Blend shape notes.

Before anything, freeze the base geo and delete history. make sure its at world space.

blend shapes things to note.

1.) Do not smooth the object before doing the blend shape
2.) Make sure to rename the blend shape geo before applying the blend shape deformer.
3.) Do not delete history on the geometry after the blend shape deformer is applied. But u can do it before.
4.) Do not rotate or scale the blend shapes geo on a object level and never freeze transformation.
5.) Do not delete faces or vertices from the blendshapes.
6.) Do not freeze transformations on blend shapes. You can freeze before the blendshapes are created, however once the target shapes are created, do not freeze transformations on the base or target shapes. If not the base will fly back to the origin when animating.
7.) When defining a blend shape, the base shape must be selected LAST.

animation notes for oneself.

1.) key frame the key poses 1st. then the 2nd motions.

2.) try to keep the keyframes for the key movements of different relating joints on the same key frame. (Note down the key frame numbers).

3.) Only after the key poses are established, then work on the 2nd motion.

4.) little pauses in the animation. inbetween keyframes is good.

5.) What the character is thinking at each key pose.

6.) remember, there is follow through in animation. it is not one pose to the next, to the next.

good cg creation links.

http://www.cgsharpe.com/?cat=20

http://www.cgsharpe.com/?p=55 (Maya / Mudbox: Street Cop Workflow by mashru mishu)

http://student.vfs.com/~3d68max/ingridwip.html (making ingrid bergman by max wahyudi)

independant animated movie links

Doing some research on different film maker's experiences while making their own movies... just a few links for further reading.

http://leoanimation.blogspot.com/

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=689065&goto=nextnewest

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=2&t=663849&highlight=film+marketing

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=692957&goto=nextoldest (killer bean by jeff lew)

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=723127&goto=nextnewest (MeetMeline.com)

film marketing...

doing some research now for some kinda of promotional ideas for the animated film...

for no budget, facebook and youtube seems to be the places to promote the trailers and posters. Plus CG talk and cg websites.

From http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/01/19/090119fa_fact_friend?printable=true

"Modern campaigns have three acts: a year or more before the film débuts, you introduce it with ninety-second teaser trailers and viral Internet “leaks” of gossip or early footage, in preparation for the main trailer, which appears four months before the release; five weeks before the film opens, you start saturating with a “flight” of thirty-second TV spots; and, at the end, you remind with fifteen-second spots, newspaper ads, and billboards. Studios typically spend about ten million dollars on the “basics” (cutting trailers and designing posters, conducting market research, flying the film’s talent to the junket and the première, and the première itself) and thirty million on the media buy. The hope is that a potential viewer will be prodded just enough to make him decide to see what all the fuss is about. It’s the “belt and suspenders and corset and parachute harness” approach."

“We have to yell loud and long enough to perfectly inflate the balloon on the day of release—and yet not so loud that we pop it.”

So even if got no money, the idea of using the 3 act ideas can be applied to the animated short.

Interestingly, there have been many recent Hollywood promotions of the web that haven't initially mentioned the name of the film ("Cloverfield" and the recent efforts behind "Quarantine" come to mind). Doesn't calling attention to the movie to early hurt the chance for the promo to go viral? Could it still work with a slate at the end for the film's website?

I will sound out my stratgey in a later post.

for now some links...

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/movie-marketing2.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/filmmakingguidemarketing

http://mag.awn.com/?article_no=671&ltype=Special%20Features

http://www.moviemarketingmadness.com/blog/

diverging edge loops

often I have to diverge or redirect edge loops by re-organising the topology of a geometry.
this is a really simple one that I just realised after a lot of convoluted clickings.. gr....

step 1
step 2

step 3

Done - orange lines show the change in flow!
edge loop tutorials and theories...
http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/showpost.php?p=35554&postcount=3
http://www.subdivisionmodeling.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8000 (more advanced theories for edge loops.)
http://zoomy.net/2008/04/02/modeling-with-edge-loops/


http://www.subdivisionmodeling.com/forums/showthread.php?t=907

subsurface and fake sub surface scattering

http://www.danybittel.ch/t_sss.html
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=214189

Camera Projection tutorials online

simple but good camera tutorial.



http://qvolabs.com/otis_cam_proj_mp_01.html



http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?p=891111



general camera projection notes from DannyGuertsen.



1.) make sure maya to Motr is loaded in preferences



2.) select camera



3.) duplicate and rename to renderCam



4.) select camera -> attribute editor -> display film gate (this is based on camera aperture)

5.) lock it.

6.) Render the scene.

7.) Paint on it (Twice the res, uncompressed)

8.) Hypershade -> Create lambert -> map the texture to incadescence -> zero out all the values.

9.) Go to the render node -> 2D textures -> as projection -> filein Node -> load the painted map.

10.) Projection Node -> attribute editor -> projection type -> prespective -> camera projection, link to camera you want .

11.) Projection Node ->Effects -> filter 0.1 (important)

12.) FileinNode -> Effects -> Filter 0.1 (important)

Baking Projection on to Object UV

1.) select objects you want to bake. Rendering -> Lighting/Shading -> AssigntextureBakeSet-> Attribute Editor -> texture bake set 1 -> Color Mode -> Light&Color

2.) filename Prefix -> blahblah (important to name it)

3.) x-res, y-res up to you. Fill texture seams -> 2-6

4.) Create a directional light and set to 0. This switches the default light off. ( so that the bake will be pure color)

5.) Select the objects + the shader with the projection.

6.) When both are selected, under Lighting/Shader -> Batch bake (mentalRay)

7.) Make sure camera is set to right one and convert and close.

Live projection (no baking)
From 1 camera angle, you can duplicate it and use it from another camera angle. This way you can have a 2nd live projection. By combining these 2 projections via a layered shader, you can have more flexibility.

Then you can use lighting in the scene.

Ambient Occulsion tutorial.

good ah........

http://toi.bk.tudelft.nl/toi-pedia/index.php?title=Mental_Ray_Ambient_Occlusion_tutorial

http://www.game-artist.net/forums/spotlight-articles/1317-tutorial-ambient-occlusion-maya-alchemist101.html


next one camera projection....

my opinion on movies

Personally, movies are a form of escapism and a source of entertainment. And through the years, it makes me appriciate movies that have well rounded characters and developed stories. The really good ones makes me think and reflect on things in the real world. BUt the primary focus is still escapism. There are much better people out there who are totally into the the dramatic and serious subjects in film.

At the end of the day, I want to be able to suspend my disbelief, be entertained and be brought to another world/time/dimension/galaxy far far away. If it is thought provoking, awesome. If it can give a warm fuzzy feeling inside, lagi best. Personal tastes have different views on what constitutes a good movie. And it is hard to pin point. But damn it, I want a happy ending. If I want a sad ending, I just have to look around in reality.

For me, I know that I do not like the following

1.) Horror, gore movies. (I want to laugh and be inspired. Not scared shitless or even worse waste time on "not scary" scary movies.

2.) Period British/American drama and gansta rap movies. (Just different upbring, zzzzzzzz to death).

3.) Mindless violence. (Violence is fine if there is a motivating factor. But violence for just the sake of violence is lazy and lame)

4.) Abstract movies. (aka arty farty movies about nothing or something that no one can understand except the film maker)

5.) Gangsta and gritty detective movies.

Things I like in movies. (reminds of the nokia video cam handphone commerical)

1.) Big explosions and loads of destructions. (I paid $10 for 2 hours of my life. Show me the eye candy)

2.) Realistic, high quality, I cannot tell what is real what isn't visual effects. (not some cheapo TCS visual effects done by students in poser)

3.) Good dialog and humor. (good dialog does not have to mean loads of dialog.

4.) Robots, Monsters,battle planes, martial arts, aliens and super heroes.

5.) Cool non-regurgitated story and non-lame plot that do not drag. ( I have ADD so I like movies that move at a decent pace.)

I do not know if these tastes are reflective of the average movie goer but hese are my own very biased, myopic preferences. of course I do appriciate a well directed, well writtern and well acted movie regardless of the genre. But I am more of the fanboy type of audience rather then the hard core movie affectionatos that knows all the weird quirky movies.