after effects

- Created & built a zoetrope style projector out of household materials & ingenuity that projects an organic animated dance sequence

- Modified this system to be used as a praxinoscope style machine where the physical animation is on the machine & created by persistence of vision

I have been looking at a plug-in for MAYA that may work with my other physical animated projects such as stop motion & the praxinosocope-esque device. there is a cheap plug-in called Cut-Out http://www.dunreeb.com/3dplugins/ that allows 3D MAYA models to be translated to cut out print outs to make paper 3d models without the hassle. this could be useful in creating backgrounds & characters for stop motion animation.

Babysteps into Maya 1: creating a background model from scratch

due to technical problems with CS4 I changed tact & started my first attempt at 3D modelling in MAYA autodesk 2010

there is some background information on the technical & mathematical practices that seperate 3D animation from other types of animation here explaining the basics & keyphrases (I myself am not a highly mathematical person so feel this may help!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_modeling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonuniform_rational_B-spline
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygonal_modeling

I started by creating a new project and a new ground plane which is the ground foundation for creating 3d scenes



I then [using the 3D object tools] set about creating new, seperate polygonal primitive shapes for the sky/enviroment (a sphere)), buildings (cube) , roofs (cylinder). I then scaled, rotated & moved the shapes along the three XYZ axis' to modify the shapes to suit the building components. I turned on autoshading so i could see a preview of the rough 3D model while i worked.



I collected together the shapes into groups (e.g. cylinder + cube = house & roof) to create the houses & lamp-posts, then duplicated the houses to create a street.




I had only a stick like cylinder for my lamp-post so I changed the mode to single component tools, this meant i could manipulate the look of the shapes from tiny points (nodes) anywhere on the shape. Using this method I reshaped the cylinder into a more recognisable lamp-post shape



I once again used duplicate to create a street full of lamp-posts. I then created a NURBS (Non-uniform rational basis spline) shape. Using NURBS rather than polygonal 3D shapes gave me better ability to create complex un-rational 3D shapes such as an electrical wire for the lamposts running between the houses. I edited thses wires the same way as the lamp posts using component mode to manipulate the wire shape then duplicated that after using a NURBS fine shading preset to make the wires look more 'organic' & less 'building block-like'



Using the previous NURBS primitive shapes, single component manipulation & duplication methods described above I created awnings for each house in the street.