What's the story that links Hoover, Bros and Vikings VFX?!!

Random connection of the week:  

There was a Hoover randomly stood in our hallway the other night. It reminded me of a story that Deborah Melsom told to me, when we were both in the art department on Pie in the Sky III.
Deborah lived in a block of flats, and 'Bros' (80's trio - as pictured above...lol) also lived there too. Deborah said she had to fight her way through screaming fans to get to her car each morning. She told me of the morning that she was taking her Hoover to the repair shop, and during the chaos of getting through screaming teenage girls, promptly forgot to put the Hoover in her car, and left it stood on the pavement. When she called the security guard on the gate, to check if her Hoover was there, and he confirmed that, yes it was, indeed, still there,  she asked him if he'd mistaken it for a Bros fan...hahaha.
So remembering her story, I looked her up on IMDb; and in this process found Julian Parry; who was the Art Director on Pie in the Sky III. He's now in VFX and was responsible for theVfx content Vikings – including vfx bid breakdowns, ‘on-set’ supervision – Vfx direction & addition 2nd unit director.
I got in touch and we are now connected again!
And all because of a Hoover.

(love how the Hoover image, is a silver and red 'V' shape, as per the Vikings image too)

Masters Project THAW: Camera shots and timings

I've put together a visual shot list, in preparation for the live action shoot in the green screen studio at DJCAD on Feb 23rd...
These timings are likely to change, however, with this list, I'll have a good idea of how long to shoot each particular shot.
This has also flagged up that I'm going to need an extra plate after shot 9, which will involve bright sunlight and snowy trees.
I think some timelapse photography up at Glenshee would be a good idea fairly soon!

Rigging in Maya; 'connection editor', 'expression editor' and 'Set Driven Key'

Using the connection editor in Maya to connect finger controllers (blue flags) to the joints.

Click on the relevant controller, in this case the Left Pinky Contoller and load it into the left column of the connection editor.

Select the joint you wish to move (showing as 'green' selection) in the model, and within a blue highlight line in the connection editor.

Select which rotation axis you wish it to connect to, on the right hand panel (in this case the Rotation X).

 Using the 'Set Driven Key' commands in Maya, to select drivers (in this case the foot control) and the driven (foot locators to make the feet bank)

 Creating simple 'expressions' (simple mathematic MEL script) for the forearm joint. An additional forearm joint was inserted into the arm.
Without this additional joint, if the wrist is rotated 90 degrees, then the geometry and associated textures can become very deformed...particularly textures such as clothing or tatoos.
By creating an expression, the forearm can also rotation, say by 45 degrees, keeping the geometry and textures between the elbow and wrist in tact.
Image below shows the Expression Editor floating panel with the objects (left panel) and rotation axis (right panel) and the 'new' expression (script) highlighted in blue.

 Flag shaped finger controllers, drawn with nurbs curves (snapped to the grid in the front view panel) and then respositioned. The centre pivot of each flag was moved to the bottom of the flag 'pole' and then snapped to the finger knuckle joint.

 Testing the controllers and the rotation of the finger joints

Showing the contollers mirrored.
Blue for left and red for right.

Previs Still, Maya lattice deformers and a moody backdrop

Previs stills - working on the final shots of 'Thaw' and the timings...
I prefer the look of a growing 'shoot', rather than fully formed leafs....and I love this moody, abstract backdrop...
It's been great to scroll through the saved render shots, as it's given me a glimpse of how the water droplets will look once animated, by way of lattice deformers....

Previs Screen shots

I'm now putting a Previs together, using playblasts from Maya and importing into Premiere...
blocking out camera moves, timings and checking against the animatic...
Below are a few screen shots of the original Photoshop images in the animatic, above the corresponding rendered screenshot in Maya...
The Maya shots are yet to be lit correctly, with final materials and comp, but these shots will give me an impression of the timings and where I need to adjust...

Shot_16 (Photoshop image from my animatic). Brendan Body suggested that the ice men are shown in contrast against the background, so that the focus of the scene is clear to the audience; and that the background should be simple and atmospheric...

Shot_17 (Maya render screen shot from the Previs. Woman's hand will be live action and filmed in the green screen studio and comped in Nuke. Using a contrasting, atmospheric and more simple backdrop

When I created the playblast the model disappeared....after reading some frustrated rants in Maya

forums (!) I discovered that other people had the same problem....simply change the renderer settings in the panel from 'Viewport 2.0' to 'Legacy Default Viewport'. It resulted in the model material changing and the ice men looking mysteriously purple (quite nice, but not icy!); but none the less, for Previs purposes this is ok....

Shot_17 (Photoshop image from my animatic) the woman will be live action and filmed in the green screen studio and then comped in Nuke.

Shot_17 Maya screen shot in the Previs

Shot_18 (Photoshop image from my animatic). As shot 16 Brendan Body suggested that the ice men are shown in contrast against the background, so that the focus of the scene is clear to the audience; and that the background should be simple and atmospheric...

Woman to be live action and filmed in the green screen studio

Shot_18 Previs screen shot in Maya (final materials, textures, lighting) to be completed....

Shot_23_water_droplet (Photoshop image from animatic)

Shot_23_rendered_image from Previs. Live action hand to be filmed in green screen studio. Fog, junk and God Rays to be comped in Nuke

Maya Rigging: joint creation, and axis rotation for finger and thumb joints

Rigging and joint creation for fingers and thumbs...

Showing the joint hierarchy and naming conventions highlighted in blue, in the Outliner

 As the movement of the thumb joint, is at an angle, compared to the fingers, the rotation axis within the thumb joints needs to be adjusted.
Below is an example of the handwritten notes I take in class, in addition to the live tutorials and brilliant work sheets that Sean creates...
By listening, watching and writing simultaneously, I can get a deeper understanding of what is required...

Image below of the joints in 'component' mode....and each individual gismo and rotation axis being adjusted.
L_thumb_01_bind joint retains the same orientation in X,Y,Z axis, as the finger joints (e.g Y is vertical, X and Z are at 90 degrees)
L_thumb_02_bind joint (second joint down the chain) has the orientation adjusted, so that the Y (green) axis is rotated outwards to about 45 degrees (perpendicular to what would be the thumb nail).
And the X (red) axis points directly along the chain to the next joint along...

The rotation orientation adjustment was made created in the Perspective view by eye...

 Selecting the hierarchy in Outliner and testing the rotation of all joints simultaneously

Creating heel locators, snapping to the ankle joint then repositioning (making sure that the pivot point is also moved)

Locators indicating inner and outer foot banking....
Outliner shows parenting hierarchy

Preliminary screen shots to show the early stages of a colourscript

 Some screen shots to get an idea of early stages of a colourscript....