SCAD X Harbor | Jingxingliu

Project: SCAD X HARBOR

This project is a collaboration between SCAD and Harbor. I work for real-time team 1 with Tianze Xu, Katherine Faye Nitti, Ben Jones, Julian Schenker and Yejin Eom.

Week 10

The final result is in week 9. Here is the break down for my part

Week 9

Render 4k high resolution for the final composite. Also, match the pattern effect with the new footage

Week 8

Basically render thing out for this week

Week 7

The mentor mentioned that the confetti needs depth of field. However, the image sequence of the confetti doesn't show a proper depth of field even though it is rendered with a z-depth channel. Professor Fowler helped me solve the problem. My z-depth channel does not work because I set the <far cliping> too large in the <camera>. By decreasing <far cliping>, the problem is solved.
Then, I need to focus on the pattern growing effect in shot 2 and shot 3. I tried to match its art style with the pattern-spreading effect on the floor, and here is a preview.

In shot 1, because the actress can not fit in the shoes we prepared, we need to let her wear other heels and replace her heels with the CG heels we have. She moves a little bit with her foot. Therefore, I needed to match the movements of her feet with those of the CG shoes. This animation was made in Maya, and the following is the preview.

Week 6

This week, we spent a day at LED Volume to shoot the shots on Thursday. We discussed and think we might need a particle spreading effect while the background changes in shots 2 and 3. Therefore, I rendered this effect.

I also updated the confetti effect in shot 04. I made different versions of confetti for shot 4, which are various in size of the pieces and distance from the camera.

piece size: large
distance to the camera: close

piece size: small
distance to the camera: close

piece size: small
distance to the camera: far

One of the mentors mentioned that we can have confetti start to fall in shot 03 so that there's a better connection with shot 04. Therefore, we have this preview

Week 5

This week, we decided to add pattern growth to the wall. Kat designs the Fan pattern. Tianze and I focus on the animation of the pattern and how to add it to the curtain and wall. Tianze bring the pattern to unreal too. I try to make the pattern grow randomly, which looks like this.

So, the problem is that while the pattern is climbing, the fan animation only happens in the beginning. Tianze and Kat helped me to solve the problem, which looks like this.

By: Tianze Xu

I make some alteration based on the about result and get the following pattern climbing

Week 4

This week, based on our mentor's suggestion, we changed our preview. Mentors believe that instead of making the walking scene full CG, it is better to live shot and combine CG with live shoot. We killed several shots, including the last shot. My glitter effect is moved to shot 5 in the audience seat. Therefore I made a test render in gold and red.

However, this effect is not very similar to real confetti. I then searched for reference of real confetti.

According to the real-life reference, a few confetti features are considered.
1 Usually, it is rectangle paper
2 The speed of falling is pretty slow because it is very light
3 However, the speed of rotating is pretty fast
4 Overall, they fell together, but there were some variabilities in the details

The new version of the confetti is revised based on the above features and looks like this

Week 3

This week, our storyboard of the story has changed. I will be responsible for the animation of leg walking and the confetti glitter in the last. I keyed the stepping scene in the shot and altered the camera movement multiple times.

For the last scene of glitter, I made 2 render tests in gold and silver

Week 2

This week, we discussed and updated the preview based on the Mentor's suggestion. This is our shots description. (organize by Yejin )

MFS of actress on city street, establishing the location (UE + LED Volume)
CU of high heels, red effect spreads across the ground as she steps (Fully CG)
MS as the world around her dissolves into red carpet runway (UE + LED Volume)
CU of heels from behind, going up red carpet staircase (Fully CG)
EWS of the stage, establishing shot (Fully CG)
MFS of actress walking on stage (UE + LED Volume)
MS of actress, getting awards
Shoes without actress, FX swirling around them (Fully CG)
CU of heels, showing textures (Fully CG)

I am responsible for some shots of the previews. Following is our new preview.

As one of the FX artists, I am responsible for the particle magic effect when it spreads and the effect design for shots 8, which may also be responsible for the shot transaction between shots 7 and 8. I am testing some of the particle effects. The first idea is to use particles covering the screen and letting the shoe come through the particles. The second idea is based on ceremony confetti.

The second idea is based on ceremony confetti.

As an animator I also make the feet stepping animation

Week 1

This week we updated the