New Disintegration Updates

Laura Low has confirmed the disintegration of the opera dancer for the climax scene, using ndynamics and field to create dust-like disintegration.

Updates on Lighting and Compositing

Laura lighted and composited the new scenes with more refined textures on the set modelling and audience. Orange light with blue tint is done on the scenes to make it feel more vintage.

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 For the audience seating area, she tested out two different lighting for comparison.

She also did a disintegration test on the model for the climax scene, using ndynamics.

Animation Updates

Jo Anne, our freelance animator updated us with her most current polished animation for the second act of the film.

Shot 2 Rendered

We had rendered shot 2 with complete comping. Jenny had animated the simple foot animation, passing it on to Laura to do the lighting and compositing. Laura also added some dust simulation when the foot is moving on the ground to create realism.

Disintegration Updates

After discussions with our supervisor, we decided to add more drama to the disintegration, comping in ashes and more refined dusty disintegration to the opera dancer. Laura tried using the ashes dynamics from Autodesk Maya.

Animation for Shots 7, 9,11 and 12

Joanne, our freelance animator from Malaysia has completed the full dance animation for shots 7, 9, 11 and 12. We are now integrating the animation to the camera works.

Environment Updates

Laura Low has refined the texture and completely redo the lighting. She placed the props together and focused on the brightness of the stage compared to the ground. She made sure the focus is on the stage, using the lanterns and the placements of the props that Tenzing had modeled and placed to direct it to the stage.

She has also tried some cloth tearing as part of the disintegration on the opera dancer. This time she did it with textures to make sure that the textures wouldn't stretch out.

Vertical Slice

Below is the a snapshot of our vertical slice of the film. This would be the mood and lighting that we will go for.

BETA version 2

Below is the new BETA of our film, with working camera and blocking animation. This is to make sure the soundtrack, camera and angles work together.

Props Modelling Update - Finalised

Tenzing finished up the props for the stage floor, using mia shaders to give it more of a realistic feel.

He had also tested out mia glow shaders on the lanterns and put it in context on the environment.

The audience will be using modern gadgets as their main props, so Tenzing also tested out the glow on the model.

Disintegration Test on Opera Dancer

Laura has started doing some disintegration tests on the rigged model to make sure that it will not affect the animation. To make the disintegration more outstanding, she used a combination of ncloth and dust particles to make it look less generic. Below is an image of the vision that we might go for.

Props Design - Dragon Pillar Update

Samuel textured and sculpted the dragon pillar head in Pixologic Z Brush 4.0. We wanted it to be a olden gold statue, so he added coppery hues to the model to make it look ashy and old.

Props Design - Lantern

Tenzing finished the lanterns for the environment, which is essential as the lanterns symbolizes an important part of chinese culture. Having red paper lanterns shows prosperity.

He applied glow texture to the lantern, giving it an ethereal glow.

Environment Finalised

Laura is almost done with the texturing of the environment, making sure that the realism of the set modelling come across. She did detailed texturing on every single model on set, with immaculate designs.

She tried putting the props that Tenzing modeled to put in context with the environement.

Test - Debates and Remodel

We had several discussions and debates on remodelling the audience as we finally felt that the audience looked out of place compared to the realistic-ness of the set design and the opera dancer. By putting him with the props, we finally saw that we are in dire need of revamping the design of the audience in order to let it fit in the whole look.

Animation of Shot - Zoom out shot

We outsourced the animation to Tan Jo Anne, a Malaysian pro-animator, currently working as an animator in Lemon Sky. We tried the camera work with the dance in context with the environment and the audience.

Comping the Opera Dancer with the Environment

Laura received the Opera Dancer from Samuel and comped it with the environment she modeled and textured. Using mental ray lights, it enhances the mia-shaders of the model; the different v-ramps on the silk texture of the Opera Dancer.

Intergrating the Dragon Pillar with the Environment

Samuel tested out his dragon pillar on the environment, resizing and placing it correctly to make sure that it will not be overpowering the stage.

Finished Rig for Opera Dancer

Jenny has finished the full workable rig for the opera dancer, with simple and straightforward controls and paintweights. Animation will start as soon as the references are finished and camera angles confirmed.

Props Design - Table

Tenzing finished texturing and modelling the table for the environment, which will be situated on the floor as a prop for the audience.

Mask Design

Samuel finished texturing the mask in zbrush.

Started Rigging

When the model is finally approved, we advanced to rigging the opera dancer model.

Props Model

Tenzing who was in charge on the props modelling of the environment did ipad and iphone inspired gadgets to symbolize our modern culture.

Proportion of Opera Dancer - Finalised

We debated a lot on the proportion of the model and we finally decided on a fuller looking figure to avoid anti-aliasing during the rendering especially during the zoom-out shots of the environment with the opera dancer.

Model by Samuel Wong.