Production

Beast Development –

Original Model-

The main feedback i received from the original model was constructive criticism indicating i need to go back to biology to learn anatomy which was quite hilarious at the time. However i now understand that its key to learn anatomy for the proportion of the creation and how this in later stages caused quite a few problems when rigging the character. As when applying automatic weights it just didn’t do it in the right places even with cleaning up the weight paints didn’t help much . Also looking back at the old version my oh my where them arms way to short from the rest of its body , you can just tell how out of proportion it was. Along with this it has been challenging myself in creating a less generic looking wendigo .

Blocking out figure-

Beginning stages of recreating the beasts overall structure , At the moment it looks like an animatronic right out of five nights at Freddie’s however its great to see how the model changes over time. At this stage of creation i mainly used spheres to create the height and composition of the character.

Later Stages-

Image below showcases the development in the structure of the body and joints and changing the formation of the spheres to make it easier to figure out which way im going to sculpt on top . Then using elongated spheres and merging them together to create the beasts antlers. Whilst also making sure the correct symmetry was set to x global so the body stays symmetrical throughout. Modelling one of side of the body first correctly to the point of where i want it to be then using the mirror modifier to mirror that half to the other side of the model .

During this part of sculpting i was finding it rather difficult to get the leg length and shape correct as no matter how many times i redone it just didn’t look right .However i persevered and kept going with the rest of the body that i could make progress with . The head of the beast started to form quite well during this stage which gave me a little more hope as i could do the top half of the body without much problems besides the hands , i wouldn’t say i did a terrible job at it although i could’ve spent abit more time looking into sculpting them better.

Above is the final look of the creature overall it doesn’t look horrendous . overall the legs came out better than the hands and i struggled more with the legs than the hands . However the only scene where you’d see the full body is the scene where the boy looks out into the forest and you see the beast standing there. This wasn’t a real concern as the the beast at this stage will just be a black silhouette so you cant see any of the definition i had created on the body .

I exported the model out of zbrush and imported it into blender for rigging . At the beginning i started by creating my own rig for the beast by placing and extruding the bones to form the Skelton however for some reason during this process when i parented the rig to the body an error code appeared stating the weights couldn’t be applied which i found rather strange . Thought possibly i had parented it the wrong way round or the transform axis was off (Neither).So after trial and error i just used the meta rig from blender and it parented which still baffles me . After that i unparented the rig as now it was working then to start editing the bones in edit mode so the bones would be fit to the structure of the body. Naming all of the bones correctly at this stage was most important .

Cleaning up weight paints

Rig Clean up- To be fair one of the tutors mentioned about cleaning up the rig using objects in the scene to change the bone view in viewport, honestly it didn’t help much with animation because i couldn’t get a good view of where each bone actually was and would mistake it for another bone . Using the original Skelton view was of my own personal preference .

cleaning up round the jaw using 0 weight paint so that the eyes wouldn’t be effected when the top jaw moves up and down along with allowing the teeth to all move at once since when the jaws move some of the teeth didn’t move with that part of the body ( weight paint issue resolved).

Fixed lower part of jaw as it was moving part of the top jaw

Baking high poly and low
poly mesh maps

Beginning to texture the model then realised that the mid section of the body was not paintable , when i decided to texture the rib cage with materials it would then be projected to underneath the arms ( Not visible in this image)

I then restarted and imported the low poly model into blender and uv unwrapped it there to see if maybe zbrushes uv unwrap messed up. When baking the low poly and high poly together it left these grey blocks on some areas of the body . it was still texturable however you could still see the grey blocks on top of the textures.

started texturing but found uv map was messing up in some areas
took the low poly mesh into blender , symmetrized the mesh
Filled holes and decimated geometry

I can now paint on all areas of the mesh without any grey squares appearing ( Uv mapping resolved)

Posing character to show all the bones can be moved I then later removed the inverse kinematics on the legs as they weren’t necessary.

Beast textures-

I like texturing however the amount of times iv had problems with the mesh maps had annoyed me to the point i was afraid even to start painting incase something went wrong. But before i even started texturing this time i covered the whole model in one coat of any material to see if anything would stick out that shouldn’t be where it should be . All in all this time i succeeded without anymore problems and managed to get the materials sorted in time .

Assets- Trees

Overall i created around 5 types of trees but only used 3 of them as they didn’t meet the standard when placing them into the scene . Yet with all the of the trees all of the branches always seems to look unruly no matter how many times i changed them . I don’t seem to be very good a creating branches or the top of trees but the base of the tree and roots aren’t a problem .

Scene development –

Started developing the scene after receiving dylans cabin model , i then imported it into the blender scene along with adding a plain for the ground and 1 version of the trees that i had created to see which way the scene will be developed.

After structuring the scene , realising that Dylan’s model wasn’t fitting the aesthetic of the type of cabin we where looking for i then developed on top of Dylan’s creation with logs around the cabin along with the patio at the front.

After finishing the structure of the cabin i resized the plain to allow for more room for the forest to surround the cabin . The same type of trees where used in the scene as placeholders before the other types of trees where placed in . At this stage i was also playing around with the lighting within the cabin , using point lights in side coloured orangey yellow to simulate the light coming from the fireplace inside.

Scene 1 Development – Beast wave

Placed trees in front of the boys window and added a block out of the beast as a temporary place holder.

Short whip of the scene where the boy is looking out of the window then sees the beast. During the block out of the animation the original idea for the animation was that the beast waves back then the hand breaks off then the head would break off after looking at its hand.

Background lighting- seems quite light to be at night time , placed a black backdrop see if it would make a difference which it helped however using the sun light tool it wasn’t the right choice. Started the development of the scene of the forest outside of the boys window, adding the trees and foliage The foliage coming from blenders input curves. Along with using the curves to create the rocks.

Moved the camera further backwards to show more of the forest and to make the scene a lot more dense like a forest would be .Added cylinders further in the back to imitate the rest of the trees without having to place the actual modelled trees there. Change the sun light to a point light instead and place it in the back section of the trees so it would be shining through when rendered, Also not directly showing where the moon is within the scene.
Continued with placing rock curves to build sets of boulders and rocks along with the foliage curve tool to start detailing the scene.
Realised some of the rocks where not sitting slightly on surface of the ground so they where just kind of floating.

Changed focal perspective of the camera forward because too much of the inside of the 3d cabins walls where being seen when looking through the camera. Within this scene its just the forest you want to see with part of the window ledge not the sides of the windows as that is going to be 2d.
Began playing with the point light settings and changed the distance of the light and brightens along with changing the colour to a yellow tone. I then duplicated the light on top and moved it slightly for better Lumosity.
Added Png image of fog onto an image plane within blender to give the effect of fog.

Changed the colour of the point light as the colour didn’t give of the spooky vibe that i was looking for this scene.
Changed the type of fog in the front from being obscured by the fog to being blotchy fog, With this you are able to see the light bounce of the trees better.

Staging the scene with the beast in view of the camera ,Moved camera position backwards so that you can see the ledge of the bedroom window, which takes up the floor space that i had.

Changed the colour of the beast so i could see it better within the scene.

Rearranged the trees and change the focal length of the camera to expose more of the ground and showing more depth to the forest.
Lighting seems off as too much light is being focused on where the beast is positioned .I duplicated the light source on top of each other to give better luminosity but it looks to much for this scene .

Re arranged and placed trees further back in scene {originally too close to cabin window}
Took away the fog as it was too dense when you look through the window
Trees in back need to be lighter in colour as the density of the fog is at its peak and the trees closer to the cabin need to be black with less fog .
Fixed fog distribution – think it looks better besides the illumination rays of the point light

Added light fog behind the silhouette to make it pop with the shine of moonlight coming from behind .

Removed tree from behind best
Feedback from tutor to reposition the beast so that the antlers aren’t being covered by the trees.
This was the final look of the scene

Scene 2 Development – Introduction to the cabin

Png on image plane for the dense black fog in the back
Slim trees in the front
Png plane for the ground fog in the front
Changed the world scenes colour settings to black

Added foliage and rocks to the scene , whilst creating a footpath for the dad to walk down in one of the scenes

Changed the type of trees in the front to thick trees with roots
Placed cylinders in the back to make it look like there’s more trees

Beast in scene- Close up view

wave scene-

Rigged character exported from original file into the boys waving scene

beast wave- first draft

hand movement looks to unrealistic with just the forearm moving and nothing else

Changed the camera position to further up the beasts body along with changing where the rotation is going to be which is on the wrist .
Chest movements for breather was rather hard to do and looks to quick within this scene

head tilting with inhale of breath

jump scare scene render image

Created the tongue separately

rigging the tongue

Repositioning the character and making the animation smoother

Tongue now moved with the rest of the body however on a separate rig

trying to make the animation smoother for the tongue

Didn’t need as many keyframes i had originally for the tongue movement

Rendered version of the beast lick without materials and background scene
The tongue looks a little of centred in this scene

Importing multiple versions of the trees that i had created

Developing intro scene further trying to engulf the cabin
Added a footpath for the dad to walk along

Using what i can to develop the scene further ( fed up looking at trees at this point)

adding more foliage logs and rocks

Added lighting for the cabin to imitate the light shining from the fireplace

Added more rocks , foliage and some logs to the ground

Developing the scene further

adding the rest of foliage , rocks and logs

Playing around with the lighting of the scene, added spotlight for moonshine into the entrance
received help with 3d volume fog and camera movements by Rachel
Lightened up the world settings as the scene was too dark

parented child bone to parent bone on separate rigs with the help of Rachel

moved door animation to frame 200 after camera zoom in stops to allow time for the door to open
Rachel helped with the camera movements during the introduction of the scene with the curve editor

Playing around with the fog density settings
Too thick in this scene

rendered intro

Fog blueprints before and after changing the settings
reduced fog opacity, helped by Rachel

Animated the lighting to move backwards when the door opens, originally the light would stay there at the door so when it would come to merging the 2d and 3d there would just be a big ball of light sitting there and i didn’t want that . so i animated the light to move backwards during the phases of the door opening.

IT reference for the beast licking the window scene,

Using the reference to help develop the tongue animation made it a lot easier to do so as the way its playing in the movie is the way i wanted it to turn out for the beast . using the transform i stretched out the tongue as soon as it hit the window to make it actually look like the tongue was hitting the glass and not thin air.

Added some trees to the background to make it not look bar considering the introduction of the scene looked dense. to give the the extra effects i bumped up the density of the fog to obscure the forest behind him.
Used png plain clouds to make the sky look more detailed rather than grey

updating the background scene, repositioning some of the trees so that they would be in the cameras view

beast lick is looking alot more fluid and less awkward now that the head and tongue have been parented
Feedback from tutor mentioned the tongue looked too bright red for this scene so i changed it more to of a light pinkish redish colour

The hand and head break looked good in the block out version horrendous on the actual character the antlers just don’t sit right.
The breath animation on this version is too quick and long with the moment on the hands . with the fast pace its not giving the creepy vibes. Also the position of the camera needs to be fixed along with the position of the hand

Background for the dad leaving the cabin, placed the camera in front of the door and changed the focal length of the camera so everything isn’t too far away just enough for the dad to disappear into the distance. Then rendered the image and sent to Lauren to add her 2d animation

finished and rendered intro

forest no beast scene

Fixed the chest movement of the beast so that its slower
Added a head tilt to make it look more creepy
slowed down the arm moving up
slowed down the hand wave movement for creepiness

Major Project

Is Someone out there?

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