Last one on one session w/ Mike.

Today, April 29th, i met Mike for our last session before thesis is due. There was nothing really to show or tell. I was working on my documents for production work, and at the same time, rendering my last shot. Once all are done, all i have to do is deliver it.

Today, for the first time, i saw all CADA students a tiny beeny relaxed. Before i saw everyone was running here and there with their problems of rendering, lighting, animation, and so on. But today, i saw everyone with some relaxation on them. Mostly everyone was looking at their renders being done on computers, and just like me everyone was working on their production book. It's nice to see how all of us came through this together.

And, i spoke to Mike today about the actual presentation day. I was asking him about how is everyone in panel going to react, what kind of questions they will ask, how should i get myself ready for that day, and so on.

For my overall production of thesis, i'm happy with what i have so far. I couldn't really follow all comments that i got from everyone because of time short. For example, Patricia had suggested to keep all shots in motion because i have motion going on in one shot, then in second, i have no motion in beginning, then after a while things start moving. She suggested to fix that in editing. I tried doing that, but the problem is my overall timing on music don't match with animation then. there are certain sound effects ( chimes ) that need to happen at specific time but when i edit shots, that timing gets messed up. So, i don't know if it's good thing or not. If i have questions on this panel, i'll explain why i couldn't follow this suggestion.

Other than that, i'm all set for making of production book, and burning my stuff on a dvd to hand in.

It's been a great semester, and a lot of work. I learned a lot of things, and no matter what, i'll always remember this time in future.

Final Audio by Andrew

Yesterday, i received final version of the audio for my thesis by Andrew. It sounds really great. Those two changes that i asked him to make, he did, and everything is going really smooth now.

I will render out the new audio with thesis soon, and will post it here. but i'm thinking to finish working on shots, and then i'll render out the final version.

Meeting with Patricia

Today, i finally had the chance to speak one on one with professor Patricia. i just wanted to show her what i have done so far, and see what she thinks of it. I had sent her mp4 of my thesis, and she told me today that she really loves what i have so far. Only problem was that there was a little issue of saturation in some shots. These are the same shots that i had problem with also because to me, they looked low res all the time. I had already discussed with Mike about this, and was working on those shots to fix them. I told Patricia that yes, i'm working on that now. One of the another comments that i got was that i stopped movements of things at the end of every shot, where instead things should keep on moving. She said it's not something major issue, but it's something that i should be concerned about. Other than this, she loved end titles as well. She suggested that instead of fading flowers and titles at the same time, maybe i can fade some flowers, and let titles stay. Then another title would come, and flowers would fade out. Again, she said it's something that i can do after thesis as well, because titles look great just the way they are now. BUT, i really liked her idea, and i'm trying to get enough time so i can show my titles like she suggested. It's not very time consuming, just moving a few keyframes here and there, but rendering is always the issue.

I'll see how much i can fix before actually handing in thesis.

Now, i'm relaxed because i have shown my work to almost all faculty members and have gotten their comments. Well, not exactly all of them, but the people i know will definitely be sitting in the panel on the day of my presentation. I wanted to know their comments, and feelings about my thesis, and see what else would they suggest to improve it more.

Post Production Book - Not completly done

Thesis Post Production Book

I been working on thesis production book. So far i have done most of the work. i lost my paper of buddy notes for faculty critique. Iman is being really nice to me to write it over for me. as soon as i get that paper from her, then i'll attach that as well here. Also, i haven't attached my blog page yet.

Thesis previz book - Colored

Click HERE to view thesis previz blook.

Last semester, i was missing my Shot Sheet in previz book. That's why, i had to add that to this new previz book. Also, last semester i had it printed in black and white. But now, we have to hand it in color, so i am making sure i have all documents attached.

Meeting with Andrew

Today, I met with Andrew Markus (Creative director of “4 Score + 7 Music”). I had a few comments during my last session with Mike to do some minor edits in music. It’s not that music had anything wrong with it but to make it better, Mike suggested some tips. That’s why I had to go see Andrew today to discuss with him about these edits.

Andrew is really nice guy, and he loved my thesis. He said he's having so much fun working on the music for my thesis. I gave him a copy of the recent version of my thesis, so he can start working on it. Overall, everything went fine during meeting and he has no problem with the comments by Mike. He agrees with those comments, and said he will start working on it as soon as possible.

As of current updates on thesis, I’m working on the documents for the final deliverables. I figured, if I start working on it little by little everyday, then I’ll have enough time to show these to Mike, and see if everything is alright. That’s all for now.

End Titles Fixed - ( not finalized )

I have fixed end titles as suggested by Myles, and personally i like it a lot. I was thinking to add different type of border for each titles that would come up. As of now, i just have 2 flowers on each side, but i'm working on more flowery borders so it would look nice with titles.

Meeting w/ Myles about Titles

Today, April 11th, i spoke w/ Myles about my recent updates on thesis. I wanted to get his feedback especially on titles, and so i did. He liked it overall, and was very happy w/ what i have done so far. He also suggested like Mike to add some turbulence on the trees ( which i'm working on now ).

He really loved the music that Andrew sent me.

And about titles, I'm really glad, i spoke to him. He gave me really great ideas, and i must say, if i don't use it, then it's really shame for me.

His idea was that since i'm using handwritten style for titles, which according to him is really strong, so he suggested to show my titles as if i'm designing a greeting card. I mean it was really great just to see him scribbling on the paper with my black marker, because it looked so great that i wanted to use just that as my titles. But he suggested to look at some typography, and pick up a style from there.

I can't wait to see how it would look when it's done the way Myles showed me.

My Thesis...Done??? Almost ;)

Well, this is what i've done so far. All shots, and scenes are done, and in place. I'm now working on shadows, and trees need to move a little, so i'm adding some turbulence in Maya. Once that's done rendering, i'll replace these still trees, with the trees that has movement in them. Also, i'm working on butterflies, because they need to glow. So, that's coming up. And, last but not the least, i'm working on titles. I got really great idea from Myles to make my titles look great. So, that's also coming up. Other than these, i'm a little relaxed now because it's almost done.

Another one on one session

Today, April 7th I had another one on one session w/ Mike about my progress on Thesis. I have almost all of my scenes and shots done. I laid down everything in FCP, including the audio that I got from Andrew, and showed it to Mike.

I am almost done but before that I have to tweak out some stuff.

I got a couple of suggestions to make it look even nicer.

- Butterflies’ wings need to fold a little more, and use Edge rays to make them glow
- When hands grab butterfly, they should stay a little longer, then open
- Inside of the hands when grabbing butterflies, should be a little darker
- Maybe add a little turbulence on little girl’s skirt when she’s walking away
- When she’s running after butterfly, tilt the camera to make it look natural
- Scale down the butterfly she’s running after
- And grass should grow right after she steps on the dry ground
- Add turbulence on trees

About End Titles

- don’t use wipe on, wipe off
- stay in one color
- talk to Myles to discuss more about titles
- fix “center for”, instead of “center of”

About Andrew’s Audio

- music should have a little more chimes when she’s running after butterfly
- when hands open, more music should happen like when “beyond imagination” shows up

That’s all. Now, I’m working on making movements of trees. I must say adding those effects in Maya to make tree move like it’s in wind, is really taking forever to render. I put it to render since morning, and it only rendered 10 frames so far.

Other than this, I sent an e-mail to Myles yesterday to discuss w/ him about my titles. I will see him on Wednesday.

And I have to send an e-mail to Andrew about these two more changes in the audio.

Final Audio from Andrew

Today, i received the final audio file from Andrew. I like it a lot, infact I love it. I'm going to render it out with the final composition of thesis on monday, and show it to Mike when i have my appointment w/ him at 4 pm. I'm sure he'll like it.

Other than this, I'm just tweaking out more stuff as i see more to tweak out.

Today, i didn't do anything on thesis because i had so much high fever that i decided to rest all day. Now that i'm feeling better, i'll get back to work starting 2morrow.

Shot 5

And here's shot 5. Still work in progress. There's not much to do here, except that now i notice after i see the render, that i need to add some more flowers, maybe i will go back in maya and grow some new colorful flowers. And i have to add shadows, and there's tree on left side of the screen with red flowers that cut off. I need to move it forward a little so it doesn't stay under the ground layer. Other than these little tweaks, i'm done with shot too.

Shot 4

For shot 4, i was thinking that i need to add more flowers in the background to show the change happening in the story. That's why i had to go back in Maya, and play around with some new flowers, and i added those here. Now i think it looks completed.

Shot 3

Here's shot 3. What i love about this is the dark fog, and placment of every element. i don't think i have anything else to finalize in this shot. So it's done.

Shot 2

Here's Shot 2. Comparing the look of shot 1 to this, i think it's not the same darker looking shot as shot 1. I'll have to go back to it, and use same amount of fog that i did in shot 1. And shadows were giving me some problems, so all i did was just used some blur so it doesn't look as solid as the original walk of little girl.

Shot-1 -

Here's the render of Shot 1. I think it's finalized. However, i still think it could look more darker, scarier by adding a little more fog.

Rendering Issues...

I'm having some issues in my thesis for the first time ever. It's not that i didn't face any problems so far, but i think this issue is really big, and i'm getting tired of it.

I'm using Sapphire plug-ins for one of the paint effect, and it turns everything black while rendering. i thought it's something that i'm doing wrong or maybe it's because file is so big, that's why it's happening. But after trying it 3 times, and getting same results, i figured it has to do w/ Sapphire. As you can see in the image, it's rendering fine, until elements turn black.

So, i decided to work in labs from now on. I'm almost done w/ everything. I'm just rendering out to see how it's looking, and going back to tweak some stuff here and there and re-rendering.