Filming

7 hours setup and 6 hours shooting this past Friday. The footage turned out excellent and Maggie was a blast. There was a little problem with the audio pacing and synchronization, but nothing that will be too complicated (I think).

Speaking of problems, I don't know how I'm going to square my debt with Ben for helping me out. He was seriously that good.

The plan now is to get my edit together, finish texturing so I can start working on lighting and compositing.

Story Reel v1

Flythrough for set visualization

I put together this help Maggie get an idea of the virtual set for the shoot.


It's also an early global illumination test: 3000 photons from a single area light. I'll probably have to render the outside using FG as a separate comp layer.

Also, I'm going to have a lot of trouble with moire patterns.

Execution

It is now the second week of execution, and this will be my final animatic. From now on, I'll be switching in production assets for my story reel. Sorta a different-name-same-story thing. Biggest difference is that I'll have actual assets to use.


I shot some test footage over the break and tried a few key and composite tests. I've scheduled my final filming for this next Thursday.




Pipeline
THESIS SCENE SHOT ELEMENT
DVD SP FCP Fusion Model
AFX Texture
Light
Rig
Animation
Film
Audio
Dynamics

Final

Script Tweaking
Not much has happened with the script, mostly a little dialogue-tweaking to express the story a little more strongly. I've needed to lock this down for a long time. I've gotten in contact with my strongest actress prospect, Maggie Lacey and I'm finally making some forward progress here again.

Christopher Shapes Up
I've started modeling Christopher, and I'm taking a very modularized approach using simple shapes. My hope is that this will help simplify my texturing later on. Texture projections will probably be the way to go for any logos or text that has to go onto the body.

I decided to actually model all the lens in the camera because I have an extreme close-up on the eye. It did not seem to add significantly to the render time in tests, even with full refractions and ray


I've also completed a render and composite proof of concept for the probe interior.


Non-Alternate Ending
Originally, I planned to transition from Jeanne's departing shot to the credit sequence by cross-fading from the egress hatch to the bottom of the rocket. I switched to a super wide shot of the earth from orbit because the whole launch sequence felt a lot 'faster' and more energetic than I wanted. The new ending sequence sets a much more somber mood to exit on.

However, after all the work I've already put in, I still want to use the footage in some way. The camera jiggle added way too much excitement though, so I'll cut that out.

Rocket Test

This was a test of the rocket launch sequence. The textures and lighting are looking pretty good though the final gather flickers noticeably. The background and fire need to be redone, and I still haven't added in clouds or ice/dust.

Animatic v6

Sorry for the lack of updates for awhile. While I developed the story I found that I was slowly shifting focus away from Christopher to the technician, and I went back to concept and began rewriting the story from synopsis. I'm finally back at what I feel is a reasonable point.


Why are you doing this, Christopher?
After doing some more research into AI, theories on human consciousness, and emergent behaviors, I've finally got a clear and simple solution to why Christopher acts the way he does. He was made to seek out intelligent alien life - that's his prime directive. Other top-level instructions include self-maintenance and survival, as well as an order to obey all human commands. He possesses a sophisticated self-monitoring process much like what we normally call a 'mind', which is undergoing a great deal of stress from day to night when humans leave. The experience of being in contact with life has been reinforced from day to day to the point that he has become accustomed to it. Christopher knows that he will have to travel for many hundred years in space before he can find another communicating lifeform and his self-maintenance mechanism seeks to minimize this mental stress by trying to stay on Earth.

Early Task List

CASTING
Casting
- Jeanne
- Christopher (VO)
- PA (VO)

VFX
Modeling
- Int. Probe
- Ext. Probe
- Rocket
- Christopher
Matte
- Launch Pad
- Earth Orbit
- Outer Space
Texturing
UV Mapping
Texture Painting
Shading
Rigging
- Christopher
- Probe
Animation
- Christopher
Filming
- Green-screen
Audio
- Christopher
- PA
SFX
Lighting
- CG Lights
- Physical Light-matching
Rendering
- MR Optimization
- Multiple Passes

POST-PRODUCTION
Compositing
- Keying
- Masking
- Color Correction
- Lens Effects
Editing
Output
- Color Correction / Gamma
- Breakdowns
- DVD