23/08/2011 - Samson

For today, I added the metal supports where the signboard connects to the post. I then added edges to the helicopter's tail rotors and warped them to make them look mangled in a crash. I also cut off part of the tail and placed it in the foreground, where it would be out of focus in the final render. I also pushed the models on the left further to the left, making space for the matte painting and preventing the road from looking cramped. The I am Legend shot was used as a reference.

I also had the idea of building a rough shape of the actor using primitives to represent his body and did some key framing to make it follow him through the shot. This way, we could use that object as a reference for scaling the other models. Mr Pang also gave us suggestions like angling the signboard to give it perspective. The staircase in Richard's building was also adjusted to give the shot perspective. Previously, the staircase blocked about 1/4 of the shot and it looked flat because it was perpendicular to the camera.

I have also completed the animation for my staircase. Previously, the animation did not turned out as i wanted, instead of like in the playblast, the steps were moving in a sine wave pattern. I solved this problem by parenting the top most step to the one below it, then the second top most to the one below it, and so on. This is done so that when the step below moves down, the step above would move the same amount in the same amount of time. Before i did this, the end result was correct but the steps were all moving independently of each other.

Final result:

I was also unable to match the photo I took of the wall to the baked texture as there was too much perspective distortion. Mr Pang then suggested I map the wall texture to my cg wall and try to match the lines, then render out the image and blend the two images together in photoshop.

Mr Leong also taught us how to do render passes today.