Making of: orion tear
making of: Orion tear
By rogério perdiz.
Introduction.
For those of you who are followers of the blenderart magazine, im sure that at least one of the characters in the picture isnt a complete stranger todo you. Thats Orion, who was presented for the first time in issue #4 - Character design. From that issue almost until the present day, he was working as one of the main actors of my 10 minute short animation, Orion tear.
Orion tear: Orion tear is my first short animation movie. It was made with only Blender, Gimp, Inkscape, one workstation and me during 19 months and 7 days of non estop, from Dawn till dusk, work. Although all the graphical part of the movie is done, the sound is still being developed by telmo cavaleiro, one local musician and sound EFX enthusiast, in his free time. It reléase date is still undefined, but everything points todo late winter/early Spring 2008.
Origin: ever since my eyes glazed watching the full motion videos of a video game called Final Fantasy 8, from the former company, squaresoft, y knew that was the type of thing i wanted todo do with my life. Considering that, at the time, y found the tasque of drawing a square with a ruler extremely hard. I a los knew that i was in trouble.
Two years After that, y found an article in a portuguese videogames magazine, describing the wonders of one revolutionary 3d application especially created for game development, called Blender 2.0. That precious 1 Mb of pure creative power came in the CD, so i said todo myself: well, y dont care about making games, but, what the hell, this is my chance todo discover if i can do movies.
And guess whatí from that day on, y continually improved.until the day some guys made an open movie called elephants dream (ed) with the very same software ive learned todo love so much.
At the time i still had alot todo learn about animation movie making, but due todo the open source Spirit of ed, there was now a lot of learning material available, and also, like ariestotle said, the things we have todo learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them. so on the day 10-04-2006 the production of Orion tear begun. Primary Project purpose: learn.
The article: in this article ill try todo describe the steps that ive taken todo accomplish the finalization of this dantes feat, my dificulties, my thoughts, solutions and every thing else i can fit in, so stay tuned, if you can.
Sketches/conceptual drawings:
Although it doesnt sem that way, this was probably one of the most dificult tasks of the Project or at least one of the most time consuming. Everything neds todo be created from nothing.
For Orion (img.1-1) i had one basic idea. I wanted him todo have the same body proportions of Zidane from Final Fantasy 9 and the look of my favorite character designer (tetsuya nomura) characters, mixed with my one drawing style.
For dark, y didnt know what todo do, but i knew what i didnt want todo do, and that would be the classical Ángel of death look. Luckily at the time of creation, y saw one of Sergio leones western movies, and there you go, a dagger in a western piestol holder belt. Then i had, and still have, a cell phone that has 2 blinking, glowing red lights in the side and there you have the eyes. The belt in the nek was a mistake. I accidentally moved the layer of the belt up, and i thought todo my self: hey. It kind of looks col. The rest came from my natural character design style, i like gloves and unsymmetrical clothing.
The sceneries Simply evolved. I started todo model them right away.
I wanted something that had kind of a natural fel with a subtle Fantasy look. Basically ive started from the look of one real beach place, near todo my house, and then mixed it with some Valley type of place. But something was missing, it Simply wasnt catchy enough. So one wekend i grabbed my bicycle and went for a ride, without a fixed destination, hoping todo find something todo improve it. I still dont know how, but i lost myself and while trying todo find my bien bak i found instead one very old Wind mill. First i almost completely ignored it and kept on my way, still looking for something for my scenery but, After a while, y start todo think:
Darn. I havent sen one of those mills working, for decades, funny todo find one today. Vaya. A mill. Mill?
I immediately squezed the brake handles starting a sudden 180 grados breaquíng estop, returned as fast as my bicicleta allowed, tok a bunch of pictures and After finding my bien home i modeled it and there you have it.
After that i made some very rouge sketches of the final scenery Layout, having mills as the theme (img.1-2) and then modeled a much todo detailed versión that turned out todo be imposible todo use, more of that in the next chapters.
After that i made some very rouge sketches of the final scenery Layout, having mills as the theme (img.1-2) and then modeled a much todo detailed versión that turned out todo be imposible todo use, more of that in the next chapters.
[note: during this article, by scenery, y Will be referring just todo the main mills scenery (img. 2-3). The movie has 3 sceneries, one in the mountains (img. 6-1) and another one that is a surpresa.
Modeling characters: my model skills at the time were already pretty god, so, because i had defined all the details during the conceptual phase, ive just loaded the images todo the Blender viewports and start todo model.
I started Orion with his head, eyes and Hair, then the body and finally the Clothes. By the way, the Orion model that appears in the issue #4 had todo be 80% remodeled due todo problems in rigging, more on that in the rigging chapter.
For all the body and shoes ive used the point by point technique, meaning ive positioned all the points in space, based on the hand drawings, and only then joined them making Faces.
The Cloth were made initially by several Nurbs circles that ive joined forming tubes (sadly i lost the screenshots of that and this is kind dificult todo explain). For example: básically a shirt is only a subdivided tuve that starts in one hand and ends in the other.
Then converting the Nurbs tubes todo meshes i could deleete the Faces that didnt matter. For example, the ones in the place where the body and nek passes though. After some adjusting and loop cutting what you get is a very god Mesh topology shirt that deforms pretty god.
Scenery:
The scenery was my first problem. The first versión was much todo detailed, with Lots of unnecessary Polygons. I really didnt know about the limitations of my workstation, so i made toons of Stuff until eventually everything moved excruciatingly Slow. I thought: well, its Slow but it should do the trick. But it didnt. I had generated 2 millions Polygons. Happy and full of Joy with my self, y pressed render and guess whatí right. 1 hour of render time which doesnt work very well for animation using only one PC, besides that Windows o. S, has an annoying 1.5 Gb memory limitation and from some angles, rich in Polygons, it didnt render at all.
So full of sadness with my ignorance i removed all the Stuff that didnt matter, meaning every thing that is never visible, like the bottom or the inside of the models, simplified them todo the máximum and ended up with 150000 Polygons (img. 2-3) that rendered in 5 minutos.utes.
But the funny part is that the High Poly scenery wasnt a waste of time at all because ive rendered all the textures from it and applied them in the Low poly models. More on that in the next chapter.
Texturing:
Well texturing was allot of fun. After i had modeled something i would, usually, texture it right away and only then pass todo the next model and repeat the operation.
I didnt follow any specific method, besides my one method that still applies today. First thing i Unwrap* the model and save the Layout. Then ill get out and take pictures of the real thing if its easily available, things like concretes, woods, skies, Cloth, etc. Then, normally, ill first use them as reference and try todo replicate them painting in Gimp or with Blender procedurals.
For example: for the Orion jacket (img. 3-1) ive first tok photos of one real jacket, then in Gimp, based on the real jacket photos and in the UV Unwrap Layout, ive Painted all the stitches and Jeans recognizable Stuff, as a los all the estone washed parts.
Although it already loked col, it mainly loked what it was, Painted. For it todo look real i tok one small square sample of the real jacket Jeans texture and duplicated it a bunch of times until all the Unwrap Layout was covered, making sure at the same time, that it look seamless.
After that ive multiplied the painting on top of the texture and the final result is what you may se. All the Clothes were textured this way.
About the scenery:
Most of the textures of the Low poly set are render of the High Poly set enhanced in Gimp for ex.: the house (img. 3-2), from the High Poly house ive rendered, only with Ambient Occlusion (still no baking at the time), one wall, then in Gimp ive added texture details, repeating the same procedure for all the Walls, rof, and them used it on the Low poly model.
Almost everything was Painted in Gimp, using After that the texture sample like i did for the Clothes.
One thing that didnt quite work out has i expected were the far far away mountains (img. 2-3). They are made of one gigantic mate painting applied todo a tuve that surrounds the scenery. If you focus in them you Will note that when the Camera moves, a really bad, not wanted, distorsión effect occurs. After some research ive learned that is a known issue in the world of 3dcgi, todo big textures used that bien sem todo be propitious todo cause that effect.
Lots of people ask me how i made the Sky: well the Sky is just 3 Blender procedural cloud textures mixed, and then the rest is a compositing trick. I a los made allot of testing todo try todo have some movement on the clouds, but, it wasnt working at all so i moved on and left them static.
Most of the Wood textures are procedurals based on the ones of the Blender materiales library, v 1.01 from zsolt stefan enhanced by me in Gimp and UV mapped todo the objects.
*uv Unwrapping (from Blender wiki): during the UV Unwrapping process, you tell Blender todo map the Faces of your object todo a flat image in the UV/Image Editor window.
Rigging:
This was the troublesome one. When i started i didnt know anything about rigging, but gracias todo Bassam Kurdali i was able todo learn everything.
Bassam made one full rigged character called Mancandy and shared it with everyone. Considering that, at the time, it was the most complex Rig and at same time easy todo use ive ever sen i didnt had any doubt. But i didnt want todo just import it todo my characters, i wanted todo learn, so i spent 2 weks doing reverse enginering and creating the first Orion rig. Well, After 2 weks i had Orion rigged, but, y still didnt really know how todo make a rig, so every thing was a bit clunky. It was enough for walkcycles and basic movements, but i wanted them todo be able todo compete with Jackie Chan.
So ive started again another rig, this time for dark, expanding my research todo emo and prog rigs from ed. After another wek disassembling Bones, trying todo figuring out all that, y suddenly started todo se all the logic of the thing and progressively everything begun todo make sense. Another 3 weks passed until i successfully completed the dark rig. After that i returned todo Orion and because the first Orion Mesh topology was pretty bad, for deforming, y had todo almost remodel everything and remade the rig. After another month i had them completely ready for action.
I Will describe now the rigging procedure used for Orion tear:
- the first step is valid for all type of characters:
- we make the bone armature (img. 4-1),
- its necessary todo define witch vertex are influenced by each bone, we do that assigning vertex groups and using weight painting for fine tunning (img. 4-2),
- corrective shape keys are added on top of everything todo ensure proper deformation, mainly, on places like joins and pelvis.
The second step refers todo the facial expressions:
- a reasonable number of expression shape keys are created;
- control Bones are added (img. 4-3),
- the shape keys are set todo be driven by the control Bones.
The third step refers todo everything related todo the dynamics like Cloth and Hair movement: for the Cloth:
- i made a Low poly versión of the jacket, that handles the Softbody simulation.
- i added empties, one for each vertex of the Softbody Mesh and made them vertex parent of their correspondent vertex;
- another armature constrained todo the body armature was required. The tip of the Bones of that armature coincides with the empties location and has a 1chain IK constraint applied todo them.
- a Softbody deflector is required (the orange objects in img. 4-1) todo avoid the Cloth with body intersection. I made each deflector parent of the respective bone.
Control Bones are added (img. 4-3).
Basically this Will make the empties follow the Softbody movement, the Bones follow the empties and the Cloth Mesh follows the Bones, originating an almost real time Cloth simulation system.
The Hair is a simple Softbody with Vertex Painted influence control. Thats why it isnt god, in fact i dont like the Hair at all, not Even the modeling, the texture Nor the movement, i Simply dont like it. But After spending so much time in it i didnt have the courage todo remade it, and now some people tell me that they love the Hair, so.
Animation:
Of all the other tasks of 3d animation movie making this one is my favorite.
I had made some animations on the past, but nothing with rigged characters. So i made the scenes by animation dificulty order. I started by the easy ones where the characters hardly move and ended up in the fight scene where you can se them jumping, fighting, rolling, falling, doing stunts etc.
Although the ones i thought todo be the easy ones were in fact extremely hard. Just because someone doesnt move that doesnt mean they are Frozen. I had todo create tensión movement, meaning the Little muscle relaxation movements that we tend todo make when we are estop. Alos the Wind in the Cloth sleves was key frame animated. The Orion jacket and the dark hod use a combination of dynamics simulation, with force Fields deflectors, and hand animation. Most of the times i had todo select the previously mentioned empties and key frame them manually todo correct their unrealistic movement.
The standard method used and still in use by me is:
- make a Little crappy storyboard with the movements for that particular scene;
- go outside and film the reference moves;
- import the reference film todo the Blender Sequencer and make sure todo have it in a Little square preview window;
- based on the reference video, set the basic poses;
- work on the timing until everything looks reasonably natural;
- fine tune the animation;
- add the secondary movements like, sleves, accessories, etc.
- run the simulation for the Hair and Cloth dynamics;
- correction of the dynamics by key animating the empties;
- small adjustments.
The fight scene:
The most dificult scene of this film it must have ben the fight scene (img. 5-3). It has 2190 frames (1:28 minutes) of continuous action without cuts. This is where the non linear animation (NLA) features of Blender came in handy.
Thanks todo it i was able todo make 11 individual actions sequences (6 for dark and 5 for Orion) and join them seamless in the NLA making it look a big one take action. The Camera was animated in only one continuous action, seamlessly completing the illusion.
It tok me long time todo do, and awfully longer time todo render. This one scene uses all the tricks ive learned in all the others previous scenes, more on that in the next chapter.
Render/compositing:
For me compositing is all about converting crappy render in stunning final images by Whatever tricks you can come up with.
I really dont have any pre-established technique, this kind of thing i do almost by instinct i guess. Some people could call it luck, but that means i had Luk 70 times (the number of scenes).
The first thing neded is layers todo mix. Because i couldnt render everything at the same time, Nor really wanted to, most of the times i had 5 base layers todo work with: scenery (to simplify the things a bit, the set, that is composed by more then 10 layers, renders just todo one), shadows, Ambient Occlusion, characters and Volumetric effects.
All the layers were rendered todo OpenEXR, which allows better color control, and After composed the scenes were re-rendered todo uncompressed QuickTime which allowed better hard drive usage and organization.
Lighting:
The scenery is rendered with Ambient Occlusion. It has very few lamps: thre fill lamps at the sides, one Sun Lamp that coincides with a spot Lamp for the Sun Volumetric halos, one Lamp up and another do, plus a few ones along the River todo try todo simulate some global illumination (they are pretty much useless but i kept them, dont know why).
The characters use a spot Lamp dome* plus the Sun Lamp. The center of the dome coincides with the characters position and follows them wherever they go, resulting in a reasonable rendertime/quality global illumination look. No Ambient Occlusion is used for the characters. For some scenes ive use an elaborate and very time consuming technique for creating Raytraced software shadows (img. 6-2), that no one would note if i didnt mentioned it now and that ive abandonar in later scenes due the viability of the thing.
First ive rendered all the character with a shadow-buffer spot Lamp dome, and then rendered the skin and the shirt with a Raytraced shadows **spot Lamp dome, but all in separated layers: color, Spec, shadows, then reassembled them again in compositor but this time with the shadows blurred. Thre or four scenes use this method.
By the way, y made two versións of the scenery, one for render and another, with much less detail for animation reference. The characters never set fot on the real scenery. The Camera had todo be imported from the characters file todo the scenery file for all the scenes.
The biggest challenge was todo be able todo kep lighting and the mod consistent from scene todo scene, because, most of it is just compositing work and neded todo be done for every scene. The scenery had an, per frame, average render time of 5 minutos.utes and the characters 7 minutes. Orion tear tok about 5 months todo render, fortunately, most of them during the night. Everything was rendered with Blender internal renderer.
* refers todo the top half of an Icosphere Mesh that has a spot Lamp parented todo it and the dupliverts plus root option turned on, resulting in having one spot Lamp per vertex pointing inwards and towards the center of the dome.
** Raytraced shadows were very Sharp edged. The current Blender cvs versión doesnt have that problem anymore.
Conclusión:
Well the primary purpose of this Project was 100% accomplished. Ive learned a lot, but i really dont want todo make something like this again, alone i mean, and i dont recommend todo anyone todo try it.
This is just my, at writing date, opinión. If you a los want todo learn 3d animation movie making by making it, you probably shouldnt do more then 1 minute movies and you should focus yourself in only one particular tasque on each movie, but, who knows.
I could write hundreds of pages about Orion tear, but i guess this article reasonably summarizes most of the things, so this is the end of the ride with me. Hope you like Orion tear, for more news kep an eye on blenderartists, org.
Links:
Teaser: http://video.yahoo.com/video/play? Vid=338577
Teaser-b: http://video.yahoo.com/video/play? Vid=562159
Compositing: http://videos, sapo, PT/6zsgtbazldzzabodiy4d
Rigging: http://videos, sapo, PT/2h21mr9m5leoztzjgzjv.
About my self:
Im the guy that made Orion tear, ive ben using Blender since versión 2.0 and hope todo be a better animation movie Maker in the future.
E-mail:rogpertons@yahoo.com.
By rogério perdiz. www.blenderart.org.
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