Week Three: September 10th-16th
I kept up with my animation, but it was a lot of work. Late nights, and mostly animating during the day instead of keeping up with every class. In week two, it was easier to skip the motion capture sessions, but in week three there was a lot of rendering and lighting classes which I knew I'd have to attend, especially for the Live Labs where I could ask my troubleshooting questions, which were mounting with each bug I encountered. Mostly what was frustrating me was the shadows not behaving correctly. Eventually it was determined that it was because my project was set up with Forward Shading instead of Deferred Shading, which fixed all of this. Once Lumen was fully set as well, my materials looked much more photorealistic and I could relax a bit and have faith that my scene would look great in renders.
I kept up with my animation, but it was a lot of work. Late nights, and mostly animating during the day instead of keeping up with every class. In week two, it was easier to skip the motion capture sessions, but in week three there was a lot of rendering and lighting classes which I knew I'd have to attend, especially for the Live Labs where I could ask my troubleshooting questions, which were mounting with each bug I encountered. Mostly what was frustrating me was the shadows not behaving correctly. Eventually it was determined that it was because my project was set up with Forward Shading instead of Deferred Shading, which fixed all of this. Once Lumen was fully set as well, my materials looked much more photorealistic and I could relax a bit and have faith that my scene would look great in renders.
Just like the virtual production fellowship, I was always the team member who lagged in progress when it came time for reviews. Ambitious ideas always take more time to complete, and they often reveal many challenging problems that need sorting out. For a single person, this can be time-consuming, and if you're not prepared for this, you can get defeated and lose faith that you will finish on time. Thankfully, I've worked on enough projects to know that this kind of progress curve is exponential, and sure enough, I was able to complete much more progress each day than I did on the previous one. All you can do is put all your effort in and don't quit until it's done. If you let up an inch, you risk setbacks that can noticeably worsen your final product.
At the end of the week, we needed to turn in a version 1 of our shot to qualify for a course badge. I still had a lot to improve, and I worked through the weekend to keep polishing.
At the end of the week, we needed to turn in a version 1 of our shot to qualify for a course badge. I still had a lot to improve, and I worked through the weekend to keep polishing.
A very full month.
