Tuesday 30^th May

Talks in STEVENSON Lecture Theatre

10.00 – 11.40

Talks

VA/AP

Francesca

Galluzzi

Lighting Models and Their Implementation

My research focused on defining a set of predefined lighting models for each type of scene in animation: whether it’s an interior or exterior environment, daytime or night time, a simple object or a complex scene. Once the models are defined, it will be discussed which tool is more appropriate for the implementation of every one of them, analysing easy of use, efficiency and accuracy of each tool.

VA/AP

Francesco

Torelli

Facial Rigging in Videogames

During my presentation I will at first analize facial rigging as a general topic, comparing the different option and techniques currently used in the whole CG industry. The discussion will then highlight which of these methods is more appropriate for videogames and why some are not ideal for real time rendering. Finally, I will showcase my work on a facial rigging joint system, and the reason and sources that made me choose this particular set up over others.

VA/AP

Nathalia

Sanchez Moya

Muscles to enhance Character rigs

Nowadays, digital characters are more realistic than ever. The industry strives to create real stories and impossible universes and recent advances in technology have now made this attention to detail possible.

The use of muscles to preserve volume and create realistic skin deformation has now become an important part of the rigging and skinning process. It is essential to understand not just the principles but the advantages and disadvantages that these systems may have on the motion and the final look of the characters. In this talk, I will be discussing these aspects, how they can be implemented, difficulties faced when using this tech and I will showcase some tests I made using two different approaches.

AP/VA

Janet

Rodriguez

This research looks at 3D facial capture as well as touching base on character modelling and animation and how these elements work together to achieve realistic digital actors. This research will be showing some of the techniques used to achieve near realistic human-looking face models and how they have are used in films in replacement of actors.

12.00 – 1.15

Talks

PSM/CW

Josh

Dowsett

Exploring lighting workflows and Time-lapse effects within 3D. I have chosen to focus on developing a keener understanding of lighting rigs and workflows. Taking a practical approach to developing these skills I have constructed a scene to help me explore lighting rigs to create a time lapse effect within a 3D environment. I will be discussing the lighting workflow I used to compose the scene and how the time lapse lighting effects were created.

PSM/CW

Lauren

Keith

Realistic metal shaders and textures

This presentation discusses how to create realistic metal shaders and textures. It begins by explaining metal properties in comparison to non-metal properties and the principles of Physically Based Rendering. It then investigates the different properties of metals in relation to Vray settings, looking at how to create different reflective effects and providing visuals to demonstrate the different variables. Using real life examples and photographs, it then explores types of wear and rust that can affect metal surfaces and how these might be depicted using texture maps. All these ideas and principles are consolidated and concluded by the replication of three types of real life metal surfaces on three 3D models. The stages in creating each of these materials and textures is explained and evaluated.

PSM/VI

Xue

Han

The Aesthetics of the Scenery Concept Design

I’m going to present my research of how to accomplish a scenery concept design with painting, photography and 3D technical skills. I will present with the demonstration of the process of making scenery concepts step by step in different ways. Meanwhile, I will discuss my experience of story-telling by concept artwork.

2.00 – 3.40

Talks

PSM/VI

William

Wardle

Violinists. A study of movement.

From Joshua Bell’s erratic flourishes, to André Rieu’s energetic swaying, Classical violinists react in a variety of different ways to the music they play. But what causes this? Does the music define the violinists movements, creating a pattern of movement shared throughout all musicians? or does the individual character of a musician help create their own unique dance?

This talk will delve into the understanding behind the swaying movements of a violinist, using fundamental science behind the human brain’s love for combining music and movement. Then I will call upon various professional violinists and classical music as examples to help determine if these actions are random, or if there is a pattern.

VI/PSM

Alex

Parker

Pen & Pixel: An Analysis of Techniques Used to Apply 2D Animation Stylings to 3D Computer Animation

‘Pen & Pixel’ researches the techniques behind artistically driven hybrid animation: animation employing both 2D and 3D techniques. My studies break down the characteristic elements of traditional 2D animation and 3D computer animation, identifying the components of each that offer distinctive artistic and technical advantages and aesthetics. Through the analysis of the sampled animations, my study offers a more thorough understanding of the technology behind hybrid animation techniques, as well as insight into the human reasoning behind their desired aesthetics and advantages.

From these findings, I have mapped out theoretical networks and logic for a shader that would apply key aesthetics of traditional animation to 3D geometry, with tests demonstrating the challenges and potential of the research.

VI/PSM

Christopher

Taylor

3D Colour Ramps

For my personal enquiry I wanted to learn about vectors, matricies, VOPs (Vector Operations) and VEX (Vector Expression Language) in Houdini. I will talk about creating 3D colour ramps using Houdini and the methods I used. Matrices can be used to transform a position between two points, when applied as a shader this creates a shaded ramp. I will show some examples I have created.

VI/PSM

Diana

Varro

Exploring visual aesthetics in 3D Video Games with 2D styles

My presentation will focus on video games using 2D aesthetics through 3D technology. I will focus on productions which were inspired by had drawn references and aimed to implement similar artistic effect, but implementation for 3D environment was necessary.

I will introduce different technical and artistic approaches, pipeline elements through case studies. Through this research, will distinguish techniques benefiting the most for different types of artistic references. Also, I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each technical element considered when creators are aiming to achieve similar aesthetic to their 2D inspiration

4.00 – 5.40

Talks

VI/AP

Qingyang

Liu

Creating 2D anime like shaders (cel/toon shading)

With the spread of 3D modelling techniques, a demand of finding new expression of 2D illustrations appears. By combining 2D illustration and 3DCG technique, a boom of 2.5D illustration is becoming more popular in Japan.

For my personal inquiry project, I did researches and practical studies about creating 2D anime like shaders in Maya.

I will introduce the demands of 2D anime like shaders, and the workflow of how to create and optimize the model and shader to make the 3D model more close to 2D illustration. I will also introduce my learning progress including the challenges I faced and solved during the progress, and knowledge gained from journals and other artists.

VI/AP

Huy

Bui

XGen Hair Workflow in Animation

Getting inspired by the Zootopia’s Hair and Fur Technology developed by Disney, I decided to investigate and build a complete workflow for hair and fur in animation, from modeling to final renders. The research shows the various practical approaches for hair pipeline using XGen in Maya. The main focus will be on creation of animated hair using curve guides, which can be applied for a wide range of similar works. In this lecture I will walk through my practical research by demonstrating self-made process producing the most engaging and convincing results.

AP/VI

Fiona

Edler

Pre-fracturing methods

Explosions and other kinds of destructions are effects that are commonly used in the VFX industry. In most destruction pipelines the objects that will be destroyed have to be pre-fractured before the destruction will be simulated. The generated pieces can be glued together with arbitrary strengths, for them to behave in a certain way during the simulation.

This talk will focus on various ways to generate those fractures and cover their basic principles. I will give a brief overview of their basic principles and explain which advantages each method gives. Furthermore, with small scaled examples I will also point out which limitations they might have in terms of look, control, speed or simulation behaviour.

AP/VI

Kristopher

Gropatsakis

The creation of an Electricity Solver in Houdini

Houdini Side FX software encompasses a number of higher level tools -known as solvers- to set up and create a variety of different effects. Some of those tools include water, fire and particle simulations.
After investigating different approaches in creating an electricity-generating tool in Houdini, I will be presenting a small practice of an Electricity solver, built from lower level tools. I will give a brief overview of the theory behind the solver and give insight into how, with low level tools we can achieve creating higher level concepts that can be adjusted and manipulated to be implemented in an artist friendly environment

Wednesday 31^st May

Talks in STEVENSON Lecture Theatre

Posters in THOMAS HARDY SUITE

PG142,PG143,PG144

POSTER SESSION 10.00 – 12.15

PG142,143,144

10.00 – 10.15

Exhibitors Poster setup

10.15 – 11.15

Staff and exhibitors only

11.15 – 12.15

All students and staff

12.00

RY (SPECIAL TIMING)

RY/CW

Eunji

Yun

Cartoonish movements in 3D character animation films

Regardless of 2D or 3D character animation, animators should know the 12 principles of animation to apply those to their animation. One of those is 'exaggeration'. Depends on how much exaggerated, it can be said 'cartoonish' or 'realistic'. In 3D character animation field, most of 3D character animation films from Disney or Pixar are less cartoony than ones from other companies. However, it is hard for some people especially who are not related to this field to notice the extent of exaggeration. Therefore, I investigated how to recognise between realistic and cartoonish movements in 3D character animation.

VA/LY

Daniella

Baldachino

Skin Shader Development

In order to gain an understanding of how believable human skin shaders in computer graphics are achieved, I began by obtaining an understanding of the physical human skin. Once understanding this, I was able to implement this knowledge in my skin shader development. By reading and observing other artist’s methods, I was able to compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages within each of the procedures, all whilst identifying which process would work best for my personal benefit. One artist created a shader procedurally using a Blinn shader whilst the other took a lengthier approach by using texture maps and applying them to the VRayFastSSS2 shader. Creating the shader procedurally produced fast results although not totally believable, whilst the shader created by using texture maps was more time consuming, but produced results closer to the desired shader.

VA/LY

Hardy

Kolia

What is a Bidirectional Surface Scattering Distribution Function? And why is it important in Computer Graphics?

During my poster presentation I would like to present the topic, why bidirectional surface scattering distribution function or subsurface scattering is crucial for CGI to look real.

Subsurface scattering is the way of using lighting, distance and surface calculations to render an object a certain way.

I will discuss the reasons why the discovery of subsurface light transport makes computer graphics look better. I will show how this function adds realism and believability, which opened up new and great possibilities within CGI as a visual medium. I will demonstrate how subsurface scattering is the main reason why realism in digital graphics can be synthesized. I will also demonstrate that with out subsurface light transport, CGI would be relegated, an unrealistic visual medium.

VA/CW

Viktoriia

Buzovska

Realistic Hair Simulation

With developments in modern technology, creating CGI (Computer-generated imagery) hair has become a vital part in creating realistic characters for a variety of applications. Despite CGI being commonly used, it is still a considerable challenge to present realistic-looking hair. In this document, I will look at different methods of hair simulation that are currently being used. To better understand the process of hair simulation, I will examine several techniques in a variety of software suites, and discuss the pros and cons of the process.

VA/CW

Vlasis

Gogousis

3D Caricature Generating Tool

The creation of caricatures is a particularly interesting field of art, because it is associated with the ability to extract and highlight the very essence of a face. I will be going through all the necessary stages for developing a tool that automatically generates 3D caricatures. From a brief overview on how to obtain three-dimensional models of faces to ways of manipulating 3D meshes, I will be demonstrating the capabilities of scripting on performing useful tasks and producing interesting results. Sample results of caricatures by the developed tool will be on display for discussion.

VA/LY

Yaqing

Cui

Realistic rendering of organic soft tissue

After investigating realistic rendering of organic soft tissue, I make a research on procedural organic texture generation pipeline. the realism of the simulator is mostly dependent on the quality of the textures and associating material models.

To improve the efficiency and quality of the texture production, procedural texture provides a wide range of possibilities. A procedural texture is a computer-generated image which is created using an algorithm to represent a natural-looking element, such as organic, wood, textile, metal, stone etc.. In addition, I found noise (randomness) control is the central of the procedural content generation process. In the poster, I will show some images to compare differences techniques rendering and the advantages of procedural texture generation process.

VI/SB

Sungkyun

Bae

The storytelling in virtual reality

Virtual reality (VR), which is attracting worldwide attention in recent years, has a big influence on popular culture throughout the technology category of science. The viewers can see all the parts within the 360 ° virtual space, thereby enhancing the interaction with the content and the immersion, however by this, the possibility of missing or distorting the information necessary for understanding the storytelling. Therefore, building new narrative and visual grammar for VR based on accurate understanding and strategy of VR contents is a key issue. The purpose of this study is to analyze the transformation of the paradigm of storytelling and based on this analysis, analyzed three VR animations.

VI/CW

Louis

Vaney

3D Digital Face Makeup for Film and Television

This poster aims to investigate the core practices in the use of 3D tools to generate digital makeup for film and television productions. I will be demonstrating and illustrating the basic steps involved in creating a digital makeup effect as well as giving some examples of how these steps are extrapolated in larger film and television productions. These steps can be grouped within core areas of practice such as head tracking, photogrammetry, digital double creation, skin texturing, lighting and finally digital hair grooming. Knowledge in these areas is becoming more widely available but it is scattered and unfocused, so my objective is to condense and filter this knowledge into a single continuous workflow. As technology advances and digital makeup in commercial productions becomes more and more sophisticated this simplified workflow can still be referenced with the purpose to demystify and explain the core steps for the uninitiated.

VI/SB

Thao

Nguyen

Animating The Anxiety

After researched and collect some ideas about human emotion especially is the anxiety. I found it would be an interesting topic to write a story then a story board and decide character design style. That is the most important for this animation also research about matte painting pattern, animating etc.

Using motion capture or animating by eye it will be depend on what the story about and I think after complete the story board then I can decide easily which one is better and effective.

That also useful to discuss with tutor and class mates about the story and character style. Because I think my animation is more about the human emotion and something more about art matte painting also of course animating techniques which I will take time to have more research about the topic.

CW/VI

Andrew

Boyce

Creating Realistic Fur Using FiberMesh In Zbrush

I am very interested in the way 3D computer Graphics are becoming more realistic as the underlying techniques and technology evolves. For most films a ‘Look Dev’ is important to see how the final render will look. I will be creating a Look Dev render in order to demonstrate my findings.

I will be describing how the mesh is first sculpted and exported into Maya with the help of the “re-mesh” tool and texture maps, as well as how the Fiber Mesh is created within Zbrush. I will also be discussing how some shaders and lighting affect the final look of the render.

CW/VI

Christos

Ioannou

Look development for realistic human portrait

The research on look development for realistic character, focuses on surfacing, lighting, rendering and compositing methods to achieve a photo-real representation. After sculpting a likeness portrait, I am analyzing a workflow to render all the details that bring a computer generated character closer to reality. This workflow includes: The preparation of geometry to receive textures (retopology & unwraping); Projecting reference images on the model to create the diffuse, displacement, specular, sub-surface scattering and glossiness maps; The material setup inside Maya with Vray fast sss2; Lighting and compositing the final image. I will discuss flaws and common mistakes in the process of experimenting with realistic character creation, and mention better practices to avoid those mistakes and get a better result in terms of believability.

CW/VI

Maaike

Ross

Understanding Storyboards

Storyboards are the very start of telling a story visually. But what is the success in visual storytelling? After investigating, I have not only found what makes a storyboard but also the function they serve within the film and animation industry. I have compressed this information in a storyboard of my own.
Within the anatomy of a storyboard, my character will lead the viewer through the terminology and essentials of what makes a great storyboard. Discussing topics such as character posing, camera movement, types of shots and transitions found in storyboards.

CW/RY

Maria

Fernando

Human Anatomy and Character Customisation

The first part of this inquiry focuses the main structures of the human anatomy that most influence its overall shape: the skeleton and the main muscular groups. I have attempted to break the musculoskeletal anatomy down in a visually appealing and clear manner, emphasising the main bones and muscles that make up the human silhouette. I have also looked into the way they are affected by factors such as age, sex, race and lifestyle, and how that is reflected in a person's shape and appearance.

The second part gives an overview of two existing 3D character generating tools to then attempt to prototype a more accurate one that would allow the creation of a custom human character from a base 3D mesh based on accurate data such as age and country of origin.

PSM/AP

Tony

Lewin

Exploring  Retopology

For this project I would like to look at Retopology, I would like to compare 3 main software programs and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses of the software’s.

The first software I would like to look at is Autodesk Maya, The second software is Houdini and finally I would like to look at Z brush.Hopefully after some research I can come to a conclusion of which software is the best at doing this job.

PSM/VI

Ana Paula

Pezzolo

Texture Maps Study for Stylized Skin

As texture maps are a very broad subject, I decided to focus on understanding how I could create my own style for skin textures and optimize them. With so many animation films and games set in daylight, my stylized skin texture research is mainly focused on how skin looks with only moonlight as the light source.

I gathered information on skin textures and software knowledge and have used them for different testing purposes. This has allowed me to compare the different texture maps that I obtained, judging their processing efficiency, their ease of application and their final visual results.

PSM/AP

Dario

Munoz Ortiz

Choreography in destruction effects

The destruction scenes do not respond purely to reality examples. It does in terms of photorealism but when it comes to the behavior it is not kept in secret that there is an artist behind the scenes controlling these big simulations to behave according to art direction. It must be space for artistic creation between reality and film. The aim to this poster will look beyond technique to find the language of the art direction of destruction.

PSM/SB

Xinyi

Jiang

Modelling Clothing

As more and more realistic clothes appear in video games, realistic representation of human clothing becomes an essential part in game production. This personal inquiry attempts to study and breakdown the basic process of how to create clothing for video games. This study will focus on one software package: Marvelous Designer and will explain the production and work-flow for creating clothing in this software. I will explore this process by creating a shirt in Marvelous Designer. Ultimately my intention is to produce a poster that will enable the audience to gain some tips and knowledge to be able to start clothing creation in their own project.

AP/VA

Elmar

Einarsson

Faster workflow for particle VFX in Houdini

After investigating visual effects created with particles I decided to test if it could speed up work flow by only using basic particles. Would it be faster for visualisation and creation of specific effects such as water,sand,fire and flocking to start with basic particles and then convert them into those elements.Or is it faster and more time saving to go straight into the shelf tools of Houdini and start developing the flow of the effect from that point.One of the test showed for example that basic particle set up is 3x faster then going to shelf tools.During the poster I'll have a video to demonstrate my test

AP/VA

Kelsey

Davenport

Analysis of Methods of Rendering in 360

After investigating and comparing different approaches to rendering in 360 in Maya, I decided to analyse the approach that seemed most efficient by testing it on a simple scene. In my presentation, I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods I researched and how I decided to pursue the approach I ended up choosing, based on criteria and tools. In addition to the poster, I will also show my finished 360 render.

AP/SB

Qian

Wu

Shadow and Realistic

This talk will be able to introduce the topic about what kind of shadows are the best to match the reality and the summary of the question is that cast shadow is one of the important part of matching the reality image, but the object should have the multiple shadows in the scene. Before the research, I made a hypothesis that I think the cast shadow is kind of the best shadow to match the reality. Then, according to the comparison of practice and theoretical references, I refound this suggestion, then got a summary. Besides, When I was looking for the references of shadows, the function of shadow is a vital element of the reason why artists are going to pursue the realistic shadows in the scenes. The shadow arts are really interesting; therefore, I will talk about some examples, shadow gestures, shadow theatre and shadow sculptures.

AP/VA

Vera

Sanz

Growing Effects

This personal inquiry conduct an investigation about different methods in which growing effects can be achieve. In recent years computers offers new and more accessible ways to recreate this type of effects that can generate stunning visuals currently used in multiple areas of the visual effects industry. As this is a bast topic only some of them will be explored in detail using Houdini software as the tool to recreate them. Generating this type of effect is a challenging task where different approaches extensively vary between the complexity required and the quality achieved.

1.30 – 3.10

Talks

RY/SH

Michelle

Trapani

Cartoon aesthetic in 2d and 3d animation

In the following research analysis, an investigation within 2d and 3d cartoonish style has been undertaken. From historical background analysis to contemporary work, this evaluation questions the relevance and effectiveness that both media transcend into the animation industry. Looking within the shape value of different animations a correlation to the formation of movement has been explored and outlined throughout. This case study gives light to the relevance and significance that these dichotomies have within the contemporary spectrum of moving image.

RY/SH

Katie

Gascoyne

Acting Techniques in Animation

This talk will discuss both the theoretical and practical techniques that improve the acting of a character animator. There will be an examination into the ‘Stanislavski system’, an acting process that became the precursor to the ‘method acting’ technique, and how this theory can improve the process in which animators develop a character. Also, there will be a study into a collection of advanced animation principles by Dana Boadway-Masson (Walt Disney Animation Studios and Animation Mentor), in which I will discuss how it correlates to the Stanislavski system, as well as visual examples of these principles used in feature animation and short films. By considering both theoretical and practical techniques, the result of this talk is for animators to make more thoughtful and empathetic decisions when animating a character.

SB/RY

Eli

Petkova

Stop-motion puppets

This personal inquiry explores the different ways of making a stop-motion puppet. The research provides a general overview of every stage in the puppet making, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of a certain aspects of the production process, such as: building a complex armature, the material choices for the flexible body parts, sculpting the head and facial expressions of the character, and clothes and accessories fabrication. I have also investigated the specific requirements and equipment needed for creating a stop-motion animation, as well as what are the possibilities of combining stop-motion and computer animation techniques.

SB/RY

Reka

Kadar

Cinematography in Cinematic Platform games

My project is about analysing the cinematographic decisions in platform games and find how they help the narrative.I am going to define what a cinematic platform game is and then show through examples how the camera, the light, the colours and the composition is made in each of them. I would like to show and analyse the connection between the storytelling and the cinematography of the game.I will discuss how technological improvements had an impact on the cinematography of these games and show some good and bad examples.During my presentation I would like to point out how we think about platform games usually and how much depth it can be added to this genre with the right cinematography.

3.20 – 5.00

Talks

SH/PSP

Chao

Xu

lighting match between green screen shooting and CG set

After investigating lighting skills, I decided to do lighting match between green screen shooting and CG set. In this talk, I will present the procedure for matching the lighting of a live action person (shot on green screen) a CG set by both the theory part and practice part, due to this research is more focus on practice, I also will present the problem I faced and how I solved them in green screen stdio. in the end, I will show the video of my project.

PSP/SH

Zeinab

Toulabi

This project was aimed to cover the work of shaders in Houdini and how they could be made. To have a better result, a group of fruits were determined and an approach was made to create customised shaders for them. This action helps to understand the process of making shaders in VOP level and have a better understanding of how each VOP node can be used. The result of these tests give an overall idea of a path for a customised shader which will help to understand and follow the nodes easier for later tasks. Moreover, 3D shaders were also examined in this research, however, due to the short period of time provided, this subject was covered briefly which could be extended further for later projects.

PSP/SB

Godwin

Mosindi

Procedural Shading (Pattern Generation)

I have looked at texts and videos on scripting and programming a short user-written procedure as well as different VOP Tools in Houdini to create a shader which determines the generation of variations of patterns across each surface.

I will discuss the various applications of this kind of shaders as well as the challenges I faced in the project. I will also be showcasing the various reference images that have inspired me and helped me in my research.

PSP/SB

Marta

Feriani

Mind the Gap

The research tries to give a definition of gap in a software. To have a better understanding of the implication of it, we used sideFX Houdini software as case of study. We addressed some missing functionalities and aspects that can be improved. VFX companies work on a daily basis to improve their pipeline by identifying missing features or bottlenecks. It seemed interesting to replicate the same process on a smaller scale to understand the approach and the dynamics that lead to a solution. We therefore focused on the new Houdini 16 release particularly on its new Terrain Generation tool and tried to improve it by adding procedural generated vegetation. This paper shows the first steps undertaken towards the implementation of procedural plants and an educated guess of the issues that will arise and how to overcome them. We will then present the conclusions and evaluations of what have been achieved so far.

Thursday 1^st June

Talks in STEVENSON Lecture Theatre

10.00 – 11.40

Talks

CW/VA

Ana Rita

Cardoso

NPR watercolour shader

From a personal sympathy to the artistic side of computer image generation, I found Non-Photorealistic Renders (NPR) to be an interesting subject to explore, in particular the watercolour shader.

In this assignment a research will be developed concerning the functionality of NPRin a theoretic view. There will be a discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of this technique, including finding the appropriate approach to create such a shader and to reach its best potential. Also there will be included a research about the appliance of this technique in the different kinds of media, such as documentaries, independent films and industry films.

CW/VA

Cheng-Lin

Yu

A guide for retaining details through texture mapping on 3D models

This research is mainly aiming on the use of normal, displacement maps, additionally, will be also covering cavity and ambient occlusion map extracted from Zbrush. Considering Zbrush has become the mainstream modeling application across animation and film industry, it is absolutely powerful on creating characters. However, it happens often for beginners that have problems as converting their creations into other 3D packages for animation use. From my personal experience, I have found that the use of maps which are supposed to bring all of the details is actually the most frustrating and problematic part. Therefore, this presentation will carry through the fundaments of those maps as well as possibly discussing the theory behind. Meanwhile, the document will point out some problems occurring during the baking process in order to optimize the workflow. Eventually, it will also demonstrate an actual practice on setting up a model which has the maps required from Zbrush.

PC/VA

Sara

Mijangos Garcia

The (lack of) VFX industry in the Basque Country.
The experience of AUNDIYA

In the last decade the film industry in the Basque Country has been growing. This research has investigated whether the VFX industry has grown alongside with it. In order to do that, the film AUNDIYA (Arregi, Garaño 2017) will be taken as main reference, as it is one of the first films using visible digital effects in the Basque Country.

Personal interviews to the director and the VFX supervisor of the film have been used as methodology to research this matter, as well as bibliography. Different outcomes from these interviews will be discussed in the talk, such us the process used to create the effects in the film and the situation of the VFX industry in the Basque Country and Spain. This research will conclude that the VFX industry does not exist in the Basque Country at the moment, even if the use of the effects is growing.

HNC/VA

Deepak

Kumar

12.00 – 1.40

Talks

LY/PSM

Dagmara

Ziemianska

Facial Rigging for Cartoony Animation

Within a highly stylized CG animated productions, animators may need a rig with some special features in order to meet requirements of the show. In this project I had been looking into different techniques used for facial rigging with a special focus on cartoony set up. During my presentation I will identify possible needs of animators and will discuss potential solutions.

LY/PSM

Dimitrios

Lekanis

Realistic ocean workflow in Houdini

The realistic interaction of ocean with other types of elements is one of the most intriguing digital effects. The main challenge is the seamless blending between the procedurally generated infinite ocean and the focused simulated areas around the collisions. This inquiry presents a case study investigation on the necessary workflow, inside Houdini 16. The talk will present the key parameters and technical difficulties for all the stages, starting from the generation of the ocean surface from static spectrum data, followed by the guided ocean layer flip simulation, ending with the blend of the oceanic spectrum deformation and the simulated surface, before and during the rendering stage.

LY/PSM

Haijing

Wang

Character rigging

After investigating character rigging I decided to compare the rigging tools that in Houdini and Maya.

Maya has already been using in character rigging which is longer than Houdini. The feature of muscle and rigging system in Houdini are still under developed. Most of the riggers and animators tend to use Maya than Houdini.

Maya is used predominantly throughout the VFX and Animation industry. The rigs in Maya are easier to be used and understood. However, the joints orientation problems have been avoided in Houdini, which makes riggers to edit bones in an easier way. The auto rig in Houdini is easy to be built up.

In the upcoming presentation, I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of character rigging that in Houdini and Maya. I will show some videos about rigging processes in both Houdini and Maya.

LY/PSM

Stephanie

Beukers

Hair Investigation

The goal of this research project is to understand hair and fur and how it is created. By studying real hair and analysing different aspects of how it is built up I gained knowledge and ideas how I could create this desired look and recreate it in 3D. During this presentation, I will show my research development and the different components that make up the hair formation. From this I will showcase the different groom methods and results that I have experimented on, and evaluate these conclusions.

2.15 – 3.55

Talks

JM/HNC

Daniel

Radford

Touchdesigner Live Audio Reactive Visuals

By using Touchdesigner I create live rendered audio reactive visuals. A range of audio sources can be input to the software, this information is then used to control certain parameters of the animations. Analogue to digital conversion of audio is explored as well as issues that may occur and limitations. User control via MIDI is explored and the adaptability / future possiblities of this technology are discussed, as well as why the user experience of a MIDI device is preferable to using a mouse. I look into the use of GLSL shading for live rendering and application of effects within the software.

JM/HNC

Haiyang

Jiang

The basic application of mathematics in Houdini

After reviewing some basic mathematics including trigonometric function and vector, I apply them to Houdini to explore how mathematics could help artists. I will present a few practical examples to show how mathematics could be used to achieve simple tasks.

JM/HNC

Jesin

Roy

Procedural generation of snowflakes

Computer Graphics has been developing methods for the creation of one of the nature's unique marvels with its incomparably specific character and perfect hexagonal symmetry, snowflake. My research involves looking into different methods of procedural snowflake generation with a focused study on how fractals are formed especially working with L-systems, Koch curves and Koch snowflakes. I will be delving into Houdini's L-Systems for generating snowflakes with different branching patterns and looking into application of various generation rules for creating snowflakes with unique designs and in combination attempting to use an external force or signal for the manipulation of these generation rules.

JM/HNC

Pei

Tang

Deep Learning

With the development of artificial intelligence, deep learning has become a very popular algorithm in recent years. It is used in so many areas, such as information retrieval, object recognition, audio process and so on. In the process of research, I found some interesting applications in computer vision which attract me extremely. I really want to make an attempt to combine animation with deep learning if it possible. For further research, I did an in-depth study of deep learning, understood the principle of this algorithm, got the structure of it, and learned how to use it. I will show my understanding in my presentation, use the specific example to explain and share some interesting applications.

4.15 – 5.55

Talks

HNC/JM

Dimitra

Kyrtsia

Fluid and particle simulation self tools in Houdini

Houdini has a number of self tools that automatically create a basic node structure and provide the users several controls to customize appropriately to their effect. The purpose of this project is to study the available shelf tools useful for simulating water and other fluids.

The focus is on the fluid tools like FLIP fluid but also particle techniques used to simulate fluids. The various tools will be described separately on how they work and the controls they provide. There will also be an attempt to compare between then on basic characteristics.

HNC/JM

Michal

Koziatek

A number of techniques have been developed over the years making it possible to simulate surface deformation and fracturing of objects exerted to collision and external pressure. Some of the approaches include Finite Element Solvers primarily used for cloth simulation, however the most efficient methods are based on rigid body simulation. Deforming objects are fractured prior the animation and hold together using constraints. Calculated animation is then used to drive deformation of the object. In this research I will attempt to simulate high velocity, rigid object crashing into stationary obstacle. The industry standard Bullet engine will be utilised for rigid body simulation as it has proven to be fast and flexible and comes as part of Houdini software used for the project

HNC/JM

Sarah

Ostrick

Fur

During the talk I will present my research and a critical analysis of my findings on Fur. I will begin by introducing the scientific qualities and structure of fur. This will be followed by an overview of the history of fur in CG illustrated by a discussion on examples that caught my attention. I will also discuss my findings and understanding of researched papers on the topic of fur rendering practices.

Finally, I will screen my own example of fur in Houdini and I will analyse the challenges faced during this research based and practical inquiry.

HNC/JM

Yuying

Qian

A Research & Practice on How Fur / Hair is Treated in Stop-motion Animation

The research will be focusing on how fur / hair is treated in stop-motion animation. Specifically study on a stop-motion animation film Kubo and Two Strings which includes characters with long hair smoothly animated. I will research on how the hair is treated to be able to animate frame by frame, through a skype interview with a stop-motion animator who works studio Laika ( from U.S.), and also research online and library resources. Also will do short stop-motion tests using the similar techniques I researched. And conclude with a short discussion on why is stop-motion still being used to make animation, even though 3D computer animation technology is extremely powerful now.

Friday 2^nd June

Posters in THOMAS HARDY SUITE

PG142,PG143,PG144

Talks in STEVENSON Lecture Theatre

POSTER SESSION 10.00 – 12.15

PG142,143,144

10.00 – 10.15

Exhibitors Poster setup

10.15 – 11.15

Staff and exhibitors only

11.15 – 12.15

All students and staff

ZX/HNC

Lloyd

Phillips

The Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence and how an Antelope AI could be implemented in Unreal Engine 4

This poster will describe some fundamental implementations of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Included in these are heuristic AI such as; Flocking, Fuzzy Logic, Sensors. Also, to be described are:

• Artificial Neural Network (ANN)

• Finite State Machines

• Behaviour Trees (A type of behaviour tree)

For each type of AI, we shall explain the type of behaviour that the AI might display for each implementation. Upon concluding this a short description of what tools are available in Unreal Engine 4 to implement AI are and what an implementation of an Antelope could be.

ZX/SB

Jason

Leskos

Research into an adult male and its creation in Zbrush

I have examined the structure of an adult male head. This includes an investigation into the structure of the skull, facial muscles and fatty tissue. Facial expressions have also been noted in relation to specific facial muscles.

This initial research has been used to inform the creation of a male human head in Zbrush, focusing on the eyes, nose, mouth and face.

A methodological analysis is documented in various stages of development.

ZX/HNC

Arfan

Bin Abdul Rashid

Good gameplay is no longer enough for video games, players also expected a good storyline to go along with it. Unfortunately storytelling in video games differs a lot compared to classical storytelling; story arc and dramatic structures does not meld so well given the freedom of players. So game developers required different approaches to integrate their narrative. New approaches such as AI behaviours and event triggers offers a variety of entirely new challenges to storywriters. By analysing recent video games, this inquiry aimed to understand the proper way of using the interactive nature of video games to deliver a story as effective as possible. This inquiry will provide a valuable reference for storywriters to understand how to properly deliver their narrative within a video games medium and as well as future interactive technologies.

OF/ZX

Bas

Wijers

Procedural Modelling On Smaller Scale

I have an interest in woodworking and used to draw furniture in SketchUp for my father. Houdini could bring new possibilities in terms of visualizing and exploring new design ideas. This inquiry then looks at procedural modelling tools in Houdini for small scale objects as opposed to the more common applications like city generation. The research centers around making a digital asset of a table. This functions to see how different variations of it can be visualized, which is useful in a product or art direction context. Some questions are raised, like how far can parameters be stretched before it becomes obvious that the models are not handcrafted? Is proceduralism worth it on a smaller scale or are traditional tools quicker? And how does this compare to the status quo of procedural generation in the entertainment industry in general

OF/ZX

Beatrice

Birocci

Sculpting. An ancient tradition made contemporary

After investigating several ancient marble statues of the Renaissance period, I decided to create a 3D sculpt using zBrush that could be 3D printed at a later stage.

I’ve chosen a superhero character, Batgirl (New52!! Version), posed in the same position as Terpsichore (Antonio Canova, 1811, Fondazione Magnani Rocca, Mamiano di Traversetolo, Parma), both leaning on the same column, but with different tools placed on the top of it.

After sculpting the statue, I will print the poster where I explain the advantages and disadvantages of the techniques used and the challenges I faced to complete the project, including fixing the 3D mesh in Maya and 3D printing the statue.

I’ll include in my poster all the the analysis I’ve done about several ancient statues, and the 2D sketches about the model I planned to make.

PC/PSP

Tetiana

Zhovtobriukh

Computer Generated Trees

In the world of computer graphics tree creation is always of particular interest due to the variety of trees in nature and a great number of applications of them in many areas, such as movies, games and urban modeling.

For my personal Inquiry I explore various ways of creating computer generated trees. I include step-by-step explanations of different techniques without going too deep into details, but focusing on important aspects and solving problems. The idea of my research is to gain general theoretical and practical knowledge of tree making approaches and to be able to easily apply them in other projects.

SB/ZX

Ino

Zavvou

The representation of female figure in art

Let’s explore some basic artistic “stations” of history of art through the transformation of the female body as a reference point. There will be gradually exposed some of the main ideas and characteristics of each artistic period and hopefully create a path of exploration of the history of art. In parallel, I will attempt an analysis of the female form and structure and of how these gradually changed and were transformed through visual practices, as ages passed by. My research will cover the broader period from the very first human artistic attempts, up to the appearance of the artistic movement of modernism.

SB/ZX

Rebecca

Oxford

Avatar Customisation: Trends and demographics of player representations in gaming

Due to my own interest in online gaming that relies heavily on the use of customisable in-game avatars, I have decided to pursue data on the trends within the online community of how players use their own avatars and the history behind the immersive experience of representing a person that may not necessarily be based on oneself. The poster will include the history of roleplaying from a gaming perspective, starting with games such as Dungeons & Dragons and leading up to the digital age of gaming, and also include the results of data I have gathered from volunteers. The set up will also have the opportunity for visitors to make their own characters in one of several games, so that I may gather more data with their permission.

SB/ZX

Robin

Chater

Sculpting a 3D Character Head based on 2D Concept Art

For this project I chose to learn about and explore the process of sculpting a 3D model of a stylised human character’s head using ZBrush software. I wished to explore this process in order to lean about how stylised human character assets are created for contemporary video games. The process I undertook was to: in the first instance teach myself the basics of ZBrush and then attempt to create a 3D sculpt of a head in ZBrush based on existing 2D concept art of a stylised character’s head created for a video game. I explored how to analyse and interpret the concept art and create a 3D sculpt based on it, informed by studying information on human facial anatomy for sculptors. I hope to show via my poster the lessons I learned from this process.

LY/HNC

Stefanie

Chrysostomou

Viscosity is the property that describes a fluid's resistance to flow. Some examples of highly viscous fluids would be honey, paint or chocolate, while water is a fluid of low viscosity. Due to the complexity of fluid visualisation most fluid models only enable the viscosity attributes when simulating Non-Newtonian fluids. This poster focuses on some background research on fluid viscosity as well as a comparison of the different physically based fluid methods. Finally, an introduction into simulating fluids of high viscosity in Houdini

LY/PC

Yi-Hsun

Hsiao

Methodology of Black-and-White Films in Digital Era

Since colours have become a ubiquitous technique broadly spread and used in movie industry, the number of black-and-white films being produced in last decade has plummeted to only a handful. Yet the elegant and focused nature of a black-and-white film keeps its aestheticism undead even in the time where black-and-white is seen to be a special effect.

Making films in black and white in digital era is no easy task. Most camcorders shoot in colour, meaning that it is barely possible to monitor the footage in greyscale directly while shooting. A well-trained eye to evaluate shades of vibrant colours and lights and shadows is essential to achieve an ideal outcome. This poster is going to explore and experiment the interactions of the colour saturation, light intensity, shapes and textures in black and white, as well as how those elements could bring better filming results.

PSP/LY

Johan

Lund

Creating Fire

After looking at both real and simulated fire I decided to compare some captured practical FX of a fire with a simulation of a similar effect. In the Poster I will show and talk about the anatomy of both kinds of fire, along with the advantages as well as the disadvantages if using them. I will be showing some footage where I compare the practical FX with the simulation of effect done in Houdini’s Pyro FX. I will be showing both a simulation without any changes made to it along with one where I have made several changes to make it more realistic compared to the out-of-the-box effect. During the Poster I will also be talking about the changes done to the last simulation and why they were done.

SH/PC

Di

Wu

Andrei Tarkovsky’s Art

I am aiming to create a poster discussing about Andrei Tarkovsky’s films and his point of views in filmmaking. Specifically, the discussion will be focused on the his film image (composition, colours, textures, aspect ratios etc.) and his view and decision of the use of camera shots (his use of long take and his view of montage etc.) I will also showcase his film using my laptop underneath the poster to give a better comprehension for the viewers to understand his film aesthetics.

SH/SB

Leire

Pérez

Meanings of the image by the use of lighting

Understanding the meaning of an image it is also looking at the lighting and colour. Every image receives particular lights coming from different sources, which influence the scene. Depending of the type of light sources and the colour response, different moods will be created. This means that a same scene with different lighting can create more than one kind of ambient such as romance, horror or drama. It is also significant the position, distance and direction of every light source because they can cause more soften or darken lights or more flattering and contrasting depending of this factors.

I will create a 3D scene and create different atmospheres by using this approach, where I will be able to demonstrate the importance of lighting when analyse a mood of an image

HNC/LY

Deborah

Leunig

CG Water

I researched the newest Houdini techniques to create photorealistic water simulations and analysed digital water simulations such as rivers and oceans. Especially the creation of oceans and the different settings for waves and whitewater are discussed. Furthermore I analysed the Shading, Lighting and Rendering of oceans. In my poster I will also present references of Houdini artists who have created water simulations and my own renders of water..

HNC/OF

Lisa

Torres

The History of Fur Texture Technology

After researching various fur technology techniques, I decided to discuss the history of the first procedural techniques starting with the 1980’s and the array of softwares that were utilized for generating fur textures. Thus, I will compare it to how they generate fur textures in today’s features. Particularly, I will talk about the history of Pixar (est. 1985). They were the first company to introduce Renderman ( A shading software that helps to create ‘realistic’ cg images.) in 1989 and continued to develop their technology. In 1995 I will discuss their first feature length film Toy Story and compare their progression over the years to their later films such as Monster’s Inc and Zootopia. During the poster symposium, I will have a display of picture references of the various 2D and 3D animations and compare the progression.

HNC/OF

Serhat

Kus

I will be looking at fur & hair development inside the Maya Software package. I have investigated grooming, shading, rendering and simulation workflows.

2014 maya introduced an industry proven hair and fur system called XGen (Core) which I have looked at first. Tested the system with several different rendering engines including Renderman, Vray and Arnold, I have looked at grooming techniques and applied all 3 possible methods within the system which are expressions, groom brushes and modifiers. Latter on I have also looked at the (Xgen) Interactive Grooming Splines that have released with the Maya 2017 version. I have gone through the similar approach and explored the tool.

In the poster I will be showing the grooms I have made and also the bugs I have run in to and solutions as well as the cons and pros of each tool.

JM/HNC

Yao

Lyu

Hair Simulation

Realistic hair simulation is a fundamental part of creating virtual humans in computer graphics. I decided to survey the techniques about hair simulation. In the project, the state of the art in the major topics of hair simulation includes: hair modeling, hair dynamics simulation and rendering. I will list the elements involved in hair modeling, the dynamics methods in hair simulation and the rendering requirements. For each of these major topics, I will present the unique challenges facing each area and describing solutions to handle these complex issues. Finally, an example of realistic hair simulation is shown.

1.00 – 2.00

DE Screening of student work

2.00 – 3.15

Talks

ZX/JM

Federico

Leone

I will present a research based on the idea of tracking humans using sparse multi-modal sets in real time. This also includes using data obtained from optical markers and inertial measurements. A fewer number of trakces are required for this method. Inverse dynamics and physics-based solvers are used to compute joint torques and contact forces. The system can track a wide range of dynamic movments

ZX/PSP

Chun-Cheng

Wang

Exploring hair and fur shelf tool in Houdini

The topic of the personal inquiry will be “Exploring hair and fur shelf tool in Houdini”. Different portraits with several hairstyles will be referenced, then using

Houdini hair and fur system to recreate CG version hair and rendered out.

ZX/PSP

David

Svenvall

I my talk i will be contrasting the anatomy of a real human/animal with how a cg muscle structure is built. Where the construction of a cg muscle system is mainly concentrated on how it constraints the models skin rather than being completely anatomically correct which also completely depends on the characters figure.

I will also be discussing what makes a cg muscle simulation real. How the realism also relies on other aspect like how the skin and fat reacts to the muscle

3.25 – 4.40

Talks

ZX/SB

Charlotte

Grant

Exploring hand-keyed facial animation and expression

The human face is a complex form that is capable of conveying a range of different emotions and expressions through muscle position, blink rate and eye movement. Since the early days of CG computer animation, we have sought to understand and replicate the human face. Human facial movement subtleties are a necessary part of our non-verbal communication as a species and as a result can be difficult to convincingly recreate digitally.

This talk seeks to analyse and explore some of the nuances involved in human facial movement and expression. I intend to highlight techniques that can be used to enhance a facial animation performance from a character animation perspective and will discuss methods of breaking down facial movement before animating. I will be identifying and referring to common facial animation mistakes and will demonstrate methods that can be used to combat and refine these for a more convincing performance.

SB/ZX

Daniel 

Rosas Paulsen

Creating VR Experiences

After researching about Virtual Reality, this presentation explains the necessary elements to create an effective VR experience. From a technical side, I will present the elements that should be considered during the creation of content for VR. On the narrative approach, I will present my findings in interactivity and immersion, and how they can be used to envelop the user in a fully involving environment. During the presentation I will display examples from different VR experiences, and the elements that show their efficiency.

SB/ZX

Vijin

Ravindran

The Future of Virtual Production

I propose to give a talk about ‘The Future of Virtual Production’. This encompasses the use of augmented reality and real-time rendering techniques for motion picture. My research largely revolves around a recent project by the Visual effects studio The Mill, named ‘The Human Race’. This is a short video of a car race that has been captured using a state-of-the-art motion tracking and 360-degree camera rig that is mounted on a custom made vehicle, covered with fiducial QR code-like markers. This system was specifically designed by engineers at The Mill to capture in real-time, the reflections that would be seen on the body of a vehicle in any real world environment, without the need for the physical vehicle. The computer vision algorithms were implemented by the company Arraiy, using an open source library called OpenCV, which I would like to study and use to implement a basic AR system.
references