FMP Video

FMP Showreel

WEEK01: Inspiration and Theme Setting

WEEK02: Scene Reference，Character Reference and StoryBoard

WEEK03: Character Design 1

WEEK04: Character Design 2

WEEK05: Scene 1 ＆ 3

WEEK06: Scene 2

WEEK07: Animation-Face Expression

WEEK08: Animation-Body Movements

WEEK09: Shot Settings and Composite Rendering 1 ＆ 3

WEEK10: Shot Settings and Composite Rendering 2

WEEK11: Editing and Project Summary

Editing

This is the final step of the project – editing.

I lined up the shots in the order in which the story develops. I found the right background music online and added it to my video. Music is divided into two parts. The combination of music and pictures in the first part presents a depressive and painful emotional feeling. The second part calls for a cheerful, warm feeling.

I added the sound of the heart rate detector at the very beginning of the video and when the protagonist is lying on the hospital bed, which can also set off the atmosphere very well. In the second half of the video, the chirping of insects and birds is added, which is also the same reason.

Project Summary

The film is about 25 shots, not many, but I made the most of every shot to convey the story to the audience. From the design of the storyline to the production of characters, scenes, and actions, I have done everything with great care.
The plot may be a bit obscure, if you don’t know the premise of the story very well. The story is told through a chain of dreams. But in fact, this story has no real ending. Everything can be the beginning or end of a dream. So the title of this story is Fantasy.
The biggest difficulty in this project is the creation of atmosphere. Do this with lighting, environments, costumes, and more. I repeatedly adjusted many lighting parameters, and finally achieved the effect I am satisfied with. But the only regret is that the character’s clothing material is not well reflected in the video. I’ve tried many ways, but nothing works.
This is the first animation I made with a full storyline. I hope that I can learn from the previous experience and make better animations in the future animation production.

Shot Settings and Composite Rendering 2

This week I will continue with the setup of the shot and the compositing render.

Same as the previous steps, I set up the final shot. UE4 renders very fast, just as conveniently as in a real-world studio. This is why I choose UE4 to make my work. The effect is very good, very close to the real world. It’s the effect I like.

The two parts of the scene needed to create two opposing atmospheres. The first part is consistent with the previous shots in the hospital.

And the second part should present a warm and hopeful feeling.

The sun shines on the character’s face, forming a strong contrast with the previous darkness.

Here are some rendered images.

All shots are done. I’ll be editing the video next week. Finish the final work.

Shot Settings and Composite Rendering 1

This week I will be doing shot setups and compositing renders of interior scenes and characters.

I livelinked the characters from iClone to UE4.

Through the previous production of characters, actions and scenes, especially the scenes, I have roughly created the atmosphere of the story. Next I need to enhance these through the lens. The first is a zoom shot from the hospital corridor for the first act. Then the protagonist stands by the window and looks out. Then to the empty seats. Can express a depressed, tense mood.

Next I set up the camera and render.

Shot Settings and Composite Rendering 3

The same goes for another scene. In the last shot of the story I used a camera move.

What the first shot of the scene needs to convey is that the character is nervous and doesn’t want to go through the pain. She also expressed that she recalled being helped by bone marrow donors.

The last shot is a close-up, and later I will edit the bear(mysterious man) to appear in the group photo of the character.

Body Movements

This week I’ll be making body movements and combining them with the expressions I made last week. iClone’s body motion capture requires professional equipment, which I don’t have. So I can only do this work in maya.

Body movements generally include walking, changing clothes (turning in circles), falling asleep on the desk and waking up, breathing, being frightened by a bear, standing up, etc. There are no particularly complicated movements, so it is not difficult to make.

This is a small portion-changing clothes (turning in circles).

After I made all the motions, I imported them into iClone to combine the expressions and it worked really well.

This is a small portion- falling asleep on the desk and waking up.

Since then all my animations are done and next week I will combine the scene with the animation and set up the camera.

Face Expression

After the scenes and characters are done, the next step is to start motion design and production. I split this part into two parts. The first part is expression design, and the second part is action design. This week I’m going to start off with emoticon design first.

Expressions mainly include happy, nervous, surprised, frightened, etc.

First, I used the facial motion capture plug-in that comes with iClone and connected it to my phone. Then I made the corresponding expression and recorded it in iClone.

This is an example, the protagonist’s expression on the hospital bed when he heard the conversation between the doctor and the parents outside the door.

But this place with a lot of details is not captured very well, I need to import it into maya for adjustment.

This is a test of my acting skills. But my acting was a mess. Animation requires relatively exaggerated expressions and movements. So it can only be adjusted manually through Maya. Exaggerated part of the expression.

Then I imported it into iClone to see the effect. For next week’s action design.

This is an example of the protagonist’s expression when he suddenly wakes up from a dream.

In the same way I handle all emotes. Next week I will design the body movements and combine them.

Scene 2

This week I learned some lighting setups for outdoor scenes and made this dream scene. I found some related tutorials on Youtube.

This is a forest scene. I improved it based on the forest scene in my previous work “Mysterious Cave”. Changed some plants and improved lighting settings.

By setting the light, you can switch between day and night. The first scene in the dream is in a dark forest, so I changed the value of the sunlight.

Scene 1

According to the script, I need three scenes, which are hospital ward, forest and bedroom. These scenes required a lot of furniture and I couldn’t do it all by myself, so I found some assets on the Internet. This week I will be working on the scene production of the hospital ward and the bedroom.

I found some tutorials on Youtube about indoor lighting setup and used them in my scene production.

This is about assets and builds for wards and corridors.

Based on these assets, I built a hallway and a hospital room, and added some lights and environment texture.

This is the first scene of the story, and I was going to create a depressing and dark mood. So I have been balancing the lighting settings for a long time, which can not only see people clearly, but also render this emotion.

Scene 3

Next up is the bedroom.

This is the last scene of the story. The character wakes up lying on the table. The vibe of this scene is the complete opposite of the first scene, after the character recovers and grows up. So I want to create a warm feeling. Extensive use of warm lighting and warm-colored furniture maps can accomplish this goal.

This is the bedroom furniture arrangement.

Character Design 2

Last week I modeled my character as a baby, and this week I will model her grown-up character. Referring to what the character looked like when he was a child, I created a similar model using DAZ.

Next I made minor adjustments to the character’s face. She was dressed in a school uniform that was similar to when she was a child but of a different color, which echoed well with the characters in the dream.

Next I will work on “Mystery Man”. After much deliberation, I decided to use a bear to represent this “mysterious man”. We don’t know anything about bone marrow donors. By law, the identities of patients and donors are kept confidential. So substituting something non-human is a very good choice. The bear was chosen because the bone marrow donor in the TV show “Dear Kid” was a strong man. I’m very affected, so my first impression of a donor is that of a bear. Of course, it can also be any animal, regardless of gender and body size. I found free models online and tweaked them.

Then I made two more photos for the final scene of the story. To save work, I made pose changes directly in DAZ and exported.

In the end I imported all the character models into Character Creator 3 and fixed their clothes. Adjusted the characters’ eyes, hair, etc., and finally imported them into iClone and waited for them to be added to the animation.

Character Design 1

This week I worked on character design and production. According to my script, the characters are divided into two. The first is the form of the protagonist in childhood. According to the model I made before, I modified some details.

Due to the background of the story, the little girl suffers from leukemia, so I used DAZ to adjust the lip color of the character to make her look sick.

Next I make the first form of the child. This is a patient in a hospital gown. I downloaded free outfits online and adjusted them. This is very suitable for the setting of the plot to the characters.

Next, I made costumes for the characters in the second scene and added hair and makeup. Among them, the skull on the black clothes represents that the girl is sick and may die at any time, and the standard school uniform after that represents the girl’s redemption and new life. The contrast of makeup is to increase the metaphor in the story, implying the successful operation and recovery of the characters.