Category: Collaborative

This week we started experimenting with importing animations into UE for rendering. However, we had some problems during this time and our files did not open properly on the school computers. Whenever we open a file, the computer crashes. We have changed many computers but have not been able to solve this problem. This also affected our progress considerably. Fortunately, Jixuan and Kaiyue were able to contact the classroom staff and with his help, we were able to get the rendering to work.

• Final Render

This week’s work was centred on animation and we started to pace the animation through Jixuan’s storyboard.

• Storyboard by Jixuan Chen

As we have a wechat group chat, we had a lot of questions on wechat. Fortunately, the mapping channels painted with the Substance painter were successfully displayed in the UE. The animations also made it into the UE.

The rest was left to Jiayue to make adjustments to the footage and graphics.

This week I finished the basic design of the main house, which I wanted to make look like a carrot. But after some discussion I couldn’t just stick it in the ground because it would be like a pineapple instead of a carrot. So I wanted to place it horizontally and add some angles.

I sent this part of the sketch to YANG first, as he needed to start modelling the house.

This week was our first presentation of our project.

There were no major problems overall, but Frienderd felt that our characters were too much like the little prince. Although we don’t think so, given the atmosphere and the more relaxed pace of the story.
We decided to tweak our main characters.
At the beginning we had two directions: anthropomorphic creatures and a dwarf.
After a vote, we went for the anthropomorphic creature.
Then there were still two options: a rabbit and a squirrel. In my opinion they were both very cute and perfect for our story.
But the team member in charge of the animation part suggested that we use the rabbit as the main character because the squirrel’s tail animation was difficult to control. And this year is the year of the rabbit 🙂
Then I looked up some references to rabbits.

Then I did some experimentation with the rabbit’s hat.

Finally I did some colour style comparisons (for one colour)

Finally, I tweaked the rabbit’s ears a bit and did some colour contrast (A-D for one colour)
The second half is devoted to some costume designs (1-5).

This week I have been working on some basic character designs based on our story.
Because the character needs to water the trees, I thought he might need to look like a gardener or a horticulturist.
So I referenced a lot of workers’ looks.

I think the workwear and the strappy trousers are the key to the character.
I also added a few different outfits for my group to choose from.

And of course the different colour schemes were important.

After much discussion in our group, we came to the unanimous answer that it was impossible to do the story we had come up with in a month’s time.
So we changed direction and decided to go for a simple story, but with good graphics and effects.
Our new story is about a little girl/boy (not sure yet) who plants a tree and eventually the tree grows and its fruit is stars. It sounds like a fairy tale but has a very simple moral – you reap what you sow.
The challenge now is to establish the style and how to present the final star effect.

We had a lot of interesting stories after our first discussion.
Because our topic is cause and effect, there will be a lot of storytelling.

1. by using particles to show two humans who live together but never touch each other. But in the end, they disappear at the moment. The trajectory of their movements forms a red line, which is a very striking effect at the end. It’s a bit like the feeling of being out of reach.
2. A man who has lost his lover but returns to the day he lost him. He tries to repeat all the things he did on that day.
   No matter how much he tries to recover that day, there are all sorts of accidents that cause things to change.
   He kept repeating that day.
   But he can’t get to the people he wants to see.
3. A naughty boy tries to wreak havoc in his neighbour’s house, but is stopped.
   So he tries to take revenge, but by accident, it comes back to him. (Very clichéd plot)
4. Two identical people make different choices, e.g. A is sleeping in and B is up on time.
   A gets up and rushes to catch the bus, but B is already at the station.
   A is in a hurry to cross the street and B is walking up the stairs at a leisurely pace.
   A is 10 minutes late for work and B is being dragged by a friend to chat with him in front of the office.
   Finally A and B arrive at their places together.
   Two people make very different choices but get the same result.

We formed a team with a fellow VFX student. This time we worked on the topic of causality/butterfly effect.
We discussed a lot of plots and some interesting settings, but had to abandon them due to time constraints and production difficulties. In the first meeting we didn’t get a clear conclusion.