DEMO REEL 2014

Here's my demo reel from some of the works i done throughout my animation course.

END OF SEMESTER REFECTION

  Overall the experience with being in a group was really challenging because everything is made out of scratch and we just got to help each other. There were times that it was so stressful cause in the beginning I was all on fire and I have to share this fire with my group mates which wasn't very easy at all but in the end, we made it and I'm so grateful about the cooperation that everybody is sharing. For example, someone might have not been good in rigging, we can let him do the job but being a rigger, he might not be a good at lighting to we took it and divided the project amongst ourselves. 

   Personally throughout the process, I learned a lot by exploring the areas I wanted like concept, texturing, compositing and sound fx. It was technically challenging era as it is like a big step out there and take that leap of advancement to be ready for the life outside school. 
I learned how to manage neatly more in my texturing and painting glossiness and spec maps. The importance of MIA material and its properties on how it affects the look development of our work.
Furthermore, I learned new thing in compositing especially the VFX because I guess this is it, you just got to try whether its crappy or not as long as you just take that step and believe it will improve. I also explored on a new area which is Sound fx. It was so fascinating cause its like music, there's rhythm,composition and tone. I was able to apply my knowledge of arranging songs and composing music to this project to set the mood and timing. Moreover with our film direction from our CCS, we re able to sync them all together and produce something beautiful our of our final advertisement. It's all about resourcefulness and patience! Those are one of the most important things I learned. Team spirit,trust and that faith you guys will make to the end by working out together regardless of any conditions that might hold it all up!

Overall it was a very great experience studying and working in LASALLE, they really equipped you on what's out there in the industry. Even before I go army, I can keep and nurture what I learned till the time comes when I enter the industry, we can all enter as better person as long as we keep what is right and be always on track.

CREDITS AND SHOTS I WORKED ON

CREDITS:

CONCEPT/ IDEA : 
KEVIN, LUCAS AND DARREN

TREATMENT:
KEVIN (CHARACTER REFERENCES, CHARACTER SYNOPSIS)
DARREN(CHARACTER SHEET, DYNAMIC POSES/COLOR SWATCHES/RIGGING REEL)
LUCAS (TURNTABLE)


SHOOTING:
KEVIN, LUCAS AND DARREN

HDRI:
LUCAS, KEVIN

MODELLING:
HEAD - KEVIN (INITIAL BASE MESH),DARREN (CLEANUP/POLISH)
TORSO - DARREN(CONCEPT), LUCAS (CLEANUP/POLISH)
UPPER ARM - KEVIN (INITIAL BASE AND CONCEPT MESH), DARREN (ELBOW HINGE JOINTS SYSTEM AND CONCEPT/CLEANUP/POLISH/)
LOWER ARM - LUCAS (INITIAL BASE AND CONCEPT MESH), DARREN (CLEANUP/POLISH)
UPPER LEG - LUCAS (INITIAL BASE AND CONCEPT MESH), KEVIN (DETAILING/PLATINGS), DARREN (CLEANUP/POLISH)
LOWER LEG + PELVIS - LUCAS (INITIAL BASE AND CONCEPT MESH), KEVIN (DETAILING/PLATINGS), DARREN (CLEANUP/POLISH)

UVS:
HEAD - KEVIN
TORSO/UPPER ARM/LOWER ARM - LUCAS
UPPER LEG/ LOWER LEG - KEV

TEXTURING:
HEAD - KEVIN
UPPER TORSO- KEVIN
UPPER ARM/LOWER ARM/LOWER TORSO/DONUTS/BOLTS - LUKE
UPPER LEG/LOWER LEG+PELVIS - KEVIN

MATCHMOVE AND TECHNICAL APPROACH:
LUCAS - OVERHEAD SHOT AS ROBOT WALKS/ KEVIN GOT SHOT/OL SPRAY BEING TAKEN OUT
KEVIN - LIFT SCENE/FOOT SCENE/ ROBO ALERTED/FOCUS FIRE/FIRST GUN TRANSFORMATION/ROBO MALFUNCTION/FINAL SHOT/KEVIN PREPARING TO RUN

RIGGING:
DARREN

ANIMATION:

LUCAS - FIRST GUN TRANSFORMATION/KEVIN GOT SHOT/OL SPRAY IS BEING TAKEN OUT
DARREN - OVERHEAD SHOT/ROBOT MALFUNCTION/ROBOT TURN TO SHOOT/ KEVIN PREPARING TO RUN BEHIND THE WALL
KEVIN - LIFT SCENE/FOOT SCENE/ROBOT GETS ALERTED/FOCUS FIRE/FINAL SHOT

LIGHTING AND RENDERING/LOOK DEV'T:

LUCAS AND KEVIN

COMPOSITING:
KEVIN

SOUND DESIGN:
LUCAS - REASEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
KEVIN - COMPOSING AND EDITING SOUND FX

FINAL COMPOSITING AND SOUND EDITING

FINAL COMPOSITING 

It has been quite a tough few days in compositing as we have twelve shots to finish and most of them requires loads of vfx.

LIFT SCENE

First of all this lift scene is a complete remake that I did using 2D layers because of the lack of tracking data as it opens.

I divided the 2D layers from one still frame of the raw footage. 2 for the lift doors and 1 BG layer. These layers have different distances in the z axis, the lift doors are slightly ahead from where my camera was positioned. Remembering my research on matte painting, I was able to apply it in this shot to save me a lot of time and i believe it provided more efficiency in handling my renders. I positioned my robot somewhere in between the BG and the FG (lift doors).

Note that every imported items in after effects have different interpretations, a problem I faced here is that when you import sequences, it usually sets to 30 fps, remember to interpret it and set it to 25.
How to do it:
Click on the imported item and press (Ctrl+Alt+G) and it will bring you to this box.

LENS BURST AND FLARE

 Initially, I wanted to do a JJ Abram's like Lens flare in his Star Trek films but then I decided to make one on my own. Let me briefly explain how I did it.

USING 2 solids

 1. make a solid in the color of your flare, mask them twice rectangularly  and feather them
2. make another white solid, this for the highlight of the flare later

 3. create a black solid adding a Lens Flare on it as stated and blur it, set the solid transfer mode as "Add"

 4. play with the Flare Brightness and center and see the how it intensifies the flare.

 5. Find a simple lens dust type texture and Screen it, you can tweak it with Curves to have some complexities too!

FOOT SCENE SPECULAR BREAKDOWN

 the shot is very still, with the camera laying on the floor. Originally there's a specular cast on the floor but since the foot was there, we have to activate it and deactivate it.

 PHOTOSHOP

 1. I made a copy of the BG layer and cone stamped it mimic the the normal floor without any specular

 2. I went to the channels of the original BG, select Magic wand, zoom in, right click select similar, and grow. Before you do this, first find the BLUE channel or any channels you find that exposes the specular out. use the selection as a mask and apply it above the BGS.

3. In AfterFx, just tweak the activation of this specular by using opacity or masking is such as that it mimics the shadow of the foot revealing it.

 MUZZLE FLASHES

With the help of Action Essentials 2, I'm able to composite it stock footages of muzzle flashes, and composite it in realistically.

1. First track the muzzle using afterfx tracking tools, target it to the null and then parent your muzzle flash in it!

2. After adjusting and tweaking your muzzle flash, duplicate it and scale it big and set Overlay as the transfer mode. Blur it. The reason for this is to set the lighting the area in sync with the flash. (illuminating)

3. For the other scene, I kept the scaled and blurred muzzle flash on the left side to show continuity

4. Apply the muzzle flashes you made, Ctrl+Shift+C it to Precompose and just duplicate it here but make sure it's out of sync from the muzzle flashes on the left!

5. Same goes for the Robot, explore on different stock footages you have and composite but make sure you credit in the end.

 BLOOD GUSH

1. Adjust and be creative on masking and timing of the blood as it squirts upon hit.

2. Make sure it's placed of where it should be, you might need to let it stay on the same spot as the man falls.

SPRAY

SOUND FX

Sound fx is the last phase of compositing i made, I made sure that the sounds really ets the mood and covers the backbone of our film. I took robot sounds from Luke's research and composited everything. There's just so much layer of sounds, I focused more on continuity, distance and depth. For example, a cut of the robot walking, the sound is evident, fairly loud but when it cuts on the henchmen, it's very faint. I want to make the kind of depth and spatial relation tot he viewer. If it's close, it's loud, if it's far, it's fairly fainter.

Another step I explored is the panning of the L R of the sound. This is about how the sound travels from your left ear to fair then to the right ear. I did this visually, to show an extended depth of just what you see or say that you are the camera; you are standing quite far in different cuts, which sound is dominant on your left ear? is it the gun fire? or the robot's mechanical turns? these are the things I considered to make it believable.

NEW AND FINAL CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT PART 2

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT PART 2...

Unfortunately! Bad News! The Butler Mech idea seems to be scrapped cause of lack of surprises and wit. But we are tasked to keep the robot and the action. We kept the idea of the robot but now the twist is that we are selling a spray. 

We went on to a story of a robot same features as of your body guard. However, in the middle of the action he faces a problem with his arm bolts! They are stuck! This is because of the rust build up on them. Therefore we have this product that oils it that acts as a grease to smoothen it out and go on with the motion.

At the beginning we have no clue what the product is or what we are leading in to, it's a surprise. Kinda boring though for just an arm to get stuck to kill villains... We came up with this idea of a hand that transforms to a gun!

INTRODUCING: 

OL - German for oil

Basically Designed like a retro/vintage spray cans to unstuck every bolts for your mechs!

SETTING: CARPARK B1

ACTORS AND STUNTMEN: KEV, ADITYA, STEVEN

SPECIAL THANKS TO ADITYA FOR THE PROPS!

the concept for the Robo was sort of altered and we got no clue on how to start all over again to not make it so sleek but since we're stuck and punny, I shot animatics in the carpark with my group and compiled them.

1ST ANIMATIC VERSION

We have a lot of animatic adjustments and reached up to 4, let me show it too

4TH ROUGH ANIMATIC

FOR THE RECONCEPTUALIZATION, I CHOSE ANOTHER THUMBNAIL THAT WILL BE THE BASE OF MY HEAD

I sculpted a new base head mesh in brush and let darren refine it in maya as a quad drawn model.

AFTER redefining the look of the robot, We assembled it all and here we got the final concept.

Let's head on to texturing!

EARLY CONCEPT RENDERS OF BUTLER MECH - ADDITION BEFORE CHANGE OF CONCEPT

EARLY CONCEPT RENDERS OF BUTLER MECH

This is the very early stage of our Robot Model, After assembly, I did different renders of them.

Kev -Head + Arms

Darren - Torso

Luke - Pelvis to Legs

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT FOR THE ROBO AND TECHNICAL MODELING PROBS

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT - 3D Stage

Here are some concepts that I made over time on the early stages of our robo model. I started off with the Head!

before I forget! this is the arm sketch concept I did to have a little hint of how it would look like!

this is the head concept, using zbrush z topology method. I came up with these head piece consisted of different layers of plating for the head

Modeled a dummy arm for us to brainstorm and improve. It has a slot pack for the gun.

LUKE MADE THE FIRST EVER GUN TRANSFORMATION FOR THIS, here's playblast

WE PROGRESSED on by the doing the different parts, I tried this mechanism in the neck for pistons referencing from Fausto's Robocop Models, check his works they're very awesome!

http://www.fausto3d.com/

First of all as a start, I was asked to change the initial head model to actually make the edges flow nicely. Comparing from the old model, the basic head visor is just so rigid with crazy edge flow causing a very bad curvature when smoothed. Therefore as a solution, retopologized it to have a better smoothed surface.

Another comment was that make the neck donut like, like robocop's which is quite contrast to my gear like concept cause I think the gears doesn't suit the model, it's very aggressive and leash like.

 Problem with this head model of mine is that the gaps of the plating are so evident after inspection. So I have to start all over again by choosing another head base mesh from my concept thumbnails.

 LASTLY, for the neck pistons, here's the mechanism I made. In the end we scrapped it too to just two pistons in front, aim constrained to the inner chin piece in which you'll see in the final model!

 the whole big base gear is rotatable, the small piece that holds the piston is rotatable as well and a hinge like bolt for the pistons to swing back and forth whenever the neck is moving.

 

OVERLOOKED PROBLEMS FACED//NOTE: When constraining, dont freeze transform the model as the it takes away the pivot for aiming.

CYLINDERS are CYLINDERS always scale uniformly!

BUTLER MECH CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT - 2D AND PRESENTATIONS P1

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT - 2D AND PRESENTATIONS

THIS IS A PRESENTATION I DID FOR THE FINALIZE CONCEPT OF THIS BUTLER MECH WE ARE MAKING!

HERE ARE SOME CONCEPT IDEAS INCLUDED 

MADE THE STORYBOARD FOR THE BUTLER MECH IDEA

WEEK 9 REFLECTIONS AUTEUR THEORY

AUTEUR THEORY

This week we learned all about Auteur theory. This is all about the director having his own specific and prominent style. Fro example, why do you think Hayao Miyazaki's name is so widespread in his films as if it's superimposed? compared to Disney's Tarzan which the directors are not really credited?

    DIRECTOR: HAYAO MIYAZAKI

DIRECTORS: CHRIS BUCK AND KEVIN LIMA

AUTEUR THEORY for my understanding is the director's relentless style. It shows the consistency on his direction. Like when you watch a film without knowing it first hand you already know who made it.

It also the uniqueness of how he makes his film that breaks through the normality of film making. There's that distinct difference.

Take Michael bay for an example:

 He's well known as the director of the Transformers series and I believe this is like a big break for his auteurship to shine brightly with his "explosive" and "hot" taste. 

The way he gave us the new perspective on how war like scens should be shot, how explosions are meant to be in the environemnt and how sexy girls should be shot!

no wonder he was also hired to be the director of one of Victoria's secrets trailer for his good angles of original directing.

When I realized this kind of original style, I am reminded of another director back in last last semester that I looked up and he is...

ALFRED HITCHCOCK

His films are so focused on the tonality, the slow rising actions and the build up. There's a lot of new ideas he contributed to the film society in approaching suspense.

Moreover, that's not the only thing he did; He's also famous for his cameo in his films. It became like a festive guessing game for the audience whenever he makes a new film as they await his appearance somewhere in it. It played that kind or unique anticipation for the audience as directors doesn't usually show up in their films but he did and I bet It kind of pulled the the people to even watch more of his works!