ONE is more / Romeo & Juliet / A Final Visualisation Project

Visualising Romeo & Juliet / R&D / Deanna Crisbacher

Following Computer Animation Arts' animated adaptation of Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra, comes Hector Berlioz's Romeo & Juliet (1839).  In common with our previous visualisations of classical music, our resulting animated response to Berlioz's composition will be screened live at concerts in Katowice, Poland in February 2019 and in Amiens and Soissons, France in March.  In contrast to Red & The Kingdom Of Sound, this final visualisation of sound will be non-narrative, focusing instead on data visualisation and CG simulations.  The four parts of Berlioz's composition are showcased below.

The provisional methodology of the project is outlined within the following presentation: put simply, we're hoping to use Berlioz's music as an agent by which we can create animated simulations from datasets that pertain thematically to each of the four pieces of music.  For example, I've been working with an academic at Harvard University who is an expert of dreams and dreaming, and who has compiled numerical data sets relating to the different constituents of individuals' dreams.  By taking Berlioz's La Reine Mab ou la fee des songes (aka Queen Mab, Queen Of Dreams) and using it to visually activate the dream data, we're hoping we can create abstract animations that synch with the music accordingly.

Once again, I'll be working with CAA alumni, Ethan Shilling - a creative force with which to be reckoned! - who is currently investigating all the likely ways by which we might use Berlioz's music to visualise the different data sets for each of the four movements of Romeo & Juliet.  Below is Ethan's very first excursion into using Autodesk Maya as the mediator between sound and image.

Recent CAA graduate, Deanna Crisbacher, is likewise joining the project, her mission to ensure our resulting simulations are things of beauty!  Again, it's incredibly early days, but Dee's already been tinkering around with Ethan's original simulation to interesting effect!

This is the inaugural post for our new visualisation project - expect more frequent updates from this point forward!  Watch this space!

Chapter 14: The Percussion District Shots 01 - 15

Shots 01 - 15

Shots 16 - 20


Shots 21 - 27



Shots 28 - 33

Shots 31 - 44

Chapter 7: The Viola District Composited Scenes

Shots 01 - 16

Chapter 8: The Cello District Composited Scenes

Shots 01 - 14

Modelling: The Finale, The Race to the Conductor

As a precursor to the big "Metropolis" reveal Red is joined by the citizens of this musical world in a frenetic dash to the Finale. In this section Red is deposited by a flock of birds and runs along a track whilst being accosted by the mischievous King on his Paladin. Compared to putting the Metropolis together this environment is stark, however it will be populated by a cornucopia of musical fellows which will, no doubt, steal the show.

YPGTTO: The Overture. More Render and Shot Tests

Shots 20, 21, 29, 30, 31, 32

These render tests don't feature any effects (such as lights turning on).

YPGTTO: The Overture. More Render and Shot Tests

Shots 15, 16, 18, and 19

A few more rendered tests. Shot 16 is still rendering.

YPGTTO: The Overture. More Render and Shot Tests

Shots 11, 12, 13, 14

More render tests for four shots. Shot 12 is a static shot (at least in the pre-viz) and may need to 

be animated.

YPGTTO: The Overture. Render and Shot Tests

Shots: 02,04,05,06,07,and 08

Here are few render tests for the Overture shots. In most cases these have been a successful (beyond play-blasting), to perhaps see in more detail how the shaders and colours work in motion.  I've not added any compositing to these shots, they are straight out of Maya, and they include an extra 48 frames bleed.

The Tuba and Trombone: Royal Palanquin

The Tuba and Trombone Signage

The Entrance to the Overture

The entrance to the overture. I still need to investigate what happened to the indoors floor. 

Tuba and Trombone: Interior Texturing 2

After adjusting the shadow colours and placing the lights in different places:

Texturing: The Horn District

The Horn District is now textured and ready. It took some tweaking, as the original concept art contained some blue shades, blacks and cooler tones. However, it was decided to stick with warm tones and dusk colours to keep with the aesthetic of brass...so those colours were then tweaked and changed into pinks, reds, oranges, yellows, or warmer toned purples.

Texturing: The Viola District

The Viola District is now full of life and colour. I enjoyed creating the set, so I was glad I had the chance to work on texturing this District as well.

Modelling: The Finale

After finishing the dreaded Conveyor Belt of Doom I started to piece together the various  district models in order to create the Finale, which is essentially a cornucopia of wedding cake constructions.

Eventually components of this will be animated in order to show the orchestra crystallising into it's final form.

Texturing: The Percussion District

The Percussion District is now all textured and ready. I found it quite challenging to get the colours to work together without buildings blending together too much and ensuring that it looked like a nighttime scene, but I'm happy with how it came out.

Tuba and Trombone: Interior Texturing

The interior of trombone and tuba is now textured. I am still having some issues with mental ray so below are not renders, just screenshots. 

Texturing: The Percussion District's 'Machine of Doom'

This is my first try at texturing for YPGTTO, so I decided to start with the Machine of Doom first so I could focus on this one conveyor belt before moving onto a whole digital set. It took a little while to get used to, but I think/hope I set things up correctly and I think it's come out alright. I used a layered shader on the conveyor belt xylophone keys to add a little extra detail to them.