THE CG ARTIST TOOLKIT: MAYA AND SUPPORTING SOFTWARE CHECKLIST

THE CG ARTIST TOOLKIT: MAYA AND SUPPORTING SOFTWARE CHECKLIST by Ayunie Djohar

Visual Effects: Depth Of Field

Before Any Camera Settings Were Changed In Maya

Depth Of Field In Maya
Cons: Too Long To Render, Grainy Effect

The final render that has been composited in Photoshop and After Effects used images from Maya's render layers- The Beauty Pass And The Depth of Field Pass.

Depth Of Field In Photoshop, with Luminance added to the Alpha Channel
Pros: Faster To Composite, More Control over the noise
Cons: Single Image Composite

Depth Of Field In After Effects
Pros: Applicable For An Image Sequence

Another method from Maya is by using render passes from the render settings. To do this, the camera depth from the tab passes under the render settings is associated to the layer named depth of field under the render layers (Channel Settings).

Settings

Depth Of Field Using Camera Depth
Pros: More Accurate In Comparison To Using Luminance Pass

Visual Effects: Render Layers (Software Rendering)

Composited in Photoshop With A Single Render Pass From Maya

Multiple Render Layers, Each Having Different Attributes

The Different Passes From Maya Composited In Photoshop

Final Image From The Compositing In Photoshop

Compositing In After Effects

Visual Effects: Stereo Camera Rigs in Photoshop & After Effects

Method 1: Rendering Stereo From Maya

Before Any Settings were changed in Maya

Adding The Distance And Calculations

Rendered Stereo Image From Maya

Method 2: Compositing in Photoshop

Compositing In Photoshop

Changing The Layer's Blending Mode To Achieve Final Result

Final Composited Image From Photoshop

Method 3: Compositing In After Effects

Using Set Channels Effects

Using 3D Glasses Effects

  The Outcome Of Using Different Effects In After Effects

Fantastic Voyage Animatics- Version 3

Upon looking at my second animatic, I realised that there was a missing portion in the animation and it does not flow well. So for this third version, I have added the additional scene to show how the Male and Female sex organ looks like.

Fantastic Voyage Animatics- Version 2

For the second version of the animatic, I have decided to add words to help my target audience understand what they have just heard and are about to see.

Fantastic Voyage Animatics- Version 1 (Without Sound)

With my animatics laid out, it has given me a rough idea of the pacing to how my narration would be like. 

Fantastic Voyage Animatic Shot 3

As I looked into the step by step process of this life cycle, here's one of the process where the archegonium releases the content from the neck to the surrounding water which acts as sperm attractants.

Fantastic Voyage Animatics (Opening/Closing Shot)

I have animated the book to help me bring my visualised concept to life.

Adobe After Effects Lesson 3

For today's After Effects Lesson, we learnt how to remove the green screen using the effect Keylight 1.2. It was more effective to mask out the shape to get a cleaner key in comparison to having just applying the keylight to the layer as a whole.

Final Soundscape Animatic

Soundscape Animatics Different Versions

I have 2 different versions to my soundscape animatics.  In the first version, I have added the men cheering on top of the ambience sound in the first few seconds to the animatics.

In my second animatic, I have replaced the cheer with music to create the tempo of this sequence as I feel that it helps to drive the sequence forward.

I am still debating with myself if I should completely take both away and leave it to the ambience sound to propel the story forward. Currently, I feel that it is too much to the sequence and it just kills off the sounds that I've recorded for it.

I am going to do more adjustments to it to see what works best for the sequence as a whole.

Adobe After Effects Lesson 2

For today's Adobe After Effects lesson, we learn how to motion track. We were tasked to position the poster onto the designated place.

The live footage

Poster Before Colour Correction

Poster after Colour correction

Script to Screen: Final Animatic

Adobe After Effects Lesson 1

For today's class, we learnt how to use Adobe After Effects. From the original image, we were told to animate the gears. It was indeed a fairly simple thing to do.

Original Image

Grind logo_AE Practice from Ayunie Adiana on Vimeo.

Like for Like Animatic

To get myself familiarised with Premiere Pro and getting used to the idea of having my storyboard turned into an animatic, I've used my Like for Like storyboard as a practice. After having done this, it gave me possible camera movements I can do for my soundscape project.