Final Project

1) Proposal/Abstract: For my final i proposed to do a live match move of a 3D realistic model of a soda can sitting on top of a desk. i planned to use the mental ray render engine in Maya in order to achieve a high quality render using a photo for light data and ray tracing.

2)Research/pre-production: After deciding to postpone the live track of the model, I delved further into the mental ray render engine in Maya, experimenting with primarily lighting and textures, as well as basic camera movement. Since coming to class i pass the large shiny pixels on the campus, i decided to somehow incorporate the pixels into my final project. In order to do this I added round balls around my soda can with metallic paint textures on them, and changed the settings around to get the right shine and specularity. 

In addition I had planned on having some basic camera movement. I wanted the camera to start very close to the first ball, having the soda can appear as a reflection in the ball before coming into full view as the camera pushed out away from the balls. As the camera would push out further it would reveal two more balls and a table surface it was sitting on. Then in the background a kitchen would appear and the shot would be over. Here is my early rough storyboard:

3) In order to get a more realistic render I used mental ray. I had already spent some time using mental ray for the midterm when I modeled, textured, and rendered using mental ray on the soda can. So, in order to get a similar effect on the wood floor texture and on the balls I used mental ray yet again. I made sure ray tracing was on and I used the same reference image for indirect lighting (as a image based light). This allowed for more natural light to fall on my scene and reflect off of objects accordingly. I then proceeded to render my camera move of the scene using three different IMM computers to help with the render time, given the fact that I was rendering at full 1920x1080 resolution. I then took the entire image sequence into f-check and exported it as a video file. Then, took the file into after effects and added a background image of a kitchen behind the image thanks to the alpha channel created from Maya, added the appropriate amount of lens blur to add depth, and tracked/moved the image accordingly. 

First Frame

Camera Moves Out

Camera continues to pull out

Near last frame

4) Overall, I m very happy with the outcome of my final. Though I would have rather tracked the can into a real scenario using match moving, I am pleased to have created a photo real animation with the mental ray render engine in Maya. I feel as though the only issue with the piece is some lighting changes that occur off of the balls halfway through the video. I believe these changes are due to some in-efficient mental ray render settings that I could tweak and perfect with more time, but I am pleased that the high quality render was mostly a success. I look forward to spending some of the summer experimenting with tracking the photo-real can into a real world video and the lighting challenges that will come along with this task. My primary focus on this project was modeling, rendering, and lighting, and I am happy to say I believe I have succeeded in some way with each of these categories.

Final comp with background

Camera pulls out to reveal more of background, shallow depth of field effect

Camera pulls out more as depth of field increases

Final Shot

Super Low Man

After having some difficulties with the updated lowman rig, I decided to try the older, more stable version. After having some difficulties getting the rig to animate well with keyframes (as sometimes they would erase or reset for some reason) I was able to get a short animation completed. I attempted to recreate the superman takeoff: from bending his legs in anticipation to push off, to raising his arm up and closing his hand into a fist, and opening his mouth and looking skyward as he lifts off. This simple action took much more time than I had anticipated, as the process of keyframe animation is tedious. In addition, it was difficult to remember that when a person is in motion, all parts of their body are constantly in motion. This means that so many different parameters needed to be adjusted for each frame of the animation in order to look convincing. I hope I have partially completed that task.

Preparing to lift off

Beginning to push off of the ground to fly, his hand has no closed into a fist and his head begins to raise

Liftoff! The arm is fully raised and extended

Far shot of flight

General Render of Flight

Midterm Soda Can

For my midterm I attempted to create a photo-real soda can model in preparation for my final project. I utilized the mental-ray render engine and tweaked some settings in order to gain reflectivity on my floor as well as can texture. In addition I used a real photo I had taken some time ago as the primary source of light and image based lighting. I had some issues creating the tab at the top of the can as well as an impression for the tab indent. Here is what I was able to come up with. Overall I am fairly pleased with this model. I intend to fix and tweak it in preparation for the final.

Camera and Dolly

Hope to animate this eventually...

Lamp Model

My Attempt at a lamp model after watching the in class demo

Skateboard Model

Attempted Making a skateboard....used extrusions of lines for the deck.

Ball Bounce

My attempt at the ball bounce after seeing the in class demo.