05/25/2011 Daily Goals

Albert

Statue dress, statue detail. Statue base mesh complete



Kevin

Car interior, car detail



Neil

prMan on laptop
rig Neil
anim test + render


Chris

"Blik"

http://vimeo.com/25475500

5/20/11 Daily Goals

Albert

street textures
add character to scene
add shot cameras + lighting
5 key shot renders

Chris

Modular parts for Z creatures + rig

Kevin

Car Model done

Neil

Look Dev + zBrush workflow

Text analysis tool

http://www.usingenglish.com/resources/text-statistics.php

Aardman Short "Fly"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkuszoQV5F8

zBrush texture/UV xFer

http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Transferring_textuhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifres

05/19/2011 Daily Goals

Neil:

3 different look-dev passes on same character/bg + explore stylization/reduce/triangulate
UV pipeline (pFly to zBrush to Maya)

Albert:

Substances in MR + initial test renders

Kevin:

CG housecleaning + car retopo + test renders

Flow State - where you want to be!

Check out some of these articles and write ups on "Flow State", which wikipedia defines as "...the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity."
Flow State as defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)#Components_of_flow


Flow is often used in game design as a means to keep players psychologically happy (and to a certain extent, "addicted"). Flow state can also be applied to work, where long range planning and short range execution overlap, resulting in work that is fun, meaningful and rarely wasteful.

Finding a way to achieve flow state when working on your thesis will undoubtedly make your workflow more enjoyable and less wasteful, and ultimately, less stressful.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/97/art-of-work.html

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/01/7-rules-for-maximizing-your-creative-output/

Daily Reviews/Milestones

This week we will begin implementing a daily review process. Dailies are a great chance to show off your work, discuss improvements and/or milestones, and keep on schedule!

At the beginning of class, students will confer with the instructor and set a goal for what they would like to accomplish for the day, based on the schedule and calendar already developed. These will be posted on the ca590 blog.

Dailies will begin at 4:30 pm each day during Thesis class. Students will be required to participate in at least 2 out of 3 dailies per week. Work shown must be presented via student blog/web posting.

1- 1:30: review work and schedule, review weekly goal, set short term daily goals.
1:30 - 4:30: work solo and with instructor to accomplish goals
4:30: Daily review

Key points:
- Students should base daily goals off of the schedule they have already developed.
- Students must participate in at least 2 of 3 dailies per week.
- Work should be presented via blog (online).
- Dailies begin at 4:30 pm.

Maya Substance vendor

http://www.allegorithmic.com/

Photofly tips

http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2011/06/autodesk-project-photofly-tips-and-tricks.html

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=139382

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Project-Photofly/bd-p/507

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Project-Photofly/How-to-avoid-face-bulging/td-p/3050496

Directory Structure

Here is a good directory structure you can use to manage your thesis.

Thesis (Maya project root)
/Images - renders and playblasts
-->/shot01
---->/playblasts
---->/renders
/Scenes
/Animation - do character and fx anim here
/Layout (these can be broken down into scenes as well)
animatic.mb (cameras are setup here)
/Production (these files are broken
/scn01_rooftop
/scn02_heaven
scn02_heaven_BLK_01.mb
scn02_heaven_1STpass_03.mb
scn02_heaven_FINAL_02.mb
/Assets - your assets
/Characters
/Damien
damien.mb
/Sets
/rooftop
/Props
/Rendering - do your lighting here
/scn01
/scn02


Textures can either be stored inside each model's directory as a subfolder, or in the sourceImages folder.

Assets are referenced into animation, animations are referenced into rendering.

Ex-Pixar Animator's iPad App

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1664419/all-star-pixar-animator-creates-astounding-kids-book-on-ipad

Thesis I goals and required submissions

The goal of Thesis 1 is to be ready to start character animation production on the first day of Thesis 2. This work includes, but is not limited to:

1. Webpage/Gallery/Blog/Wiki (online "bible")
2. Final character models, rigged, UV and textured.
3. Final prop models, rigged UV and textured.
4. Final set models, rigged UV and textured.
5. Successful character deformation and acting test movies
6. Completed 2d previs work (animatic, color script, etc)
7. 3D Layout: Key shots lighting test renders
8. 3D Layout: 3D Animatic (playblasts)
9. Print production bible


The assignment for week 1 is to create a webpage/blog/wiki and a rough production calendar for Thesis 1. The calendar should map out when you intend to complete the above 8 tasks, along with any notes, guidelines or dependencies you want to map out.

This assignment is due Friday, July 15 at the beginning of class.