Here is an update on the office environment. Worked on general bits as usual but also getting into detail on one of the most important areas, our hero’s cubical.
We know this is going to be seen in detail, where as most of the other cubical depend on what cameras we use, so to not waste time they can be padded out when all the pre-vis shots of in this environment is done.

I have a nice batch of spare days at the moment so I’m trying to work on the film as much as possible. Its always a good feeling to have quite a lot of enthusiasm to do 3d.

For anyone new to the process of making a short film, hopefully here is some info on the way it happens, or can happen at least.
These are the ways we are making our film, based on a little experience we have as well as what suits our strengths and weaknesses and what we feel we need, or do not need.

This is based really for people who aren’t very knowledgeable on the process. But not having made a short film doesn’t occlude so many people as it does not vary a great deal from other productions which are prevalent through the industry, commercials for instance.
The technical process is likely to be rather similar, and if its a narrative based piece (the commercial) then of course that can relate too.

So here is a basic run-through of the stages.

There are various stages that link together, often where one has to finish before the next can start, this is especially important with a keeping a big team organised on one project. This whole process is generally referred to as the pipeline (the magic word).

As you can see in the wonderful diagram below, there are several strands that work in parallel to make up the pipeline. And this in theory can all start from one place (the idea or story) and should find itself ending up at one place (the final film).

In the diagram above, the stages in orange are for Pre-production, red is production and green is post post-produciton.

Many stages can be discounted or added when needed, depending on people and projects. For instance, on our short film we have not made storyboards, very strange perhaps!…but maybe I’ll talk about that more another time.

As I mentioned earlier, one of the important things about the pipeline is that some stages can only start once others have finished (or perhaps just started) and that this needs to be as efficient as possible.

For example for a character, first we would gather together reference of stuff we like. 3d characters, 2d, actors, real people, anything that is suitable for the part.
Without that we cannot draw up a design concept, and without a concept we cannot begin the modeling process, without the model we cannot rig it etc.

Above is a moodboard made up from reference gathered for the bank lobby environment.

After collecting reference material, a really good way to share ideas with other people working on the short is by using things like moodboards. Laying out lots of images in one go and briefly note whats good and whats bad from the reference.
Using this as a base, we can then start modelling the environments. And although this is a long process, the environments become useful very quickly as we can use new models straight into the previs knowing that they will still be accurate later on (any dramatic layout changes can be reworked in previs, or catered for when it comes to animating certain shots).

This can be very beneficial and efficient.
Another very helpful thing that this method provides is that if we get the previs (more specificly the cameras) nailed down for all the shots that will use one of the environments we then know what is going to be seen of the environment and what is not.
We can concentrate on specific areas inside the environment and discard other areas that will not be seen - thus saving us potentially a lot of time and effort going to waste.

Simple models and simple animation is all can be needed for previs.

Before you know it you have a pipeline going, with the gentle stream of 3d fun trickling through it.

I think thats it for now though there is a lot to be covered, hopefully at a later time, particularly lighting, compositing, general organisation of scenes/textures/render outputs and that kind of thing.

Please ask any question via email or add a comment.
Cheers!

As this is so very exciting I thought I would share.
As well as the environment on the post below, over 1:30min of previs has been produced, though its hard to say exactly how far through the film we are at that time position :).

So here, just for reference is an example of a previs model, our hero’s bedroom in fact, and the level of detail needed when making previs (not much). But how useful it is doing the initial basic layout can’t be undervalued as a base to work from.

Here is a 360 camera view around the office in its current state, as before still plenty to model and texture etc. But I thought I’d render this out as my pc is quiet while I’m at work.
The quality isn’t the best, but it’ll do for now

click here to download…

Here’s an update on the office environment, every little helps eh!
The ceiling lights are kinda working, still lots of things haven’t been textured properly and there’s a long list of bits and bobs to make, but we are getting somewhere with it
Rendering a wee 360 spin animation of it in its current state at the moment so will post that up when its good to go.

As we’re using xsi, which doesn’t come with a native network render manager (though I have used renderq before which is really simple and easy to use).
We thought we’d have a look to see what else is around, and Frantic Film’s Deadline looked like it could be useful.
Its quite similar in layout to backburner, and also hints of royal render - especially as it has the ability to work with lots of 2d/3d apps without too much work.
So hopefully in the near future we will have some test animations of the environments etc. going instead of just stills.