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Teaching Block 1 . Production Diary

Teaching block 1

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Teaching Block 1.

Production Diary

Chair Model:

This was the first project we did with Maya, and its purpose was to

introduce us to the software’s interface and basic modelling tools.

I found this project incredibly difficult, having never used Maya before. I could not get the model

even moderately correct, and eventually gave up.

Now being used to the tools, software, and modelling process, my modelling has improved greatly over

the year, but I don’t think this contributed to it much. It did,

however, familiarise me slightly with the functions of a new program.

Bouncing box:

We were provided with a basic squashy box rig, and the aim was to employ the squash and stretch principles taught in

another unit to 3D animation.This introduced animating in Maya,

including setting and moving keys, and using the graph editor.

Anticipaton:

Using the same squashy box rig, we practised another principle of animation.

The aim was to show how different the movement of anticipation would be in the box when jumping over a

small obstacle, as opposed to a larger one. The rig was nice and easy to manipulate, and I actually

quite enjoyed this project. It was difficult to get the timing of the jump right so that the box did not clip the

object it was trying to avoid. I am pleased with my attempts for this project, although

in the first one the box’s jump lands slightly strangely, and it caves too much in the middle in the jump

duration. The second one has the same caving problem, but the squashes on take-off and touch-down seem appropriate. The jump isn’t as natural as I’d like, but

overall I am happy with these two animations.

Overlapping action:

introducing another new principle, overlapping action occurs because different parts of the object

don’t all move at once. Again, the main problem with this animation was to make sure the moving box

didn’t clip the objects is was avoiding. This was aided by use of the graph editor and all the viewports.

Another issue came when filming. I didn’t want to try anything with a camera, but playblasts from the

perspective view didn’t show everything as the view was blocked by the moving objects. This was solved

by filming at a slight angle from the front and making the moving walls translucent in the attribute editor.

Although my first attempt was good, I added an extra bit of movement at the end when the box stops, but its top slides over slightly. This makes the movement look more natural, and I’m very pleased with my final

version.

Chain link:

This was definitely one of the most difficult projects. We completely built and rigged

the model, which introduced new tools and methodologies. One of the most useful was

the ‘select hierarchy’. This allows a ‘chain reaction’ movement when applied; as one joint moves, the next in the chain follows. I

have recently applied this to fingers on a simple character model so the entire hand

could grasp as a whole, instead of animating individual joints.

Animating the chain link to swing naturally was difficult, although the simple rig

animated well. I am fairly pleased with this animation, but feel that the bottom link

could have a little more movement.

Secondary action:

For this exercise we were provided with a rigged model of a box with an

antenna.I built mine a basic obstacle course

to move over.I started with the box animation,

just the x, y, and z translations. Once this was in, timed correctly, and

graph edited, I added the squash and stretch where necessary.

I added the antenna animation last. I quite enjoyed this project, and am

pleased with the outcome. I particularly like his bounciness in the

tunnel, and the carefree way he throws himself into the abyss at the end and the way the antenna flies back like hair caught in the wind.

In the initial animation with only the box, not squash/stretch or antenna, I used the

grease pencil to mark out where these elements would go.

It’s a really useful tool which I’ve utilised frequently since. It reminds me of 2D

traditional animation, and really helps me to work out what is happening in my

scene, and how I should animate things.

I am happy with this animation. Although the jumps and antenna movement are accentuated more than I would usually would, it gives the box a cartoon-esque energy. The antenna has a nice range of

motion, and its floppiness seems consistent.

Tail:

I found this to be quite the challenging project. Although the rig is simple

enough, the amount of keyable manipulators was slightly overwhelming.

My grasp of it has improved with repeated returns to the project, but

because of the long obstacle course and newness of the tail model/rig there is still not full animation for the whole

course. What tail animation I did I think has a nice fluidity, and the movement of the tail looks fairly natural. It is a shame I could not prevent the tail from going

through other objects, as this may have helped the animation process, and

allowed the tail to achieve more natural positions.

To ensure my tail could explore a wide range of motion I built it an obstacle course. Unfortunately, I got so into this building that it was a long time before I even

considered starting animating. Although my animation has suffered because of this I did enjoy building and putting a scene together.

I used the grease pencil in both top and side view to keep my creature going in the right direction to make the next obstacle, and so I knew when to key for anticipation

for a jump. It was very helpful.

It was challenging to have the box tail go around such an angular course, but I

think it helped me develop as an animator to try something a little out of

my comfort zone.

It was also nice to experiment with the colours and materials for the objects.

The tunnel, particularly. I needed a way to see the tail, even though he was in

the tunnel. I remembered what I did for the overlapping action project, and

made it translucent.

Positioning and animating a camera to track the tail box’s

movements.

The tail’s movements are a bit manic at the moment.

This could work as a character trait, and he will

relax and tire throughout the course.

The rig, although simple, I find difficult to work with.

I am not keen on this animation.

Infinite bounce:

We were introduced to pre- and post- infinity cycles in the graph editor. Once we had a keyed bounce we could then

make our tailed creature repeat in infinitely in both chronological directions.

This is an interesting tool to be able to use, and could have many applications,

particularly in gaming.

Squirrel, quest for an acorn :

Platform chain:

this was a nice simple model with an easy to use rig. For the swings when the platform stops, I used the grease pencil to mark them

out, before animating the chain to line up . I found this was essential as I kept adding too much swing to

the bottom of the chain, and it wasn’t slowing to a natural stop.

I designed the background to make it clear that the platform was

actually moving then stopping, and it wasn’t just the chain being

blown in the wind.

Retroboards: Twelfth Night 1996

This was an interesting exercise to see how professional

directors set up their scenes. The differences between the

two scenes I picked were immediately obvious. The new sci-fi has much more dynamic cinematography, with lots of camera movement, whereas

Twelfth Night has fairly stationary cameras which mostly

focus on midshots. Start Trek, conversely, has many close-ups,

and mid- and long-shots are only to place others in the scene with a reference point. Twelfth Night has longer, calmer shots which are less focused on the faces of

the characters.

Star Trek 2009