Final Videos

Here are two versions of my final, one with spaceship noises, one without.

"Dancing in Space" Version 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ymin7MrRFg

"Dancing in Space" Version 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GxwRSQRrMA

Final Proposal

Final Proposal

1) Initial idea and complete proposal:

Animation is still a relatively new concept to me. I have always liked to watch animated movies, but I never thought I would have the ability to actually try it first hand. For my project, I decided to have spaceships fly over mountains and synchronize their movement. I'd call the animation "Dancing in Space" and it would be pretty challenging for me.  The goal of this project was to explore different animation techniques and create the idea I had in mind.  I had the general idea, now I needed to explore the possibilities. I made a few sketches in Maya to get the idea down and then I worked from there. I have a very cartoony style, so I wanted to keep things within my comfort zone. I wanted to work with my own style and make a project. I knew that I would use a slightly unrealistic creative style to keep things within the areas I know. I will create all of the objects in Maya. I knew that I would have fun with this project.

My target audience is TCNJ students. Hopefully, I can show new students that anyone can make a project, regardless of skill level. I am still a rookie when it comes to animation and I don't feel 100% comfortable working in Maya, but I have been giving it my best effort to work on different projects for the class. I have been designing and working in the program that I have never used before this class. It is a fun experience and I look forward to continuing to work in Maya to create. Overall, this project will help me further explore Maya's capabilities, techniques, and help me enhance my animation skills. 

2) Project plan:

My creative strategy is that I want to keep the animation looking simple, but have a lot going on. I will use Maya to create all of the graphics. The project will look like a cartoon to keep it going with the cartoony style I always go for. I think that it will achieve the feel I was going for. I will use some spaceship sound effects and the song "Blue Danabe" by the composer Strauss.  My technical strategy is that I am going to keep it simple. I will use Maya to create all of the images and create all of the animations.  I will try to create everything as consistent as possible. All of the spaceships will have the same shapes, but I will alter the shadings and colors of each car to give them something unique. All of the mountains will look the same.  This simplistic style will keep things easy to watch and understand for a while. 

3) Production log:

I first made a plane to get the ground established. I drew everything in polygons because I have had more experience with them. The polygons served me well during the creative process. I then designed the mountain range. I encompassed the entire mountain range in a sphere. I then attached a shader to the sphere, which would then reflect on to the mountains.I then used a polygonal spheres to create the spaceships. I combined two to give it a basic spaceship shape. Once I had this basic spaceship, I then used it multiple times to have different spaceship in the design. Each spaceship has a unique coloring and shading. Each of the cars will move in similar directions. All of the spaceships are attached to the same basic bezeir curve with transitional key frames that I established as a motion path. The transitional keys allowed for more accurate steering. For each curve, though, I altered the track in some way. I did this so that the spaceships would be similar but different at the same time. It helped me achieve the synchronous feeling I was looking for.  I experimented with lighting, shading, and motions to have cars work in different ways. I then used multiple cameras and multiple camera angles and rendered them out. After rendering them out, I combined them in Final Cut Pro with the audio and the final product was created. This animation is simple, but I look forward to working on it again in the future.

4) Self-evaluation:

Overall, this project was a success. It has helped me understand how to use different techniques. I was able to experiment with different curves and different camera angles for different feels. I also learned more about the design process. Ideas evolve over time as you continue to work with them. I like the way it came out. This project also let me experiment with lighting, shading, and animation techniques. It was fun working with the transitional key to help make movements more fluid. I can work on different ways to animate the spaceships, such as making some move differently. I can work with spotlights and different elements to keep things interesting. I still need a lot of practice with Maya, but I am excited to learn and built more complex projects. It is very exciting to say that I have animated something this complex and I look forward to continuing my success with Maya. 

Final Previews

For my final, I have made many versions and changes over time. Here are the first two I worked on. My actual final is a lot different and my next posts will describe the new project in full and you'll be able to see the finished product. Check out the first and second rough cuts here:

First one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtegXio-tV4

Second one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XaIeAa9sTw

AAUGA

I found the AAUGA user group session to be very interesting. Claire smuga talked about talking a 3d project in maya, rendering it out into composite to make a 2d image, each object in the project has different shaders. Using the mental ray render, the passes tab, create render passes to separate items out of the render. You then take the separate components (each render) and combine them using Composite. Import the files into Composite (the Maya renders will be saved as a precomp file) then provides a template to put all of the renders together. Place each render in the appropriate node. Each node has scripts attached to it to know how to properly use each precomp file. You can use this for modeling and entire scenes. Kevin kaley doing retopology of mudbox sculptures. Topology is the underlying flow of the object. Retopology helps to add density and allow for more realistic edge flow. Kevin worked on giving horns to a lizard. Kevin said that in sculpting you should use quads instead of triangles since the algorithms with brushes are built better for them. He also showed how you can add details and create new layers to smooth out the skins to make it ready for painting. Ed roly is talking about how animations can be brought into unity. We are bringing designs into unity. Ed is a substance designer. He showed us how to make a wooden wall. Brian worked with a soldier and showed us some interesting ways of design and interaction.

Reel Art

Reel Art was a surprisingly great experience.  It was a great show featuring original drawings, paintings, poetry, songs, and films. The films were excellent. It was great to see the use of special effects from Adobe After Effects in the films. It was also great to see Andrew's animation. IT WAS INCREDIBLE. I have never seen anything like it. The host mentioned that it took him over 300 hours and I believe it. So many moving and flashing pieces. It was really great to have the ability to appreciate all of the different types of art out there. I think film and music are still my favorite. They are my best and I do think that I will participate next time. Here are some photos from the event.

Mountain Range Polygons

Here's a mountain range made from polygon primitives. I used cones and a mix of shaders. I used blinns and fractals to make the textures on the mountains. I might use this creation in the future.

Low Man Animation

Here is my low man animation. I have Low man doing a stretch pose that I do every morning. It helps loosen up the joints. This animation was actually a great representation of the actual exercise.

Check out the animation here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TAToUGGf4g

Midterm videos

I have completed the Midterm assignment. Here are two versions I made, both have different camera angles. I was able to experiment with motion paths a lot. I was very happy with my work with them.

Overall, I am happy with the way the project came out. I definitely have more confidence going into the final based on my work with the project.

I also changed the ground since the rendering process kept canceling with my custom-made ground.

Version 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpbV4mdhYHQ

Version 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxLntOBRQZI

Midterm Proposal and Storyboard

Midterm Proposal

1) Initial idea and complete proposal:

Animation is a completely new concept to me. I have always liked to watch animated movies, but I never thought I would have the ability to actually animate something while at TCNJ. For my project, I decided to work on a simple car animation. I would have cars drive on a road, passing each other, and animating a common scene in our daily lives.   The goal of this project was to explore different animation techniques to recreate this common scene.  I had the general idea, now I needed to explore the possibilities. I made a few sketches in Photoshop to get the idea down, which ended up being the storyboard. I have a very cartoony style, so I wanted to keep things within my comfort zone. I wanted to work with my own style and make a project. I knew that I would use a slightly unrealistic creative style to keep things within the areas I know. I will design the background in Photoshop and create the objects in Maya. I knew that I would have fun with this project.

My target audience is TCNJ students. Hopefully, I can show new students that anyone can make a project, regardless of skill level. I am very new to animation and I don't feel 100% comfortable working in Maya, but I have been giving it my best effort to work on different projects for the class. I have been designing and working in the program that I have never used before this class. It is a fun experience and I look forward to continuing to work in Maya to create. 

Overall, this project will help explore new technologies, techniques, and help enhance my animation skills. I was very excited to get this going. 

2) Project plan:

My creative strategy is that I want to keep the animation looking simple, but have a lot going on. I will use Maya and Photoshop to create all of the graphics. The project will look like a cartoon to keep it going with the cartoony style I always go for. I think that it will achieve the feel I was going for. There won't be any sound in this project for now.  My technical strategy is that I am going to keep it simple. I will use Maya and Photoshop to create all of the images and create all of the animations.  I will try to create everything as consistent as possible. All of the cars will have the same shapes, but I will alter the shadings and colors of each car to give them something unique. This simplistic style will keep things easy to watch and understand for a while. 

3) Production log:

I first made a plane to get the ground established. I drew everything in polygons because I have had more experience with them. The polygons served me well during the creative process. After over a dozen attempts to use the grass fur default (leading to Maya crashing every time), I then decided to use the grass that I drew up in Photoshop. It gave the animation a different look and feel, but I still liked it. I then drew planes for the two intersecting roads. I used different cutting and stretching techniques to get the true feel of perspective that I was going for. I then used a polygonal prism and sphere to create the car body. I combined the two to give a basic car shape. I then added polygonal rings to the sides of the car to make it look like wheels. Once I had this basic car shape, I then used it multiple times to have different cars in the design. Each car has a unique coloring and shading. Each of the cars will move in different directions. I experimented with lighting, shading, and motions to have cars work in different ways. This animation is simple, but I look forward to working on it again in the future.

4) Self-evaluation:

Overall, this project was a success. It has helped me understand my successes and failures with Maya. I tried working on using the grass fur dynamic, but Maya would not let me. I then had to use my photoshop-ed grass, but it gives it a different style. I like the way it came out. This project also let me experiment with lighting, shading, and animation. I can work on different ways to animate the cars, such as working the wily car on a motion path to keep things going. I can work with spotlights and different elements to keep things interesting. I still need a lot of practice with Maya, but I am excited to learn and built more complex projects. It is very exciting to say that I have animated something and I look forward to continuing my success with Maya. 

Storyboard 

Here are the images for my storyboard. 

The animation will have the cars driving on the road in different direction. One will fall off of one road and go on to the other. This seemed like a modest challenge for me to animate, so I am excited for the opportunity to do so. 

Nurbs Design

Here is the NURBS design I made. I decided to make a face because it helps represent my cartoony drawing style. I focus on a lot of things that don't look realistic, so I felt that it was appropriate to continue down that line. I used flattened spheres to make the larger parts of the eyes. I then used smaller spheres to make the pupiles. I then used a cone to make the nose and a ring to make the mouth. All of these came together well and I was very happy with the way this looked. I think that I prefer working with polygons though.

Bouncing Ball Animation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUzE5Rx7pXs

For this project, we needed to take the 4 section bouncing ball tutorial and adjust it to make a more unique video. I changed the color of the floor, but kept the original pattern. I turned up the intensity of the flames to make them look thicker. I adjusted the trajectory of the ball so that it bounces evenly with the first and last bounce, but higher for the 2nd. I raised the ring up higher as well. I adjusted the spot light so that the ball would be jumping into an unknown black area. I also angled the camera differently so that you could see the ball from a different angle. The face really looks scared going through the fire ring and into the darkness! Overall, I was very happy with the way this project came out and I look forward to doing a lot more animation.

1st Four Essential Skill Movies

Here are my notes from the first four Essential Skill Movies.

Zoom, Pan, & Roll

·      See Objects Up Close – Press F Key

·      To tumble (spin view) – Hold Option key and drag with left mouse button.

·      To track (pan view) – Hold option key and drag with middle mouse button.

·      To dolly (zoom) – Hold the option key and drag with right mouse button

Move, Rotate, Scale

·      To see four views – Press Spacebar

·      You get the top, left, and right – orthographic views

·      Move button, Rotate button, Scale button

·      Three axises, x,y,z

·      To move an object freely or scale uniformly –drag the central handle

Create and View Objects

·      NURBS and Polygons

·      Polygons are made of faces, each one is flat

·      NURBS are made of curves, smooth

·      Select NURBS Primitives or Polygon Primitives from the Create Menu and select a shape.

·      Click and drag to create the shape.

·      Channel Box displays information for an object.

·      The transform attributes (position, scale) are at the top

·      View shape attributes – Click word under INPUTS

·      In Panel Tool Bar – Click the 3 different cubes to switch between display objects.

·      Control how smooth objects look in the view with the 1,2,3 keys.

o   Doesn’t change the real shape of the object

Component Selection

·      Can work on entire NURBS/Polygons in object mode

·      Work on parts of an object in component mode.

·      To select a component, press and hold over the object with the right mouse button and select the one you want.

·      When objects overlap, you select them.

·      Deselect all, click empty space.

·      To add to existing selection, press shift and click

·      Deselect some, press control and click

 

IMM 210 Intro

This blog is meant to document all of my work during the 2012 Spring semester for IMM 210.