Thesis: Research and Process

During the summer I’ve dropped down a few questions that I could explore for the thesis. These would either come up randomly during the enjoyment of some visual work or as I was checking off the mundane actions of my “To Do” list. One of the questions was based around the famous trilogy “Lord of the Rings”, specifically on the advancements that were achieved in the production. The other kept coming back towards the piece made for our Term 1 submission, specifically the technology behind de-aging, its development, and ethical questions that could be raised.

As the final term approached, I’ve been inclining towards more of the latter idea, having already started the research. It’s a very new topic, so there haven’t been written many academic pieces about it and the research was eventually based on countless online articles that I’ve found. De-aging in itself is one of those specific visual effects practices that are not very common and when it’s done is always discussed upon. Change of scenery from Earth to somewhere on Mars or to an entirely made-up world, use of countless new creatures, effects for portals or magical powers became way more common and almost routine in cinema, that it doesn’t come off as a surprise or something extraordinary for the audiences. The discussion and critique would only be constant if VFX turns out to be very badly done or, on the opposite, quite spectacular. Yet, when we would see faces so familiar to us, but de-aged, that would for sure stir up the new emotions and provide various reactions, followed up by another Twitter explosion of comments about it.

That may be the reason why I settled down on the topic of de-aging and not my lack of satisfaction or acceptance for the original piece I made for Term 1. As I compiled web articles, that appeared to be written by accredited cinema or VFX journalists, I started noting down any facts that were to be mentioned and discussed upon in my final work. I found a good article on an Artlist blog about the history of tech development, but it was very much summarised and had very little detail of how VFX was achieved. Other than that, it was hard to find a specified source that guides how the technology started off or developed throughout, so I noted down the timeline and tried my best in presenting it in a well-written manner to the reader. This helped me to narrow down the structure for the thesis and separate it into various sections.

Diving deeper into how films were made, the process and research behind each movie were very interesting to explore, but I did note that tedious listing of facts behind the scenes made my essay ever so slightly boring and hard to follow. So I tried breaking it down with my own evaluation, thoughts, and scrutinisation of what a specific achievement would mean for the industry. It didn’t come to my realisation that the hardest section I had to write about (the ethics and morals of it, to be precise) became my favourite out of it all, as I pushed myself and really thought about raising questions, which I believe should be necessary for the future of the industry. Coming back to the many articles I’ve read, it was important to separate out and highlight what various industry professionals themselves were asking, in order to build a greater foundation for the discussions that are already taking or at least start to be taking place.

Around two weeks before the deadline, I had my first draft, but it still appeared to be very raw and monotonous. I haven’t mentioned any arguments that I was taking, so it was crucial to decide upon what will I be arguing about. Going back, it was easier to notice any inconsistencies or lack of idea flow to my thesis, so I focused on adding or adjusting the sentences, to make the work more readable and easier to follow. Going over the entire essay helped me to word my conclusion better and more precisely, as well as adjust any sections that I wasn’t sure about or which were too long.

It was in a painstakingly long process, with a lot of slow or very fast pacing weeks. However, I enjoyed it, as it helped me to strengthen my skills in research, evaluation of a movie, scrutinisation, writing skills and generally made me question a lot more about specific processes and their intentions or future implications. I want to thank Laurie, for the help and feedback that he provided us, as his ideas and guidance very often would help me out getting over the obstacles.

FMP – Outcome & Self-Reflection

The Final Outcome

The Breakdown

Self-Reflection

This project had its ups and downs, and yet I came out a better and slightly more knowledgeable FX artist out of it.

It started with my typical grand ideas, which at the time it didn’t even come to my realisation that I won’t be able to do some. For instance, my original idea was around fluid simulation, yet that requires computer specification which neither do I or university computers have. After around two and a half weeks of trial and error, I managed to finalise the project outline. Familiar or potential office accessories, which included a particle simulation of some sorts, integrated with their target surroundings such as an office desk – that was what I have finally settled down. Due to some of the time wasted, I had to start the preparation before simulation in Houdini very quickly which included modelling of the objects, such as the glass case, the hourglass, and the statue around which particles will move in swirling motion. It was to my relief that the habits and mechanical memory kicked in very quickly as I was navigating through Maya, haven’t touched it for a couple of months.

After the intense week of pre-production, idea visualisation and modelling, I have finally managed to start the simulation process inside Houdini. For the four simulations that I came up with, the one that I haven’t tried before was sand, so I started with it the first. It took me a few days of getting acquainted with, learning, exploring the nodes necessary for the sand creation. I have found a good reference video shot of the hourglass, which eventually became my focus of study, as I tried to break down and understand how the sand itself acts and interacts within in this situation. There was an inner expectation that the final look had to be achieved via one system, as physically accurate as possible. Yet I couldn’t achieve the look I wanted with this approach. Christos helped me organise a session with Mehdi, which in turn was incredibly helpful and insightful. He made me understand that very often the realistic appearance of a simulation is not achieved by simple steps of one system treatment. Instead, taking the hourglass as an example, he suggested breaking it down into 3 different systems: the sand on top of the hourglass, the sand source in the narrow neck, and the sand piling up at the bottom. From that, I managed to build a script that gave me better control over the whole simulation and how the sand would fall.

Attending to the fire burning inside a glass case simulation, the particle swirling around the statue and the backflow incense burner, I have again faced the limitation of computer processing power and the inconvenience of the escaping time. Towards my final weeks, I have made the decision on which simulations I will focus more on to perfect them instead of rushing through all and having a generic outcome. Whilst working on the fire simulation, it became obvious to me, that the original idea was not thought through properly, so the simple fire burning inside the case appeared to be quite bland. Brainstorming, I decided that I wanted to make a crystal, which would be set on fire and also create the cracked surface on the base of the case. It would add a better grounding to the simulation and make it appear as if the fire is coming from a mechanism, based just below the cracks. The swirling particle, in turn, was not as easy a simulation to figure out, as I have found out. The hardest part was eventually directing the particles alongside trails, which had to be made either by hand or procedurally. After several of my own attempts and various tutorials I have found on YouTube and Vimeo, I came across a very nice tutorial from the channel Entagma. Eventually, they were creating a simulation of particles swirling in free space guided by the velocity made from volumetric cross-product of vectors. It was specifically the look of trails that appealed to me, as I figured out how to adjust their script to my network. Finally, I had all the simulations ready and it was the stage of render tests.

The rendering stage brought its own complications that I had yet to solve. The first thing was finalising my objects appearance, as originally, I had planned to place them in an office area and give the viewer a guided tour around. Yet, with upcoming deadlines and problems setting up render farm for Houdini, I decided to go with a safer choice of presenting the objects in a simple set-up. They would interchange with each other under a spotlight in a dark area. After that, setting up cameras and lights was quite straightforward. I had to merge all the scripts into one scene, as I wanted to see all of my objects side by side. The renderer used was Arnold, which, in turn, required its own unique set-up in Houdini, with a specific material application for each of the presented accessories. Once it was all done, I’ve spent a whole week rendering out the cameras, without being able to finish all the renders for all of the frames I’ve planned, as I ran out of time. During the wait for those, I have searched for sound effects and sound music tracks and prepared a project inside Premiere Pro, on which the final video was edited.

Overall, I really enjoyed this project! It made me realise how much I have yet to learn and practice in FX creation, but also strengthened my desire to work in this field. The fact that I had to go through every step of it by myself reminded me of how every phase is essential and serves as a good foundation for the final result. Coming across various problems and overcoming the obstacles served me as a good way to attain the new or old information with regards to specific techniques, processes, use, and general workflow of a project and software needed. It came to my realisation that I knew very little about the stage of material application and rendering, integration between various software’s, and export or import of files, so I now know better what I must pay attention to in any of my future personal projects.

I wanted to say thank you for all the help I’ve got: for my library weekly sessions with Jane and Giulia passing onto helpful criticism or suggestions to each other, for Christos guiding us throughout this tough period, for Mehdi for helping me discover and understand Houdini better as well as his experienced insight, for my family and friends who helped to power through the rollercoaster of experience that it was. Finally, I wanted to say thank you to my dearest friend Sasha, who helped to come up with the name for the project, as it actually gave me an idea of using the specific soundtrack, thus enhancing the experience of the final piece!

FMP – Week 8 updates

Approaching the deadline, I focused on adjusting the materials, light, and camera placements to get my final look right. As render time can often be unpredictable, it was only logical and reasonable to change my composition to be purely focused on the simulation. The way that object was to come into the frame would be a simple slide into the spot of light in a dark room. Other than visual focus, I could add the sound FX guidance in regards to the relative position of the object to the audience: in front, close-up, on the right, or left of them. Here are a few single renders:

Fire case
Hourglass
Swirling particles

Originally for the statue for swirling particles simulation, marble material was applied to the whole colliding geometry. But, the base kept sticking out for me, so I decided to use a different material with wooden tones for it. Here are comparisons, side by side:

Particle base difference in materials
Plan for the project presentation