Strength Weakness Opportunity Threats

Strengths

I think i have shown strengths in developing my modelling techniques. When i look at the models i created in the first week and compare them now to the models im using in my animation i feel a decent sense of accomplishment, and have surprised my self with, in my opinion the quality of work i could create in only a Couple of months. I feel that i have a good eye for animation and am able to create visually pleasing scenes regarding camera angles and composition I think having a background in Studying Film and media productions previously has helped me here. 

Weakness

I feel that Sometimes my lack of work file organisation can let me down i often tend to just get stuck into the work im doing with little regard to object and workfile names. As a result of this my work folders are are quite disorganised. I feel That in a professional setting this would be a huge failing. As other animators need to understand your scene. It may be a good and well if i know what object is where or which random name correlates to the correct work file but my colleges would need to understand to.

Opportunity

I think that having Maya for free for three years is a great opportunity and I really want to develop my skills further. I would also like to learn how to use after effects to apply some effects to my animation but I think that must be considered a after thought only.

Threats

One of the main threats to my work is corruption of data, im aware that some of my fellow students had problems with there files getting corrupted from being opened on multiple machines. Although im not sure if was there own fault or a error with their files i decide not to risk it and only work on my Home desktop. Although this meant that i was able to render faster(as i have a rather powerful Pc with multiple GPUs) it prevented me from being able to directly get advice there and then. 

Animation Update: Tiefighter Follow curve

Tie Fighter Follow curve and reveal Slave I model

I used the same method i previously i used when getting the xwing to follow the motion path, to get my tiefighter to fly around the asteroids i created a CV curve and bent in around the asteroids using the attach to motion path tool, This time though i had the camera focus on the back of the Tiefighter as it chase the xwing. i wanted the glow effect of the engines to be a main focus of the shot so I tried to align the model according to the rule of thirds, the wing is framed quite well by the wings of the tiefighter and i used keyframe animations to animate the xwing infront of the Tiefighter

Ii wanted the Xwing to always be in front of the Tiefighter to give the illusion of them chasing each other, this proved quite difficult though as the path of the Tifighter bends back on its self quite alot it was hard to get a smooth animation for the xwing whilst using as few key frames as possible. the xwing kept jumping around. Eventually i was able to get it to a point that i was happy with, and i think the fact that the xwing keeps flying out of shot then works well.

The Tiefighter and Camera Group as it follows the Xwing

I  also applied the anticipation principle here, before the Tiefighter does a barrel roll in one direction it moves in the opposite direction first.

Staging for slave Reveal

The way i staged this shot is that i wanted the Tiefigeter and Xwing to fly out of shot and then the camera focus in on the Slave I ship as it is revealed from behind asteroid. I tried to use the rule of thirds rule again to direct attention to the slave I model and this combined with a slight camera zoom in defiantly draws the views attention to it.  I then render frames 1 to 200, i will edit it down later i need be.

Animation update: Xwing following curve

X wing Following A curve Shot

I wanted to have a shot of the x wing from the front whilst it was flying around the asteroid. To do this i created a camera and aimed it facing the front of the xwing, I then grouped this camera with the Xwing.

I then created a CV curve and drew the path i wanted the Xwing + camera group to follow, I drew the path  around the asteroids and from the Top View perspective as it was really difficult to do it in perspective view.

I then used the control vertex to bend the curve so its path looped round the asteroids better, this also made the curve have some quite steep, parts and some more gradual slopes which i think will work well in the animation.

By then selecting the camera and Xwing group and then selecting animate and the motion paths, and attaching the group to the motion path, I made the length of the curve last from frame one to frame 200 as this created the right sort of speed i was after, also using the bank option meant the group turned with the curvature of the motion path which made the group bank left or right depending on the curve.

The motion path setting i used.

The scene still wasnt looking that great after this the x wing send quite rigid and didn't look like it was flying as the front of the xwing wasnt always dead straight on the curve, so what i was able to do was use key frame animation to animate the xwing as it travelled along the curve so that it turned as sideways as it flew round asteroids, i exaggerated the movements to try and incorporate the exaggeration principle  of animation .It also enabled me to have the xwing squeeze through gaps in the asteroids which looked really good

Again this method combined with the motion blur effect in the maya software shader worked really well, you defiantly get a sense of the speed and agility i was trying to portray

Planning and starting the Animation

Planning  and starting the Animation

The way i plan to make my animation is to  create scenes for ach of the different shot, im then going to only render the  frames that the shots out to avi and use window movie maker to pievce them together, this allows for me to be fairly flexible with the animation lengths as i can edit down the final project to thirty seconds later. My animation will though run at 30fps.

Setting up the render settings,and shader

The render setting i use will be unform across the board as i dont want any of the shots to look different, interms of shading. i have decided to use the Maya software shader as this seems to be the only way to get the glow effect i have on the engines of my ships to work. Also within the maya Software shader setting, i was able to switch motion blur on and increase the antialiasing which imporoved the overal quality of my animation greatly. Motion blur really helps to smooth out the movements of the crafts and generally make the animation look more realistic.

Render setting used 

First scene

In  the first scene i wanted to show off the star and the asteroids so i created a camera that pans in from left to right revealing all the asteroids, I Did this using key-frames. All of the asteroids in the for ground are animated using key frames to give the scene a bit more realism.

 I then had the xwing fly in from behind the views perspective suddenly which i think works really well.the Tie fighter follows quickly in behind  xwing and they fly behind an asteroid.Again the use of motion blur really improved the look of this first scene. Both of the ships in this first scene are animated using the keyframe method, I found that using fewr keyframes  created a smoother animation it was just a bit tricky trying to get the ships to follow the path you want in as fewer keyframes as possible but i think this scene looks really good and sets the overall pace for the whole aniomation

Use of motion blur 

I also rendered this scene from a few different angles as I though  I could use the same animation clip from a different angle later on in the animation.

Setting up my scene

Setting Up my scene

I started to create the Environment for my scene, It in space and set in an asteroid field so i used the technique i had previously worked out to create my Asteroid, by creating a cube and pressing smooth geometry i could create some really cool looking asteroids, For asteroids that i want fairly high detail on i smoothed the objects several time, for asteroids that were going to be in the background they were only smoothed once, this was because i didnt want to face too many polys when it came to rendering

Low poly asteroid

Higher Poly asteroid

I then Positioned the asteroids in the scene to create an asteroid field, Some of the asteroids are grouped together and duplicated and just rotated around, hopefully this wont be too evident in the final animation.

Adding the sky dome

I created a sphere  and applied a space texture that I got from the internet the source is here : http://taketo-take-to-stock.deviantart.com/art/Classified-Triplet-Starfield-CGCASF-352643598
I then reversed the normals so that they were facing on the inside,and applied the texture. By using the x ray function i was able to make it so that you could see inside the sphere this proved really useful when trying to arrange my asteroids but i kept selecting the sphere by mistake to combat this I put it on a separate layer so that i could toggle it on or off.

Creating the lights

by creating a sphere and adjusting its transparency in the attribute editor. Then placing a point light inside that sphere I was able to create some really cool looking stars. The effect looks really realistic and am really pleased.

Light Inside sphere

Final result

The Scene in Now complete i just need to import my Models and start the animation Process

The Finished environment

Animation Techniques

Camera angles and Techniques

This week we looked at the various different camera angles that you can implement. And assessed the different positive and negative effect's that the camera angles can have.

We look at the "One man band" Pixar animation and tried to spot all the different camera angles used.

This long shot from the animation establishes that the area the man is in is empty and create the feeling of loneliness. For my animation I want to create this feeling with the asteroid field. I want the viewer to feel that the scene is taking place in desolate space.

Close ups can be used to empathise details, like the violin strings in this image above. I want to use lots of close ups in my animation so that I can display the details of my models.

Point of view, although its hard to show in the image above this is a point of view shot. As I want the viewer of my animation to see through the eyes of the pilot, Im going to implement at least one point of view angle in my animation.

Rule of Thirds

We also learnt about the technique known as the rule of thirds whipsaw is  guideline followed by photographers and visual artists. The basic principle is to divide a scene into nine equal parts., creating s a grid of horizontal and vertical line. Points  of interest sit at the horizontal line that separates the lower third of the scene from the top two-thirds. When the subject is positioned s at the
intersection of two lines they become more visually pleasing to the view. I had learned about this technique in previous study of Film production, and am really keen to try to use it as much as I can within my animation.


12 principles of animation 

• Squash and Stretch
 • Arcs
• Anticipation
 • Secondary Action
• Staging 
• Timing and Spacing
• Straight ahead & Pose to Pose 
• Exaggeration
• Follow through and Overlapping
 • Solid Drawing

• Slow in and Slow out 
• Appeal

We learnt about the 12 key principles of animation, out of the list i have highlighted ther ones i feel will be most imposrt in my animation .

Anticipation,

 I tried to think how I could apply this principle to my animation and I though that as my  space ships are going to be chaseing each other i could have them rotaing and banking alot as they navigate the asterpoid feild, to apply the anticaption principle i could have my ship rotate a little amount one way then a complete rotaion in the opposite reaction the diagram below explains what i mean

1st: rotate a little in one direction 2nd: Then rotate fully in opposite direction

Staging

The way i plan to use the staging principle is, i want to direct the audiences focus to key areas of the scene , using the rule of thirds can help me with this. Also since i want the feeling to bee that the ships are chasing each other through tight gaps i will use lots of close-ups and medium shots but try to block out as much as the space background with asteroids to create a claustrophobic feeling.

Timing and Spacing

I plan to apply this principle to my animation by having the ships move in a way that makes them look like there actually flying by having gradual increase in speed rather than sudden one.the flight of the ships should look more natural. By changing scene often as well this should create a feeling of speed and urgency as the ships fly through the asteroid field.

Exaggeration

I can incorporate this principle by having my ships fly through the asteroid in a more exaggerated way by looping round the asteroids and doing flips and spins etc, instead of them just following a straight line. The diagram below explain this

My Three completed Models

Creating Slave I Model

SlaveI 

Having created two really iconic space ships from the star wars universe, i wanted to create a more complex one as my other two model have turned out really well. So i decided to create SlaveI or Boba-fetts ship. I thought this would be a bit more of a challenge because the ship is quite curved. this would also be quite a contrast from both the Tie fighter and Xwing which are ,themselves very angular.

Slave I

Firstly i created a sphere, which I flattened to make the base.
I was able to replicate the optical base of the craft this way, however the poly count of this object was quite high, in future i would perhaps try to optimise the object by reducing the number of faces.

Then using a cube and the Boolean - Difference tool i cut away the bottom so it was flat on one side

Then to create the oval shape, i used the soft select tool which i accessed by double clicking on the scale tool and ticking the corresponding check box, this enabled me to just scale down one of the tips, giving me the desired egg shape below. This tool was a godsend! I discovered it by accident by accidentally double clicking on the scale tool. It was very simple to use and 

Egg/oval shaped base

I then selected these faces and dragged them upwards to add shape to the base.

I then added a sphere and fit it into the crescent area i had just created

i then scaled the sphere so it was longer and thinner. this will be used to create the curved cockpit. I then selected some faces on one end and dragged them out to make the main body part of the ship.

Then using a cube and the Boolean - Difference method i cut off the end of the part of the sphere i had just dragged out. This however incresed my polycount alot. it added lots of edges that were really time consuming to go back and deleted. The shape looked good, however in the future i will use the boolean difference tool with care as it tends to increase my vertices count alot.

Then using the Multicut tool i cut the shape of the cockpit into the sphere, i then selected those edges all around the outline of the cockpit and used the bezel tool to create the frame of the cockpit, i then selected the faces within that outline and extruded them in slightly to create the cockpit. I used the Bezel tool as it saved alot of time compared to cutting the edges again, manually

I then selected a circular pattern of faces on each side of the main body of the ship and scaled them outwards. that created this part of the model.

I then selected the edges around the middle and moves them inwards to create the pronounced centres

The model is now starting to look alot like the ship, i just need to add wings and details

the base of the ship is slightly cut away under the wings to do this i selected the edge you can see highlighted in the picture and scaled it down until it created the shape you see below. 

Cut away for wings

Next i created the struts for the wings, by making a cylinder, rotating it 90 degrees and placing it running through the main body of the ship, i also used more cylinders rotated 45 degrees as the support struts.

Finally to create the wings i added circular cuts  to the cylinder using the Multi-cut tool and control. Then i selected the corresponding face and extruded them to create the wings. I also added some details like the guns on the ship just by using spheres and cylinder. Also i added some details on the underside just to create a more detailed bottom side.

The Finished model

Textureing Slave I

The textures used for this model are again taken from the Internet with the sources provided, In the film Salve I looks really battered and old so i specifically tried to get old, rusty, decaying looking textures. Again I'm reusing some of the textures that i applied to my other models, and will be mostly using the Lambert materiel, as i am aiming for an old, worn look. however the parts in green, and rust brown i wanted to be a bit shiny so used the Blinn material. The cockpit like the xwing and tie fighter are plain black anisotropic.

This texture will be applied to some of the mainbody of the ship and really looks old and worn
source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT3TauKxNDajF06XV5_RpzalcGN6axFh2qPbFtAybGSJqHO2eX0OXHILKBKG7y09bfwtTXAsuGAzMWQT82JgmfB_jbPoyZLYtf1-Qyn8ws-evyaH2l5LSqqbdyn8uVq-nLzz9igbiWYA/s1600/Tileable+eroded+scratch+metal+texture+background+03.jpg

This texture is also going to be used for the main body and looks really good and decayed.
source: http://www.texturepalace.com/gallery/metal/0405/8metal_texture_big_100405.jpg

This texture will be used for the two domes either side of the cockpit
source: http://www.texturepalace.com/metal-rusty-metal-free-stock-textures/

This texture will be used for the wing struts and inside the domes either side of the cockpit
source: http://www.nuinu.su/art/318-fraktaly-yeto-iskusstvo-11-foto.html

this texture will be used for the lip that runs around the outside of the base
source: :http://volpuri.ru/phh/37/rzhavchina_tekstura_rzhavyy_oranzhevyy_poverhnost_shershavyy_prev.jpg

The Finished model

Once i had mapped all the textures using the create UV- planar mapping tool, the final result looked really good. The ship defiantly look aged and worn like i intended and is by far my favourite out of my three models.

Like the other three i created an anisotropic material with a glow affect to simulate the engines and on this model i think it look especially cool.