Final Maya Piece

This is the Final, edited animation complete with sound effects, titles and music.

The process of production for my Maya animation:

04/01/11

I started my Maya piece with the plan to create a very basic animation of an Alien, but despite hours of tutorials and trying to get my head around the software I found it incredibly hard to create anything at all complex. However, this is the process of my animation. I used this set of 13 tutorials to help me along the way: http://www.youtube.com/user/DigitalArtsGuild#p/c/9FB745B0DB341066/0/aWehFpUocS0

I began by creating a basic plane polygon (sized 200 by 200 units) and then a sphere polygon along the -X axis beside and above it. I had a good idea how to do this already, but to be 100% sure I wouldn’t make a mistake I followed the first two Maya tutorials from the link above.

I then went on to create a primary camera (Camera 1) that would be the viewpoint of the first part of my animation. I put the focal point in the centre of the grid, enlarged the size of the camera from 1cm to 20cm by going to the camera’s attribute editor and then moved it upwards and outwards facing down at roughly a 45 degree angle so as not to get the end of the grid within the viewpoint gate. For this part I was helped along by part 3 of the above series of tutorials. This is a screengrab of the camera’s position and attributes:

The next thing I did after setting a primary camera is texture the sphere polygon with a ‘Lambert’ shader. This then became the ball/alien. To shade it I went to ‘assign new material’ and clicked ‘Lambert’. I then went to its attributes > to its colour and assigned a file to texture it with in order to get a kind of ‘alien skin’. This is the original file I textured it with and below the attributes and effect:

I then added glow to it in the attributes menu and moved on to the plane polygon. My initial idea was to create and outdoor, night-time setting, so I felt grass would be the best thing to texture it with, and then make it seem more 3D by adding a bump map afterwards. This is the basic grass image I textured it with first and a screengrab of its attributes:

I then added a bump map to it by going to the bump map option within the Lambert attributes menu and assigning it with a specifically edited image and lowering the bump depth. Bump mapping is briskly explained in part 4 of the above tutorials (at around 5:20) and then demonstrated in part 5 so I followed that tutorial fairly closely to get a good idea of what I needed to do. This is the image I used to bump map and below that is a screengrab of my Bump Map attributes and a render of their effect on the image used on the plane polygon:

The next step was to create a motion path for the alien to follow as it came to a stop, this involved keyframing the position of the sphere whilst moving it. I wanted it to come down, bounce once properly and then slowly bounce to a stop. I had to set a lot of keyframes near the end to create vaguely realistic physics. Part 6 of the tutorials above helped me a lot here.

Once this part was done, I had to create ‘Squash’ zones in order for the alien to have a flimsy texture as it fell through the air. Part 7, 8 and 9 helped me a huge amount here, as I was completely clueless about how to achieve these effects. These are my squash-point markers, which squash the sphere as it travels along its motion path:

I then moved onto creating lighting for the piece, which lectures weeks previously and part 11 of the tutorials helped me with. I placed a spotlight in front of the main camera and a directional light directly above as a form of ambient light. This is a screengrab of the attributes and positioning of the spotlight:

As the first shot in my short animation was now basically complete, I decided to render it using the settings and directions referenced in part 12 and 13 of the tutorials, to then add into Final Cut Pro once the second shot had been made. Here is a test I uploaded to YouTube of simply that first animation with no audio or editing:

As for the second part of my animation (the reveal that the blob is infact an alien), I felt I should change the angle to the opposite side and lower down. To do this I added another camera and placed it where I needed it to be, revealing the eye I created by making two more sphere polygons and positioning them to look like an eye. I ‘Lambert’ shaded the pupil black and the eye with this picture file:

I finally added another spotlight pointing at it from behind the camera and rendered it using the same settings as previously. This was my positioning of everything in that scene:

I then edited it together with titles and audio in final cut. I wanted the narrative to mainly be about something falling to earth but the viewer not knowing what it is, until it is then revealed to be an alien. I planned to use audio and titles to help in this process so I looked for sound effects of falling and ‘splatting’ and created some titles in FCP.

Overall, I am not particularly happy with how this project came out. My huge difficulty understanding the complexity of Maya was a huge hindrance in trying to make an animation. Hopefully the very basic narrative is portrayed fairly well in the end product, but if I were to re-do it, I would definitely try to spend many more months attempting to get my head around the software. Finding the motivation to do that on the other hand, is a completely different matter…

My course YouTube account:

25/11/10

I have decided to set up a new YouTube channel for all my University unit work and test uploads. This is it:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Alhodgson

Maya Character Development:

1/11/10

Since our project is primarily directed at children (and I am fairly new to Maya), it is very acceptable for the animation to have a fairly simple design. Initially I wanted to create an interesting and complex skateboarder animation (utilizing different kinds of lighting, camera angles, motion, texturing and rigging) mimicking an actual piece of footage, but I found that this would be far too complex for me and I would be limited by my deadline. An animation of this nature may also not appeal to a younger audience. However, before I came to this conclusion I made a start on a skateboard model. This was a start I made to it, attempting to get the initial shapes of the deck. I used a rectangular polygon and the soft modification tool to initially make this:

Then I tried using the same process with a sphere polygon (morphing its dimensions with the soft modification tool and the lattice deformer):

I did not feel these animations would be particularly easy to bring to life so my decision was either to make a more basic (universally accessible) model of a skateboard or instead create a simple character that I could manipulate to give character traits, a back-story and sound. So I decided on the latter.

The next decisions that I had to make were that of what kind of character to create (animal, alien, person, monster, or machine) and what traits that character would have and have universally associated to it. I created a brainstorm in order to get a full overview of characters and their attributed traits:

From the creation of my brainstorm I decided my character would be an alien. I then looked to the Internet to research what others had created when making alien characters. This is one I found created by Juan Bernandez (http://www.juanbernardez.eu/eng/index.php?opt=portfolio):

Basic alien character:

(They also allowed free project download to show how it was made.)

With aliens of this nature (directed at children) we would usually attribute many character traits such as timidity, intrigue, confusion of surroundings and docility. These traits could give the animation many different themes. One idea is the alien exploring new surroundings, playing on its timidity, confusion and intrigue. When I create my alien character, this may be the theme I run with. The positive thing about creating an alien character is when designing them you are much less limited to typical conventions of characters, you can make what you want so long as it is recognisable as an alien, whereas with an animal you would be limited in terms of colour, facial features and limbs/body shape, etc.

This is an example of a slightly more detailed alien with a more detailed setting. It demonstrates more detailed motion paths too with the UFO:

Getting to grips with Maya:

27/10/10

For a good animation I must first understand the basics of Maya. We are learning some in class but I feel I should look at tutorials to get even more insight into how the software works. Here is a series of tutorials that are currently helping me in my animation:

This is number 1; it describes Maya interface, preferences and basic object creation, a majority of which I was already fairly familiar with:

This is part 2; it demonstrates viewport navigation, transforms and hotkeys, some of which I was also slightly familiar with due to use in class:

Part 3: This demonstrates Channel Box, Attribute Editor and nodes, which I’m not very familiar with at all. The attribute value and ‘node’ tutorial sections were particularly helpful:

Part 4: This helped me learn how create the lattice in order to use the lattice deformer within Maya and also demonstrated the snap-to-grid option:

Part 5: This last part showed me how to use the lattice deformer. This means also teaching me how to create lattice points and, once the deforming has been done, deleting this construction history in order to make I permanent. It also talks about rendering in this tutorial but through tutorials with Liam (our lecturer) I was already familiar with this:

With this basic knowledge of Maya I feel I can begin on my short animation, creating the basic shapes that I will then bring to life. These tutorials showed me the basics of Maya and how I can create models. However, moving these models to bring them to life is another aspect, one I will try to learn about over the next few days.

On the same channel as the previous videos is another set of tutorials which ‘explore the entire animation production workflow, including: scene layout, cameras, materials, animation, simple lighting, batch rendering, and compression using Quicktime Pro’ which will hopefully help me in creating a moving animation within Maya. Due to the nature of the animation created within this tutorial, one of the only aspects they do not cover is rigging (the creation of a ‘skeleton’ for your animation). This is something I will have to learn more about elsewhere, either in lesson or alternate tutorials. This is the YouTube playlist for the series of tutorials:

http://www.youtube.com/user/DigitalArtsGuild#g/c/9FB745B0DB341066

Developing my Idea for my Maya Piece:

24/10/10

Due to my limited Maya ability, time I have to learn the software and the fact the piece will only be short, detailed character development and construction of a distinct narrative will be very difficult. Despite this, a successful animation can be created nonetheless, though strong planning and understanding all the factors I must take into account: Narrative, characters and the purpose of the animation are just some of the things I must develop on.

My Animation

General Factors:

• What will my idea incorporate technically? What will I have to learn in Maya?
• Will it be directed at a niche audience or general? What will this change?
• Is genre an issue? I feel it only is if the animation is a specific example of that genre.
• What sound will it have? What sound will I have to record?

Narrative:

• Must be storyboarded once general premise is decided.
• How do I structure the narrative to make it successful?
• What effect will it have on an audience?
• It probably shouldn’t be made to be too confusing as this may lose audience interest.

Character/s and basic character development:

• Who is the character? Are they a parody or representation of someone or an original character?
• What does the character look like?
• What is his purpose in the animation?
• What is typical for that character? What are his/her sets of traits and what will an audience come to expect off that character?
• If they are a parody or representation of something what do we expect off that thing? For example, if the animation is of a specific animal, what do we attribute to that animal; behaviourally and aesthetically?
• What do they do in the animation? (Narrative factor too).

What is the purpose of the animation?

• Advertising? Must promote product.
• To be comedic? Must be funny to target audience.
• General animation? Such as a title, short film, Internet animation or virtual 3D set to be keyed behind actual footage, etc.
• For children? Simple animations of characters that will appeal to children.
• A demonstration of my interests? Skateboarding?

Aspects of ‘Maya’.

19/10/2010

As we are learning, there are many aspects of 3D animation we will need to take into account when making our own piece. All of which are creatable and tangible. For example:

• Polygon and NURBS (Non-uniform rational B-spline) creation: The creation of 3D shapes and objects, which can be rigged, etc to create a moving animation. Multiple polygons can be made to anything, for example, a human body be created though the modification of many different Polygons or NURBS to then be rigged with a ‘skeleton’, have textures added and be lit, etc.

• Rigging: The wireframe ‘skeleton’ given to an animation, which can then have physics applied to it in order to make it move it the desired way, etc.

Example of rigging within Maya: http://www.9jcg.com/tutorials/steven_tubbrit/rigging_part3_10.jpg

• Texturing: The addition of a texture will make an animation that much more realistic. It adds a pattern to a part of the animation desired. For example, the texture of wood can be created in order to make a part of the scene more realistic.

Example of a rust texture effect in Maya:

http://www.nyfa.com/film-school-blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/car.jpg

• Lighting: Tangible artificial lighting can be created in Maya along with shadow to accompany it. All in order to make the animation look more genuine or realistic. Lighting can be modified in scale, direction, brightness, motion and source.

• Keyframing: Keyframing is setting points in between motions to create a path between them. Pretty much all motion within Maya is set though keyframes much like in other softwares such as Adobe After Effects.

• Camera: Camera position and movement can also be set in Maya in order to get the desired scene. Multiple cameras can be set for multiple angles.

Example of camerawork and motion paths within Maya:

http://www.truecg.com/UploadedFiles/Tutorials/49/Pictures/2.jpg

I will most probably have to take into account a majority of these techniques when making my animation in order to create a successful one. This means trying hard to get to grips with the software. I plan to do this during class and also through watching Internet tutorials.

An introduction into 3D animation in film and the use of Maya:

17/10/2010

3D animation has been used in film for almost 30 years, often as a way of creating an alternative and contemporarily ‘modern’ style of that era, contrasting from that of hand-drawn animation and actual footage. It is more often used however to demonstrate what would otherwise be impossible or very expensive, through a digital representation or creation as opposed to a physical object, landscape or character, etc.

An early example of the use of 3D animation was the 1982 film ‘Tron’ (Steven Lisberger), which used early software to create a digital world for the narrative to partially take place. ‘Tron’ has been coined one of the first films to use 3D animation and does so primarily as part of the film’s story, basically meaning that the use was not intended to be subtle but instead as a stylistic reference to the narrative and time it was released. When watching ‘Tron’ the stylistic influences are obvious with what was groundbreaking and popular in the early 80’s. The popularity of simple, 2D video/computer games is clear when watching certain scenes. For example, this famous ‘Lightbike’ scene from the film heavily references the simple animations, styles and movements from games like ‘Pac-Man (Atari 2600)’ and ‘Battlezone’, which used wireframe vector graphics to create the first ever ‘3D’ computer game.

‘Tron’ Lightbike scene:

Battlezone Gameplay:

Pac-Man Gameplay:

Now, in modern film and video making, 3D animation is much more advanced, using software such as ‘Maya’ to create ‘realistic’ environments and characters. Whole teams will work on a film in order to make the animation as detailed and perfect as possible. Some will work on texturing while others on movement; all to create a complete final piece, the process of which can often take months.

Pixar are an animation studio (possibly the current most famous) who specialise in 3D animation. As a class we looked at one of their earliest short films, ‘Luxo Jr.’ (1986) in order to get a feel for the atmospheres, physics, lighting, texturing and movement we may take influence from in our animations. It demonstrated moving spotlighting,  simple textures such as wood and grey metal, realistic gravity physics and a creation of a basic set. There were a few signifiers however that showed how relatively new and basic the softwares may have been, such as the static camera angle and very simple background. Nonetheless, it was still incredibly advanced for its time

‘Luxo Jr’:

Pixar then went on to create first entirely 3D animation feature length; ‘Toy Story’ which was released in 1995. This was particularly groundbreaking at the time and set Pixar as the paramount studio for it’s film format.

‘Toy Story’ Trailer:

Currently, the most talked about 3D animation feature length seems to be Avatar as it is at the cutting edge of technology and is the most advanced CGI (Computer generated imagery) film to date. It is a true example of the evolution and advanced nature of 3D animation and raises questions about the future of it.

So far, a lot of 3D animation, despite gradually becoming a lot more realistic, has often been noticeable as animation itself and not reality. For example, most Pixar films depict animated characters such as animals and toys and even in the case of humans they are made to look caricatured. Even in Avatar (despite the incredibly detailed landscapes) the human forms are noticeable from reality. The future of 3D animation can be pinned on the question; especially with the advancement of 3D cinema viewing, will 3D animation get so advanced that it is undetectable to actual footage? I personally do not think it could, as we are so accustomed to reality, although, who knows what the future holds?

An Introduction to my ‘Computer Graphics for Animation and Film’ unit:

16/10/2010

 

Our brief for this unit was to create a short piece of 3D animation to a piece of pre-recorded audio using the 3D modelling/animation software, ‘Maya’. As the brief states, ‘The length of the animation will be dependent on the theoretical and technical complexity of what you try to achieve.’ For example, if I were to try and emulate realistic physics and texturing or generally complicated motion within my animation it may not need to be too long, whereas if the motion and design within my animation were much more simplistic, I would possibly have to focus on other aspects much more heavily, such as lighting and camera movement and the animation itself would most likely be lengthier. Or alternatively a balance between the two could be created but I will elaborate on all these factors later on.