Weeks 1-10
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Week One: Getting Our Ducks in a Row
This first week we built out a production schedule. We have worked on finalizing character designs with our first turn around for the duckling being completed this week so modeling is now starting for this character. We are currently starting to create and rig our lunchbox, umbrella, and bag props while our characters our solidified.
We decided to have our pipeline move from Maya to Houdini after animation and render in Houdini with Arnold as well as do all hair/fur, environments, and effects in Houdini. Our next steps with Houdini are building a procedural forest layout as well as testing out and learning Arnold for Houdini.
We have also been fleshing out story with new storyboards and creation of a rough animatic to be built upon in the coming weeks.
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Week Two: Spreading Our Wings
This past weekend we have worked on several aspects. The model sheet for the mother duck turnaround was completed as well as a color pass for the mother and the duckling. The duckling model is also currently being sculpted in Z-brush.
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For story we have created and revised our boards and compiled them into a first pass animatic that will be improved upon in the coming weeks.
For R&D in Houdini, Sonali has been focusing on learning how Arnold plugs into Houdini and general Houdini knowledge. Erin has been working on building a method for how we will procedural build the trees and create the forest. After looking into height fields we have decided that having geometry for the ground will likely be a better fit for the project.
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Week Three: Dipping Our Flippers in the Pond
This week the crew made great progress on modeling. The duckling is nearly completed, Nia's design has been tweaked, and the mother duck has started taking shape. We hope to achieve a nice mix of realism and cartoony in our characters, and it's been extremely gratifying to see it start to come together.
Along with those awesome updates, Rachel has been working on the umbrella rig, Wynne has been designing the frog and snail, and Valerie has been exploring the camera and color script of the film. Sonali has also been developing the terrain of the forest and pond in Houdini.
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Week Four: Things are Getting Feathery
This week, Wynne focused her attention on mocking up some designs for the poster. Rachel worked more on the umbrella rig which is near completed.
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Sonali has been developing the duckling's hair on a teapot model. We really liked the direction it's heading in, but we decided to go for longer hair and less skin being seen.
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Tatyana is nearly finished modeling the mother duck and Eugenia has been getting started on Nia. There were some helpful comments in class and we are focused on moving forward!
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Erin and Valerie have completed a rough animatic and are working on making changes.
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Week Five: Flying Through
A lot of concept was made this week in order to help us think about the colors and how they will change over the course of the film.
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We like the use of blues and cool toned background trees with the warm tone of the sun and Nia's color-scheme.
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Week Six: Waddling Away
This week, the duckling was given some fluff and rigged! We're all going to keep chipping away and refining the details, but he is starting to, literally, take shape.
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The animatic has been updated again.
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Week Seven: Snailin' It
As Nia's model is nearing completion, we explored a few color concepts for her look. Most of us liked the top row better and are looking at more de-saturated options.
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Wynne has also been working on concepts for the trees, snail, and duckling patterns.
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Sonali has been grooming the duckling's hair and we're getting really close to the final look we want. She has also been exploring the duckling's eye with Rachel. We are going to go with a non-spherical setup in order to achieve the look we want with the scale of the eyes.
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Week Eight: Preening
This week, focus was directed towards texturing and lighting some of our assets to create a poster for the film.
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Sonali textured, shaded, and lit the scene for the poster. She experimented a lot with the look development and achieved a pretty close final look to what we want for the film.
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Eugenia has been finishing up the model for Nia and began working on her clothes.
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Erin and Valerie are continuing to work on the animatic.
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Rachel and Althea are working hard on the duckling rig.
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Wynne has also experimented with the duckling rig using a walk cycle animation to test out the rig.
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Week Nine: Duck Un-Plucked
This week, Sonali added the duckling's work in progress texture to apply the pattern we had in mind for him. The groom needs a bit more density around the beak and head, but he's coming along nicely.
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Wynne has been making some blendshape concepts to prepare for Nia's rig and Eugenia has been working on Nia's model.
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Rachel and Althea have been working on the duckling and mother duck rigs. Valerie and Erin have been working on the animatic.
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Week Ten: Get Quackin'
This week, Sonali added the duckling's work in progress texture to apply the pattern we had in mind for him. The groom needs a bit more density around the beak and head, but he's coming along nicely.
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Wynne has been making some blendshape concepts to prepare for Nia's rig and Eugenia has been working on Nia's model.
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Rachel and Althea have been working on the duckling and mother duck rigs. Valerie and Erin have been working on the animatic.