Collaborative Project [UNESCO]
Seafloor Marvels
Title of the Project:
Selecting the title of the project was not a big task for us because our primary motive was to show the beautiful and intriguing creatures that exists at various depths of the ocean. So Seafloor Marvels was the perfect fit for the theme of the project. It further symbolizes how much of an importance marine organisms play in the existence of oceans and the world as such.
Summary of the Project:
We want to show the audience how intriguing and crazy the deep sea world is and at the same time create awareness of the various flora and fauna that can be found at extreme depths. We decided on including different fish which look both interesting and contribute to the important life cycles that occur in the ocean :
- Clownfish: are facing decline due to the decaying of coral reefs, which are where clownfish repopulate.
- Sea turtles: are essential in transporting organisms and nutrients around the ocean. their population has been declining due to human interference.
- Shark: encourage biodiversity and keeps the oceanic food chain in balance.
- Oarfish: interesting looking fish which is considered by myth as “the messenger of the sea”.
- Jellyfish: help maintain balance in the oceans ecosystem by controlling species’ population through feeding
- Whale: they are at the top of the food chain and are essential organisms that contribute to the overall health of ocean life.
- Coral reefs: are essential to marine life, acting as homes for fish underwater organisms. protect coastal areas by reducing the power of waves.
- Surgeonfish: play an important role within coral reefs by grazing on algae to keep it from spreading out of control.
- Anglerfish: bulb on the head to convey the message that ocean life is at risk.
Collaborators and Roles of the Project:
- MAHADEV VIPIN [MA VFX]- I was initially tasked with the role of compositor and editor of the project. But further down the road, things changed a bit. I modelled the 3D assets in the opening scene of the project in Maya as well as did the Posters, Title Card, Credit sequence, Compositing and Final Editing of the project.
- CHAY CHOLPAT [MA VFX] – Chay was responsible for creating the opening sequence in Unreal Engine by combining the 3D assets I made. He was also my fellow compositor. He was also assigned with the soundtrack and color correction.
- KEVAN JACOB [MA 3D Animation] – He was tasked with the underwater 3D background.
- CHARBEL SAWAN [MA 2D Animation] – He was tasked with the storyboarding, the sketches and the animation for the fishes.
- AMAAN AHMED – [MA 2D Animation] – He was tasked with the sketches and the animation for the fishes.
PROCESS:
- IDEA:
Camera movement from the surface of the ocean all the way to the bottom in order to showcase the beauty of the flora and fauna. We then reach to the deepest depths of the ocean where we see an angler fish. The angler fish’s light goes out and a message to raise awareness shows up.
The below chart was sort of our reference picture going ahead with the conceptualization of the project.
- STORYBOARD:
The storyboard was done by Charbel from MA 2D Animation. We just wanted a pictorial representation as to which fish fishes or organisms would appear where and how. However some changes were eventually made during the way, we stuck with the basics of the storyboard.
- MEETINGS:
We kicked off our project really slow at the beginning, but we continued to have regular meeting at the end of every week to check the progress of our works. As our teammates had project submissions and proposals, we were unable to have discussions or meetings at the first 2 weeks. But later on, meetings occurred mostly online in a Discord channel, but updates, ideas or suggestions were also shared in our WhatsApp group. During the final stages of our project, we would have regular chats or discussions about changes or suggestions that need to be made in each of our works and then we would try to rectify that as soon as possible and upload the corrected versions. It was definitely an experience working with people of different departments.
- MY WORK:
I was initially tasked with just the compositing work, but later on things changed. So I had to model the 3D assets on the opening sequence of the project. I modelled the ship in Maya and then shared the fbx export to Chay where he later textured it and added it to the Unreal Engine sequence. I was also in charge of the Project Poster, the Title Card, the Into Sequence and the Credits Sequence. I was also tasked with compositing the 2D and 3D elements together, so me and Chay separated the work amongst us so that it would be easier for both of us to work simultaneously.
TERM 1 ASSIGNMENT
Shiva’s Legacy : The Lost Shivling ( Final Render )
Shiva’s Legacy : The Lost Shivling is a short fantasy animation. The idea revolves around depicting a Shivling, an abstract symbol representing the Hindu deity SHIVA, concealed within an Indian cave. This cave, once a place of worship, now remains secluded and inaccessible to people. The message conveyed is that the past can never be buried forever.
VFX Breakdown:
Reflection:
My journey through this project has been both enlightening and challenging and most importantly I’m content with how the project has turned out to be. I wasn’t sure about what I wanted to make at first. The first 2 weeks were really challenging considering the fact that I hadn’t actually visualized what I wanted to make. Then, while playing the game Uncharted, I got an idea to make some sort of ancient Hindu relic hidden inside a cave.
This was the first time I used software like Unreal Engine, Substance Painter and Nuke, so it wasn’t an easy mountain to climb at all. I had several attempts at modelling the Shivling, and other assets in Maya, since I wanted it to look similar to what it is in real Hinduism yet add my own touch to it as well. Recreating the cave environment in UE posed its own challenges as after preparing everything, the files went missing and I had to create everything from scratch once again. Another challenge was creating the god rays because it took me a lot of effort to correctly position the light as well as enabling the right settings. But I would consider that to be a good thing, because it made me more aware of the features, the controls and how the software works, keeping in mind the fact that saving projects are the most important thing in this field.
Reflecting on this journey, I recognize it as a crucial stepping stone, both academically and professionally, keeping in mind my weakness and strengths.I think one of the main thing I left in this project would be movement/animation of 3D assets, so I will definitely be keeping that in mind for my next one.
Video and Audio Editing in Premiere Pro:
The final video and audio editing was done in Adobe Premiere Pro. I exported the .exr files and then trimmed the videos in a way that I liked and made them into shots. I used simple dissolve transitions to merge 2 or more videos. I wanted to add a vignette to the video, so what I did was add an adjustment layer to my video. Then I added a circle from the Effects Panel. Then, I set the Blending Mode to Stencil Alpha and increased the radius of the circle to about 1000. Later, I expanded the Feather option and increased the Feather Outer Edge to about 560 to create a perfect vignette. Then I downloaded the BGM from YouTube and added them to my score. I cut and trimmed them to the duration I wanted and also added an exponential fade for the ending as well.
Compositing in Nuke:
The compositing for my video was done in Nuke. I added the F_Regrain node for adding grains to my output to make it more realistic. Gonzalo always told us grains were the most important part in a composition. I also added a grade node for simple color grading. Then I exported the composition using the .exr format for lossless export.
Environment in Unreal Engine:
The environment was created in Unreal Engine 5.3.2. I was sort of going for a dark look because I wanted it to be as authentic as possible. I had taken inspirations from movies and games on how aesthetic the cave would look like. To start of, I added a stage using the Cube shape polygon. Then I added material to the polygons which was downloaded from Quixel Bridge. Next, I added the cave rocks and positioned them in a tight way to make it look like a cave. To add the water body, first I had to enable the water plug-in. Then I added the water body and created sort of mini waves, not too strong yet not too idle to make it more realistic and cool. Then I started tweaking with the lights. I used a directional light and at first I had set the intensity quite high (not that high) in a level that made it look unrealistic as if it was not the light that would be present inside a cave. So I lowered it down to 0.2 lux which made it darker and suitable to the situation. Creating the god rays was a huge challenge because it took me a lot of effort to correctly position the light as well as enabling the right settings. But I would consider that to be a good thing, because it made me more aware of the features, the controls and how the software works.
Later, I added the models to the scene. I had several troubles with the Substance Painter textures looking stretched to my models. I decided to ignore the problems then and started working on other elements. I added foliage, other models onto the scene, etc. I then decided to create fire for the cauldron using Niagara system. For that I had referred to a video online and that worked brilliantly. But the fire looked to be moving very rapidly and unrealistically, so I made some changes to the Niagara system settings like Drag, Sprite renderer settings, velocity, spawn rates, etc. and finally got something which was moving at the right pace. But something was missing which made it unrealistic, so I added a black smoke and ember particles which was the right thing to do cause it matched what I was looking for.
I wanted to add a waterfall to my scene. So, I used the Niagara system to create a waterfall but turned out I had spent all my time for nothing. The waterfall I had created was horrible to look at and was so unrealistic and looked nothing like a waterfall [ like something from an old game, essentially it’s there but nit realistic ]. I decided to scrap it down and found a waterfall that was already in the starter contents. But even that would not match the scene and would have made the whole scene look terrible. So, after several attempts to create and put a waterfall, I decided to scrap the idea and move on.
Later, I created sort of an ember/dust particle using the Niagara system again. The first particles I made were too big to be true as well as moving very rapidly. So, I reduced the wind speed quite drastically which solved the problem of moving and to reduce the size I reduced the values of particle along with the spawn rate. I added a sort of golden/white tint or color to the particles and finally got what I was looking for.
The scene was looking really dark so I had put 3 rect lights to the scene. That made it look good in the viewport but while rendering the rect lights were clearly visible and looked really unsuitable. So I removed those lights and then increased the value of the directional lights to 0.5 lux which solved the issues.
As everything was looking pretty much as I wanted to, I started to animate the cameras and make some shots. I was looking for some close up shots, some dioramas or 360 degree shots, some panoramic or wide angled shots to give emphasis to the scene and the objects in it. The 360 degree camera animation was pretty tricky at first. I tried to move the camera manually using the mouse but the rotation was not neat at all and wasn’t what I was expecting at all. The focus was all over the place rather than on the Shivling because of the manual turn of the cameras. So I watched a video online and placed an actor and then connected the camera to the actor and then rotated the actor for a perfect 360 degree turn. For the camera, I used the 16:9 DSLR camera and then adjusted the focus manually using the focus picker tool to ensure the focus is on my main subject.
I had surfed online for the best render settings and used them to render the scene. I enabled the Movie Render Queue plugin for better quality and better render settings. I rendered every sequence in .exr format for the best picture quality.
Niagara System:
This was the waterfall I created using Niagara system. It did not look anything like a waterfall and so I scrapped it.
Render Settings and Preview:
References:
Render Check:
This was my first ever render in Unreal Engine. I was satisfied with the render just because it was my first one as well as the fact that this was just the beginning phase of my project. I need to add the elements into the scene and start a sequence as soon as possible.
Modelling:
SHIVLING:
The first model of the Shivling looked really plain and blank, so I decided to add a Serpent model to the Shivling. It actually has a symbolic representation in Hindu mythology as well. The snake on lord shiva neck like snakes represents the endless cycle of birth and death. This means that lord shiva is independent of time and death and is the controller of time. To model the Shivling, I actually imported an image plane to Maya for reference and then used the CV Curve tool to trace the edges of the Shivling on just one side. [ Create > Curves > CV Curves ] Then, I used the Revolve tool to bake a revolved surface from the curve [ Surfaces > Revolve ] One major thing to keep in mind was that while using the Revolve option, you to select the Polygon option ,as by default it will be set to NURBS and modelling the faces will be hard in NURBS. That was a mistake that I did while modelling the Shivling. Modelling the snake was a bit challenging, especially the teeth and the head.
TRISHUL :
I actually modelled two versions of the Trishul, a weapon used by Lord Shiva in Hindu mythology. The Trishul is sort of a trident looking weapon with drums and a blade-like thing in the middle. The first model had sharp edges and did not have a finished look with it. So I decided to model one more with a more curved and smooth edges , which I was happy with.
Version 2
Version 1 [ Scrapped ]
FIRE CAULDRON :
The Cauldron was the easiest among all the models. Just using a polygon shape and then tweaking edges, vertices and faces to make cauldron. I added handles and legs to make make it look more realistic and believable. I added a small shape to the legs of the cauldron to make it look a bit ancient [ since everything in the olden days were more beautiful and unique ].
CONCEPT 2 (FINAL)
IDEA
“The idea is to create a cave environment with sun rays passing directly to a SHIVLING (an abstract representation of Hindu God SHIVA) set on a stage. There is a small water body and a bridge connecting directly to the stage like structure where the Shiv-ling is kept. A small waterfall, if possible is present where water directly falls on top of the Shiv-ling. There are fire lanterns, plants and little ember/dust particles in air present inside the cave. A walk-through from the bridge directly to the Shiv-ling and a 360 degree rotation around it, along with other cinematic shots.”
CONCEPT
The idea revolves around depicting a Shivling, an abstract symbol representing the Hindu deity SHIVA, concealed within an Indian cave. This cave, once a place of worship, now remains secluded and inaccessible to people. The message conveyed is that the past can never be buried forever.
PURPOSE
The main purpose of choosing this particular theme is because I wanted to portray Hinduism, my religion as well as Shiva, a god in Hinduism (Also known as Mahadev, which ironically is my name as well) in a beautiful yet mysterious way. The main inspiration was from games and movies, namely Uncharted.
MOODBOARD
THE IDEA
“I was thinking about creating an environment in a jungle with the ruins from sort of an ancient civilization like Mayan, Incan or Aztec with a large temple sort of like pyramid shaped made of stones almost in a deteriorating state with fungus and plants growing in it and broken statues surrounding it. There would be trees in the frame, a small pond maybe with a few flowers like water lily maybe and a dark, cloudy sky. A meteor shower passes by and makes a small impact on the ground maybe faraway with a shockwave passing through to the camera. “
{The scene opens with the camera showcasing a door in the jungle much like the picture below and the camera slowly moves forwards and the door opens, and they enter a dark cave and at the end another door opens to show the Mayan temple and surroundings}
THE ENVIRONMENT CONCEPTS
THE EXECUTION
“I was thinking about doing the temple modelling in MAYA and then the environments in Unreal Engine.”
The above said concept was not up to the level I thought it would become once I started modelling and creating my environment. So, I have started working on another theme and concept scrapping this one fully because I didn’t like the outcome of the one I started working on.