Week 26: Going Live - Mountain IBLs

Using IBLs to look at lighting for the mountain.

Some of the earlier ones (not colour corrected). This is
Still without the textures etc.

                        

But I looked again at some of these as the light should be coming from behind the mountain...

Obviously a little colour-correction and messing around in comp will be necessary.

Week 26: Reflection on Practice - Conference Day

And then there was light.

Today we had our presentations. It was a long day, but it was great to see how everyone's research journeys had turned out. I had kind of hoped to have been earlier in the day, but I ended up being in the last group. It didn't turn out to be much of an issue though, after all the practice I did, I felt a lot more prepared.

The practice run with Kirti and Sheng helped me dramatically and gave me the little boost I needed.


Some of the slides from my presentation:

Near the end of the project I explained how my research progressed like a journey. To begin, I was thinking solely from my own personal development. This moved to how this information could also help those in the field of VFX or studying to be and how this could help better visual effects and compositing in film and TV. However, the research has lead me to a new path and currently I think I would like to take my research down the route of pychological, social and intellectual development of autistic individuals through digital media, animation and VFX. I looked into this topic and found grounds that this sort of research could definitely be successful and I am very interested in taking my research down this path.

Over-all, I feel that my presentation went rather well. I feel extremely pleased with the difference between this presentation and the one I did in the practice session. I hope this will prepare me for future presentations I will have to do.

Week 26: Going Live - A few more mountain textures

    Does whatever a Tiger Mountain does...


                                                            First test - horizontal lines.

                                     
                                         
                                                 Second test - vertical lines. There are more
                                                 lines in this test. I'm unsure if this is too much
                                                 or not.

        

        

I may try another vertical line test, more in the style of the first test with less lines. I also feel that perhaps more tests involving simpler and straighter lines may provide a bit more variety. If it calls for it, this is something I will look into further.

Week 25: Reflection on Practice - Presentation Preparation

Putting my presentation together this time round is much easier and I have a significantly clearer idea of what I want to say and how I am going to structure the presentation.

This week I have also tried practicing my presentation to some family members who took great joy in booing whenever the um's and ah's made their way to my lips. Nevertheless, their advice and patience has certainly encouraged me.

Kirti and I have also agreed to get together at some point and practice too, and I think this will be a great confidence booster also.

The biggest benefit so far, is that with having written my thoughts out in the paper, I no longer need my notes to know what I am going to say. I feel that I know the content and structure of my research well enough to do without. This may allow me to keep my hands from fidgeting and my gaze on the audience throughout.

Week 25: Reflection on Practice - Paper Hand-in

Today my paper was handed in and although I wish I could have spent more time on it, I think I made my points clear enough.

The paper will act as a skeleton for my presentation and I am certain, after having written this paper, that I will be more comfortable explaining my research now.

Here are some excerpts from the paper:

Theory has construed realism solely as a matter of reference rather than as a matter of perception as well. It has neglected …"perceptual realism." This neglect has prevented theory from understanding some of the fundamental ways in which cinema works and is judged credible by viewers (Prince, 1996 p.28).

Just as an animator should recognise how the character’s performance can affect the audience’s relation to that character; a visual effects artist should understand how the audience interpret what they see and how their work can assist in guiding them to feel and think as we, the filmmakers, intend them to. My practice throughout this project involves the production a short film within a small team and my main role is revolved around the integration of a CG character into a live-action environment. My research investigates this process through an understanding of an audience’s perceptual realism of fictional elements in film and how visual effects can influence this. Although this research is personal to my own understanding and practice it seems apparent that this knowledge is somewhat “neglected” (Prince, 1996 p.28) in the industry. It is hoped that this information will aid me throughout the production process in my practice and furthermore to prepare myself, and anyone studying within the area of visual effects and compositing for working in the industry.

My main focus, throughout the integration of the CG character and the live-action environment, is gaining an insight into how fictional elements can be accepted by the audience as believable.

             

    
  
 Image 01:  Character Design Tom Paxton (2014).

In my practice, the main character is fictional in design and concept and although it may share some animalistic and even human qualities in performance, as a character in a real-world environment it is clearly an element of fiction.  This investigation orbits around perceptual realism and what visual factors can make a fictional character believable in film.



So What Is Perceptual Realism?

Perceptual realism “designates a relationship between the image or film and the spectator, and it can encompass both unreal images and those which are referentially realistic. Because of this, unreal images may be referentially fictional but perceptually realistic” (Prince, 1996 p.32). The term “Perceptual realism” (Prince, 1996) is used to discuss the process in which the audience finds fictional elements in film believable, despite these things not being true to the real world.

My practice is immensely reliant on the audience’s perceptual realism to allow them to accept the fictional character into the live-action environment. My main concern is integrating these elements together in a believable manner. To understand how to do this successfully, I have to recognise what perceptual realism is and which elements are most important to consider throughout production to ensure that the viewers are not lost from the story. In order to keep the audience engaged in the film, everything they witnesses on the screen must be visually and contextually believable (Hooks, 2011). As Prince highlights, for perceptual realism to exist there must be a connection between the audience and the visuals. It would seem that to understand perceptual realism, we must first realise the “relationship” between the viewer and the images.


The paper then goes on to discuss the following topics:

*The Willing Suspension of Disbelief
*The Experientially Familiar
*Believability in Visual Effects
*The Uncanny Valley
*The Psychology Behind Perceptual Realism

References

Hooks, E. 2011. Empathy Matters, Acting for Animators. [Online] Available at: http://www.awn.com/blogs/ed-hooks-acting-animators/empathy-matters.

Hooks, E. 2011. The Willing Suspension of Disbelief, Acting for Animators. [Online] Available at: http://www.awn.com/blogs/ed-hooks-acting-animators/willing-suspension-disbelief
Jones, B. (2008) Digital Storytelling – The narrative Power of Visual Effects [Catalogue of seminar from the Norwegian Film Institute, 7-8th April 2008] Norway: Digital Storytelling.

Paxton, T. 2014, Character design [image] viewed on 14 February 2014. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10201221135201711&set=gm.217768565079649&type=1&theater.
Sylwan, S. 2010. New Lenses to View Reality: Art, Science and Visual Effects, TEDx Talks [online] available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjWFk5_VuVg&list=PLpwgPz64TLvsxf8U4SDGWA811f2cadJu9

Prince, S. 1996. True Lies: Perceptual Realism, Digital Images and Film Theory. Film Quarterly, pp. 31-33.

The Uncanny Valley, 2011. [Image] The Uncanny Valley and Corporate Social Media. Viewed on 16 March 2014. Available at: http://www.davidherrold.com/2011/08/26/the-uncanny-valley-and-corporate-social-media/.

The paper concludes with the future of the project and how this research has/will help me in my practice. It will hopefully be utilised on a wider level; improving the way that visual effects are considered and practiced in the industry. 

Week 24: Going Live - The forgotten tests

So I meant to throw this up here a while back. Long ago, around the time of the first age, before the 3D fires were alive and burning, I began a rough 2D fire comp test...it turns out it's supposed to be played super fast - LIKE LIGHTNING...but fire instead, so it's not really what we need anyway. Also, there's a few strange artifacts going on that need tweaking obviously. I was also going to look in to having the paper blackening before the fire as well, but I see no reason for it now; thankfully the 3D fire looks like the way forward!

So there super slight differences in the timing here. When it's too slow it doesn't look right, it's supposed to be a fast wipe sort of deal.

This one's slightly slower but it's not hugely obvious.



So here's a few stills to help you get the idea.


                               

Week 24: Reflection on Practice - Paper Preperation

With my paper due next week, I've been spending a lot of time gathering together the elements of my research project. I'm finding that, although the writing style of the paper differs a bit from an essay, as it must be written from a first person perspective and must be reflective in style, it is still a familiar way for me to collect my thoughts.

The written report is really helping me to help/shape my presentation also, and is making clear my arguments where perhaps I had failed to do before-hand in my mock conference presentation.

Additionally the psychological inputs from my interview are really filling in the gaps that were present in my practice presentation; however, as expected, the transcript took a great deal of time to complete. Over-all transcribing the interview took around 9 hours, but it has certainly been worthwhile for my research.




Enough blogging, I have a paper to write.

Week 23: Reflection on Practice - Interview.

AND FINALLY - an interview was completed.

It was certainly a task trying to organise an interview. Originally, I was planning an interview with a former lecturer at The University of Dundee who currently resides in France. Trying to organise this was extremely difficult as he did not wish to partake in a skype interview. Thankfully, a helpful lecturer still working at the university agreed to partake in a face-to-face interview.

The interviewee is a senior lecturer of psychology and neuroscience at The University of Dundee and also had an interest in film and television.

The comments made by the participant were hugely insightful and enlightening.
I cannot stress enough how helpful the interview has turned out to be in regards to my research. The participant was not only generous with thoughts and information, but also with their time. The interview, with the participant's permission, lasted an hour and half, this will certainly be a lengthy job to transcribe, nevertheless, it was an extremely rewarding experience.

I found that the psychological input certainly connected a few elements of my research as I had intended, but it mostly surprised me.

I began to find other possible routes that my research could take, and if I go on to do a PhD, I would most certainly further this investigation.

Week 23: Mastronauts - Meeting

Today Kieran, Tom and I had another meeting with Phil.

We were discussing possible locations for the external shot, and the implications of the location we had chosen. Originally we wanted the character to climb a tree full of shiny objects. We had a tree in mind, but felt the surrounding area was not right for what we needed. Further discussion lead us to the conclusion that a live-action tree (particularly a leafy one) would be an impossible task to integrate with the CG character in the time we have. This would require CG tree and then all of the leaves on top of this.

We considered a few locations further north using cliffs and caves instead of a tree for the home of the creature. As we debated this, Phil suggested we try a place called Lunan Bay.

This would tie in with our original beach idea, but also contains some of the rocky elements we were considering for the creature's home. It seems to be a very likely candidate for our new exterior location and the guys and I are planning a visit there sometime soon.

Week 23: Reflection on Practice - Mock Conference

Today we had our Mock Conference. Throughout the day we presented what we had of our presentations as a little practice session before the final conference in the coming weeks.

Unsurprisingly, with my unfailing ability to fall fully to a 'deer in the headlights' -like stupor when public speaking, my practice session was a little wobbly. That being said, I've had a lot worse.

Most of the comments made noted my nerves:

Fidgeting,
speaking too quickly,
avoiding eye contact with the audience etc.





All of which I knew I had let myself down on before I'd even finished, though it has just made me more determined to over-come this next time.

Sharon did explain that in my presentation, I presumed that the audience knew what I'd meant by 'Perceptual Realism' and had not really explained what it was myself. This I hadn't really thought about, being so immersed in the research, I had taken for granted that the audience may not be as clued up as myself on the terms I will be covering in the research. This was an extremely helpful comment.

Jeanette explained that throughout my presentation I relied too heavily on my notes and avoided the audience. This was a lot to do with my nerves, but admittedly I did not feel confident in what I was trying to say. I may have spent too much time organising my slides and not enough time actually practicing my speech.

                         

It was also mentioned that, although they could piece it together, my presentation would benefit from a clearer explanation of how my research and practice are connected.
This for me could also be down to the fact that my interviewee could not meet until tomorrow, and my presentation was missing the psychological factor that should link my research together.

It was also suggested that using the model instead of the spheres in my presentation would help make the concept of image based lighting more understandable and although I completely agree with this, it is not likely that the model will be completed in this time.

Although I was completely dreading today I definitely gained some helpful comments to consider and more than anything, I  have a genuine want to do better next time and I certainly feel I have the time and know-how to do so.

Week 23: Going Live - A Hasty Lighting Test for the Town

I quickly threw some image-based lights on John's lovely buildings...the HDR images I found were mostly lighty- daytime ones, perhaps too bright for what we need?


                               

Obviously the positioning of the buildings are not correct, I literally threw it all together to see how it would look.

 And here's how they look without the Background images...

                                      

It's pretty rough. It will require a bit more time obviously. I'll maybe look into changing up the colour of the lighting and messing around with some things to make the light a bit more atmospheric.