Week 3
The terrain assets were simulated in Houdini using procedural height fields and erosion. The models were then converted into OBJs and cleaned up in ZBrush. I plan to alter the terrain a bit more after seeing them in the previs.
Previs with early camera moves. Main body of feedback discussed motion blur and removing the easy ease on the cameras in each shot. A topic of exploration is to plan for crypto matte and AOVs to render the emissive objects in scene.
These shots will remain the same duration with minimal adjustment to the composition. Otherwise I’ll be on track to lock the cameras for better environment layout/ lighting. Right now there is a variety of focal lengths in the previs as I’ve been learning to better control the camera animation.
The animated 2D shapes represent the light waves that are emitted from the machine on time with the music. A few mallets were animated to visualize how the musicians will behave in shot. Due to the sci-fi instruments, the primary forms are based on percussion sets and chimes while the baseline is the circular disk of light.
These test renders encapsulate the stylized lighting look dev I’m working towards. I am using an Arnold Atmospheric Volume to get an early concept of the later fog/smoke comp work. I will either omit or use it less heavy handed in the final render set up.
A major challenge to overcome is to merge the exterior cave with the interior cave as they are still separate pieces, the interior still needs a lot of sculpting to get the quarry acoustics vibe I’m envisioning. I decided the stalagmites distract too much from the machine so I will remove them in the later versions of the model.
(ADD SKETCHES HERE)
The musician mallet design was resolved from additional sketches in my notepad. In lieu of over engineering the wrists, the mallet disk will float between two forearm pieces so the unused mallets can fold inside the arms.
It was suggested to comp a sky replacement for the exterior shots so I will keep that in mind as I move forward.