Dialogue - Roughs

Dialogue Roughs

This is first version of the dialogue.  It is being used to help firm up the timing for picture lock.  As it turns out my original animatic was about 30 seconds shorter than it should have been. 

No audio levels have been adjusted.

A Failure at MoCap

My professor suggested that I try MoCaping the Camera Animation.  Great Idea I thought.  I've worked with Motion Capture several times and I feel like I know the pipeline very well.

I had my motion capture shoot today.  Matt Williams and Lamar helped me out with it. The shoot all in all went well.  Matt had a lot of fun doing it.  The clean up process also went pretty smoothly.  However getting the animation into Unreal proved slightly problematic.  I could not export the camera animation as Callada data or FBX.  It just would not work.  I then decided to create a skeletal mesh, a pipeline I'm slightly more familiar with.

I got the animation and the skeletal mesh into Unreal eventually (always one missing check box... lol).  I attached a camera to the mesh, which I would then animate.  This process just simply did not work.  The animation still looked clunky.  The movement was shaky and I just did not like the result.

I lost one day of work of trying to implement this but hey thats life.  

Animatic Update!

Animatic Update 03

Apparently the portion after the sack goes over the priest head is missing.  Don't really know why.  But that portion can be as long as need to accommodate all the dialogue.

Level Screen Shots

 Various Screen shots of the Church in Unreal.  I think the space is coming together quiet nicely.  By the of the weekend all modeling should be complete. 

Voice Actor Recording Session

Today we recorded the voice acting for this project.  My two voice actors were Kegan Watkins and Daniel Brown.  Both of whom did and excellent job.  I just recently finished re-listening to their performances and  I am very satisfied with what I heard.  Thank you both for helping out. 


I had a blast doing this recording session and learn a lot as well.  I greatly look forward to doing it again next quarter as well for Studio II.

Biblical Passages Referenced

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
As it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
If I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
And supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.   

Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.
Joshua 1:7

Our Father
Our Father who art in heaven;
Hallowed be Thy Name;
Thy kingdom come;
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;
Give us this day our daily bread;
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us;
And lead us not into temptation;
But deliver us from evil;
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.
Amen.

Calming of the Storm
Most powerful and glorious Lord God, at whose command the winds blow, and lift up the waves of the sea, and who stillest the rage thereof. We thy creatures, but miserable sinners, do in this our great distress cry unto thee for help: Save, Lord, or else we perish. We confess, when we have been safe, and seen all things quiet about us, we have forgot thee our God, and refused to hearken to the still voice of thy word, and to obey thy commandments: But now we see, how terrible thou art in all thy works of wonder; the great God to be feared above all: And therefore we adore thy Divine Majesty, acknowledging thy power, and imploring thy goodness. Help, Lord, and save us for thy mercy's sake in Jesus Christ thy Son, our Lord.
I think Psalm 18:2 and Luke 23:46 would be excellent. What do u think


Psalm 18:2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Psalm 23
The LORD is my shepherd,
I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
He restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

Psalm 30:5
Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.

Psalm 34:18
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit

Proverbs 14:17
A quick-tempered man does foolish things, and a crafty man is hated.

Luke 23:46"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.”

Ecclesiastes 12:7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

The Magic of Writing

Margret Cogswell wrote the script for my project.  She did a fantastic job.  I think this script sets the mood and setting (both historical and fictional) well.  Matt Dywer helped us both out by advising the script with appropriate biblical passages.  Thank you both very much.


I have included the script below:
Written by: Margret Cogswell

The Pastor’s Last Moment
Script
Oct. 19, 2010

PRIEST
Most powerful and glorious Lord God, at whose command the winds blow, and lift up the waves of the sea, and who stillest the rage thereof. We thy creatures, but miserable sinners, do in this our great distress cry unto thee for help: Save, Lord, or else we perish.

GUARD 1
(footsteps approaching)
…and she’s even madder, now that they’re plottin’ to put her Protestant sister on the throne.

GUARD 2
Damn peasants just want a show.  One threw dirt in my bloody face, can you believe that?

GUARD 1
Ay, these are dangerous times for those not willin’ to follow.

GUARD 2
(to priest)
Alright you old sack, up off your knees!

PRIEST
(pleasant)
Good morning, sirs.

GUARD 2
(snarky)
Queen Mary doesn’t want you any more, and neither does God.  For the offenses of treason against the crown, and the practice of Protestantism, you are to be burned at the stake, on this beautiful day, in the year of Our Lord, 1557.  Now come on.


The Guards begin dragging the Priest down the hall and steps.  He is flailing and screaming.

BEAT

*
(in this section between the asterisks, you could have the guards talking and the priest freaking out at the same time.)

PRIEST
Wait, wait, I have only ever been loyal to the one, true God!


GUARD 2
Loyalty to anyone but the Queen will get you nowhere, now be quiet.

PRIEST
(begins screaming and overlaps guard’s conversation below)
No, no, please!  God in Heaven, please let the Queen have mercy!  I have been a faithful subject!  I am not the enemy!  Mary is a daughter of God as I am a son, and only He decides our trespasses!  This is wrong, please this is wrong!

GUARD 1
It’s a bit windy out, isn’t it?  You think they’ll be able to get the fire going?

GUARD 2
It’d be this bastard’s lucky day if they can’t.

GUARD 1
(somber)
The sun’s barely up and the crowd is already forming.

GUARD 2
(amused)
She’s a damn righteous Queen she is.  Purveyor of justice, eh? (chuckles)

*

BEAT

The Guards pick the Priest up off the floor and sit him up.  The Priest looks around.  Guard 2 leaves.  Guard 1 talks to the Priest.

GUARD 1
(quietly)
Priest, don’t fear good man.  I, too, practice your faith.  Know that I am praying for you, and that God will send the Queen to hell for this.  May He keep your everlasting soul…

PRIEST
(sobbing)
Thank you.

BEAT

Guard 2 returns and prepares the equipment for the Priest’s execution. Guards’ conversation and Priest praying overlaps.

PRIEST
The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

GUARD 1
(hesitantly)
Right, I suppose we should tie him up now, eh?

GUARD 2
Tie it tight man, don’t want him leapin’ off the pile!


GUARD 2
(shouting to crowd)
Right, you lot!  In her infinite wisdom, Queen Mary has sentenced this man to be burned at the stake for heresy!

PRIEST
Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.  When he had said this, he breathed his last…ah, aah, aaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!

Updated Production Schedule

Some More Finished Models Done by Me

Here are some some finished models that I have been working on.  The first four images are various modular assets that I have made to use build the church architecture.  I have divided them up by texture groups.  The fifth image is a prion stockade.  All assets have been UVed by this point. 

The Church architecture has been laid out in Unreal.  I am starting to work on the Prison Architecture.  I plan to have this done by midway through the weekend. 

Sucess!! 3 Texture Per Vertex Painting

 Chris has been working on figuring out how to create a 3rd layer using the per vertex painting method.  He finally figured it out and it looks fantastic.  Sadly we can only paint the third texture on top of the second in this case (Hay can only be painted on top of mud) but still its looks great. He also got the height map to work.  

 From this:

To this:

Looks Fantastic

Completed Models

Well after Chris showed me the shackles we talk about the design some, and realized that I wanted something much more similar to the design below.  These in game shackles are exactly what I was looking for.

Chris's model for the shackles.  I am really impressed by his work ethic.  He reworked the original concept to make it look like this in about an hours time.  Keep up the good work.  

Chris also made the changes that i suggested to him about the bookshelf.  I think this model is perfect.  

A bucket

Chris modeled this bucket for me.  I thought its was a little thin but other wise it looks fine. 

Per Vertex Painting

Chris is teaching me how to do per vertex painting in Unreal.  He showed me the outcome and I looks absolutely amazing.  Our plan is to use this method on the floor.

The outcome of per vertex painting.  Its looks great.  There is a problem with the displacement map.  Apparently when you use this method your displacement maps need to be taken to the extreme.  Also this is a discrepancy between the bricks and grout.  The grout in some cases appears higher than the bricks. 

The 3 Tiled Textures that I created:

WIP Models

Chris has been working on some models for me.  Here's what he has so far.

His initial bookshelf.  We agreed that is looks to gaudy and elegant for a prison.  So after Chris reworked the model several times.   The bookshelf needs to be appropriately used.  It needs to be functional, but in desperate need of repair.  I think each iteration got us closer.

Version 01

To Elegant for a prison

Version 02 

A little to plain, but much more appropriate for the space. Also could the bookshelf actually function on with such sever crack so low to the ground?

Version 03

Awesome except it almost appear to broken 

A church Pew

For this environment all the pews have been stripped out, however several remain throughout the space for other reasons.  There are also a few thrown in a corner and stacked away.

Shackles

The look awesome by they need to be hanging from a wall.

So its been a while!

Things are moving along smoothly all in all. Today I finished are the hard architectural models for the church.  All but two models are UVed and ready to go...so that is good.  Tomorrow I need to full around and make a few tweaks in Unreal for a couple of models that changed.  But other than that the Church basic architecture is done.  This is mean that I need to start on the Soft Architecture Models (ie.  the Prison Constructs).  These should move pretty fast all in all.  Its really just some wall, doors, window bars, and things of that nature.

Chris, my assistant modeler, has been doing an amazing (and I do mean amazing job) so far.  I can't be more impressed by his initiative and turn around times.  I feel the like the communication between us is going very well.  He has been a more than welcome addition to this project.  And I feel like a great deal of of its success will be owed to him.  He has more knowledge than me in many areas.

I'm not going to be meeting my ALL MODELS DUE deadline by Tuesday.  However, this is ok because I was planning for a week for Unreal Importing.  I have been doing this as I go along.  So I can pretty confidently say I have another week for modeling now.

I will be recording dialogue this week.  In an attempt to get it out of the way early.

I really want to get my sound designers another Animatic.  However, I feel like its would be kinda worthless to get it to them in Maya so I need to finish blocking out my space in Unreal and start setting up Camera.  I will be working on this step between Tuesday and Thursday.  So they have the weekend to work with a more up to date animatic.

Well thats is all.  I am going to post several images of WIP that Chris has been working on.  Tomorrow as I finish up in Unreal I will post Snapshots of the Church

Extra Help

I have brought on two sound designers for this project.  Erik Regn and Sean Regan.  I am also bring on a Freshman that is a seriously good modeler.  His name is Chris Perrella.   Check out his work.  Its pretty frickin awesome.

The end to Preproduction...the beginning to Production

Yesterday I finished my preproduction for this project (for the most part).  Now Its all about modeling, texturing, and Unreal.  My goal from here on out is to model at least one model per day for the next 2.5 weeks.  This includes UVing.  As I finish modeling and UVing I am taking them into Unreal asap.  I figure I can go back and texture at a later date.  The physicality of textures don't really matter to anyone else at this point other than myself.  My sound designer need a finished animatic so they can sound design properly.  This means I need to have the space blocked in properly, major assets first.  Everything else can pretty wait.

Finalized Concept Art and Floor Plan

Schedule