Day 25_Home_Tuesday (Nov 28th, 2011)

Plan Change (again):

1. Perfect the snow globe animation
2. If time is left over towards the end of the semester then I will do something else
3. Last day of class will be compiling work into a reel

Day 25_Class_Tuesday (Nov 28th, 2011)

12:30 - 3:00 PM

1. Checked the previously rendered file of the new version
1. Pros = 
1. The snow looks more like snow than the original dead grey
2. The background is a better choice in order to amplify the effect of the material on the snow
2. Cons = 
1. The camera seems to move a little fast at certain points
2. There is no focus at all of there being a snowman
2. Reopened file and reset the render settings to NTSC DV 720x480, DPI 72
3. Rendering
4. Double checked to see if I had any of the files with the character I was working on and didn't find it. I'll work on making a character while the file renders.
5. Started it then dumped it I did save the file to today's folder
6. Stopped the larger render
7. Showed Blyth
8. Looked into correcting the boolean and making it so that the base of the snow globe didn't show while viewing from the inside
1. List of corrections to be made
1. Landscape in sphere boolean fix
2. Hang ornaments from tree
3. Change the placement of the snowman
4. Augment the way that the school logo is placed on the snow globe base
9. Took a 15-20 minute break
10. Separated the boole
11. Redid the boolean 
12. Selected it and changed the options to A intersect B
13. Current state to object
14. Copy and pasted the globe
15. Removed the glass material

Day 24_Class_Tuesday (Nov 22nd, 2011)

12:40 - 3:10PM

1. Opened file for Snow Globe
2. Saved file to today's folder as 2_5.c4d
3. Changed the sphere in the emitter to a more segmented object/more crystalline
4. Went into the material presets for c4d found one called velvet
5. Applied the velvet material to the object in the particle emitter and changed the gradient colors to white and light blue
6. Applied the material to the landscape
7. It's taking a while for the texture to apply itself 
8. Applied the material to the snowman pieces
9. Applied a black material to the piece of coal that make up the face
10. Editing the emitter to produce more snow
11. Testing textures for the tree
12. Removed all but one keyframe that positions the arms
13. Grouped objects to simplify the hierarchy
14. Dropped in a camera
15. Called it Fly
16. Animated the camera tested the animation
17. Corrected path
18. Set up the save name : MontserratCard1.mov in folder 11/22
19. Checked the render settings
20. Rendering
21. Doodling character
22. Creating character model in c4d
23. Saved character to today's folder
24. Saved file I was working on
25. Letting file render
26. File settings for Final Cut were gone over
27. Copied files over to external

Day 23_Home_Thursday (Nov 17th, 2011)

Tuesday November 22nd
11:50 -12:00

1. Blogging
2. Opened up the project file in Final Cut
3. Copied the necessary file from external to working volume
4. Imported the file into Final Cut
5. Deleted the video clip that I had in the timeline
6. Replaced it with the new clip Zoomout2.mov
7. Exported as MontserratCard.mov to 11/22
8. Blogging

Day 23_Home_Thursday (Nov 17th, 2011)

Sunday November 20th
6:00 - 7:11PM

1. Continued watching the 3rd tutorial but (honestly I) lost interest when my internet crapped out again
2. I've given up on Maya for now, I'll work with it on my own over the winter break
3. Opened up c4d 11.5
4. Tried to reinstall but couldn't get a stable internet connection in order to get my codes and instructions from my email
5. Opened up c4d 13 demo
6. Took out a character design from my character creation class
7. Started to make a robotic character
8. Stopped doing it
9. Put in a sphere
10. Toyed with the cloth tag and colliders
11. Got the shape of the character as well as most of the clothes
12. It wouldn't let me save the file
13. I've been able to save before but it wouldn't let me so I surrendered the file that I had been working on

Day 23_Class_Thursday (Nov 17th, 2011)

1:10 - 3:15 PM **Working from Home w/Maya**

1. Opened up the program
2. Opened up my blog
3. The standard screen looks similar to C4D only with a lot more available functions, though it might just be due to the set up that there appears to be more
4. I typed mudbox into the help menu since Blyth had asked if the student version came with it, I'm going presume that since there was was no information on it that the version of Maya that I got didn't come with it.
5. The primitives are located in the very top menu bar under Create, from there I was instructed to drag my cursor over the workspace and in doing so I decided the size of the sphere primitive that I had chosen
6. In order to move around the stage there is a cube at the top right hand corner, you can change the views from there simply by clicking on a particular spot on it
7. Opened up a tutorial on how to create a character in Maya
8. I brought in a subdiv primitive sphere like the instructions said but I couldn't find a submenu for modeling so I looked it up in the help and it rendered to results for me so I went back and to the search list for tutorials and found a youtube series of steps to create a female character in Maya. 
1. The internet crapped out and the video is having a hard time loading, I'll reload it and if that doesn't work then I'll bring up the page on my netbook and watch it that way
1. I don't understand why IT can't do anything about it
2. The link:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyDBZcSILvc
9. Okay the internet isn't working on either of my two computers so I'm just going to have to either make a character in c4d for the time being or work on the character over the weekend or sometime that I can get a connection
10. I don't have much for work to do this weekend I'll figure it out then
11. I got the video to play on my netbook so I'm going to watch that
12. I figured out how to switch the viewing mode
13. Watching part 2 of the video

Day 23_Class_Thursday (Nov 17th, 2011)

1:00PM

A slight alteration of plans, Today's work will be :

1. Starting the character model (in Maya)
2. Figuring out the basics of Maya

Next Wk: (Tuesday, Nov 22nd)

1. Going back to the SnowGlobe animation
1. Complete the first version of it
2. Complete a second version
1. Go back into files and eliminate all animated parts (excluding the snow)
2. Make the snow from the emitter more crystalline
3. Make the snow whiter
4. Animate a fly-through of the world and zoom out

Day 22_Class_Tuesday (Nov 15th, 2011)

Semester Remaining Schedule Change:

1. 11/15-11/17 = Complete School Animation
2. 11/22-11/24 = Create Character 
3. 11/29-12/1 = Walk Cycle + Create Character
4. 12/6-12/13 = Walk Cycle + Create Character + Walk Cycle 
5. 12/13 = Create a Portfolio Reel

Day 22_Class_Tuesday (Nov 15th, 2011)

12:50 - 1:00PM

1. Took all rendered files into final cut
2. Edited it
3. Exported
4. It's noticeably pixelated in the last clip so I'm going to change that rendered version

1:00 - 3:00PM

1. I have to go back and correct the positioning again before I can go and render it out
2. File name CardAnimated2_4.c4d
3. Delete animations/keyframes
4. Correct positioning of snowman
5. Animated snowman > hands down from head > waving
6. Enlarge the seasons greetings in lights 
7. Reanimate Camera to frame 0-450
8. Rendering
9. Locating music for animation
10. Placed a piece
11. Copied files to assigned folders
12. Saved project file in Final Cut

Day 21_Home_Thursday (Nov 10th, 2011)

Monday 12:00 - 2:00AM

1. Opened up file and saved to 11_10 folder
2. Added an emitter to the top of the snow globe
3. Applied the School logo
1. Had to modify it so that it fit within the selected polygons
4. Made a back wall
5. Made a mantel
6. Applied textures
7. Set up to render both scenes
8. Logged onto another computer
9. Set up other render file
10. Rendering
11. 
    

Day 21_Home_Thursday (Nov 10th, 2011)

Tuesday 10:50 - 12:50 PM

1. Checked the render from the night before realized that the color on the stick arms isn't there
2. Went back rendered it again
3. Added the other modifications that I had made to another file
4. Modified the snowman
5. ***Waited in LINE to sign up for evaluations***
6. Deleted all animations and keyframes
7. Animated camera
8. Rendered
9. Copying files to external and transferring to

Day 21_Class_Thursday (Nov 10th, 2011)

12:30 - 3:20PM

1. I'm trying to figure out why it is that the null object axis keeps leaving the center point whenever I put in a key frame to a specific position
2. I deleted the keyframes for each of the individual objects
3. I've tried setting it manually as well as typing in the coordinates and neither work the axis ALWAYS leaves the center of the objects that it's suppose to be in control of!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4. Blyth came over and copied the snowman object to a new file. Removed all key frames from the object and found that there were floating points. After going through and using the optimize tool on each object, the points stayed. Then the null objects were removed from the equation and everything was grouped. A rotating animation was set up, it worked the axis just had to be corrected and then the animation played as it was suppose to.
5. In addition to that tags were added to the torso and the scarf in order to animate it, the program more or less froze so I closed it through finder.
6. I was able to save both files open at the time though
7. Reopening the file I was working on
8. Tried going back through the steps listed above for the snowman already in the file but it wasn't working out
9. So I merged the other Snowman file into this one and deleted it with the lone exception of the detailed head
10. Snowman fixed Animated the arms and torso reaching down to snowball. I will not animate it going back up but I'll have the arms on the head and have them pull away in order to simulate or rather give it the idea of being picked up and put on.
11. Although its not done the major problem I had is solved and I'll pick up where I left off on Friday to get it over and done with

Friday:

1. Complete animation sequences
2. Add Montserrat to the base of the globe
3. Render
4. Edit in Final Cut

Day 20_Home_Tuesday (Nov 8th, 2011)

11:30 - 12:15PM

1. Opened cardanimated2.c4d file
2. Played through the turn animation at 300 - 390 and the body does this whole loop around and into place
3. I changed the axis and played through it again it's still not behaving the way it's suppose to be

Day 20_Home_Tuesday (Nov 8th, 2011)

1:15AM

1. Copied all files that weren't on my External Drive onto it in their assigned folders

Day 20_Home_Tuesday (Nov 8th, 2011)

Wednesday Nov 9th, 2011
10:26PM - 1:09AM

1. Opened file 
2. Continued altering the landscape with the magnet tool
3. Glanced at the last blog post
4. What I need to to is: 
1. Fix the plane (which I'm doing right now),
2. Simulate/setup the particle emitter 
3. Animate the pick up of snowball
4. Animate the camera zoom out
5. I'm having loading issues still which making things take longer to change, it makes me curious as to how it's going to react when I go the render
6. Okay now its really not responding as I try to use the magnet tool now that I augmented the radius size. I'm going to have to forget about changing the landscape for now and focus on the other things that I need to do
7. Alright this is getting really annoying I went back to the file from this window and the magnet tool works again!! The absurdity of this is driving me up a wall
8. Changed the arrangement with the landscape and the globe
9. Repositioned the tree and the snowman
10. Completed the animated segment for the roll
11. Sized and placed the stick arms
12. I keyframed the arms and then they disappeared
13. I looked around for them found them then moved them back into the globe
14. I've found a pattern that I better not be jinxing in saying it but it seems that whenever I have a problem the moment that I blog about it the problem solves itself (for the most part)
15. Put the stick arms back in place
16. Set the keyframes for them
17. Rotated the body and the stick arms 90 degrees towards the camera from 300 - 390 frames
18. Saved 
19. Renamed file to CardAnimation2.c4d
20. Added joints to the stick arms
21. Added IK chains
22. Tested the joints and they work
23. Put in a camera for the next shot
24. Went to animate the shot and the body disappeared when I key framed it
25. I rendered the image and found that the entire body has moved to the top of the globe
26. I went through and played the key frames, although I had key framed them so that they would stay in position they moved!!!!!!
27. I do have a previously saved version of this but I getting really pissed off and tempted beyond belief to leave it until tomorrow which would be detrimental to me
28. I hit the undo function numerous times until I got the snowman's body back where it's suppose to be
29. I'm done with this. I got the stuff back that I was missing but they are not in the right orientation and toying the the redo and undo functions aren't getting the work that I had back. The other file that I have is from before I put joints in the arms and did things.
30. No animation has been completed tonight, it was just a giant waste of my time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 20_Class_Tuesday (Nov 8th, 2011)

12:55 - 3:15 PM

1. Opened project file
2. Sent email about when to come look at the animated cards CC'd Mori, Georgia, and Blyth
3. 1:40 = Set up is Complete
4. Put snowball meant to become the head at the starting position
5. Set up animation
6. Ended up animating camera in order to get up to 300 frames
7. Moved the snowman
8. I'm trying to alter the plane but I'm having loading problems. I believe that it's due to the number of polygons
9. Saw one way to do cloth animation
10. Corrected alterations to plane
11. Was shown another way of animation cloth pertaining to a scarf

What was completed Today:

1. The set up
2. Animating the Snowball Roll

To Do on Wednesday at 9PM

1. Complete animation
1. Animate pick up
2. Animate Zoom out
3. Particles/Snowflakes
2. Fix plane

Day 19_Home_Thursday (Nov 3nd, 2011)

Tuesday, Nov 8th, 2011
12:34 - 12:50 PM

**Note:
I'm behind on what I wanted to have done for today: the set up, and the animation. According to my original schedule all that I would need to be doing this week was rendering and doing the final edits. Unfortunately I'm a week behind schedule, I still have to finish the set up and the animation before I can go into post production. Thankfully post production should only take me a few hours to complete so a single class period at most, rather than the two classes I had planned will work out just fine.
I will still meet my deadline which is the end of class on Thursday Nov 10th.

Plans:

1. Nov 8 = Complete set up
2. Nov 8 = Animate 3 cams
3. Nov 10 = Post Production 
4. Nov 10 = Project Complete

Day 19_Class_Thursday (Nov 3nd, 2011)

12:00 - 3:05 PM

1. Looked at blog

**I was working on other homework assignments and running errands so I didn't get to come in to work on what I had scheduled to work on wednesday

1. Opened file name : LandScapePrimitive3.c4d
2. Saved file as Set1.c4d to today's folder
3. Added a camera called it SnowRoll
4. Merged the Snowmanfinal.c4d file
5. Grabbed the school's logo off the internet
6. Merged the other object files
1. Tree
2. Stick arms
3. Ornaments
4. Star of David
7. I need to make at least one more primitive, the string of lights spelling out "Season's Greeting's"
1. I've tried writing it with the mouse but it doesn't come out quite right
2. I'm going to run home grab my tablet and my school id in case my tablet doesn't agree with the computer
8. Wrote out the words
9. Swept them
10. Created a light bulb 
11. Created and added textures
12. Copy and pasted the lightbulbs
13. Arranged them on the swept splines
14. Switched up the textures on the lights
15. Saved
16. Closed
17. Went back to Set1.c4d
18. C4d in running really slow with the above file I'm sure that it has something to do with the amount of polygons
1. Whenever I go to render the still image it takes forever to load and its the same when I click elsewhere in order to get out of the render
19. Arranged the set
20. Looking at Sound for animation
1. http://www.freesound.org/search/?q=christmas&page=2#sound
21. Saved file under greetingcard1.c4d
22. The only thing that needs to be done is:  
1. The addition of a particle producer for the snow
2. Apply a texture to the base of the snow globe
3. Animate

What to have done by Nov 8th Tuesday:

1. Complete Set up
2. Particle producer/Snow
3. Texture for base of Snow Globe
4. Animate
1. 3 shots
1. Rolling snowball
2. Picking up of snowball
3. Panning out from snowman

Day 18_Class_Tuesday (Nov 1st, 2011)[No Classes!!/Advising Day!!]

12:10 - 3:10 PM

1. Copied files for card over to folder 11_1
2. Went through the list of primitives that I still need to make
1. Snowman
1. Scarf
2. Sticks
2. String of lights
3. SnowGlobe
1. Art Supplies
4. Snow Flakes
3. Snow Flakes I'll have as being spheres since I'm not going to do a close up of them
1. Snow Flakes = Done
4. Drew three splines
5. Connected them
6. Added circle spline and swept them into their three dimensional form
7. Got rid of the caps and made the tips more narrow
8. Saved
9. Stick Arms = Done
10. New File
11. Drew splines
12. Copied them and used the loft function
13. Went and did a tutorial that turned out to be on how to animate cloth
1. It didn't give the same results as what had been shown in the end of the tutorial
2. Here's the link
1. http://www.jag4d.com/scarf_animation_with_clothilde.html
14. I didn't bother saving the file but I kept the link just in case I want to go back and do it again for something else since the scarf I'm doing doesn't have to move like cloth
15. I found a page of tutorials as well, I haven't actually tested any beyond the one mentioned above
1. http://www.cgtutorials.com/c4/Maxon_Cinema_4D/newest/4
16. Created another scarf in the same file then named it Scarf_1_1.c4d (Scarf_1_2.c4d Hypernurbs)
1. Added color
2. Saved
17. Scarf = Done
18. New file
19. Created snowman
20. Merged scarf into snowman file called it snowmanfinal.c4d
21. Opened the file for the set
22. Added a sphere that encapsulated it
23. Added material to sphere to see how it would react to the landscape inside of it
24. Started altering the edges of the landscape in order to make the group fit itself to the sphere
25. Added a camera to for it to capture the snow ball rolling over the hills when it get animated
26. Enlarged the scape
27. Made a boole btw the scape and the glass
28. Unfortunately because I got the wise idea to apply hypernurbs to the scape then boole it after it already worked I corrupted the file. I can open it and I can work on it but a bunch of distorted windows eventually cover my entire work space and the program slows down
29. Grabbed a back up file and corrected the problem by eliminating the hypernurbs
1. And doing so slowly (doing one thing then waiting, do the next thing and wait, etc.)
30. What has been done today:
1. Sticks
2. Snowman
3. SnowGlobe (Basic shape of it)
31. What still needs to be made/done:
1. Art supplies
2. String of lights

NOTE***: I'm behind by a day of work but I am going to be working on the files again tonight as well as Wednesday and Thursday. I will get caught back up.

Deadlines:

Wed, Nov 2nd = Primitives modeled + Stage set + Cameras

Thurs, Nov 3rd = All animating + All rendering + Compiling in Final Cut

Day 17_Home_Thursday (Oct 27th, 2011)

11:15 - 11:55AM

1. Couldn't log onto computer
2. Found books for other class
3. Deleted everything int the text boxes
4. Logged in