After completing the edit four days ago, alot of the main camera changes effected the cameras in the second jungle set. Following Gareth Munden's and Kev's advice this sequence needed alot of work, 90% of the shots were from behind the chararcter, a large majority tracking behind him. They mentioned that it did not connect the audience with the character and made the start of the film very unpersonal. Plus with the fast speed and energy that i wanted to incorporate into the film, there weren't enough cameras or cuts to produce it. The cameras were placed either side of the explorer which made the flow of the scene and travel of the explorer confusing and uncomfortable.
Therefore a major rework of the cameras was needed, and this was what we nailed down in the edit. The camera now cuts from a frontal tracking camera, to side shot of the explorer running away from the camera, then running towards the camera, but due to the cameras being placed all on one side of the charactrer, the flow is consistant, comforable, fast paced and his direction of travel within the jungle makes sense. During the film i wanted the camera work to feel natural, just like industry films where the audience doesnt even notice the camera change. This helps the audience focus on the action, story and animation, rather than an odd camera angle. But because of these drastic camera changes, the Jungle set that i built weeks ago needed to be re-worked. I built the set from the view of the previous tracking camera, now that we're veiwing the environment from in front of him, there are huge areas where vegetation didnt need to be built up but now there are huge gaps. All of the shot compositions for all the cameras need to be planned and the set re-built.
Plan View of Completed Jungle Set 2 Built by Myself - Includes main path and river sections
(AutoDesk Maya Screen Shot)
3/4 View of Completed Jungle Set 2 Built by Myself - Includes dense canopy and establishing canopy shot build (AutoDesk Maya Screen Shot)
Over the past three days I have been composing all the shots using Jennys modelled plants and trees, ready for the animation to be imported and the set lit. The jungle environment was the hardest set to build as it needed to seem naturally full and believable as a dense jungle. I wanted to make sure that a good level of depth could be felt within each composition, framing cameras with plants and vines. I found that some of the camera compositions over lapped, which meant that as i changed one composition, it would effect another. The addition of Jenny's vines that i asked her to model gave the jungle added character. Below shows renders of some of the cameras featured in the second jungle set:
Camera 1 Completed and Finalised Composition (AutoDesk Maya Screen Shot)
Camera 2 Completed and Finalised Composition (AutoDesk Maya Screen Shot)
Camera 3 Completed and Finalised Composition (AutoDesk Maya Screen Shot)
Camera 4 Completed and Finalised Composition (AutoDesk Maya Screen Shot)
Camera 6 Completed and Finalised Composition (AutoDesk Maya Screen Shot)
Myself and Jenny created background plates with pre-rendered images of other parts of the jungle set so that it successfully gave the illusion of a deeper, extensive environment. The renders were taken using the basic lighting from jungle set 1, placed into photoshop, alphas created and then placed onto large polygon planes. To cover the large gaps in the set and due to the height needed, the background renders had to be rendered at the size 4096 x 4096.
Another example of the Background Plate Render Method - alpha channel creation in photoshop. Final output of this plate will be 4096 x 4096 when placed into Jungle Set 2.
Im very pleased with the end result, it took so long to build the compositions, but it was well worth the time. To emphasise the life within the jungle I've asked Jenny to animate some butterflies she's modelled, this should just give the set some life and movement other than the character travelling through it. The hardest part of the set build was the frontal view (tracking camera x2) of the explorer running along the path, it took the most time out of all the shots because it isnt a stationay camera, to compose a moving camera with plants, trees and vines takes a great deal of planning, the background plates worked very well filling in exposed areas behind the tree and bush lines.
Tracking Camera Playblast - Known as Camera 5 in the film edit. Animated by myself, sequence will be chopped in half so that we can have quick cuts between the static and moving shots. No lighting as of yet, the panning shot is to be completed first and then we will move onto developing the lighting for the section jungle set.
Therefore a major rework of the cameras was needed, and this was what we nailed down in the edit. The camera now cuts from a frontal tracking camera, to side shot of the explorer running away from the camera, then running towards the camera, but due to the cameras being placed all on one side of the charactrer, the flow is consistant, comforable, fast paced and his direction of travel within the jungle makes sense. During the film i wanted the camera work to feel natural, just like industry films where the audience doesnt even notice the camera change. This helps the audience focus on the action, story and animation, rather than an odd camera angle. But because of these drastic camera changes, the Jungle set that i built weeks ago needed to be re-worked. I built the set from the view of the previous tracking camera, now that we're veiwing the environment from in front of him, there are huge areas where vegetation didnt need to be built up but now there are huge gaps. All of the shot compositions for all the cameras need to be planned and the set re-built.
Plan View of Completed Jungle Set 2 Built by Myself - Includes main path and river sections
(AutoDesk Maya Screen Shot)
3/4 View of Completed Jungle Set 2 Built by Myself - Includes dense canopy and establishing canopy shot build (AutoDesk Maya Screen Shot)
Over the past three days I have been composing all the shots using Jennys modelled plants and trees, ready for the animation to be imported and the set lit. The jungle environment was the hardest set to build as it needed to seem naturally full and believable as a dense jungle. I wanted to make sure that a good level of depth could be felt within each composition, framing cameras with plants and vines. I found that some of the camera compositions over lapped, which meant that as i changed one composition, it would effect another. The addition of Jenny's vines that i asked her to model gave the jungle added character. Below shows renders of some of the cameras featured in the second jungle set:
Camera 1 Completed and Finalised Composition (AutoDesk Maya Screen Shot)
Camera 2 Completed and Finalised Composition (AutoDesk Maya Screen Shot)
Camera 3 Completed and Finalised Composition (AutoDesk Maya Screen Shot)
Camera 4 Completed and Finalised Composition (AutoDesk Maya Screen Shot)
Camera 6 Completed and Finalised Composition (AutoDesk Maya Screen Shot)
Myself and Jenny created background plates with pre-rendered images of other parts of the jungle set so that it successfully gave the illusion of a deeper, extensive environment. The renders were taken using the basic lighting from jungle set 1, placed into photoshop, alphas created and then placed onto large polygon planes. To cover the large gaps in the set and due to the height needed, the background renders had to be rendered at the size 4096 x 4096.
Background Plate Test Render from Maya - Basic Lighting utilised from first Jungle Set, masked plane hitting jungle floor texture with Jenny's modelled plants, the method works very well and will be adopted into the second jungle set. The illusion really works well, making it look like the hazey jungle stretches behind the television/lounge props.
Background Plate Render for alpha channel creation in photoshop. Final output of these plates will be 4096 x 4096 so that detail isnt lost when picture is re-rendered in Maya and more importantly gives the illusion that the modelled plants and trees extend into the distance (trying to remove 2D look and feel from background areas). The final plates will be renders of the jungle set with the added pockets of sunlight and environment fog, this should improve its look of depth.
Another example of the Background Plate Render Method - alpha channel creation in photoshop. Final output of this plate will be 4096 x 4096 when placed into Jungle Set 2.
Im very pleased with the end result, it took so long to build the compositions, but it was well worth the time. To emphasise the life within the jungle I've asked Jenny to animate some butterflies she's modelled, this should just give the set some life and movement other than the character travelling through it. The hardest part of the set build was the frontal view (tracking camera x2) of the explorer running along the path, it took the most time out of all the shots because it isnt a stationay camera, to compose a moving camera with plants, trees and vines takes a great deal of planning, the background plates worked very well filling in exposed areas behind the tree and bush lines.
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