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Advanced 3D Art and Animation

Advanced 3D Art and Animation. Compositing 1: Bringing 3D Elements I nto Fixed Camera Footage. 3D Compositing Pipeline.

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Advanced 3D Art and Animation

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  1. Advanced 3D Art and Animation Compositing 1: Bringing 3D Elements Into Fixed Camera Footage

  2. 3D Compositing Pipeline Now that we have spent a couple of weeks on the START of the animation film-making process, the Cinematic Previsualization Pipeline, let’s take a look at the end of the process: Compositing and Color Grading. Professional 3D films are rendered in separate layers of objects and surface elements. These can be recombined in a non-linear editor like After Effects or Nuke with the flexibility of adjusting each layer. This animation compositing process is finalized when the overall result is color-graded– given an overall color wash and other effects to unify the final result.

  3. Composite Storytelling: Live + Animation An alternative to purely Animated storytelling, Composite Storytelling allows the animator to incorporate real world elements into their films. This can save on environment or character building, but also lend real-world light, texture, and complexity to your film. Composite Storytelling has a long history in 2D Animation, from Winsor McCay’s 1914 Gertie the Dinosaur all the way through Richard William’s 1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

  4. Composite Storytelling: Live + Animation The first significant Composite of a 3D animated character into live footage was a walking stained-glass knight by ILM in a hallucination sequence in Barry Levinson’s 1985 Young Sherlock Holmes: https://bit.ly/2I7Xzeg Industrial Lights and Magic, a special effects company originally founded by George Lucas, has been at the forefront of CGI-composited effects since the 1970s, and is responsible for the creation of the first non-linear editor, made by Ed Catmull’s team pre-Pixar, which gave rise to Adobe After Effects.

  5. Composite Storytelling: Live + Animation Every composite needs a Background Plate: a photograph or video showing the shot background. Based on your storyboard, it offers a clean stage where the CG elements are intended to be placed. The footage needs to be as clear and stable as possible; If you don’t have a tripod, hold the camera with two hands and keep your elbows close to your chest for stability. A successful composite needs the CGI elements to accomplish 3 things to match the original footage: • Reproduce the Camera Angle and Angle of View (focal length. Standard =35. Set in Maya) • Reproduce the Lighting (angles, brightness, shadows. Set in Maya) • Reproduce film Texture Quality (coloring, blur, sharpness, grain. Applied in After Effects to CGI layers over footage, then unify with Color Grading applied to an adjustment layer). Note lighting on Maz Kanata from JJ Abrams’ Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens

  6. Maya Character Animation: Selection Sets First, a short review of the Eleven Rig. In the Intro course we used this rig for our final performance animations. In this course we will only use this rig these next few weeks to practice compositing. Your final film will use your own character. For the Eleven Rig, remember: • Leave the “Do Not Touch” folder alone • Avoid keyframingthe “h_head_scale_joint” control, so the head does not come off (if you do, just select this object in the Outliner and at frame 1 delete all its keyframes). • Do not try to import the Eleven rig into other files: build the content you want into the Eleven rig file. • Always save a file with the Eleven Rig as a.MA (Maya ASCII), NOT .MB (it will not allow a normal Maya Binary save, and might crash).

  7. Maya Character Animation: Selection Sets EXERCISE: Create Selection Sets to aid character animation: one for the body, and one for the hands/fingers: • Create a custom shelf named “MyShelf” (left hand gear icon > New Shelf). • [Shift]+ click Select (NOT around) these controls in the viewport, in roughly this order: head, neck, shoulders, IK elbows (the ones behind), wrists, chest, torso 1, torso 2, hips, root (“Body”), knees, feet, and master (teardrop at base– we get the master last because everything is parented to it, so it makes it hard to see what is and is not selected). • Create > Sets > Quick Select Sets. Name “ElevenBody”, hit [Add to Shelf] • Repeat for ElevenHands (select fingers before palms). • At frames 1 and 10, select each button and hit [s] to set keyframes. • At Frame 10, start your film!

  8. Maya Character Animation: Parent Constraint STEPS (Source Video : https://bit.ly/2N4F7BZ): • Animate character to pause when touching object to pick it up and to put it down. • Keyframeobject: Select object. Hit [s] at frame 1 and just before touched to key all. • Apply Parent Constraint: Set time to when the hand touches the object. Select the hand (controller) and [Shift] + select the object (controllee). In the Rigging module, under Constraints menu, click Parent Constraint.  • Find Blend Parent: Select just the object. In Channel Box, note the new "Blend Parent" channel (below “Visibility”). It is set =1, so parenting is at 100%. It is not yet keyframed, so it is 100% parented at all times (scrub to see).  • Animate the Blend Parent: Set time back to when the hand touches the object. Turn on Autokeyframe toggle. RightClick on the BlendParent Channel on the object to set a keyframe at value =1.  One frame earlier set BlendParent value =0. The object now stays on the ground until it is picked up!

  9. Maya Character Animation: Parent Constraint To drop the object: • Select object, go to the time when it is meant to be released. Hit [s] to key all tracks. • At that frame set BlendParent value =1. One frame after, set BlendParent value =0, and then add transform keys for the bouncing or resettling of the object in its new location. REMEMBER SELECTION ORDER:Constraints is opposite ordinary Parenting! • CONSTRAINTS: Select controller first, then the object-to-be-controlled • PARENTING: Select child first, then parent! When performing a heavy lift, consider showing anticipation by curling around the object, showing effort by extending the arms, and weight once it is lifted by curling around it again.

  10. Maya Compositing 3D Into Stills 1 To composite Maya elements into Fixed Camera Footage, bring the image into Maya and eyeball-match the Maya Grid to the image perspective lines: • Create a folder for your Still image (1280x720 photo or fixed-camera video) and Rigged 3D Character. Open 3D file in Maya. • In Maya Settings change Units from Centimeters to Meters • Create a Camera, set pivot to bottom-center (hit [d]). Change the Top view: Panel > Perspective> Camera view. • View > Camera Settings > Resolution Gate. In Render Settings: frame 1280x720. View > Image Plane > Import Image. To move the plane back or forwards: Attribute Editor > Placement > Depth. Arrange the Camera and Image Plane to get the character model roughly between the two. NOTE: Keep the Viewport window large enough to see the entire gate, or object placement may temporarily appear to shift against the image plane. • Change Grid size to fit your space: Display > Grid > Option box. For a meters scene, try Length and Width = 1 and Grid Lines Every = 0.2 (for centimeters, try L&W=96, GLE=40).

  11. Maya Compositing 3D Into Stills 2 • Use [Alt/Option]+LeftMouseClickDrag to orient the Grid to the Photo or Video ground, paying attention to perspective lines in the image to find matches for the Grid (sidewalk curbs, building edges, etc.). NOTE1: If the best reference surface is a wall, create a Plane rotated only 90 on Z, then orient the Camera to match the Plane to Photo/Video wall edges. NOTE 2: You may need to adjust your Camera Focal Length or AOV (Angle Of View) to match the footage if your Grid lines are not converging like the image perspective lines : View > Select Camera, and in Attribute Editor > cameraShape > Camera Attributes > Angle of View. In this image, AOV was set to 90

  12. Maya Compositing 3D Into Stills 3 • Add Lights and Shadows: • Create a Polygon Plane for the ground to hold shadows. • Add Lighting: for an exterior shot, add a Directional light, rotate until shadows cast by your character (or a cylinder proxy) match the footage. Confirm angle in Arnold Render View. Don’t bother setting shadow color; that happens on the ground plane’s Shader. • Add more lights to match object/character illumination to the photo. For daylight, try Arnold > Lights > Skydome. To prevent a Skydome from rendering in the background (but still allow it to illuminate the scene), select it and in the Attribute Editor under Display set Camera to zero.

  13. Maya Compositing 3D Into Stills 4 • Prevent all planes from rendering: • Select the Image Plane. Set the Attribute Editor > Displaymode from “RGBA” to “None.” • To ground or wall planes assign an “AiShadowMatte” material, which makes those planes invisible to the render EXCEPT for the shadows cast on them. In the Attribute Editor, set shadow color and transparency! Test your work: in the Arnold Rendering View, click the alpha button. Only the objects and their shadows should appear. Notes Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTKl-xDYtj0

  14. Maya Compositing 3D Into Stills 5 Render Settings(Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings):Under FILE OUTPUT: • TypeFile name prefix = YourName • SetImage Format = EXR (must be a format that includes transparency)-- will only appear with Arnold renderer! • SetFrame/Animation ext = name#.ext • Make sure Frame padding = 4  Under FRAME RANGE • SetStart Frame =10  • SetEnd Frame = the final frame of your film  Under RENDERABLE CAMERAS: • ChooseRenderable Camera (Camera1)  Under IMAGE SIZE • Set framing: Width = 1280, Height = 720  Back at the top:  • Edit > Change Project Image Directory, set Images folder to your Renders folder; all rendered files will be put there.

  15. Maya Compositing 3D Into Stills 6 AOVs: The Arnold Renderer gives access to the AOV panel (Arbitrary Output Variables). The left column are options for separate render passes. When selected they can be added to the right column to render. • “Z” creates a Z-Depth pass. • Try a Shadow Matte for a distinct shadow pass. RENDER: In the Rendering Module, under the Render menu, open the Render Sequence option box. Activate the bottom three options and hit [Render].

  16. After Effects Compositing 3D Into Stills 1 To see an initial composite, we can bring our rendered sequence into After Effects: • Import the background image: [Cmd/Ctrl]+[i] • Import the EXR sequence: select just the first image and the entire sequence will import as one item. • RightClick sequence, choose Interpret Footage > Main. Set framerate: 24fps. • Drag the footage onto the film icon at the bottom of the Project panel to create a Composition. The sequence will appear as a track in the Timeline stack and the first frame will appear in the Viewport. • Select the background image and drag it into the Timeline stack below the sequence. Hit Play [Spacebar].

  17. After Effects Compositing 3D Into Stills 2 • Try brightening: duplicate the layer [Cmd/Ctrl]+[d] and set the Mode of the upper layer to screen. Hit [t] for opacity to reduce the value/effect. • Does your character walk behind objects in the footage? Duplicate the footage, move layer to top, use a pen-tool Mask or RotoBrush to show only foreground element. • To Render them together: Select the Comp in the Project panel, Composition Settings > Add to Render Queue. Set Output Module: MOV, codec DV/NTSC-24p and Output To: your folder and choose a file name. Hit [Render].

  18. Maya Compositing: Footage Stabilizing If you want to use fixed-camera footage instead of a photo, you may need to stabilize shaky footage in After Effects: • Import shaky footage, drag to film icon to make a comp. • Open Window > Tracker. Doubleclick the footage layer in the Comp to open the Layer Panel, and in the Tracker panel click [Stabilize motion]. • We get a 3-part gizmo in the viewport: outer square, inner square, and a plus point: [[+]]. The plus needs to be put on the feature/shape that will be tracked, and the inner square needs to surround this shape. Scrub the footage to find something in the scene that is there the entire time, which is part of the landscape (not a moving car or bird), and which has high contrast with its surroundings (filmmakers often put a black duct tape X on a surface to create the tracking point). The outer “search region” square needs to surround the area that the object will move, frame to frame. At frame 1, move and shape the gizmo to surround your chosen feature. • In the Tracker panel click the right-pointing arrow for “Analyze Forward”.If the object stays in the gizmo the entire time, great! If it ever veers off, stop the tracker immediately, reposition the gizmo to surround the object again, and analyze forward from there. Repeat until the tracking is complete. • Apply the stabilization data to the layer: In the Tracker Panel hit [Edit Target], click [OK], then hit [Apply], and [OK]. IN the original comp, scale up the footage a bit to hide the empty spaces, and you have stable footage! NOTES SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc7wPh6dKfs

  19. Save Your Work! To guard against crashes and loss of work, please Save and Save As a new file everyhour (so you can never lose more than an hour’s work): YourName_Film01.mb, YourName_Film02.mb, etc. Save your work to an online repository every day (Dropbox.com, Google drive) so you have a backup in case your computer fails.

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