Fantastic Voyage Mitosis Revisited

During my crit, it was pointed out a couple science errors I made and some improvements that could be made so I've gone back and changed it. The black chromosome fits more in the world looking more foamy and less like an untextured CG model, I also have the right amount of chromosomes during Telophase and Cytokinesis in addition to the chromosomes now being separated, (showing the effects of anaphase).

Fantastic Voyage - Reflective Statement

For this project I listened to past me's advice after struggling with Script to Screen: don't rush and don't panic, plan and prepare - do my research, do thumbnails, explore ideas and styles, be certain of an idea before jumping in otherwise it would all go down hill as I experienced. As long as I listen to advice given and keep doing well in lessons there is no reason for it to go wrong. This project has given me a confidence boost in my abilities and has made me eager to go on to do bigger and better.

The Good:
I'm pleased the three scientists were impressed by my animation, they liked my poem and that it rhymed and all of it was accurate. They loved how it was presented and looked, my art direction which as clients they don't need to worry about just be intrigued by, which Dr Seuss helped me succeeded in. My lecturers have seen an improvement in my work this project and said it was done with professionalism and determination. My art direction is consistent throughout except for the chromosomes. I have a good habit of sharing my progress and acting upon feedback, even though I can't wait to get to the finish piece I know it will take many learning curves and errors which I prefer to embrace as experience no matter how stressful it gets, I always expect feedback because I tend to struggle with noticing some of my mistakes but I believe that's down to inexperience, with each project I learn more about myself as an artist and my work; I'm finding my faults with the lecturers' help and growing as an artist.

The Bad:
Mistakes are inevitable and this time round it was my amount of chromosomes when the cell splits, the cell splits and in my mind that's divide so I did 4 divide by 2 but cells divide in order to multiply which I knew but I got a bit confused with, it should be 4 in each cell just like in the beginning, but now it's been pointed out I will fix it once toolkit is completed, I've come this far and want it to be as close to perfect as possible. Also I will be changing the textures of my chromosomes so it doesn't look like an abandoned, out-of-universe, plain CG chromosome, in addition to adding a squash and stretch to it to make it like a squishy haribo sweet. Another possible bad thing is the lack of maya used - I didn't vary my textures it was lambert throughout with a paper texture attached to the colour node, I didn't design any characters that needed rigging but that was down to the art direction I chose which I have no regrets about - the cells are recognisable as cells and the layout was clear and well spaced. 

Next steps + Lesson learned:
From this project I have learned about Z-Depth, maya deformers, the importance of transitions. I have practiced good project and time management alongside practicing maya skills learned in the first term of year 1. In year 2 I'm going to keep making art direction number 1 priority, as art direction was the solution to all my problems - decision making is what I usually find difficult and lack confidence in which wastes time, which makes me panic and then makes me rush. I think for every project the brief will give me some sort of indication to what art direction I should go with depending on the task.

Fantastic Voyage - Art Of

Fantastic Voyage - Final Animation

Music: www.purple-planet.com  (Hopscotch)
SFX: www.freesfx.co.uk

Fantastic Voyage - CG Pipelines

Prophase: Left to right: Wireframe, Untextured Model, UV Mapped, Textured Model.

Pro-metaphase: Left to right: Wireframe, Untextured Model, UV Mapped, Textured Model.

Metaphase: Left to right: Wireframe, Untextured Model, UV Mapped, Textured Model.

Telophase: Left to right: Wireframe, Untextured Model, UV Mapped, Textured Model.

End Frame: Left to right: Wireframe, Untextured Model, UV Mapped, Textured Model and Camera Depth Render pass.

Fantastic Voyage SFX

Most of the sounds used in my animation are from www.freesfx.co.uk. The page turn is the only sound not from the website, that SFX only needed basic editing (cropping and noise reduction).

The bubble/popping sound several versions, one way normal, another had a reverb and another a graphic equalizer. I layered it up in multitrack exported it and added a doppler effect to add the effect of things being near and far.

@Phil FV SFX Progress 8

I've changed the beginning and made the text fade. I think I'm there with the layered bubbling effect, I've extended and layered in audition and added reverbs to make it sound like the camera is in a massive space cells making noises sound as if they're near and far away, in addition to adding the doppler effect to it all for that near and far effect also. The heave sound is a no go, and I've got a gentle/subtle cheer for when the cell splits. 

I think I'm there with sounds.

@Phil Fantastic Voyage Progress 7

It's rendered and put together with music and now has SFX, credits and Z depth added on the end.

Orthographs

I didn't make any orthographs because my world has to look 2D despite it being 3D so I used my concept art as an orthograph to model the front of an object which I'd scale in the z axis and bevel to add depth. I also used the concept art for layout reference too.

Z Depth Pass Test

I'm liking this effect and it works well on the end.

Z depth Pass - Attempt 1

For some reason the white is too strong so will re render it all with the white turned down.

Z Depth Pass Test

Using the tutorials below I'm going to test out Z-depth using the camera depth rendering pass on the last scene where the camera pulls away from the nucleus like Jordan mentioned, what it does is make things in the distance blurrier like it would be in reality and things nearer clearer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vrdOa6QlWA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le0SBd6Nu2E

Early shot: Looking how I want it, don't want it to be dark.

Middle shot: Looking good, the cells nearest to
camera is white and background plane is darker.

Last shot: different tones with the plane darkest.

Lighting and Shadow Tests

Using ambient light at different values and different places. I experimented with shadows because maybe it could look like a pop up book which would have shadows but maybe for this animation I should keep it shadow free and keep the 2D look in a 3D space, plus in a still render it looks ok-ish but in a batch render it would look unnatural for a pop up book to move and bounce, plus Dr Seuss books don't have any real world shadows only hatched line marks. 

At the bottom is a shadow test video, I don't like the shadows plus the batch render had different lighting to the single renders so tried to brighten it up in after effects. I don't think the singles renders saved as their true values either despite colour management turned on...

1

0.9

0.8

0.850

Default Shadows

Lighter shadows and light placed high

Light placed low

Light placed to right of camera

Fantastic Voyage Pre Viz Progress 6

I think I'm there with the pre-viz now, my labels won't blink out of existence thats just for pre-viz I'll make them fade in post production alongside speeding up the first transition with the spinning question mark. SFX will also be done after rendering which I'll start tomorrow since my computer is having problems rendering.

Page Turn Transition Tests

I'm going to go with the first one.

Fantatsic Voyage Pre Viz Progress 5

I'm going to gather more SFX before putting it with the video. I've finally got the microtubules to grow, created better transitions, I've reverted back to the other music as it seemed to work best, any jazz music just didn't feel right so I'm sticking with this more friendly upbeat music. I have more creative transitions now. 

After sorting out the SFX I'm going to experiment with lighting/shadows for all scenes and z depth pass on the last scene with all the cells.

Transition Research/Influence

Looking at how these animations transition to give me some ideas for my animation...

Chat with Jordan

Things left to do:

Finesse my animation by adding more to the transitions to make them more interesting and add more bounce to cells, tags and labels to keep and maintain the flow. In the telophase stage make the cell warp and stretch up and down instead of just left and right.

Talking about the transitions, he reminded me of the transitions in Jaws - that swipe, suggesting I should use my cells and backgrounds, make the cell move before the background.

Add a deformer to chromosomes and nucleus so to give them their own character.

For the ending I'm gonna work on the transition between cytokinesis and the cells instead, instead of going through the plane it might be better to do what I did in my animatic which was have the cells appear behind the cells then pull back through cells. He said something about z depth pass in maya and after effects to put things in focus and a background out of focus which might be worth using on the final shot.

I also plan on fixing timings, make the SFX quieter in addition to working on those more. I'm also going to revisit the typography at the start to see where improvements can be made, looking more into motion graphic text animations.

Fantatsic Voyage Pre-Viz Progress 4

I have SFX and Music now, I didn't go with Jazzy music, it didn't work for me. The first half of music I couldn't keep all of it because it goes all Christmassy so I put different music for the second half which works well with/for the ending. I have worked more on SFX and given the signs and transitions their own sound signatures. I don't think I'm there with it yet and I still need to work more on timings to make the narration flow better, which I'll do when I've got those microtubules growing. I will go back to the original animations and make the signs float and add flare deformers to Prophase, Pro-metaphase, Metapahase/Anaphase cells to continue that flow of gentle bouncy movements started from the typography.

I've also posted the video with the last bit of music I used.

Left to do:
Make Microtubules grow.
Adjust timings to make narration flow better.
Re-visit animation to make visuals work with SFX.

Music and SFX Influence/Research

In the animations it's: upbeat, sometimes jazzy, trumpet, xylophones, cartoon SFX, bouncy, children's music, silly, fun. The beginning of the movie is the type of music that goes best with my visuals and has that same upbeat, jolly vibe...