My Thesis!

Hey guys, I've been a lurker for while now and I might as well post what I'm doing for some crits! I just started wroking on my thesis last month and i've got until May to finish it (deadline for METROCAF entries and graduation)

So far I've got a basic story that needs tweaks, and lots of modeling done.

It's not the funniest story, nore the most entertaining.. I'm really just trying to make it visually pleasing. I'm not much of a story teller

Storyboard:

Watch the animatic before reading the little description below. The main character is me and the sub characters are my roomate and my girlfriend. i might have switched around from saying "me" or "the main character" but they are both the same person. This is an email i sent to my old storyboarding professor so if it seems out of context that's why

SKIP if you just want to look at my pretty pictures so far

Basically it starts out with me starting my day, making breakfast and then while I'm eating
**EDIT** Going to change it from just eating, to brushing my teeth and gagging/coughing because that's what i do normally anyway lol

I get an instant message on the computer. It's a message that reads "see you at 5, love you bye!". At first I'm confused of this message and look over at my calender. The date is circled with the word Jen in.
(This is what is shown in the animatic) -- Then i look down at my clock with a picture of me and a girl (girlfriend, who is the person who sent the messages) next to it.
(This is what it will change to) -- Main focus is going to be on the picture of girlfriend, with clock in background not being important. Since most people aren't going to understand how long it takes to get from NY to RI I'm not going to show the clock and just show the character in a rush, hopefully the effect will be the same thing, without all the confusion of time.

I then realize that I need to catch a train to providence right now if I'm going to make it there by 5. That moment i rush and pack my clothing really quickly and run out the door, followed by my roommate (Gonzo) waking up cautiously and grabbing a playboy.

That's pretty much the first scene. There are a few issues i have with it right now. It will be established that Gonzo is sleeping there from the start so he doesn't just appear. Also it also needs to be established that it takes like 4 hours to get to Providence so the viewer knows I really need to hurry. I was thinking of just naming the thesis "180 Miles to Providence" or, "Four Hours to Providence". Something pretty obvious?

Second scene I'm running into Penn Station, Running down the escalator, then just running through a grassy field, floating through space. just some random environments to emphasize the running and stretching out the action, maybe creating some tension. Then i make it to the time board and establish a few things. One, that the train leaves at a specific time and arrives right on time at like 4:55. The other thing that needs to be established is that the next train to providence isn't until tomorrow which is way out of the question.

(This is what is shown in the animatic) -- Camera changes to looking at his watch and it's like 1 or 2 minutes until the train is leaving.
(This is what it will change to) -- With back of head still to the camera the main character turns around, looks frantic, and runs off to the left of screen, split second later he runs back on the screen and out to the right. After he leaves the camera pans slightly to the left to a clock on the wall.

Then a few really quick shots of the character buying a ticket at the ticket vending machine.

(This is what is shown in the animatic) -- The camera is inside of the train looking out at a staircase leading up. After a few seconds you'll see the character running down the stairs trying to make it into the train until BAM. The door's on his face and the train takes off.
(This is what it will change to) -- Camera is looking almost perpendicular to the train looking into the opened door. Above the train you can see a staircase directly on the other side, and also another staircase a platform away. Character will run a few steps down the very far staircase, look over, notice it's the wrong platform, and run back up. Then he runs down the closer staircase and bolts do the door. The camera moves in on the opened door to reveal that on the other side the door is closed. The character is seen through the window of the closed door and bangs on the window. Instantly the train door shuts right in front of the camera and train blows away.

That's the second scene....

Third scene is me exiting penn station (not sure what emotion the character will show). I see in the street a peter pan bus, and get the idea to take a bus. Repeating the quick purchasing of a ticket and then I'm on the bus taking my seat. Next shot the bus pulls up and drops me off at Kennedy Plaza in Providence.

This is what will happen when the "more here" frame pops up -- I walk into the camera shot at a close up, my head tilts up and i gulp. next shot is over my shoulder looking up a very long and steep hill (true story). Then i start running up the hill ----fade to black

fade in ------ I'm at the door, i knock, i wait, i knock i wait.... I plan on doing a nice little acting animation. Then i whip out the phone, call her up and when she answers the shot goes to my door and she's in front my door back in new york.

NOW THAT THAT's OVER... here are some renders of modeling so far

CHARACTERS and for context's sake, our real photos next to them
main character


girl at end and in photo


roomate in bed


DORM ROOM



PENN STATION (outisde)



PENN STATION (stairs)

and of course my friend just canceled his hosting so my site doesn't exist anymore

imageshack.us + youtube ftw?

i know i know.... will do it later when i have free time

k, we're back in business

not seeing a whole lot of anatomy in much of them. i'd pick up some anatomy books to learn about muscles and such. i see they are supposed to be cartoony, but even cartoons have anatomy. anyways, they looks good, close to the images. but yeah, work on anatomy!

could you be more specific, maybe point out exactly what you mean? I know the characters aren't that pleasing yet

Characters will have cloth shirts and pants.... I'm toying with the idea of just having long shirts and no pants but probably not hehe

http://cohencg.com/cohencg/roomrendertest.mov

a little render / lighting test with low anti aliasing for my first scene

Hey mate...that rendertest looks very appealing!

I'd just suggest turning up your sampling a bit since there appeared to be some flickering throughout, but I suppose that might just be the video compression.

Would be nice to get a bit of light coming from above, as if there's a light on in the ceiling...because just having a window as the light source would normally cause a lot of harsh back-lighting.

more scenes in early development







hey thanks for the feedback, hopefully I'll have enough rendering time to use final gathering on that scene to get rid of the flickering (seems to flicker when i use GI alone). the goal was to get the rendering as fast as possible. That's about 2 minutes a frame (color and AO pass).

also, changed a lot on my character's face.. The new one is on the left, old one is on the right. i look at the old one and it scares me, new one pleases me a lot more

Amtrak in penn station

good work! im curious about the final output
keep us updated

Hell I think this looks cool as heck... .......cartoony is cool, I like how you have a lot of sences all planed out. The people could be great as long as you can rig and pull off a sweet animations. great suff man. good luck and YEAH......keep us posted.

one of my final environments that needs to be modeled... here's a little WIP

it's the big post office on 31st and 8th if anyone's ever been to NYC, it'll be in the background when the character sees the bus after missing the train

that building looks fantastic! could we see a closeup of the upper parts of the pillars?

hah, well since the camera isn't going to get any closer than this i didn't put any detail into it.. just some spheres to give the illusion of detail.

Wow, you're work is really progressing. I especially love your buildings! Using spheres on the pillars was really smart.

and here's the final, minus some small details that i probably wont get around to doing hah

also i doubt anyone would ever notice this but i actually had a typo in the "united states post office"... There's an extra S after post but that's fixed

[quote="modestmodeler"]and here's the final, minus some small details that i probably wont get around to doing hah

also i doubt anyone would ever notice this but i actually had a typo in the "united states post office"... There's an extra S after post but that's fixed


haha I never seen it.

Great work dude . A bit of environment at the bank scene would help in a big way. sweet as always

is this the way the final is going to be lit?

The bus looks great but it's going to have some trouble turning. The front wheels don't have enough space to rotate.

Yeah heh, I didn't even see the typo.

kilroy- you're probably right because its not even a bank , it's just a ticket booth. you and tyson both thought it was an ATM so i'll add more there.

ride- no i'll be throwing in a nicer sun / sky when it's time

howitzer - hehe yeah the bus is just going straight :p, but i'll shrink those wheels anyway, thanks

thanks guys for the comments

here's a first pass at animation and rendering my first few shots..

http://www.cohencg.com/cohencg/scene_1_2.mov (37mb)

5 weeks until the deadline!! I'm totally rushing everything to get it done.

Here's a compilation of my first animation passes, some renders, some stills.. and a music track that was written specifically for this piece. It's pretty much just a cluster F*** of everything i have so far, rendered in shitty sony vegas.

some notes to keep in mind when watching, the compression i used totally messed with my colors. The train scene isn't finished being animated, that's why he just stands there in the same pose for 5 seconds, and also i'm converting everything to widescreen, that's why some is and some isn't.

It's 150mb's so download at your own risk... might want to right click save as, and go do something else for a few minutes.

http://www.cohencg.com/cohencg/thesis_wip_01.mov

ur work is cool but u know what i think ur website is awesome how did you make it, 3d i get modeling simple animation but transitioning them, just basically have it as swf or flv in flash and depending on what u click u get an animation from keyframe x to keyframe y

website is pretty easy, just import quicktimes into flash and embed them into the timeline, then with actionscript you string them together seamlessly

Seems like a big project.

Awesome job so far. Really nice work on the architecture. I liiiiike.

thanks for the comments, yeah everyone seems to like my buildings the most hehe. This is pretty much my first real study of character animation and I'm learning a lot on every shot i do. Right now I'm really concentrating on lighting a lot too, here are a few of my submissions for our senior show post card invitations.

a little under 3 weeks left until it needs to be FINISHED

first pass of animation finally finished.

now i have 2 weeks to revise all the animation, set up my passes and render!

let me know what you guys think before i hit the render button, it's only 47mb's now hehe

http://www.cohencg.com/cohencg/first_pass.mov

second pass.... no time to do any more with the animation.......... this is an early render test.............................

you know it's getting late in the semester when you're drinking bacardi and iced tea in the labs..... i can't do anymore work tonight!...........

http://www.cohencg.com/cohencg/thesis_almost.mov

40 mb's