High School Trailer Remake

For our second project in Entertainment we were to create a remake trailer of a high school movie. The movie our group chose was Napoleon Dynamite. In my group I was the Production Designer so I  created the storyboards and tried to make sure we filmed as accurately as possible.

Pre-Production

During our early preproduction stage we planned everything out and had a good plan on paper. We ran into conflict when we began searching for actors. Our first actor was already being used by another group and our second actor was very busy and had little time to film. Around this time we decided that for the sake of time we would use one of our group members. Since we only had a few days left and after school time was limited for our group, most of our filming was done between two days during class. This resulted in our video looking a little rushed and not fully perfected. We now know that we should pick out more than one actor ahead of time just in case and to double and triple check that they are available for all the times on the agreed schedule.

Production

Our costumes were all prepared a week or two before we settled on a final actor so that was one thing we had prepared ahead of time. We filmed everything at school except for the shots with the grandma which were filmed at the house of one of my group members. Some shots such as the tetherball scene and the scene with Trisha's dad were not included due to time restraints. We filmed a couple takes of each shot to make sure they were ok. There was one day where we filmed outside and we forgot to check the audio, another problem with this was that many of us either had incompatible earbuds (iPhone 7 or AirPods) or didn't have them at all. For these scenes we had to film a voice over to use instead of the original audio.

Post-Production

Post production was fairly simple for me as I was very familiar with the original trailer having done the storyboards but I kept the video pulled up in another tab just for a quick reference. I used QuickTime to record the text screens in between shots and then dropped them into Premiere Pro. I then used a YouTube to MP3 online converter to get the audio for the background music and the school bell sound at the beginning of the trailer. All that was left after that was making sure the audio was at the appropriate level and the shots were not cut too short or too long. 

Overall this project was really a learning experience for me. I was interesting to have something professional to look off of and try to recreate it with the same amount of prestige. I think my team Collaborated well at the beginning but we started to drift apart a but as we kept hitting more bumps in the road. Even though it may not seem like it, I also think we did a good job with Project Management, we persevered through it all and found a solution and produced a decent video with what we had in the end. Communication was a small issue as some of our first actors were not in quick contact with and they misunderstood the importance of the project. Leadership was important in this project but I feel like we could have stepped it up a little bit. Another team member and I were mostly trying to pull everyone else along and keep going. I did a lot of outside school work and even sent reminders to those who were filming on certain days. Finally, our Technical Skills could have used a little work. I think that all of our editing was good but while filming we slacked on checking sound and focus and some shots were not at the same angle as the original trailer.

Snowflakes Animation

The first designs of the six snowflakes:

During this project, we advanced the use of our skills that we learned from other projects from this semester. We used the create polygon tool which was similar to the NURBS curve tool  to create the individual snowflakes. The extrude tool was used to make the window frame and make the snowflakes three-dimensional.  Bump mapping was used to make the wall and snowflakes look realistic as well. Finally, we used our knowledge of making keyframes in Maya to animate the snowflakes falling past the window. The create polygons tool was new but very similar to other tools we have used. To create a snowflake, we took one arm and created it point by point, very much like the NURBS curve tool except to make a rounded edge we had to make several points and manipulate them to roundness. We designed one arm of a snowflake and then duplicated it six times around a 380° point. After combining all six of the duplicated arms into one shape, we extruded and added color/bump mapping. We made six original snowflakes and then copied/resized them to make the rest of the snow. I really enjoyed the project although I did get a little behind in the animating stage. It took everything we have learned to a new and more complicated level and I hope we will continue to develop intricate skills such as the ones we used in this project.

Ice Cream Animation

The Project

For this project we revisited a previous project where we modeled a scene inside an ice cream shop. We made a cone inside a cone holder, a scoop and some more ice cream in a dish. We came back to this project after the pen and added a lazy susan that would spin in our animation to display the tasty ice cream.

What I Learned

In the first half of this project I learned a lot more about how to add textures and bump maps to objects. For the ice cream, cone, table and floor I applied a blinn or lambert texture and then added a bump map to them. The ice cream was made with a cloud bump map, the cone with leather, the table with wood and the carpeted floor with gravel. The other objects like the cone holder, scoop and dish had a blinn or phong E material added to it to make it look like shiny metal or glass.

On the second half of the project, we learned how to make keyframes and animate in Maya. First, we had to select and group all of the ice cream and the lazy susan into one group. Then, we opened up the animation settings and made a timeline that had 120 frames and would run at 24 fps. We set our first keyframe at frame one by pressing S on the keyboard. Moving over to the 120th frame, we set another key that had a rotation on the y axis going around 360 degrees for the selected group on the table. By right clicking on key all in the channel box we created another keyframe, if we pressed play the lazy susan now spun all the way around, displaying our models. Our final step was to remove the ease-in and ease-out on the animation so it would play seamlessly. We rendered it and exported it into a QuickTime file in Adobe After Effects. 

Overall, this project was a lot of fun because we have started animating our 3D creations and I can't wait to see what else we can do!

Pen Model

For this project, we were asked to choose an interesting and complex pen to make a realistic model of in Maya. Above I have included pictures of the real pen that I chose to model. In Maya I used the NURBS Curve tool and revolved it to create the shape of the body. After that it only needed a little resizing and manipulation to make it look correct. I used a cone and sphere for the pointy end of the pen. For the clicker end of the pen I used a taurus, cylinder and a sphere that was covered in a lofted material that was a kind of clear plastic spring. The final step of modeling was to create the clip of the  pen with a NURBS Curve that I duplicated and then closed with a planar surface. To make the polka-dotted material on the body of the pen, I had to make it myself in Adobe Illustrator and then import it into Maya which was very interesting. Finally I threw in some spotlight lighting and paired the pen with a piece of paper. I was very satisfied with the way this project turned out because it ended up looking a lot like the real pen. The only thing I wish I could change was the end of the pen was not as rounded at the real pen, I had originally used a cone and pressed 3 on my keyboard to give it a more rounded view but it did not stay during rendering. Next time I would possibly try a revolved NURBS Curve for the tip of the pen.

Telephone Music Video

Our first video of second semester and the beginning of our entertainment unit was the music video. For our music video we chose the song Telephone by Lady Gaga. The story follows a girl who has just experienced a breakup, her friends are there for her and throw a girls' night to cheer her up. By the end, she has regained her confidence and she moves on from the bad relationship. The theme for our video was uplifting and overcoming to show that you can move on from hard times and even become a better person from them.

Pre-Production 

Our pre-production stages consisted of storyboarding, beat sheet preparation, song choosing, location scouting, and casting. We first had to decide what song we wanted to do. Our three songs we were deciding between were Fireflies by Owl City, Party In the USA by Miley Cyrus, and Telephone by Lady Gaga. Then we planned out our story, we were originally going to film inside/around outside a store like Target or Walmart and use a payphone in different locations all around town. We had issues with getting permission to film in the public spaces so we brainstormed our next idea which became our video. One of our final steps before we began filming was choosing and actor and setting up a date to film that would work best for them. One of my group members knew a girl from another high school that would be a strong choice for our main character. We got to know her before casting her, and we filmed the next Saturday in the basement of my house.

 Production

While filming we had a few issues with getting a variety of shots because of the limited space and time we had to film in. Another obstacle we found out later was that some of our shots looked a bit yellow because of the lighting in the room, next time we are going to pay more attention to this and make adjustments accordingly. It was easy to get off track and distracted since the environment we were trying to create for the film was similar to a party scene. If I were to film another video like this I would try to steer clear of any party-like environments because they prove to be rather problematic. In the end we had plenty of shots but many of them couldn't be used due to actors looking at the camera and low quality.

Post-Production

Many of our mistakes from the production stage of our video carried over into editing and post-production and made it a bit difficult. Our original ending for the video did not make sense with what we had envisioned and we had complications with finding a time to reshoot with our actor. We decided to end the video with a flashback type of edit in which all of the previous shots were played in reversed order at a sped up speed and closing with a shot of our main actor smiling. During reedits we are going to revise this and make sure it isn't as abrupt of an ending. I believe we did the best we could with what we had and it turned out decent. I consider this project to be a major learning experience for all of my team and we are hoping to treat the next project with a more serious and professional attitude.

Cup and Saltshaker Project

Lofting

When creating the salt shaker in this project we used the lofting tool. We started with a NURB Primarive Circle that would outline the body of the shaker. We made four evenly spaced primative circles and a normal circle on top of each other. To make the outline into 3D, we used the lofting tool by going to Surfaces>Loft. The finishing touch for this was to close the bottom by selecting the bottom curve and selecting Surfaces>Planar.

Revolving

To make the cup in this project, we needed the help of the revolve tool. First, we drew a profile curve in the shape we wanted the cup to be. Next, we found the revolve tool by going to Surfaces>Revolve with the curve selected. This repeated the curve multiple times around the axis to create the 3D cup shape. When doing this step we had to make sure that the curve was drawn on the y-axis so the cup would be standing up.

Hammer Project

The Modeling Process

For this project we expanded our knowledge of the extrude tool to make a hammer and a nail. We started with a cube which we extruded into a long rectangle. We closed off a section at one end, splitter it in half, extruded it again and divided it into six sections to make the claw of the hammer. We made the curve of the claw by going into vertices mode and selecting the vertices we wanted to bend and using the manipulation tool. Opposite from the claw we made the hammerhead by individually extruding four sections and widening/shortening them using the manipulator tool. On the last section, we beveled the corners to make it look smoother and round. Next, we shaped the handle by bending the vertices again. After that, the final step of modeling was to bevel the edges of the handle.  We were also told to make a nail to go along with the hammer this was achieved by placing a cylinder and extruding both ends. On one end we widened it to make the flat face and on the other and we shrunk it into a point.

The Shading Process

After modeling we began shading our hammer and nail. On the nail and head of the hammer we applied a phong to make a shiny effect instead of a lambert or blinn. We kept the end of the hammer at a grayish color and made the nail into a dull gold. On the handle of the hammer we applied a regular lambert and changed it to brown. The final step was to add a texture to the surface that our hammer would be lying on. I chose a raw wood texture to look like a workbench.

The 3-Point Lighting Process

The finishing touches of this project included lighting it up with spotlights and using the method of 3-point lighting to give off the best shadows and display the details. We started with the key light on the right which was closer to the subject. The fill light was on the left and farther away/less bright than the key light and was used to fill in unwanted shadows cast by the key light. Finally, the back light topped it off which was put in between the key and fill lights but on the opposite side of the subject.  After placing all of these lights I went into render view and made my adjustments according to what I wanted my render to look like.

Overall this project was very interesting as I got to implement skills of lighting from the Polything project and adding textures and materials from the Castle project. We dealt more with extruding and manipulation as well as more complex wireframes. I can't wait to see how we will expand upon these skills to make more elaborate models and animations.