Group Animating

ANIMATING:

The group made a decision to split up the animating element of our final composition.

We hoped to achieve and learn new animating techniques and successfully implement new practices.

We broke all of our sections down into scenes to help compact the workload and spread it out amongst us so that we would be able to share the animation as a group.

(Whether this decision was successful is yet undetermined, as it made it harder to keep consistency with lighting and smoothness, we possibly lost a little bit of time in doing so, as we needed to adapt scenes a few times to ensure continuity, though it did help to spread the work out.)

Our scenes were set at 25 fps and rendered uncompressed with HD resolution 1280x720.

The scenes were broken down as follows:

Scene 1: (Table and Hand) - Hong and Jack
Technique Used: (Light Technique)

Scene 2: (Blueprint Visualisation) - Andrew
Technique Used: Slice Technique

Scene 3: (Walk through House) - Steve and Hong
Technique Used: Biped / Footsteps

Scene 4: (External Pullout) - Hong and steve worked on the final scene
Technique Used: Path Constraint

The Morpher technique was used to test out the fire and create flames, though this isn't actually shown in our final animation.

Cameras, Lighting and Setting Keyframes.

Steve - Compiled animation in Premier Pro and provided original music composition for the soundtrack.

General Tweaks:

- We had to scale down some of our assets a bit to include the biped, as we had an issue of it fitting through the doors of our building.

- A lot of time was taken to ensure all of our Camera moves were effective and realistic pushes.

- Lots of Re-renders in order to ensure consistency of scenes.


Scene 1:




























Keyframe allocation.

In order to create a first person view extra attention was taken to create an effective hand movement to turn on the radio.

Positioning the arm/hand and the camera, set key was used to assign the movements and push in camera moves.

This Segment - 6 seconds - 150 frames

An omin light is applied slighly inside of the radio, with 18 multiplier and using the far attenuation with 6.163 start to 8.415 end. Autokey is then used to change the multiplier up and down, so it looks like the light turns on.

Scene 2:

Building Elevation:

For the blueprint scene the idea was to introduce the items and structure of the building into our frame individually as time progresses. To achieve this the Slice Modifier Technique was used.

A slice modifier was applied to the walls of the guildhall as well as all the items inside the guildhall. Some of the smaller items were grouped together so that they were easier to animate.

The modifier was set to remove top and the slice plane was moved so that the object selected could not be seen. The timeline was moved to another frame and Auto key turned on, next the slice plane was moved so it was above the selected object and it was no longer being sliced.

This added a key frame at the beginning of the timeline and on the current frame. These could be moved to speed up or slow down the grow animation and change the frame on which the object would start to grow.

This was repeated for all of the objects in the scene and the start and end frame of each was adjusted to create an organic growing effect where the items grew randomly but with some structure, so the items in the scene didn't start growing until the floor was in place.

This segment edited is 41 seconds: 1025 frames

A More Detailed explanantion can be found on andrew's blog: (linked below)

Andrew's Detailed Write Up

Scene 3:

(Hong - Biped Rig)

Footstep Animation: Steve and Hong




























To start this scene the biped model was imported into to the scene, starting on the second floor. Click on the biped, motion is then selected and footstep mode turned on. Create multiple footsteps was used to step out the amount of footsteps needed. The move and rotate tools were used to adjust the footprints. To open the door, the biped fingers were selected and rotated by each joint.
As the biped moves outside, we noticed the background was too grey, so to modify this the daylight system was selected from the modify panel, daylight parameters chosen: mr sun and mr sky with lower horizon height from the mr sky advanced parameters.

Morpher was used to animate the fire movement within the fireplace in the library. We hadn't previously realise that the fire would be in the scene, so when it became apparent in our walkthrough section, we decided to introduce this technique.

In terms of camera movement and selection, basically two styles of camera were used: free camera and target camera. Really we just spent time creating what we felt was the best way to follow our character. In difficult areas, we used cut-aways on another camera to help us within the editing process.

(93 footsteps were used in this sequence)

New Techniques: Biped, Footsteps, Morpher and Daylight System


Scene 4: (External Pullout)















For the final scene the biped carries on walking down the street. The line tool was used to create a path for the camera. A target camera was created and animation selected, constraints was then selected in the animation sub-menu, then path constraint was chosen and the camera added to the line.

(16 footsteps were used in this segment)


EDITING & COMPILING:

Once we had rendered and then seen our mistakes and inconsistencies .... and rendered again, all the scenes were imported into premier pro, within here we added an original composition to our final video and basically compiled 2 versions of our video. A full version which runs at 2mins and incorporates a walkthrough plus a shorter 1minute edit of just our blueprint build scene.

Steve provided the music from a piece of he had written.

Our scenes were rendered and exported as 1280x720 uncompressed.avi

(.f4v and .mov versions were also created)

Extra Features

I added some extra features to my head, hair and eyes.

Using the hair and fur modifier (which I haven't used before) I was able to add customizable hair onto the head. After selecting the modifier and the polygons where the hair will be it was time to implement the hair.



The hair can be styled using the brush and the scissors. Also the colour can be selected. After adjusting these, the hair was finished.



I also added eyes to the model. First creating a sphere, I added a eye texture bitmap and changed the colour to green.

Local Books

I have put the images of the front covers onto the books I made a few weeks ago. I am pleased with the results. To do this I used unwrap UVW again, as well as a new trick within material editor.

To start with I copied a book from the bookshelf and dragged it out so I could see it. I then created a third material ID and selected the front cover (ID1 is the covers of the book, ID2 is the pages and ID3 is now the front cover). I went into material editor and copied the previous book materials into a new slot. I then added the bitmap of the new book into ID3.

I used an unwrap uvw modifier to position the cover correctly. I used the planar gizzmo and aligned it along the x axis. After moving the vertices around, I had positioned the cover correctly.

Next I went into the material editor and went to change the colour of ID1. To do this I used the screen colour select tool within material editor. I have not used this before and wasn't sure how successful it would be. It turned out to be reliable which was very useful.

I did this for the remaining 3 books. This is my final result.

Finchingfield Local Authors

I conducted some research into local authors from Finchingfield. The website states that the Guildhall will be used to show works by the local authors. Here is a list of novelists that I found and their best known work.

Dodie Smith
Novels

I Capture the Castle (1949)



The Hundred and One Dalmatians (1956)



Plays
Autumn Crocus (1931)
Call it a Day (1935)

Norman Lewis
Novels

The Honoured Society - The Mafia Conspiracy Observed (1964)



Naples '44 (1978)




http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Capture-Castle-Dodie-Smith-1949-/200645678517

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/161375753

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/412Ap861t-L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

http://berkmanbooks.blogspot.com/2011_03_24_archive.html

Fireplace

We realised that the library will have a fireplace in it.

I started with a box as usual. After using the swift loop tool to add in extra lines and vertices I was able to extrude out the base and extrude in the fire part of the model.



Inside the fireplace itself I used the create tool. This enabled me to create an angled panel at the top of the indent.



Next it was time to do the materials. I used one of the images that we had from our trip to finchingfield of a brick texture (see below)



I put this onto the model but it was cramped in certain places. To solve this I used an unwrap UVW modifier. I have only used this once before in my head model so it was still a relatively new modifier for me to use. This enabled me to select certain parts of the model and change the map so the material fitted better. When selecting the polys needed I chose the planar widget then select align to whichever direction the poly was facing.



I used a multi\sub object material and chose three material IDs. One for the main brickwork, one for the inside of the fireplace and another brick image for the floor of the fireplace. The final result is as folows.

Bits and Pieces

This week we've been working on creating any little bits that were missing for the model of the Guildhall. These were all relatively small, but not insignificant enough to be left out altogether. I created a few items including a toaster, a mug, a light switch and a plug socket. These can all be duplicated around the building.

While creating these objects I started to use the object isolation mode (which remarkably I haven't used before!)

Toaster: To start, I created a box. After converting to editable poly I chamfered the four edges like I did with the pc screen last week.



The key to the toaster was the slots in the top for the toast. To do this I used proboolean. After creating two boxes that will provide the cut out for the slots I started picking my objects. I was left with two slots in the top of the toaster.



After this I created the little dial on the front, using a cylinder and bevel. This resulted in a cone like shape that looks like a dial.



The next thing to do was to create a lever on the side. To do this I created a simple box and extruded out the back. I then extruded out the new created poly as well. After selecting a shiny raytrace material the toaster was complete.



Next up was a cup. This was very simple. I created a cylinder firstly and used inset to create a smaller poly in the middle. Next I extruded this poly inwards towards the bottom of the cup. To create the handle I extruded out three panels from the side. After adjusting the vertices I was able to extrude again downwards.



I was then left with vertices that needed to be connected together. I then used another tool that I haven't used before, target weld. This is far better than weld, you are able to select the two vertices you want to connect and max does it for you automatically.



After adding a turbosmooth modifier and a white material, the cup was complete.



My next model was a light switch. To do this I firstly created a box. I then used inset to create a smaller poly in the middle. This would form the switch. After extruding this out slightly, I used the detach tool. This disconnects the vertices and means the poly becomes a seperate object, I then used rotate to put the switch at an off position, and reconnected it using attach.



The final model I created was a plug socket. To do this I used the same method as before with the light switch. I instead created two on and off switches. I then created three small boxes and arranged them like plug pins. After duplicating these to the other side of the plug I chose proboolean and selected all of the boxes. I was then left with my plug socket.

PC

Next, I have created a computer for the renovated Guildhall. We'll need to start animating soon so we've decided that we'll only model important things from now on.

I firstly started off with a box. I used inset to create a new poly within the box. I did this on both sides of the screen as chamfer will mess up if the shape is not consistent on both sides. The next thing to do was to use the cut tool to make a rectangle in each corner instead of the single line that inset had produced.

Using cut I filled out each other corners creating rectangles there, then deleted the lines that inset had put in. Using cut I filled out each other corners creating rectangles there, then deleted the lines that inset had put in.

The next thing I did was to chamfer the corners of the screen. This is where it was important that I created the rectangles earlier on as chamfer does not work without this. After i'd rounded the corners of the screen I set everything to be ID1 whilst just the screen panel to be ID2. Using a new multi object layer I set ID2 to be a jpeg of the guildhall, this is a sensible thing to put on the screen.

Next up I created the stand for the screen. I started off with a separate panel and rotated it into the back of the screen. After extruding out the last polygon I was ready to chamfer again.

I extruded out two panels resulting in them being locked at a right angle. Selecting the line in the middle I again used chamfer. I increased the number of sides to get a smoothed off effect for the stand.

To make the keyboard I created a simple box in the shape of a keyboard. I selected the face and chose ID1 and the rest of the keyboard as ID2. I then put a jpeg of a keyboard onto the face. After some resizing they keyboard was complete.

Next was the mouse. To do this I squashed a sphere and removed the lower half of it. I then used a modifier called cap holes, which I have not used before. This plugged the gap at the bottom of the mouse and put in an extra polygon. I could have done this manually using the create tool, but cap holes was quicker.

I wanted to add a bit of detail to the mouse, so I chose just to add the buttons. To do this I chose the polygons I wanted to be the buttons and used bevel. This tool is very useful when you want to make a ridge.

Here is the result of the rendered mouse, the bevel modifier has worked nicely.

To make the tower for the pc I created a box. I used inset to make the middle part different to the outside. After this I used the same technique as on the monitor, using the cut tool to create the quads in the corners, then using chamfer.

Here is the result of the final rendered computer

Kayboard source http://realitypod.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/English-International-Keyboard.jpeg

Skin texturing

The next step for creating my head is to paste the skin onto the uvw map. To do this I will use my own skin from my face picture. There are afew tools in photoshop that help me to make this process easier. The method is to take pieces of skin from the original picture of my face and paste it onto the uvw map that I produced before. I use the lassoo tool to select an area and then paste it into the UVW map jpeg.



Once it is in its rough position I can adjuct the layer by stretching it and changing the size. One useful tool is the warp tool (edit, transform, warp). This enables the different parts of the image to be manipulated.



Another useful tool is the clone stomp tool. This enables parts of the image to be painted in different areas. Using alt to select the part of the image wished to be painted it's a case of clicking and dragging. This is very handy for filling in gaps.



The patch tool is also very helpful. This is used to blend in parts of the image to eachother. Particularly with this, the skin colours have slightly different colours and textures. Using patch means that the colours and textures are blended together better. To see the results compare the picture below to the picture above.



To do the texture on the ear I took part of the face and simply pasted it over the map of the ear. It doesn't matter that it goes over the edges of the UVW map because anything outside won't appear on the model.



After all the gaps have been filled in and all the skin pasted on the UVW map, refreshing the materials in 3ds max enables us to see the skin.

Books

It is time to create some books for the bookshelf.

To do this I start off with a simple box. After converting to an editable poly I select the three sides that will be paper. After selecting the bevel tool and bringing up the options menu, it is important to switch group to local normal. Then I bevel the book in slightly creating an indent in the model. This starts to create the look of the pages.

The next step is to extrude in the bevelled polys. This helps to make the shape complete. Again it is important that local normal is selected on the extrude box, otherwise the pages will go through the book's spine.

The next thing I have chosen to do is chamfer the edges of the spine. This adds a nice curve that makes the book look more real and less rigid.

Once this is done, the only thing left to do is texture the books. This will be done using simple materials for the most part as the books will not be a fundamental part of the scene. If one or two books are to be seen in greater detail then we can use bitmap texturing to give them more detail. To give the books separate materials, different polygons will be assigned different IDs. In this case, the cover and spine will be ID 1 and the pages ID 2.

I found a paper texture online that I have used for the pages. For the moment I have just set default colours in the diffuse box as the cover but this can be changed later on to match in with the room.

I started to assemble the books onto the book shelf. First I resized and angled them onto the shelf. Then it was a case of copying the books over and over again to fill up the shelves. I also copied the materials a number of times and changed the diffuse colour. This will give a variety of different books on the shelf. The two books I made at the start were slightly different in height as well, so this helps add to the variety.

After more copying and pasting and mixing up some of the materials to avoid some repeating patterns, we are left with the final book shelf!