Cynematik • Cyndi Greening

We spent the last to weeks working with Autodesk Maya. This time, it was at Phoenix Country Day School with students in grades 5 through 11. I am always amazed at how quickly and easily the students adapt to the logic of the software. Within a few hours, they were modeling with polygons, NURBs and subD’s. They were applying surface textures and animating their objects using keyframe and path animation. The thing they liked the most was Learning Maya 6 | Dynamics. They were building bowling alleys, fountains, mousetraps and Rube Golberg devices. It was inspiring, simply inspiring. I’ve read hundreds of (mediocre) Maya books. It’s hard to find good books. The BEST book out there on dynamics is actually published by Alias … and amazingly it was written for version six but it works just as well with the latest versions.

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Monica Mvula, Zambia

Yesterday, I had an exciting interview with Emily Dickinson scholar Martha Nell Smith. I woke up eager for the day because of an upcoming meeting with a film distributor. And, then, it all turned on a dime. An email from the director of BAD TIMING, Jabbes Mvula wrote about his younger sister, Monica.

She was wonderful when we were shooting the film. She let us use her car and her cell phone. A teacher with a shy smile, she helped us located children for several key scenes in the movie. She brought us the delightful Alisam Piri (see below). She was instrumental in completing the film.

We got word she died last week. “I wish she had seen the film screened and distributed in Zambia,” her elder brother wrote. Me, too. I suddenly felt the pressure of time, the weight of decisions, and the importance of completing creative projects. I am deeply saddened to hear of her passing.

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A post from two years ago … while we were in Africa.

BY CYNDI GREENING, PRODUCER, LUSAKA, ZAMBIA – On Friday, we had a wonderful shooting experience. The folks a ZNBC, ZNIS and ZAMNET allowed us to use a soundproof stage to shoot the classroom scenes in the film. With all of the children there, the teacher and the policeman, we really needed the space. It also allowed us to build a lot more motion into the shots. We were able to use the dolly and the glidecam. We could have used a few more area lights. Of course all of the equipment means nothing if you don’t have good actors. We had some wonderful child actors. The children are so natural on camera; they aren’t self-conscious at all. In fact, they barely seem self-aware. One of my favorites was little Alisam Piri. I learned how a Zambian child indicates he doesn’t know what to do. I asked him to write his name on a piece of paper. He quickly complied. When I asked him to write his numbers, he turned his hand palm up and waved it from side to side. Monica, his teacher, said, “He doesn’t know his numbers yet.” He was a great little actor. We even made him cry on cue.

When they were acting, Jabbes promised them each a very special present. He gave them each a brand new MCC pencil of their very own. They were very excited with that gift. I can’t imagine American actors being satisfied with a pencil. Jabbes has been doing a good job with the actors. I’m surprised how well they take direction. He tells them what he’s trying to achieve and they respond so well. Even the more seasoned actors have been really great about giving him what he wants.

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Former 3D animation and film student jordan Pack just emailed that a film he produced won the student emmy. Very cool and exciting! Another student, Steven Glauser commented on Facebook that he works with Jordan at Disney. How very cool! Just had to get it up right away.

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Last week, Alec and I went to California to visit with Jason and talk post-production shop. It was a Friday evening and the three of us were sitting in Jason’s editing studio talking about things like multi-angle editing and color grading. Jason generally has a rant about how much better AVID is than FCP because that’s what he uses at work. At home, he uses FCP like the rest of us financially-challenged filmmakers. He was showing us what he’d learned at an Apple presentation about multi-angle editing. They’ve been touting multi-angle editing for a while but I’d never seen it used. He stepped through it and I was excited. He said (and I agreed) that there wasn’t all that much need for it in his type of work.

However, while we were in Zambia, the National Arts Council brought five (5) Native Storytellers in from other regions in the country. All five spoke a different language. There were about 25 children making up the audience. This was definitely NOT a highly-controlled nor highly-choreographed recording session. On top of that, this was the second weekend in Zambia so the student crew were all continuing to build their skills in all of the different pieces of equipment. To maximize our odds, we ran four (4) cameras during the shoot. Two cinematographers were on the storyteller, one was on the audience and one was handheld. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity on a different continent. So, next week, I’ll be cutting the Zambian Storytellers using this method. I can hardly wait. If you want to check it out, you will want to read Steve Martin’s well-illustrated and very clear tutorial on Final Cut Pro Multi-Angle editing.

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I love Adobe AfterEffects. Ever since I read the first CREATING MOTION GRAPHICS by Trish and Chris Meyers, I’ve been hooked and amazed at what that program can do. I’ve used other tools for footage stabilization, color correction, motion graphics and FX compositing. In the end, I always end up coming back to AE. In addition to being an all-around great tool, my favorite thing about AE is how quickly it renders. Sophisticated and efficient.

If you’re wanting to learn more about the more advanced AfterEffects tricks. I strongly recommend that you visit Andrew Kramer’s VideoCoPilot.Net Site. He’s got 64 tutorials on everything from greenscreening, replacing sky and stabilizing footage to putting bugs under your skin and freaky eyeballs in your skull. Terrific techniques for the modern filmmaker. For those who love to learn by reading, the books by Trish and Chris Meyers are still the best. For the media generation, try Kramer first. Then, take a look at Pixel2Life and CreativeCow.

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Way back in April of 2005, I did a blogpost about a Johnny Chung Lee’s $14 Steadicam. Lee gave the full instructions for how to build his poor-man’s steadicam using pieces and parts that could be picked up at any hardware store. It is the steadicam that Jacob built to take to Zambia. We used it there and left it behind with the Zambian National Arts Council. For the mechanically challenged, chronically lazy, or only moderately-poor filmmaker, Lee even offered a fully built version for only $39.95. A great little tool that was most useful.

So, earlier this month, I’m at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, meeting with students and going over their interactive media projects. One group is working on a Nintendo-based tool that teaches high school students the slope-intercept formula in a game format in preparation for the exit examination. While talking with them, we got onto the idea of full-immersion gaming. One of the students was really excited about this fellow from Carnegie Mellon University who was developing immersion techniques using the Wii Remote. I started digging around and discover that this immersion innovator is the $14 Steadicam guy, Johnny Chung Lee. The YouTube video sure got my imagination going.

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I’ve spent the last two days at Purdue University and it has been very exciting and interesting for me! Purdue is a big research school so much of what the faculty (and students) do is rooted in some sort of research.

So, today, I had the opportunity to look at several student projects and listen to the sorts of things they were researching. One team was working on a Spina Bifida “Serious Game” … that’s an entertaining game that educates and informs the user about something significant (like a birth defect). The team consisted of two illustrators, two Flash animators/scripters and a project manager with a strong CS foundation. They could clearly state what they were researching, what the goals of the game were and how they intended to complete the project. With end-users expected to be in the 5-to-8 age range, the game has a sort of Dora the Explorer feel to it.

Another group was working on a short film that incorporated 2D and 3D animation that was composited in AfterEffects. The students were researching whether incorporating similar elements to previous Academy Award winning films made their film more or less appealing. I enjoyed watching their production process.

I went to two classes, Dr. LaVerne Abe Harris’ Human Computer Interface Class and Professor Adamo-Villani’s Animation class. Heck, I could not believe how quiet and reserved the Purdue students were. I don’t know if it’s that midwestern “behaving properly” thing or some sort of lingering societal depression over the state of the economy. I just know those folks were reserved. Once they got going and opened up, it was terrific. Lots of excited, committed, fun people working on passion projects that they really care about. Maybe they are more outgoing when they get close to graduation. I sure hope so … they’ll be needing that excitement, energy and passion to secure the best jobs. Maybe they really know how to turn it on in the interview.

The thing I was most impressed with is how serious the students were. Many worked on a variety of research projects in addition to doing their class load. (I went to the Siggraph Banquet this evening. Students, their friends and families were in attendance.) I noticed how many times students would be talking about the things they were working on (or wanting to be working on) and faculty would be advising them about different things that were available for them to participate on. It was neat to see that midwestern work ethic and youthful altruism in full bloom on these students. Their desire to learn and make a difference was palpable. It was impressive and inspiring.

Tomorrow, I’m going to The Envision Center, the research facility on campus. I hear it has a big motion capture facility. Should be fun. Maybe I’ll dance for them.

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We’re experiencing a bit of “good timing” with the film Zambian BAD TIMING. The film is now listed in the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). So far, only the title is in … they say the actual names / credits take another week to ten days to get updated. It’s so exciting to finally see everything coming together and the people in the film getting acknowledged for their work. Everyone involved with this project gave a solid month of their life in Zambia to get this film made. The crew also spent six months before the project in training and preparing for the project. Following the shoot in Zambia, the crew spent another couple of months helping with the rough cut … and several more continued another year with the revised cuts.

We’ve been test screening the film with small groups and the response has been really terrific. When you edit a film, you watch it thousands of times and lose all perspective on it. You think it keeps getting better but it’s so subjective. The really exciting thing is that people who know nothing about the film, know nothing about Zambia, know nothing about the production challenges are understanding and liking the film. They’re liking the good people, disliking the bad people and are getting really involved in the story. It’s a very satisfying feeling having people watch the film and enjoy it. I can hardly wait for the Zambians to see it.

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Former animation student Jordan Pack, now a BYU graduate and married man, is finishing up his animated short film at BYU and graciously sent some stills and information on the film. Jordan was always an exceptional student and he continues with a mentorship by Pixar on the short, KITES. According to Jordan, the film is about Alex, a young boy who has to deal with the death of his grandfather. In a way, the grandpa comes back to soothe the boy and help him through his loss, sadness and frustration. The film is being made in Maya and Renderman, naturally. As I mentioned in an earlier email, Jordan is also working in the Disney gaming environment. Not too shabby, Jordan. Not too shabby at all.

It has been a while since I put a shout out to AnimWatch. Always one of my favorite sites, AnimWatch keeps tabs on all the animated shorts that are in production out there. It’s a sweet site. You can read summaries, look at stills, concept art and, sometimes, animatics. It’s a great resource for animators. Speaking of good resources for animators, HighEnd 3D is one of the best for tutorials and shaders and such. Another of my very favorite sites for tutorials and DVDs is The Gnomon Workshop. And, for sheer joy of looking, be sure to visit Craig Mullins’ GOODBRUSH site.

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Former ASU-East professor, now Purdue Computer Graphics Technology Professor, La Verne Abe Harris, is in Boston this week receiving an EDSF Outstanding Teacher in Higher Education Award. EDSF, the international, non-profit organization dedicated to the graphic communications and document management marketplace. The Excellence in Education Awards honor worldwide academic institutions and professional organizations for their educational and innovative efforts relating to the document management and communications industry. Pretty dang neat. On top of that, the award was presented in Boston. Now, I am ACHING to go to Boston. First, I want to be doing a whole bunch of research on Ann and Mary. And, Yale is right next door. I want to be digging around in that library because of their African Studies program. I guess Dr. Harris is probably busy with dinners and meetings and such but, regardless, I do envy her time in Baah-stun.

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I love higher education. My seven years at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire were truly some of the best of my life. (Like the USSR, I was on the seven-year plan.) While I loved teaching at Mesa Community College, I always longed for the opportunity to take students to something beyond their second year. Now, to be honest, at MCC, we liked to push the envelope in our classes and take students to as advanced a level as they were willing to go. We had some terrific students who did wonderful projects. Passionate students are a blessing for any teacher.

So, I heard that LaVerne Abe Harris, a colleague at ASU-East, had gone to the Computer Graphics Technology School at Purdue University. We got in touch and I discovered that Purdue is a very active research campus. I started looking at the sorts of projects they were doing and it was quite amazing. Professor Harris shared that she had a research project about technology and spina bifida. Now, isn’t that something interesting to spend your life’s energy on?! I was quite impressed with everything they’re working on.

Her colleague Nicoletta Adamo-Villani has several projects about such things as deaf education, math and science education, a keyboard-controlled signing semantroid, keyboard encoding of hand gestures and automated fingerspelling. She even has two patents from her research work. She has an MS in Architecture from University of Florence, Italy and she is a certified animator and instructor for Alias. Prof. Adamo-Villani is an award-winning animator and graphic designer and creator of several 2D and 3D animations that aired on national television.

Sweeeeet. Wouldn’t it be fun to play in their sandbox?

The thing I really liked about their program was the opportunity for students to work on real-world projects of some significance. Like the fourteen-member student crew we took to Zambia to create the first feature film in the country, they have projects that give students the chance for hands-on, practical experience that makes a difference. I kept thinking about how amazing it would be to have a whole school with the sort of learning environment that supports and motivates students and inspires faculty, too!

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Today I’m giving a shout-out to Journey Education, one of the best websites on the web for discount software. As a faculty member in a technology field, one could always see the advantage for the students to have their own version of the software on their home computers. More time to practice with less interference and a better understanding of what it took to make it function optimally. So, for students and faculty wanting to get software at some of the best prices possible, visit JourneyEd.

You will have to prove you’re education status (ID, paystub or similar) and know that the software is for educational use only … no going into business and making products. An example of the savings, Adobe Creative Suite 3 lists for $1199, at JourneyEd, it’s $199. Autodesk Maya lists for $6995, at JourneyEd it’s only $389. AutoCad lists for $3995, at JourneyEd, only $159. Sony Vega drops from $559 to $299.

Maya is, undoubtedly, the best deal. While you can download the Personal Learning Edition for free, most folks I know prefer the student version because of the hideous watermark the PLE puts on everything. And, Maya has got such a steep learning curve and so many different components, it’s worth owning it if you’re planning on making a career of it.

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I spent six hours teaching yesterday and five hours today so, as you can imagine, my dogs are barkin! We all go through the same thing at the beginning of each semester. You have to get used to standing for three to six hours, navigate the room to keep everyone on task, and get used to lecturing for hours on end. It always takes about a week to get into back in the teaching groove. We had a small but devoted crowd. Ironically, mostly teenagers. They were more diligent about sitting through my lectures than some of my college classes have been.

We spent six hours on filmmaking yesterday and five hours on animation and gaming today. In spite of being quite tired by the end of the day, we ended up accomplishing a lot. I had scheduled Flash for the end of the day but had forgottent that I’d agreed to do that. Ultimately, former student Crista Alvey came by and we ended up talking about Flash websites and making buttons. I think it was worth everyone’s money and time. That’s always my primary concern. I never want people to feel like it was a waste of their resources.

Appreciation to attendees (some former students!) who were adaptable and willing audiences. And, appreciation to the event planners. Former student Amanda and sister Tiffiny put together a nice event. More attendees would have made me (and them) happy. It was the first year so perhaps it’s just the whole “freshman learning curve.”

I’ve got to give a big, big THANK YOU to Nick and Jeniece for all of their help taping the event. We were thinking folks might want to get a copy since each day was “Everything you want to know about indie filmmaking (or animation) in just a few hours.” Always count-on-able, Nick and Jeniece have been invaluable in current production projects. And, a thank you to Pamela Jo for her help yesterday in presenting and recording (not to mention providing phone tech support this morning to get the camera recording). As you can imagine, six hours of lecture is a healthy stretch of time so it’s nice to have someone there to take the pressure off and pick up the slack at the end of the day. Sincere, heartfelt thanks to the FZ Crew!

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This weekend, the Otaku University Conference will be held at the Mesa Conference Center. On Saturday and Sunday, Pamela Jo, Jeniece, Nick and I will be teaching a variety of classes on independent digital filmmaking, animation, Flash and compositing. The registration fee is only $45 which is an incredible bargain if you’re wanting to learn about indie filmmaking. And, if you’ve got a laptop, you can download the Maya Personal Learning Edition and work along in the animation class.

The description of the classes is below. Hope to see you all there.

SATURDAY
11:00–12:00 pm     Screenwriting
Turn your idea into a filmable script. Learn everything from script formatting to character development, story structure and creating compelling conflict. Emphasis on writing for independent film production. Screenwriting template and sample scripts provided.

12:00–2:00 pm     Low Budget & No Budget Production
This workshop will focus on the key aspects of independent digital film production including HD and SD cameras, on-set audio, lighting, camera movement, piercing the “observer” boundary, directing and the festival circuit. If time permits, color correction, sound sweetening, titles and text, managing input resolution, output for DVD mastering and web streaming will be covered. Blueprints for several “Do-It-Yourself” filmmaker tools provided including The $14 Steadicam and The Skate Wheel Dolly.

2:00–3:30 pm     GreenScreening
Step-by-step demonstration of how to light and shoot using a green screen or a blue screen. The influence of cameras, lighting and scene content will be discussed. Emphasis will be on how to incorporate these techniques into low-budget independent filmmaking.

3:30–5:00 pm     Compositing
Step-by-step demonstration of how to composite greenscreen/bluescreen footage with live action sequences will be demonstrated using Adobe After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Premiere and Shake will be demonstrated. Film look filters like Magic Bullet will be discussed and demonstrated.

5:00–6:00 pm     Selling Yourself and Your Film
The time to think about selling your film is before you even begin pre-production. Target marketing, distribution companies, film festivals and alternative marketing avenues will be discussed. Attracting the interest of the media using Press Kits and a Web Presence for your film will be explained.

SUNDAY
Noon–2:00pm     3D Modeling
Introduction to Maya and Modo for 3D modeling. Learn the how to create models using Polygon, NURBs and SubDivision Surface geometry. Understand the difference between each type of modeling geometry and the proper application of each. Learn how to apply surface materials, set lights and render stills. (Note: Attendees who own a laptop computer are encouraged to download the Maya Personal Learning Edition and follow along during the demonstration or purchase the full version from JourneyEducation [www.journeyed.com] for $398. ) Maya Personal Learning Edition

2:00–4:00pm     3D Animation
Introduction to animation in Maya. Using models created in the earlier session, attendees will learn how to keyframe and path animate objects. (Note: Attendees who own a laptop computer are encouraged to download the Maya Personal Learning Edition and follow along during the demonstration or purchase the full version from JourneyEducation [www.journeyed.com] for $398. ) Maya Personal Learning Edition

4:00–5:00pm     Flash
Introduction to Adobe Flash with an emphasis on the development promotional websites for marketing and self-promotion.

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BY CYNDI GREENING, PHOENIX, USA – As an instructor for Final Cut Pro, Shake, Maya and After Effects, I found the post production information on the film about the battle at Thermopylae. Post production on the film 300 took almost a year. The film was edited on an Avid, with an HD cut also maintained in Final Cut Pro The 3D was made using Maya, XSI, and Lightwave The 2D composites were made with Shake, Inferno, Fusion, and Combustion. The filmmakers preferred Macintosh, but large portions of the movie were made under Linux.

Asset management was handled by custom software written in the Panorama development environment, made by Provue. Color management was handled by Truelight software. The film was scanned on a Northlight scanner and was recorded on the Arrilaser.

Most of the film was shot at high speed, between 50 and 150fps. Normal film is at 24fps. The film was transferred to HD SR tape and quicktime, and HD quicktimes were the basis for the HD preview cuts. The working resolution for the film was 2K, at a working aspect ratio of 2.11 and a projected aspect ratio of 2.35.

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