Maya Shatter Effects (Research)

I have a scene that is when the Virus hits the Castle Wall it will shatter however i cant do it in After Effects as i cant target the castle instead it is targeting the whole video. I also cant import Obj files also as my After Effects version is CS4. Hence i researched on Youtube on how to do shatter effect in Maya instead of After Effects. I found this tutorial attached above which taught me how to do up a shatter effect using nCloth and nPassiveCollider. I think this tutorial is clear cut and easy to understand however this effect is not applicable on all laptop as it require a good graphic card. I try to render on my comp a few times and it crash when i try to create nCache. Recalling Mr George once told me that Maya should actually never do in laptop as lots of Maya's stuff require a strong graphic card hence i make a trip down to the school and use the desktop to do this effect and it works. Through this tutorial i learnt how to create a shatter effect using Maya instead of AE.

Production Pipeline.

Detailed Roles Of Team's Members

Ang Zi Chao - Leader, Director, Actor, Main Animator, Sub Modeling, AE

Ruth Yang Shu Min - Writer, After Effects for 1st scene

Loh Wan Jun - Cameraman, Video Compiler, Texture, After Effects for credits

Cher Qiao En - Storyboard, After Effects for last scene and tag line, Sub Modeling

Scarlet - Main Modeling, After Effects for opening scene

Team's Production Pipeline

I (Leader) led the team on brainstorming on ideas for our Project 1.
After deciding the ideas, I led the team on discussing which roles is suitable for who.
The finalize roles of our teams are shown above. 

Ruth (Writer) convert our team ideas into a Story Write-Up
 Qiao En (Storyboard) covert our teams ideas into a Storyboard.
I (Director) researched on the different Camera Shots and Camera Movements
I (Director) directs WanJun (Cameraman) to shoot for both Video Reference and Project.
I (Actor) also acts out in the video.

Scarlet (Main Modeling) starts off by modeling the Virus, Aniti-Virus and Castle Wall.
Upon finish, he passed the files to WanJun (Texture) to start texture for the Models.
Ruth (AE for 1st scene) gets the footages from WanJun and starts to add effects.
QiaoEn (Sub Modeling), starts to model the Anti-Virus hand.
After WanJun have done texturing she pass me the files
 I (Main Animator) starts to animate the Models.
I (Sub Modeling) also model a Crown and add texture into it.
At the same time, Scarlet(After Effects for opening scene)
Qiao En (AE for last scene and tag line) starts to add effects into their respective parts.
WanJun(After Effects for credits) also starts to do up a credit scene.
When im done with the animation,
I(AE) starts to add Sound/Gun's fire using After Effects
After all of us done our parts we sent our AVI to WanJun
where she compile and submit it onto Youtube.

Roles for Project 1

Roles (Project 1)\

Leaders :

I am the team leader in the team. My team consist of (Ruth, WanJun, QiaoEn, Scarlet, Me). I lead the discussion in the team such as the discussion for ideas on what to do for the Project, discussion on who is more suitable on a specific part. Through all this discussion, i finalize the idea of our Project and also the roles of my team members. Scarlet - Main Modeling. Ruth - After Effects for the starting scene. WanJun - After Effects for the credits. QiaoEn - Sub Modeling of Anti-Virus hand and After Effects for the tag line. Me - Main Animator and Sub Modeling.

Director :

I am the director in the team. I leads my team to film for the video reference and also the Project itself. I researched on different types of Camera Shot such as (Close-Up shot, Wide shot, Point-Of-View shot, etc) and also the Camera Movement such as (Pan movement, Dolly-Zoom movement). After research, i direct my team's Cameraman (WanJun) to use what shot/movement for the specific scene. I also discuss with her whether if the shot is appropriate and also listen for her opinions.

Actor :

I am the actor in the team. For our video reference, i act out as a "Computer" to see how a computer react when virus hit on it. As for the Project itself, i act as the "Guy" who feels bored and download illegal game from the internet. Lastly, the same "Guy" who shakes hand with the Anti-Virus in the last scene.

Main Animator :

I am the main animator in the team. In our Project there are parts like Virus attacks the Computer Walls, Anti-Virus marching in, Anti-Virus attacks the Virus, Crown float down. All this scenes are animated by me.

Sub Modeling :

I am also incharge of modeling. I model the Crown which is being awarded to the Anti-Virus's King when the Anti-Virus's King and its team eliminate the Virus. I also added texture and color into the Crown. I chose Blinn as the Crown should be something shining.

After Effects for Anti-Virus Vs Virus scene :

I am also incharge of adding effects using After Effects. In our Project there is scene like where the Anti-Virus shoots missle at the Virus. I have to implement sounds and also Gun's fire into the scene using After Effects to make the scene much more realistic.

Lion with 3D (Human, Zombie)

This was a continued from previous exercise. In this exercise, i incorporated 3D objects into the lion scene. Doing this exercise, i face a few difficulties but i managed to solve most of the difficulties i faced.

 The first difficulties is that when i import the 3D objects in i could not locate them. I seek help from Mr George then realize i need to go to perspective view and adjust the 3D objects infront of the RZ Camera.

The second difficulties is when i imported in, my 3D objects does not have any texture or animation. Mr George then start to teach saying the file images should go to our project images. The data must go into the project data. After doing so, my 3D objects then have both the texture and animation.

The third difficulties is that i need to be very good at adjusting the 3D objects position so that one seems to be infront of the others. However in RZ Camera. i could not rotate around the camera as it is fixed hence i need to keep change the view to perspective and adjust there which is quite tedious.

The fourth difficulties is that my character seem to be "drifting" instead of walking. I understand how to set Keyframe to move the 3D objects forward. However when i animate it, it seems to be drifting however i edited a few times before getting a "Some-how close" video attached above.

The last difficulties i faced is the same as previous, my video is still in black and white, i have tried Google-ing but to no avail. I will seek help from my friends or Mr George on the following school day.

Lion

In this exercise, i learn how to Matchmove. I learn how to convert from pictures to frames. Which end up forming the video attached above. Firstly, i load a image sequence from the 51 lion pictures setting lower field first. After i load the sequence, i can start to play the video from the start, reverse or even Ping Pong.

Secondly, after i load the image sequence i have to do an automatic tracking (Press 2D Tracking then Automatic tracking). After i done the automatic tracking, green marking can be seen throughout the video. I also found out that also in Matchmover when the top right show 2D actually you are in the 3D view and not 2D, Vice-Versa.

Thirdly, after i have done the automatic tracking i have to do a 3D render. After rendering, i can see blue cone throughout the video which Mr George said that is what we should be seeing after it is render correctly.

Lastly, i batch render it to become AVI which become the video above. However i do not know how to batch render at first as i cant see my video then i check out this tutorial
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nZJZpzv39o) then realize that i have to change the render setting to AVI. But after render then i realize that my video is in black and white. I will try to solve if i can.

In my next Blog's post i will be incorporating 3D objects into it.

Lab 3 - 7 Rules of Matchmove

Q3 : 7 Rules of Matchmove

Rule 1 : There has to be something to track

For rule 1, in order to matchmove there must be something to track.

Rule 2 : We have to track things at different depths

For rule 2, in order to have a good matchmove we must have different depths.

Perspective will become clearer if things are place in different depths.

Rule 3 : We have to get Helper Frames

With rule 3, it will help the computer to see better.

Take at least 10 different pictures in different angles.

Rule 4 : A little bit of foreground makes a better matchmove

For rule 3, in order to have a better matchmove we should add in some foreground.

Things that is place nearer to the cam is 100x bigger.

Foreground reveal cam position more accurately than anything else.

Rule 5 : We cant track anything that moves

Every things must be static. Everything that move need to be mask out.

Rule 6 : You cant have too much foreground

We lose all the markers if there is too much foreground.

Too much foreground will wash out everything we are tracking.

Rule 7 : You have to get a Scale Reference

Measure distance between 2 points that we want it to be track.

With this 7 rules apply, if will contribute to a successful match moving.