Garth the GargoyleA ride through the uncanny valley.

Goal

• Requirements for successful CG-implementation

Goal

• Requirements for successful CG-implamentation

• Focus on animation and compositing

Concept

• Challenging design– Hind legs– Wings– Tail

Concept

• Challenging design– Hind legs– Wings– Tail

• Challenging scene and light– Daylight. Cannot hide mistakes.– Ice and snow. Sparkle effect, subsurface scattering

and bounce light.

Concept

Early concepts

Concept

• Added filmed clip to storyboard– Increased animation and compositing challenge

Modeling

• Three models

Modeling

• Three models– Base mesh. Even edge flow for optimal sculpting

Modeling

• Three models– High poly. 9 million triangles. Used for baking

displacement and normal maps.

Modeling

• Three models– Low poly. Topology designed for animation and

good displacement map subdivision.

Rigging

Rigging

• Intuitive– Less hands on animation

Rigging

• Intuitive– Less hands on animation

• Muscle system– As part of an intuitive rigg.

Rigging

• Intuitive– Less hands on animation

• Muscle system– As part off an intuitive rigg.– Free deformation animations

Rigging

• Intuitive– Less hands on animation

• Muscle system– As part off an intuitive rigg.– Free deformation animations– Keeps volume on bending regions of mesh

Rigging

• Intuitive– Less hands on animation

• Muscle system– As part off an intuitive rigg.– Free deformation animations– Keeps volume on bending regions of mesh– Muscle and wing jiggle

Rigging

Rigging

• Issues:– Muscle deformation on displacement map defined

mesh.• Have to render to see the true deformation on mesh.

Rigging

• Issues:– Muscle deformation on displacement map defined

mesh.• Have to render to see the true deformation on mesh.

– Tail rigg too intuitive• Easy to use, hard to master.

Animation

• Winged predator with tail– Different center of weight.• Can lean forward more

– Strong and agile motion scheme

– Aggressive behaviour• Like other predators, moves into position for attack

Animation

Animation

Animation

• Issues with filmed material– Time the animation with other characters– Hectic flow of planned poses, – Loss of CG-characters weight and momentum.

Animation

• Issues with filmed material– Time the animation with other characters– Hectic flow of planned poses, – Loss of CG-characters weight and momentum.

• Wings collides with itself.– Better skin weighting and added edges.

Shaders

Shaders

• Mental ray mia_material

Shaders

• Mental ray mia_material– Final Gather and IBL lighting

Shaders

• Mental ray mia_material– Final Gather and IBL lighting– Mib_flakes for frost glitter effect

Shaders

• Mental ray mia_material– Final Gather and IBL lighting– Mib_flakes for frost glitter effect– SSS shader for snow/ice subsurface scattering

Shaders

• Mental ray mia_material– Final Gather and IBL lighting– Mib_flakes for frost glitter effect– SSS shader for snow/ice subsurface scattering– Render passes

Shaders

• Don’t overdo the mib_flakes.

Render and Comp

• Render passes– 32-bit .EXR• Material Color• Direct lighting• Indirect lighting• Raw Shadow• Specular• Reflection• Matte

Render and Comp

• Nuke setup– 3D-projection scene– Backgrounds are still photos– Imported camera with baked animation– Grade and color correction– Light wrap– Motion blur– Film noise

Render and Comp

Render and Comp

Render and Comp

Render and Comp

Conclusion

• Muscle system not necessary– A Pose Space Deformation solution had been equally

effective• The use of actors as animation reference vital– Should have used an extra actor for gargoyle

movement reference• Displacement maps are time consuming• Nuke is a powerful tool. Prepare for it!• Maya 2012 is another kind of ”tool”…

Thanks to:My mentor, Mattias Bergbom – VFX consultant for DD

Erik Öhman – awesome actor and post-master

My awesome classmates!

And to gscept for giving me this opportunity!

jimbo.sahlin@gmail.com gscept logga :P