Spring Awakening
Theme and Concept
A different idea of commencement of bright spring after a spell of dark winter. The inspiration was the idea of a nymph emerging from the tree with the effect that the nymph represented a figure of power and authority carrying a positive aura about her. She is someone carrying the very essence of the forest like a forest goddess or the spirit of the forest. Her introduction in the story from her emerging from the tree to conjuring the particles and releasing them, the esthetics and the positive attribute has been offered through her movements which though are smooth, elegant and graceful yet are powerful enough to show her control over the forest. The definite and purposeful movement shows her knowledge and awareness the effect her blessing is having. The nymph though her particles, is awakening the life that was lying buried during the cold and silent winter, giving the gift of spring to the forest.
Tasks Involved
a. Photogrammetry of the model
b. Location Shoot
c. Modelling
d. Rigging
e. Animation
f. Rotoscoping
g. Particle Simulation
h. Lighting
i. Camera Setting
j. Rendering
k. Compositing
My Contribution
1. Dummy Rig
Before actually designing the rig for the model, I wanted to be well versed with all the technical aspects that goes into building a rig, setting up controls and adding the specific constrains. I started my learning and testing with a dummy model which guided me to set up the bones with respect to the anatomical scheme of the human body. In terms of animation the prime action for the model is the movement of the arms while she is forming the particles and lifting her hands to release them. The arm movement called in for the introduction of FK (Forward Kinematics) and IK (Inverse Kinematics) handle and the appropriate switching between them. I learnt that one of the most important checks to be performed is to ensure that the orientation of all the bones is uniform to avoid awkward and out of order bending as well as to prevent the Gimbal Lock.
2. First Rig with the final model
3. Redesigned Rig
One of the main problems I encountered after rigging and skin binding was the weight painting, especially the armpit, the area where maximum stretch was taking place. Through the help of tutorials, demonstrators and course mates I applied varied techniques to fix the problem: repainting skin weights, retopologizing the mesh to smoothen the flow of mesh around the area and corrective blending. All the above attempts did little to fix the problem and this pushed me to seek aid of Advanced Skeleton software. The tool developed the rig and controls based on the mesh as well as applied the skin binding. It also had a feature to fix the skin for any deformations during animation. I used this rig as the final rig and performed the animation and skinning simultaneously.
Animation
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The main reason for using roto animation was because we wanted to use the real human figure to present a realistic charm in the movie. Before fixing upon the idea of using roto, we considered going for motion capture but dropped it given the minimum action in the movie and the excess time required for booking the theater, actual shooting, cleaning and moving the data to the new rig. The animation involved was very specific and detailed since we had to match the motion to the best exact. I worked on the shots 4 and 5, shots after the nymph creates the particles and lifts them to release in the forest. Movement was mostly restricted to arms, focusing on the orientation of shoulder, elbow and wrist.
Rigging
Before actually designing the rig for the model, I wanted to be well versed with all the technical aspects that goes into building a rig, setting up controls and adding the specific constrains. I started my learning and testing with a dummy model which guided me to set up the bones with respect to the anatomical scheme of the human body. In terms of animation the prime action for the model is the movement of the arms while she is forming the particles and lifting her hands to release them. The arm movement called in for the introduction of FK (Forward Kinematics) and IK (Inverse Kinematics) handle and the appropriate switching between them. I learnt that one of the most important checks to be performed is to ensure that the orientation of all the bones is uniform to avoid awkward and out of order bending as well as to prevent the Gimbal Lock.
JR
Team
Sydney Dimitra Kyrtsia Directing, Effects, Rendering
Josh Dowset Environment, Animation, Modelling
Louis Vaney Compositing, Lighting & Texturing
Qian Wu Effects, Rendering
Mosindi Godwin Effects, Environment, Atmospherics