SunCoast Production Log #012

FEB 24 - MAR 02

ETHEN DENT

Production Logs

Production Logs 1-10 for SunCoast Studios have been completed and published to the website.

[SunCoast Studios, Blog Page update]

Master Spreadsheet

Daniel Waterman's feedback on our work so far proved valuable and we implemented changes based on what we received:

• Adjustments have been made to categories in the production checklist. Category; 'Cinematography' and all associated tasks have been moved into the layout section.

• Conditional Formatting - At the request of the director, I have added some conditional formatting in the delegation column. This is to easily identify who is working on what shot and their associated colour.

• Scheduling - As the rigs are yet to be completed, I have scheduled the animation depending on which rigs are available now and are expected to be available after deadlines.

[Master Spreadsheet, Production Checklist update]

[Master Spreadsheet, Gantt Chart, scheduling update]

SunCoast Website

Website is still in the loop of implementing feedback. This week consisted of discussions from Mike Gulvin and Ash about the design of the website. We've recognized that their are design inconsistencies and conflicting colours in the design of the website. The home page strip has been improved and added a team photo.

[Master Spreadsheet, Gantt Chart, conditional formatting implementation]

Made by Priya, I have also added SunCoast's brochure onto the website.

What I’ve been listening to this week:

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GEORGE MORRIS

Previs and Production

"In the recent weeks we have been, as a team, reviewing our previs to make sure everything is good and ready to show to the tutors and others. We have managed to lose a few shots making the animation time quicker as well as the rest of production. However we are still in the process of finalising the previs."

"With help from the Director as well as the technical Director we reviewed each shot to discuss what we could 2D comp into the shots later down the line when the animation and rendering is finished. This is the document:"

What I’ve been listening to this week:

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JACK DEVEREUX

“Tasked with making end credit cards and an info sign to put at the end of the film.”

What I’ve been listening to this week:

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JESSICA HILES

Weight Painting

“Finished the Troy base Rig, Tried to rig Maya, came across some issues”

"I rushed through the Troy rig and finished it ‌to the same standard as the Dex rig. This was a little easier this time round as I'd already done the skeleton, controls and weight painting and all I had to do this time was adapt it to a smaller Turtle. For all of this, I followed the ‌same process I used for the Dex rig. I finished with one day to spare and so thought I'd try to get ahead and start on the Maya rig. This proved to be more difficult than I thought."

"Firstly, a fish has a strange layout compared to the turtles. The Turtles were very similar to most quadrupeds, but the fish had a root control that was next to the side fins and then the spine and fin joints would come out of that. This was strange at first, but after a while of experimenting with different set-ups and researching fish rigs, I found a set-up that worked. But the second problem arose when I tried to mirror the joints. For some reason, the orientation wasn’t right when I mirrored the joints, and I couldn't fix it no matter how hard I tried. I would have to disconnect the joints from each other and re-orient them myself. This would not only be a waste of time, but also be very tedious. Luckily, around this time, Priya had found someone well versed in auto-rigging plug-ins, like Advanced skeleton, who could help me out and possibly auto-rig Maya for us. I had a meeting with the fresh addition to our team and explained what I needed from him. I also tried to get a good gauge of his abilities.

I gave him Maya to rig as a sort of trial run. He exceeded my expectations and in a day; he had a rig with facial controls. This was much quicker than anything I could do, and so I asked him to have a look at the turtles too and see what he could do."

What I’ve been listening to this week:

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MUHAMAD USMAN

"I have finally completed the container asset, it has more detail put into it with UV’s aligned and materials assigned for readying the texturing process. Till then, I was assigned to create the cargo ship, but only underneath it, as the rest will not be needed. I have severely underestimated the difficulty of modelling the ship, as it has a different technique and specialism skill that I do not possess, so it will take a while. The duck stall was assigned to another outsource person, so I have created a moodboard so that the designer will understand what it is. This includes a second moodboard that will include coins that I wanted integrated within the duck stall. I then modelled the main structure of the shooting gallery."

What I’ve been listening to this week:

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PRIYA SHAH

"At the moment, I am feeling very stressed out, a lot to do in the little time we have. Currently, the main issue is the back and forth of the previs, cutting down shots but yet not making it rushed. Like mentioned last week, we cut down the shots until the net fell above Troy as it was a quicker and a better cliffhanger. This time was a challenge. The supervisors and peers said the dialogue shots were not working. It felt too long and just lost the attention and we got the attention again when the boats arrived."

"When the editor and I sat down and played around the edit, cutting down the dialogue shots made the film completely rushed and just lost all of this story at the beginning. We fiddled about and we managed to reanimate some shots and we decided to keep a few dialogues to make it look less awkward. We decided to add more cinematic shots to show this establishment of the festival but helped the film not look too rushed."

What I’ve been listening to this week:

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