Week 11 08-05-08:

Week 11 08-05-08:

S.W.O.T:

Now the movie is complete, its time to assess my performance. Starting with a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (S.W.O.T) assessment. This should help me to get a better understanding of my performance and how I could improve on it:

In conclusion, I'm really pleased with my final piece. The S.W.O.T above made me realise that the success of the assignment could be broken down into 2 distinct areas. The first is the quality of the animation and the second is how well it fulfills its criteria.

In terms of the design of the piece. I feel that the animation successfully meets my original aims. Its colourful and youthful. I believe that the piece would appel to young people and as a result helps promote the British Seaside.

In terms of the animation I feel that the piece has also been sucessful. Again, as mentioned above this piece represents a step forward in my abilities with max as well as learning some new ones. These include using Adobe Premier Pro. I would say that the piece isn't perfect and there is room for improvement. one example would be the animation. With more time I could have made the animation smoother the movement of the central character more realistic. Also With more time I would have liked to have included more shadows. but these issues are a result of wanting to develop the piece further rather than being limited by my own abilities. I don't feel that I over reached with the piece.

Overall, I feel the positives of the exersise really outweigh any negatives and I have very much enjoyed the exercise.

Week 11 06-04-08:

Success!!!

So after some hard work and a few tears all the scences have been completed! Below are a few screen grabs that should reveal the overall narative:

Week 10 25-04-08:

Week 10 25-04-08:

Heres a image of the finished beach scene:

Week 9 21-04-08:

Week 9 21-04-08:

Heres another experiment with my beach scene:

And heres the initial work for the final apartment building:

Week 9 18-04-08:

Week 9 18-04-08:

One of the key aims of the animation is to illustrate the key differences between the two envirionments. I want to make the seaside to be a inviting location in stark contrast to the every day. I have attempted to make this clearer by adding raing to the opening apartment scene:

This was produced using a simple particla array system. aimed towards the floor in this case I have picked a simple cone shape to represent the rain drops. Although I'm looking for a cartoon style I'm not sure this effect is realistic enough!

Week 8 11-04-08:

Week 8 11-04-08:

Water, Water everywhere!

Here is another experiment with water effects on the program. the scene isn't really that different from what I have previously put together but does illustrate the nature of this assignment. A lot of the tools during this module are completely new to me and as such, there is a lot of experimentation and trial and error to find the best results!

Week 8 11-04-08:

Week 8 11-04-08:

After my initial tests last week, I have now finished my central character. below is an image of the final model with the errors in my previous effort corrected.


Below is an example of a test animation carried out on the character. this was produced to make sure all the parts moved as intended:

One particularly difficult part of this character was how to create expressions. This can be pretty tricky. Apart from the very best animations I have come across. the pieces that have rigged faces lose their character. This was something I was really keen to avoid. The solution I came across was to take the facial features (the eyes, mouth, etc) and link constraint them to the bipeds head. This meant they could be animated independently using the key frames but also held there position relative to the characters head. I'm really pleased with the finished result and would go as far to say this is one of the best pieces of work I have ever produced. Below are some example of how the Biped and Physique were applied:

Week 7 16-03-08:

Week 7 16-03-08:

Although a lot of this week has been spent working on the revised character I have also been doing a little work on the main beach scene:

Although this scene is very simple at this stage, It does give an indication of the direction I am taking the piece. the element of this piece is the water. This was created using a simple plane. I then added noise and ripple effects. I also added a faint reflection in the material maps.

I have also done a little bit on the opening title. I have added an apartment block as per the original storyboard. Overall I'm pleased how this looks. It is also an example of how I have included a moving camera in the animation although in this case it is a free one rather than targeted.

Week 7 14-03-08:

Week 7 14-03-08:

Say Hello to my little Friend!

After some previous model attempts, I had a big rethink on how I wanted my central character to look. Above is a short test video of the new character. This is my first attempt at rigging and applying a Physique modifier. This simple test animation has allowed me to identify some problems with the model. For example, the arms are too long.

It is worth mentioning that it I decided not add bones to the character but instead used a biped. The main reason for this was it proved to be a faster process it also allows more features. Adding motion capture footage to a model is one example.

Also this week I have been making some additional models. Below are a simple modelled sun. This also helps illustrate the cartoon style to produce.

Week 6 14-03-08:

Week 6 14-03-08:

Whilst looking at some of the work produced by other students, I came across a feature that I had not seen In 3D max before but was very impressed by:

Maria Was applying a hair and fur modifier to one of her models. This was something that I had never produced before and was really eager to implement. Above is an example of the hair modifier applied to selected polygons of a simple shape. I was interested in the idea of applying hair to my central character.

I was quite surprised how easy it was to get a hold of the basics of this modifier. the problem was when it came to rendering. The simple image render time increased from 1 second to 12 second once the hair modifier. Trying to add this to a final scene could slow the process massively. As a result I feel It won't make it into the final piece!

Week 6 12-03-08

Week 6: 12-03-08

I have been experimenting with character modelling for my final piece. Below is an example of the initial attempt:

This may give an indication of the type of effect I am trying to create. Although this is at an early stage, I don't think that this initial model is quite what I'm looking to produce. I'm also concerned that the limbs are too thin and will be dificult to rig. Jo Bowman has recently shown us how to apply bones and use a physics modifier to rig a character and I'm keen to ensure the model will be suitable.

I will have to have another look at how to produce a quality model.

Also below I have been experimenting with a suitable opening title scene:

This uses two elements that I have already produced an shown on the blog. I think that this combination works pretty effectively.

Week 5 29-02-08:

WEEK 5: 21-03-08

Bellow are some examples of the some of the pieces I have been putting together for my final piece.

Above is my attempt at a night sky design. This was creates by experimenting with omni lights with a single noise modifier applied and then partially embedded into a plane. This creates a pleasant glow effect. I have then taken a render of this image and saved it as a J Peg. This image can then be used as simple material in the final piece. The big advantage of doing this is that it reduced the size of the final piece reducing render times. It also ensures that the the omni light don't effect the lighting of the scene.

This next image is my attempt to model a very simple PC. this was created by simply converting simple shapes into editable meshes. This also allowed me to practice assigning materials to specific elements. In this case I have added a bitmap image to represent the screen.

The light house uses a number of the same methods as the PC. These include assigning different materials. the Stripes were produced by taking Max's standard checker material and adjusting the the tiling to zero in one axis and 3 in the other. the railing was produced by taking a standard railing from the create tools and placing it on a circular path constraint.

Week 4 21-02-08:

Week 4 21-02-08:

After some thought I have come up with a more or less finalised idea for my final piece. Below is the title block:

This was a fairly simple effect to produce which is created in the final rendering. This Lens effect tool can be assign to specific objects. In this case they have been assigned to spline with very high self illumination. This gives the impression that they are glowing.

I have also produced the working storyboard for this project. Although I fully expect this Idea to evolve over the course of this module, This is the 'working script':

The central theme of the piece is escapism. the central protagonist will be stuck working on his computer. after looking at a poster he will then drive to the beach and meet his friends:

Although this is a fairly simple plot I think there are several parts to it and this should allow me to display a few different techniques. If I style it correctly, I also feel I should be able to appeal to my target audience.

Week 3 20-02-08

A Little Taster...

I'm Currently experiementing with the 'style' of my final piece and what I think will look good. Key to this will be the appearance of the people in the scene. Below is an example of some of the initial skecthes I have put together that may suggest the type of look I want to acheive. the aim is to create characters that are relatively simple yet are full of character:

Week 3 15-02-08

Week 3 15-02-08:



This lesson we continued to experiment with 3DS Max. Specifically we looked at working with cameras and lighting. using these techniques I was able to produce the below results.

This was produced using a using a spotlight positioned behind the wall pointed towards the candle. this causes the light through the window and casting shadow. This by itself would actually cause the room to be very gloomy with only a shaft of light pouring in through the window. to counteract this, I have positioned an omni light in the room. the onmi light is then set to be dimer than the spot light. I am pretty pleased with the results of this test but I do think there is roof to improve this. It is possible to make light bounce off the wall to help create really efficient lighting. However this is a much more time consuming process.

The panning effect was created by animating a target camera. the target camera allows you to move a camera in the key frames but continue to focus on the same object. This is a tool that I intend to use in my final piece.

I have also been given some thought to my final piece and have a strong idea of what I want the final piece to be. I am still working on the details and story boarding but below is an example of one of the source images intend to use:

This image gave me a strong idea of what I want to produce. Using it as a starting point, I was able to produce a style board to illustrate how I want my final piece to look and feel:

This board shows a number of images that I have influenced the direction I wish to proceed in. It features images that I feel would appeal to my target audience. I want my animation to be aimed at younger people as these represent the fut re market of the British seaside. I want to try and promote the same kind of vibe that is present at resorts like New quay. Many of the images taken are from mediums that focus on this audience such as video games and album covers. I have also included image from some of my favourite artists such as Humberto Ramos and Sean Galloway. I have also included some of my own imagery.

Week 2: 07-02-08

Week 2: 07-02-08

This week we started to look at the basics of animation. Above is my attempt at a simple bouncing ball. The technique I used for this is Key frame animation. Like many 3D packages, Studio Max uses a time line that allows you to work on individual frames. by using the Auto key you can ache vie movement of objects. If you position an object in one key and then move it in another, Max will create the animation in between those two points.

In order to get realistic animations you need to need to give a lot of consideration to way the object would move in the real world. because I am animating a ball I have rotated it through the animation to give the impression that it is rolling. Another really important tool is the curve editor. this allows to adjust the position of an object and the speed that it moves. in the case of a ball rather than moving from one key to another at a constant speed, it can slow as the energy of each bounce fades.

I have also started to try and finalize my ideas on what I want to produce. Starting with the mood board I created during Week 1, I have begun to raise specific questions to try and pin down what I want to create.

Week 1: 01-02-08

Week 1: 01-02-08:

We started off by refreshing are skills with modelling in max. The ability to model successfully model objects in 3D Max is vital in producing high quality pieces. The above image is of a banana and was produced by creating a simple rectangle converted and shaped as a editable poly. I then applied bend and mesh smooth modifiers.

In my experience one of the best ways to make a model more realistic is by applying depth. I have done this in the above image by using the material editor. By going in the the map sub menu you can apply reflection and bump maps to add texture.

Looking at the brief, I feel this is a good opportunity to come up with a high quality animations. I already have some thoughts on how to proceed and how to utilise them in 3D max. the test will be if I have the ability to realise them in 3D max. Below is the initial mood board I have produced to try and get a feel for the project:

Week 1: 31st January 2008

The object of this course is to build upon are existing 3D modelling skills. Will will also be starting to look at animation. the Program we will be using is 3D studio max.

As well as maintaining a blog of our progress through this module we will be producing a final animated piece aimed at promoting the British seaside as a tourist attraction.

Having never produced a blog before, I am relly excited by this new way of documenting my progress. I hope that it will not only provide me with a way of recording the devlopment of my final piece but also show how my skills with 3DS have improved.

I'm really looking forward to this module and am keen to develop my existing 3Ds max skills.