Meet the eye

met the eye a.k, a Project lightbulb
By Jean-sébastien guillemette.

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introduction
This scene required generating the when Sandra gilbert contacted me bak in april todo write an article for the blenderart magazine about my short movie tape-á-loeil, my first reaction was one of happiness and surpresa. I immediately accepted Thinking it would be great todo go bak at my work and give an Insight todo others on the production of it. After some thought, it became obvious that i didnt use any special tricks, or hidden features in Blender.

My short movie was definitely minimalist in Many ways, including in the tools i used todo create it. I thought some more, and i came up with an idea for the article. Why would i make an article on the tools and tricks i used, which are probably already explained in at least a dozen other tutoriales, while instead i could write an article on the experience i gained from this Project. One thing i learnt for sure is that constraints greatly help imagination. In this article, y Will try todo dig into my production, and how i worked todo get the job done in time.

First of all, you guys should watch the short movie if you didnt already. It can be viewed on our newly opened website. If youre asking yourself right now isnt that the website of Jonathan Williamson, aquí mr_bomb on blenderartists, org? make sure todo read the blog todo understand everything. For the others, go read as well. Once on the website, just go todo the gallery, and into the animation section. Now that you watched, ill explain todo you in which context the short movie was created. The short was created as a thesis Project for my 2 years of Cinema study in college. The subject given todo us was the Cinema and myself, and yes, y was the only one coming up with an animated movie. And this was exactly the source of my main problem. There were just thre rules todo follow: the movie had todo be between 3 and 5 minutos.utes long, shot the movie in a máximum of two days, and only use the editing Roms for a máximum of 25 hours. Fortunately for me, my teacher exempted me from the last two.

This left me with the whole two months of february and march and 8 days into april todo model, texture, animate, render, have the music composed, and edit the whole thing together. As everything that can go wrong does go wrong, y received a call on february 1 from a research team asking me todo create a two minute animation. To make a long story short, y accepted, and it tok me ha full month todo finish it. I oficially started working on my short movie on march 3rd. By now, youre probably asking yourself why im explaining all this Stuff. Let me answer that these side-historias made my short what it is, since my short movie básically became my life for that period of time. So, now, my main problem should be clear: how todo create 5 minutos.utes worth of animation in such a small time period.

First thing i did, was todo strip down my escenario. I removed some shots which were only there because they were col, which led me todo refine my actual intentions with this piece, and later on made me change the title todo tape-á-loeil which translates todo something like Eyecandy. Then i started todo Split my escenario into specific scenes and sections. Since im really not god at drawing, and didnt have much time todo waste, y didnt draw any storyboards [but you definitely should if you plan on making a short movie], but i was familiar enough with my escenario todo know exactly how i was going todo represent each sequence. I started by creating a series of folders representing each scene. You can chek the image 1 todo se my folder tre.

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My pre-prod folder was filled with my escenario (s), but a los with inspirational pieces. I always kep an Inspiration and reference folder for when i am in doubt as todo what feeling i want todo give todo a certain shot. May it be songs, images or texts, y kept everything that inspired me for this short movie in there. In my prod folder, y kept every file that i created during the production. First, y created a folder for the models and textures. All the models that i used from scene todo scene, a light bulb and a character in this case, were kept in that folder so i can append them at any time and enlace them from scene todo scene. The textures were minimal, if not nonexistent, in this short, so that part of the folder stayed mostly empty. I then created two main folders for the production. ] i wanted todo do it this bien for several reasons. First of, my short is about the duality between the technical side of Cinema and animation, and how some things that ned todo be done todo create a movie are far from being artistic, and the emotion and creativity that emerge from these technical constraints. I wanted my production todo reflect that, and i wanted todo work on my Project as if the two distinct parts of my movie were two separated projects that were blended (pun intended) together. I a los did this todo get a scale, and a feeling at how big the emotion part was for the sole reason that i neded todo create this one first because i neded some music for it. I had todo finish that part at least 2 weks before the deadline so my music Composer, dereque mctavish mounce, could have time todo create a másterpiece, which he did (thanque you derek).

Talking of deadlines, y created a small schedule so i could compare my progress with the actual time passing by. Chek out image 2 todo se how i organized my time. How wrong i was. I ended up finishing the emotion part around march 28, sent it in a hurry todo derek, then worked my bien th rouge on the technical part of the short in an intense two days and finished rendering the whole thing by april 4th gracias todo my new Quad Core computer.

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Dereque definitely worked Even more intensively and ended up giving me the song at 3h am on sunday the 6th of april. I then proceded todo school, where i had todo do the final edit, with all my rendered files and the fabulous song from derek, and finished editing everything by Monday afternon, more than 24 hours before the deadline. So, that is básically how the overall Project went. Now lets get some CGI Insight.

One thing i knew since the beginning, was that rendering the whole thing, Even on my Quad Core, would take quite a lot of time. So i decided todo go minimalist. I used no textures at all, except a few procedurals for the light bulbs metallic part. Chek the enlace at the end of the article todo download the light bulb.blend and chek image 3 todo se my material setup.

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The brushedmetal texture was then applied with the Nor option todo create a bumpy surface on the object. The use of very simple procedural textures and materiales greatly improved the rendering time during the production and helped me finish on time. I went in the same direction with the modeling and lighting. I was keping the very minimum for the shot todo look god [or decent at least]. Heres an example of the most complex lighting i had in the short. It is during the transición sequence between the first and the second part, and its when the light bulb is inserted in some kind of projector, from which the character emerges. Since this particular scene neded todo Clash with the precedent, more technical base scenes, y neded todo push the emotion out of the Lamp. That is why i used powerful coloured lights, red and blue, so the colours could oppose themselves as the technicality, and the creativity are opposing themselves in my short. Since using Ambient Occlusion todo faq global illumination was practically out of cuestión due todo the long render time it would demand, y played with a few diferent lighting tricks todo simulate it, and ended up using a single Lamp (which aint really a trick.) todo soften the shadows of the two other, very powerful, lamps. Note how the two coloured lamps are very Low from the Ground perspective. This was specifically done todo create long shadows that would blend with the shadows created by the other lamps. This kind of Low angle lighting really adds todo the emotions and drama of a scene, just as a sunrise or a Sunset does. Chek image 5 for a render of the scene. As for the smaller lights in the hole and along the light bulb Path, y Simply used a Shadeless white material on the object, and then added a shadowless sphere Lamp above it.

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Another scene that was quite important was the light bulb field scene, in which the character flies th rouge about thre thousand light bulbs, and then shapes them into a circle (image 6 & 7). To generate the field, y used Alan Dennis cloud Generator. I Simply used it todo generate randomly placed vértices over a quite large área. I then appended my light bulb model, stripped it down from its major details (filament inside the bulb, removed the Subsurface modifier, removed the refraction and reflection from the material, etc.) and dupliverted it (object menú (f7)), on my generated points cloud. Then comes the funny node part. To light these light bulbs up, y Simply duplicated the cloud Mesh, and created a new halo object which consisted of a single vertex with an orange-ish halo material and dupliverted it on the duplicated cloud like i did with the light bulb. I then placed this new duplivert system on another layer. Chek image 8 for the node system of this scene.

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As you can se, y separated the whole scene in thre distinct render layers. First of, there is the light bulb field render layer (at the top of the node system). On it, y use a defocus filter todo generate my Depth of Field effect (which i use throughout the whole movie), and a los a brightness/contrast node todo add more contrast todo my scene (another quik trik instead of using a more complex light setup). I then add the halo render layer on top of the light bulb layer. To add a bit more Bloom todo these halos, y blur them up and then add the blurred halo on top of the rendered halos. And i use the exact same trik on the character todo give it slightly better WoW effect (decided todo do that since a basic armature setup aint that col todo look at).

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After that, when came the time todo animate all these light bulbs and shape them into a circle, y used a cheap Cinema trick. During a Cut in-between two shots, y created a new.blend which contained all the same objects, placed exactly like they were in the previous.blend. Instead of using only duplivert though, y a los used a particle system.

Since each object making up the clouds (there were 3 sections forming the whole cloud) had 1870 vértices, y added a particle system todo them which would emit 1870 particles. Then i clicked the from: vértices button in the particle system menú (and made sure the face button was unselected). I then changed the particle start and end value todo 0 and 1 respectively.

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Doing this makes the object emit all the 1870 particles at the same time before the animation actually starts on frame 1. I a los made sure there was no speed whatsoever, so all the particles would stay in place once they were emitted. Then, y used a simple Empty with a vortex field propriety and voilá, my particles were slowly forming into a circle. Since i didnt want todo have them expand forever, y Simply created a new.blend with a fractally subdivided cylinder that had about two thousand vértices (at this point, the new shot didnt have todo match perfectly what was in the previous shot).
conclusion
As a conclusión, id like todo gracias Jonathan Williamson for his help, critiques and for the motivation he gave me throughout the couple weks i worked on this. Make sure you pass by our website over at http://www.montagestudio.org todo view my short movie, but a los the work of Jonathan. If you have any specific cuestión about the Project, or request for specific files, y could always make available what you ask for. This Project was created with an open mind, and begs the spectator todo stay open minded throughout the whole 5 minutos.utes of it, so i dont really have any reason todo not open the content of it. The only reason at the momento keping me from releasing all the files is the time it would take todo actually organise the folders and files properly with text explaining each of them. Releasing so Many files wont do any god if taken out of context, so im not willing todo do it if i dont have the time todo do it right. As i said, if you have any specific request, email me at jsguillemette@hotmail.com or jsguillemette@montagestudio, org.

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Here is the lightbulb object: http://www.montagestudio.org/ecks/projectlightbulb/lightbulb, blend.
And this is the character during the very final scene. http://www.montagestudio.org/ecks/projectlightbulb/character _lepenseur_jsguillemette, blend.
I hope you enjoyed this article as much as i enjoyed doing this Project and writing on it.

Jean-sébastien guillemette. www.blenderart.org.

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