What I have done this week:
Figured out what's wrong with my file not rendering on the farm.
Move the portal to the right in shot 1.
Refine portal and light streak effects.
Goals for next week:
Final refinement on the portal based on the mentors' feedback.
Help with other teammates.
The first thing I have done this week is trouble shooting what went wrong with my file because it was not rendering on the render farm and I had to render locally which was causing a lot of time. At first I thought there were something wrong with the new render passes I added since it stop working after I added them. However, I found out what went wrong was actually I forgot to update the .abc files of the motorcycle and camera exported from Maya. I exported new .abc files for the newest animation and imported into Houdini, but I forgot to uploaded them to the farm as well.
The second thing I changed to the portal was moving the portal to the right. We got the feedback that the portal is in the middle of the road, but they expect the motorcycle to drive on the right side of the road. However, we were having trouble with the position of where the motorcycle. If the bike is driving on the right side of the road, it will be too close to the camera which is causing it either driving too slow in order to stay in the frame, or driving fast but off the camera for a few frames. In contrast, if the motorcycle is driving as the same as right now, the portal will be in the middle of the road if I want to place the portal where the motorcycle will go through.
After testing different solutions with Alexis, she found out the best way to solve the issue is moving the portal to the right without moving the motorcycle, and make the motorcycle looks like it is going through it in comp. Therefore, I move the portal to the right and rotate it on Y-axis a little bit to match the vanishing point. Additionally, I kept the original portal where it is for the reflections on the motorcycle, and move the new one to the right position.
The third thing I have changed for the portal in shot 1 is the light streak. During the presentation, the mentor Matt talked about it is moving too fast and the meaning of it is not clear. Therefore, I reduce the speed of the turbulent noise to let each light streak longer. I also reduce the force of the pop-attract to reduce the speed of the light streaks. In addition, I create another layer of particle simulation with small and thinner light streaks to enhance the light streak FX.
After fixing the portal in shot 1, I moved on to refining portal in shot 2. The main issue with it was the edge was too fade at a few frames, and some parts were overexposed. What I had changed was adding more details and applied the same changes I made in this two weeks with the portal in shot 1. Additionally, I also moved the proxy geo of the motorcycle for collision down closer to the ground in order to get a more accurate interaction with the motorcycle going through the portal.
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