Animation Workflow . . . project management/scene organization . . . HELP PLZ!!!

[Dave Buckley]

ok

 

so far i've been doing stills no real architectural animations as such.

 

now it's animation time (real project - real customer)

 

basically, the guy wants an animation of a data centre (server racks etc etc), its quite a dull animation in terms of items of focus so he wants to make it interesting.

 

i modelled the main building today in revit. that bit was easy.

 

however, i now have things all over the place. essentially the finished animation will be multiple moving cameras around the building all edited together in premiere or after effects.

 

at certain points he wants fades to individual equipment animations. so let's say we are going through the data hall, the camera approaches a data cabinet, fades out, fades into that data cabinet on its own in a studion environment but it's animated. fade back in to where the camera last finished and carry on with walkthrough etc etc.

 

i'm just stuck as to a good workflow. i have all models that i need (revit building, inventor models) what do i do next? do i texture each item individually and then once everything is saved as separate .max scenes, do i then merge them altogether? should i do my camera paths first?? lighting??? i'm going to be using proxied trees, i know my workflow for them but at what stage do they come into my animation workflow??? what about folder structures and scene management?

 

it's a spur of the moment job, only found out about it on tuesday????

 

does anybody know of any links to web pages/documents that discuss this kind of thing in detail?? or would anyone be so kind as to discuss their workflow. i have searched the forums but nothing goes into the kind of detail i'm looking for. i want to use my 3dats intermediate to advanced book, but it's on my desk at work

 

any input is much appreciated guys, thanks in advance

[Dave Buckley]

just another thought, putting things onto layers etc, i need to do this but at which stage??

 

also hopefully want to be able to use efficient rendering techniques (incremental fg calculations)

[SandmanNinja]

I use layer manager from the get-go

I generally set the main/empty layer as the default, add an object, then make a new layer and move it out of the default area. That way it stays clean and easy to manage and it's very easy to turn off a poly-heavy object once it's in place.

 

I hate getting scenes from other people that don't use layers or don't name their objects.

[Nils Norgren]

One simple suggestion, storyboard out the animation, even it is just chicken scratch. Organize your effort into shots, along with good model/layer/naming you can have a temporal way to organize, each camera will be named by shot, and when the model is locked down, you can have a scene file for each shot, with the correct length and assets.

 

Once you have a storyboard, use it to document shot - specific information.

 

just a quick 2 ¢

 

-Nils

[tayrona]

Our workflow:

 

(1) Define what your client/audience MUST see

 

(2) Estimate the duration

 

(3) Storyboard (define scenes based on architecture: Example: Exterior, entrance, lobby, etc, and specify the point of view of each shot)

 

(4) Model according to (1) and (3), this way, you are not going to model what is not neccesary.. (If aditional models are needed then you can make it later, when cameras are placed).

 

(5) Place cameras (after placing cameras, you can model missing geometry)

 

(6) Materials

 

(7) Make preview animations

 

(8) Make sure your client aprove all shots.

 

(9) Separate scenes in files (one camera per file) - sometimes, if you make a close up, you can have two cameras in one file... and so on.

 

(10) Add furniture, equipment, proxis etc

 

(11) Lighting

 

(12) Test Renders

 

(13) Rendering

 

(14) Post-Production.

[Dave Buckley]

brilliant guys thanks for your help so far, i think it would be good to keep this post going, it will be interesting to see others thoughts on the subject

[SandmanNinja]

Great list, Diana!

 

Missing geometry is so easy to get with animations, as the camera is moving about and may see areas that you didn't plan on. Also equally important is reflections - make sure there is no missing geometry in the reflections.

 

I'm a fan of building objects in their own Max scene, texturing them there, grouping them into a logical name, placing the object on a well-named layer (including the group), then saving it out.

 

I'll then import the object into the Main scene and since it's grouped, I can easily move the entire object.

 

More importantly, you are building a library of textured objects that are ready for importing into scenes. Just organise them logically and thoughtfully and you're well on your way to a great collection.

 

Assuming an interior, I'd build the walls first then lay out your spline for the camera.

(give it plenty of segments so it will follow curves smoothly)

That way, you can see what the camera will see.

 

Once everything is in place, render out your frames. I name my frames with the camera name, so it'll be easy to edit the scene in post.

 

(When all the frames are rendered, I take a few seconds to make an ORIGINAL folder for the rendered files. It only takes a few seconds to protect your hours of renders)

 

I get a paper and pencil (or notepad) to note frame numbers and camera names.

 

What I do is load the main animation (Camera_01) into Ram Player. I then scrub through until I see the place where I want to do a camera change. I note the name/frame number.

 

I then get the frame sequences for the camera cut-away into their own folder, load them into Ram Player to see how they look.

 

I repeat for each camera cut-away.

 

I then make a POST folder and copy the frames in one section at a time.

So, all the frames UP TO the Camera Cut-away from Camera_01 goes into the POST folder.

 

I then use ACDSee to rename these all in one go. Something like POST_ - ACDSee puts the sequential number after the _

 

I then copy in the Cut-Away frames into the POST folder and use ACDSee to rename them so they follow AFTER the previously renamed frames.

 

Repeat.

 

You can even do dissolves in Photoshop - I have an Action Script in Photoshop that loads in 10 frames and changes their opacity by 10%, going from Darker to Lighter (100% to 0%). I copy the frames that I want to start fading OUT into (yet another) folder and run the script on them.

 

I have another script that does the opacity in the reverse order - 0% to 100%.

I then copy one on top of the other and save the result out to another file name sequence. The end result is that I have a 10-frame overlap dissolve that I can do in a minute or two. While I have After Effects, I don't use it a lot. I should, but this method I can do very quickly.

 

As far as what sequence to do what in, I find lighting affects textures affects lighting.

So, I always slap a generic grey material on all the objects (the default colour does not reflect light properly). I then get the lighting to a state that's a good rough cut. There's not much point in taking it further at this stage, because your lighting will be affected by the textures.

 

So I start applying textures to the objects. Remember - the larger the surface area, the more the reflected light will affect the scene. You can go to my website (http://www.virtual-interiors.net) and select the iChoose option on the menu. Watch the roof and wall colours and lighting change just by dissolving from one floor texture to another.

 

Once I get the objects textured, then I start dialing in and fine-tuning the lighting solution. If you get a lot of colour-bleed (which is physically accurate), check out http://www.mentalboutmax.com - Bri has very good video tutorials on Mental Ray and V-Ray that shows you how to compensate for Colour Bleed.

 

Do some test renders and check for things like missing geometry, weird textures from unusual angles that you didn't look at before, reflections, camera framing, camera tracking, etc.

 

You can do a clay or AO 'Camera Test' animation to let your client have something to look at. Just remind them that this is a Camera Test - not a final render. Adjust the camera tracking as directed by client. Then render out a frame from every 100 or 200 frames at final quality, to show the client a colour story board of how the final animation will look. Then get them to sign in blood that they approve both the animation and the textures/lighting/etc. Then render it out. Ram Player is capable enough to load in the POST_ rendered frames.

 

You can also do things like copying the FINAL, POST_ frames to a PREVIEW folder, apply an Action Script to put a watermark on each frame and then quickly render it out in Ram Player. When the client approves and pays, load in the proper frames and save it out.

 

Adobe CS4 has the Media Encoder which makes streaming video from web browsers easy.

 

Hope this helps.

[Dave Buckley]

As far as what sequence to do what in, I find lighting affects textures affects lighting.

So, I always slap a generic grey material on all the objects (the default colour does not reflect light properly). I then get the lighting to a state that's a good rough cut. There's not much point in taking it further at this stage, because your lighting will be affected by the textures.

 

So I start applying textures to the objects. Remember - the larger the surface area, the more the reflected light will affect the scene. You can go to my website (http://www.virtual-interiors.net) and select the iChoose option on the menu. Watch the roof and wall colours and lighting change just by dissolving from one floor texture to another.

 

Once I get the objects textured, then I start dialing in and fine-tuning the lighting solution.

 

This is just what i'm looking for thanks, however, in relation to what ive quoted above, haven't you already textured the geometry in its individual scene before merging altogether??? If you have then am i right in thinking that you then use the Override mat for light tests, and just turn it off when you want real textures which were done previously?

 

i don't mean to sound like a complete novice, as i'm not and these techniques are things i use all the time, it's more the logical structured order that you use them in that i'm interested in.

 

BTW my advanced to expert book came yesterday, woohoo, i finally understand the complete process behined a photomontage

[signet]

daveb867

BTW my advanced to expert book came yesterday, woohoo, i finally understand the complete process behined a photomontage

cool!

 

I'm gald someone has found it interesting. I've only ever had feedback from that chapter from people who I know or who have been involved in the book.

 

best,

 

Mike

[SandmanNinja]

Sorry, I wrote that at 3am my time.

 

Yes, I use the material override option and apply a grey standard material to everything.

 

Let me know if I can be of any further assistance.

[Arch-phuong]

you should use sketchup make animation through for sence.i think so...

[Dave Buckley]

daveb867

cool!

 

I'm gald someone has found it interesting. I've only ever had feedback from that chapter from people who I know or who have been involved in the book.

 

best,

 

Mike

 

if i'm honest mike, its one of the main reasons i bought the book, and therefore the first chapter that i read

 

obviously its an invaluable book regardless but i was so happy with that chapter. really simple to understand and logical. so its a big thumbs up from me. its just the one thing that i don't think is very weel documented anywhere until now.

 

btw, the link in your sig just goes to the uniform site, is this correct?

[Dave Buckley]

Sorry, I wrote that at 3am my time.

 

Yes, I use the material override option and apply a grey standard material to everything.

 

Let me know if I can be of any further assistance.

 

go get some sleep

 

i'll wake you up if i need any further assistance.

 

thanks so far