The Ottoman: Production Journal – Page 2 – News and updates about "The Ottoman," an animated short film

Mecha-scarab walk cycles

Now that our mecha is rigged, it’s time to test it out. But how does a six-legged vehicle get around, anyway? Animator Mark Medrano assembled this collection of walk-cycle tests, to help answer that question.

Tripodal, sequential and bipedal animations by Mark Medrano; gallop animation by Kyle Bernard
High-res video: HexaWalkComparison-HD.mp4 (30MB)

Upper left: tripodal gait

This is a very common gait in both insects and robotics as it is statically stable, meaning that the machine can stop at any point during the step cycle and not fall over. As long as its center of mass remains within the triangle formed by the feet on the ground, the machine can maintain some margin of static stability, even at fast speeds. A cockroach can travel nearly ten times its own body length per second before its gait becomes unstable.

Upper right: sequential gait

This is also a statically stable gait, even more so than the tripodal one, since only one foot at a time is ever off the ground. This gait also occurs in nature but tends to shift from one side of the body to the other, sometimes lifting legs at random rather than the specific pattern displayed in the render. However, the increase in stability of this gait comes at a great cost of speed. Since the forward leg must travel much faster than the legs pushing back, actuator limits will kick in long before the machine can get up to its top speed.

Lower left: tetrapodal gait

This gait can be seen on insects whose legs have been hurt. Despite it being an unnatural walk, their nervous system automatically adapts. For our purposes, the legs don’t have to be damaged for this gait to be useful. If mecha-scarab needs to carry a heavy object, we can fall back on the same leg sequencing that a quadruped uses. This gait is referred to as dynamically stable: the two feet left on the ground don’t provide a solid base, so the machine needs to constantly adjust to keep from tipping over while it’s walking.

Lower right: gallop

We’re comfortably certain that no real-world insect walks this way. Pretty adorable, though!

Team profiles: Character TD

Bret Bays, the Ottoman project’s Character Technical Director, has been rigging up a storm lately. As animation ramps up, his character controls are constantly being put through their paces. Despite an endless torrent of extreme poses and feature requests, Bret’s meticulous devotion to his work shines through. We thought it would be good to share a profile of the man and his work.

On getting started with the team

I came to Ottoman project when I met [Animation Director] Dimos back in summer of 2009. I was attending Animation Mentor at the time, and he was a mentor there as well. We had sort of met through C4D beta testing, but when he found out I was at AM we began to talk.

When I first started, reusing rigs was the biggest challenge. There was no system in place. Python wasn’t implemented yet (in R11) and I didn’t know COFFEE, so scripting it was not an option for me. R13 helped solve that issue, but it had its own quirks when trying to easily and quickly rebuild rigs.

On the rigs themselves

They have a lot of fundamentals. They’re sturdy. There’s always stuff I’d like to add, or do differently, as time goes on, but if I kept going back and revising, the short would never get animated. I’m glad I got it working as a template though. Might be safe to say I’m the first person to create a face rig template in Cinema 4D.

I was pretty proud of the Scorpion Mecha rig. That was a challenge, and I like the dynamic, springy-ness of the cockpit. Even if the setup for it is not anything particularly special, it was something I had never done before.

On staying motivated for long stretches of time

I haven’t really ever been a part of a team that finished something, and I haven’t had much opportunity to show off my work. All of the short ideas I have had, I haven’t been able to materialize much. I felt like there was so much potential with this short, and we’re getting so far, that someday I’ll be able to point at it and say, “Hey, I helped make that happen.” This project has led to new job opportunities, so I just want to keep at it and see it through.

Advice for aspiring TDs

Just keep practicing. Rig as much as you can and learn to script so you can automate things. Your life will be significantly easier if you can automate some of the more tedious and boring tasks.

The Status Board

One of the main discussion topics at our Ottocon get-together was the slow pace that comes with collaborating over the internet. We’re all working other freelance or full-time jobs, and it’s tough for the team members to get prompt feedback, or to keep tabs on how the work is going. The team already relies on tools like Facebook, Basecamp, Google Plus and SVN to exchange files and information, but the sheer volume of information traffic makes it hard to filter and prioritize. So, to deal with the signal-to-noise issues, we created the Ottoman Status Board.

Tracking the Kickstarter clip on the Ottoman status board

Heavily inspired by Panic’s Status Board, this colorful progress readout allows the animators to get a snapshot of the project’s status at a glance. It also allows Dimos, our animation director, to see who’s waiting for feedback, and where their latest files are. It’s been a rousing success so far—only a few days in, and we’re already seeing a quicker turnaround on feedback and revisions. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be looking to add new info-readout components based on animator requests.

Ottocon 2013

The Ottoman animators — The Ottoman animation team at brunch.

Last weekend, the entire Ottoman animation team converged in San Francisco for our first-ever in-person get-together. Many of us know each other only through videochat, and it was a blast to finally shake hands and geek out about spline controls and run cycles. Special thanks to everyone who traveled by plane, train and automobile to be there. We’ll have to do it again next year!

Maquettes of the mecha and characters — A collection of hand-crafted maquettes of the mecha and characters.

There were toys. There was cake.

Everyone loves surprise mecha cake.

Drafting the “Insect Mecha Battle” Logo

One of the side projects we’ve got going on at Ottoman HQ is the design of the “Insect Mecha Battle” Tournament logo, which adorns the flags and banners of the “Ottoman” world. The ideal logo design would serve as a visual signature for the project as a whole, while still fitting the art style of the film. We aimed for a vintage 1960s silhouette design, taking special inspiration from the work of Saul Bass.

We began with some core motifs: beetles, crossed sabers, gears and skulls, and tried to see what we could distill into a striking and iconic emblem. The six designs below are some of the rough concepts that we’ve developed along the way.

Six logos

With luck, we’ll have a finished design to unveil within the next few weeks! Stay tuned…

Scorpion Rider: Evolution

2007

Concept art

Jim Talbot, character illustrator and modeler extraordinaire, develops his initial sketches for the fearsome Scorpion Rider.

Scorpion rider preliminary sketches — Character designs by Jim Talbot

2008

Modeling

Jim recreates his own drawings in 3D, bringing the menacing villain to life.

2009

Tattoo design and color treatments

David Ward, following his collaboration with Dhar Jabouri on the Scorpion Rider’s elaborate tattoo, turns his attention to the clothing.

Scorpion Rider color treatments — Color designs by David Ward

2010

Maquette and revisions

Art director Matt Evans crafts a clay model as a guide for streamlining the character’s silhouette.

Scorpion Rider maquette — Sculpture by Matt Evans

2011

Hair and clothing

Gary Abrehart painstakingly sculpts new hair meshes for the Rider and the other characters.

The Rider's hair — Hair, brows and beard modeling by Gary Abrehart

Texturing

David Ward, who had never painted in 3D prior to this project, transforms his earlier color designs into vividly detailed texture maps.

The Rider's textures — Texture painting by David Ward

2012

Rigging

Technical Director Bret Bays develops the complex body and face controls that allow the Rider to be posed and animated.

The Scorpion Rider's rig — Rig by Bret Bays

2013

Ready for action!

Scorpion Rider posed — Pose and lighting by Mike Stamm

A diversity of dieselpunk devices

While working on the high-poly medina environment upgrade, modeler David Alvarez has pulled out all the stops with this collection of whimsical machines, doorways, fuel tanks and satellite dishes. Although a number of the models are refinements of existing low-res props and machinery, some of the best are his own creations.

So delightful, we just had to share!

David Alvarez' props for the medina — Modeling by David Alvarez

David Alvarez' props for the medina, part 2 — Modeling by David Alvarez

Scorpion Rider poster concept

Not a scene from the movie; just a rough idea for a poster we might make someday. This one features the fearsome Scorpion Rider.

The Road to the Medina, part 3

Medina shop render — Model by David Alvarez, textures by David Ward

The medina shops, garages and factories we modeled back in part 2 were finally complete, but we still had a long road ahead of us. Constructing the individual buildings was only the first step. To achieve the full visual aesthetic of the project—inspired by the work of Jean “Moebius” Girard and his contemporaries—we’d need intricate inked detailing and lush, saturated colors.

We had no idea how we were going to achieve this style in 3D. The ligne claire style is defined by hand-drawn lines on paper. It doesn’t lend itself to computer-generated celshading at all. But the team was convinced it could be done.

It wouldn’t be easy. Even just preparing the buildings for texturing would be an ordeal: if we were going to mimic an inked, colored comic-book page, then every last wall, pipe, windowsill and lamp would need to be UV-mapped, tested for distortions and other problems, and repaired. Once texturing was underway, the materials would need multiple layers of hand-painted textures (no procedurals or photos here!). The inks layers would need to be closely vetted against our archive of reference artwork. The color layers would need to cycle through various celshading and lighting tests. Finally yet another layer of hand-painted highlights and shadows would need to be added, to ensure that the textures would integrate seamlessly with the CG lighting. The end result would need to evoke a beautiful hand-drawn graphic novel while simultaneously integrating perfectly into a 3D environment.

No sweat, right?

Steps used to create the look of the medina buildings — Click to view the steps of our texturing and lighting process.

After a lot of trial and error, we’ve managed to put together a solid workflow. Our lead texture artist David Ward really stepped up his game, jumping back and forth between 2D and 3D as he built up stacks of inks, colors and shades into a coherent whole. We’ve catalogued our pipeline in the illustration above. So far the results have been very satisfying.

The road to the medina, part 2

Back in part 1, we covered the concept art for the project’s North African dieselpunk building style as well as the street layout for the medina itself. Since then, we’ve begun building the components in 3D, starting with David Alvarez’ outstanding job on the buildings themselves:

The garage 3D model — Models by David Alvarez

The factory 3D model — Models by David Alvarez

These buildings and many more have been sprawled across the map to form the winding streets and narrow alleys of the medina. As you can see in the render below, we’re gradually replacing low-poly structures with high-poly ones as we build up the city.

An untextured render of the medina in progress — Model by David Alvarez, Matt Evans and Gavin Reed

The Ottoman

The Production Journal