Camera animation and rendering in Maya

Before Alex left the other day, I asked him to remind me how to track a camera animation in Maya and what the correct settings of how to export it are. With this new knowledge I decided to get up early this morning and I was able to complete the animation in an hour or so. I tried rendering the whole thing, this took a much longer than anticipated and even though Maya claimed it had completed my render I found it had only done the first five seconds.

Is it me or does nothing ever go according to plan?

This is first time Alex and I have met up since we finished for Christmas. We set up the camera and plugged it into Alex's Mac, only to find that everytime we tried to capture the live footage Final Cut would unexpectidly close.We spent a couple of hours trying all the different settings yet no matter what we try Final Cut crashes everytime. We decided there must be a problem either with his Mac or with his phony version of Final Cut. Either way we decided to come up with a new plan as to how we can film it another day. Unfortunately this won't be until atleast the 5th of January now due to Alex's work commitments.

Re-writing the script - NXT

Since it's become apparent that it will be atleast a week until we can film I have decided to make the executive decision of experimenting with more camera animation in Maya. I refer to my previous post eleven days ago where I pitched this idea to Alex. We decided against it at the time however now we have three weeks to try make it work so I feel there's no reason it can't be done. I have also considered scrapping the idea of the NXT building up as it difficult to film right and if it doesn't work accordingly it becomes a vary time consuming process.

Filming takes another big set back

After spending much of last night building the legs for the NXT I decided to contact Alex to find out when was convinent for him to come round and get it filmed. He informed me that he has work most of nights this holiday period with the exception of a couple of days between christmas and new year, with a week off before we go back to Uni. This should be ok aslong as we film on one of the days before new year to allow for unexpected technical difficulties.

This should have been over a long time ago

I felt like a bit a spoon asking Matt to borrow a camera, tripod and green screen again today because he asked me what I needed it for. When I told him it was to film the NXT again he laught and asked, 'you still filming that piece of shit?!' Yep, my thoughts exactly. I can't believe I'm doing still trying do this. Anyway that's not point. The fact of the matter is that while I dragged myself out of bed to ensure we are prepared to get this over done with during the holidays, Alex lays in bed nursing a hangover. Oh well it's nice to know that we both have the same motivation needed to get this project completed to a satisfactory level. Right, Im going to spend the rest of my day building this NXT, I'm finding it hard to contain my excitment at just the thought of it.

Looks like it's going to be late submission

With no animation rendered and no film good enough to present we have been left with no other option but forget about meeting the deadline. I don't really know where to start on this one to be honest. I think the best thing to do is learn from the problems we've encountered and and try take the equiptment out over the holidays giving us a good few weeks to reserect this project. In the meantime I feel like asking for extension on this project, after all I think you will agree that the lack of eqiuptment and the inconsideration of others are simply factors that are out of my control.

NXT - The final shoot looks appauling

The reason why this footage is so sketchy is because of the modeling light we used to light the front of the NXT is now nowhere to be found. According to Matt somebody loaned it out and didn't return it on time. Fantastic, that is all we need right now, when we finally manage to get hold of the NXT the other eqiuptment goes missing. As you can see this footage is far too poor quality to actualy composit with 3D footage and still expect a half decent result. To add to our problems Alex has spent the last two hours trying to render the Maya footage, to no avail. I hate to admit defeat but I'm afraid that in this case it is our only option. At this late stage in the game we have nothing worth presenting in tomorrows final crit. Oh well so much for best layed plans, ey!

The Final Rant

OK these are my final words on the NXT... It vanished last Thursday and came back this afternoon, two days till the project deadline. So thanks, much appreciated. You've given us a day to film and edit our entire project. I know there were a couple of groups who faced the same difficulties we did surrounding the availability of the robot this can be indefinatley put down to the fact that there was only one complete kit coupled together with the fact there were such a high percentage of the class that chose this brief. I feel that if people put the NXT back when they weren't using it like Alex and I did then there's no reason why everyone couldn't have done their filming atleast a week before the deadline. Anyway what's done is done let's hope for the best in this final shoot

Green screen podium didn't work!

Apart from the fact that someone bought glossy spray paint (moody), the lego parts were not strong enough to hold the nxt. This was rather irritating as I had doubts about this from the start. Anyway shortly after the discovery was made, the green screen podium was quickly destroyed out of frustration. (Sorry no pics.)

The NXT has returned!

The NXT appeared in the classroom again this afternoon, interestingly it was out of batteries and it looks as though it has been put back together by a special needs artist. There were many parts from top to bottom that were either missing or in the wrong order, causing it to fall apart under it's own weight. I spent nearly an hour and a half putting it back together in the correct order. By the time I was done there were not enough hours left in the day to film. All I can do is leave another note on it explaining it is required for filming tomorrow. Out of pure desperation I made it clear at the end of the note that great harm will come to anyone who moves the NXT, takes it to pieces or does anything to it which would result in it not being available to be filmed by Alex and I first thing tomorrow morning.

I've had an Idea! A way to make our NXT advert run with complete continuity

When Alex showed me this animation for an idea of how we could incorporate the film of the NXT into the 3D logo over two weeks ago I must admit at first I was a bit dubeious as how hard this would actualy be to materialize. However after giving it some time and thought then looking into how it could be done, I discovered it is much simpler than I first imagined. So I decided to expand on this by proposing the idea of positioning the camera inside the letter 'S' of the 3D Mindstorms logo. The camera could then track through the 'S' until it reaches the NXT. At this point the camera could curve around to the front of the logo. This might be quite tricky to composit possibly envolving key framing it frame by frame. Anyway after the camera curvers around to the front view of the logo it would zoom out unveiling the full logo. I admit it would be a fairly time consuming process however it would mean that our final footage would have much more continuity. So I suggested this to Alex, unfortunately he rejected this idea claiming we wouldn't have time to do it. However I think we would have time if we film it within the next day or two then we would be left with plenty over a week for editing still. Anyway I'll forget about it for now but if we get chance I feel it would well worth it.

How to make a green screen podium

1. Take an economy size tub of luxury mayonaise.
2. Take a stanley knife and cut a small hole in the top.
3. Using the stanley knife cut the rim from where the lid would be attached. If that fails, seek advice from a product design tutor.

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The first attempt using a mini circular saw fitting on an electric was difficult to keep steady. This was replaced with a small sharp blade, a much safer however more strenuous method.

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4. Take a piece of card and draw a circle around the rim and cut it out then tape the card to the top of the tub.
5. Apply green card around the visable edge and tape up.
6. Finaly spray paint green your podium evenly.

The NXT seems to be playing hide and seek

After my previous notes were ignored, we were left with no other option but to hide the NXT in a locker on Friday afternoon so that Alex and I were sure that with no further set backs we would be able to film first thing on monday morning. Yep, you guessed it. By the time monday morning had come around the NXT has gone walk abouts again.

Lighting test - Optional Pathway

After the NXT took a short vacation it has mysteriously reappeared late this afternoon, this left us not quite enough time to film it completely although we did have chance to do a quick lighting test to assure we know exactly how the lighting needs to be for the best possible results in front of the green screen. They show the exact position of the lights and camera in relation to the location of NXT robot. One thing we had trouble with is the material that the screen is made from. This makes it difficult to keylight in After Effects when the subject matter is so small and film from close up. To avoid this we are developing a 'green screen podium' to film the robot on, according to Matt in the AV Suite this will make the section of film that will be composited into maya much easier. I'm not entirely sure this will work out as planned however I'm not exactly one to mock it before try it, so lets see how it goes.

The availability of the NXT is a joke!

Someone in the class is illiterate, either that or they are extremely inconsiderate. The note that I left on the NXT last night clearly stated the fact that Alex and I are all set up and ready to film this morning. If you think I'm pissed off about this wait until you hear what Alex has to say about this. After all, he was the one who spent hours rebuilding it yesterday so we could be ready to film this morning. We spent a few hours trying to locate the NXT but nobody seems to be any the wiser as to where it has gone. This is incredibly annoying as there are only a couple of weeks left on this project, we had carefully planned this out so that we could have all our footage shot by today giving us a healthy few weeks to edit and apply the finishing touches. We also decided upon filming today so we could avoid the rush of people that are less organised. It is clear that for a project that uses a prop that nearly half the class needs to film it will take a certain degree of cooperation to ensure things run smoothly, for example at the start of the project Tom knew he had to go away skateboarding so Alex and I agreed to let Tom and Rory use it first as they wouldn't have time later on in the project. It is this consideration and ability to negotiate resources that certain members of the class lack, it is because of this that the project is becoming more difficult that it needs to be.

Shot location and prop ideas

I mentioned to alex about hiring the equpitment out and filming the NXT at my flat, this way it will be easy to film rotating smoothly on a turntable, with the green screen behind it. Alex pointed out that by filming it at college we could get help from Matt in the av suite and we would also be to use the xd camera for better picture. Following this discussion we went to ask Matt about using the xdcam, he told us we could use it in the av suite whenever. The NXT needed rebuilding again so we prepared to film the next day. As alex set about building the robot, I was given the task of making a green screen podium for the robot to rotate on. It needs to be round so it doesn't create to many shadows.