Maya Animation

A short video made from 0

This was personal project for the Computer Animation Design and Production class in Shanghai University.

Project Info:

Subject: Unforgettable Moment
Tools: Maya
Format: 30s 24fps 1080p
Date of Completion: 2022.06
Art Style: Realistic
Contribution: Personal Course Project
Scene Setting: Noon - Evening (Summer)
SYNOPSIS: As my three years of high school studies came to an end, I had a lot of thoughts after the last bell ringing. It became an unforgettable moment.

Material Models:

Character model: main character (full body detail), best friend (upper half detail)
Scene Models: school gate (fine), campus buildings (one, simple, large), classrooms (simple), desks (fine), cars (fine) (already have self-built models)
sound materials: news broadcast, examination bell, engine sound, end of examination sound, playground noise, other campus classroom sound.

Animation planning scripts:

Scenario design:

Scene 1 is mainly a reference to the actual scene of the test site, and some partial modifications have been made according to the actual scene, making it possible to present a complete scene while reducing the modelling workload.

Scene 2 is mainly about the candidates' writing during the listening test, recording the content of the listening text, and the main emotion is nervousness.

Scene 3 mainly serves as a transition while telling the audience that the test is over. There is no transition with Scene 2, the test bell rings directly, taking over the tense atmosphere of the previous scene.

Scene four is mainly the end of the examination, candidates relax, you can do some stretching action to show relaxation.

Scene five is mainly candidates in the college entrance examination after the end of the road home, recalled their life in high school past, and feel frustrated, high school life is gone, this is the most unforgettable moment, most of the video needs to focus on this scene. Firstly, the camera shoots the facial expression from a close distance, then with eyes closed and open as a transition, recalling two typical scenes: one is discussing the question paper, and the other is looking away during the lunch break. Returning to reality, the camera gradually pulls away and films the car travelling along, suggesting the promise of the future.

Production Reflection:

Firstly, scene design, after the completion of the production found that the scene design is still too much, 30s of time to put 7 scenes is very rush, although to achieve the narrative function, but the rhythm is very rushed.

Second is modelling, in the face wiring this piece of good need to strengthen the practice. In the modelling, later according to the actual situation to adjust the wiring around the eyes when the wiring is uneven, not smooth enough problem. There is also the problem of not having a good grasp of the general shape of Ren's face, which makes the face look a bit strange. At the same time, this time, when partially using the old model material that I built before, the scene and character modelling took nearly 40 hours, this point needs to do more practice to speed up.

Again, the animation, adv helped a lot in this creation, but after rendering the film, I found that some places are still stiff, mainly because the animation curve is too smooth in some parts.

Rendering arrangement again, in this production, the rendering work to spend a total of 40 hours (Arnold only cpu, if you use the gpu light effect is wrong and slower), and is arranged in the modelling and animation after the unified rendering, in the period of time the computer I sent for other work. The rendering work needs to be done in parallel with the animation/modelling in the subsequent production process.

Finally, the editing and dubbing, in the middle and later scenes are still too fast-paced and do not have enough residual time. The rhythm of the whole film is not very good, especially the transition part needs to be more crisp or soothing. In terms of dubbing, after actually importing the material, I found that there are still some false, probably because it is too abrupt, and I need to follow up and learn.