FINAL MAJOR PROJECT
Please scroll from bottom to top to see my weekly progression in chronological order
THE CONCEPT
A short film split into two parts: the first part reveals the microscopic, abstract way in which fabric is formed. The second part focuses on the final creation, which are 'fast fashion' zombies - the idea behind this is that fast fashion is made to only be worn a few times before it starts to fall apart. The fact that they're 'zombies' shows that they were born to die.
Lighting and compositions will be hyper real, using 3D processes within Blender and composited with Adobe After Effects.
FAST FASHION - THE FINAL FILM:
Watch it here or below: https://youtu.be/dMXbhQ-pNzE
TB2 EASTER BREAK
Below is the 'zombie' part of the film - as I'm splitting the film into 2 parts, the first half is showing the abstract processes of fabric being made, and the second part is showing metaphorical clothing 'zombies' that are born to die.
I have been working on the titles using Adobe After Effects - I used my test fabric textures that I made in TB1 to mask the text.
In the last week of the Easter break, I was busy thinking of different ways to portray the fast fashion cycle in an abstract and metaphorical way, that looks a lot stronger than the previous test I made using blend shapes. I thought back to my APME project, and used mocap data applied to mannequins of 'zombie' style runs. I made these animations cycle continuously, and attached the FBX's to curve paths to guide them. I then added the fabric texture I had previously to all of these meshes, and set up the scene with big, dramatic gobo lighting.
NEW ENDING - As the project is about the fast fashion cycle, I want to end it with the denim fabric becoming a physical body, and walking out of the factory and then jumping off a cliff into the ocean.
This is meant to symbolise how we wear clothes straight of the rack, usually for no more than 7 uses, and then either give them away or dump them in the ocean.
The way I made this crowd was by making a very rough low poly model of the SUPER CONSUMER outfit that I made for my Pre Production module, changed the colours of the texture, and made a basic walk cycle using blend shapes. Up close, this looks very bad and unrefined, but from a distance, it gives the effect nicely. I made these walkers into a particle system on a ground plane and added some dystopian concrete and long shadows.
In the first week of the break, I had my new concept and idea fully realised - I made several 3D renders in Blender, showing an abstract start to finish of the fast fashion production line. Below is what I've figured out so far, using Adobe After Effects for the editing and sound sourced from Envato Elements. I feel that this is very cinematic and more in my style than the previous ideas were, so I'm enjoying working on this a lot more.
TB2 WEEK 10
This week, I have been really thinking about pushing the abstract animations. I am creating a series of small animations that reflect the processes that go on within the creation of textiles. I am making all of these in Blender, using a variety of techniques such as using 'quick fur' modifiers, cloth simulations and geometry nodes.
WEEK 9 DEVELOPMENTS AND CHANGES
I don't feel my shots are as strong as they could be, and I feel I am becoming increasingly unmotivated with my progression for this module. For this reason, I am changing a few of my shots and making them more 'abstract' as opposed to telling a story. This way, I can experiment with my lighting and shots while maintaining interest and the quality of my work.
TB2 WEEK 8
21/03/25
This week, I have been re-watching and assessing my current film - I am concerned that there isn't enough variation of shots, and too much repetition. For this reason, I am mixing the shots up a bit and rendering out some similar but different camera angles.
I have been working on the lamps from above and have added some volumetric light to act as grime/fog from above.
I have also been creating a similar but different shot of the jeans dropping into boxes - this time on a conveyor belt. I am using cloth simulations to drop the jeans - however, this is looking very glitchy and not accurate. I need to work on improving this to make it more viable and less CG looking.
I used bones and attached them to the box flaps to have control over them opening and closing.
TB2 WEEK 6
31/02/25
This week, I have been compiling my shots together based upon my pre-viz. So far, I am focusing on the transitions of shots, by using light leak effects and overlays sourced from Envato Elements.
TB2 WEEK 5
24/02/25
This week, I am rendering and compositing some more of the close up scenes. I am adding effects like camera shake and colour correction to add more realism.
TB2 WEEK 4
17/02/25
I have been working on the intro scene this week, and mostly adding interesting volumes and lighting. I want the scene to still feel eerie, but the colour to be bright in contrast to the odd setting. Moreover, I have been mixing textures from Ambient CG to create a 'run down' effect on the ceiling and floor.
TB2 WEEK 3
16/02/25
This week I have been rendering and colour grading more of the scenes - I like how the lighting and compositions are coming along, however I would really like to improve the models and add more assets in to the scene to create the sense of business.
TB2 WEEK 2
08/02/25
After getting some lecturer feedback on my more finalised shots, I was advised to remove some of the graininess from the textures on the metal and boxes.
TB2 - WEEK 1
29/01/25
I am refining and rendering the most major shots of my film and adding colour grading/camera movements. I am trying to improve all of this as I go.
28/01/25
This week, I am refining some of the shots, lighting and colours of my scenes, as well as creating more assets to go in them. I worked on the lighting particularly for the 'conveyor belt' scene, and have put a test render below. I think this is very successful in the colour grading and lighting, but I need to improve the look of the jeans to make them less like cut outs.
I have been experimenting with the lighting and compositions more here. The lighting is successful, but I want to improve on the textures of the workers outfits.
CHRISTMAS BREAK DECEMBER - JANUARY 27th
25/01/25
I have rendered out some small animation tests here to see how I can create the best lighting and volume in the scene.
24/01/25
I have been working on improving the lighting within the main factory setting. The most successful look is to use volume in the background to create the illusion of a never ending factory. I think the darker coloured shots are the most successful, so I will be pushing this lighting further.
My plan for the next few days is to try out some different colour grading in Adobe After Effects and render out one of the scenes. I still need to add the rest of the assets like thread, scissors and pins in, but I'd like to see how the scene plays out fully in colour so I can get a better feel of the finished result.
19/01/25
I have spent this week adding assets to the main factory setting, full of workers. I used new mocap data to create the workers, and designed these 'outfits' for them, simply by extruding the pre-existing mocap model and applying different colours to them. The sewing machines were too render heavy, so I had to do some retopology using blender modifiers to remove half of the vertices, but keep the shape of the machine. I have also been experimenting with the compositions and lighting a little more.
I want the textures to have a 'used toy' look to them. This bright and colourful setting will be full of cracks and worn down wallpaper. This is to symbolically show the truth beneath the cracks - all is not as it seems.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS AND CHANGES
16/01/25
As I am progressing into refining my scenes, I have been experimenting with the colour palette and overall aesthetic of the film. I have chosen to really enhance the colours and the childishness of the worker outfits, to juxtapose the inner workings of the factory. This is also much more motivating for me, as it links to my pre-production module, and I can have more fun with the look of the film.
I am going to pick bright colours for each different scene, and potentially make them brighter and more intense as the film goes on.
ALL TB1 WORK BELOW
I am confident with my pre-vis, so I am beginning to create finished assets. I modelled and textured the sewing machine completely using Blender nodes to get a scratched and used plastic look. I chose to make the machine green as it will go with the run-down green aesthetic of my film.
05/01/25
Over the break, I have spent my time understanding how I can make my pre-vis come to life, by fully realising some of my shots. I have been working on the lamp shot, and have been experimenting with Blender's different render engines and compositing in Adobe After Effects, to get the best results. To make this shot, I shone a 'gobo' (a free video from Pexels which I removed the red channel from) over the scene, to get organic movement and shadows. I made the flies by using simple spheres and having them follow curve paths.
WEEK 12
15.12.24
I am refining some of the shots now to fully visualise how it could look in the final render. I am using the lamp scene and building more assets, like scaffolding on the ceiling, and adding lots of volumetric light to create more drama. I am also adding a GOBO using a free video from Pexels which I have made transparent, and shone a spot light through it. This is to show the lamp is in front of a window, but locked away behind bars.
16/12/24
These are different renders using varying amounts of lighting and volume to create the lamp scene. The most successful is the top shot. I rendered this with Blender Cycles and composited it in Adobe After Effects, adding curves and dust overlays.
WEEK 10/11
12/12/24
This version of the animatic is the most refined so far - I have improved the ending, and have added fast glitchy overlays to the edit to create a sense of unease.
This week, I am improving my animatic further, by creating smaller assets to place throughout the scenes. I came up with the idea of green smiling faces, to juxtapose the harsh working conditions.
WEEK 9
I have decided to remove the physical bodies from the animatic, and just have the workers wearing clothes to convey the message that in these fast fashion factories, the workers' well being doesn't matter - they are simply there to make the clothes.
WEEK 8
21/11/24
This week, I have re-edited the 3D animatic in Adobe After Effects, and have used lots of repetition of the shots to make the film feel very stressful and hectic. The next steps will be to create some animation tests and lighting tests, and to block out my scenes in 3D with more assets and details.
WEEK 7
2D + 3D PAINT OVER ANIMATIC
11/11/24
My latest animatic uses 3D paint-over to give the scenes clarity, as my drawing skills are not clear enough. I've cut out a few of the less important and technically too tricky scenes, for example any shot with close up's of people, and moving fabric around where it's not necessary.
ANIMATIC
WEEK 6
07/11/24
As my animatic is lacking clarity in my drawings, I am blocking out my trickier scenes in Blender and then drawing over them. This is helping to make my animatic tell the story better.
06/11/24
From feedback, I was advised to add some mid shots of the workers, to ensure more clarity in the film. As it is a 'slice of life' style, I want my shots to be different but clear.
29/10/24 FIRST COMPLETED ANIMATIC
WEEK 4/5
27/10/24
From feedback, I have changed a few shots, such as the lamp flickering changing from being round to more angular, and I've made the opening to the factory much more intense and less inviting, with a sub woofer sound and harsher lines.
WEEK 3
21/10/24
I have been going through my shot list and drawing in scenes and making sure to add lots of movement - I am adding sound now in Adobe After Effects as it helps me to fully realize how the film will look.
DEVELOPMENTS AND CHANGES TO MY IDEA 15/10/24
Through my experimentation so far, I am finding that the idea to make all of my imagery very abstract might not be effective enough in showing the fast fashion factory. I am now thinking of creating a variety of close up and wide shots of the factory, to better show the 'slice of life' idea, and show the inhumane conditions that workers must endure.
15/10/24
I began to made some more polished storyboards here, drawn in Photoshop, and decided making a mini - animatic, experimenting with sound design and 2.5D by using Adobe After Effects. This was more so to see how far I can push my animatics and make them as developed as possible.
I sourced the sounds from Envato Elements, and edited them within my Adobe After Effects compositions.
I searched for 'wind' sound fx and found wind chimes - this inspired me to add a wind chime motif in the film - this sweet sound is used purposefully to juxtapose the awful conditions in the factory.
WEEK 2
13/10/24
'Yarn' test - this yarn was made in Blender, using a simple 3D model with a curve deform applied. It is textured using a combination of nodes, and I applied a hair particle system as well to give it some realness. I found that the render settings were key to making this believable; I added volume, soft lighting and a HDRI, as well as a wide lensed camera and depth of field.
Perhaps something I could improve on here is creating soft dust particles around the hairs in extreme detail to create more of a photoreal look.
09/10/24
First storyboards - exploring abstract close ups of textiles and fabrics.
08/10/24
These tests are to see what I can do with material nodes in Blender - I found that the most realistic settings are to use a combination of texture nodes,(magic, wave and bump vector maps) layered with a hair particle system. This is what gives it the fuzziness.
Here, the collision distance from cloth to object was too large, and so was falling into the table.
These were the most successful render tests - I encountered many issues with the cloth simulation breaking when hitting the collision object, which was a cube underneath it - however, I think this creates the illusion of fabric moving through a sewing machine, and might use this in my future work.
WEEK 1
05/10/24
Here I created a quiet, run down environment which captures the lack of life in fast fashion factories, despite the never ending surge of people working there. I modelled this scene in Blender, using textures from Ambient CG for the walls and floor. I took photos of my own clothes which I turned into cloth simulations, hanging up in the breeze of the window. My focus here was to create natural lighting and a cinematic composition. After creating the scene, I added colour grading, camera shake, and sound FX in Adobe After Effects.
05/10/24
I used photos of my clothes to create 3D cloth simulations in Blender, inside a small environment I modelled, and using textures from 'Ambient CG'. I then created my own gobo lighting by using a free video from 'Pexels' and using shader nodes to make realistic outdoor shadows.
04/10/24
Climbing cloth simulation - I did this test to see how much control I can have over a cloth sim. Rendered in Cycles in Blender.
05/10/24
Cloth Jeans Simulation Test - made using a photo of my jeans in Blender
04/10/2024
Silk Cloth Simulation Test, created and textured in Blender, rendered in Eevee
04/10/2024
Hanging Cloth Simulation Test, created and textured in Blender, rendered in Eevee
