MAJOR PROJECT AND REPORTNext Level

Andrei CuturBA CVA i7901300

Level H 2014

AbstractNext Level is a satirical take on the stereotypical portrayal of women in most media. The aim of this report is to serve as an overview of the process our team and I in particular went through for creating our short animation. It will go through some of our influences while focusing on an analysis of my role within the group. It will take you through the issues that I encountered and the way I managed to overcome them and will attempt to describe my thought process that led to the decisions I have made.

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CONTENTS PAGE

1. Introduction......................................................................................................3

2. Comparative Studies........................................................................................42.1 Kara............................................................................................................42.2 Scarlet Blade..............................................................................................5

3. Development and Production...........................................................................63.1 Modelling....................................................................................................6

3.1.1 Main robot.....................................................................................63.1.2 Background tubes.........................................................................83.1.3 Chamber........................................................................................93.1.4 Arena...........................................................................................10

3.2 Lighting....................................................................................................12

4. Critical Analysis and Summary.......................................................................15

5. References.....................................................................................................16

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1. Introduction

Our short, Next Level, is a satirical take on the stereotypical portrayal of women in games, in particular, and most media, in general, by emphasizing the uselessness of the armor in the case of our piece and how despite its obvious flaws in functionality, it is preferred because of its revealing design.

Personally, the main skills that I wanted to improve during the production of the major project were my environment and, more broadly, hard surface modeling, rigging and lighting skills while, at the same time, learning more about the whole production process, the pipeline and various tools my teammates and I ended up using.

From rigging to lighting

Because I did not know how much environment rigging there was to be done initially, in my major project proposal I noted that my main focus would be on modeling and environment rigging. As I later found out, there were not many environment pieces that would move, the only exception here being the mechanical arms and the central chamber doors. Even so, the distance from which they can be seen moving and the length of the shot itself meant that the rig would only need to be a relatively simple one and would not involve a great deal of complexity. For this reason, even though I still created the rig for the mechanical arms, I wanted the focus to shift from environment rigging to lighting. This decision was also greatly influenced by the masterclass project for which I have done lighting integration and which I found very enjoyable. This sparked my interest for lighting, something that I had no knowledge of at the time of writing the proposal for the major project.

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2. Comparative studies

2.1 Kara

(fig. 1 Kara)

The original inspiration we had for our major project came from the short Kara. This emotional piece features a girl robot that is being produced in order to be sold on the market. It is most likely taking place in a factory or a production facility of some sort and it is set in the future. The short presents the emergence of AI consciousness and walks the audience through the emotional turmoil the robot girl faces, making a case for the transcendence of consciousness, regardless of its origins. Similarly, we initially wanted to convey a feeling of compassion. Our story would take place in a spaceship in a distant post-apocalyptic future. The set would be a similar production facility, but this time with the roles reversed, robots being in control and humans being cloned in order to be sent to war.

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2.2 Scarlet Blade

After discussions with our tutors though, we decided to change the story and create a comedic piece rather than one that takes itself too seriously, thus breaking the well too established dramatic pattern that dominates post-apocalyptic scenarios. The setup remained the same only to further develop in terms of design; the story on the other hand, had to be turned 180 degrees. Since the main reason we went for such a decision was to break a stereotype, we thought we could take the same idea further. Being bombarded by all sorts of media, one does not have to look hard to realize the tendency to portray women mostly in terms of their body image even when this is counterproductive for the women in question. An illustrative example of this is the game Scarlet Blade. The characters of the game, all female, wear ridiculously revealing armor suits that leave them completely exposed and vulnerable, despite all the violence that is supposed to and expected to happen.

(fig. 2) (fig. 3) (fig. 4)

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3. Development and production

3.1 Modelling

3.1.1 The main robot

The robot character, or as we called it, the main bot, was the first model that I attempted to create. Having received the concepts from Rita, our main environment concept artist, my job was seemingly straightforward: simply translate her two dimensional images into one three dimensional object that would preserve the essence of the character and therefore make sure both the concepts and the 3D model belong together. As I was soon to find out, this was easier said than done. Having had a little previous experience with modeling from orthographic views, my first attempt naturally went in that direction. I had modeled a variety of cars and other hard surface objects using this technique so I was fairly confident when I first tried applying it. It did not take me very long, though, to find out that, unlike the extremely accurate front and side views I was used to working with before where every stroke would match seamlessly with its equivalent, the orthographic views for the main bot would not be that precise.

First, I tried starting from basic geometry such as cubes and cylinders in order to further develop these, bit by bit, one face at the time, in the hope it would get me to the correct shape of the robot. Soon, though, the orthographic views became so crowded by the vertexes and

6(fig. 5 main robot orthographic views)

faces on the inside that I could no longer keep track of which face is which and which edge was supposed to follow which stroke in the concept. This combined with the misalignment of the two orthographic drawings rendered my efforts to get to the overall shape futile. Since I knew that the first and most important thing when creating any model is to block its volume correctly and having realized the first technique I tried would take me nowhere, I decided to scrap everything and try a different, cleaner, approach: blocking the shape using curves. Basically, what I did was remove the unnecessary and cluttering vertexes resulting from using the previous technique and only focused on matching the outlines from the two views in order to get a 3D sketch of the model. This is when I properly realized the inevitable mismatch between the orthographic views. I was trying to be as faithful to Ritas concepts as I possibly could, and yet, this was leading me nowhere. After showing this to the tutors, one suggestion was to follow and reproduce the three-quarter view that Rita made. So the next thing I did was take the shape that I had and mold it to fit that view. Unfortunately, while this made the robot look perfectly like the concept from that precise angle, it made it look nothing like it from the front view, the perspective we would use most when rendering the robot. Therefore, after a long and frustrating time spent adjusting the geometry to fit all but ultimately none of the concept drawings, I reached the conclusion that the best option I had was to stray from both the orthographic and the three quarter views and combine the two in order to create our character, even though this meant not entirely following either concept.

(fig. 6 main robot three-quarter view - concept)

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My failure to take into account the fact that these images were drawn by hand and therefore not perfect cost me a fair amount of time and patience.

After this experience, I knew I had to take the concepts with the proverbial grain of salt and while striving to maintain the character of the objects of the environment Rita designed, I knew I had no other chance than to slightly change it here and there in order to make it look as good as I could in 3D.

3.1.2 The background tubes

While I was on a break from modeling the main bot, I started to look at the other pieces of the environment and picked the background tubes to be the next that I would model. On the whole, I can confidently say that I like Ritas designs of the environment for this project, especially that of the background tubes and the central chamber the girl gets out of. Although I cannot pinpoint exactly what makes me feel this way, even after the problems I encountered with the main robot, I wanted to stay as faithful to the concepts. Having learned from the previous experience though, I knew that I could much easier identify the problems that might arise and also that sometimes, I might have to compromise. Fortunately this time, though, it was not really the case. With the exception of the claws that hold the glass cylinder in place from below, the design of

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(fig. 6 main robot ambient occlusion render)

(fig. 7 tube - concept)

the tubes was fairly straightforward to follow, even though there were occasions where I had to interpret the concepts. The reason the claws

were a little bit more difficult than the rest was that they had this very specific pattern of intrusions with sharp angles. Whenever I was trying to achieve those by adding edge loops close to each other, the rest of the model which was supposed to be curvier would sharpen as well. The solution that I found was to keep those edges as close as possible in the places where the shape was supposed to be sharp and immediately relax the vertexes as they went on to form the loop. Although not the best solution when it comes to topology, I concluded this would not matter much as the tubes were not going to be rigged and animated and therefore a less-than-perfect topology of the tube would not have a detrimental effect on the final piece.

3.1.3 The Chamber

The next piece in line in terms of modeling was the central chamber. This is yet another very visually appealing object of our scene, most likely because of the fluidity of the leaf-like components that form the its upper part that contrast the otherwise quite sharp feel of a metal environment. They were also my main concern in terms of modelling as to how I would manage to achieve that fluid look and feel. It turned out that curves were the best solution here and that is what I went for. After creating an image plane and projecting the concept onto it, I started tracing all the leafs facing towards the camera and adjusting them in the perspective view, curving them along the z axis to preserve the feeling of depth. I then went on to model the doors and the light-emitting objects surrounding

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(fig. 8 tube - ambient occlusion render)

(fig. 9 chamber concept)

them, a not very complicated process. I ended by adding the details around the door and also the rocky-shaped base of the chamber.

3.1.4 The Arena

The arena and the mechanical arms were then the last pieces of the environment left to build. The arena itself I would say was the easiest of the concepts to reproduce. That being said, it did take a while to replicate the intricate pattern that extrudes inside and also the capsules that serve as a cover for the mechanical arms. Although the process was fairly time consuming, there were no issues such as the ones encountered when creating the previous models. I would say this was in part because of those issues and what I had learned while overcoming them.

The mechanical arms constituted a new experience for me as I had no designs to base my model on and therefore, I had to build them from scratch. Most of my inspiration was drawn from an IronMan sequence where the main characters iron suit is being put together by these intricate machines and also from the similar StarCraft II theatrical trailer. Because of

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(fig. 10 arena - ambient occlusion render)

my not so great drawing skills, all the trial and error process that is required for designing something was entirely done in Maya, thus taking longer than usual.

Although I am overall pleased with the final outcome, I wish I had more time to think and experiment with all the intricate mechanisms that I could have added to make for a better looking, more complex arm. On the other hand, since there isnt any close up of the arms themselves, that extra detail would have unnecessarily made the scene heavier and the arms harder to rig and animate, which would have taken its tall not only on me, but on Martin, our animator, as well, leaving us with less time for the other, more important, things we had to do.

Modelling Analysis

Overall, the modeling of the environment, with all its ups and downs, was a great and useful experience from which I had a lot to gain. I learned how much perseverance matters, but also how important it is to clear your mind when things do not go as expected and in those moments when it seems like you have exhausted all the possibilities and do not know how else to tackle the issues that you have, like the problems I had with the robot. I therefore stand by the decision I made when I took a break from modeling the robot and focus on the

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(fig. 11 Iron Man mechanical arms)

rest of the environment first. I feel it gave me time to think about other ways to approach the recurring issue that I had and had a good influence on the final outcome.

3.2. Lighting

The lighting of the shot was done in two packages: Houdini and Maya. The reason for this was the fact that we had to render the hair of the girl in Maya while we chose to put together and render the rest of the short in Houdini. This meant that two entirely separate lighting setups would be needed to complete the job.

The basic Houdini lighting setup consists of the lights that light the girls inside the tubes (Carlos), and the two arrays of lights lying outside those tubes and oriented towards the centre of the whole environment that act as spill lights from the tubes. Doing this rather than letting the tubes lights provide spill themselves proved to be more efficient in terms of render times and therefore I opted for this alternative. Another set of lights that are permanently in the scene are the geometry lights that light the chamber. In order to get the

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(fig. 12)

geometry lights, I went back to Maya, extruded or created from scratch the shapes that I would later use in Houdini and then offset them. One of the decisions that I had to make with regard to geometry lights was whether to render them as emitting lights or hide the geometry and simply let it emit in both directions. I found that the second option was better as the lights would have a very flat look, with absolutely no gradient, if I rendered them as well. As part of the basic, constant setup was also a cylindrical geometry light that would emit from behind the tubes in order to fill the edges and provide them with a slight rim. Another array of point lights was also used to slightly light the top of the tubes.

Aside from this lighting setup that remained constant throughout the piece, each shot had its own lighting on top. The arena and robot geometry lights and their dim blue colour add to the cold feeling of the shots while the volumetric yellow light behind the robot brings a little warmth to the scene while, at the same time, giving the robot a god-like stature. Also, on top of the environment setup for each scene, the girl is lit by a few extra lights in order to bring her out.

The main issue that I had with regard to lighting the scenes in Houdini was the fact that I had not previously used Houdini and it is a hard to learn piece of software in my opinion. Because of this, I had to rely on Carlos knowledge of the package and most of the times

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(fig. 13)

when I had an issue related in any way to nodes in Houdini, I had to go to him. Fortunately, he is an extraordinarily helpful person so most things went as smooth as possible.

The Maya setup for the hair was fairly straightforward for each of scene. What I had to do was look where the lights are placed in Houdini in relation to the environment and the girl and evaluate how they light the body of the girl and then set the Maya lights in place accordingly, roughly matching the intensities and the colours. Achieving a perfect match is extremely hard since the rest of the environment and the girl are not there to provide direct reference, but luckily the most important parts of the setup are matching the position of the lights as well as their intensity relative to each other. The colour grading and the overall light intensity adjustments are done in the compositing stage.

Lighting Analysis

With regard to lighting, I learned that perhaps one of the most powerful tools is light linking. When having a heavy scene and a heavy lighting setup, the render times can go up extremely quickly, especially if geometry lights and volumetric lights are being used. A very powerful way to cheat this is to connect some lights to only the geometry that they have the most influence over and replacing the spill of that light with something much cheaper such as a point or a spot light. In this way, the render time is kept to a minimum while the overall quality of the render suffers virtually nothing.

Other

Aside from environment modeling and lighting, I have also provided the rigs for the mechanical arms and the chamber doors and helped Carlos set up renders and overall tried to be as helpful as I could when anybody needed anything. Like the rest of us, I have also contributed to the development of the story since we first had our conversations about this project.

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4. Critical Analysis and Summary

Given this experience, I am pleased to say that I feel I have grown more confident in my modeling and lighting skills. Over the course of this project I have learned everything I know about Houdini and probably more important than that, I have learned how versatile a tool it is if you know how to use it properly which makes me hungry to learn more about it in the future.One of the things I regret most is not being able to manage my time better. I feel this project has served as a reminder as to how important time management is and unfortunately, by the end of it, we were not able to completely reach our goal.

After having experienced both lighting integration during the production of my masterclass project and now full cg lighting and having had the opportunity to compare the two, I came to the conclusion that lighting integration suits me better. Nevertheless, I could not have made this decision without properly experiencing both situations and therefore, I am glad to have had the opportunity to do so during this project.

If I had more time, I would have loved to get involved in compositing as this is one of the areas that I am not very confident in when it comes to my skillset, but given my brief previous experiences, I would like to learn more about. Unfortunately, since we ran out of time and realized we could not finish all the shots that we originally set out to do, we focused on rendering and polishing as many as we could which prevented me from experimenting with compositing.

Overall, despite the fact that we could not entirely finish what we set out to do, on a personal level, I feel I have brought my contribution to the making of this short piece. I have managed to build the environment and overcome the difficulties I had during the process, some of them completely unexpected.

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5. References

Fig. 1 Gaudiosi, J., 2012. Blog. Available from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/03/07/1332/ [Accessed December 2013]

Fig. 2-4 Scarlet Blade, n.p., 2012. Blog. Available from: http://feature.mmosite.com/scarletblade/character.shtml [Accessed June 2014]

Fig 11. Youtube, 2013, Iron Man All Suit Up. Video. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urXrQSSF7ac [Accessed March 2014]

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