(Very) Busy with Silent Comedy Animation!

So, it's the Easter holidays and I have so far spent most of it ill and sat at my laptop getting annoyed at CAT rig animation! :) I am starting to get the hang of it now and have managed to do a bit of walking at the start, a hand gesture and a (very poor attempt at) running sequence. I have got as far as my character bending down to pick up the basketball so far, without any morpher animation yet.

This is my first attempt at animating my CAT rig which I uploaded to Vimeo to show progress - a little jump up and down :)




I have also created a very simple environment, which I will probably edit as I go along, so I know where to put my character, etc. whilst animating him. I have chosen to do a cartoony/simple environment, mainly because I don't have the time or the need to focus on this, as it is an animation project. However, I feel the scene does fit quite well with my character's style.

Here are a few quick renders:

Pirate Camp Procedural Animation Project – Evaluation

For this project, my task was to produce a 30 second animation using at least 3 dynamic effects using Autodesk Maya, based upon the theme of a ‘pirate camp’.  This was my first time using both the new software, and dynamics such as particle effects, which I feel helped me gain more knowledge and skills of 3D design, not just limited to 3ds Max.

Towards the start of this project, I strongly focused on learning about the software and following tutorials to help me achieve what I may need to make my final animation. Along with this, I then started to research the general theme, and began sketching out some ideas of objects and possible dynamic effects to put within my scene. I also briefly looked at other examples of work to inspire me such as video game environment design, particularly one of my favourites 'Uncharted 3', as well as 'Fable II' which was suggested to me by a friend as containing a pirate based camp.

From my research, the pirate camp themed objects I chose from these sketches to put in my final scene were:

• Pirate flags
• Tents
• Campfire
• Treasure chest
• Treasure map
• Rum bottles
• Pirate hat
• Pirate hook 
• Palm trees

I then decided on my dynamic effects to put in my final animation, linked to these objects. The first would be the pirate flags blowing in the wind, using an nCloth dynamic effect, which I also decided to use on the front openings of the tents within my camp. The second would be the campfire in the centre of my scene, using a particle emitter with cloud particle shapes.  The third dynamic effect would also be a particle emitter, but this time emitting streaks to simulate falling rain. I also decided to make these particles collide with the ground plane and tents, to create a simple splashing effect.

I feel I have learned a great deal throughout this project, particularly about how procedural animation works, and the ins and outs of particle systems within 3D packages such as Maya. For instance, the different types of particle shape and how they function, as well as how to turn any shape into cloth.

Another obvious advantage to this project is the chance to start to learn how to use a new piece of 3D software. Although I currently feel I do not want to go into animation as a career, I am aware that Maya can be a vital piece of software in the 3D industry, particularly in game design, and feel my knowledge of the subject is much more developed now I know more than one way of doing things.

I really liked modelling within Maya, and found it a lot easier than 3ds Max in many ways, but admit I found the texturing using ‘Hypershade’ a lot different to what I am used to and took a while to adjust myself to how it works.

Overall, I feel this project has been a great benefit to me, and feel the final outcome was pretty successful to say how long I had to learn the skills and methods needed to produce it. I particularly think some of my modelling and texturing, such as on the barrels, treasure chest and bottles turned out a lot better than I thought they would when I rendered at full quality. If I had time to improve, I would like to learn about the lighting in Maya more, as well as focus on my camera animation and timing a bit more.

Pirate Camp Rendering In Progress...

Here are some stills of my rendered pirate camp so far (using Mental Ray in Maya):

Pirate camp modelling and layout - just about done :)

I am on time with this project so far, seeing as I can't anticipate how long lighting/render setup and rendering itself will take using Mental Ray in Maya, I want to be ahead of time rather than the alternative! I have done a couple more drawings of the layout I wanted to create, and also thought about environment ideas, as I couldn't just render a ground plane in a black space.

The option I went for from thinking about this was to surround the main area of the camp with a large wooden fence and gate. This would mean I could start from the outside of the camp, enter through the gate, and then should only need to give the background a simple sky texture as an outer environment.

Here are a few renders I have done of the layout I have done today, featuring a plan view using Maya's top viewport, and a few perspective renders to show how the objects look in the space.

Note, that I have so far not decided to texture the fence in great detail yet, but may do this shortly to fit with the rest of the camp. I have also not added lighting oredited the render quality effectively yet, so these images are not as great quality as my final renders will hopefully be.

Pirate Camp - Finally made some fire :)

After lots of fiddling about the settings over various attempts of producing my campfire dynamic effect, I have come to the decision of using cloud particle shapes with the RGB colour ramp and a glow intensity ramp used in the shader/material.

This is a quick test render of my fire particles I have done to test both timing and general aesthetics before putting my final camp together, which I now think is pretty successful (thanks to help from Baris with the texturing :D ) :





I have also done another test render for the same reasons, but for my pirate flag, which I created right at the start of the modelling process. I think the movement seems quite realistic in terms of its mass, drag, damp, etc. and the power of the wind.

Silent Comedy Animation Work :)

I haven't posted anything for a short while on this project, but have been working on things such as morph targets, rigging, skinning and a bit of prop modelling since I textured my character.

Here are a few screenshots and quick renders to show my progress so far:

This is my character with a CAT rig in place, before using the skin modifier. I found this actually quite simple to put in place, but am having trouble making the shoulder and elbow joints work accurately with my character skin.

This is a very silly pose I made to show my rig was working quite well so far with my character. I realise this is a very camp pose, haha. :D

I have also made some props ready to put in my environment for the animation. This is a render of my basketball and hoop I have made.

A screenshot showing the ball's model with edged faces.

A screenshot showing the hoop's model with edged faces.

Bunkhouse Lighting Ideas

I have also looked briefly into types and styles of lighting that I could use within my scene, considering aspects such as windows and gaps in the walls, etc. Lighting is something I usually don't put as much thought into as I perhaps should, and usually leave it to the end where I don't have enough time to put more effort in to it. However, this time I plan to read my book on CG lighting and do a few tutorials to help me further understand what it is that I require to produce the lighting effect I want in the bunkhouse.

I have found a few images to support my main ideas:

An idea my tutor suggested - trying to achieve light coming through planks of wood that make up walls. This will make more interesting lighting and shadows, rather than more flat, ambient lighting.

The bunkhouse will contain 10 small windows on 3 of the walls - they will look quite similar to this in size and shape, and this is what I want my general light sources to look like from the windows.

Another much less significant light source in the scene could be from flames in the cast iron stove. This could help add more subtle light and shadows into the scene, making it more realistic.

Pirate Camp Progress...

Today I have been working on my pirate camp ideas and started some more modelling.

Firstly I did some sketches of ideas for objects/props to put within my camp. I came up with things both associated with camping and the general theme of pirates. Here are my pages of drawings for this:

I have started modelling a few of these items today in Maya. I have noticed a lot of people are modelling in 3ds max, then importing FBX files into Maya, but I am modelling in Maya to help develop my skills and, basically because I find it a lot quicker! :) Here are some of my models without final textures (I need to figure out how to make rendering look better and make dielectic materials work for glass) and all my models so far:

Bunkhouse Objects/Props Drawings

Here are some drawn ideas of what I want some of the items mentioned in the description to look like in my 3D environment:

I have also looked at examples of American bunkhouses from the era of the 1930s (when the story is set) to give me a better idea on the style and textures I will be looking for when I start modelling my environment. The main idea I have gained from this research is the design and style of the roof of the bunkhouse.

Something I haven't looked at so far - the roof/ceiling design. This is the style of wooden beamed ceiling I want to produce in my work.

Example of exterior of a bunkhouse built in 1920s/1930s

Example of interior of bunkhouse - idea of space inside, and features/textures.