WTD

Cable TV Broadcast!

2011-07-07T10:17:00.000-07:00

Thesis film We the Divided is scheduled to air on MNETAmerica in the show SHORT NOTICE on July 12th @ 5pm PST. Rerunning: 7/13 @ 10am, 7/16 @ 5pm, 7/20 @ 11am, 7/23 @ 6pm. Channel guide: http://www.mnetamerica.com/sites/all/themes/mnet/images/channel-grid.gif

News

2010-10-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

We the Divided screened on September 25th at the 2010 Berkeley Video & Film Festival and was awarded the Grand Festival Student Animation Award.

NOW PLAYING

2010-05-08T00:22:00.000-07:00

Thanks for visiting! Feel free to check out the trailers, and the blog!

(Vimeo Links)

Trailer 1

Trailer 2

Trailer 3

Update

2010-03-31T15:27:00.000-07:00

USC's Animation First Frame 2010:

SCREENING AT THE DIRECTORS GUILD OF AMERICA (DGA)
THURSDAY, MAY 6, 7:30PM

I've gotten a lot of good feedback from people who have watched my thesis film. I'm currently writing my next short film as a continuation of my academic/artistic evolution, and I look forward to sharing it with all of you in the near future.

-Ryan

Finished!!!

2009-08-23T22:23:00.000-07:00

I finished the film today. Now comes the hard part.

2 YEARS OF DATA

2009-07-31T13:45:00.001-07:00

Leave nothing to chance.

The complete backup:
54 - 8.5GB discs.
Glorious.

Next Phase: Final Compositing / Final Assembly

Rendering: Phase Complete

2009-07-30T18:29:00.001-07:00

Today the last frame of the the last layer on the "fix it" list finished rendering. Now I'm just backing everything up, archiving it, and burning it to DVD DLs. Once I've cleared off a significant amount of hard drive space I'll start getting serious about compositing and generating the final art-directed shots.

Troubleshooting Hardware

2009-07-14T14:53:00.001-07:00

They say when you're troubleshooting computer hardware that you should assemble everything outside of the case on cardboard. Then you just figure it out by process of elimination. I purchased the parts to assemble a system in the summer of 2008. There were a lot of BSODs that summer. I had two defective processors, and I had to replace the motherboard 4 times. On top of that I had to get a liquid cooling system for the dual sockets and north bridge. It was a rough patch, and I lost many weeks of production. So basically it was a disaster.

Special Effects: Dry Ice

2009-07-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

In anticipation of the compositing phase of production I bought some dry ice and shot it with a mini-dv camera. I think I'll be using it for fast clouds, impacts, and rockets. I'm sure I could of rendered some kind of particle effect, but this will probably look better....more authentic.

Rocket Effect:

Float-By Effect:

Always use gloves when handling dry ice.

Sound Design

2009-07-14T00:14:00.001-07:00

After achieving picture-lock I immediately began working on the sound design. I started on February 10th and finished it on February 17th. On February 18th & 19th I was sitting in a sound mixing studio on Campus watching my sound mixer, Andrew Mumm, work his magic. It was good. I ended up with a fun 5.1 surround sound mix.

Here is something I prepared for the mixing session. It's a screen-shot of the different tracks I generated in the sound design process. I went through and labeled every sound event so that I could tell the mixer the location of each particular sound - if needed. Very high-res (this should have been a 6K image but Blogger appears to have a size limit). Check it out:

I also took these photos with my awesome razr cell phone at 640x480 res. Sound mixing!

Production Commentary

2009-07-13T20:24:00.000-07:00

In September 2008 I watched generic gray characters running around in a video clip for a little under 13minutes. It was called a director's layout. I needed to get to work. I needed to design and model everything immediately. The director's layout was a solid blueprint but I was going to make a lot of changes. However by this time the score of the film had already been written. From September 2008 to February 10th 2009 I manged to model, texture, and animate everything required to make all 369 shots.

December 25th 2008 - Home for the holidays

Simulation: Truck Smash

2009-07-13T18:33:00.000-07:00

I made a custom ragdoll to match the cheetah robot's body configuration and simulated a collision with a fast moving cube (truck proxy). Enjoy.

This is from Act01, Scene02:

This is from Act01, Scene03:

Setup and run simulation.
Apply simulation data to final models using point and orient constraints.
Merge and position animated models with the set.
Add motion-capture driven characters - offset performance to fit simulation.

Simulation: Car Chase

2009-07-13T18:10:00.000-07:00

One of the more interesting challenges was the creation of the car chase in the middle of Act II. Using the same car simulator for the Act I car action, I made a short track (a simple piece of geometry to match the road layout) and "drove" it as fast as possible. I did this multiple times, and baked out the simulation data each time to FBX format. I then imported the animation data into Maya and assigned cubes as car proxies. I ended up using the animated cubes as a reference instead of simply parenting the cars to them because the simulation didn't account for suspension or drifting (those elements would have to be keyframed). But the reference provided by the animated cubes was a real boost in getting the sequence accomplished. Check it out:

Barrier Explosion

2009-07-13T15:19:00.000-07:00

To destroy the barrier in the film I combined 5 or 6 debris simulations. Here is a slow-motion preview:

Here is a clip showing all the various simulations that were put together to make the final action (music by Matt Brown):

Composer: Matthew Brown

2009-07-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

I found a Ph.D student in the USC Thornton Music department by the name of Matthew Brown (he has since graduated). I provided Matt with a comprehensive list of professional/commercial score examples for each scene. I wanted the score in certain areas of the film to feel like this example or that one. The director's layout I provided also had an edited temp score embedded so that was yet another potential guide for him to consider. I told him to consider everything, but also that he had the choice to go in a completely new direction. When he delivered the full score I reviewed it 5 or 6 times in a loop and declared it final.

Check out his work: www.mattbrowncomposer.com

Shooting Stars

2009-07-12T02:14:00.000-07:00

In January of 2008 I decided to make a different film. Why? I found motion capture technology to be very exciting and easy to use and I wanted to quickly resurrect and complete an unrealized project from the previous semester. My partner on the project was Brittany Biggs. This ended up being a six week detour. The resulting film was called Shooting Stars.

Shooting Stars uses characters made up of 2D textured planes that are parented to 3D mocap driven biped skeletons. As a result I decided to use this method as a way to pre-visualize my thesis film because it provides a fairly detailed preview without the need of complex models. Here is the previs of the first act from my thesis film:

Motion Capture Sessions

2009-07-12T02:01:00.000-07:00

I completed 4 motion capture sessions on my own. The first three sessions were mostly experiments (11-01-07, 11-18-07, 02-26-08). The forth and last session (04-08-08) was all business. By April of 2008 I knew exactly what the film needed. I made a list on a spreadsheet, reserved 5 or 6 hours of mocap room time, and proceeded to perform each characters motions for the entire 13minute 48second film. It was exhausting. Here is a breakdown of the actions performed in my last session:

Thumbnails & Storyboards

2009-07-11T22:49:00.000-07:00

Even though I got permission to proceed with my proposed story I still spent a couple more weeks working on the script. I was trying to cut out the fat, and condense scenes. I needed to make sure the action was tight, but I also needed to build in pauses so the audience could have little moments to reflect and rest. As soon as I felt good about the script I began the process of making thumbnails (small scale, quick and dirty, prototype storyboard). This is the first visualization of the film. It took a couple of days to work this out. Immediately I saw all kinds of problems. I ended up writing about 7 versions of the script...I cut out scenes, characters, subplots.... Making thumbnails in combination with writing the script proved to be very helpful.

Here are some early storyboards I made while planning the beginning of the second act:

The Concept

2009-07-11T20:33:00.000-07:00

Initially my thesis film was going to be a coming of age story about.....(I can't say. I might develop it in the future). The idea was rejected. I was told it was too ambitious. Maybe it was. So I wrote another story about a fictitious civil-war that leads to the creation of a barrier. I gave it the title We the Divided. I was inspired by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 9/11, the graffiti artist known as Banksy, and the film Die Hard. I thought the second idea was more ambitious than the first one, but I pitched it anyway (because I had nothing else). I got the green light in the Fall of 2007.

Start the Blog

2009-07-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

I've been so busy with all the various stages of production that I completely ignored the task of publicly documenting the filmmaking process. I'm not worried. I saved everything. I have a good memory. Start the blog.