Our final presentation is here. We presented our “Arrival of Bugis in Selangor” informercial to R&D Studio. For the most part, the feedback are mostly on more improvements to be needed on basics of filmmaking. Such as pacing, timing of scenes coordinating with subtitles and reuse of same shots. The rest feel assets and aesthetics are good. We have yet to perfect it but from these comments, we can learnt from them and apply for future film or animation projects.
The infomercial below.
Last week finishes with all the polished animations together.
-12 loops together
-6 without weapons and 6 vice versa.
-the hardest part of the process is using time editor to successfully compile together;
-with issues such as limb positions keep changing and weapon weapon is positioned properly.
-final compilation is stitched together through Premiere.
We learn new things such as;
-facial animation
-trax editor
-anim layer
-dope sheet
-parenting visibility on/off for throwing objects
The project has progressed steadily on assets and storyboard. The progressions such as;
-aesthetics style has been confirmed to follow the likes of Kung Fu Panda 2.
-style frame has been done as an example by me. The rest of the group will try to follow thru by the assets and animation.
-Script won’t be given by the client unfortunately, hence it will be done by Sarah in simple paragraphs. She will also narrate the script for the informercial.
-storyboard based on story has been done by Matthias, Balqis and Otto. This is sent to the client for further feedback or confirmation before moving ahead towards animatics.
In the meantime during Chinese New Year holiday, the motion graphic members will try to test with the animations and transitions more, the rest try to polish on the assets such map and environments. Right now we also wait for further news regarding sent storyboards from clients.
Second Assignment
Similar to previous we have to make 6 loops of character animations but this time with weapons included as prop.
Things we learn;
-Parenting the weapons to hands. Press P while un-parenting it is Shift-P. While this is useful, it also makes it complicated when letting the weapon go off the hand. Solution to this is duplicate the prop but this one isnt parented to the character. The when the ball is thrown, we switch on visibility of uparented ball and off the parented ball. This gives the illusion that the character throws only one ball.
Progression On First Assignment
First week we were briefed that we will be working on projects from R&D Studios. Our group consisted of Sarah Choong, Adrianus Otto, Matthias Lim, Balqis Zaidy and Safwan Aziz(Me); to work on infomercial about The Arrival of Bugis at Selangor. Not much was being done this week as we will get more details next week at the client’s studio.
Some research done in the meantime, mostly on who Bugis and their historic context. Their art mediums and cultural aesthetics. The information is very scarce especially the images but some were barely found on the Ethnics of Jewellery From Indonesia book.
A few interesting bit I found about the Bugis is they have 5 genders. Bugis society recognises five genders: makkunrai, oroané, bissu, calabai, and calalai. Makkunrai and oroané are comparable to cisgender women and men, respectively.
Pictures of Buginese people are also very rare and some of them are not well sourced.
Buginese uses ship as they are mariners and to travel across sea to Malaysia as part of their journey arriving in Selangor. They uses a specific ship called Pinisi; medium sized ship with specific designed sails above for better navigation.
This week we were supposed to be meeting the clients but unfortunately for me, I was on medical leave due to a flu. Fortunately the rest of the group met with them and updated me on the progression. The client are still finishing the script which-hopefully-done by this weekend. The style they most likely to go for is similar to Kung Fu Panda 2 opening sequence.
The style could fit well with the traditional wayang kulit style- an art medium that is prominent in Indonesia and Malaysia. Texture details could also be replaced with batik texture-also common in both nations.
This week we were supposed to progress on storyboard as the script was supposed to be given last weekend. Unfortunately, it was still being worked on and that delays majority of our steps. Without storyboard, we can’t fully work on the assets such as characters, environment and even sounds. But we still try to ready some of them so we won’t have much trouble as the script comes in. We tried to finish assets such as movement of camera and character animation.
First Assignment
We have to make 6 loops of game character animations; idle, death, block, run, walk and attack. While also injecting some personality into it.
Things we learnt.
-What a block out is?
-How to frame a block out.
-How to adjust speed through Time Grapher.
-Animation of idling can be while looks simple has its little subtle animations that makes it look natural such as heaving chest, arms rotating abit and etc.
Final Project
For the final project, we have to make a 30 seconds trailer full of special effects such as 3D, matte painting etc. Below is my full story, relating to the opening credit from Assignment 1. Do note there are differences in story and characters from assignment 1 and the final. The changes in the story is due to student needs to include more visual effect scenes and this does affect the story a from early semester. The opening sequence features more male character in red tie while the final doesn’t have much as the scenes with red tie male figure has less visual effects scenes. To get a full sense of early rendition of the story; read the plot below.
Plot
Act 2_Scene 1
Before he gets to the door he looks around the living room and is instructed to use the gun and kill her. He looks at the gun and the door as he’s deciding whether or not trust and obey the Voice. Cuts to the door opening, we see the back of an employee as the protagonist greets. A female hotel employee asks if he needs a cleaning service. Protagonist hesitantly said yes and let her in. We see him holding a gun behind his back and is slowly instructed on how to kill her. Still not believing she’s a threat, he then tries to tell her something weird is happening. As he’s talking, the employee then grabs a knife from her bag and slash at his arm. A holographic “30 points!” appeared as she slashed. Every injury made, a holographic point pops up.
He dropped the gun and a brawl ensues as the Voice instructed every move he has to make to defend. He then manages to kill her with a cup to head repeatedly. A high “100 points!” pops up as every hit made. Traumatised and injured, he sobs a bit. Then, a hologram sign pops up saying “LEVEL UP” and awarded with a better gun, 30% defence and increase health bar. His body is also recharged to full health with his injuries all disappearing. Feeling angry, he insults the Voice threaten to rip the bomb off his neck. As he’s doing it, another girl by standing by the door shouts “Stop”.
Act 2_Scene 2
Protagonist looks at the knife she’s holding and asks her if she’s going to kill him. The girl laid down the knife and told him she can help. Talk how she doesn’t why all this is happening but she understands that surviving is the only option. She tries to convince that their chances of surviving is better as a team and win this sick game. She told him, if he’s going to die, he might as well died fighting. He slowly stops sobbing and agree with a hopeful tone. He stands up slowly and tries to find his pistol. Then as he looks back at her, she points a gun and shoots at his heart. He slowly bleeds and struggles to move. She grabs a cup and bash his head 5 times. “100 points” pops up after each hit. She then talks to her Voice and surprise that the cup actually gives the highest points. “Wow, you weren’t kidding! The cup actually gives the most points!”
Camera slowly zoom in on the a surveillance camera lens as we hear the Voice swears repeatedly.
Act 3_v2_Scene 1
As the girl stood up, she is announced as the winner. Relief as she felt, she ask if she’s free to go. Suddenly, everything around her slowly disintegrate. The walls, table, shelves disappear unveil a vast empty space around. As everything disappear, we see people in white uniform appearing. One player(looks exactly like Protagonist) pops and yells at a female player who looks exactly like the winner assassin in the game. They both argued of who cheats the worst ingame while the assassin is still feeling confused and in disbelief. She yells at both players as they’re still busy arguing. She yells louder finally getting their attention and ask if this is actually real.
Annoyed, the female player mutes her voice thru floating interface which leads to the assassin screaming silently while looking distressed. She then pulls her gun and shoots with zero effect on them. The player then press a “Pause” button and the assassin body freezes. Soon after they finish arguing, they debate on what environment to choose for the next round. She scrolls thru the holographic interface, and the environment around them changes from parking lot to jungle to finally a garden as they both finally agreed on it. The player then goes to her clone and tell her to get ready as the next round is about to start. She goes through the interface and decreases her Intelligence to increase more points for her Durability instead. Behind her, we see the Voice checking on his clone. After several gestures on his interface, the dead Protagonist digitally became clean and healthy again. While this is happening, we see the assassin’s eyes shivering. The player looks at her as she’s done customizing and a “RESET” button pops up. She smiles and tell her not to worry as she’ll win again and again. We then see assassin face from Player’s point of view.
Scene 2
The camera then zooms out and comes off a monitor screen. Slowly the camera pans around unveiling hundreds of gamers being strapped with virtual reality device on their heads sitting while enjoying their video game.
Storyboard
Filming Day
Director/VFX artist: Safwan Aziz
Director assistant: Cheokyin
Actor: Chin Tong Jie
Actress: Sarah Choong
Cinematographer: Adrianus Otto and Matthias Lim
Final Work
Overall
The whole process has been hard especially balancing the story and usage of visual effects into the story. The filming also has been a bit tough as many of the props need to be bought new, thanks again to Sarah Choong and Chin Tong Jie for buying props out of their own pocket. Post production also tough as a lot of effects also needs to be done from 3DSMax; such as the gun, environment neon grid and title card. The rest are done on softwares like Adobe Photoshop, After Effects and Illustrator for matte painting, colorization and composition. Overall, there are a lot of space for improvements on area such as matte painting and greenscreen keylighting.
For second assignment, we had to work on special effects technique called matte painting. To make a artificial environment digitally and insert real footage characters. The footage we got is from filming Adrianus Otto’s short film story. Then individually, we have to matte painting the background.
Storyboard
Storyboard
Early Progress
Latest Progress
Sketches
Final Work
Iwan Aziz's 