Post-Production

Pre-Production | Production | Post-Production

 

All concept art by Pei Hong Tan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 10: After Halves  Oct 31 – Nov 6

With our shoot and Halves presentations behind us, Matt set out to edit a very rough cut for us as soon as possible:  by Wednesday, a 13- minute first version.

We have a team meeting with Pei to list what assets we need for each scene; the most asset-heavy remains the Carnival scene.  Chengfu has already modeled the bedroom and chase scenes and put preliminary textures for them.  We all agree the next rough cut needs to be considerably shorter.

And so post-production begins:

• Michael uses NUKE to key opening newspaper shot

• Chengfu refines the Somnambulist model & rig as well as writes a script to   transfer the mo-cap animation file to the rig

• Matt continues to edit footage for a shorter rough cut

• Sherry composes Jane’s theme makes rough musical sketches of                 the opening & chase scene

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 11  Nov 7 – 13

We have a meeting early in the week to prioritize scenes and set deadlines for each person, deadlines we learn soon enough that are very tough to honor.  Matt goes though 4 iterations of the rough cut, but it still hovers around 11 minutes; everyone is optimistic however, and we plow ahead.  We meet with Russell Mester and Jue Wang, who have expressed continued interest in helping with art assets.  For the Carnival scene, Jue is assigned to model and unwrap a tent, and Russ donates his old wagon model & starts on Freak Show signs until he’s assigned to be BVW marketing guru.  For the chase scene, we talk about what the textures should look like and conclude that urban decay & decrepitude is the look we’re going for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

Week 12  Nov 14 – 20

Two weeks to softs, Matt realizes he needs to cut the movie back significantly if we are ever going to finish.  So The Somnambulist is crystallized into the Carnival, Caligari’s tent, and the Somnambulist tent.  It’s painful to cut the bedroom and chase scenes, but as Ralph always says, you’ve got to learn to kill your babies.  We have an impromptu meeting with Ralph and Brenda, and they are supportive of the decision.

Now we work in earnest to get a rendered rough cut by softs:

• Michael keys ~70% of all shots, and match moves 20 shots

• Matt unwraps Caligari’s tent for Pei to texture

• Chengfu models Caligari’s podium and writes a Maya script to minimize       the jitters in the mo-cap data

• Sherry finishes the first pass at the music for the Somnambulist tent scene

By the time the weekend rolls around we are all pretty exhausted.  Saturday we imbibe some caffeine and film our interviews for our promo videos and Sunday Adam comes to record his voice-over.  It’s nice to see him and he looks tired himself from all the rehearsals for Suddenly Last Summer.  Piped up with coffee, Adam reads his lines quite well, and we finish hours before anticipated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 13  Nov 21 – 27 

As now we’re working around the clock, we meet Monday and conclude it will be a close finish to softs.  I have mixed all scene tracks to one track that Matt can use to add to the rough cut as everyone scrambles to finish the first pass of our CG world in these days before softs.  I take Tuesday to cut the two promo videos while Michael continues to key & match move, Chengfu works on the Somnambulist animation as well as help with unwrapping 3D assets, Matt works on the final metamorphosing shot as well as unwrapping 3D assets, and Pei creates and paints textures with increasing detail.

As soft opening approaches ever so quickly, we realize the limitations of the Organic Motion for the type of animation we are looking for.  While Chengfu’s script helps quite a bit, the animation still looks stiff when juxtaposed with a live actor, and where we could use it to some advantage with our Somnambulist character, let this be a caveat to future users of OMS.  Also, we came across some unforeseen rendering issues with the fluid simulation – both the render farm and Modon server would freeze – further discussion of how to resolve this problem will be required.  These snags have delayed post-production and thus we may need to re-think how best to proceed towards finals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Week 14  Nov 27 – Dec 2

Monday Softs were pretty rough.  I came back to witness my team in shocked silence in light of an unfinished rough cut. On Tuesday, the team made the painful but ultimately right decision to present a visual fx demo reel for finals.  It would be the best way to display the quality we were aiming for as well as the amount of work put into the project.  The plan is to keep on working into the spring semester as an independent study.

What was gleaned from the feedback was that compositing CG with live-action cannot be anything but of the highest quality, since all the CG elements must be as believable and real as the live actors they are juxtaposed with.  This is how we quickly found out the limitations of the Organic Motion System.  When used in BVW worlds, the animation looks great since all the dynamic motion in the worlds is quite simple; however, when put up against the fluid motion of a real human being, the animation looks unbearably stiff and awful.

Criticism on our CG environment focused on its stiffness as well as on inconsistencies of lighting, which is understandable, and on the Samsung 3-D TV, all the colors look washed out, so even the detailed textures Pei did were not received as they should have been. So, given all this, we set out to show the quality that we originally intended in a few shots:  this week we’re focusing on cleaning up the motion capture animation, refining textures for the Somnambulist and for shots from the Chase scene, and finishing the effect of Caligari coming out of the shadows.  Counting from this Tuesday, we’ve got about 200 hours of work left until finals, and Michael’s out most of next week for the BVW Show.

While softs left us a bit heartbroken, we carry on and persevere with our vision of The Somnambulist intact.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 15  Dec 2 – 9

As Michael has to start preparing for the BVW Show on Sunday, he works hard to get as much done on the Caligari shot as possible, so by the after party, we are able to show the finished shot to visitors, where Caligari sneaks up on Francis and Jane, being initially completely hidden by the shadows.  Matt works on the chase street shot, keying the motion blur, which is very time-consuming, and asks Chengfu to change and add a few models, such as a storm pipe and sewer grate, to make the scene look more believable.  Pei works on final textures for the street shot as well as the Somnambulist when he can, as he has to help with the show as well.  Chengfu focuses on cleaning up the Somnambulist animation and checking the lighting for all the shots.  I re-edit our promo video, help Michael gather mo-cap feedback from first-years, do a test render of Chengfu’s animation for the Somnambulist arm tattoo as a PNG sequence, and help Jue with some of the after party set-up.  We set the deadline for all shots to be done for Sunday Dec 11. I draw up a template for the Finals presentation and we discuss briefly what each person will talk about.  The one day I stay home sick my computer is hacked into and infected with 47 viruses, so I quickly draw up our newsletter before handing over my computer to Jon Underwood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Week 16: Finals  Dec  9 – 16

By Sunday, while we do not completely meet the deadline, in addition to the Caligari shot, the street shot is pretty much done, and the Somnambulist shot is rendered and needs to be composited.   I get the last of the first-year mo-cap feedback and compile it for  Michael.  Chengfu wants to test how the arm tattoo and feet particle simulation look on the Somnambulist.  For the tunnel shot, Chengfu refines the model and Pei finishes the final tunnel texture by Monday.  Matt begins to edit the VFX reel and decides to switch the Somnambulist animation to the one originally intended for the bedroom scene, as it looks a bit better, so the Somnambulist shot needs to be re-rendered and composited.  I help with searching for a proper soundtrack for the reel, and in the end Matt chooses a rhythmical piece by Four Tet.  By Tuesday, all the shots are looking quite good, and only the Somnambulist shot remains to be finished.

With my computer back, I start typing up the final post-mortem and make sure our Modon and Randon archives are synced.  The team discusses how we want to go about our final presentation and I prepare a final Powerpoint template.  At softs, the faculty emphasized that we focus on the process for finals, and we will indeed have a lot to talk about.