Cinematic Production - Scripts 02

Week 1 - Day 5

Here is the second version of the script. It looks good, so far, but this may or may not change in the future...

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VERSION 2

EXT. SUNSET SKY, BLOOD-RED AND OMINOUS. EXTREME WIDE SHOT(?)

PANS DOWN TO A GRASSY FIELD LITTERED WITH RUBBISH AND A DILAPIDATED FENCE.

PANS TO THE RIGHT AND WE SEE A SHADOWED FIGURE RUNNING THROUGH A PATH.

CLOSE UP FRONT VIEW: RUNNING FEET OF A LITTLE GIRL.

SCENE CHANGE TO: ANOTHER SHADOWED FIGURED, LOOKING SINISTER, SLOW AND LUMBERING.

CUT BACK TO LITTLE GIRL: CAMERA PANS UP UNTIL WE SEE HER ARMS PUMPING HER FORWARD.

CUT BACK TO ZOMBIE FIGURE: WE HEAR HIM GROANING AS HE MOVES FORWARD.

CUT BACK TO LITTLE GIRL: CAMERA PANS UP TO HER SHOULDER AND THE BOTTOM HALF OF HER FACE.

OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT: WE SEE HER SLOW TO A SKIP AND REACHING OUT WITH ONE HAND.

CLOSE UP OF A GNARLED HAND, OPENING SLIGHTLY TO ACCEPT THE LITTLE GIRL'S HAND.

CLOSE UP OF DAUGHTER'S FACE FROM FATHER'S POV.

DAUGHTER: Thanks for waiting for me, dad.

TWO SHOT: THE FATHER KISSES THE TOP OF HER HEAD AND, TOGETHER, THEY WALK OFF INTO THE SUNSET. 

--

The main driving force behind this story idea is the relationship between father and daughter. You know about the saying of "nature vs nurture"? We're taking that concept and turning it around because, as we all know, zombies are mindless flesh eating monsters BUT! The father is able to cling onto his paternal instincts and continue using them to help and keep his daughter safe. Right there is nurture OVER nature, where the father is able to triumph over his baser urges!! Hoorrah~

BUT the question remains: how do we show this in just a few scenes?

The beginning of the scene will start off sinister and ominous, portraying the little girl as the vulnerable human against the flesh-rendering zombie. This sets the tone and genre as horror but as the scene progresses it slowly shifts and the plot twists into a high-drama family moment when she grabs hold of the zombie's festering hand and treats him with, not disgust, but familial love while the zombie, fighting against his first and natural instincts, does nothing more than moan and groan. This all happens within the last ten seconds or less of the shot, bringing about a good conclusion to what seemed like a cliche zombie scene.

--

The background is most likely going to be a field somewhere accessible in Auckland. Maybe Mt Eden, or One Tree Hill, or even Keith Hay Park. I'm not big on using Albert Park because it's a high-foot-traffic area. I want the space to look rural, or as close to it as possible. Hopefully without cows or sheep around because we want everything to look...not totally desolated, but EMPTY. The little girl will be live-action, IF WE CAN FIND SOMEONE TO FILL THIS ROLE and the zombie is going to be entirely in 3D. I'll put up a concept to how he's going to look in a different post...later. I'll need to make a mood board for the environments, too. If we can't find an actress then we'll turn her into a 2D animation, otherwise, the 2D aspect will come from extra pieces of prop like, a broken down fence, birds/butterflies, etc...This is also open to change.

--

So, the concept behind the design for the zombie will be somewhere between...Plants VS Zombies with a mix of Ben and Ed.

Ta-daaa, this is the preliminary look for what the zombie-father may possibly look like.

Just based on a quick look through, Mt Eden and One Tree Hill looks a lot more visually appealing because of all the different hills and textures and bumps along side the volcanoes. The background of the city can be easily edited until it's just a sky without the cityscape. The nice thing about these two parks is that they're both big and varied enough that each scene won't look flat or unappealing. Keith Hay Park is big but the landscape is too flat and the grass is always trimmed and showed too much "human interaction" where I wanted something more natural as opposed to a man-made environment. Mt Eden and One Tree Hill are viable options for filming the scene.

Ethan suggests, if I do end up using One Tree Hill, we can make the monument fall down (BUT NOT ACTUALLY FOR REAL) so it gives something like a more post-apocolyptic look. This is GREAT! I think it might be something that can be done in 2D rather than 3D. Although, time-permitting, we can make it into a 3D prop.

Mt Eden has a similar look to One Tree Hill so either one of these two are ALL OKAY WITH ME. PLUS, it's closer and cheaper to get to than One Tree Hill.

Keith Hay Park is a no-go for me. I don't like how flat it looks. How unnatural it'll make the scene turn out, especially if it's supposed to be a rural/farm land kind of environment.

--

This are the concepts I've thrown up so far. This may or may not change depending...ON MANY THINGS.

Cinematic Production - Scripts 01

Week 1 - Day 4

For this particular paper, we are put into groups to work with. I'll be working with Adrian, Hamish, Oscar and Tea~ Huzzah! Although, this is not confirmed and won't be finalized until Monday. This may or may not change.

Anyway, so I've come up with a few ideas that'll combined 2D/3D and live-action together to make a SHORT 30-40 second clip.

• A father-turned-zombie does his best to protect his little girl from the rest of the horde. (Phoenix and Taylor both think this reminds them of Warm Bodies. I ought to watch this movie soon...)
• It's a post-apocalyptic world where 2 people from 2 different groups stumble upon each other while scavenging for supplies and they both fall in love. (It's very Romeo and Juliet-esque but I've yet to figure out what the 3D aspect is going to be...)
• Dragons and humans have always been at war but 1 dragon strives out to prove to his brethren that not all humans are thieves for their gold or their heads for trophies. (It's a kind of mix between "How to train your dragon" and "Dragonheart" put together.)
• A hermit crab wakes up in the middle of a scorching hot day to realize his family is gone, and they stole his shell!! (Curses, Tea!!!) He now travels in search of them with a substitute made out of a half coconut shell and seaweed. (The human aspect will mostly be in the background while the hermit crab is 3D. I've yet to figure out the 2D aspect of this...
• A pair of old shoes are hanging by their laces along an electrical wire. One is afraid of heights and the other is left making promises to the other it can't keep. (Live-action is definitely a neighborhood with cars and pedestrians walking about. The 3D will come from the shoes with their mouths and laces animated to act as mouths and eyes. The 2D will most likely be the rain or other natural weather changes.)

Out of all of these ideas, I'm more interested in the first one with the father-daughter zombie story. It's a mixture of family and horror but the little girl can add a cute aspect to it. Here are some variations of the same idea but hashed out differently.

• We start off with the father bent over the arm, horrified at the zombie bite festering away. In mere hours, he's a changed man but he's able to retain sense memory of protecting his daughter so he fights off the horse. At the end of the day, both the father and daughter sit on the rooftop to continue their ritual of watching the sunset. The little girl kisses his cheek and her father leans down to return it. (This can go two ways: either the father kisses the top of her head as he usually does, or his zombie nature wins out and he bites her. Of course, we don't actually see the bite - the camera catches him leaning down, groaning, and with his mouth wide open.) DUN-DUN-DUNNNN...
• There's a little girl cowering in the corner of a dilapidated room. A zombie enters the scene and lunges in attack but another zombie intercepts and fights it off. The first zombie is defeated and the little girl makes a run for it, holding the hand of the other zombie who turns out to be her father, trying his best to hold off his zombie-nature.
• A little girl is running and there's a zombie in the distance. It looks like she's running away, pumping her arms and legs to get the best distance as possible while the zombie lumbers along. The little girl is reaching out and she slows to a skip, holding onto the zombie's hand who kisses the top of her head. (This is a horror-esque scenario that turns into something cute. It's family-oriented and shows that, even in death, one can triumph.)

I think I might go for the third scenario because it's different. I can easily imagine what my script will turn out to be, although I'm not sure how many seconds it'll span across. As long as it's over 30 seconds and less than 40, then we're all good. By Monday, we'll be able to get a good enough idea of which of our original scripts will be turn into a live-action/animation! MUCH EXCITE!

--

The story goes like this:

VERSION 1

EXT. SUNSET SKY, BLOOD-RED AND OMINOUS. EXTREME WIDE SHOT(?)

PANS DOWN TO A GRASSY FIELD LITTERED WITH RUBBISH AND A DILAPIDATED FENCE.

PANS TO THE RIGHT AND WE SEE A SHADOWED FIGURE RUNNING THROUGH A PATH.

CLOSE UP SIDE/PROFILE VIEW: RUNNING FEET OF A LITTLE GIRL.

SCENE CHANGE TO: ANOTHER SHADOWED FIGURED, LOOKING SINISTER, SLOW AND LUMBERING.

CUT BACK TO LITTLE GIRL: CAMERA PANS UP UNTIL WE SEE HER ARMS PUMPING HER FORWARD.

CUT BACK TO ZOMBIE FIGURE: WE HEAR HIM GROANING AS HE MOVES FORWARD.

CUT BACK TO LITTLE GIRL: CAMERA PANS UP TO HER SHOULDER AND THE BOTTOM HALF OF HER FACE.

OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT: WE SEE HER SLOW TO A SKIP AND REACHING OUT WITH ONE HAND.

CLOSE UP OF A GNARLED HAND, OPENING SLIGHTLY TO ACCEPT THE LITTLE GIRL'S HAND.

CLOSE UP OF DAUGHTER'S FACE FROM FATHER'S POV.

TWO SHOT: THE FATHER KISSES THE TOP OF HER HEAD AND, TOGETHER, THEY WALK OFF INTO THE SUNSET. 

--

There's a horrible lack of dialogue in this first version. I might change it to include something from the daughter's end, but the zombie's going to mostly be moaning and groaning so we're fine on that front.

I might go through a couple of script changes tomorrow once I get the others to have a read-through of it and see what can be added or taken away.

HOW TO DIALOGUE?

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VERSION 2, after some consultation with Tea, will involve a slight camera change. Originally, I wanted to show a side view of the little girl running because it looks better visually, but then there'd be confusion with when the zombie is also included. As in, if she's running towards the left, and the zombie is ALSO coming from the left, then it'll look like she's being chased, but if I keep the scene with the girl still running towards the left but flip the zombie until he's facing the right, then it'll look like she's running towards him and I DON'T WANT IT TO LOOK LIKE THIS UNTIL MUCH LATER IN THE SCENE. Anyway, as Tea suggested, we'll change the camera shot until it looks like she's running towards the camera so it's not obvious which way she's going. It's less visually appealing (FOR ME, maybe less so for others?). The father-zombie can come from either side and it wouldn't matter. WE DON'T WANT TO CONFUSE THE AUDIENCE or give away information until it's necessary.

THANK YOU, TEA!! <3

I've also added a single line of dialogue from the daughter shortly after we see a close-up of her face, which will be:

DAUGHTER: Thanks for waiting for me, dad.

I'm hoping this will add something of an "aww" moment within the script because who doesn't like "aww" moments? (Don't answer that.)

--

This concludes the main changes within the current script.

More iterations may appear in the future...

Interactive Narrative - Gameplay 02

Week 1 - Day 4

Okay, so, just at a first glance, Legend of Zelda is, currently, a lot like Metroid. I was kind of hoping that it'll at least start off with some kind of story to let me know what I'm actually supposed to be doing but alas. I guess maybe I have to go somewhere to unlock a cutscene? Anyway, here goes my first run of the game.

Like most RPG/adventure games, I get to pick my own name! But I'm going to stick with using Link because I'm unoriginal (and a stickler for being faithful to the character) and I have 3 hearts. I'm going to immediately assume that it's game over when I've run out of them. Hopefully, like with most Mario games, I have the option to regain them come a certain point.

The cave looked a bit ominous so I decided to go to the left, ONLY TO STUMBLE ACROSS A HEARD OF MONSTERS. NOOOOOOO!! It's a lot like with Metroid where you're not THUNKED into the beginning of the map with only one clear route; you have plenty of choices to pick from. The obvious way to go would be the cave but if you're a coward like me, you'd pick the path of the least resistance...

Which is OBVIOUSLY NOT THIS WAY. So I went back to the previous map and went down the cave and got me a sword from an old man. I don't even know how long that old man has been there for, waiting and waiting for somebody to come down those steps to find him...but then HE DISAPPEARED!! Is his only role in this game to arm me with a sword? Such a sad existence!! If you push the A button, you THROW the sword like a LASER. That's friggin' amazing (and also weird but we won't go into schematics here...)

Moving on...

--

1 DEATH LATER

--

Okay, so I got overly ambitious with trying to kill every monster in the map, but at least I know when to leave things well enough alone now; I know when I'm beat...

Let's try again...but BETTER...

(On another note, monsters do not respawn if you ever wanna backtrack to a previous map. Very nice.)

--

ANOTHER DEATH LATER (where the music sounds suspiciously like the battle theme in pokemon...)

--

Obviously, I didn't learn my previous lesson all that well...

The nice thing about this game is that you can continue after you die with the things in your inventory and the crystals you picked up without losing them. The downside of that is you'll go back to the very first map you appeared in. A bit annoying, but not bad considering the benefits!

It'll be handy if they provided a map so I knew WHERE TO GO, otherwise I'm kind of just...bumbling around hoping for the best. Although, if I go to the left of the map enough times to find another cave, I do get told to find an old man at the graveyard. Spooky...

I'm assuming that this game relies a lot of visual memory so you know where to go. I don't see the option of a map so unless you actually take note of where you're supposed to go, you'll most likely just end up going around in circles.

I feel like drawing myself a map to keep a track of where I am.

--

DRAWING MAPS ARE SO HARD. I DIEEEEEEEEE. I ALWAYS DIEEEEE. I'M ALWAYS LOSTTT!!! Oh mah gaahhhhh...I always die before I can get very far into the game...this is so hard. DX Whyyyyyyyyy...

--

Quick Q & A for Legend of Zelda. (Time for some more serious business.)

1. How would you describe the genre of the game? How is this evident in level design, storytelling and gameplay? 

Legend of Zelda is an adventure/role playing game. While the world itself is simply designed, the objectives within each map is clearly defined. It reminds me a lot of Pokemon where the moment you try to venture into the tall grass and vast outdoors, you are stopped and given a pokemon to help your journey along. In Legend of Zelda's case, you're free to go about as many maps as you want but you are weaponless and more likely to die than not. You're required to go into the cave, putting your faith in a shadowy place, in hopes it'll turn to your benefit which, indeed, it does. The storytelling is not immediately clear but the gameplay is easy enough to follow through - just keep going until you hit your next destination.

2. How does your chosen game(s) tell its story? Is it successful? 

Much like it was with Metroid, I'm not sure what the story for the Legend of Zelda is actually about. I know enough backstory passed from word of mouth from other players but, in my own personal experience with the game, I am utterly lost. This seems to be an ongoing theme but I'm hoping the next game I play will be more forthcoming with the story details. At the very least, enough to give us a basic idea of what we're doing.

3. Does your game encourage exploration? How does this affect the pace/meaning/structure of the narrative?

There are so many routes to pick from and, if you're able to keep yourself alive for long enough, you're more than able to explore through each map and defeat the monsters within them. Like with most RPG games, you are forced to explore the maps to get a general overview of what's to come. In the case of the Legend of Zelda, you're placed in a world full of monsters and your only way forward is to arm yourself and fight. How many fights or maps you have to go through (without a guide) is entirely up to the player. If the player so chooses, they can simply take their time with the maps, exploring every nook and cranny to their liking. It should not affect the storyline in any way as the amount of time you play the game is not counted by the second or the minute. You can spend as little or as long as you want and you'll still possibly get the same result in the end.

--

Well, all in all, I actually like playing Legend of Zelda a lot more than Metroid...(sorry, Samus). I'll be trying to play Castlevania next time and, apparently, it's going to be hard...I'm not looking forward to that. XD

Interactive Narrative - Gameplay 01

Week 1 - Day 3

Gaming! I haven't played all that many games outside of my current obsession: Guild Wars 2 and Avengers Academy. Yes, this totally says a lot about me...But anyway, this week we have a choice of playing Metroid, Legend of Zelda, or Castlevania. I'm gonna be totally honest with you; I've only ever heard of the Legend of Zelda out of the three mentioned, and YES, I will also totally admit that I thought the guy plastered all over the front of the game covers was actually called Zelda. This is wrong...His name is Link...(Don't be a doof like me...)

Right, so we're gonna jump into playing Metroid first, just because it's on the top of the list. I have NO CLUE what the game is about so I'm going in completely blind. It's an adventure game that looks a lot like Mario and Pokemon and that sounds pretty awesome so I'm gonna go ahead and try for at least a couple of hours of actual game-play before moving on to rescuing Zelda.

Now, first impressions. THIS IS SO RETRO. Really reminds me of Mario and growing up in the mid 90's with these kind of games. I'm an 80's kid but I didn't actually get to start playing around with games until I moved to New Zealand when I was about...8ish years old. The music is also funky. I wike it.

So, 5 seconds into the game, I am lost. Yay...I couldn't quite figure out the keys of how to play it...I know the arrows work and enter but that's it! I actually thought I died when I hit the START button because everything stopped moving. Little did I know, I simply paused the game...

I changed the keys to the ASDW format and the A and B buttons to something else but, uh...I only confused myself a bit more and that wasn't cool. I'm gonna have to change it again because I JUST DIED...Far out, this brings back memories of frustration.

What does this password even do? Can I continue from where I last was? Is this like a save point? There's only one way to find out...BACK INTO THE FRAY.

--

4 DEATHS LATER

--

Okay, so I figured out how to DUCK! You push the down button twice...Yay...

I honestly couldn't figure it out and I didn't actually manage to get past that first couple of rooms without dying. Stupid monsters...

Also, the character reminds me a lot of Samus from those Mario battle games. (After a quick google, it turns out it IS ACTUALLY SAMUS. Wow, I suck.)

--

Quick Q & A for Metroid. (Time for some serious business.)

1. How would you describe the genre of the game? How is this evident in level design, storytelling and gameplay? 

This is an action/adventure game where the goal is to go from one end of the dungeon to another until it is completed. Along the way, you can defeat monsters, pick up items, and open doors by shooting at them. The design is very simple and the world is very flat and 2-dimensional; typical of most games within this generation. Take Super Mario for example.

It's not overly complicated; the only way forward is...well, forward. There is only one route in which you can lead your character to the end of the room/dungeon and it's impossible to get lost. Winning the dungeon and completing it is an entirely different subject. Getting to the next part contributes to the storytelling and narrative, although it would certainly help if the game started off with some actual exposition. I'm not a big fan of exposition but going in blind is just very silly, and asking us to die a many violent death.

The game-play itself is easy enough - you have your arrow keys, you have your A and B buttons as well as your SELECT AND START buttons. Each key does it's own thing and it's easy enough to figure out which is which. Of course, making sure you shoot at the monster rather than jump towards them is another matter. The endgame is easy enough to figure out, but I still don't know how Samus' particular story actually starts. This is something that either the game within the website is missing, or it was left out either by accident or purposely. In any case, I'm a confused game player.

2. How does your chosen game(s) tell its story? Is it successful? 

Currently, I don't feel that it's very explanatory. As soon as I clicked ENTER, I was thrown into the game without any backstory. I'm in a cave and I don't know why or how I got there. I have a gun and there are monsters all around me and they are definitely not the friendly type like Yoshi is for Mario. Most of the games I've played will at least tell you a little bit of what's going on but for Metroid, I am completely blank as to what I'm supposed to do, where I'm supposed to go, and what my objective is for being where I am. In terms of exposition, the game mostly failed, although that would be either of our faults (maybe the game on the website didn't load properly and the starting story is missing or I rushed the STARTING MENU SCREEN too much).

With Mario, you KNOW WHY we're traversing the world, squashing mushrooms, kicking turtles back into their shells or throwing fireballs at man-eating flowers - it's all for the sake of rescuing Princess Peach! But with Metroid? I have absolutely no clue where I am or why I'm there. I simply...am.

3. Does your game encourage exploration? How does this affect the pace/meaning/structure of the narrative?

Yes, indeed it does. It wasn't evident at the beginning of my play-through, but after the first few attempts at trying to understand the mechanics behind the game, it became easier to stop thinking about which keys and buttons to push and more on the question of; what will happen if I go to the left instead of the right? The answer was that I found a sphere or perhaps a power-up on the left side of the first map I was thrown into. I'm not sure what it does for my character but it shows that exploring the map does help, in some way.

The fact that you don't immediately spawn at the beginning of the map says a lot; you need to think about exploring; you can't simply shoot and keep moving forward and hope for the best. Exploring opens up new possibilities (and items?) for your character to use and take advantage of as well as the use of strategy. It's not like with Mario where the only thing you can do is go from point A to Z.

--

Thanks for tuning into my play-through of Metroid. Catch you all next time when we try to attempt Legend of Zelda!!

3D Character Animation 08

NAME: Joanne Teo (FAS00001OH)

PROJECT: Rigging & Animation Project (Summative)

DATE: 11/11/2015

CLASS: BAR06 3D Foundations

RATIONALE

Parodies are not a new invention but since the introduction of social media they have grown exponentially in popularity; there will hardly ever be a day without some mention of a meme that have become so integral in today’s pop culture conversations. That said, it’s easy to reimagine scenes from one medium to fit into the genre of another which is where Emelyn, a bright but struggling student trying to make ends meet by picking up the odd job here and there, comes in.

My development process included brainstorming different scenes to fit a genre shift and it wasn’t long before I settled for the iconic alien popping out of a person’s stomach and twisted it from a sci-fi horror into a dark comedy instead. I went through different ideas and peer consultations before settling on a girl jumping out of a cake prop, mostly due to the enthusiastic replies of my classmates.

I wasn’t aiming for realism when I designed Emelyn and was intent on using flat colours without any textures involved for a “doll” look but Keat suggested a texture for her clothes, skin, hair and even her bunny ears. UV texturing became a problem but the end result was rewarding although it did lend a bit of an uncanny feeling to the model which took a couple of days to warm up and get used to.

The coffin prop was a last minute addition as well as the cross on the wall, the former of which was a request from Keat. They added an extra appeal to the scene rather than the use of a flat 2D background. The coffin was originally roughly the same size as Emelyn but it kept disappearing behind the cake prop so I enlarged it until it was visible throughout the scene. It would be large enough to fit two Emelyn’s in there but in this case, artistic licensing was used to make the shots look nicer. I didn’t have enough time to include two flower pots so they were disregarded in the end for a higher priority.

I had originally planned to keep the animation as close to the storyboard as possible but consultations with Keat showed me a better way to go about animating certain scenes. I’d previously meant for the cake to shake before Emelyn jumps out of it but since the cake prop has a control for opening and closing, it looked better to make the lid rattle than to move the whole prop. This gave the scene a more appealing look and it allowed me to use the control on the cake to its full potential.

Her animation requires her to fling her arms out after she pops out of the cake and the original idea had her throw her arms upwards but I wanted her to spread her arms out horizontally in line to the cross on the wall behind her instead. I attempted this but the animation didn’t feel or look quite as appealing as what was drawn in the storyboard, and I also felt it might cross the line towards insensitive instead, considering that the setting is in a funeral home. This is the case where the original beats a different attempt. There was also a jump and settle of her body after she appears out of the cake which was a suggestion made by a peer. It gave her the look of stretching and bending her knees despite that the IK rigs on her legs were not used.

Lighting had its own difficulties to deal with but the inclusion of it made me reconsider the application of certain materials on the model. I changed the blinn texture meant to emulate silk and turned it into a lambert instead due to the plastic-look and unappealing way it shone under the spotlights. The matte appearance fitted better in the overall scene.

In regards to audio done in After Effects, I was only going to use the original audio from the chestburster scene but decided the silence leading up and after that felt too unnatural so I decided to use audio from freesounds.org to fill in the quiet parts with a murmur at the beginning followed the a rattle for the cake lid, the original audio mixed with a gasp and an outraged mumbling in the background. All in alI, I’m very happy with how the entire animation turned out in the end.

3D Character Animation 07

Week 8 - Day 4

I've done my editing! That is to say, I've added some audio to go with the video. It was pretty awkward at the beginning without any sound until we hit the chestburster audio but it was easily fixed with some crowd murmuring in the background mixed in with a gasp here and an outraged chatter there. Woohoo~ After Effects crashed every time I tried to render out a RAM version which sucked because I had to second-guess a lot of where the rattle had to go and I think I missed one little bit with the timing but the constant crashing kind of...got me frustrated. I fixed it as best as I could and on the whole, it's a pretty minor detail to pick up on unless you're like me and kind of pedantic and you know where to listen...Huehehehe...

My next post will include a rationale for this entire venture. My thanks to you for reading and keeping up with me on this 3D journey, and also my thanks to my classmates for their encouragements and their help, my thanks to freesound.org as well and also to Keat for putting up with my whining and complaining and my crying.

Yes, I was totally pathetic but the laughs I've had along the way have been pretty worth it. (I'm going to erase my breakdown in the middle of the classroom...banish it from my thoughts...FOREVER...)

<3

3D Character Animation 06

Week 8 - Day 2

IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOOOOWWWWNNNN!!!

So, I started doing some lighting yesterday...and total, I've got 5 light sources. 1x volume light and 4x spotlights. I originally only had 2 spot lights pointing at the cake but then I forgot about her popping out of said cake and this was what those two spotlights made her look like after rendering.

Can you hear it? MY HORROR. Like, what the actual eff.

This is better with the addition of twp extra spotlights but the blinn material I gave her looks horrible! SUCH HORRIBLE. Makes her look plasticky...

So I changed it into a lambert instead. Yay~

I almost changed the material on her eyes as well but the shine of it looks good - makes it look like she's on the verge of tears of ABSOLUTE DESPAIR AND EMBARRASSMENT AND SHAME. I like it.

Okay...moving onto...alpha channels. DX I AM THE ALPHA.

...

...

After talking with Keat I found out I don't really need to render out the scene into three separate pieces. PHEW! That's easier for me. I'm happy with the overall look of it and I wasn't even sure what I could do with them in After Effects anyway...

Now...to find me some free sound!! I'm thinking of a quiet murmuring for the background, people gasping, and the original audio from the movie file. This is gonna be cray.