'The Chess Player' Animation - Video + Rationale

Here is my final animation:




Animation Rationale:

‘The Chess Player’ project involved me producing an animation of at least 30 seconds that showed a self-defeating chess-playing robot. To do this, I produced two robot arms (supposedly of the same robot), which I rigged and animated using IK chains and the reaction manager. I also modelled a pretty simple environment of a study/office style room, with a centre piece of table and chairs, where the game of chess between the two arms took place.
In my animation, I decided to show a very short game of chess, where the white player wins within four moves, which was animated within approximately 1 minute rather than 30 seconds. I tried to show emotion and character within my characters through movement and gestures, as they did not have eyes or mouths. A main gesture to show victory or disappointment was the nod or shake of their palms - acting as their heads. Another one I used a couple of times was tapping their fingers on the table to show thought or concentration.
Within this project, I feel I have learned a variety of very important skills used in many areas of the animation industry. Perhaps the most vital and difficult of these skills was the use of inverse kinematics (IK chains) when rigging up my robot arms, as well as using different animation constraints and the reaction manager. These techniques are associated with the field of character design and animation within the 3D pipeline.
I also feel that throughout the production of this piece of work, I have learned a lot more modelling techniques within 3DS max, such as quad modelling, the lathe modifier and attaching shapes objects with the editable poly modifier. In addition to modelling, I have also learned a great deal about texturing with both standard and mental ray materials, and the effect this can have on rendering times. An important material I learned how to use is the ambient occlusion mental ray material, which renders separately and is then composited with my original renders in After Effects to produce an animation with better quality shadows.
I found myself facing many problems during this project, mainly due to the animation aspects towards the end of the production stage. For instance, I ended up moving the chess pieces together with the hand when animating, rather than using the recommended link constraints, due to the chess pieces wanting to follow the palm even after linking them back to the world. I also had some trouble trying to make the king fall and roll at the end of the animation, as it is seemingly impossible to animate pivot points within 3DS max. I solved this by carefully rotating and moving the piece along the table so it did not move above or below the surface of the table as best as I could manage.
After doing my first 3D project this year, I can still see myself doing work in either modelling or texturing rather than an actual animation role in the future, due to the complexity of rigging and the problems I overcame whilst trying to use link constraints within this project. I have really enjoyed this project overall, however, and am now interested in the field of animated film much more, in addition to my current strong aspirations of working in visualisation or game design.