Mr.Dusty Making Of

MR.DUSTYthe making of

by Serin Inan

the making ofMR.DUSTY

indexThe Concept 2The Aim 3The structure and the curriculum 4The form 5Narrative Flow 6Mr.Dusty’s Background Story 7-8The Stage 9-10Ottoman Miniatures 11 -12Hat Revolution 13-14Character design 153DModel 17the book rig 19the pipeline 21user testing 22-23horon 24color coding 25render farm 26list of consultants 27

Mr. Dusty is a digital pop-up book series, which represents important historical events to Turkish children between 7 and 9 years old. Children are expected to memorize historic events without understanding their relevance therefore; they often lose their interest in history. Mr. Dusty’s goal is to engage children and introduce historic moments by visualizing them through 3D animation and humorous character design.

SYNOPSIS

the mind map


HISTORY FUNFOR KIDS

METAPHORS

7-9 YEARS OLD

STORYTELLING

EDUCATIONAL

METHODANIMATION

20TH CENTURYPOLITICALHISTORY

CHARACTER DESIGN

3D POP-UP BOOK

RECONNECTCHILDRENHISTORY

THE CONCEPT

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When I was 7 years old, I used to like watching TV a lot. I believe, I have learned a lot from Sesame Street and many other educational TV series for children at those times. Right now when I turn on TV, I can’t find any edu-cational animation for children. When I made a survey for my animation, in Ahmet Vefik Pasa Public School in Turkey in December 2011, I found out that, the most liked TV series for children in Turkey right now is Sponge Bob Square Pants. This could be because the lack of animation series on TV and/or the success of Sponge Bob. Today’s children are more exposed to visuals compared to my generation. I believe with right context, content and distribution, Mr. Dusty will be a good tool where he won’t be a new history teacher for children but he will be a teaching aid for the history teacher.

THE AIMbook_openning_scene

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Children are visual by nature; the humor and empathy created in cartoons naturally lend them to a child's understanding of the world. Why not take the advantage of that natural attraction to cartoons in classrooms? The strength of the images and the power of the messages will help teachers in their classes. When I was researching the current history curriculum in primary schools in Turkey in December 2011, I found out that the images inside the schoolbooks are very low resolution and old hence they are not attractive at all. In order to help to make the history curriculum more attractive, I tried to use elements of commercial television in structuring the format of Mr. Dusty like: a strong visual style, fast-moving action, humor and music. I know that children of today don’t have long attention spans. So each episode is designed as a 2:40 min long interstitial program that is often shown in-between movies or other TV programs on TV chan-nels. My main aim in creating this kind of structure is to awaken the curi-osity of children to the important historic events while they are having fun watching the humorous Mr. Dusty. Thus, Mr. Dusty and his history book can be shown in different media platforms like iPad, iPhone, computers and TV in the near future.

THE STRUCTURE and THE CURRICULUM ottoman_scene_2D_sketch

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In each episode Mr. Dusty will take us to an important historic event, which took place during 1920-1938 (the important period in Turkish history where a lot of revolutions happened) For my thesis purposes, I focused on one pilot episode; which is the Hat Revolution in 1925. I chose Hat Revolution as my pilot episode because right now in Turkey, religious people see that Hat Revolution as a treat to Muslim belief and they try to find a way to bring turban back as an everyday outfit for women. There have been many discussions going on about this subject and I think, it would be a good start to show the young generation, what we have been through in 1920’s. The next episodes will be, the Alphabet Revolution, Women's Suffrage, changing the capital city from Istanbul to Ankara, Sur-name Law, New Numeric System and Calendar etc.

THE FORM

FEZTOHAT

VEILTOHAT

ottoman_people

ottoman_soldiers

hat_revolution_ataturk_and_women

hat_revolution_ataturk_and_friends

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In each episode Mr. Dusty will find his subject inside an old newspaper. He will take some time to figure out how to represent that subject visually and then he will run through the pages of his history book in order to find the right mise-en-scene for the subject. He will make some mistakes while he is trying to act fast; but in the end he will find the right object for his visual representation of that historic event.

NARRATIVE FLOWnewspaper_scene

Mr.Dusty tries to find the right hat for the revolution

hat revolution stills_1 hat revolution stills_2

hat revolution stills_3 hat revolution stills_4

Mr_Dusty_running

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Mr. Dusty was born to a fisherman's family in the Black Sea region of Turkey. He grew up playing on green hills and swimming with his friends. When he was 18 years old, he became a fisherman like his father and his grandfather and his great-grandfather. Unfortunately, he was not a suc-cessful fisherman and he didn’t enjoy catching fish in the sea. One day, he realized that he was not happy about his life; he didn’t even like to eat fish at all. Black Sea people like to eat fish a lot at every course; hence, every-one is a fisherman. They even invented a fish dessert. After many depressed days and nights, pretending to be a fish person, Mr. Dusty figured out that he wants to get out of this place and travel until he finds what he wants to do in his life. There must be a life other than catching fish and eating them, he thought.

MR. DUSTY’S BACKGROUND STORYthe making ofMR.DUSTY

Dusty’s background_Blacksea_01

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But then, how will he even get out of this place, where everybody knows every detail about each other. He has to do something extraordinary. He has to catch that big eel that everybody is talking about these days. The governor organized a competition with a reward, for the first brave fisher-man who could catch that big eel. So Mr. Dusty waited and waited to catch the big fish. Suddenly, when he was half asleep he felt a strong vibration on the boat. He thought finally the eel has arrived to save his life. He pulled and he pulled but the thing came from the sea was not fish at all, it was a huge book who was hungry to catch a man...

MR. DUSTY’S BACKGROUND STORY

Dusty’s background_Blacksea_2 Dusty’s background_Blacksea_3

Dusty’s background_Blacksea_4 Dusty’s background_Blacksea_5

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When Mr. Dusty thought he caught the ‘big eel’ while he was fishing, the old history book came out of the sea and ate him up. After that point Mr. Dusty got stuck inside that book. The first reason I used a book as my stage is that, we learn history from books. The second reason is, each page of the book contains an important historic event in itself and when Mr. Dusty wants to explain a particular historic event, he runs through the pages and finds the right page for that event. Instead of using a text-based book, I preferred to use a pop-up book for my stage. When I was a child I used to like pop-up books a lot. I think they have a magical look and feel compared to a regular text-based book. Pop-up book enables to visualize written stories.

THE STAGE

Mr.Dusty_running_through_pages

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The tactility of the pop-up book creates a 3D space where one feels him/herself inside that particular page. Thus each page surprises the user by showing how many different pictures can be folded and unfolded on a page. When I researched about pop-up books, I find out that most pop-up books are about fairytales and super heroes. I couldn’t find a pop-up, which is related to actual historic events. Since I am going to make a digital pop-up book for my project, I researched about them too. I found out that digital pop-up books are already out there but they are generally used for TV commercials. I couldn’t find any digital pop-up book where it was used as an educative tool for children. I believe with the exploration of the e-books and devices like iPad; digital pop-up books will become a sub-category of e-books where the user can actually flip the page with his/her finger and experience the paper pop-up book feel digitally.

THE STAGE

ottoman pop-up_01

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The understanding of perspective is different from that of the European Renaissance Painting tradition. In min-iatures every human figure should be small and of equal size with each other. This is because all human beings are equal under God, in Muslim belief. The only power is God and all human beings are God’s servants.

Ottoman Miniature is an art form in the Otto-man Empire. They represent different time periods and spaces. Ottoman Miniature themes include religious festival gatherings, palace entertainments, ambassadorial receptions, council meetings, life outside the palace, etc. Ottoman Miniatures were not signed. This is partly because of the worldview of the tradition that rejected individualism. Hence, they were not created entirely by one person; the head painter designed the composition of the scene and his apprentices drew the contours with black or colored ink and then painted the min-iature without creating an illusion of a third dimension.

OTTOMAN MINIATURES

01_ottoman miniatures by Levi


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The predominant colors were bright red, scar-let, green and different shades of blue. The domes of the mosques were painted pale blue in order to merge them with the sky, which they believed where God/Allah is. Gilt was used in architectural details, in the back-ground and the foreground of calligraphic works. Miniatures are very important and unique historical resources, which visualize the evolution of the Ottoman lifestyle over a long period of time.


OTTOMAN MINIATURES

04-06_ottoman miniatures by Levi

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Ataturk’s (the great liberal reformer and founder of modern Turkey) reform of clothing emphasized the need to wear modern Western suits with neck-ties as well as Fedoras and Derby-style hats instead of antiquated religious-based clothing such as the veil and turban. When Ataturk started the Hat Revolution after he founded the Turkish Republic, his aim was to create a soci-ety where religious clothing was only acceptable for the clergy. The Hat Law of 1925 introduced the use of Western-style hats instead of fez and turban. In order to achieve success in his revolu-tion, Ataturk first made the hat com-pulsory to civil servants.

hat revolution/Ataturk/Afet Inan

hat revolution/Ataturk/highschool girls

hat revolution/Ataturk/Afet Inan

HAT REVOLUTION november 28 1925

The guidelines for the proper dressing of students and state employees were passed during his lifetime; many civil servants adopted the hat willingly.

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Ataturk introduced hat in 1925, by wearing his Panama hat during a public appearance in Kastamonu, one of the most conservative towns in Anato-lia, in order to explain that the hat was the headgear of civilized nations. Even though Ataturk personally promoted a modern dress code for women, he never made specific reference to women’s clothing in the law, as he believed that women would adapt to the new clothing styles with their own free will. My grandmother was Ataturk’s foster daughter. She had a chance to witness all the revolutions during 1923 – 1935 and pro-vided a real role model for modern Turkish women by her modern outfit and her active role in politics in her everyday life. At those times women were not educated hence they were not active in the political scene, they even didn’t have a right to vote. My grandmother, who became a very important Turkish historian and sociologist, was the leader of the move for women's suffrage in 1935 in Turkey, and she was the first women member of the new parliament

ottoman life style

sultan

HAT REVOLUTION november 28 1925

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In May 2010 I took a Character Studio class and created two hand-drawn 2D Turkish characters that represent Turkish gypsy musicians. I took one of the Turkish gypsy musician characters, and redesigned it for my thesis project. That character was a very appropriate character because he pos-sesses a lot of visual middle-class Turkish characteristics. I named him Mr. Dusty because he lives inside an old dusty history book. He became the main character and also the narrator. He leads the story by moving through the pages of the pop-up book. Creating the lead character first helped me visualize the look and feel of the narration and also assisted me in placing the point of view in my narration. Having his character bible and 3D clay model from last May, I was familiar with his shapes and char-acteristics. For my thesis purposes, I recreated him as a 3D model in Maya.

CHARACTER DESIGN

MR.DUSTYas narratorclay modelblack and white sketch colored sketch

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TURN AROUND

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS2D turn around_MR.Dusty

2D expressions_MR.Dusty

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3D MODEL

3D model3D first render

I changed his outfit and added more exaggerated items in order to make him look funnier and more charming for children. Even though I was familiar with his construction, I had many problems to resolve with his structure when I was modeling him in Maya. I realized that creating a 3D model from a hand-drawn still character sketch is not an easy task to achieve. Maya wants smooth, precise geometrical shapes to model and also to animate; whereas in drawing you can go as crazy as you want if you are not going to animate it. I think there is a huge difference between characters designed for animation and characters designed for illustration. Not every cute character is suitable for animation.

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3D RENDER

3D model

3D model close up

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THE BOOK RIG

fold_unfold sketches

How to create the illusion of folding and unfolding objects was a big ques-tion mark for me when I started the project. First, I used basic geometrical shapes in order to understand the mathematics behind the pop-up idea. I realized that even with simple geometrical shapes, it is not a simple con-struct. I managed to fold and unfold one geometrical shape while flipping the pages in Maya, but when I tried to use the same technique for the other shapes in the scene, I had technical problems. Even though I spent a lot of time to redo the scene again and again by trying different methods, there was an unusual and illogical thing happening inside the scene, where the shapes moved not according to their pivots. They started flying around and not obeying, when the code said that they should. I took a step back and started to draw the structure for analyzing the pipeline. I figured out two different logical approaches on paper.

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Designing the Ottoman Scene and Turkish Republic Scene

hat_scene_visuals

Before I started building and deciding on those pipelines, I chose to finish the actual illustrations that I would be using in those pop-up scenes. I sat down in front of my drawing pad and drew the objects in the scenes in order to visualize the mise-en-scene when everything popped up. I scanned each object separately and colored them in Photoshop. It was challenging to decide the look and feel of the scene in such a short period. It took almost two weeks for me to finish up all the illustrations and to place them at the right spots inside the book. On the other hand, finishing the illustrations gave me time to rethink the shapes and the folding methods of the objects. I realized that I was thinking complex geometrical shapes before I drew my illustrations. I figured out that with the help of alpha channel (transparency) in Photoshop I could project each illustration on to any polygon planes in Maya. So I saved each of my colored illustrations as PNG files (a format that includes the alpha channel) in Photoshop and used them as source images for each shader in Maya, and then I used those shaders on simple polygon planes to create a knock out of the colored illustrations. After that, the only thing I had to figure out was to find different folding methods for those simple polygon planes so that they would look like they were different shapes.

ottoman_scene_visuals

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THE PIPELINE

Dusty opening the book

After solving the pop-up technique, I moved on to my next step, which was the book rig for the opening of the book itself. I modeled a book in Maya and textured it by using images I created in Photoshop. Since I was familiar with "blend shapes", I used a linear blend deformer in Maya for my page turn animations. After that, I created a skeleton for the two sides of the book cover by using joints. That was the tricky part of that book rig. In Maya 2011 there is a bug with the "paint weight tool”. I experienced a lot of problems because of that bug. No matter how properly I painted the weights for the joints, the book opening kept messing up each time. I redid it many times but the problem was still there. So, I gave up using the paint weight tool and entered numbers for each vertex influence for each joint in the ‘component editor’. This actually yielded more precise results because of the control that entering mathematical values provided.

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USER TESTING

user testing_01 user testing_02

After dealing with many bureaucratic problems, I managed to arrange a talk with the first grade teacher Ilknur Calis, who works at the public Ahmet Vefik Pasa Primary School in my neighborhood, in Ankara. I explained my thesis and asked her permission to show and test my work with her students during the class hour. She liked what I have been doing so far and told me about the lack of educational TV programs for children on TV these days. She arranged a class hour for me, and I prepared a multiple-choice survey with pictures. It was quite challenging to prepare a survey for 7-year-old children. I knew that they had just learned how to read and write, so I tried to use big fonts and easy sentences in order to get clear and direct feedback from them. Even though I thought a multiple-choice survey would be easier for a younger audience, compared to a regular questionnaire, it turned out that students had never seen a mul-tiple choice test before. Ilknur explained to them how to do it and read the questions out loud to the class. Since it was a public school there were no technical facilities in the classroom (like DVD player, projector etc.); hence, we grouped students in groups of five, and I showed my latest prototype to them on my laptop.

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While I was playing my animation, I also tried to explain what would happen next and what I am trying to achieve in this animation. Since neither the students nor the teachers were experienced in seeing an unfinished work, they were confused. But they liked the visual experience; therefore, all student groups wanted to see the animation three times. There were 35 students inside the classroom.

USER TESTING

Dusty_ottoman_01

user testing_03

Dusty_ottoman_02

Dusty_ottoman_03 Dusty_revolution_0123


HORON

the traditional horon dance

Mr.Dusty’s Horon Dance 01

Mr.Dusty’s Horon Dance 02

Horon is a traditional dance, which is famous in the Black Sea Region. The movements slightly vary from city to city, but the music stays the same. The lyrics are generally about fish -- cook-ing the fish, eating the fish, catch-ing the fish, etc. It is a very ener-getic dance. The most important thing about this traditional dance is its social aspect. Whenever one sees that someone is dancing Horon one should join him or her and share the joy of the dance. Black Sea people show their hap-piness and excitement by dancing Horon all the time.

The Traditional Dance of the Black Sea

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Before I started building and deciding on those pipelines, I chose to finish the actual illustrations that I would be using in those pop-up scenes. I sat down in front of my drawing pad and drew the objects in the scenes in order to visualize the mise-en-scene when everything popped up. I scanned each object separately and colored them in Photoshop. It was challenging to decide the look and feel of the scene in such a short period. It took almost two weeks for me to finish up all the illustrations and to place them at the right spots inside the book. On the other hand, finishing the illustrations gave me time to rethink the shapes and the folding methods of the objects. I realized that I was thinking complex geometrical shapes before I drew my illustrations. I figured out that with the help of alpha channel (transparency) in Photoshop I could project each illustration on to any polygon planes in Maya. So I saved each of my colored illustrations as PNG files (a format that includes the alpha channel) in Photoshop and used them as source images for each shader in Maya, and then I used those shaders on simple polygon planes to create a knock out of the colored illustrations. After that, the only thing I had to figure out was to find different folding methods for those simple polygon planes so that they would look like they were different shapes.

COLOR CODING

ottoman pop-up_01 ottoman pop-up_02

hat pop-up_01 hat pop-up_02

RENDERING

When visually presenting a time and atmosphere change inside the pop-up book, I used different colored "ambient occlusion" shaders to save time. For the Ottoman Scene I used a saturated yellowish color, and for the Revolution Scene I used a dark red color as my ambient occlusion shader and assigned them to each object’s ambient color in that particular scene. This method almost created the same effect as the “global illumi-nation” and helped me create an ambience without the use of any light in the scene. After I constructed my hyper shades with their assigned ambi-ent color, I lit up the big scenes and used them as references for my other scenes. I didn’t use any "global illumination" or "final gathering" when I was rendering my scenes in order to shorten the render time.

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RENDER FARM

render_farm_prep_01script_texture_manager

Even though the entire project is around two minutes, I ended up creating 35 different scenes for the project. The purple files above represent my actual scenes and the red ones represent the references I used in each scene. When dealing with a lot of references, textures and source images, one needs to be super careful in order not to miss a texture or a small map outside the project folder. I was going to render my project on a PC-based farm. However, my project is built on a Mac and all my texture files and references have an absolute file path. Obviously this was problematic when I was transferring the file to the PC. Even though I tried to archive the project with all my references, the file paths were still absolute. I needed to find a way to convert those paths into a relative path, where the top most folder is simply my project folder. After searching a lot I found a script called File Texture Manager, which solved my problem and saved me a lot of time.

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SPECIAL THANKS

ANEZKA SEBEKBARBARA MORRIS

JASON WOLLEYZACH SHUKA

NINO MENDOLIATOLGA YILDIZ



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Irepoglu,Gul. Levni: Nakı" #iir Renk, Ministry of Culture, Istanbul, 1999

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Kundert-Gibbs, John and Lee, Peter. Mastering Maya 3. Sybex. San Francisco, 1999.

Szasz, Suzanne. The Body Language of Children. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. New York, 1978.

Thomas, Frank and Ollie Johnston. The Illusion of Life, New York: Disney, 1984.

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references

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Mr.Dusty Making Of

Documents

Transcript of Mr.Dusty Making Of