# Exploration in Cg (6G7V0037_2223_9)
Hannah Moseng Staff

Anamaria
Consultation times:
Wed 14:00-16:00, Thu 14:00-16:00

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## TO DO

- [x] Spend some time sketching a new character, the little austronaut for my story
- [ ] Storyboard for this also?
- [ ] Model the book Nova is trying to read throughout the story?
- [x] Next world: Create the factory
- [ ] Create some nice mosses based on ukranian lady thing
- [x] Set up the style guide
- [ ] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSbBsXbjxPo Lighting and rendering
- [ ] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFTfGQgiGBw How to render

Choose two sections of the pipeline that interests me and focus on these two or more


## Resources

https://polyhaven.com/

Mo capping movement home videos
https://www.rokoko.com/?utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=%5BENG%5DSearch_SmartsuitPro&utm_source=adwords&utm_term=motion%20capture&hsa_tgt=kwd-14468750&hsa_cam=1410512318&hsa_grp=59298456847&hsa_kw=motion%20capture&hsa_ver=3&hsa_ad=505096972260&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_src=g&hsa_mt=b&hsa_acc=5372755939&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyNiXgcqz_gIV0OvtCh3KEwHHEAAYASAAEgJvcPD_BwE

AutoRig
https://actorcore.reallusion.com/auto-rig

KitBashing
https://kitbash3d.com/

## Story and obstacles
There are a various places Nova needs to go to find piece and quiet for their storyreading. One place could be inside of a factory for examle where there are a lot of screws and bolts flying around and horrible noises from the machinery.
could also be visiting different planets. so for the jungle scene, this could be an Horizon zero dawn inspired planet for example.
then underwtee, the entire planet is just an ocean planet with mechanical fish that nibbles om Nova. (use there the bridge I created in a stylized style) and also get inspired by how the fish is created in Abzu. The fact that the fish are a material and static mesh rather than a rigged body.

figure something out: is the world where Nova lives a place where there are real humans or are they all mechanical? if there are real people, the only robot will have to be Nova, or other children as well. More interesting and sci fi fantasy: having everyone mechanical. Ratchet and Clank style

## Characters
### 03.02.2023
Characters drive the story, so its easy to start there

### Pipeline
[A]

*Need to state here in the projects what it is I am trying to concentrate on.*

**PREPRODUCTION**
- Idea, story, script
- Concept art, designs
- modelling
- Texturing & Shading
- Storyboard, animatic
- ? 3D layout, previz ?
**PRODUCTION**
- ? Lighting ?
**POSTPRODUCTION**
- ? Compositing ?


## Character Design
[B]

Watch: Madame Tutli-Putli (2007)
Little Boat 2011
Long Way North 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIVKpaLFc3w&list=PLl2Ot6laHA3RqVQN3bs4b-5rNxo361SCd

Refined Research: Find the style of the film

Create Concept art after refined research
Pick a specific scene, sketch props, characters and something that captures the essence of the style

"When you're drawing fast, there is passion"
- Isao Takahata

Shape and colours and the psychological effect it can have on people
Colours describe:
➢ Appearance & Occupation
➢ Temperament & Personalitye

Book:
CARTOON ANIMATION WITH PRESTON BLAIR

## Character Design week 1:

### Excercise in class

Kappa/Kawataro ̄

Foster, M.D. (2009) Pandemonium and parade : Japanese monsters and the culture of yōkai. California, US: University Of California Press.

Japandemonium Illustrated The Yokai Encyclopedias of Toriyama Sekien (Toriyama Sekien, Hiroko Yoda (ed., transl.) etc.) (z-lib.org)

Sekien Toriyama’s Japandemonium Illustrated: The Yokai Encyclopedias of Toriyama Sekien 2017
DETTE ER DEN RIKTIGE

#### To Do
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH1wev__pSg
- [ ] Make a PureRef board out of Kappa characters
- [ ] Make some 1 minute sketches based on the PureRef inspirations
- [ ] Draw a more proper character sheet?
- [ ] For Friday: Make 10 quick pages of storyboard
- [x] Send my character on a quest
- [ ] Finish the rustyness tutorial substance I started
- [ ] Rig my robot?

15.02.2023
new gameplan! make a 3D environment that the camera can easily move around on. on top of that, create either the character in 3D and rig it ooooor draw it in 2D like disney style on top of the 3D enviromnet. could look very nice

Character design idea where the fungi is being controlled by robots rather than them controlling us

# Inspiration

Treasure Planet

The story of the original Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson is what inspired my story and also the film Treasure Planet which takes inspiration from this classic story and book.

Louis Stevenson, Robert. (1882) *Treasure Island.* England: Cassell and Company.

*Treasure Planet.* (2002) Directed by J. Musker and R. Clements. [Film] US: Walt Disney Pictures.


The characters in this galactic setting suits to my theme perfectly.


The Iron Giant

*The Iron Giant.* (1999) Directed by B. Bird. [Film] US: Warner Bros. Animation.

The main inspiration from The Iron Giant would simply be the size of him and how he moves around with this exact character design and trait.


Ratchet and Clank : The silliness and quirkyness of the language and worldbuilding

https://magazine.artstation.com/2021/07/insomniac-games-ratchet-clank-rift-apart-art-blast/





Model Sheet of Clank:

Concept art from Ratched and Clank:
https://blog.playstation.com/2012/08/22/the-ratchet-clank-youve-never-seen-10-years-of-concept-art/

The art of Ratchet and Clank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZu5onJ8tcg

Simon Staalenhag, of course

The secret of NIMH

Ron's Gone Wrong

Studio Ghibi's Laputa: Castle in the Sky

Fan art:

Fantastic Planet

YF_BOOM on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcfmLKde2XA

# Shrub_Automaton_Trobot

Using AI to

Process images in Maya 17.02.2023



## Imaginary Friend Character Design and Story, sending my character on a quest with a short story

In a galaxy far away, captain Trobot was the captain of the infamous ship Scrap Chrono, and his crew of misfit robots followed his every command.

Following a mysterious map he found in an old journal his grandmother left him, he was on the search after the hidden magical Cosmic Cog which had the power to transport him and his crew back to their home planet and to find their long forgotten families.

With a newfound sense of purpose, Captain TroBot set sail with his useless crew, determined to find the magical cosmic cog. They faces countless obstacles along the way, including rouge pirates and treacherous black holes.

The screw was hidden on a deserted island in a temple guarded by fierce robotic guardians. Captain TroBot and his crew battled their way through the guardians and finally reached the hidden chamber.

As Captain TroBot inserted the Cosmic Cog into Scrap Chrono's navigation system, the ship suddenly jolted and blinding light filled the room. When the light faded, the ship was surrounded by a strange field, and they were suddenly transported to their home planet.

Captain TroBot and his crew found each their homes, but realised it was not as it once it had been and they all found out that it was on the ship Scrap Chrono their real home was and they left their home planet filled with only strangers.

And from that day on, Scrap Chrono sailed the galaxy, searching for new adventures and new treasures to plunder.

## Storyboard


# Style Guide

## Inspiration for the style guide

I always like to have a strong and vibrant colour palette for the things I am working on. I was really inspired by Spider man: into the spider verse when it came to choosing the colour for my story


Having a color style guide for my project was a smart decision. The colour style guide ensures that all elements of my project are visually cohesive and consistent. By defining the set of colours, I ensure that the project's design is professional, polished, and on-brand. Additionally, the guide saves me time and effort in the long run, as I won't have to constantly make decisions about which colors to use.

Setting up the style guide in Adobe Illustrator is very clean and easy
The colour style guide only came together after I had finished the final textures for Nova AstroBot as I then saw clearly what would fit

Final Style Guide

## Stylized style

I am always attracted to a more stylized style when it comes to playing video games. My favourite games are Abzu, Firewatch, Journey and Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

## UV Mapping Robot

Head

Body / Torso and arms

Legs

## Substance Painter

Rustyness effect

## Joints

Realising that with the current model, it will be difficult to animate, so I should ass spheres as joints that will help with the movements
From: Carlos Baena's Journey: Simplicity in Animation | Animation Mentor Blog

Adding the joints so He will be able to be rigged, moved and animated better

Seeing the issues occuring in Mixamo and needing to fix up the joints

Now optimized for Mixamo. Textures will be on 3 different maps as the robot will be large

Mixamo: A robot doing robot dance

Substance Painter

Creating a smart material out from the colour and material choices I did with Nova, I was able to quickly give Trobot a similar nice srusty pastel style

The Textures does not work on the animation rig as the animation rig uses only one map. So now redoing the UV map to all fit on one map

One texture map

# Changing my idea : Nova AstroBot

TO DO:

1. Make a storyboard with my Children's book character
2. Create the Backstory?
3. Also create the story I want to tell
4. With this storyboard, each key frame for the animation
5. Create the astronaut robot character
6. Rig the character so I am able to move their body around
7. 3D-Model
8. UV Map
9. Texture
10. Block out scenes in Unreal Engine
11. Block out supporting asstes?
12. Place inside Unreal Engine
13. Lighting
14. **SUPER DUPER OPTIMIZE THE UVs**

The reason to why I wanted to change up my idea is because I didn't feel that the backstory of Trobot was strong enough to tell a story. Also, about two years ago I did a crunch course over a week with an Irish illustrator on writing a children's book. Taking my old sketches and ideas from this workshop, I wanted to take this story into the 3D world and develop on that story.

## Using PureRef to create a moodboard

PureRef is an industry standard software when it comes to creating moodboard as it is user friendly with a clean design, allowing the user to concentrate on the most important thing, which is to create moodboards with inspiration and not having to work out how things work.

PureRef moodboard of the helmet for my character after the feedback from the initial sketch is that it is a good design overall, it is just the head that needs to look more "Austronauty".


Oscilliscope

# ***CONTINUE HERE,

## Modelling Process




100% orginal idea and I'm not taking inspiration from anywhere

## Texturing

https://polyhaven.com/

Ratchet from Ratched and Clank is 152 cm tall
source: https://hero.fandom.com/wiki/Ratchet_(Ratchet_%26_Clank)#:~:text=Ratchet%20is%205%20feet%20tall,(44.3%20kg.)

So my character will be 150cm tall

Normals look fine

Substance Painter-progress

When creating textures: it is recommended to use AI standard surface in Maya as it has some great basics.

Using Adobe Illustrator to create my own stickerdesign

Adding my own stickerdesign to the model

## Rigging

How to do the rigging:
https://www.youtube.com/@antCGi

Autorigging:
https://actorcore.reallusion.com/auto-rig

Trying out autorigging with Mixamo
Trying out autorigging with Mixamo

As seen in this image, the joints are jumping out of the body, so I need to change up the mesh

Other issues: need to combine details with it's parents

Importing again, just properly

Placing markers is very easy by the example setup Mixamo gives

Setting up the Rig and using the 3 chain finger setup

Setting up in Unreal

Import animation into Unreal Engine?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtSORVgkdu8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyXeB1QtC0A

Fully Redoing the UVs after seeing how the textures are not optimal in Unreal

How it looks in Unreal:

Optimizing UVs... again

Super duper optimizing, now every surface that is on the inside of the model now

Fixing up textures, again... finally!

Texturing on 1024, then resizing the map and rebaking on higher textures to 2048

HighRez in Unreal.

**here, reconsider the UVs based on feedback from Andrew, maybe divide the details on two maps for example**

Trying to reskin the model in Maya after seeing how the animation works. See if I can fix the jumping buttons

## Modelling the storybook

An ancient magic looking book based on this tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zZGzokAJrE&t=1741s


Final book

Modelling the book open

Smooth pages for the open book

# COMPOSITING
Whiteboxing
Previsualization (also known as previsualisation, previs, previz, pre-rendering, preview or wireframe windows

### Desert_Scene

Whiteboxing the desert scene

It is easy to see how I shall sculpt the landscape by pinning the preview of the camera first

Adding Heat Haze Post Process Material to the scene

One can go really really crazy with the effect

**ADD TO THIS SCENE**
- [ ] Stylized sand
- [x] Heatwaves effect

### Underwater_Scene

Maybe this would fit, it is just not animated

**Mixamo animations that can work:**
- Male sitting pose
- Waking
- Treading water

Animation used here: treading water. Nova is floating underwater

Particle system that can fit to the scenes

Underwater scene with particle effect, should change the particles to bubbles obviously

Changing the mask from a diamon node in the material browser, I created a simple bubble in photoshop

Instead of using diamonds like in the tutorial, I created the same one with a different mask to imitate bubbles

**ADD TO THIS SCENE**
- [ ] Can reuse stylized sand from desert scene
- [ ] Watch tutorial on getting it "underwater feeling"
- [ ] Try making moving foliage that floats in space
- [ ] Bubbles?
- [ ] The floating book?
- [ ] Underwater look:
- [ ] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfNIEkHSfns

### Factory_Scene

Inspiration: Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin


Creating a vaery simple window that will be in the background

Setting up a glass material that will be for the windows

Whiteboxing the scene and setting up the camera

Setting up camera 02

For animation for this scene: Bartending looks nice

Bartending animation

Setting up patterns that can fot on the floor. As my background is graphic design, I always try to implement some of my adobe illustrator techniques into whatever I am working on to make sure I don't loose my techniques

Setting up the floor and lighting in the scene

This material function allows me to give a flickering effect to the lighting in the scene

Animating a material using simple arrow mask I created in Adobe illustrator to give a conveyor belt effect to the scene

Animation for Nova: Agony

### Outer_Space_Scene

Modelling designs for the planets

Whiteboxing the outer space

Creating Blueprints for the planets so it is easier to add seperate materials to all the different assets. Also I can create different blueprints with different choises of planet parts and make a variety of different things based on my the simple choises of planet parts

A lot of cool effects with the particle system works well with the scene

Scene progress

### Pushing_Something_Scene

"keyword Pushing" looks good

## Text render to add the story to my game

By creating a Blueprintclass called Text Renderer, I am able to add the text to my scene

How it currently looks in the scene:

Realised after I don't need the text blueprint, I can simply add a plugin that has all of these simple features already built in. Even though it is in beta mode, it has all of the functions that I need

Setting up the text to fit nicely in the cameraframe

## Lighting and Rendering, watch tutorial

lighting and rendering
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSbBsXbjxPo

hiw to render
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFTfGQgiGBw

## Tutorial with Nathan

Question: How do I connect the animation of running desert scene to another?