Senior Project
Here is my current To-Do list:
Complete unfinished animation, especially in the first part of the video. (High Priority)
Fully develop the exterior and interior environments. (High Priority)
Change the 5th shot, so it can be doable in the given time (High priority)
Color Correct some areas (Medium Priority)
Fix some cuts that feel off (Medium Priority)
Correct some low light areas. (Medium Priority)
Slightly change some camera angles to ease animation process (Medium priority)
Add detail to the alleyway (Low priority)
I have also begun to experiment with compositing the shots and adding some blur and color correcting it. In the image shown below, the character is supposed to be in an dark alleyway, so I made the right side of the characters face to be covered with darkness while the left side is brighter. I did this with simple masks and adjusting the colors for them. Additionally, some blur was added when the character pops his head into view. Another example is how the camera moves closer to the character his hand begins to blur slightly.
Week 3-5 was focused primarily on animation and rendering exterior shots. I decided to change some full body shots, this is due to the time remaining I prioritized my focus on the torso and up since it would save on time. Some of these shots I believe also became more dynamic after the change, such as the second running shot. Originally it was another long shot, but it was too similar to another shot, so I decided it would be better if it became a POV shot instead. The POV shot became much more dynamic and also makes the viewer feel the anxiety of the male character.
New Shot
Old Shot
Additionally I began working on how I wanted the characters to look in the space scene. I decided that the best way to approach this would be by capturing footage of two people dancing and then rotoscoping it masking it with white and then adding some effects that distort the image slightly. These effects were done through after effects and I plan to continue to work on these space scenes through the program.
After the progress that I made in the exterior shots. I had decided to move on to the interior room. I exported the room from Maya into Houdini and began making the layout of it.The scene didn’t take much time to make and since most of the shots would be static I only had to render one static image and composite the character after. However, I still had to render 720 frames of the camera moving around the kitchen.
Note that image below, has incomplete shaders and textures.
After creating the buildings I questioned if it would be better to make texture the buildings using CC0 textures or if I should make my own shaders. I dabbled with a couple shaders, however, all the textures I found I found strange. Thus I decided to make the shaders through COPS. An example of the base texture and color map is shown under this text. The roads and sidewalks are the only CC0 textures being used.
I decided that creating the buildings in Houdini would be more efficient as I could create a couple simple shaped buildings and have them duplicate easily. I made all the buildings using simple primative geometry, this means that I would be able to duplicate them multiple times and have no issues with having to optimize it.
After recreating the outside scene I decided to export my maya camera as an alembic and import it back to Houdini. I did some test shots with rendering the buildings through Karma and the characters through Maya and it seemed to work well overall. I decided that this is the way I was going to work for the rest of the project. Environment in Houdini and characters in Maya. Above is an example, of the buildings in Houdini using the exported alembic camera
I have an idea to create the environments through Houdini and render it through Karma. I plan to import the Maya camera to Houdini to have the same movements. While the characters will use Arnold for the Toon Shader the environment will not. I know that Houdini can create a good toon shader, however, I would prefer to control the characters through Maya and Arnold.
After finishing the characters in Maya, I have decided to start working on the buildings. I decided to create some prototypes for it to see how it would look.
While I worked on this on Maya I think that perhaps it would be best to design the buildings in Houdini since I could have a lot more control with making it procedural.
2026
Week 6
Week 5
When designing the facial features I decided to make it a plane layer and draw it in. Since I want to do a stylized art style I decided that having it drawn in would look better.
I began this week by working on the character designs on Maya. While I didn’t know how to fully model humans I knew that this could be a learning experience. I do plan to improve them at a later point if I have the time.
Both the female and male characters are different in design. The male character has broader shoulders while the female character has slimmer shoulders.
Week 4
I also began on working on the Woman and Man character designs. I first made a rough sketch of the characters to see what I wanted to do with it. I did realize that there would be some difficulties with the woman character with the dress.
During week 3 I began with making the shot list for the music video.
Week 3
After creating the 2D map, I decided to move to 3D. I created a very simplistic cityscape and two extremely simple characters. Cube model is the man and pyramid model is the woman.
After finishing the first storyboard animatic I began the blocking. First I mapped out the city scenes in a 2D space. I added the red and blue dots to indicate where the characters would move (red = man, blue = woman). The lines show how the characters would move. The green objects are the cameras indicating where they would be moving.
Week 2
The first thing I wanted to do is a mood board. When listening to the song I felt it sounded as if I was in space. So I decided that it might be interesting to bring that into the music video. I found the idea of the main character being in a cityscape but also imagining themselves in space was interesting.
My senior project is a music video from a Mexican band known as “Los Claxons.“ I discussed this with one of the band members and I was allowed to use one of their songs that has yet to be released.