PowerPoint Presentation

Production DiaryCT5ANIGPSyrian Refugee ProjectUP736065

We started this project with a few reference images and a very basic storyboard (see right).

In our first meeting we discussed the narrative, whether use 2D or 3D animation, or a mixture of both, and what roles people would be comfortable filling within the team. I asked for modeling, texturing, research, concepts, compositing and camera work.

It was decided that the film would compromise both 2D and 3D elements, though it was not clear exactly how this split would be done, something for which we were later criticised.

In later meetings we were still failing to present a comprehensive storyboard, or settle on a solid narrative, which was worrying. Also the 2D/3D split was not working, so we decided to make the entire production 3D.

I made several contributions to the final presentation of the story, particularly in the ending scene where the boy has the photograph. In the early boards he always threw it to the ground. I thought this was out-of-character and not true to the emotions we wanted to present, so suggested he drop it once standing. I made this suggestion continuously over several weeks, but it did not appear on the storyboard re-draws until another group member decided to take credit for it. I also found I had to often question and try to offer alternatives to other story aspects to keep both character and continuity, and to not confuse the audience.

The story continued to change for almost the whole process, which was very disruptive, particularly as it was often only discussed by two members of the team, and the others were not enlightened.

My first task was to collect research images of Syrian refugee camps. We wanted this film to have an impact, and tried to draw from much reference to create enough realism to achieve this.

These shots show the scale of the camps; an integral part of our films message, and something we wanted to strongly convey in our films closing shot.

This visual research acted not only as shot and concept reference, but also a useful start for whoever would model the tents, or any part of the campground.

There was discussion within the group regarding the interiors of the tents, and what would need to be modeled, but there was no move to establish this, so I figured as Id researched the exteriors of the camps, I might as well put together a small reference board for the interiors as well.

I also did some visual research for destroyed Syrian streets, as the people modeling buildings had made no mention of using reference.

There was no long-term production plan in place which I found often made it difficult to accomplish tasks. You were given one task and asked to finish it within a week, when you would then be given something else, likely completely unrelated. I found this extremely difficult and confusing, especially when I was asked to make the interior of the house near the beginning of the film.

I was excited about this task, as I would be able to research and evolve design concepts, then model and texture them. However when asked for an update on progress from the director at the next meeting, I was simply asked why I had produced concept sketches and not finished modeling.

The narrative was still being changed at this point, and I was given another task for when I finished the interior. However the scene for this was cut before the meeting was even finished, something which was not an uncommon occurrence. This constant changing and lack of planning and organisation made me reluctant to finish my interior.

Story changes during production are to be expected, but modeling was pushed from the second week, and the story left; a decision I did not agree with. I felt it would be better to spend the first couple of weeks establishing a fairly solid narrative and accompanying storyboard so there was a good basis to work on. I felt my concerns regarding these factors were not well-received within the group, and they made no further discussion of it.

I put together comprehensive reference boards for interiors of living spaces within the Syrian region.

This would help with not only models and textures, but also room layout. It provided me with common shapes and design features, and also colour schemes and common patterns. I used all of the to inform my modeling and texturing procedures so as to keep the room looking authentic.

These wonderful chests of drawers with pearl inlays were something I came across often, and a feature I tried to replicate.

Octagonal tables and low but deep sofas, often with many cushions, were also constants.

A colour palette for the interior of the house.

Warm and comfortingly solid, but also soft.

Warm colours are unsurprisingly popular, and helped reinforce the emotional setting of this scene.The scene in the boys house is set before he is particularly affected by the war. It is a happy family home; safe and welcoming.

Corner group designs were a common find in my research, but proved extremely tricky to model.

I eventually gave up and decided to go for a linear design instead. This would open out into the room easier, so was a better alternative, as the narrative seemed to be introducing more action into this scene every week. As per many actual sofas each seating space would be separated by a bolster cushion.

I had a beautifully modeled sofa, with sagging cushions and a real air of comfort about it. However, I lost this and two other complete models a total of about eight hours work to a flash drive failure. As they had only just been done, there was no backup, so I had to start again. First sofa concept

Aerial ViewThe revised design

Early screenshots of corner sofas that never quite worked out.

Working off this concept, I started modeling the replacement for the lost sofa. The bolster cushions would be modeled separately and added after.

This model really wasnt working out. The amount of edge loops made manipulation tricky, and it wasnt looking nice at all.

I decided to start over, and simplified my design. I based it off some of my research pictures which feature sofas which are simply wooden bases with cushions on top.

Wooden base was easy enough with a plain cuboid, a few extrudes, and some customised beveling. The cushions took rather more manipulating, with soft select to give them a relaxed look.

Resizing the base and cushions to fit each other was the only difficult bit. Then I simply combined the objects. Connecting all the verts would have been an arduous process, and was unnecessary as the sofa isnt moving anywhere. It also allowed greater flexibility as we had recently added a scene where the boy goes back to his house later on and it has been destroyed. By only combining the base and the cushions we had to option to separate them and move them about later if required.

Next I started on the throw cushions. They were always a feature in my reference images, and I decided to construct both a square one and a bolster. These would then be duplicated and scattered on the sofa.

The cushions started life as simple cylinders and cuboids. I added edge loops through trial and error for how many Id need to properly manipulate these into looking at least fairly soft.

Most of the shaping was done with soft select, using varying brush sizes to enhance the misshapen nature of these cushions. I wanted them to look worn-in and well-used.

I think I achieved this, but the square ones do look a bit flat.

I took care to assign things to different layers when I put the sofa together so individual items could be moved without bothering others.

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Some table designs.

Octagonal tables with arched legs are apparently very popular. Creating this in Maya, however, was rather difficult, so I went with the design bottom right.

The arched legs provided enough geographical character without having to navigate octagonal models.

The circular design was much easier to work with, but the leg arches came out too angular. Adding cuts and edge loops was confusing, so I had to draw a couple of diagrams to help me.

The leg arches are still too angular, and theres an obvious line where each starts to curve. I would like to spend more time on it to smooth this off better. Unfortunately, I do not have the time, so have to hope that the texture will hide this mistake.

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Both the photo frame and the rug were nice easy models. They were both beveled cuboids, but the frame also had the front face extruded, reduced in size, and pushed inward multiple times.

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Drinking jugs such as these are apparently a common feature of households in the Syrian region. They are, however, slightly challenging to model because of the handle and spout.

Smoothing the handle was a delicate activity. It was easy to pull parts completely out of alignment, or go through other parts of the handle. Smoothing the drinking spout was even worse. Any slight irregularities around these areas could be disguised by the terracotta bump map and texture I wanted to apply later.

I also added a slight curve to the top rim.

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Ideas for room layout.

Initially this scene started with the boy standing in the middle, so the camera angle had to convey this, as it was a first-person shot. We wanted the audience to see events from his perspective.

I also wanted to line up the objects to focus the audiences attention on a specific part of the window where there would be an explosion.

This scene was changed in the storyboard, and I wasnt told. I only found out when it was presented to the producer.

The boy would now be sitting on the sofa, much nearer the window than before. I needed to now change my room layouts. I also needed to add some furniture. I duplicated both the rug and the table, changing their sizes to make second objects, and designed both a cabinet and chest of drawers to fill the wall opposite the sofa, which hadnt really been visible before.

Revised room lay out

A small cabinet. Not the most in-depth model, but as it will barely be seen, it is good enough.Lost original to flash drive corruption.Unfortunately every time I tried to bevel this model it froze Maya, so the edges are still infinitely sharp. If I had time, I would remake it to rectify this. As it is, Ill just hope its not seen too much.

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Chest of drawers.

Simply a cuboid with edge loops and extrusions. The front was split up and the drawer fronts extruded out. The knobs were made in the same manner extrusions shrunk down and pulled forward.A very clean model no hidden faces ever found, as usual.

Original lost to flash drive corruption.

Also could not be beveled without crashing Maya.

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When I had all my objects, I decided to put them in the room to see how they looked. The room was a cuboid with one face taken off. I then extruded it inward, but made sure the inner extrusion lined up squarely with the outside.

I added edge loops to allow me to cut out the window. I bridged the gap all the way around and merged the verts to give a solid window frame instead of a gaping chasm.

Now that I had a room, I could make curtains to fit the window. I started with a very thin cuboid, because I wanted them to have a little thickness, as I was not sure how close-up they were going to be seen. Added edge loops were manipulated in the top view, because curtains dont fall flat, then were pulled about with different sizes of soft select to give them a more natural cloth-like drape.

They were placed over the plain cylinder rail which gave the appearance of them being actually hung.Im very pleased with them, but feel they could hang softer. I should have found some reference.

The objects had to undergo a fair bit of resizing.

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With the scene looking good, I started texturing. No art style had been agreed upon. There had been discussion of texture tests using photographed textures like concrete and cloth, or using a more painterly style like the traced concept art which had been produced by other members of the group (see right).

I thought a more textural style might give the piece a grittier atmosphere and so enhance the emotions, so I decided to texture my interior using photographed textures of actual materials. This could then be considered our texture test if the art style was still in debate at our next meeting.

All the models were UV unwrapped as soon as I had finished them. These were placed, along with the models finalised scenes, in a named project directory with the room model.This would ensure all the models and textures for this scene were kept together; especially important as I was handing the scene over to someone else for animation, lighting and rendering later.

The rugs were pleasantly easy to texture. I used high resolution photos of rugs so we could have the traditional patterns, and applied them directly, after any necessary resizing.After looking at them in the room I realised they looked too clean, so added dirt and wear in Photoshop by applying colour with large, low opacity brushes. It gave them a slightly faded used look, as a rug would have after some time.

The jug was also straightforward.

This was a high resolution terracotta texture, slightly smudged in Photoshop to blend the seam, and darkened, to stop it looking almost shiny.

I also applied this texture as a bump map to give alight relief to the surface of the jug, and lend some authenticity to the texture.

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The frame underwent a similar process. A wood texture was darkened and recoloured slightly before being applied to a lambert.

The front face where the photo would show was left blank, and occupied a separate as-yet untextured place on the texture map. The family photo being done by another group member will be applied to this later when it has been finished. I applied a blinn material to that face and altered the reflectivity, roll-off, and eccentricity to try to make it look like glass. Therefore, when the picture is applied, it will look like it has been sealed behind a layer of glass like a real photo frame.

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The sofa base used a high resolution wood texture from the internet as its starting point. I played with the hue and saturation because I wanted a dark deep reddish colour, similar to mahogany. It fitted with both my colour palette and research, and I thought it would be a slightly sobering counterpoint to all the bright colours going on top of it as the cushions.

The fabric for the sofa cushions had to be completely recoloured, which I achieved through twice altering the hue and saturation, and then adjusting the colour balance to acquire this nice deep but bright red.

It also brought up the grain of the fabric to a nice effect.

The throw cushions were accomplished in a very similar way.

The fabric sample I used did not have to be completely recoloured, but I enhanced it using exposure and hue/saturation settings.

They went through a couple of variations before reaching the vibrancy I wanted. I also really liked the way it brought up the grain on the fabric. It gave the cushions a nice textural feel and added some depth to the model without having to bump map. Just enough to make it look tactile, without being over-obvious.

When I applied the original high resolution texture sample I found that the bolster cushion arrangement on the end of the sofa looked a bit stiff and strange. I altered the models a bit with soft select, then redid the UV unwraps before I continued with the textures.

I wasnt sure exactly what colour I wanted the cushions, but it needed to match my colour palette and go with the colours of the sofa and throw cushions.Through altering hue/saturation, brightness and contrast, and colour balance I arrived at this mousy brown shade. It fitted the palette, but I wasnt sure it was right for the sofa.

The bolster ends were painted in by hand.

The ends were really nice, but they looked a bit sad and drab, but still stiff. So, I painted in a crease in the center, and brightened up the colour a little.

The creases were much better, but I still wasnt happy with the colour.

I went back into Photoshop and altered, deleted, and reapplied my filters, going through several colour options, including this strange grey attempt,

before finally reaching this orange.It fitted beautifully with the palette, the research, and the sofa and throw cushions, and became the final texture.

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I altered the hue/saturation and brightness/contrast to give this wood texture a more interesting colour. Also, inspired by the pearl inlay on the drawers and tables in my research, I isolated a motif of a pearl inlay, duplicated, and arranged it to make a decorative trim for the table.

As the table had been unwrapped before it was duplicated and resized both tables were using the same UV map. I would make the base texture the same for both, then save two different copies in different shades. I wanted the small tall table to be dark, and the larger lower table lighter and glossier. They both had their textures applied as blinns, but the reflectivity, eccentricity, and roll-off on the small table was very low. Just enough for a slight shine. However, because they were both using the same map, because table two had bee enlarged and shortened, the design warped when applied to this second table. Surprisingly, it still looked alright. This table was all-round better looking. The lingering angularity in the arches gives it a rustic sturdiness, and it has a thick heavy quality. The wood grain matched up better than Id hoped.

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Colour balance, brightness/contrast, and two lots of hue/saturation turned this wood sample into a lovely dark colour, in a similar warmth to the sofa base. I left some of the wireframe visible to mark out areas I considered needed extra highlighting, such as the drawer fronts.

I was inspired by the pearl inlays on the furniture in my research pictures, and wanted to create something similar. I used a good picture of part of a pearl inlay, and isolated a small strip. This was then duplicated and underwent some small colour corrections before being applied to the front of the drawers. I like this decorative touch, and think it works very well, even though you can see slight colour inconsistencies where the duplicates meet.

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Again I used filters to alter a wood texture. I cut it into pieces to make the pattern distribution more believable.

I used a more trimmed version of the pearl inlay strip I had created to decorate the front.

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The curtains were very simple to texture. The pole had a texture applied without any changes except scaling. The curtain fabric I painted to give it some tonal variations which would come from use.

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I was careful to keep everything organised in named layers. This made it much easier for me to move and work with specific items, and would also make it easier for anyone animating the scene.

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I was relatively pleased with these textures, although if they were to have close focus on them for an extended period they would probably need working on a little more.For the time frame I did them in, I am pleased, however. Texturing is still quite new to me, so I think I did quite well. The pieces all fit together, and have a cohesive look. Also, they often took a long time to save as they were all 4K PNGs. This was probably not necessary, but we never agreed a set texture size, and it didnt occur to me until long after Id finished all of these.

I showed my textured models to the director. He was happy with the colours, but didnt like the textural style. He wanted it more painterly like the other textures we have. Unfortunately the only other textured thing we actually had was this tank, which wasnt overly useful. From this texturing it seemed to be digitally painted with a soft look, with some features picked out in thinner brushes, and parts of the original wireframe left on top.

The rug detail was something I didnt want to get rid of. To avoid having to paint it in myself, I experimented with filters in Photoshop. I changed the settings around until I achieved a reasonable level of detail but with a soft painterly style.Im very pleased with both of these. I think theyre the best furniture items in the scene.

I selected the colours from the existing textures Id made to maintain the colour sets. I had a problem with the table, as the top is folded in half. These halves do not seem to match up the right way, so the large table in particular has a very visible seam down the middle. Fortunately this table isnt really seen.I removed the pearl inlay from the small table as it did not fit with the painterly aesthetic, but the area was too small and visible to blur them like I did on the larger table.

I altered my pearl inlay much the same as the rugs; enough to fit the style, without loosing all the nice detail. The cabinet went through a couple of recolours before I got it right.

Textured Room

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All my textures redone in a more painterly style to match the art direction we should have. Im happy with them, and Im pleased we went for this style. Although it should have been decided sooner, and I did spend a large amount of time on the previous set, I think the painterly style looks better.

We had added a scene to the narrative where the boy goes back to his house and finds it destroyed. I had adapted some of my later models to accommodate this, so they could be torn up later for this scene.

I started by collecting reference images again to complete the modelling and texturing changes for this scene.

Colour palette for destroyed house

I deleted some of the curtains faces, and re-manipulated them with soft select to create the idea that theyd been burned away.

Im not sure they hang quite right, but I really like the texture; I think it works very well.

To break the jug into pieces I duplicated it twice more and deleted faces from all three so that, together, they formed roughly one whole jug. Moving verts about gave more believable broken edges. It would have been nice for the jug to have some thickness, but extrudes inwards never went well. Lastly, I repainted the texture with dust, dirt, and further cracks.

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The first thing I did for the table was change the blinn. The surface would no longer be glossy as it would be filthy and covered in dust.

The retexturing took quite a bit of work, as it kept coming up with very visible seams.

The table also underwent duplication and face deletion to break it into pieces.

My idea was that there would have been a blast that destroyed the window , and was aimed to the left of the room. This would destroy the jug, the table, and the photo frame, which is the important thing in this scene, and also damage the curtains, drawers, rug, and possibly sofa. To wreck the room completely logic demanded part of a wall be missing somewhere which was unnecessary trouble. All the focus needed to be on was the photo so we should frame up this part of the shot to focus attention.

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I took the front face with the blinn out of the photo frame to break the glass into pieces as if it had shattered falling from the wall. Arranging all the glass pieces into a realistic shatter pattern was quite time-consuming but I was pleased with the effect.

Final layout, with rug, small table and jug textures.

Room retextured.I wondered if I should have taken the destruction, darkness, and dirt further, but thought it would be much more effective when rendered properly lit. Lit or not, though, it does look very Spartan, and the furniture very small.

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I zipped the complete project directory, and uploaded it for other members of the team to work on. When I next saw the scene it, and its predecessor, had been completely rearranged.

It does make the room look fuller, as mine was quite sparse and had a lot of empty space in the middle, although this was to direct the audiences focus and make the animated action clearer. If the focus was always on the window why obstruct it? Also the seam on the previously barely-seen table is now fully obvious, so I wish that could have been rectified. This center of this layout is much better, but I do not think the window or photo frame should be obstructed.

The chaos in the second scene is also completely illogical without severe structural damage to the building. There is no clear blast direction, and it does not seem thought through. Furthermore, the boy has to pick his way through all the debris to get to the photo. I think it may have been better to have a more open path leading to the frame for him. It does convey the chaos of the destruction, though.

One of our scenes featured fighter jets, and I was tasked with modeling and texturing these. It was stressed multiple times that they must be very simple models as the planes would only be seen briefly and from a distance.I researched planes being used for airstrikes and chose the American F-16

Initial sketches to help me get a feel for the form.

Final Sketch

My plane started life as a cylinder. It took me several tries to get the number of edge loops right. It was modeled in half, then reflected, and the verts connected. The bombs and missiles were separate cylinders, shaped individually. They were combined with the plane body for simplicity. As the plane would not be deforming, they did not need to be joined at the vertices.

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The planes were only going to be seen from below, so I did a simple y-axis planar map. The texture of the bottom is visible on the top, but this will not affect the film as it will not be seen. The final textured plane looks really good, but it is a shame about the very pronounced seam down the middle.

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My earlier research of destroyed streets came in handy when I was asked to model and texture rubble for the exterior scenes of the film. I drew inspiration from both real and 3D modelled rubble for a better idea of how to approach the task. I decided to create a selection of individual rubble pieces including concrete blocks and broken planks. This would allow any group member to create a heap of rubble easily, and we could have many varieties without having to model different rubble piles all the time.

I would also create large masses to add the rubble too. This would create the effect of a large pile using only minimal detail. There would be versions of each, either varying through the texturing, or broken through modeling.

I found that the easiest way to make corrugated tin was using something called a loft object. It could also be further manipulated later, and a texture could be applied but the object could bot be UV unwrapped.

Early brick colouring needed more grey/brown dust like in photos. Broken plank variations. Did three different textures to mix and match. The whole rubble line-up

A burnt-out car door with textural variations. Large rubble pile. Could be manipulated further once in a scene.Texture also applied as bump map

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When I was finished with the rubble I was asked to add it to the Tank scene, and finish any texturing. I asked for the project directory to be zipped and uploaded, and clearly named so I knew it was the right version. Instead there were a few odd files in a difficult to locate folder. As such, I could not finish my part by the time I had stipulated. Another group member needed the scene to animate on, but for some reason textured it also, despite my version being uploaded. They took the scene to finish it off, but instead of simply importing the rubble from my version they rebuilt it from scratch using my rubble pieces. Its not the first time lack of communication and understanding has led to this type of error. Tasks often clashed from lack of planning. Bump mapped wall Im very pleased with.

Before and after my texturing input on buildingsAfter scrubbing through the camera view I filled in the cityscape a little more by duplication.

However, as my version of the scene was needlessly replaced it is unlikely any of my efforts on the scene reached the final film.

Rubble placement in the scene:

Initial scene with first bump map.After the tank scene I was required to add rubble, finish texturing, and finish animating the plane scene. The scene had been built by another group member with my planes from earlier imported in.

I started adding in my rubble pieces, and built up the scene as I went. I checked to see what would be in shot using a basic animation of the planes passing overhead, and used this to inform my choices of where to put the rubble, and where we needed to add more buildings in.

Development of bump map: at first I simply applied the texture Id made for the ground as its bump map. This didnt look good at all, though, so I tested several different combinations, updating Photoshop files and reloading them in Maya. Most would come out either too grainy or too extreme. Eventually I found one that worked with the bump value decreased.

Final version, see below.

These buildings now textured, although I wasnt initially sure quite what they were.

Rubble placement

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Rubble construction:

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Filling in the skyline:

I duplicated the few buildings several times, as it was very obvious how little scene there was when the planes flew over. The building models and most of their textures were done by another group member.

Animating the planes required checking all different views often, especially the camera to ensure it would be able to see the planes when given its own animation. I animated just one plane to start with, then copied this animation to the other two. From there I customized the animation of the other two to have them slightly behind the first, so they flew in formation, and then had all three split into different directions after the drop.

Animating the camera:

I had to keep adding more buildings during this animation as well. It was a case of filling the sides so the camera wouldnt suddenly reveal an empty space, whilst also creating enough depth to stop the background looking too two-dimensional. The camera animation was done to fit the animation of the planes. It was a first-person shot, and he was watching the planes dive overhead, before being thrown to the ground by the blast from the airstrike.

Timing the camera movement to the passing of the planes required many small corrections, but went smoothly enough. The dive to the ground, conversely, took over an hour to perfect. It was the follow-through movement after he landed that proved so problematic. It was always too smooth, or too fast, or stopped too unnaturally suddenly. Eventually, it worked out.

I added a second animation layer to add a breathing effect to the camera motion to reinforce the first-person perspective of the shot. It was much easier than I predicted.

As per the directors request, I found some licensed as free-to-use sound effects for the whole film. I had considered where each one would be used, and included notes when I uploaded them for him to see. Some of these sounds were used in the final film, but I cannot be sure exactly which, as I was not involved in the process, despite my offer of assistance.

The director wanted a door for the beginning of the destroyed house scene, so the boy could push it open. I made a very simple textured model as it was required quickly. Because of this it was a much lower detailed model than I would have liked, and whilst it works in the film, I think it could have been more polished. It turned out that I could have spent longer on it, as the director did not use it despite requesting and receiving it by the end of the next day.

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The door had been forgotten about until almost the end cut of the film, so when it was remembered I was asked to quickly animate it. I moved the pivot to the back left, where the hinges would be, and added a simple swinging-open motion. Then I added and animated a camera, which would later be composited with the camera animation within the destroyed house scene by another group member. The director helped me add lighting, because I had never done so before, and I rendered the sequence out. I then compiled it in Adobe After Effects and did some slight colour correction. This file was passed to another group member to composite fully with the destroyed house interior scene.