Final Animation Part 4

After rendering the animation putting the scenes together the final animation is now complete. I am happy with what the final out come look like as it was similar to the idea I had when I first made my story board in weeks 3 and 4.

Overall I am happy with the quality of the animation. However I am disappointed not to have included more sound in the piece as that is what I wanted to achieve from the outset. This couldn't be achieved however with difficulties in the rendering making me concentrate on that more the the added effects to the animation. Also the sound I included in the piece didn't come out in the finished render, which was disappointing. the scene where there is a close up of R2D2 spinning his head would have been better if I had been able to include the sound effects of him panicking to go with it. That was meant to be a funny scene but without the sound it doesn't make much impact.

I am happy with the range of techniques I used, with the change of cameras to give the viewer more information like with the close up of the intecepter to emphasis the X-Wing spotting it. Also the quick change of camera in the same scene helps with the illusion of action in the animation.

I am happy with the animation itself also. Using a range of techniques from key frames in the final scene to motion paths used throughout the scene to connecting the ships to react to each other based on movements.

I think the lighting in the animation could have been better. This however was tricky to achieve as I had differing results on the same project by using the mac and windows on the same project. This meant the colour of the lights changed when switching computers and due to my home pc being a mac this was a problem I couldn't avoid.

Again a similar problem occurred with the environment sphere. The picture placed on it could transfer between computers and crashed the pc a couple of times. This was rectified in the rendering process as I had to change the sphere each render to get the effect I wanted.

Favourite scene: Close up on intecpeter

Had I had more time and a windows PC at home I think I could have made a better final product then I have. However that said I am still happy with the final product as I believe there are alot of good ideas in there that have come out really well and with a little touch up here and there this would have been exactly as I wanted when I set out to make it in week 6.

Lazer beams could have been in shot longer 

(I couldn't upload any videos to the blog as they all exceed the 100MB limit)

Final Animation Update Part 2

With the animations of the ships finished, I needed to add lights to the scene. This I found hard as there are many selections of lights in maya. The one I found most effective was the point light as it added the effect to the scene as if it was using the default light settings. As this is what I used when creating the scene and it was what i wanted the scene to look like i felt using this lighting technique was the best way forward. However as it is set in space I wanted the lighting to be a shade of yellow to replicate the sun. This ended up meaning the lights were changed to 3, 2, and 1 in the colour column to get a yellowy orange colour on the scene. However this wasn't the same for every scene and I wanted white light in other scenes. Also as I wanted some things to be highlighted in other ways I used directional lights with the spot lights to highlight objects such as the space station. Also as I have included the X-Wing shooting at the intercepter, I wanted the cylinders shooting at them to emit light. To use this technique I used the youtube tutorial on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CijESEporUo to help me with this new technique. Also i have added all the sky domes to my scene.

The picture show the gun on the left getting ready to fire a cylinder which in render time would have a glow to it, it is then fired at the ship in front. It also shows the sky dome surrounding the scene. 

I also tried to add some sound to the animation within maya but it didn't come out as I expected. The sound wasn't very loud and was muffled. I am trying to see if adding sound to the animation after the animation has been rendered would be an easier thing to do.

Final Animation Part 3

Having searched new techniques of how to put sound on the animation, I used this tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wF0hz9anQ0 to add sound to the final project. The sounds I added were a take off sound to scene 1, a blast off sound to scene 2, the shooting sound effects to scene 4 and the star wars theme song to scene 6 to end the animation. Now all is left to do is render the animation and test whether the animation I created was the one I expected in the inspector. The sound appears to be working in the inspector when I drag the time line along, so this should be the case in the animation.

Final Animation Update

I have split my final animation into 6 separate scenes as I found that easier to split it onto different sections and work on the different sections with their own movements and camera's. So far i have the bare bones of the animation i want to do as the movements and positions are all in place. The things i have found difficult are animating the asteroids individually to look as if they are moving towards the ship and the ship is dodging them, also I found positioning the camera relative to the action quite hard. In all the scenes I have deleted the sphere that would be the environment as I am working at home and the mac wouldn't allow me to put the texture on the existing sphere and crashed so I have left that to when I am back in the Lab session tuesday. In the scene 1 I have done I have used the motion paths and camera following it. The X-Wing rises from the station and this is the first scene finished. Also I have modelled a space station based on the one in this picture (below) but have left the texturing blank as I needed to concentrate on the animations. This could be textured once all animations are finished if I have enough time.

SpaceStation

This shows the ship rising on space station

The second scene changes camera to an over the shoulder type shot but over the space stations shoulder to see the X-Wing fly off into space at speed, this is the first 5 seconds of the animation complete. I used the motion path again to set the speed and distance that the X-Wing would fly off.

Over the shoulder shot of space station

The third scene shows the X-Wing in space and spotting the tie interceptor in space. The camera then shoots towards the interceptor to emphasis the point that the X-Wing has seen it.

The fourth seen follows and shows the X-Wing pursuing it and ending up at the asteroid field. Again here I used the motion paths that intertwine with each other to give the illusion of a high speed chase and also used the animation of the camera to show the X-Wing spotting the ship.

The fifth scene was the hardest to do as it included the asteroids, I had to use the motion paths again and use them to move around the asteroids and then I had to animate the asteroids to make them come at the X-Wing, to make it look like the asteroid field was moving itself. Again i used the same camera shot as in the 3rd scene as it makes the watcher become immersed in the asteroids as they fly at them but i change camera half way through to give the watcher an idea of where the X-Wing is in relation to the asteroid field.

The sixth and final scene shows the X-Wing come around the moon to show that the Intercepter had retreated to the bigger ship the defender. The ship looks at both of them, R2D2's head swivels to induce panic and then the X-Wing retreats at high speed. I used the normal key animation to get the high speed movement but also used the aim connection on both the other ships to make it look like they are watching the X-Wing leave.

This is the bare bones of my project and it will look a lot better with the environment sphere in place, I am also looking into making the ship be able to shoot and implementing sound into the animation to improve it.

Week 10 Animation progress

The animation I am truing to achieve consists of motion paths and creating key frames so far, the difficulties I am finding is trying to get the Ship to follow the other ship closely behind but never catch up so far into my 30 second animation. I think I will have to use the techniques learnt today to get the ship to follow the other one on a motion path  in order to achieve this, however I am unsure weather this connection can be broken during the animation, I suspect not. I am going to continue with researching any possible solutions to this. However i have made a break through as I have made the camera follow the xwing and pan round in the first 5 seconds of my scene meaning I have completed a part of the final animation.

This is the view of the camera on the XWing after panning around it

Week 9 animation progress

This week I concentrated on the actual animation for my assignment. The first thing I had to do was import the three models into the same area and then make then a child of a curve that surrounded them to make the movement of the model easier the having to select the whole model every time. this had some difficulties as I hadn't deleted the history of the models and this mean that when I tried to move them as a whole object the different components of the ship moved at different speeds and dismantled the ship. This was easily sorted by deleting the history but this then removed some textures, so I had to re texture some parts of the models to make them back into their original form.

Once I had achieved this I could look to make the environment that my animation is taking place . To do this I textured a sphere and reversed the normals to create the illusion that there was unlimited space surrounding my ships. Next I had to add the asteroid field that I had included in my design and duplicate special them to get the variation in them that I wanted. This picture below depicts the environment I have created and the next step is to start the animations now everything is in place.

Picture of the ships and asteroids with space texture

Close up of ship with asteroids

Week 8 animation exercises

This week we learnt some of the animation techniques we can use in our final project.

We learnt techniques such as connecting model to a curve and moving the curve, manipulating the animation to get the desired movement in the animation graph editor, attaching an object to a curve and making it follow it with the animate motion paths tool and again using the graph to aid us in this animation also.

The techniques I found hard were modifying of the graph  to get the desired movement, as you can see in the graph of the XWing, I needed to get the line extremely steep in order to get the speed I wanted from the other lines that showed a steady increase to emulate taking off.

My XWing following curve at wanted speed

Sphere following a curve

Animating objects using key frames seemed easier however I did use this with simpler objects just using it side to side. I will be using both these techniques in my final piece especially the curve movement when moving the camera.  

Cone and sphere moving due to curve hierarchy 

Manipulating graph to get desired movement.

The last exercise was to create a bouncing ball with the effect of scaling and translating and rotating all at the same time under the one animation. This was hard to get realistic and the graph editor had to be used but I was happy with the end result as it was my first time animating using the squash spring technique.

Shows the spring technique

shows the squash technique

 

Week 7 Camera and animation techniques

The first scene we watched was WALLE, in this scene I focused mainly on the animation techniques in this scene. The main Techniques I saw included Anticipation, Exaggeration, Staging, spacing and timing and the squash technique.

The Squash technique was used when the light jumped in the air and landed and to show the impact of landing the light squashed on impact.

The anticipation technique was used when the light was jumping. It bent down in order to get a spring off of the the I in Pixar. It was also used when WALLE knocked on the light, the robot had to move his hand back in order to give the tap to the light. It was again used when WALLE's body moved in the direction to go right before his head. This meant we anticipated him to then turn his head that was and go in that direction.

Exaggeration was used when WALLE tripped on the R in Pixar, his reaction is exaggerated because as he is a robot there is no facial expression to show how he is feeling. However when he trips on the R he reacts by flailing his limbs and then going into his body like a Turtle. Again this shows the fact he is scared by acting out the metaphor 'going into his shell'. Exaggeration is also used when the light's bulb goes out, the reaction of the head of the lamp is one of confusion as it is moving franticly.

Staging occurs when both WALLE and the lamp are in the centre of the screen meaning our attention is drew to them.

Spacing and timing is used when the lamp slows down to stop and look at the I. there would have been lots of small clips in order to show the rapid de-acceleration of the lamp.


The second scene we watched was the One Man Band. This scene was used to show the camera angles used and the effect of them. Many camera angles were used and this is a few of the ones I saw, accompanied with screen shots.

Close up high angle shows innocence and size

Longshot shows opposition of two guys

Longshot shows lack of people and location

Over the shoulder objective angle shows size area of focus

Point of view shows the One man band looking at empty cup

These were just a few of the many defining camera angles in this short clip. However each are important to add to the audiences perspective of the actors in the animation. The first picture is a high shot close up on the young girl. The angle gives you as the audience the perspective that the girl is small and innocent.

The second picture shows the polar opposites of the two one man bands, that they are so far away from each other and on opposite sides of the circle. It gives the audience the perspective that they are enemies in conflict.

The third picture is again a longshot that gives the audience a perspective of the location that the guy is in and also that the One man band is on his own without an audience to perform for.

The fourth picture is an over the shoulder shot to show the One man band's attempts to get the girls attention.

The last picture is a point of view shot, showing that the One man band is looking at his empty cup, wondering why he is performing when there is no reward.  

Having learnt about these new techniques and after reviewing my storyboard I think I can improve the animation by using these techniques. I think I can include longshots at the beginning of my animation to set the scene and allow the audience to know where the scene is setting place. I also think I can use point of view shots to get the perspective of the captains flying the ship to get the audience more involved. Another technique I think I could use would be that angles of the camera's to give the ships status. By coming at a low angle on the XWing I think that would give the audience a perspective that the ship is bigger and more intimidating then the Tie Intecepter when following it. Viewing the inteceptor from a high angle would also make it seem weak and smaller compared to the Xwing. An animation technique I could use would be spacing and timing to show acceleration and deceleration in the spaceships. Also I could use staging to give the ships the centre of the camera to give that audience the main object in the scene. Some of the techniques learnt today include human movement and facial expressions, this means it would be hard to incorporate this in my animation, however the others that have been learnt will be very useful in my animation.            
 

Final Evaluation

These are the three final models, all with materials and textures on them. The first model is the Tie Interceptor.

This model is quite basic colour wise with the main colours being shades of grey and black. However the detail and texturing of them colours on the body were the things I found most tricky. However I
found using the cloth material on the bumpy suffices such as the black parts of the wing gave it the texture I was looking for and also the extrude tool on the faces that were raised also gave to texture needed for the main sphere of the work. I found getting the colours for the model were hard so I used the colour picker button on the material side panel on the picture below to get it as close colour wise as I could. My evaluation of this model is overall I think it is good. The good points about the model I believe is the attention to detail in the model itself such as the detail in the guns and in the fans on the wings, the texturing of the wings themselves and the closeness to the picture I based it on. The negatives points I believe are the materialising of the sphere in the middle. There are faint lines on the actual picture which I Tried to mirror in my model but i wasn't happy with the end result and thought it looked better with the extruding faces from the sphere then when I applied the Texture. Also the thickness of the metal surrounding the glass is not very good or close to the original. This was difficult to achieve due to the faces being very thick and changing them by altering the sphere itself would have reverted the sphere back to normal and would have made the extension to the wings go and I didn't have enough time to go back and alter it. As I used schematics to make the model the proportions are perfect, also I believe the detail in the model is very good, even if the detail in the material isn't as good as I would have wanted. To improve on issues next time I would have mad each part individually so then I could make changes to each one separately and it would also allow me to texture each part separately, making it easier in the long run in my opinion. Problems I overcame was when i added a material to the gun it distorted all of the win i put it on so I used the one wing that had been materialised correctly and used the new technique I learnt duplicate special to change the rotation to get the wing in the correct rotation so i just had to move it into position. Overall I am happy with this model but with more time and research I believe it could be improved further.
  

Picture intercepter was based on

The next model was the Tie defender.

The Tie defender was relatively similar to the tie interceptor with the main colours being grey and black again. However the colour of the glass surroundings and guns on the wings was different. Also the colour of the fan on each wing was also different. Again the colour was an issue so again the colour picker was used on the image below. I found trying to get the circular object on the top of the main sphere textured correctly, difficult. Also getting the texture of the grey parts of the model very difficult. When looking at this model I believe I have done a very good job, I think the model is instantly recognisable and very similar to the picture I based it on. There are many details in this piece such as the guns, the movement sensors are also included with in depth detail and even the three pistons within the rocket at the back of the ship is included and materialised accordingly. The shape and proportions again are very close to perfect due to using schematics in the building process. The problems I overcame to come to the finished model were during materialising, distortion of what was being materialised and when duplicating the wing, not being able to group them together using the boolean union method, so having to individually move each gun, sensor, fan and wing separately. I think the model could be improved by making the material on the sphere and wing supports more detailed and maybe making the faces of the wings less complex but once they were made it would have been hard to go back and make them with less complexity without starting again. In order to improve on it next time I would again make each individual part separately, so then I could materialise them, texture them and then be able to duplicate them rather then making each one individually then having to materialise them separately also. Overall I believe this is probably the best, closest model to the picture of the three I have made and I am extremely happy with it. 

Picture Defender was based on

 The final model to be textured was the X-Wing.

The X-Wing was the most difficult of the models to create, texture and materialise. As the ship was quite beaten up in the picture I modelled it on (below) I wanted to be able to import scratches and damaged metal pictures to project onto the model. However when I tried this the picture wasn't projected onto the face of the model no matter what I tried. This was also the case with the basic textures such as cloth.  This meant I was limited to the basic colours that you see on the front of the ship. I had to add the detail i wanted through modelling more then texturing, which is visible in the piping work on the back of the ship and the piping and objects on the top of the ship, behind R2D2. Looking at this model I am relatively happy with it. I think the model is recognisable as the X-wing and the details of the model are very good. Also the shape and proportions are good in my opinion again using schematics helped there. The main issue i had to overcome was the lack of being able to use pictures or textures on the model and having to hand craft everything that I thought needed to be on the ship such as the guns, the fans, the pipes within the wings and behind R2D2 and the objects behind him also, which originally i wanted to be textured onto the model. If i were to make this again I would make the wings and nose separate from the body of the ship. I found it extremely difficult to try and apply the UV textures when all that information was on the screen. Also I would have wanted to materialise the model better as that were I think that is what lets the model down in terms of being as similar to the picture as possible. With better materialising I think the model itself is very good. Also as this was the first model i started making in week 2, I would have used different techniques when making the model as when looking at the back of the main model you can see the distortion of the original cylinder, where i tried to make the cylinder more of a hexagonal shape. However from what I've learnt since then that could be rectified by changing the polygon itself to having  edges tether then 20. However I only realised this technique after most of the model was done and redoing it wasn't an option with 2 other models to create.

Week 1 castle Exercise

This is the castle exercise, again using the extrude tool and the duplicate special tool I learnt to create this rather quickly. I made the first castle tower the duplicated it 3 times with rotation of 90 and translate of 10 to then create the 4 towers. The difficulty in this piece was creating rings in pre portion with the castle to create the draw bridge and also the curve at the top of the door was difficult to over come.


Peer Evaluation (Dan 1311860):

I like the impressive detail you have put into this castle. The ramparts are really good and add impressive detail and quality to the overall model. I also really like the drawbridge you have added to the model as well.

House Exersice

This is the house week 1 exercise. I mainly used extrude tools and moving vertices to make it. However i have use the duplicate special tool to creat the fence outside as i didn't want to just keep copying it and moving it. This tool allows you to select the amount of copies you want and the distance between them. Very useful when creating many of the same object in a equal distance of each other. I Found this technique at http://3d.about.com/od/Creating-3D-The-CG-Pipeline/tp/5-Techniques-To-Speed-Up-Your-Modeling-In-Maya.htm

StoryBoard

This is my storyboard for the animation of my models and end project.

Draft

Completed Storyboard

The idea is that there is a camera starting at the front of the X-Wing which pans round as it is flying at high speed in space. As it gets to the back of the X-Wing it shows that it is chasing and shooting at the Tie Interceptor. The interceptor is ducking and weaving to avoid the shots and as it weaves round a corner of  meteor in space,
it hides itself next to the Tie defender. As the X-Wing approaches, it makes a movement as if it double takes at the Defender and then quickly turns and accelerates away as the other two then chase and shoot after it.

Tie Inteceptor Material Progress

This has been slightly easier due to the model having less detail then the XWing project. However again photoshop is needed to get this to the standard I am expecting, however this is closer to completion then the XWing.

Xwing Material Progress

This is the start of the materialing process on the XWing spacecraft. I have found it extremely difficult to get the realism needed on the model and due to a lack of photoshop on the home PC I was limited to using just base colours in the blind and lambert materials. This needs to be improved by using UV mapping in the lap sessions when photoshop is available to me.

Tie Inteceptor

This part of the blog shows the start of the modelling stage of the tie interceptor.

This shows the first half of the interceptor

This was relatively simple to do as the sphere is already a default shape that can be made, however just getting the support to the wings was slightly more difficult to get the right shape and surface to then support the wing. Another difficulty was creating the groves in the wing to match the real space ship.

The finished model, needing texturing

This is the finished model with the details including the fan on the wing and the guns also on the edge of the wing. The difficulty in this was making the fan stick out without making the wing look too chunky. However i am happy with the model and with texturing I believe it will look close to the real model.

Tie Defender Progress part 1

This shows the progress i have made on the Tie Defender.

The first thing I concentrated on was the main sphere of the piece. I used the schematics to help give me the size I needed and then used the Extrude function to give the appearance of the window at the front , the jet at the back and the wing arm. 

Having then made the wing seperately to the body of the model I could copy it and attach it to the extra arm extended from the main sphere.

I did this again to make the third and final wing and then added some small details. This model now just needs a few small details added to it as well as materials and texturing before it is complete.