Collaboration with The Mill (SANM 560)

Andrea Rosado
Sep 13, 2023
7 min read

Updated: Nov 16, 2023

Nov. 16, 2023 (Class 20)

Final project Breakdown:

Final Project Video:

I want to highlight all the work of my talented teammates.

Avery did the peeling effect and renders for shots 2 and 3.

Storm worked on the bike rig, animation, and renders for shots 1a and 1b.

Qinye worked on stabilizing, and tracking of Shot 4 along with compositing of shots 1a, 1b, and 2, of the Re-Cycle project.

Grace worked on the sound design.

I worked on the look development, compositing, and rendering of shot 4.

I want to thank my team for being part of this learning experience with me and for all your hard work and professionalism. It was an honor to grow with you by my side.

I also want to thank the professors and all the mentors from The Mill for guiding and teaching us along the process.

Wednesday Work:

For today's final update, I want to share my compositing breakdown for shot 4 and the final turntables of the materials I worked on.

Hi Res Stills of Quilts:

Nov. 14, 2023 (Class 19)

Thursday Work:

For today's update and final submission, I graded the bike for it to be better integrated into the plate I also finalized cleaning the remainder of the leaves.

Results of Team Steel's project

Nov. 9, 2023 (Class 18)

Wednesday Work:

For today's update I composited particles to Shot4 and improved the tracking issue of the slipping plate.

Breakdown and results:

Nov. 7, 2023 (Class 17)

Sunday Work:

For today's work, I made a projection approach to clean the plate and solve some of the slipping issue. Nuke projection scene:

Unfortunately, even though the cameras from Nuke and Houdini are the same, the result is wrong. We can see more slipping than before.

My last resource would be to restart the tracking all over.

Integration result:

Nov. 2, 2023 (Class 16)

Thursday Work:

For today's update, we decided to remove the transition part for shot 4 and focused mainly on fixing the camera track by removing the offset and realigning the render based on the new camera.

We established priorities as follows:

1) Finish shot 2

2) Work on Shot 4 based on feedback

3) Finish shot 1a

4) If needed, include shot 1b

Based on our priority list, we have two edits: one with shot 1b and one without.

Oct. 31, 2023 (Class 15)

Monday Work:

Added Godrays/Volumetric to transition from Shot3-Shot4

Breakdown:

Volumetric Pass:

Reference: (Timeline: 0:07)

Thursday/Sunday Work:

Improved integration of Shot4 and made materials of chair and bike fenders not glow.

Breakdown:

Shadow Pass:

Contact Shadow Pass:

Oct. 25, 2023 (Class 14)

Wednesday Work:

Refinement of the following materials:

Reflectors:

New

Reference:

Old:

Handles Subsurface Update:

Bike Fenders IOR Update:

New Seat detail refinement:

Improved IOR of new Chain:

Oct. 24, 2023 (Class 13)

Monday Work:

Turntable New:

Reference:

Turntable Old:

Reference:

Apart from rendering materials, I started working with volumetrics for the transition of shot 3 to shot 4.

For the look of it we are trying to match the following VanMoof commercial (timeline: 0:07)

We are still missing the God-rays but here is the first render test for this transition.

Sunday Work:

For today's update, I decided to follow a new approach for the old seat material. Instead of making the whole material procedural, I created it in Substance Painter to have more control of where the damaged leather would be.

Texture maps:

Base Color:

Bump Map:

Result:

Reference:

Based on feedback, I decided to add more uniform chrome to the steer rust material so it would complement the effects.

I also refined the cable and Bike Fender materials to match better my references:

Cables:

Bike Fenders:

For the Bike Fenders, I took the liberty of making them more rust compared to my reference and slightly changed the color of the rust to match the one on the rest of the bike.

Remaining Materials that need to be updated this week:

- Reflectors

- Update Subsurface on Handles

- Match Dirt Level on the Handles to my reference

- Update New seat based on feedback .

Oct. 19, 2023 (Class 12)

Thursday Work:

For today's update, I refined the tire dirt material to match my reference better. In addition to this, I also tweaked the color and IOR of the new tire for it to look more photo real. Apart from the tire, I also tweaked the ramp within the wheel, so the rust would be more evenly distributed in the middle.

Based on professor's feedback I also updated the rust material on the steer to have more chrome detail. This way, it would complement the FX.

Even though most of my progress seem successful, I have been struggling with the seat material. Based on our story we would like to keep a saddle material with beige color. However, for the old seat I was exploring additional options to the material I showed last dailies.

My exploration has not been as successful as I was expecting it to be when following this reference.

To push this material forward, I am considering pivoting and using substance painter to precisely paint the edge detail. I feel that for this particular approach fully relying on procedural materials is not a good idea.

My other option is to follow one of these two references and simplify the amount of damage that will be seen on the seat.

Wednesday Work:

For today's update, I scaled down the handle size based on Mentor's feedback.

I was also able to approach the material miss-match of the handles within the render. Storm was just missing the texture map I made for the indentations.

I used the following map to also mask the dirt of the handles.

As of the handle material, I need to adjust the subsurface, and match the dirt to the following reference by increasing noise scale and slightly adjust color.

Material wise, I improved the stretching of UVs on the steer and slightly reduced the bump map height for it to better match my references.

I am still considering to reduce the reflections of some of the rust specs. They seem slightly too reflective at the moment.

Based on feedback from the mentors, the chain guard of the bike seemed too flat and too reflective. I realized the main issue was the flatness of the model itself more than the shader. In addition to this the geometry was intersecting and did not look correct.

I took the liberty of removing that piece of geometry since it is not relevant to the product.

I might still reduce the reflectivity of chrome by a little bit.

Oct. 17, 2023 (Class 11)

Presentation for the mentors:

For today's lookdev update, I dove deep working with materials and added more references to my workflow.

They are all a work in progress but this is what I have so far:

Bike Turntables:

Materials on Bike Closeups:

Individual Materials and References:

Chrome:

Improvement needed:

Reduce bump on rust

Tweak roughness on rust

Tweak amount of rust on second material

Red Paint:

Handles:

Improvements Needed:

match dirt color and tweak noise frequency

tweak subsurface

Tires:

Improvements:

match color of overall dirt and rubber

improve noise frequency

add subtle bump map to tire

Bell

Steel Chain:

Improvements Needed:

Improve IOR

Seat:

Improvement Needed:

Improve color match of old seat

Add more scratch detail

Bike Fenders:

Improvements needed:

Match better reference of Rust Fender

Reduce bump map

Work on roughness and IOR of new Fenders

Pedals:

Cables:

Improvements needed:

Better match damaged cables

Improve noise frequency

Oct. 12, 2023 (Class 10)

From last class, I have been prioritizing materials that will be seen in the closeup shots as well as those that will have the peel-off effect. In addition to working with materials I made our hero model high poly for the closeup shots.

Here are the materials I have prioritized so far:

Chrome New:

Chrome with small amounts of Rust:

Chrome with more rust:

Tire New:

Tire Dirty:

Bike Fenders New:

Red Paint New:

Leather Seat New:

For the leather seat I was not sure if that was the best approach for the new version since it is slightly dirty (I am aiming for realism not perfection).

The reference below is the one I am aiming for the older/dirtiest one

Bike Model with materials:

New:

Reference:

Damaged:

Reference:

Oct. 9, 2023 (Class 9)

Week5 Updated Presentation

For today's update I was able to finish Laying out the UVs of our bike model and rendered a turntable with the new material tests for both new and old versions.

New Material:

Quilt:

Old Material:

Quilt:

Some bike tire references: (We ended up picking the first one)

During the past few days we also did some shooting and reshooting of our shots.

Here are some behind the scene images at the Film Lot.

I was able to merge the new HDRIs in Photoshop as well:

Shot1a and Shot1b

Shot2

Shot3

Shot4

Oct. 5, 2023 (Class 8)

For today's update, we were able to pitch our project to the sound design department and recruited Grace Nottingham as our sound designer. Planing to meet with her on Saturday.

This was our presentation to sound department.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1luX46NUftJDsSwwlEL3GqrYtIFIj72t1w2MQS41Ynpo/edit#slide=id.g287aec368f6_0_0

We also prepared our equipment to shoot at the new SCAD Savannah Film Lot.

Oct. 3, 2023 (Class 7)

Team Steel did some initial shooting for shot 1a and 1b last Saturday. This is the behind the scenes.

We will be shooting shot 2,3 and 4 on Thursday at the SCAD Savannah Film Studios Backlot. Look Dev

Started both Material Quilts and UVs.

Turntable New:

I still need to refine the new materials and add more detail to all of them. I don't want them to look perfectly new.

Added two new materials to my initial quilt:

Bell

Cable:

Turntable Rust:

I still need to refine the new materials and add more detail to all of them by adding displacement and bump.

Bell:

Cable:

Steel Chain:

Chrome:

Handles:

Pedals:

Red Paint Steel:

Rubber:

Seat:

Wheel Cover:

September 28, 2023 (Class 6)

Updated Visualization with new closeup shot:

Shooting preparation:

Rent Equipment:

Detailed Shot List:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IgvnHbIg5HcTw_YsZBcmXqr6v-BOi2J4eqqDEMfbY3A/edit#gid=0

New Storyboard:

September 26, 2023 (Class 5)

Updated PreViz:

https://vimeo.com/868133097

Look Development Start:

Started some basic tests of the new bike material based on references. I still need to push the materials forward so they match the reference better. Rubber

Painted Steel (needs to be toned down):

Wheel Steel (Color Match Better):

Chains Steel (Increase Roughness/looks like plastic)

Handles Plastic (Match Color)

Chrome for wheel and bike detail

Leather Seat (Match Color)

Plastic Pedal (Increase roughness)

Turntable:

September 21, 2023 (Class 4)

Updated Storyboard:

Selected Asset:

Look Dev References Rust Material:

Potential Mixamo Animation for MetaHuman Feet:

September 19, 2023 (Class 3)

Idea Pitch: Re-cycle

We want to follow the theme of Storytelling through materials to enhance the timelessness of a bike and how it is relevant to old and new generations since it was invented in the 19th century. It is also a vehicle relevant to the location since a lot of people bike in downtown Savannah, both the vehicle and location enhance history and a sense of nostalgia which is what we want to portray by transforming the bike from old/rusty to new in our project.

Idea PlanB: Electric Bike

For our second idea we want to enhance the concept of Storytelling through materials as well but with a more modern/electrifying bike. We would be changing it from a vintage clean look to a more modern neon one.