Project1

Showreel

Link

WEEK01: GROUP BUILDING AND THEME SETTING

WEEK02: CHARACTER REFERENCE AND CONFIRM

WEEK03: SCENE REFERENCE AND CONFIRM

WEEK04: SCENE 1

WEEK05: SCENE 2

WEEK06: SCENE 3

WEEK07: SCENE 4

WEEK08: CHARACTER ANIMATION

WEEK09: INTEGRATION AND RENDERING

WEEK10: SUBMISSION POST: PROJECT 1

Reflections

I learned a lot during this project. Have a deeper understanding of the construction of the scene.

Especially modeling, although not difficult, but very boring. Although the process is boring, it is very rewarding after seeing the finished product. What bothered me was the fusion of AE and the 3D model, and in the end I didn’t solve this problem and gave up on this scene. But I chose the harder way…

The biggest difficulty in this work is the linkage between UE4’s lighting and music. I found a lot of video tutorials on the Internet, slowly explored, and consulted many classmates and teachers, and finally completed this scene. Controlling Blueprints bothers me a lot, as a UE4 newbie.

In short, I learned a lot of new things in this project, and also learned a lot of ways to solve problems. I will continue to enjoy my animation journey.

We’ll do all the rest this week.

Chenghao Su added some elements to my scene to make the scene look richer.

We chose the light flickering scene and the school scene made by UE4.

The rest of the scenarios ultimately we have no choice. Because we don’t have time to do more integration.

Here are some finished pictures.

Chenghao Su and I finished the character animation this week.

We divided the labor, put the characters into Maya, and completed part of the animation separately.

Chenghao Su changed the character’s clothes and hair. Because the weight of the clothes is difficult to deal with. Cloth simulation is also difficult to accomplish.

We imported the finished character animation into Blender and attached the textures.

Added camera movement.

Next week we’ll be putting together scenes and characters.

This week I used maya to model a school scene.

First, I went to Google Maps to roughly browse the structure of the school.

Then I went to the school gate and took a lot of pictures. I will use these photos to model the LCC. I took some detail shots and I’m going to make textures to stick on my building.

Here are some screenshots and screen recordings from my production process.

Modeling is not difficult, but time consuming.

This is the model without textures.

Then I made a texture from the photos I took and put it on the building and rendered it.

This is the final effect.

Next is a short showreel.

I packaged and sent all the completed scenes to Chenghao Su.

Next, we will discuss the use of scenes and the animation of characters.

This week I did a relatively simple scene animation.

I made this scene in C4D.

First of all I simply built a background and made a swirl-shattering effect.

Then I attachThen I attached the shaders and laid out the lights.

This is the final effect.

This scene is very simple, and the visual effects are not very good. We will consider whether to use this scene later.

I made my second scene this week.

This time I’m going to create a natural landscape. Based on some references from week three, I decided to use Blender for this scene.

• Tree ＆ floor making

I created a simple ground and added some details. Next I created a tree with the assets that come with Blender. And found stickers online. The color of the leaves is pink which I really like.nextI created a tree with the assets that come with Blender. And found stickers online. The color of the leaves is pink which I really like.

• Clouds and lights

I added some clouds and added lights. Added a sky by the way. Also my favorite pink.

• Mountain and camera

I built three hills with Blender assets. and added a camera.

I finished my first scene with AE this week. The effect is very good.

Below is a video.(Since exporting video is a waste of time, I took a screen recording.)

But I’m having trouble. AE software is difficult to import 3D characters. I researched for a long time and found that the character model and the background do not blend well.

I found some information on the Internet and finally decided to use UE4 to make a similar scene.

• Construction of the scene

I built a simple model, and found texture materials on the Internet and put them on it, and finally made a triangular space.

I have assets that I found online for the light tube and put it in my triangle space.

• Light controller

I used blueprints to make some controls to control the lights.

Allows the lights to automatically match and flash to the rhythm of the music.

This is the final effect, I can achieve how sensitive the light is to sound by manipulating the controls in the upper left corner.

I changed the color of the light, but ended up changing it back to the original color because it wasn’t good enough.

We had another meeting this week and set the scene.

Scene References

Below are some references.

Scene plan

Regarding the creation of the scene, we thought of several plans.

• Scene 1

We want to make a scene that can be linked with BGM. It can control the flashing of lights according to the rhythm of the music.

I searched a lot and finally decided to build a scene in AE to do this.

• Scene 2

We also wanted to create some scenes close to nature, here are some references.

• Scene 3

We want to create a dynamic scene. Here are some references.

• Scene 4

This is the most important scene. We wanted the characters to dance at the school gates in LCC. So I decided to model a school in maya. Here are some real images I found on Google Maps.

I use them as a preliminary modeling reference.

Next I will start preparing for these scenarios.

We organized a meeting about the choice of character style. We found a lot of videos and pictures about virtual idols on the Internet and started to design the protagonists.

Some realistic virtual idols are included here. They are characterized by being closer to humans.

Some two-dimensional idols are included here, which are in line with our original design. Because our inspiration comes from Hatsune Miku’s 3D concert.

We hesitated for a long time on the setting of the character style. But our final confirmed character style is Imma’s similar style.

This is a character made by Chenghao Su. We identified her as our character.

Team Members:

Chenghao Su(c.su0220201@arts.ac.uk)

Mengyang Yin(m.yin0420211@arts.ac.uk)

Project Brief:

The term “virtual idol” was invented by the Japanese in the 1990s, but there have been characters that fit a similar concept before. Lin Mingmei of “Macro Stronghold” was a representative virtual idol of this period: in his name, the episodes in the play were released as idol albums and entered the Oricoon list. These images born before the concept are generally called “virtual idols of Yuanzu”.

With the development of science and technology, virtual idols continue to evolve into various forms, and the interactivity is getting stronger and stronger, and the definitions are constantly updated: from virtual idols based on 3DCG, virtual idols based on network activities, and virtual idols based on games , all the way to idols based on music production software. As the first virtual idol to use holographic projection technology to hold a concert, Hatsune Miku has held concerts in many countries.

Among them, technological progress is an important driving force for the generation and development of virtual idols, such as 3D modeling technology, sound library technology, and holographic imaging technology, which provide the necessary material conditions for the construction of virtual idols. In addition, the development of two-dimensional culture also provides a broad market for virtual idols. Some media believe that the popularity of virtual idols is because TAs will not collapse or have scandals, and satisfy people’s perfectionism complex.

Our inspiration came from Hatsune Miku’s 3D concert. We refer to many AI virtual characters and want to create a character by ourselves to achieve the breakthrough of the dimensional wall. We’re going to use the advanced 3D animation we’ve learned to make a video of an AI dancing, and we’re going to apply new techniques like stage art.

Task Assignment:

I am mainly responsible for the scene in this project. Including scene modeling, lighting, rendering and more.