Process Part Three – App design

I have made the App design informative and easy to understand. There are three main logos the first is the customise layer. The first two screens Levels and Colours these two screens focus of user experience and how the user can customise and change the visualisation style to suit their preferences. The second logo is for the graph and stats pages. On these pages the user can compare data. Through graphs showing the X Y Z axis rotation and the ability to compare different data sets through time and visualisation style. The last logo is the for video of live action footage, 3D visualisations and optical segment footage. On these 3 pages the user can slow down and manipulate the footage and learn from it.

Each of these pages can be combined using the combine page to create a page for a comparison between different kinds of data. For example If the user wanted to see a data set as a 3D visualisation and compare that to its X axis graph. On the comparison page they would select 3D and X axis. A page that shows both the 3D and X axis graph would be created.

 

Three logo designs and combination pages

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

App screen tree 

 

Through focus groups and reading journals ,by sports psychologists, I concluded that using the app to help a person explore and learn about the data and subsequently their body. The App would aid rehabilitation because knowledge and understanding, gained through exploration using the app, increases confidence. One of the main barriers in rehabilitation (especially sports injury) is psychological. When a person learns about what has happened and understands their body better this will aid confidence and therefore help in the process of rehabilitation.

Process- Part 2

Texturing and 3d data

The texturing colour choice and decisions came after a lot of colour change and adaptation. Through informal focus group and discussions the blue outer body with green mapping was chosen. This is because the blue was seen as a neutral colour and it was easy to see differences in the different grading of green.

 

Comp 1 from Rebecca Paul on Vimeo.

 

 

The green colour prototype works by showing when joints go out of rotation (which can be quite a normal thing) but the brighter the green the more stress and variation from the norm. This highlights an area to focus and look into in more detail.

I used a dance turn where I had used the same camera move in maya as I had in my edit to show a smooth transition frame from live action to 3D data visualisation. this was to highlight how the visualisation is the same true movement as the live action movements.

Rendering

I tried a few different ways of rendering but my final composite was done with a whole body texture layer- this layer contains just the blue outline and has no lights. The colour changing legs are rendered separately along with an AO layer for definition in the legs.  These were composited in after effects using duplicates to add glow. Brightness and motion blur were a few of the other things also added.However,  I tried to keep it as true to the data as possible.

Animation

Everything (apart from the hands) in animated using motion analysis data. This was done in motion builder. The process is very precise and you must line up each of your rigged joints to the particular optical segment. This is all done in a T pose firstly to an ‘actor’ model that is a preset in motion builder. This animation is then transfers and saved in motion builder. You must the open the motion builder scene that contains your character (rigged and named correctly). You then have to transfer that animation to your rigged character. To bring it into maya you must tell motion builder to use the skeleton for animation and bake the movement onto it before sending the file to maya. No data was collected for the hand movement so Tom and myself animated the hands using visual reference (It was mostly Tom) so the hands weren’t hanging heavy at the side and distracting from the rest of the animation.

Why Dance

I choose to use the dance data in my final film because it was more visually appealing and although I’d done all my test using walking data I also wanted to test it would work using something more complicated. This also highlights how different sportspeople in different fields could use these techniques in the rehabilitation process.

 

 

Play blast- showing animation, 11 camera shots and where data collection points are on the body

 

playblast from Rebecca Paul on Vimeo.

 

I had to re do the weight painting a few times before this became the final version

Process -Part 4

Credits

My final credits I went for a clean easy transition just quick and simple. I thought this kept it neat and I mentioned the people who had given me considerable help with my research and short film.

Although I did try a few alternate ways. I filmed my credits being swiped away on an iPad screen. Although I thought this was a good idea it ended up not really tying in well with the rest of the film. I don’t think it looked as nice as the smile credits but rather looked quite clumsy and i felt it was unnecessary and didn’t really give anything extra to the film.

 

Process- Part one

The process of creating my film started with editing all the film footage Kieran, Tom and myself had shot whilst I was collecting dance data for my film. This first part of the film is to show the process of collecting the data and how exact and carefully done it is. It makes people aware of the Ninewells Lab and hopefully teaches them about the process of collecting motion analysis data as well as the important, precise work they do there.

The video shots were cut tweaked and edited in Premier. I cut the hours of footage down to 3 mins and then down to 45 seconds to try to show just enough detail that explains the process. I used some nice transition shots and I think it fits together well. I also did a bit of colour correction and warp stabilising on certain shots but i felt that the colour worked quite well it has a slight yellow tint and I think this adds to the clinical feel and look that I was trying to emulate.

I edited 2 cute the first is the 45 seconds at the start of my film the second is a dance edit. I did this so I could use real life camera movement in my Maya scene to try to create some realistic shots which makes the data element of my film quite interesting.

 

Comp, Edit,App

Finished Rendering. I have been composting and editing the last weeks as well as some App Design. I’ve also done maybe a million AE tutorials they are quite addictive – trying to not get distracted. The end is in sight! 4 weeks to go!

 

Logo

Looking into different Idea for my app style and logo. I still haven’t cracked it yet, but at the moment, I am explore shapes that relate to the motion capture process and combining them with the colours of my visualisations. I am also exploring the themes of motion, transiting and movement.

Combining

I have now started composting my render layers together recreating the live action shots in 3D and working out how to combine the two. Also working out the brightness and contrast etc to try and work out what looks best and is easiest to understand. 

Rendering

For my rendering I have three layers for each camera. an animated texture layer a blue shader layer and an AO layer. There  are 9 cameras that mirror(track) the live action camera moves. Each layer is number and in separate image folders

Progression

Recently I have been texturing my model doing render tests and compositing my 3D elements of my film. The progression of my model shows it now a a blue luminescent shader done with inversion and sss and green thermal mapping type texture over the legs.  The blue body shape helps the patient/ participant understand the movement in relation to there body. The green areas highlight stress levels ( in theory) of where the rotation varies from the norm. I have started adding this together with the dance sequence motion data and done a few practise edits and composites and am now adding it to some live action footage.

 

Weight Painting

After weight painting my model maybe 5 time I am now an expert weight painter! But I think it’s looking quite good now!

Filming

Lovely sunny day at the beach for a bit of filming for Tom, Steph and Kieran’s film. Excited! It’s all coming together.