I set my image sequence naming conventions up incorrectly and nether DaVinci resolve or ShotCut would recognise the sequence so I manually renamed each file and when that didn’t work I renamed all the files a second time. (I hope to find a automated method of doing this for the future)
I only rendered 25% of the frames because found this video interpolation software called Flow Frame. that fills in the missing frames using AI/ machine learning. However, due to the fast movement of the camera, the interpolation isn’t without the occasional visual bug. especially in the background. This probably wouldn’t pass for an absolute final render but for a project that I’m quickly running out of time on. cutting render times in half for a little visual weirdness when I’m already unable to get the fire particle volume to render its a no-brainer.
Tabs listed horizontally when there is far more vertical space,
nodes open ontop of each other in the shader graph when clicked to inspect.
Maya File browser,
tool settings resetting and forgetting placement.
Jungle of menus.
lack of up-to-date and helpfully concise online recourses.
created 2 faces in between 4 points while set as a quad
Maya fluid sim won’t work with GPU and so I now cant render the light with RT cores.
Maya fire rendering in Arnold
water shader being projected way off from its mesh
I found working with Maya incredibly frustrating infinitely so when compared to my time learning Unity. This was a large part due to the friction between running into unknown problems and the availability of recourse to get through those issues. If I had run into an issue in Unity I would be able to find a blog or video going over that specific issue and would take me 5 min to go over. sometimes I would have to go over a dozen recourses to find a solution that works for me but it felt like progress into the learning process. With Maya, you would be lucky if the resources weren’t using an out of date UI poor dictation and audio clarity, low resolution and with no crop. These online resources would go over basics for 10 min before getting to specifics then I would watch for another 30 min to find out that I need to keep digging because this did not solve or address my current issue.
I got so frustrated at one point I decided to watch a couple videos going over why Maya is “king” and used over programs like blender “in the industry”. Knowing that I was probably just being a baby and finding it hard starting from step 1 all over again. I listen to an ex Dreamworks employee talk about how great Maya is for lighting and animation but how he had never used it for modelled in Maya and used something called ZBrush instead.
This being said, I find it even more vital for me to power through and learn Maya, knowing that if an employer required me to use Maya at some point, I would struggle and I don’t want that kind of thing to limit me.
I don’t think this project is going to turn out in a way I’m happy with. In the future, I should plan production should start along with planning to help me to figure out my issues early and give myself time to learn from these follies. I didn’t balance out my time well while working parallel with the Introduction to Virtual Reality Unit and should have been putting in more work towards the project in the 2 weeks leading into that Units deadline. considering the headless I faced with a constantly Blue Screening computer leading to lost work and candled renders, living in a very remote part of Scotland over Christmas break and the huge hurdle we are all facing right now that come with the current pandemic.
After applying myself in small ways to every part of the scene I realised I wouldn’t be motivated until to progress until I had the trees in my scene as they cover the majority of my location and block line of sight that would get me closer to being able to visualise the scenes final composition. I thought I would use the trees found in the “”_”” In theory, It would save me a lot of time however In the pursuit of knowledge I thought I’d make my own and although with a simple form hopefully this will save on render time, with the foresight knowing I will create my renders very close to submission day. ill also be able to block more line of sight with denser trees.
Without displacement
With displacement
This, however, creates a lot of geometry and as I will be duplicating the tree throughout the island the rendering cost will grow exponentially. At this point I have a few alternative options I could procedurally Decimate and Boolean the leaves generated by Xgen ( this may be too advanced though), I could do that but with baked geometry instead of procedural or I could use a shader with something similar to a bubble noise texture as a normal map or bump map.
So it begins! I was surprised at how quickly the lectures have gotten me engaged with the subject. We went over some moving picture history going all the way back to the work of Eadweard Muybridge and Georges Méliès, some staples from my film and animation classes. However, I found the work of Mary Ellen Bute’s particularly interesting, who used an Oscilloscope (a scientific instrument that displays voltage over time) that uses a stereo to create abstract images in the early to mid-1900s.
Mary Ellen Bute
Synchromy No. 4: Escape (1938)
Her work reminds me of the more modern work of Jeroboam Fenderson & “HANSI3D” two Austrian artists that take the idea and run with it, using the music itself to create the images and without the aid of film’s ability to be cut stitched and used as assets to the greater peace. It’s just pure Oscilloscope noise with no orchestral accompaniment. https://oscilloscopemusic.com/
Watch this smarter everyday video for more info.
In the frame of VR I wonder if you would be able to get a similar result with an XYZ-axis adding an extra dimension to the usual X&Y; would you be able to extract the 3rd channel out of a stereo signal? You might get some 3D results with both conventional mono and 2-channel stereo. food for thought and I might revisit the Oscilloscope someday.
P.S. My 1st month living in London has been full of mixed emotions. The course is picking up pace after a slow start with most having a rather coy approach opting to type and go without a webcam in the web classes. I expected that but thought it might be different due to the class’s small size of 7 students.
After meeting in person on Friday people are becoming a little more comfortable with each other and I have nothing but respect for a head of year Anne having to lead the 1st year of this course through this pain in the arse pandemic.
I can’t wait until we can take our masks off in class because with a clogged right ear I can’t hear too good and it’s impossible to lip read. Without mentioning the endlessly fogged glasses.
