How was the animated short Fortress

Scenario
The first step is to create a "diabolical plan" or script. Draw a storyboard, consider how much the frame will last and where you are. Short-length film is different from that at the planning stage all it can to keep in mind. That is, close your eyes, reordered frames, stretch them, change camera angles. This is possible if the cartoon all around the frame pieces 40, which have in addition can be divided into scenes: plot, action, climax, denouement. The mind tends to sometimes leave for all of us, and the result achieved must be secured. Therefore, we need a storyboard. They have drawn a rough plan, celebrated their duration, briefly describes what is happening on the screen. Despite many years of experience with the tablet, I still do them by hand.



When all laid out, it would be nice to do and animatic. Rather, it is necessary if you are working in a team, or each will be making his cartoon.

Animatic.
Animatic - a cartoon made of primitives sketches. He is very conditional, but it helps to understand what stage and what should go, how much time take much more. At this stage, the scene change easily in places, remove them and add. It spent a bit of time, but when it is ready, at a certain stretch of the imagination, you can already see the final result. After creating the animatic can only fill the already marked scene. This is assuming that you do not change in the process of creation, reinterpreting something. To which, of course, have little chance. I can only say that the first plane was a train, and was part of a different plot. So I'm not doing animatics. Note that if you do not keep your head in the cartoon, you need animatic.
Drawing concepts.
Before embarking on modellingu, animation and so on, all you need to draw your characters. In fact, these stages - animatic storyboards, script, concepts, it can be mixed, because they are part of the planning. That is, you can do it all in parallel. Some frames, for example, there may be just because of the interesting scene or object design. That is, for example, you have to be very expressive nose of the character. Then you just have to show it to a close-up and your cartoon breaks new scene.



But another set of concepts with my project. They are more revealing because they worked for me best. Theoretically, any draft of the outline must be hundreds.



Just need to get acquainted with the works of other authors, for hundreds of years insane mankind created the huge number of strange objects. For example, this plane. It was called "Goblin" and had to be dropped from the wing of a bomber fighter protection. Great idea, but the project was stopped because of ... difficulties in landing.



Process.
And now, all planned out! Cartoon already in your head, you see it, you know, and he was like living. Now you need to prepare the ground for it, that is to create a folder. Without it inevitably begin to appear like folders final last 1, final last2, final last last, last at least,! Final, !!! final Etc.
My file system looks like.
SCENE001 /
3D /
COMPOSE /
IMAGES /
RENDEROUT /
SCENE002 /
Etc.
This file system I create a message directly to the project. If anything, you can wedge SCENE003.5 This project covers the entire hard drive to 2 TB, and you can imagine how much it materials. Images, text, storyboard sequences, scenes, textures, is endless.
For these tasks was, for example, developed EPP or EyeOn Production Pipeline. Or simply "pipelina." But this is for highly creative teams. I note that in such cases, the EPP is simply irreplaceable. Now the dominance of the program Nuke Foundry. But honestly, Eyeon, are in the same niche, does a lot more for a lot less money. The question of public relations, I think. Nuke One is the whole EPP, Fusion, Dimension, Rotation, Connection, Generation. This EyeOn 25 years has brought to market innovative solutions to the sea. For example, the first 3D compositing on the desktop. In Nuke, he appeared too, but six months later, and work it was impossible. But then everything is more or less healed. Although I have at work in Nuke still I feel like I'm waving a log in a china shop. I purposely did not mention After Effects. We know that the genius and play on one string, but for God's sake, my God, After Effects even just losing half a sequence of frames slower than the Fusion and Nuke. Not to mention the GPU, which Fusion can perform some (many) challenges hundreds of times faster. Not to mention the problems that After is generally performs.
The soil is prepared, it's time to roll up our sleeves and take on this man's work. I recommend the hard chairs and warm every half hour (Service on a computer).
Now you need to decide and face the truth. You are able to implement this project? If you look at it and think, "the adventure!", I do not advise, but you're likely to Finn-boy, and you will succeed. You feel "God knows, looks great," likely he'll shoulder. As the saying goes, the eyes are afraid, but the hands are the hooks. If your emotions can be put into words, "Damn! It is huge, "you should think. It makes no sense to build a hero and try to do everything, but the palest hue, somehow. Take a fragment. Make it perfect. Show comrades Obtain resources and continue.
Modellingu and rendering.
Since this is a 3D animated film (more or less), we have to create our main character. In my case it was a plane and a pilot. So the plane has evolved.
And of course the fuselage painting. Our plane also got this. Yes, somehow able to draw on the tablet is necessary.



By the way, this picture existed in duplicate. With and without censorship. The case went to the version with censorship. Suddenly the cartoon will be watching the children?
The second main character is a pilot's skull, or the image of the deceased human. Since the cartoon made in the form of a parable-like image was appropriate, and it is in this form. No mummies. Just a skull, one of those that were lying on the tables of Zion? depicted in ancient engravings. Skull I had to do with ZBrush. After working with this program a couple of months, you realize that the pros cons of its capabilities cover his alien interface.
I think it is not necessary to know perfectly all the programs. It is enough to know very well one program each phase of work. My line is a Photoshop for graphics, 3DsMax to create scenes, Vray rendering, EyeOn Fusion for compositing. ZBrush in this list does not include, like dozens of other software in which I work. All programs still do not learn, and know they have to be exactly as much as necessary for a particular purpose. The more that the capacity for self-learning and growth are always limited natural laziness, or simply fatigue.
In general, modeling I produce mostly in max. Max has a great, reliable tools. Many go with Max for example T-shirt, and swearing that he had few opportunities. Having worked in max 12 years old, and 8-shirt I can say that they have the same opportunities. Just as in Max, most can not work, these opportunities go unnoticed. The choice in favor of Max I did, because he makes a fool at least elementary tasks.



And this is the pilot looked at the modeling stage, or rather sculpting. After all, not polygons in ZBrush and piksol. 2.5D design elements allow you to create incredibly high detailed models. View 3DsMax or Maya can not be so out of ZBrush exports primitives and the displacement texture. In 3DsMax at the stage of rendering primitives ekstrudyatsya thousand polygons on a black and white texture. They ekstrudyatsya each render region separately, and then unloaded from RAM. This mesh, which can load and unload in the rendering process called dynamic. It allows you to calculate the scene with hundreds of millions of polygons, albeit very slowly.
Sometimes sooo slow. I therefore often limited to one shot.
As I said, Fusion can work with 3D space that opens up entirely new horizons.



In this picture you can see that I render the pilot only 1 time, though the layers. Then, these layers were placed in 3D Fusion, animated. There were also created by the particles, which, incidentally, are superior to all the other particles of the system software for compositing. Including particle Nuke. The camera was placed, added some movement and the pilot alive. As much as possible in his state.
Modeling in the project was not too much, but enough. Fighter, bomber, the city from different angles. When the modeling is finished, you can create a scene. Objects are animated, illuminated and are calculated by a renderer. I for myself chose Vray. The renderer is very fast, very beautiful light, efficient lighting control system cards. At this stage, too, there are lots of tricks. For example shots with the aircraft were made so that the planes were on the ground and did not move at all. Move the camera, glued to the controller in the center of the plane. Thus, there is an impression that the plane was rocking in the air, even though he was motionless. This little trick has allowed only one card to calculate global illumination and use it in all the frames, and thus were spared the clock renderer.



Render was carried out in 32-bit Full Floating Point OpenEXR format, although often the sequence that do not contain especially a lot of sense (eg, particles) render all 8bitnye in PNG. What does it mean? Of course, that each frame with additional channels sewn into it and stored in 32 bits weighs 100 megabytes. But 32-bit image contains an insane amount of colors and shades, as well as store information even in areas with a blackout or a bright white glow. At the stage of compositing these images can be corrected somehow.
A little more compositing. In general, it is a bit like cooking. Hmm, I will add a minute bit of smoke and sparks. Now, change the temperature of the light.



The fire, which appears on the body of the plane - a video of a real fire. You can make a computer fire, but tend to look too unnatural. Therefore, a video of a real fire. Make it easy. Take a glass, a can of aerosol fire extinguisher. In a dark room pshikat glass aerosol incinerate. And filmed it all on your camcorder on a tripod. And do not forget the fire extinguisher. The same applies to camera shake. All programs offer built-in compositing shaking, but they all look primitive. So we had to use a good old magnet on the refrigerator. That is a shaking hand was lifted magnet on the fridge, and then he was ottrechen on video and it was tied to the shaking screen.



In the last frame of the cartoon used Mate peinting or mother-party. Usually Mate peinting do so: a pile of pulled from the Internet pictures and glue them something like, violating all the laws of perspective and light propagation. The correct approach in this case must be based on a good photo hunt. In my case, I drew using the tablet on top of prior 3D render.
Here it is, the first render the scene. It looks rather arbitrary, and country by color. But if you finish a little in Photoshop, it will have like this.
In general, each frame is different, each is necessary to apply their techniques and tricks. This requires experience and constant practice.
Installation and voice
The next are mounting and voice. Installation I'm doing in the software Avid, because they are connected to the Fusion through the module Connection. Of course, there's big trouble if you do not work in the framework of Pepelina software, you can simply open the necessary software and work in it. I started installation of this cartoon in the program Edius. The sound I make in a super program called Reaper.Eto audio sequencer which is much more reliable than Cubase and Nuendo. At least on my computer. Moreover and again stands 500 downward. 600 rubles seems. You can choose the software and learn it. Virtually any modern less-known programs will give you great opportunities if you approach the issue from the soul.
In conclusion, I must add that each such project is a step forward. You do not just create something for the people you have and grows over itself. The modern world presents huge opportunities of self-development, they are not limited by anything other than natural laziness. Here, as in any other case, it does not work the first time, and the second, of course, too. But the road by walking.



Source: kak-eto-sdelano.livejournal.com