This week has been about cleaning up.

The iteration we were able to show at Softs didn’t quite have all the elements in because they were being rendered. But there were some slight adjustments that still needed to be made, and because we had a little bit of time, we thought we’d add some elements we didn’t think we were going to be able to get to.

Dorothy decided to tackle the creature’s frills. In the original concept design, Frostridge had four floppy ear-like appendages that would spring out stiff when he was about to strike. We had decided they wouldn’t be done a few weeks ago because of time. But, Dorothy found some time and decided to make them and animate them. She did a great job and they are now being added to the render.

Cewon also tackled our opening credit logo for Foxhole. It was decided weeks ago that what the film needed was a very wide establishing shot to show the audience the world in which they’re stepping. We also thought the perfect moment for this would be to combine that opening shot with our production team name. But since there was no animation involved and it was going to be a static image, we thought it best if Cewon tackled this last because she could work on it while other things are being rendered. She has now completed the production logo and even put some lighting effects on it.

Sai’s biggest task over the past week has been working with grass. Because the creature interacts with the grass so often, that element has had to be finessed at almost every step of the way. We’ve gone back and forth about color, movement, and outline, and every time we put new elements in the mix, it seems the grass must be adjusted in some way. But he now has the grass reacting to the creature in a way that looks natural.

Sai also adjusted the animation. Sometimes the wrenches didn’t seem to be hitting the scaffolding just right, but we learned that the scaffolding was actually not being composited in the right place. When the scaffolding was moved up, much of the problem went away.

Lighting was one of the last elements to be done before compositing, but, some things needed to be composited before Julia could fix the lighting. This week she finished polishing the lighting elements for our opening shot which was a difficult task due to all of the moving elements as we pan from the top of the wall to the bottom. Julia had to keep track of both 2D and 3D elements to make sure proper shadows were being cast on all surfaces and that the sources of light didn’t wander.

The last thing to be done in the following week will be sound. Paul will take the finished animation and make sure all the sound is synced up properly. He’ll also add some sound to the opening credit logo and then send the whole package back to Chen to do a final render of the entire piece.

The team will also be practicing for their final presentation which will be on Thursday. The faculty has advised that Foxhole show the entire animation during the presentation, so they are having to work hard to squeeze in all other relevant information in a ten minute time span. But, their adviser, Ruth, had some great suggestions on topics to concentrate on, so they’re hard at work putting together that presentation.