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.
Imma Janpanese CGI VtuberLilMiquelaChinese-AYAYI-
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.
At the beginning of the project I want to do part of the final project. But after thinking about it, I don’t want to spoil the integrity and continuity of final project. So for this project I am going to do a different theme. But the style is consistent with the final project. Think of this project as a preview.
What follows is the source of inspiration and project settings for this project.
Inspiration
The inspiration for this project is the ancient Chinese prose “Peach Blossom Spring”. (Translation may be wrong. Its Chinese is 《桃花源记》)
The Story of the Peach Blossom Spring is one of the representative works of Yuanming Tao, a writer of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. This article uses the clue of the whereabouts of the fishermen in Wuling to connect the reality and the ideal realm. Through the description of the peaceful, happy, free and equal life in Peach Blossom Garden, it expresses the author’s ideal of pursuing a better life and his dissatisfaction with the real life at that time.
Reference video
Theme Setting
In this project, I mainly wanted to show that the protagonist found a mysterious cave in the deep forest. Just like in “Peach Blossom Land”, the protagonist found a fairyland in the crevice of the mountain in a peach blossom forest.
For this project I want to create a female character myself. Use UE4 to build scenes of dense forests and mysterious caves.
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”.
Virtual idol
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.
Virtual idol
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.
Hatsune Miku’s 3D concert
Task Assignment:
I am mainly responsible for the scene in this project. Including scene modeling, lighting, rendering and more.
After I processed all the footage, I checked it frame by frame with the director’s cut demo. Try to keep it exactly the same as the demo, to facilitate the work of the teammates of sound arts, because she is working according to the demo. Our work is finished. In it I found several bugs and patched them. Here are some finished products to showcase.
I learned a lot from this collaborative unit. Some knowledge about film and television, some virtual compositing skills, and more about learning how to work with others. In this collaboration, I also did things that I have never been involved in before, such as entering the shooting site, completing post-production compositing tasks, and so on.
At the same time, I also encountered a lot of difficulties. I have summed up the more important points:
The pre-shooting should be closely integrated with the post-production. Because some problems occurred during the shooting and were not solved and corrected in time, it would bring great difficulties to post-production, and it was very time-consuming to solve them.
Communicate with team members more. Don’t be embarrassed to communicate with team members just because you can’t solve the problem. Maybe someone else will have a good solution, and you will get better results if you discuss it together.
Work should be more meticulous. Try not to wait until the finished product is made to find too many loopholes in it, which will also waste a lot of time, because rendering is a very time-consuming thing.
Maybe in the future I will work on film and television, because I found it to be a very interesting thing after personal experience.
Thanks to every member of the group for their hard work!
This week I did some work on a shattering effect in my teammate’s scene. There’s also motion tracking for a few shots.
This is a test where I use blocks instead of statues.
This is the final effect.
But in the end my teammates did it too hahaha:)
Next I worked on a couple of motion shots. Taking Noma as an example, I used a mole on Noma’s neck as a tracking point to perform motion tracking, then applied the tracked track to the null object, and then applied the motion track of the null object to the background.
This is the final effect.
There were also a few videos that didn’t track well, and I adjusted them frame by frame, and they worked fine.
Continuing last week’s work, I’ll continue compositing the remaining thirty or so scenes. This is the scene in the lab. My teammate rendered his lab background as a picture and sent it to me. I will combine them.
This is a breakdown. The process is to first extract the characters in the green screen video, then import the background, color the two, and then use supercomp to make detailed adjustments, such as haze, light wrap, etc.
This is the effect of volume fog in supercomp. This can blend the characters with the background better.
This is a comparison after using supercomp.
The effect is still very good, especially the processing of light is very good.
I have synthesized all the materials in the past two weeks. Although a lot of work. But after seeing the good results, it is still very rewarding.
This week I composited the forest scene with the real shot of the characters. The first scene is a panorama with two people sitting in front of a forest talking. This is a reference image I found online.
I used C4D to simply build a rock pile as the base of the bonfire.
Then I found some flame footage on YouTube and used AE to combine everything.
Start by combining the flame with the base of the campfire.
The characters and background were added, and simple color matching was done.
Adding shadows to characters makes them look more realistic. This step is difficult to adjust. The size and angle of the shadow must be judged by the light source. I adjusted it for a long time, and the effect did not reach the best effect I expected.
This is the final effect.
Next week I’ll be compositing the rest of the scene with the characters.
My task is to create a forest scene this week. In the third week I have done a demo, and I am making changes based on this.
I used World Creator to create a new terrain, because the previous terrain was too flat, I wanted to create a terrain with a little undulation.
I added , lights and tents to the terrain. Added OC Sunshine. Also changed the tree model, the pine tree feels better.
Adjust the angle of the sun until it feels like dusk.
This is the one I’m most satisfied with! Since it’s a dynamic background with characters camping outdoors, I added a wind effect to make the picture move.
The forest scene is almost complete. Next week I will be compositing the forest and the real shot characters.
