Batch rendering with .bat files

http://www.jawa9000.com/Technical/batch/batch-rendering.htm

Remaining delivery schedule

• Week 5 (today) 2D Animatic + presentation = midterm grade.

• NO ANIMATIC TODAY = C MIDTERM GRADE

• Week 6 : Sets constructed, 2D Animatic revisions.

• Week 7 : Characters rigged/costumes skinned.

• Week 8 : 3D ANIMATIC - BLOCKING PASS 

• all shots represented

• characters in basic positions

• Week 9 : 3D ANIMATIC 1ST PASS

• Week 10 : 3D ANIMATIC 2ND PASS

• Week 11 : FINAL 3D ANIMATIC DUE

Maya refresher

• basic navigation controls
• create>primitives
• parenting and grouping
• outliner and hypergraph
• layer editor
• hypershade and materials
• animation and graph editor
• render settings

Free 3D Models + Rigs

Models:

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/ (requires sketchup)

http://www.turbosquid.com/Search/3D-Models/free

http://thefree3dmodels.com/

http://www.3dmodelfree.com/

http://artist-3d.com/

http://archive3d.net/

Rigs:

http://www.11secondclub.com/resources

Week 4 Agenda

• Free model websites
• Lecture: Contrast and Affinity
• space
• line and shape
• tone
• color
• movement
• rhythm and timing
• Storyboard 1 -on -1's
• Animatic demo

Contrast and Affinity

CONTRAST = GREATER VISUAL INTENSITY

AFFINITY = LESS VISUAL INTENSITY

http://www.amazon.com/The-Visual-Story-Second-Edition/dp/0240807790

http://www.ageofreasonmovie.com/blog/2011/visualizing-the-age-of-reason-part-2-contrast-affinity/

http://www.slideshare.net/thomasjcastillo/bruce-blocks-visual-components-for-filmmakers

http://www.lbpcentral.com/forums/entry.php?1073-The-Film-Makers-Blog-Contrast-Affinity

Contrast and Affinity can be used to increase or decrease the intensity of your story's visual structure.

• Potential vs. Kinetic energy in physics = building and releasing tension
• space
• four types
• deep
• flat
• limited
• ambiguous
• framing
• surface dividers
• line and shape
• tone
• color
• movement
• rhythm and timing

How many storyboard panels do you need?

You need a storyboard panel to show:

• anticipation
• action
• reaction / follow-through

For every major action in your story.

Minimum time change

The minimum time duration of your project has been reduced to 1:00 from 2:00.

Less time = higher quality, use this to your advantage!

Week 5 Homework / Midterm

Your week 5 homework AND Midterm project is to create a 2D Animatic from your Week 4 Storyboards.

Your Animatic should include the following:

• 1:00 minimum running time (changed from 2:00)
• 1280 x 720
• Sound FX and Music
• .H264 compression
• Appropriate shot timing

Week 5, you will have TEN (10) minutes to show your animatic and get feedback from the class. 

YOUR ANIMATIC, ALONG WITH YOUR PRESENTATION, IS YOUR MIDTERM GRADE!!

• Animatic - 75%
• Presentation - 25%

Week 4 Homework

Your week 4 homework is to create the final storyboards for your class project.

Your final storyboards should be:

• Clear and descriptive
• 1280 x 720
• black and white
• saved in a layered Photoshop document
• each shot is a different layer, layers are named according to shot no. and details
• ex: Shot_21_LS_jumpKick = Shot #1, which is a long shot of a person jump kicking
• Exported from Photoshop as a series of separate JPG images
• in Photoshop, go to file>scripts>Export Layers to Files
• Use your LASTNAME for the File Name Prefix
• Use JPEG as the file type
• PSD and exported JPEGs should be put in a folder called "LASTNAME_storyboards"
• Put this folder in your work folder on my faculty drive. 

Next week,  we will review your storyboards 1 - on -1 so you can incorporate them into your 2D Animatic, which will be due week 5.

Week 3 Itinerary

Today you are going to pitch your story ideas to the class. Each person will have five (5) minutes to share and discuss their idea with the class, broken down like this:

• 2 min presentation
• two sentence summary
• details, show thumbnails
• 3 min feedback/Q & A

You have TWO (2) minutes to pitch your story/scene. Start with a two (2) sentence summary of the entire scene, then use the remaining time to give details on characters, setting, etc.

After that, each person will have three (3) minutes to get feedback from students and myself.

• 8:00 - 8:15 - Prep for pitch
• Review your story idea and write out a two sentence summary to start your pitch with.
• Jot down notes on the most important beats/details of your story
• Put your revised story description and thumbnail sheets in your named folder on my faculty drive.
• 8:15 - 10:15 - Pitch story to class
• Each person will have 5 minutes to pitch and receive feedback.
• 2 minute presentation
• 3 minute Q + A
• 10:15 - 10:35 - Break
• 10:35 - 10:55 - Lecture, review blog posts
• 10:55 - 12:00 - 1 - on - 1 storyboard thumbnail reviews.

Dialogue

http://www.creative-writing-now.com/how-to-write-dialogue.html

http://www.elementsofcinema.com/screenwriting/dialogue.html

http://www.writing-information-and-tips.com/writing-dialogue.html

Editing tips and tricks

http://introtoediting.com/basics.html - great site!!

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/editing/tutorial/

http://www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/elements_of_editing.html

http://www.borgus.com/hitch/

http://www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/ellipsis.html

Homework for Week 3

• Maya camera assignment with moving shots
• 2nd draft of story description
• tighten story
• add physical details - setting, props, etc
• describe all important visual information the viewer needs to see
• Thumbnails 
• 50 minimum shots
• camera info/arrow lines/etc are all fine
• ROUGH drawings
• scan these in as 1280 x 720 thumb sheets (each sheet should contain 20-30 thumbs)

FRAMEFILTER!!!!

http://framefilter.blogspot.com/

Camera Rig!

http://lesterbanks.com/2011/08/rp_camerarig-camera-dollycrane-rig-for-maya-3ds-softimage/

Flat is funny, depth is drama...

http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/2012/07/staging-and-how-it-affects-mood-and.html

http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/2009/01/flat-is-funny-depth-is-dramatic.html

Everyone on montage...

http://faculty.cua.edu/johnsong/hitchcock/pages/montage/montage-1.html
http://faculty.cua.edu/johnsong/hitchcock/pages/montage/montage-2.html
http://faculty.cua.edu/johnsong/hitchcock/pages/montage/montage-3.html

Homework, due 7/18

1. Three (3) paragraph treatment of your story idea. Include details on chars, setting, plot, etc.


2. An exported movie, 5 seconds minimum, using at least 4 shots from the exercise in class today. 


1280 x 720, 24 fps, .h264

Storyboarding and film language tips

Camera Shots


http://www.mediacollege.com/video/shots/


http://www.mediaknowall.com/camangles.html




Film Language


http://www.filmeducation.org/staffroom/film_in_the_classroom/film_language/


http://film-english.com/film-glossary/




Rule of thirds:


http://photoinf.com/General/KODAK/guidelines_for_better_photographic_composition_rule_of_thirds.html






Line of action / 180 degree rule


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/180_degree_rule






Storyboarding

What is a storyboard, anyway?


MUST-READ Storyboarding Tips - click on each image to make larger


Keith Lango's storyboard examples


Learning to storyboard by copying scenes from films


How-to: values in a drawing




Film editing:


http://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/12-tips-for-better-film-editing/