503 #11 Making the Art Book #1

 I was really looking forward to making the Art Book. For the cover page, I took one of the final few boards from the storyboard and lined and coloured it, trying to stylise it to differentiate it from the short enough so it was obvious it wasn't just a screenshot of a background from the short. 

Then it was plotting out what would be in the Art Book. I looked over everything we had made for the short film in our Google Drive folder and made some bullet points of what could go in. I went over my notes and put down the final lot of what would be in the book.

The concepts and ideas page wouldn't have too much on it, since we were fairly quick to come up with what we were doing, I was however able to find our original Google Notes documents.

The character design section would be bigger, since each of the team designed one of the three characters and we all put much effort into finding the right reference material and honing down the designs. In this section I made sure to note down the specific designers and some of the inspirations.

503 #10 Smoothing the Animation and Final Tweaks

 The final keys for the short were fairly quick. The Peace-Keeper falls onto a broken pipe and gets impaled. He slides down a little, slower at first, then faster to a stop, grappling with the pipe to get free, but relaxes as he dies.

Rusty is also impaled, but falls slower as he is lighter. He motions for Lizzie to go on before relaxing to show he is dead now as well.

Now the keys were all done, I did another few run throughs to make sure the timing was alright. After I was happy with it, I changed Rusty's frames to linear rather than stepped, and went through the entire timeline to make sure there were no glitches and everything was timed correctly. 

I did the same with the Peace-Keeper, although he needed more tweaking, as some parts of the animation like the roar or the pre-fight shots didn't have key frames to keep certain positions longer, so they had to be added.

I went back through the entire timeline again to triple check everything looked right before saving the project file and handing it over to Tom, the renderer.

503 #9 Keying Out Shots #3

 Keying out the fight sequence was much more difficult, since two models physically interact. I started with the beginning of the fight, where Rusty runs behind the Peace-Keeper as a distraction to attack. In the original storyboard, that is all Rusty does before pouncing on Peace-Keeper's head, to which the Peace-Keeper rears up on his hind legs and falls back into the pit. As I was beginning the keys for it, it felt strange for a military machine designed to fight and kill to not be actively attacking, instead only defending.

So instead, I keyed out Rusty's distraction run as a defensive one; the Peace-Keeper rears onto its back legs, clearly ready for an attack, and attempts to slam its weight on Rusty as he runs by. The Peace-Keeper misses, so tries catching Rusty's back legs, but Rusty is too fast. Rusty does not run away either, he turns back to the Peace-Keeper preparing for the next attack.

This turned into my favourite shot, as without even realising, when the Peace-Keeper hops to face Rusty at the end of the shot, his legs aren't in optimal positions to carry his weight, but getting them to the optimal places from the previous position stretched the joints in a way I wasn't happy with. In an experimental attempt, I had the Peace-Keeper hop again to get his legs in the best position for carrying his weight and preparing for a fight.

After keying these positions, I worked back through them to time them correctly and I found the end hop looked great. His weight was clear in the height of the jump and the follow through of the landing, while also showing he had the strength and energy to be a deadly opponent in a fight.

Now the stage was set for the interactive part of the fight.

I started with the Peace-Keeper, who, in the storyboard rears up and grapples with Rusty, which makes him step back and lose his footing over the pit. I started with the rearing up, which wouldn't need as much preparatory keying as an active attack, since it was a defensive manoeuvre. I kept his forepaws in the general area where Rusty was planned to be, obviously allowing space to make it easier to alter later. His left backpaw makes a step back, trying to keep the flow of movement from his head to back, which slips through to the empty space of the pit.

I planned to continue with the fall into the pit later.

Now it was time to deal with Rusty. I keyed out the anticipation before the pounce, then the jump itself. Rusty intercepts the Peace-Keeper's rear up, and I went back to alter the Peace-Keeper's forepaws so he was holding onto Rusty better.

Now the keys were done up until the point the Peace-Keeper was falling.

501 #9 - Reflection

 While writing out the essay, I obviously had to research the subject, but since it so recent, especially the use of 3D graphics, I found some difficult finding much on the subject. However, I was able to find a few online articles.

Initially, I had some difficulty thinking of a practical to reflect the research aspect, but while I was doing the basic outline of the essay script and looking through some research material, I had the idea to create some basic models to show the capabilities of modern, publicly available software.

Since I have access to both Autodesk Maya and ZBrush 2021, I could use either to create a couple models to show the capabilities of modern software, even by an untrained person. I have used both a little before, so I knew what kind of digital modelling both software offered; Maya is more technical, whereas ZBrush is more digital sculpting.

I decided to use both, creating an inorganic object in Maya and a simple organic creature or character in ZBrush.

For the inorganic object I noticed that many environmental aspects were lower poly resolution in even modern video games, as an environmental object isn’t seen as often, so I chose a chair to model in Maya. For the organic creature, I took a turnaround that I had created some time ago of a character of mine, since the design itself wasn’t as important as the actual modelling.

Creating the chair model was very straight forward, as it was quite simple, but I had to revise my knowledge of texturing and lighting in Maya to finish up the model. Sculpting the character bust in ZBrush initially didn’t feel difficult, as I knew some bare basics of the program, however I had to learn quite a bit more, like adding more objects and increasing the polycount.

I was actually really glad I decided to create a model in ZBrush as it motivated me to learn and practice using it more than I do in my spare time. Maya, on the other hand, I was already having to use for the 503 film project, so I am much more familiar with it and did not need to learn anything new.

In regards to the practical work itself, I liked the base model of the chair, but to improve it I would re-do the texture. I would make the texture more part of the model, such as indentations in wood being visibly in the model itself rather than just a colour painted on to look like brightly coloured plastic. I also liked the character bust, although I’d have like to have thinned the head very slightly on the X axis and added the hair. I’d also have liked to texture the model properly to create a full model, but I found it hard to understand, so it would have taken too long to understand it properly enough to apply it to the character bust.

If I was to do it again, I’d detail both models more and texture them properly.

503 #8 Keying Out Shots #2

 Soon after reporting on the issue in the Peace-Keeper model, Tom fixed it and I was able to get to work with it.

I timed out the keys for the first set of shots by the end of the street, starting now with the Peace-Keeper's entrance. I keyed out the positions first, intending to go back and re-time everything to make it look better, which I did once I was happy with the look of the keys.

I continued along keying out the shots, trying to keep the time along the smooth, linear animation of the Lizzie stand-in model. A few times I had to re-time the stand-in, but it was very simple and proved no challenge.

I keyed out the frames until all three models were near the pit of broken pipes, ready to begin the fight sequence.

501 #8 - Essay

 How have video games evolved, particularly in the realm of 3D modelling, animation, and graphics?

Intro: 

Video games are a very new medium, the first video game was created back in 1962. That’s only fifty years ago! And yet there is quite the history within that fifty years, from oversaturation, market crashing, and misogynistic market segregation, but the most obvious development in video game history is its visuals. 

The real beginning of video games began in universities, created by students using then-cutting edge technology. Spacewar! was created by Steve Russell in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was the first real video game [show clips of Spacewar].

Sec1:

Early games were simple 8-bit graphics, and any character animation was essentially just key frames [show clips of Super Mario Bros/Donkey Kong/Space Invaders]. There really wasn’t much room to work with at the time, pretty much conserving every bit. Game developers of this time had to get creative to get their designs across.

It was simply technological limits. This, of course, improved with home console innovations.

Sec2:

The prelude to polygonal 3D was 2.5D games, creating the illusion of 3D with 2D objects [show clips of Wolfenstein 3D]. 2.5D games have been around for a while, the earliest recorded 2.5D game was Interceptor (1975) where the player controls the background with the joystick to give the illusion of being in 3D space [show clips of Interceptor]. This type of pseudo-3D game ran into the 80’s, overlapping with the beginning of polygons as consoles and computers became more powerful. One of the most popular games of its time was Doom [show clips of Doom], which sold out very quickly and ended up breaking servers with the mass amount of people trying to log on at the same time. This was after advertising multiplayer capabilities

Sec3:

Early polygonal 3D was very simplistic. It was mainly found on consoles, since they were becoming more powerful. The earliest recorded commercial polygon game was I, Robot (1983) on the Atari [show clips of I, Robot] … yeah, we’ve come a long way. A notable achievement was 1996’s Quake, which could render up to 200 polygons at once. From around that time, consoles began to rapidly improve. For example, Quake 4 released in 2006 and could render 2,600 polygons at once. [show comparison footage]

Sec4:

Sony’s Playstation 2 (released in 2000) was the first console to use DVD’s (although some previous consoles used CD’s instead of cartridges, but DVD’s have much more storage capacity), and included backwards compatibility. The increase in space and the power of the console allowed for a higher number of polygons to be rendered at once. 

The 00’s also saw customisation in 3D, games like Elder Scrolls Oblivion (and later, Skyrim) [show clips of character building in Oblivion] allowing players to customise their character’s appearance, Sims with more options for character customisation as well as house building [show clips of character building in Sims 1/4], and Spore, with creature building that allows the player to play as a fully customised animal [show clips of creature building in Spore]. This is a great intersection between physics engines, AI, and 3D graphics.

Sec5:

In modern games, polycount isn’t even considered anymore. A single character can take 150,000+ without affecting the hardware. So these days, it’s all about shaders, textures, and physics. 

Game engines have also become so widespread among the public, like the Unreal engine, which is free to use, allows even individual people to make very nice looking games, obviously depending on how much time and skill the individual puts in.

The quick improvement of 3D graphics in games is most evident when comparing games in the same franchise. The Last of Us came out in 2013 [show clips of Last of Us] with graphics considered among the best games could offer, but The Last of Us Part II, which came out in 2020 has graphics which are noticeably improved [show clips of Last of Us 2 (preferably something to show lighting/water/clothing]. Clothing, water effects, and combat sequences are all visually better, as is the way the player is able to interact with the environment.

Far Cry is another franchise this can clearly be seen in, I mean, just look at the original Far Cry from 2004 [show clips of Far Cry] versus the most recent Far Cry: New Dawn from 2019 [show clips of New Dawn (preferably showing environment]. This is only a 15 year difference! Not to mention map size increase that made Far Cry 5 and New Dawn so big, fast travel stations were changed from just outposts to any landmark. 

Speaking of map size, I can’t go on without mentioning Horizon: Zero Dawn (2017) along with it’s expansion Frozen Wilds [show clips of Horizon (preferably showing lighting changes or environment]have a huge map with various biomes, rainforests, coniferous forests, swamps, deserts, mesa canyons, and deep snowy mountains, all with changing daylight and weather systems that the character will react to.

Sec6:

With the very recent release of the Playstation 5 and the Xbox X, even the near future of games is exciting. Horizon: Forbidden West [show clips from trailer (preferably underwater segment] promises underwater gameplay, and with the new console, possibly larger maps again, Cyberpunk 2077 [show clips of gameplay trailer (preferably character builder] has advanced character customisation that allows complete control over the player character (even down to genitalia). 

The game industry itself has been well sustained during the COVID-19 pandemic, as developers can work at home and numbers of gamers have reached record highs (lockdown, ammirite?), of course, trade events like E3 being cancelled has hurt indie developers, and production of consoles, which are made in China, have slowed, but overall it’s doing fairly well.

Personally, I am very excited to see where we go next.

Bibliography:

teachinghistory.org (unknown) Ask a Historian: The Gaming Revolution. Available at: https://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/25764 (Accessed 02/11/2020).

PopCultHQ (2018) The Evolution Of Polygons in 3D Video Game Graphics. Available at: https://popculthq.com/2018/02/26/evolution-polygons-3d-video-game-graphics/ (Accessed 02/11/2020).

History.com (2019) Video Game History. Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/history-of-video-games (Accessed 02/11/2020)

503 #7 Keying Out Shots #1

 Now the sets and character models were ready, I started keying out positions. I made sure all frames were stepped to keep the keys and not make in-betweens.

I started just making the keys for Rust Bucket, as he and the Peace-Keeper weren't going to physically interact until much later on, so understanding the timing with a single character would make timing out the Peace-Keeper easier. 

The first shot was fairly simple, as it was a run cycle with a sudden stop, and I already knew there was another run cycle in the short, so making sure this set of keys looked good would save a lot of work later. I found reference films of real life canine run cycles to understand the movement better, particularly the curving of the spine, how the head is held during sprints, and where the legs and paws are held in relation to each other throughout a sprint.

I blocked out the base cycle and went back to tweak any aspects I was unhappy with. Once I was happy, I duplicated keys and moved the model along the track until it reached the spot of the sudden stop. To make the sudden stop, I tried to keep in the momentum of the previous run, so he overshoots slightly and repositions his back paws.

Now the timing to establish the next main shot where Rusty moved was dependent on the Peace-Keeper, so I decided to start on him.

While keying out the entrance of the Peace-Keeper, I quickly noticed one of the joints in the spine was broken, so I informed Tom so he could work on a fix. Now knowing I would have to wait at least a day, I plotted out Lizzie's stand in model.

501 #7 - Update

Since I find practical work easier than writing, I started with the quicker half of the practical, the chair. I documented it's creation here: 

https://nm286308.blogspot.com/2020/11/501-5.html

I also have exact plans for the sculpting half of the practical with turnarounds (which is also in the post above)

I didn't neglect the written side, however, as I created a base structure for the essay as well as a list of games I am using for examples as well as franchises for case studies of graphical improvements

STRUCTURE;

Intro - quick overview of topic, beginning of gaming (non commercial history)

Sec1 - brief look at history of game graphics before 3D

Sec2 - look at 2.5D in commercial games (prelude to 3D)

Sec3 - look at beginning poly 3D in commercial games (80’s)

Sec4 - poly 3D games (00’s)

Sec5 - poly 3D games (10’s/20’s), talk abt rise of software available to individuals

Sec6 - 3D in the future

GAME EXAMPLES;

SpaceWar! (1962)

Space Invaders (1978)

Donkey Kong (1981)

Super Mario Brothers (1983)

Interceptor (1975)

Wolfenstein 3D (1992)

Doom (1993)

I, Robot (1983)

Quake (1996)

Quake 4 (2006)

Elder Scrolls Oblivion (2006)

Elder Scrolls Skyrim (2011)

The Last of Us (2013)

The Last of Us Part II (2020)

Far Cry (2004)

Far Cry: New Dawn (2019)

Horizon: Zero Dawn/Frozen Wilds (2017)

Horizon: Forbidden West (2021)

Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)

503 #6 Setting the Scene

After the backgrounds and sets were created and distributed by Pippa, I started off with setting every camera shot, putting down some estimated timings for moving cameras. 

Finding correct shot positions was fairly easy, as I had an animatic to work from and the specific areas of shots were clear and easy to locate in the set.

Before adding any cameras, however, I referenced in the models (so any textures put on the model at a later date would be present in the film) and correctly sized them. Our producer Tom was able to calculate the scale numbers for each model from our character size chart, so it was an easy task to place them in the set correctly. Once they were in their starting positions, I went to placing the cameras.

I used a simple 'create camera from view' and made sure to order the cameras properly in the ouliner so I could switch to different shots for. I ended up with a total of eighteen cameras, two of which moved.

501 Practical #2 - ZBrush Work

For the other half of my practical I sculpted a more organic creature, an altered bust of a character turnaround sheet I drew a while back. I sculpted it in ZBrush2021 to show the improvements of 3D technology, even publicly available, however I did not intend to texture or light the model as it was simply an exercise in modelling.

I did not model the mouth, hair, or jewellery as I am still inexperienced and have yet to learn how to do it, but I was able to create a base model.

501 Practical #1 - Maya Work

 To show the improvements of 3D technology, I created a simple inorganic model in Maya to show the quality of modern 3D, even by an inexperienced individual working at home. It did not take me very long to create the model, as it was only meant to be a very simple exercise.

I will also create a bust of a character from a turnaround sheet in ZBrush2021 to show the more organic sculpting tools available to both studios and individuals. This is the turnaround sheet I'm basing the bust off of, although the bust will lack jewellery and may also lack hair (I will attempt both but I am still relatively inexperienced).

503 #5 Rust Bucket's Rig

Creating Rust Bucket's rig was a huge issue. I had to learn rigging from nothing as I only had a little 3D modelling experience at most. I watched a few YouTube series on learning Maya to understand how rigging in Maya worked.

Creating the basic rig wasn't too difficult, even creating IK joints for the legs as well as controllers, but we ran into a plethora of issues in parenting joints and painting weights. Rogue vertices, breaking faces and general technical issues were repeated, irritating problems that none of the group could seem to fix.

Both me and Tom attempted to fix the issues, but if we were able to fix one problem, there was a new problem to replace it. An example is a rouge vertex on the right 'elbow' joint, which initially seemed an easy enough fix, but if the file was re-opened it would be broken again, along with a growing number of vertices. There was a collection of issues like this which gained increased frustration from the entire team.

In the end, we had to request help from Matt to fix the rig, which he was able to do rather quickly. After much stress, we finally had a functioning rig!

501 #5 - Triangulation

 I created a very basic triangulation poster to get the basic points down of my three texts. 

The first text, Teaching History, is an educational website whose text on the history of video games focused on just the RPG genre, from text-based to modern. Although it's date isn't posted, it makes reference to the PlayStation 3 as 'recent' and multiple sources in it's bibliography are from 2012.

It follows a pretty linear look at graphical video game history, keeping it's language and structure fairly basic so anyone could understand it.

The second, PopCultureHQ, is from a fan website focused on cosplay and conventions, but the text is a detailed look at the history of polygonal 3D video games. It keeps it's language and structure simple, like the Teaching History text for the more amateur audience. It was written in 2018, so it was more recent than the Teaching History text, but polygonal 3D does not have as much history as video games in general.

The third, an article from History.com, an educational website with a basic overview of general video game history. It was posted in 2019, so it is the most recent of the three, and like the PopCultureHQ text, it looks at polygonal 3D, although not as in-depth. The text is also quite simply worded like the other two texts, clearly showing all three are meant for a public audience rather than industry professionals.

teachinghistory.org (unknown) Ask a Historian: The Gaming Revolution. Available at: https://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/25764 (Accessed 02/11/2020).

PopCultHQ (2018) The Evolution Of Polygons in 3D Video Game Graphics. Available at: https://popculthq.com/2018/02/26/evolution-polygons-3d-video-game-graphics/ (Accessed 02/11/2020).

History.com (2019) Video Game History. Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/history-of-video-games (Accessed 02/11/2020)

503 #4 Rust Bucket Model

When I started on the model, I was essentially having to relearn Maya's 3D modelling basics. In the beginning I blocked out some basic parts of Rust Bucket.

As I was working on the model, I tried to keep the polycount down as best I could, so the model ended up looking more blocky than the original design, but that wasn't much of an issue.

As I was working on the model, I realised that the best way to keep the polycount down was to alter some aspects of the original design other than making it more blocky. I changed the front legs to a single metal pole (beveled cube rather than a cylinder) and did the same for the feet. I also removed any of the degraded metal, leaving the rust to the texture to save the polycount and made each limb the same length to make the rigging and animation easier later.

I then continued on with making the rig. To do this, I had to learn rigging from the ground up, but was able to create a basic rig with controllers. Although, once I had to go into painting weights and skinning, I couldn't seem to understand it properly, so I handed the model over to Tom as he knew more on how to do it. I will go into more of what happened as we rigged in a separate post however.

501 #4/6 - Introduction to Research/Planning Practical

How have video games evolved, particularly in the realm of 3D modelling, animation, and graphics?

As the question suggests, I am looking at the evolution of 3D in video games, mainly at modelling, but also at the animation and graphics. Video games are one of the newest story telling mediums that have quite the history and have improved visually in such a short amount of time, I find it quite impressive and would like to go into the industry (in some of the more progressive studios preferably) after university.

I have a number of texts about the history of video games to start off with, including a Netflix documentary series and a couple game franchises as a case study to show progress within the same studio. I may replay some older games I have access to to compare to recent releases, but I doubt I'd be able to take notes without just getting sucked into the game.

The end product of the practical work will be a partially animated video essay with a 3D model of a character and an object to show the power of commercial 3D model software. I already have a turnaround sheet of a character that I intended to use as a modelling reference in ZBrush 2021 and I'll create the object in Maya 2019 as I find ZBrush is better for organic creatures and Maya better for non-organic objects.

501 #3 - Text

I was able to find a text that detailed the development of roleplaying games, from text-based to modern.

The author is trying to explain the more intricate history of RPGs, a large section dedicated to text-based adventures but also referencing choice-based games where the player's decisions affect the player's character. The real examples are the original Adventure for text-based games and Knights of the Old Republic and Elder Scrolls Skyrim for choice-based games. Examples of games I would use would be the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe text adventure and Telltale's The Walking Dead: The Game or Detroit: Become Human for choice based games.

Although this is only on one aspect of video game history, I feel it is important to the overall history of video games, as it's one of the biggest improvements of the medium.

501 #2 - Defining the Research Question

I am looking at the evolution of 3D modelling in video games, across all consoles and genres. I will look at models and environments of games that are available on the internet, as well as first hand accounts of the games themselves in terms of animation, gameplay in how the models interact with one another. I am attempting to create a timeline of how 3D models have evolved in video games.

The question would be something along the line of "How have video games evolved, particularly in the realm of 3D modelling, animation, and graphics?" So far I have two web texts chronically the history of video games, but it is quite hard to find texts on the subject simply because it is such a recent medium, not even a century old.

https://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/25764

https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/history-of-video-games

https://popculthq.com/2018/02/26/evolution-polygons-3d-video-game-graphics/

Some specific games I could use as case studies are Pacman, Donkey Kong, and Super Mario Brothers to establish the medium's start, then moving onto Doom, Starfox, and I, Robot for the shift to 3D and polygons in games, the finishing with Last of Us, Far Cry, and Horizon Zero Dawn. I may also may some mention of Elder Scrolls, Sims, and Spore for their character customisation and creator tools that allows the player to change their own character models and create objects and buildings.

I would like to create a short game as a practical response, but I don't think I could learn the Unreal Engine quick enough, so I may just do a partially animated video essay and create a couple 3D models based off my own characters.

503 #3 Rust Bucket's Design

When designing Rust Bucket, I looked at various robot designs for inspiration, gathering them together into a moodboard with some light notes.

I kept it to canine/feline-esque structures as they waere always intended to be a pet, then narrowed it down to junkyard aesthetics, using scrap for material and keeping everything bare bones as their character origin is a robotic companion/guardian built using what little their creators could find.

I went over some design ideas, since the base structure was canid in nature, that was the easiest part. Since the Peace-Keeper had a sharper, more rigid design, I changed the base silhouette to a smoother, more streamline design, using more rounded edges and circular structures. 

Personally, I find the head to be the most important part, as Rust Bucket can't talk or make expressions, the head and movement will be doing all the work, so I went over a few different ideas for the head shape. 

The back legs were the easier part, although I tried a few different ideas for the front legs.

Once I had the basic shape structure, I went on to creating a more detailed design. I kept the first round greyscale to make sure the colours didn't blend together too bad. I wanted the legs to be different lengths, since Rust Bucket is a robot built from salvaged scrap, it would be hard to find everything exactly right, although I may drop the idea when I model to save on rigging and animation headaches.

Once I had that, I added some better colour differentiators, blue for wires and red for rust, mostly just to help with the lining/colouring of the design later.

I lined and coloured the turnaround with the final colour palette.

Next I started on a model sheet to show the extent of Rust Bucket's movement. A jump to show the extend of the hind leg stretches and a play pose to show how they would express themself.

503 #2 Script

I took on the role as writer on the project. While writing the script, I described some camera shots and movements that I thought would look better, but I left many open to the storyboard artist for their creative input. Although I am the director, I want everyone to have their own creative input and ideas in the short.

FADE IN:

INT. LIZZIE'S ROOM (EARLY MORNING)

LIZZIE's room is small, barely fitting a bed and a desk of drawers. On top of the drawers is a framed photo of her parents holding out RUST BUCKET to a young LIZZIE, although the glass is cracked slightly. A small dirty window without curtains is the only source of light.

LIZZIE sits up, then gets out of bed, which wakes RUST BUCKET wake and stand up. She grabs a cloak and a bag and exits the room, RUST BUCKET close behind her, the door closes.

CUT TO:

EXT. INNER CITY STREET (MORNING)

The street is crumbling, very patchwork buildings and the street and pavement are full of potholes. There are quite a few people walking around, all looking tired and their clothing so filthy it's hard to tell the cloth from the skin and it's just as patchwork as the buildings. Propaganda posters are everywhere, one of which is brightly coloured picture saying "What will you do on our weekly day off?"

LIZZIE and RUST BUCKET walk down the street with much more energy than anyone else.

CUT TO:

EXT. INNER CITY INTERSECTION (MORNING)

LIZZIE and RUST BUCKET stop at an intersection and look at a street to one side. It's been blocked off by a metal wall with barbed wire and very big, very obvious 'Stay inside' signs. LIZZIE comes closer, trying to look through the gaps to see the other side, while RUST BUCKET is trying to pull her away, glancing nervously at around.

LIZZIE looks behind for anyone watching before pulling a sheet of looser metal open and slipping through, beckoning RUST BUCKET to follow her. They do, but looks very uneasy.

CUT TO:

EXT. OUTER CITY INTERSECTION (MORNING)

We see LIZZIE and RUST BUCKET walk on through a security camera. Someone is watching them.

CUT TO:

INT. UNKNOWN STATION

A charging PEACEKEEPER, too close and in too much dark to see clearly, opens its eyes and growls a little.

CUT TO:

EXT. OUTER CITY STREET B (AFTERNOON)

LIZZIE enters a half collapsed building, RUST BUCKET trying to drag her back initially, but when she gets through to the rubble RUST BUCKET hangs back, clearly not too crash hot about wading through rubble. They sit back, watching LIZZIE carefully.

A bit of rubble shakes and falls to the ground with a clatter. RUST BUCKET sees it and looks up the street. Something big is coming.

RUST BUCKET gets LIZZIE's attention, trying to signal for them to go. LIZZIE looks confused, but the sound of the PEACEKEEPER's roar makes them both freeze.

Instantly, the two of them are running down the street.

CUT TO:

EXT. OUTER CITY STREET B END (AFTERNOON)

LIZZIE and RUST BUCKET make it to the end of the street, about to turn the corner when the PEACEKEEPER jumps out to block their way.

It stares at LIZZIE's face for a moment, studying it, before roaring. LIZZIE and RUST BUCKET run down an alleyway, but too late they realise it ends on the Outer Wall.

The PEACEKEEPER stalks closer.

LIZZIE takes a step back and the ground collapses under her, leaving her in an abandoned, rusted pipe in a trench, with upward facing broken pipes close by. There are sounds of a fight overhead, until the PEACEKEEPER stands upright trying to shake RUST BUCKET loose, causing them both to fall right on the pipe-spikes.

The PEACEKEEPER 'dies' instantly, but RUST BUCKET is still alive, dying, but alive for now. LIZZIE reaches for them, but RUST BUCKET just motions for her to go on without them.

LIZZIE looks through the pipe she's in, seeing a light from the other side of the Outer Wall. She crawls through, emerging from the dark pipe to the Outer World. It's bright, and colourful, and vast. LIZZIE stares in awe at it, tearing up. With a glance back at the Inside World, she walks out into the Outer World.

The shot shifts to a camera, then zooms out to a monitor showing the camera feed. Someone switches off the monitor and pulls out a video tape with tape on it that reads FILE FOOTAGE: CITIZEN 202

:FADE TO BLACK

 

501 Animism #2

 

I added a sketchy background that relies more on volume to create a sense of life rather than solid line

501 Animism #1

As part of the research/experiment tasks of 501, I created an anthropomorphic character using a saber-toothed cat (Smilodon). Just a very simple, sketch animation of the character yawning.

Storyboard Pro Study Task

 Just to test out the Storyboard Pro software I created a short animatic looking at a mountain range inhabited by a dragon

501 #1 - Initial Ideas

3D Modelling in Games

Digital 3D is a very new medium. The first 3D models were created in the 1960's, only done by professionals in computer engineering and were purely mathematical rather than for entertainment. Sutherland's program Sketchpad was a revolutionary way to create 3D models and he later opened the first department of computer technologies in Utah, which has educated many professionals that have since developed the industry, such as the current head of Walt Disney Animation Studios; Edwin Catmull.

Battlezone was the first 3D game success released in 1980 that used vector graphics to create a sense of three dimensions. It was visually simplistic but so realistic at the time that the US Army used it for training purposes.

Games from this time were very simplistic because of the limited technology. 

By the early 90's, 3D was improving, but still faced limitations, triangular polygons, blocky animation, practically no lip-syncing, and abysmal textures.

With improved technologies, 3D modelling can push to hyper-realistic standards, with better textures and infamously hard to model and animate things like fire and water becoming better looking and the way they interact with character models much more realistic.

3D Animation in Games

In the 80's, video games were simplistic arcade games. Models were 8-bit and animations were essentially just basic keys to save on space. Although towards the end of the 80's games had some additional animations, like attacks and unique enemies.

The 90's saw advances in 3D, which forced animation to jump forward as well. Actions which previously would consist of a single pose now required continuous movement, like jumping, attacking, throwing, even standing still. It improved throughout the decade.

The 2000's was the decade of the Playstation 2, the Xbox, and later on, the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360. Games like Tekken 5 had more unique attacks that had required more intricate animation, and others like Grand Theft Auto 3 had large open worlds that the player could interact with, meaning the old base animations of walking, running, jumping, and attacking were simply not enough anymore.

2010's and onwards saw more complex hardware that allowed for better rigs that gave animators much more control, as well as the use of motion capture to create better movement. Games like The Last of Us with complex animations even when the character stands idle or Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor with unique facial animations on every character in the game. 3D animation in games now means nothing is stationary.

Prus. I (2016) What Is 3d Modeling? Things You’ve Got To Know Nowadays. Available at: https://archicgi.com/product-cgi/3d-modeling-things-youve-got-know/#:~:text=History%20of%203D%20Modeling,Sutherland%2C%20the%20creator%20of%20Sketchpad. (Accessed: 05/10/2020)

PC Plus (2010) The evolution of 3D games. Available at: https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/gaming/the-evolution-of-3d-games-700995/2 (Accessed: 05/10/2020)

Pluralsight (2014) Evolution of Animation in Video Games. Available at: https://www.pluralsight.com/blog/film-games/80s-now-evolution-animation-video-games (Accessed: 09/10/2020)

503 #1 - Treatment Document

File: Citizen 202 (Working Title)

Logline: 

A curious young girl and her mechanised companion explore the dystopian city past it’s limits, but that is strictly against the rules. The enforcement sends out their best and most dangerous peacekeeper to stop her before it’s too late.

Concept:

Far in the future, the majority of the population are suppressed by an authoritarian oligarchy, forcing the working class into poverty and dilapidated living conditions, terrifying them with military power that destroyed half the city to fight their scapegoats. Unbeknownst to them, there is much freedom outside their walls, which the ruling class want hidden at any cost.

One young girl is the child of two mechanical engineers who crafted her a robotic companion to accompany and protect her, which is rather necessary given her intense curiosity about the world beyond. Using her skills at navigating the city, she comes across a way through to the outside, finding luscious greenery overgrowing around the decaying ruins of what was once her people’s home.

However, she is being watched by cameras and soon a powerful and dangerous Peacekeeper is tracking her. It finds her, intent to kill, but her companion sacrifices itself so she can escape. Now outcast from the city and grieving the loss of her companion and possibly her family, she disappears into the outside world.

Key Characters:

Protagonist: Young Girl (Elizabeth ‘Lizzy’)

• Citizen 202

Lizzy is a curious, brave but reckless young girl of approx. 10 years old, marked by the enforcement as ‘Citizen 202’. She begins happily moving outside from her house with her companion, she is an orphan with her parents' picture shattered on the floor as she traverses outside. 

As she explores, she comes across the border to the Outer City and crosses over in her curiosity. She continues her Journey towards the edge of the outer city as the Peacekeeper appears behind them, she slowly moves back as the hollow ground collapses to the touch. As the companion and the Peacekeeper fight, she traverses the trench on rusty old pipes still connected to the outside world.

She looks back to see her companion fall into the trench with the peacekeeper, saddened but knowing there is no way back she continues towards the unknown outside world to begin a new adventure. Character development of moving on from unfortunate circumstances and becoming independent from others such as her companion who forces this upon her to continue into the new world.

Side Character: Companion

• Rust ‘Rusty’ Buket 

Energetic, bouncy, very dog-like, and rather cowardly, he is quite scrappy, having been crafted from spare parts recycled from junkyard. He was created as a companion, pet and protector for Lizzy. Throughout the short, it attempts to stop Lizzy from hurting herself, and if she ever gets in trouble, he is quick to follow and help her, finally sacrificing his life to keep the Peacekeeper from hurting her. 

Through the short, we see Rusty being rather cowardly, wanting to avoid anything dangerous, even if it’s fun, but by the end, he sacrifices himself to protect Lizzy. At the end of the short, he pushes her to leave the city entirely, letting her go in his trust that she will be fine without him.

Secondary Antagonist: Peacekeeper

• P3^C3-K33PR

Loyal, aggressive, short fuse, rigid and mechanical in movement, sharper, sleeker design, Cerberus-type structure. It’s very fast, can climb vertical walls, has high stamina, sensitive sight and hearing, and is very strong.

Initially passive-aggressive but quickly becomes more aggressive as orders are ignored.

Primary Antagonist: The Enforcement

Not shown in the short

Acts:

Act 1 / Beginning - Inner City

Lizzy and Rusty explore the city coming across the border to the outer city.

Act 2 / Middle - Outer City / Ruins

Filled with curiosity they cross over, being caught on CCTV by Enforcement

Act 3 / Chase - Both pursued by Peacekeeper through ruins. Rusty sacrifices themself distracting the peacekeeper allowing for Lizzy to escape.

Act 4 / End - Outside, greenery

Lizzy falls through ground into a trench, crawls into a pipe, leading to outside the city.

Epilogue:

Throughout the story including the working title of the film it is shown to be a surveillance camera video of an incident that occurred with Citizen 202. After the defeat of the peacekeeper and the girl’s escape it gives a cliffhanger on what possibly could happen next as the enforcement are aware that she has escaped. 

The girl developed her own independence as a sort of coming of age style ending with the saddened loss of her companion. The ending is widely open to the audience's imagination. An example of this is that they will increase the standards of their security to prevent such an incident happening again leaving a more somber and dark moment for everyone else within the city.

Roles:

Nadia Mackenzie:

Director, Scriptwriter, 3D Animator, 3D Modeller, Sound Designer, Renderer

Thomas Sibson:

3D Animator, 3D Modeller, Editor, Rigging, Texturing, Renderer

Pippa Croft:

Background Artist, 2D Animator, Storyboard Artist