After looking into the two types of fluids used in Houdini, Voxel and Particle Based, I decided to focus on the latter. This method is more appropriate to create liquids and viscous fluids mainly due to the lack of spatial limitation and that was the focus of my research. In this presentation I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of particle based fluids, when compared to voxel fluids, and explain what are the best techniques and practices to achieve good
visual results that can be integrated in cartoon or realistic shots. At the end of the presentation I will screen some scenes created while researching this topic. These videos will demonstrate the effect and function of different parameters, the integration of this technique with others such as Rigid Body Dynamics and finally some examples of possible usage of particle based fluids in production of visual effects.

Online_Notes

This presentation looks at the development of a 'Automatic Compositing' custom tool in Houdini, from an initial problem to an intuitive and usable solution. Areas talked about include why Python is the TD language of choice, the powerful libraries it offers (including the use of QT Creator), and how these tools can be written and used inside Houdini. A case study looks at the implementation of a Houdini tool that utilises QT and python libraries to help automate the process of setting up compositing networks. A conclusion on the success of this tool is then given along with a summary of what I have learnt from this research.

Online Notes

My lecture will present a theoretical look at how writing programs for parallel computation on the GPU differs to writing programs for sequential computation on the CPU. The possible benefits of parallel computation over sequential computation will be discussed.
It is intended for anyone interested in a fundamentally different approach to solving problems, and requires only a basic knowledge of CPU programming as a prerequisite.
The lecture is informed by the knowledge I acquired whilst developing my own GPU programs as part of this unit.

Online Notes

With it becoming clear that processors are increasing in size rather than speed, I decided to investigate the cause and implications. The physical limits of silicon are being reached, preventing hardware from being run at higher clock frequencies.
Compared to CPUs, GPUs are cheaper both in initial cost and ongoing power requirements. They do have a number of disadvantages though, such as SIMD and access to system memory. There are a number of important appropriate uses for GPUs, which should be used to solve problems which are highly parallelisable. CPUs are also reaching a bottleneck in speed, requiring software to be developed with parallelism in mind, though not to the same degree.
I will discuss a number of applications and techniques suitable to parallel processing, including a case study of Avatar.  I conclude with the opinion that parallel processing will be essential in future software development.

Online Notes

Having investigated the current methods of city generation I decided to look at an improving the current techniques. To better understand how cities, towns and villages develop I look at a case study of the development of Bournemouth.
Stepping through history looking at the earlies tracks, the Christchurch Inclosure act of 1805, the rise of Bournemouth, and Thatcher's "Roads for Prosperity", I look at the local and national factors that influence the building or roads.

Online Notes

In this talk I will briefly investigate the physical phenomenon of fire, and how this ultimately informs and influences fluid based fire simulation in 3D with specific reference to the Pyro FX digital asset in Houdini.  I shall be analysing the various parameters of the pyrosolver node to establish relationships between variables and simulation results and I will discuss the various simulations that I have performed with reference to the real-world characteristics of fire.

Online Notes

A soft object is like a rigid body but it can change its shape during a simulation. After gathering and exploring the different algorithms to create deformable object, I have focused my research on the meshless technique which is the most appropriate for my purpose. The idea of this project is to understand soft body and create a simple system to visual in real-time a jelly object. In this research project, system such as free-form deformations (FFD) and other non-physical deformations are ignored. During the presentation, I will introduce and give an overview of the different algorithms used to simulate soft body in computer graphics and next I will explain the main steps to implement the meshless technique.

Online Notes

‘3d Compositing Workflows in Nuke’is an exploration into the industry-based usage of 3D compositing using The Foundry’s Nuke software package within the VFX pipeline. Starting with a foundation in traditional compositing, researched are industry specific core techniques of 3D compositing in relation to two key areas; backplates and hero assets. Explored are key 3D compositing workflows to create high-end digital composites such as; backplate clean-up, the creation of 3D environments and texturing imported 3D assets. All of this takes place within the post production process.

These theories and practices are supported with case studies throughout, as well as my own personal involvement of implementing the technique in Nuke. This research inquiry seeks to enlighten upon 3D compositing’s roots, core implementation and future usage within an industry-based VFX pipeline

Online Notes

Integrating CG objects within a live action environment is a challenge which is becoming more commonplace in today’s film industry. It is important that people planning a career in film understand the techniques used in CG integration so they can factor this in to the visual style from early stages of design. I have carried out some research in Image based lighting as a technique that can be used to recreate true-to-life light reflections seen on actual objects in an environment. Images are collected using a light probe, which are then unwrapped and mapped onto CG objects which have been placed into the scene. This results in colour matching between real and CG objects giving a more realistic and believable look to the whole image. My personal enquiry is based on implementing the process by integrating a CG tree with live footage of a forest scene.

Online Notes

I have focused on how to express happiness, anger, surprise and confusion with a cartoon style human face.  First I explored what elements must be present to signal each one, and found that style often comes into play, then I made a comparison of simple shape-based and cluster-deformation-based facial rigs to see which is likely to produce the best effect in a student's animation project.

Online Notes

I investigated the concept and practicalities of video projection mapping by tracking down examples of its use and taking part in the production of a large scale projection event. The medium in its current form is fairly new and is still not widely recognised by most people. I found that its uses fall in to two distinct camps; advertising and marketing events, and large scale light shows purely for entertainment. I will discuss the differences in these two approaches, as well as the possible applications for this new medium in the future. I will talk about how the shows are put together and give insight in to what role computer animation plays in implementing a show of this kind. I will use examples of my work as well as that of others working in this field throughout the presentation in order to more clearly illustrate the ideas and techniques behind my study.

Online Notes

Areas of research encompassing the breakdown and analysis of matte painting techniques: past, present and future. This will include appropriate use of the medium in the industry and the adaptation of traditional analog techniques to the digital realm and the 3D revoluton. Individual research for Bruce includes the importance of non-destructive image editing methodologies to the VFX pipeline. Individual research for Chong includes the techniques of using 3d rendering softwares like Vue and Terragen for landscapes and a study of painting realistic light via quick self study sketches.

Online Notes 1

Online Notes 2

 

My personal inquiry subject started off with the grander theme of virtual sets. I
wanted to investigate how a VFX supervisor approaches the task of shooting in a void, the way they shot Avatar for example. A few of the things that kept coming up were: hardware based, physical restrictions, expensive. Since I wanted to step beyond just the research and make something, these were not motivating findings.
This made me approach this topic from an entirely different angle, and I also
grabbed this chance as the last opportunity this year to bring in my previous
experience as an interaction designer/developer. I will be showing my development of a proof of concept application that potentially could be utilized as a new way to approach on-set pre-vis.

Online Notes

The Foundry's compositing package Nuke is increasingly gaining popularity in the production of feature films. A major reason for this is its powerful and pipeline-friendly 3D tools that facility many compositing tasks (2.5D set extensions, reprojections, motion tracking, ...). However, an integrated particle system is missing to this date. This could be helpful in the creation of atmospheric elements like smoke, dust, fire, flashes etc., which could simply be placed in the camera-tracked 3D scene without reverting to the FX department in the production pipeline.
I have developed and will present a flexible particle system for Nuke 6 that can simulate every fuzzy phenomenon from simple sprite clouds to physically accurate moving and colliding pieces of geometry. The system is implemented in the form of a Python script, allowing to generate geometry that is fully integrated in Nuke's 3D space.

Online Notes

After researching on different ways of approaching non photorealistic rendering and studying works which use non photorealistic rendering, I decided to use Gooch's lighting model to achieve the rendering style in works "Un tour de manège ". Houdini is used to build the rib file, while shader is written using
RenderMan shading language. During the implementation, I found writing NPR shader is related with photorealistic shader in a lot of ways, such as the way surface interact with the light. Apart from the shading, lighting set up is also important on achieve the effects and different light types will achieve different results. Besides, I'll also talk about problems I was faced with when applying the
algorithm, lessons I've learnt and some thoughts on computer's role on generating art.

Online Notes

In this talk one possible approach to rig a cartoony character will be presented and demonstrated on a mosquito. It starts with the basics to create a solid IK-rig with inverse foot setup or an automatic forearm. Afterwards, an approach will be shown to add bendy extremities with squash and stretch functionality, which will give animators the ability to follow the “12 Animation Features”. Finally, some ideas will be demonstrated how effects like popping out eyes or volume increasing bellies can be easily rigged, which are commonly used in traditional animation. The talk will close with a reflection including some best practice recommendations about rigging.

Online Notes

I will present how Rigid Body Dynamics (RBD) are used in Autodesk Maya and Houdini to create a wide range of digital effects. I will discuss the differences in setting up RBD animation projects in both software packages and compare the different features that are available in both of them. I will also describe the variety of forces and fields that are available to the digital artist and animator in Maya and Houdini. 
The presentation will contain also a series of short illustrative videos clips that I prepared to highlight the differences of RBD in Maya and Houdini, and to show the possibilities one has to simulate a variety of RBD based physical effects.

Online Notes

An investigation into 2.5D relighting in Nuke, from an artist’s point of view. The subject of relighting at the compositing stage will be thoroughly investigated, with particular emphasis on what an artist can achieve using these relighting tools to alter the appearance of a lighting aesthetic in a CG composited scene. Careful consideration will be given to ascertain precisely what can be done with these tools in terms of the control of the lighting aesthetic, and if they are a serious alternative to 3D lighting; and a conclusion will be formed around whether or not these tools have the capabilities to achieve high-end compositing work.

Online Notes

My research is focused upon the divide of the user interfaces of various compositing applications into node based and layer based genres.  I explore the functionality of both types of compositing applications, why they are set up the way that they are, and the pros and cons of either interface style.  In addition, my talk will overview the core essentials necessary to understand in order to make sense of compositing operations from a theoretical standpoint.  In particular, I will cover the topics of premultiplication, channel theory, and common layering operations. Rote learning of a given UI is the best way to become efficient, however, an understanding of these fundamental compositing topics and what to expect from a given UI will help in the transition between compositing packages.

Online Notes

 

An investigation on the general influence classical paintings can have on filmmaking. Focusing on the art movement Rococo, a comparison will be carried out demonstrating similarities and differences between the paintings from this period and the films Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and Marie-Antoinette (2006). The main aspects will be the composition, the framing and the colours of the scenes. Could the subjects, the symbolism and the compositions be reproduced equally in cinema as they are in painting? The Artist as a selective creator of time, space and events. „ Even the eye of the impressionist must be selective. It must focus on the significant rather than the insignificant in the field of vision.“E.H. Gombrich

Online Notes

The talk will focus on recognising colour patters in relation to the story curve of a motion picture. The history of colour grading will be briefly described, followed by close analysis of colour patterns in the following films: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001,2002,2003), 300 (2006), Ocean’s 11 (2001). The results of this analysis will be then turned into a table presenting a set of colour strategies that can be used to better understand other movies or enhance personal work.

Online Notes

Audiences are much more sophisticated now when it comes to animation, and their expectations are higher than ever but they often judge animation on the basis of technical errors and forget about one of the major factor that make up a good animation that is the acting in animation. I will talk about acting and what factors constitute a good acting. Why acting is essential for animation. What are the differences between stage actors and acting in animation? Along with that I will show few videos representing how animators act out for their scenes.

Online Notes

I have been investigating into usage motion control camera in the field of visual effects. In my talk I will briefly introduce to motion control cameras. I will present a case from a commercial which involved usage of motion control camera. I will explain the entire process of execution of the shot in post production from scratch and the VFX pipeline involved for the same.

Online Notes

The famous Queen Cleopatra reminds us of the two great Roman men (Gaius Julius Caesar and Marc Antony) who fell in love with her and lost their lives. But what more is known about Cleopatra besides her seductive nature and lust for power?
In my research I tried to know more about her life and personality. I will discuss about the life of Cleopatra and the other aspects of her personality which are not well known. The talk will focus on her ethnicity, personality traits and a brief discussion about the events that occurred in her life. Further, I will show some facts about Cleopatra which are based on the discoveries made by the archaeologist. The character study of Cleopatra is useful for my Master’s project so that I can understand and relate well with the character.

Online Notes

I have heard a good reputation of Massive Software doing crowd simulation on some of my favourite film like Lord of The Ring and Avatar. Hence I decide to do a research on the software to understand how it works and what it could achieve. I will discuss about the different crowd simulation between traditional animation and the use of fuzzy logic in Massive as well as a comparison between the crowd simulation on other softwares. During the presentation I will screen
some of the video clips I found on my research, and a clip of my exercise using Massive.

Online Notes Chow

A great number of feature fims are taking advantage of computer graphics and latest crowd simiulating software to create huge crowd and action scenes . One of the most widly used software is massive. in this research I have investigated massive as a crowd simiulation software and its approach to handle crowd simiulation . And also looked into other softwares avilable for creating crowd simiulation . Also use of level of detals was researched in order to effetcively
render large crowd simiulation scene effectively

Online Notes Shah

Resulting from some technical shortcomings in the execution of my group project, I have investigated two areas: flow topology in character modelling for animation and rigging for character animation. Both of these are with a view to creating more naturally moving characters.
During the lecture, I will firstly explore the necessity of considering the character itself in terms of history and psychology etc. Modelling and then rigging concepts will then be examined. Some videos which will exemplify the processes will be shown.

Online Notes

My talk will investigate the techniques and principles that guide the production and application of a believable Quadruped rig and animation. I shall specifically be experimenting with natural horse locomotion, and investigating the importance and function of horse anatomy. My main focus will be to explore and analyse the principal horse Gaits in order to appreciate how animation methods and rigging tools can be used to digitally recreate believable horse locomotion. I will screen videos in order to demonstrate the function of the rig and to show the progression of my animation throughout the project. I shall also screen videos of the animated cycles I have produced. These videos will represent the outcome of my Personal Inquiry.

Online Notes

After looking into the fast growing commercial industry,it seems that TV commercials now aim to leave an impact on the viewer different to that known to
the advertising age. It is not through features, not competitive prices that advertising agencies are promoting their products, but rather through a persuasive and highly impressive visual picture. The growing demand for VFX for commercials has forced many postproduction houses to move towards visual
effects as their main service. My discussion will explore some of the reasons for this growth, looking at whether VFX techniques really sell and if the shift to VFX
in some cases has attracted consumers; or if it is just all a ‘cool’ hype. I will also
be touching on the advantages and disadvantages of using VFX in commercials,
and the temptation to embrace the viewer in a surreal world to imprint brand names and products. I will showcase various VFX adverts to support my research, as well as statistical data.

Online Notes

After investigating rigging I created a rig for an existing human character model complete with animation controllers ready for animation. I have also animated a simple walk cycle to demonstrate my understanding.

After investigating rigging for biped humanoid characters I discovered that since rigging is often a laborious task requiring specialised knowledge. New methods have recently been developed that automate rigging and enveloping to existing models so the user can move to animation with minimum effort. As these new methods of rigging are not available I used an existing human model which I built a rig for from scratch, which I have optimised for ease of use in animation.

During the presentation I will be showing slides of rigging principles and two videos showcasing the rig I built and its capabilities along with a video of the model enveloped to the rig performing a simple walk cycle as proof of concept.

Online Notes

Particle systems started off  in the visual effects industry for modeling classes of fuzzy objects. Over the past two decades they have evolved and advanced as a digital tool and established themselves into other industries. I explored the nature of these systems and broke them down to their technical aspects and learned why they work so well and how they have been used in other mediums.

The simulation package from Regelous, popularly known as Massive will be used as a prime example of how particle systems have evolved and I will discuss the concept and principles behind this software and its use.

Online Notes

.Nuke is one of the newest compositing packages in the market and considering it incorporates both 2d and 3d it is a essential tool for matte painting and projection as well as compositing. My personal research deals with understanding the  workflow of creating a matte painting and then projecting it in Nuke.

 

In my researsch i have discovered the optimization process of modelling
for the game engines. I looked and compared the game models with the other
mediums. How to build up a character model with limited amount of
polygons and show model as an high poly model with normal maps
and displacement maps. I have mentioned about low poly modelling with
creating good topology according to muscle structure. I have used Softimage XSI
and ZBrush as main tools and i showed the workflow between them.

Online Notes

For my personal Inquiry, I would like to learn organic modelling techniques. I chose to model a realistic Face in manga style. First I will look at different styles from cartoony to realistic manga, and try to find out the common facial features with all manga characters. After this, I will look for a real human face as my reference that helped me with anatomy when I did modeling in 3D. Before I start modeling the face, I will do some research on human facial muscles which would help me to understand how the face is structured, and how facial expressions form. 

Online_Notes 1

Online_Notes 2

 

In researching Miniatures used in Films we have split our poster into six parts; The History of Miniatures, Shooting Miniatures to give the Illusion of Scale and Depth of Field, a case study on Lord of The Rings, a case study on Titanic, Digital Compositing used with Miniatures, and Making our own Miniature: The Eurofighter jet crashed into the Destroyed City. Through our research we have been able to get an all round picture of why film-makers decide to use miniatures in Film, what the advantages and disadvantages are; and applied that knowledge
to making and shooting our own miniature. The research we found most useful was in how to achieve the Illusion of scale whilst shooting, and the use of different textures for different parts of the model. The use of practical effects in film is still widely used so is very relevant to modern day shooting, a recent example would be Tim Burton’s ‘Corpse Bride’.

Online Notes

One of the newest additions to the Houdini 10 is the introduction of the pyro tools. Basically these tools have been developed to give the artist an immediate feedback and set of options to get decent results quickly and also these tools are expandable because of the Houdini's nature. I have been studying how we can set up a fire or explosion scene in Houdini using the new pyro tools. After understanding the basic concepts of how to make things work in Houdini,I went on to learn how we can tweak the parameters inside the dynamics network in Houdini to change appearance of the fire or a smoke. After the basic study I then started investigating how successful the pyro tool proved to be. I also tried  studying the gist of maths involved behind the concept. My research is not about how to create a new fluid solver but to illustrate the dynamics nodes in Houdini when we create a pyro tool from the shelf.

Online Notes

After doing a brief research in different areas of dynamics , I was particularly
interested in fluid dynamics. I researched more on fluid dynamics and different
methods of implementing it. I have tried to simulate fluid behaviour in Houdini. The simulations were done using particle based approach. My poster includes what I learnt from this research. I would also demonstrate the simulations which emulate water and smoke.

Online Notes

Trying to answer the question “How do things break?” is still tough and complex for the physicists. Equally it is a hard topic also in CG where artists try to find the best solution to reproduce in their simulation realistic breaking materials, that are almost impossible to create through a manual keyframing.
I have investigated the two aspects of this topic.
Firstly I will show the basic physics that is behind the everyday experience of seeing things break and a brief history of the fracture mechanics. Then I will explain the way in which four papers in the last 20 years have tried to solve the problem of simulating the break of things. In the end I will show some examples developed in Houdini and I will explain how a simple simulation of breaking objects works in this software.

Online Notes

For my project I was interested in investigating methods for creating realistic muscle simulation for games which would be quick and easy to implement. Muscle simulations tend to be a time consuming process requiring many models and simulations to recreate the skin and muscles. With simple expressions and focussing on the external elements i.e. the look of the skin the textures and muscle shapes you can create simulate some surprising effects which could be used after my investigation into many areas of 3D.

Online Notes 1

Online Notes 2

The idea behind this presentation came from an interview of Disney animators, how they started using video footage for animation in the early days of Disney animation. The idea had evolved into basically understanding how new and different methodologies were developed over the decades that provided benefit to the animators workflow.  The research basically revolved around the comparison of video based footage used for animation to motion capture. The conclusion resulted that though all methods are very helpful but in one way or another have certain disadvantages that can only be corrected by the eye of a skilled animator.

Online Notes

 

I have chosen to write about the history of compositing because it is an essential part of Visual Effects in the modern age.  The writings of Lev Manovich document the rise of mixed media today, and compositing features as a key tool in the integration of various elements CG and live action into one moving Image.   Within this document I have written about the History of Compositing, and the main tools which is used for compositing. where I have outlined many of the things that influence compositing today.     

Online Notes

Basic and the most important principles of compositing techniques on most popular softwares (Nuke & Shake). I focused on how to create chroma-key & matte and the main reason for creating alpha-channel. Other topic that I focused on is lighting. How to observe lighting and shadows to create a digital scene. In my poster, I composited a surreal background image that I designed and applied a green-screen image on to it.

Online Notes

. Although Colour matching being a very important stage especially in achieving photorealism, there are a very limited resources available to the digital effects artists about this technique. In the course of my research I did not even find one book specialized in colour matching and the on-line resources are not comprehensive as well.

In this research I have looked into Colour matching technique and what are effective elements that need to be considered in order to achieve a successful result. I have also offered a few ways that I have discovered in my research to help speeding up the process.

Online Notes

With the recent agreement between The Foundry and Sony Imageworks to implement features of Katana inside Nuke, it is becoming clear that there is a tendency to bring shading and lighting capabilities into compositing packages.
This aroused my interest to research this field and has led me to develop a plugin to emulate ambient occlusion inside Nuke. The algorithm implemented is known as Screen Space Ambient Occlusion. Although the plugin is not production ready yet, the process of its implementation is exposed in this presentation.

Online Notes

I investigated the traditional methods of facial animation (bone versus blending), and the technical differences between both. Alongside that I also looked into various ways in which facial animation can be streamlined, involving the areas of game integration and speech recognition software. I also identified software which has been created to achieve these tasks, which could be applicable for both games and movies.

Online Notes

Procedural roads play an important role in gaming and computer animation films. Creating them non procedurally is  very expensive and time consuming. An analysis on several procedural road generation techniques has been done. They include Template based generation, Agent based simulation, iterated subdivisions and sampling technique. Advantages and disadvantages are analysed. The knowledge which I acquired allowed me to generate an efficient technique which allows user interface for procedural generation of roads. My plan is mostly influenced by the above mentioned techniques. I have clearly depicted the techniques in my poster.

Online Notes

After a detailed research on the various aspects and applications of Audio Driven Animation I decided to implement it using Houdini to create a basic Music Visualization.
The Output images have been added to the poster and the video will be presented during the poster session.

Online Notes

.

This Personal Inquiry will briefly investigate on general modelling, assessing some of the possible approach that can be made and, later on, after inquiring about the importance in understanding the human body anatomy and topology through the use of edge loops, I will investigate further applying what I have been researching on a simple model of a human body done using XSI software.

Onine Notes

The decision of doing the research about character design came from my personal interest in this area. It is very interesting to me how much a character design can transmit, how a silhouette can automatically tell you who is that character in the story  and make it recognizable. In my poster I will be showing all the process I have followed to get a successful character design, with my designs and some tips that I found about the subject. I focused my research to achieve the characters I needed for my Masters Project, a short animation with cartoony monsters in a Spanish atmosphere.

Online Notes

First of all I start reading some basic information about character design. It was quite helpful for a better understanding. I learned about different Types of characters and styles. I looked at different designing such as The art of Ratatouille, Robots, Howl’s Moving Castle. They have different style and it was a good inspiration for my designs.
Generally the most important thing is to look at many different styles and references in nature, human bodies, animals and many other things around us before start sketching.
The other important thing is analyse the characteristics of the characters. The more I know as a designer about my character, audience can read the character easier.

Online Notes

I changed my first title which was “Environment modelling and texture” to a smaller area. In my personal inquiry I did some research on the process of environment designing from concept art to choosing textures by reading some art books of animations and made my own concept. I also did a research on different texture maps that are very important in environment modelling and texture. I just put Normal map and bump map in my poster to emphasise on these two but I read about other maps too. I did this part of my research by reading related books and web pages. To test the texture maps I did a simple test in XSI to see how it works.

Online Notes

My personal enquiry is to realistically replicate an oil paint effect in a 3D computer environment.
How can these results be achieved?

Online Notes

In my inquiry project I examined the different types of chaos including the mathematical background of fractals. I will present different kinds of chaos and chaos perception as well as methods and algorithms to create various kind of fractals. Subsequent I present the benefit of chaotic structures for the Computer Graphics. In the end I present a more philosophical approach of understanding chaos.
Additionally I implemented a fractal generator in Houdini based on the magnetic pendulum. I will show my results in a short animation.

Online Notes

A brief introduction on HDR images, HDR photography, image based lighting and terminology related to HDRI.
Methods-
Methods used to create HDR images and other on and off location work.
On location
Application in CGI-
Image based 3D rendering and lighting and the alternatives. Advantages and disadvantages.
My Experiment-
My personal experiment with HDRI lighting specific to this project.
Use commercially-
Use of HDRI lighting in different media of CGI.

Online Notes

 

I have been researching on people who have already done research on HDRI. This research change my view on understanding HDRI more deeply and precisely. HDRI is a good technique to light the CG objects.  I am planning to use HDRI images for my final project.

Online Notes

The reason I chose the Rigid Body System as my research topic is
because I want to use this in my final project. The Rigid Body System is widely used in more and more movies. The system can be use in different operation for creating different simulation animations. In my poster, I will present some basic Rigid Body Dynamic System set up in very simple examples.

Online Notes

    Exploring the new techniques and ideas of creating photo realistic characters in 3d softwares. I decided to focus on human facial muscle system and expressions my research project. Throughout my research project  I am  researching  about the  eleven  facial muscles  and their  involvement in creating the  six principal facial expression of human being. After researching the structure of human head, facial muscle system, I would like to create a human head to demonstrate the techniques that I learned.

Aim

   My aim for this research project is   to study the human facial muscle system as well as the structure of the human head and   the facial expressions .To develop my knowledge on   how to implement those techniques into modelling process. I would like to do my final project on Character modelling .I think for a better understanding of facial muscle system, expression plays a vital part in   character modelling in computer animation.

Online Notes

For my final project I decided to do research about head modelling for animation purpose. There are a lot of ways to do modelling, but the correct one is to do it with the right method and efficiency.
In my post I will talk about how to do head modelling by starting from observation, understanding of facial muscle, then move into how to simulate muscle with topology, and in the end, I will show how topology works in facial animation.

Online Notes 1

Online Notes 2

For this research I have investigated on how hair is created within computer graphics and what they are generally used for (such as in films, games, etc). After investigating on the different ways of hair modelling, I decided to compare why certain methods work better for different Medias. I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the techniques that are used for hair modelling. My research will be presented on a poster.

Online Notes

Fluid dynamics plays an important role in feature films.  The sophistication of the aesthetics is beyond compare.  I had misconception about movies such as The Guardian, and did not realize the amount of fluid simulation employed in the scene.  The simulations of the fluid do not rely solely on one software.  It takes advantages from different software to create the perfect solution for specific shots required.  Through this research I gained knowledge regarding the methodologies of generating fluid effects for feature films which could help me in creating my personal project.

Online Notes

My investigation area for my personal inquiry was about generating convincing expressions using shape animation. The intention was to learn and achieve basic human emotions in the cartoony dog head model in an anthropomorphised /caricatured way using shape animation. Understanding the mechanics of the face generating different emotions like sadness, happiness, anger, shock etc throw considerable challenge. Blend shapes are one of the cheaper yet most useful ways of creating emotions.

Online_Notes

 

After investigating human facial expressions and how the face deforms due to the muscle stretching and shrinking, I created the facial shapes of happiness, sadness, anger and surprise to a cartoony head model in XSI. My purpose was to make the facial shapes communicate each emotion clearly, as well as discover what other expressions would be generated when blending the shapes. The outcome of blending the shapes was a much bigger variety of facial expressions than I expected.
The poster presents:
-The importance of the facial muscle system to generate expressions
-The reference I collected from people performing facial expressions
- How it was applied to the character producing a variety of facial expressions.
There will also be video material available, showing the animated face along with the video reference used for that project.

Online_Notes

.

I have  investigated methods of creating a rig for bendy and stretchy limbs in Softimage. I have focussed on a ribbon method of creating bendy bones, and describe how this method can be used to give the animator control over the curvature of the limb both manually and through the use of the parameter connection editor. To create stretchy bones i focus on the schinko method, and describe how this can be turned on and off.

Online Notes